Business Class Flights arranged by Regent Seven Seas from Dulles to Rome

[ysolde]

I am confused as to what the issue is with Delta One here.  Delta One is Delta's international business class product: a step above business class in many respects, but sold as business class because many employers and clients will not reimburse for first class (indeed, international first class is all but disappearing on all but a few, select, routes where it continues to be a financially viable product, but that is not particularly relevant to this thread).  

 

I realize that different people have their likes and dislikes when it comes to international business class products: my DH loves AF's catering.  My main concern is having direct aisle access and good service recovery during the occasional IRROPS (because stuff happens).  For some, it is all about having the best seat (though that is down to subjective and entirely personal criteria).

 

All that having been said, I am still unsure as to wha the OP's issue with Delta One is.

[Georgia_Peaches]

On 9/1/2023 at 8:12 AM, puppyluv1 said:

We requested a nonstop from NY which was about $2500 pp more than the options with one connection.

With whom did you make this request?  Is this something our TA can handle when the time comes?  We fly to Venice from ATL. I’m assuming our first leg will be something like ATL to JFK and then JFK to Venice. We are ok with that but really want our preferred airline (Delta). 

[Georgia_Peaches]

21 hours ago, ysolde said:

All that having been said, I am still unsure as to wha the OP's issue with Delta One is.

Don’t know. Delta one was an excellent experience when we flew to BCN. Very comfortable lie flat seats and great food. I’d have no problem with Delta One. In fact, I’m hoping for it. 

[Georgia_Peaches]

On 9/12/2023 at 8:41 PM, papaflamingo said:

Ok...sorry you find "much of the information [I've] given in the past,,,suspect."  Not sure where that is coming from, I try hard to give only my experience and facts as I know them.  Not sure why me being a retired Delta Pilot makes my information "suspect."  

Your situation, for me, is still confusing.  I have deviated on both our last cruises, and just deviated on our next two.  My experience has been quite pleasant and acceptable.  And yes, it includes leaving early, staying late, and pre-cruise excursions.  I have only been charged the $175 per person deviation fee until the $75 "contact" fee was added.  Then I was charged a SINGLE $75 to book the flights or BOTH my wife and I, and when I accepted the flights, I paid an additional $100 for me as they rolled the $75 into it,  and $175 for my wife so a total of $175 for each of us. Yes, I had to pay an up charge for a couple of flights, and not for a couple.  But the up charge was always at my choice, as I was offered no up charge flights also.  I just felt the extra charge was worth it for me.  So,  I am totally confused as to your situation.  But since you find my information "suspect," I'll stop passing any to you.   

By the way, thanks for "trashing" a company that I worked at for 29 years.  Nice touch. 😏

I won't make excuses for Delta other than to say I was likely NOT personally responsible for your issues with them.  I know they can mess up, just like any other large corporation.  But I was very proud of my career there and I am most familiar with the quality of their pilots and flight crews, their crew training requirements, maintenance programs, flight safety regulations and programs, etc. For those reason I prefer Delta to other airlines.  

Anyway I do hope you find an airlines that will be a better "fit" for you.  

Good luck.

 

Delta is my go-to and has been/will continue to be in the future. Your response is most gracious. Thank you for the information. We are new to Regent and it seems we have a lot to learn but I do appreciate your insight. Never once have I had an issue with Delta… just don’t get me started on American. Lol 😇

[papaflamingo]

9 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Delta is my go-to and has been/will continue to be in the future. Your response is most gracious. Thank you for the information. We are new to Regent and it seems we have a lot to learn but I do appreciate your insight. Never once have I had an issue with Delta… just don’t get me started on American. Lol 😇

Thank you. 😎

[briar14]

11 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

With whom did you make this request?  Is this something our TA can handle when the time comes?  We fly to Venice from ATL. I’m assuming our first leg will be something like ATL to JFK and then JFK to Venice. We are ok with that but really want our preferred airline (Delta). 

We are going to Venice in November for the Grandeur cruise(s). Having lots of AmEx points we booked a one-way flight through them. At first it was Delta CLT-JFK-VCE, great. A few weeks later it became CLT-JFK-AMS-VCE, not great at all. So, at least in November Delta does not have a direct flight from JFK-VCN. When we have used Regent Air we have been booked some times on Delta. Because of where we live we fly out of Charlotte or Atlanta, whichever flights work best.

[snorkle lover]

So here's another vote for Delta. We have never ever had a problem with them and fingers crossed for our cruise in April that Regent will put us on a Delta flight to Barcelona (hoping for non stop but we will see).

[Jlhalldc]

Back to the OP's question on airlines Regent uses, we have used Regent Air to fly out of Dulles a couple of times; on Lufthansa (Nice) and Qatar (Sydney).  When we flew out of National (DCA) to Alaska it was on Air Canada. I'm not sure who the contract with other than these. Hope this helps. 

[SWFLAOK]

So many Delta lovers on here makes me wonder what we've been doing wrong, other than allowing Regent to book us on Delta. We did fly Delta to Atlanta and back from Newark many years ago, and we had problems way back then. I was hoping they had improved, but after twice being booked by them with insufficient time between flights, we are done with them.

We were told our seats would be Delta One. Our flight attendant while sitting in our Delta "first class'' seats on our delayed flight, from MIA to ATL told us we would be on the next flight from ATL to AMS in Delta One, but we should rush to the gate for our original flight since we could make it. But they had already moved people in "Delta Comfort" on the next flight to our business class (Delta One) seats on our original flight before we ran to it, and they slammed the door on us. At least we were able to sit next to each other on the next flight because of that since that free up 2 seats next to each other in "Delta Comfort"  But as tall people, we find Delta Comfort to be extremely uncomfortable, and will never fly Delta again.

I was happy to see today that Delta is eliminating the use of their "lounge" by passengers with basic economy tickets, but I still won't be flying on Delta again.

[puppyluv1]

Georgia Peaches - sorry for the delayed response. We made our deviation request for the nonstop flight through our TA. 

[ysolde]

On 9/14/2023 at 4:05 PM, SWFLAOK said:

So many Delta lovers on here makes me wonder what we've been doing wrong, other than allowing Regent to book us on Delta. We did fly Delta to Atlanta and back from Newark many years ago, and we had problems way back then. I was hoping they had improved, but after twice being booked by them with insufficient time between flights, we are done with them.

We were told our seats would be Delta One. Our flight attendant while sitting in our Delta "first class'' seats on our delayed flight, from MIA to ATL told us we would be on the next flight from ATL to AMS in Delta One, but we should rush to the gate for our original flight since we could make it. But they had already moved people in "Delta Comfort" on the next flight to our business class (Delta One) seats on our original flight before we ran to it, and they slammed the door on us. At least we were able to sit next to each other on the next flight because of that since that free up 2 seats next to each other in "Delta Comfort"  But as tall people, we find Delta Comfort to be extremely uncomfortable, and will never fly Delta again.

I was happy to see today that Delta is eliminating the use of their "lounge" by passengers with basic economy tickets, but I still won't be flying on Delta again.

The truth is, especially in international travel, sometimes things go wrong.  And sometimes everything seems to go wrong.  Let me tell you the story of our everything went wrong when we were heading home trip:

 

We were supposed to fly Turin-Milan-Frankfurt, spend the night in Frankfurt, then take the FRA-JFK flight in the morning on AA.  Well . . . our flight (on LH) out of Turin kept getting delayed, and no one had any answers.  And I mean no one.  Was it mechanical?  Weather?  What was going on?  Hours upon hours later, we were given hotel and meal vouchers and put on the first flight out of Turin in the morning.  The 6:00 am to Paris.  From there, we would be in Frankfurt "in no time."  

 

The LH crew could not understand our panic.  We had a 10:30 am flight out of Frankfurt and would be arriving around 9:15.  Plenty of time, they kept saying, even with my wheelchair.  We pointed out we were flying out on AA, which is in another terminal.  If you have ever flown out of FRA, you know that this is not an easy task.  The wheelchair pusher tried her best to help.  We were last off the plane, and she rushed to help us pick up our luggage and then get us to the terminal where AA is located.  We just missed our flight check-in by ten minutes.  Oh, well.  There was a flight to Philadelphia with business class seats available leaving in about an hour and a half.  We snagged the seats, checked in our luggage, and were off to the gate.  The poor wheelchair pusher . . . 

 

We made it to PHL (not my favorite airport), only to discover there were weather delays.  So, it was off to the Admirals' Club for another four or five hours to snack on soup and stale cookies and be told every hour or so that we were still delayed.  Then we finally make it on our flight and we get delayed again because they had miscalculated the fuel.  Another two hours of this. 

 

At this point, we were so thankful that we had gotten some fitful sleep on the plane, because we had been up for almost twenty-four hours, we were hungry, we were cranky, and we could not take much more of this.  Oh, and the flight attendant dropped several cans of sodas all over the aisle of the plane, making a sticky mess everywhere.  It was just . . . bad.  Welcome home.

 

Seriously, there are times when things just go wrong, and you have to chalk it up to lots of people traveling at the same time, bad weather, and just bad luck.  We are just lucky we get to do it in a bit more comfort than most travelers.

Edited September 26, 2023 by ysolde

[MissPhoeb]

I wanted to follow up on my original post on this topic.  I had a very good experience using Regent's Custom Air Service and I’m happy we chose to pay the extra $175 each to use the service.  For our flight to Rome, we knew our preferred flights would involve up-charges  (which we wanted to avoid) and we were right, but the Regent agent had many other options, one of which was very acceptable, and at no extra cost, so we grabbed it.  The other options involved departure/arrival times and long layovers that just weren’t acceptable to us.  

 

We were most concerned about our flight home from Athens as there aren’t that many good choices to begin with, but we got our first choice, which was by far the best of all options, and at no extra charge!  Would we have been assigned these flights if we’d waited until 75 days out and not used the Custom option?  Maybe, but maybe we would have wound up being given one of those itineraries that was unacceptable to us.  Now we just have to cross our fingers that the Airlines don’t make any drastic changes to our itineraries!  Thanks for the many helpful replies.

[Georgia_Peaches]

13 hours ago, MissPhoeb said:

Would we have been assigned these flights if we’d waited until 75 days out and not used the Custom option? 

Thank you for this info!  At what point (no. Of days out) can one begin booking with the custom option?

[MissPhoeb]

24 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Thank you for this info!  At what point (no. Of days out) can one begin booking with the custom option?

It depends on your stateroom status.  We'll be in a Veranda Suite and booking for custom air began at 210 days out.  The higher the stateroom status, the earlier custom air opens.  You can find more information in the FAQ section of the Regent website.

[TheShag]

14 minutes ago, MissPhoeb said:

It depends on your stateroom status.  We'll be in a Veranda Suite and booking for custom air began at 210 days out.  The higher the stateroom status, the earlier custom air opens.  You can find more information in the FAQ section of the Regent website.

I always thought it was 210 days from departure regardless of room status.

 

[RJ2002]

48 minutes ago, TheShag said:

I always thought it was 210 days from departure regardless of room status.

 

 

Correct.

 

From RSSC:

 

MAY I CHOOSE SPECIFIC AIRLINES, FLIGHTS AND TIMES?

Yes, as long as we have a contract with the requested carrier or it is one we are using as a preferred carrier. A Preliminary Cruise Vacation Summary is sent out 75 days prior to departure, which includes your preliminary air schedule. Should you require immediate confirmation, you may book your flights through Regent Seven Seas Custom Air Department within 210 days of sailing. Your flights will be confirmed upon request for a non-refundable $175 per person custom air arrangement fee plus a possible fare differential. Deposit must be provided before air is confirmed.

To speak directly to our Air Concierges a $75 non-refundable Custom Air call service fee will be applied to reservations which, if the Custom Air flight option presented is accepted within three days, will become part of the existing $175 per person air customization fee. If guests choose not to accept the Custom Air flight option presented within 3 days, the option will be automatically cancelled, and the $75 fee will not be refunded. To accept the presented Custom Air flight options, you can simply reply to the Custom Air email. It is not required to call Regent to confirm any Custom Air flight options. After the Custom Air flight option expires, to search for additional flight options an additional $75 non-refundable fee will be added to the reservation. Platinum, Titanium, Diamond, and Commodore guests will continue to receive a complimentary one-time Custom Air deviation, including the waiving of one $75 Custom Air call service fee.

Please note, schedule changes made by the airlines are outside of our control. If there is a significant change in schedule, our Air Concierge will find a better alternative without charging a new custom air fee.

[TheShag]

7 minutes ago, RJ2002 said:

 

Correct.

 

From RSSC:

 

MAY I CHOOSE SPECIFIC AIRLINES, FLIGHTS AND TIMES?

Yes, as long as we have a contract with the requested carrier or it is one we are using as a preferred carrier. A Preliminary Cruise Vacation Summary is sent out 75 days prior to departure, which includes your preliminary air schedule. Should you require immediate confirmation, you may book your flights through Regent Seven Seas Custom Air Department within 210 days of sailing. Your flights will be confirmed upon request for a non-refundable $175 per person custom air arrangement fee plus a possible fare differential. Deposit must be provided before air is confirmed.

To speak directly to our Air Concierges a $75 non-refundable Custom Air call service fee will be applied to reservations which, if the Custom Air flight option presented is accepted within three days, will become part of the existing $175 per person air customization fee. If guests choose not to accept the Custom Air flight option presented within 3 days, the option will be automatically cancelled, and the $75 fee will not be refunded. To accept the presented Custom Air flight options, you can simply reply to the Custom Air email. It is not required to call Regent to confirm any Custom Air flight options. After the Custom Air flight option expires, to search for additional flight options an additional $75 non-refundable fee will be added to the reservation. Platinum, Titanium, Diamond, and Commodore guests will continue to receive a complimentary one-time Custom Air deviation, including the waiving of one $75 Custom Air call service fee.

Please note, schedule changes made by the airlines are outside of our control. If there is a significant change in schedule, our Air Concierge will find a better alternative without charging a new custom air fee.

I wonder if this has been asked before but is there no way that we can find which airlines RSSC has a contract with? It would make more sense in 'doing our homework' prior to the call with the Air Dept. at RSSC.

[papaflamingo]

1 minute ago, TheShag said:

I wonder if this has been asked before but is there no way that we can find which airlines RSSC has a contract with? It would make more sense in 'doing our homework' prior to the call with the Air Dept. at RSSC.

Seems that Regent has contract seats with most airlines, just not every flight. For example, a couple of years ago we could NOT get Delta to Australia at all for the beginning of the cruise!  Not even with an up charge.  However we had zero problem getting Delta from Tokyo at the end of the cruise with NO up charge.  So the best thing you can to is research flights on airline websites and find the itineraries you most want.  Then, if the airline shows more than one rate for business class, i.e. one refundable and a lower one as non-refundable, then it is more likely Regent will have contract rates on those flights.  You can really get a pretty good idea, for example if the fare is $6500 on airline A but $4500 on airline B it's more likely you can get airline B.  I always find at least 3 itineraries before I call.  Then when I'm on the phone with the agent I have the airline web page open to the flights and I can look at the options as we discuss them.  The agent also will tell you of other options if nothing you pick will work.  

Not sure this answers your question at all, but it's been my experience. The Custom Air Agents are remarkably helpful and easy to work with, but you DO need to "do your homework" and know what you want before calling and also have an idea how much of an up charge you may be willing to pay to get a better flight.  

[TheShag]

11 minutes ago, papaflamingo said:

Seems that Regent has contract seats with most airlines, just not every flight. For example, a couple of years ago we could NOT get Delta to Australia at all for the beginning of the cruise!  Not even with an up charge.  However we had zero problem getting Delta from Tokyo at the end of the cruise with NO up charge.  So the best thing you can to is research flights on airline websites and find the itineraries you most want.  Then, if the airline shows more than one rate for business class, i.e. one refundable and a lower one as non-refundable, then it is more likely Regent will have contract rates on those flights.  You can really get a pretty good idea, for example if the fare is $6500 on airline A but $4500 on airline B it's more likely you can get airline B.  I always find at least 3 itineraries before I call.  Then when I'm on the phone with the agent I have the airline web page open to the flights and I can look at the options as we discuss them.  The agent also will tell you of other options if nothing you pick will work.  

Not sure this answers your question at all, but it's been my experience. The Custom Air Agents are remarkably helpful and easy to work with, but you DO need to "do your homework" and know what you want before calling and also have an idea how much of an up charge you may be willing to pay to get a better flight.  

Great insight. Thanks. Trying to figure out whether they will put me a a flight with 12 hr layovers, weird multiple routing, etc just because it is the cheapest way to get me from A to B! Need to potentially prepare DW for the possible ‘sticker shock’ of an up charge!

[MissPhoeb]

2 hours ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

Thank you for this info!  At what point (no. Of days out) can one begin booking with the custom option?

So sorry!  As others have already pointed out, it is 210 for all.

[wcsdkqh]

39 minutes ago, TheShag said:

Great insight. Thanks. Trying to figure out whether they will put me a a flight with 12 hr layovers, weird multiple routing, etc just because it is the cheapest way to get me from A to B! Need to potentially prepare DW for the possible ‘sticker shock’ of an up charge!

 

Another thing to consider is travel date(s). Last Fall we had requested a specific non-stop Delta flight from Atlanta to Athens. There was a $1000 up charge per person to fly 2 days prior to boarding. Just on a whim, I asked what the up charge would be to fly in a day earlier. Same flight, no up charge. We made reservation for the extra night for a fraction of the $2000+. Never hurts to ask, and be a little flexible with travel dates.

[papaflamingo]

21 hours ago, TheShag said:

Great insight. Thanks. Trying to figure out whether they will put me a a flight with 12 hr layovers, weird multiple routing, etc just because it is the cheapest way to get me from A to B! Need to potentially prepare DW for the possible ‘sticker shock’ of an up charge!

Will they put you on a "weird routing" because it's cheaper?  Yes.  But it's less likely it'll be a 12 hour layover.  I tried to get a 13 hour layover in SFO on our flight to Hong Kong and Regent stated they can't route that way as the layover was too long and it would be considered a "stop over" with an additional charge.  BUT, the cutoff could be 12 hours, I don't actually remember.  

But the "sticker shock" isn't always that bad, you have the option of booking independently if the cost is too high, and they'll work with you to find cheaper flights.  Lot's of examples, but here's a couple of recent ones.  We are going to London in June (not on a cruise).  I live in Atlanta and am retired Delta so get an Employee discount.  It was over $2000 LESS if I booked ATL-BOS-LHR. So that would be a route that Regent might book for you.  

As to our ATL-HKG flight.... when we first booked it with NO up charge on United, it had a 4  hour layover in SFO.  About a month later United changed the schedule and we ended up with a 1:40 layover in SFO and since it was Feb. we decided it was too short to risk.  I talked to United and they couldn't do anything as, it turns out, Regent doesn't actually pay for the tickets until about 60 days out.  So I called Regent and wanted to change to a scheduled connection on United's website that was 13 hour layover. That's when they told me it they won't book any layover's that long so it would have to be a $500 stopover.  We opted no.  Anyway, they did tell me they would pay for the ticket on Dec. 20.  Further discussion of a change would have resulted in cancelling and re-pricing the flight and another $175 pp fee, etc.  So...nope.  Then on Dec. 22 I called United and told them my requested options to go a day early with a 13 hour layover, and arrive in Hong Kong same day as before, but 12 hours earlier.  They looked at the flight and since it was a schedule change on the original, and the new flight was the same price (on their website) they simply made the change and it all worked out great. 

So sometimes you just have to try all options. 😎

[TheShag]

1 hour ago, papaflamingo said:

Will they put you on a "weird routing" because it's cheaper?  Yes.  But it's less likely it'll be a 12 hour layover.  I tried to get a 13 hour layover in SFO on our flight to Hong Kong and Regent stated they can't route that way as the layover was too long and it would be considered a "stop over" with an additional charge.  BUT, the cutoff could be 12 hours, I don't actually remember.  

But the "sticker shock" isn't always that bad, you have the option of booking independently if the cost is too high, and they'll work with you to find cheaper flights.  Lot's of examples, but here's a couple of recent ones.  We are going to London in June (not on a cruise).  I live in Atlanta and am retired Delta so get an Employee discount.  It was over $2000 LESS if I booked ATL-BOS-LHR. So that would be a route that Regent might book for you.  

As to our ATL-HKG flight.... when we first booked it with NO up charge on United, it had a 4  hour layover in SFO.  About a month later United changed the schedule and we ended up with a 1:40 layover in SFO and since it was Feb. we decided it was too short to risk.  I talked to United and they couldn't do anything as, it turns out, Regent doesn't actually pay for the tickets until about 60 days out.  So I called Regent and wanted to change to a scheduled connection on United's website that was 13 hour layover. That's when they told me it they won't book any layover's that long so it would have to be a $500 stopover.  We opted no.  Anyway, they did tell me they would pay for the ticket on Dec. 20.  Further discussion of a change would have resulted in cancelling and re-pricing the flight and another $175 pp fee, etc.  So...nope.  Then on Dec. 22 I called United and told them my requested options to go a day early with a 13 hour layover, and arrive in Hong Kong same day as before, but 12 hours earlier.  They looked at the flight and since it was a schedule change on the original, and the new flight was the same price (on their website) they simply made the change and it all worked out great. 

So sometimes you just have to try all options. 😎

Good perspectives - thanks. One ITA Matrix 'weird' routing was Ft.Meyers to Atlanta to Charlotte to Denver to Seattle to LAX to Sydney. Obviously, I would pay an upcharge to NOT fly that routing. There is still some time before the 210 day mark and I see a fair number of changes week by week on the website so I will continue my homework. Also [in my homework assignment] wanting to avoid Air New Zealand's totally weird 'feet-pointing-into-the-aisle' seating on their J class 787s!

[papaflamingo]

1 hour ago, TheShag said:

Good perspectives - thanks. One ITA Matrix 'weird' routing was Ft.Meyers to Atlanta to Charlotte to Denver to Seattle to LAX to Sydney. Obviously, I would pay an upcharge to NOT fly that routing. There is still some time before the 210 day mark and I see a fair number of changes week by week on the website so I will continue my homework. Also [in my homework assignment] wanting to avoid Air New Zealand's totally weird 'feet-pointing-into-the-aisle' seating on their J class 787s!

Wow! THAT'S a "weird" routing.  When we tried to get to Sydney they couldn't put us on Delta at all!  So it looked like it was going to be Atlanta-Doha-Sydney on Qatar.  28 hours airborne and about 5 hour sit. in Doha!   We ended up cancelling the cruise (not for that reason), but if you're headed to Sydney via Atlanta, you may end up with something like that.  The good news is Qatar is rated as one of the best Business Classes in the world.