Regent - Unreasonable Air Itineraries - Never Again

[kirtihk]

6 minutes ago, TheShag said:

Not only are you having to 'mark your calendar', you should also do extensive research before that 210 mark so that you have an informed basis for booking your flights. Not sure where you are going to and from where you are departing but there could be a myriad of options to consider. Many experienced cruisers are quite adverse to multiple stops, time-of-day flights, European connection airports, connection times, etc. etc.. As suggested by many experienced cruisers, I had 3 ranked options of preferred flights prior to my call. On the morning of the 210th day, I made my call and got exactly what I wanted. The agent suggested to me at the time that if one waits too long, then available seats do not materialize. And yes, they can help you with earlier flights as well as later return flights. 

The person who you replied to stated that it would be so much appreciated by cruisers if Regent had an air option (that would not cost Regent extra) during initial booking process to select how many days in advance to arrive.  Then some people would not call to deviate at all just accepting whatever their air itinerary would be.  Not everyone enjoys long air searches and calls to cruise lines.

[carolina cruisin]

1 hour ago, BaltiGator said:

Thanks for your comments. Two things - first, having to mark the 210-day on your calendar and call seems unnecessarily burdensome to the customer. Why not have a check box when you book your cruise saying you want to fly in earlier? Second, are you saying that when someone calls to deviate, they can request flights that arrive more than 1 day ahead of the cruise? We would want flights 2-3 days ahead.

You absolutely can request flights more than one day before embarking.  I recently did that for an upcoming cruise.

 

[2012_Alaska_bound]

9 minutes ago, carolina cruisin said:

You absolutely can request flights more than one day before embarking.  I recently did that for an upcoming cruise.

 

You can fly in up to 30 days before your cruise and fly out up to 30 days after your cruise. A wonderful option in my opinion. My experience (April 2022) was that they would even book me out of a different country.

[BaltiGator]

15 minutes ago, carolina cruisin said:

You absolutely can request flights more than one day before embarking.  I recently did that for an upcoming cruise.

 

 

3 minutes ago, 2012_Alaska_bound said:

 

You can fly in up to 30 days before your cruise and fly out up to 30 days after your cruise. A wonderful option in my opinion. My experience (April 2022) was that they would even book me out of a different country.

Thank you both for this information. Definitely good to know! But if I understand everyone in this thread correctly, I would still need to call Regent at the 210-day mark, be prepared with options, hear what they have to offer, and hope that a suitable choice is available. Seems to me they could very much streamline this process for their customers. But I do appreciate the info!

[TheShag]

1 hour ago, kirtihk said:

The person who you replied to stated that it would be so much appreciated by cruisers if Regent had an air option (that would not cost Regent extra) during initial booking process to select how many days in advance to arrive.  Then some people would not call to deviate at all just accepting whatever their air itinerary would be.  Not everyone enjoys long air searches and calls to cruise lines.

Doubtful, but you may be correct that was his/her intention, but given the 'newbie' status of the poster, I gave a more fulsome answer.

[TheShag]

2 minutes ago, BaltiGator said:

 

Thank you both for this information. Definitely good to know! But if I understand everyone in this thread correctly, I would still need to call Regent at the 210-day mark, be prepared with options, hear what they have to offer, and hope that a suitable choice is available. Seems to me they could very much streamline this process for their customers. But I do appreciate the info!

Process is simple. Accept what they send you at the 75 day mark or call them at 210 day mark.

[BaltiGator]

1 minute ago, TheShag said:

Process is simple. Accept what they send you at the 75 day mark or call them at 210 day mark.

I'm afraid you and I will simply have to agree to disagree on what we consider "simple" in this regard. Moreover, "simple" alone in the context of customer service doesn't automatically imply either "sufficient" or "excellent" - at least not to me. Cheers.

[lisajltx]

On 10/20/2023 at 10:30 AM, Steve Q said:

We are booked on the Rio to Lisbon cruise in March 2024. This will be our third Regent cruise. With our travel agent, we spent 35 minutes on the phone yesterday with a Regent Air service representative trying to arrange our flights. There were no available one stop flights from DFW without an additional cost of several thousand dollars (she even quoted us an additional $4,000 for just the DFW-RIO flight on one particular flight). The only flight available without an additional fee departed from DFW to Miami to Lima to Rio. The Lima leg would also  have been in coach. We were shocked as Lima is on the West coast of the continent! Lima is almost 3,000 miles from Rio! While we paid our $75, we were very surprised and disappointed. We have decided to just wait until 70 days from our cruise date to have them assign our flights. It is difficult to believe that they could be any worse than what they were offering.

We ended up on United from Rio to Houston, then connecting to DFW. No Upcharges.  There were no scheduled direct flights from RIO to DFW.

[kirtihk]

15 minutes ago, TheShag said:

Process is simple. Accept what they send you at the 75 day mark or call them at 210 day mark.

Again, accepting whatever means (in most cases) arriving on the embarkation day which means the majors are “forced” to call and pay a deviation fee.

[Steve Q]

34 minutes ago, lisajltx said:

We ended up on United from Rio to Houston, then connecting to DFW. No Upcharges.  There were no scheduled direct flights from RIO to 

 

Edited October 22, 2023 by Steve Q

[carolina cruisin]

2 hours ago, BaltiGator said:

I'm afraid you and I will simply have to agree to disagree on what we consider "simple" in this regard. Moreover, "simple" alone in the context of customer service doesn't automatically imply either "sufficient" or "excellent" - at least not to me. Cheers.

As others have stated, I "highly" recommend calling the air department and "deviation" for your flights.  I have now done this 6 times without any issues whatsoever.  Good luck!

[cwn]

3 hours ago, BaltiGator said:

Thanks for your comments. Two things - first, having to mark the 210-day on your calendar and call seems unnecessarily burdensome to the customer. Why not have a check box when you book your cruise saying you want to fly in earlier? Second, are you saying that when someone calls to deviate, they can request flights that arrive more than 1 day ahead of the cruise? We would want flights 2-3 days ahead.

Yes, when you call to deviate at 210days (request your preferred flights) you can also request earlier dates.  As said you need to research ahead of time flights you would like. Your choice may or may not be flights they have contracts with… ie… no up charge to you. But you will be able to make an informed decision about whether the up charge is worth it to you.

You will also be responsible for hotel cost. I think you can request up to a week or two ahead or after the cruise, but definitely two or three days. Someone else can help you on that. We have requested 2 days. Had one hotel night free because it was a Grand voyage but had to pay for the second night. The contacted hotel shortly before arrival to get the same room for both nights.

[papaflamingo]

On 10/21/2023 at 11:09 AM, Golfess said:

Just catching up on some of these informative posts.  And, yes, I understand that a refund from insurance provides more flexibility.  But, given that we had no option to deviate (cruise booked late) and were stuck with a bad Regent itinerary, I think it is wrong that insurance had to pay up instead of Regent.  

What difference does it make who pays for the missed cruise?  That's exactly why someone buys Travel Insurance.  If you go up on any airline's website you'll see ridiculous connections as "legal" connections.  Regent has contract rates with most airlines, that's how they offer the flights so cheaply.  But they aren't getting the non stop, they get the 54 minute connection in Atlanta flights.  If you buy on a "cheap airline tickets" website, you'll find the same connection times.  I would also imagine that if you didn't have Travel Insurance, and you used Regent Air without deviation then Regent would accept responsibility for the missed cruise.  But you had Travel Insurance, so THEY accept responsibility.  Honestly.... who really cares as long as you get reimbursed for the missed cruise?

A question though.... how late did you book the cruise?  I thought you could deviate pretty much any time.  Did you try to change the flights to a better connection once assigned?  Asking seriously so that I know if I get in that situation.  

  

Edited October 25, 2023 by papaflamingo

[mj_holiday]

Who really pays???  

We had an issue last December when our flight home was cancelled.  For a while the only flight I could get was Economy which I would not take.  Our TA helped and found a BC flight.  We ended up having to pay for the flight as our TA said, let the insurance and Regent work on this later.

 

Our insurance claim was for extra night and meals, taxis, and the flight.  Our insurance paid for all claimed except unreceipted tips.  After we settled I informed Regent what the insurance paid.  I believe Regent then worked with the insurance and repaid what they had gotten reimbursed for the cancelled flight.

Regent then contacted me to say they will provide OBC to satisfy the unreceipted tips that we did not get reimbursed for.

 

As stated above, don't worry about who is paying whom, the companies have processes that work the issues.  If I would have demanded that Regent pay me for the flight or whatever; I would then need to file with insurance for the things that I did not get reimbursed for.

 

Keep it simple, work with insurance that you purchased, they have a process for making it all paid by the appropriate company.

[Golfess]

22 hours ago, papaflamingo said:

What difference does it make who pays for the missed cruise?  That's exactly why someone buys Travel Insurance.  If you go up on any airline's website you'll see ridiculous connections as "legal" connections.  Regent has contract rates with most airlines, that's how they offer the flights so cheaply.  But they aren't getting the non stop, they get the 54 minute connection in Atlanta flights.  If you buy on a "cheap airline tickets" website, you'll find the same connection times.  I would also imagine that if you didn't have Travel Insurance, and you used Regent Air without deviation then Regent would accept responsibility for the missed cruise.  But you had Travel Insurance, so THEY accept responsibility.  Honestly.... who really cares as long as you get reimbursed for the missed cruise?

A question though.... how late did you book the cruise?  I thought you could deviate pretty much any time.  Did you try to change the flights to a better connection once assigned?  Asking seriously so that I know if I get in that situation.  

  

We were told it was too late to change.  We booked our cruise late.  Yes, we are lucky we had insurance, but it just seemed wrong to me that insurance had to pay for a problem that could have been easily avoided with a reasonable itinerary.

[papaflamingo]

3 hours ago, Golfess said:

We were told it was too late to change.  We booked our cruise late.  Yes, we are lucky we had insurance, but it just seemed wrong to me that insurance had to pay for a problem that could have been easily avoided with a reasonable itinerary.

Again, that's how it works.  Insurance always pays out first for something like this.  That's the point of insurance. You were made "whole" so why are you upset that your travel insurance paid rather than Regent?  It sounds like you want to punish Regent for a problem that was really the airline's fault.  You  have to understand that Regent contract flights are deeply discounted so they are not always the most desirable itineraries.  The airlines publish a close connection and it's legal, so Regent accepts it.  Happens all the time.  It's not up to a Regent agent to decide if a connection is doable or not.  If your insurance hadn't paid out, or you didn't have insurance, and since Regent arranged the flight, then they would have paid out.  Either way you would have been reimbursed for the lost cruise. 

Edited October 26, 2023 by papaflamingo

[ON cruiser]

It seems to me that it’s not just the money for Golfess; and it wouldn’t be just that for me, anyway. Of course, in the circumstances of the original poster, it is entirely appropriate that they were refunded for what they paid for but did not get—an anticipated nice holiday. That this refund came from insurance, since they prudently had it, is fine as far as that  goes. 

 

Yet in my view, as Regent selected their flights, which obviously did not work as they couldn’t make the cruise, Regent should own their customers’ disappointment. After all, their customer did not deal with the airlines; they dealt with Regent. Regent gave them an itinerary which Regent must have known was a gamble at best. After all, it’s not Regents “first rodeo” booking flights.
 

Legal-schmegal, “within minimum connections”, etc., this does not matter when the customer reasonably relied on Regent to get them to the ship, especially as no other option (air credit, deviation) was allowed at this purchase close to sailing. Yet Regent still accepted their purchase of the cruise, even close to sailing and without making any other options available.

 

In hindsight should Regent have even sold them this cruise, knowing the likely transportation challenges? As they did, shouldn’t the original poster reasonably rely on Regent to select and pay for (“all inclusive”, remember) an itinerary that will be more likely to work, rather than plop them onto “minimum connections”, cross their fingers, and hope for the best? Remember, “hope is not a strategy”. 
 

So, the original poster got their monies back from the insurance. Great. But am I the only one who believes that, in these circumstances, Regent should have also “made a gesture”?

 

In my view a future cruise credit of some amount, applicable to a cruise booked in the next 24 months, sailing in the next 36 months, would have gone some distance to assuage the understandable disappointment that the original poster likely felt when they knew that their cruise was not to be. 
 

The amount would not have to be ginormous; perhaps a percentage of the price paid. It also should have been accompanied by a sincere apology to those customers for the loss of their vacation. If something along those lines had been done, I suspect that some customer goodwill might have been retained. 

 

In my view, Regent missed an opportunity to make amends for what it didn’t do right in these circumstances.

 

[papaflamingo]

6 hours ago, ON cruiser said:

In my view a future cruise credit of some amount, applicable to a cruise booked in the next 24 months, sailing in the next 36 months, would have gone some distance to assuage the understandable disappointment that the original poster likely felt when they knew that their cruise was not to be.

If Regent gave FCC then that amount would be deducted from the Insurance payout.  I just canceled a cruise for Covid.  I had to turn in all the paperwork, including what Regent refunded me (yes, there was a refund of port charges and taxes).  That amount will be deducted from the insurance payout.  So what would have happened is that if Regent gave say $1000 FCC then the insurance company would have deducted $1000 from their settlement.  You might find that as a "good deal," I'd rather have the cash so I can decide when I choose to sail rather than being obligated to use it in the "next 24 months."  

As for their flight, they say that they booked too late to change itineraries, and were denied the opportunity to book themselves with an up charge.  Could they have simply turned down Regent Air and bought their own tickets?  Don't know, because they don't say.  But clearly they booked too late to deviate (I actually don't know the time frame as they don't say when the booked), or chose not to deviate until it was too late, but they denied the first itinerary and accepted the second one from Detroit.    What they don't say is how close the connections were. Their flight "returned from the tarmac" but don't say why or for how long.   Was there a mechanical (probably)?  Weather?  Some other reason that the flight was delayed?  They said there was "there were no alternative flight arrangements"  after the return.  So  it would seem a pretty major delay.    How was Regent supposed to anticipate THAT situation?  

Sorry, I think there is a lot to the story that we don't know.  

[cwn]

We bought tickets after final payment was due last Oct and took the air credit as we do our on. We don’t book the suites have have a free one night hotel package. 
In the current airline situation, if you opt to use Regent air you have to book early to have a chance at Regents best flight options. Even pre Covid I had the be careful of connection times when booking tickets with a plane change. You need a minimum of 2-3 hours to make a safe change and some routes sold by the air lines have only around 60 min which is allowed. When things are perfect that fine but we do not live in a perfect world!

[mrlevin]

Just got our first regent provided air for next year’s grand arctic.  Credit would have been $1700 and we paid $249 per person to fly to and from Austin.  Nonstop to JFK in first class on delta.  One stop BCN-JFK-AUS on American in business and first.  Fantastic flights with no up charge.  Seats assigned.  I put in our FF numbers and requested notification of changes.  This is easy. 
 

I am a happy camper. 
 

Marc

[suzyluvs2cruise]

On 10/12/2023 at 10:39 AM, Georgia_Peaches said:

I appreciate you saying this as we are new to Regent.  We've booked a 10 night cruise out of Venice for 2025 and one of the reasons we selected this option was for the advertised business class airfare inclusion.  I did a mock booking of airfare for travel in 2023 to get a rough idea of the cost of flights over seas knowing that in 2025, it will likely cost more.  The cost to book business class on our own via Delta was more than the cruise fare!  So we opted for the included air with Regent.  It is my understanding that we can pay a deviation fee once the air itinerary has been determined by Regent and that fee will allow us to make changes that may likely result in an up charge....unless of course, we like the itinerary that is provided.  Am I understanding this correctly?

see below from Regent Website   Flight Information

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

 

 

[danibethb]

On 10/12/2023 at 11:13 AM, pingpong1 said:

Hi Marc - I guess people are (sometimes mistakenly) expecting the highest level of luxury from "End-to-End" (which also encompasses the flights on both ends and any "included" hotel stay experience).  Those initial expectations are "set" by Regent's advertising literature and not by the customers themselves.  You and I are both long-time Regent cruisers so we know that those initial advertising expectations are probably unreasonable and not reality-based in a lot of circumstances.

 

But for the new cruiser who is just beginning with Regent...they look through the "glitzy" cruise brochures, watch the short videos, and absorb the lovely glossy pictures and descriptions on each page.  They focus on all the superlative adjectives used in the product descriptions...and they swallow it all "hook, line, and sinker".  Regent wouldn't be advertising themselves this way if it didn't work.  It certainly caught our attention when I first "discovered" Regent back in 2011!

 

For some, if their first or second (Regent) experience doesn't (fully or approximately) measure up to their own initial expectations (which were initially set in place by Regent's own advertising)...they then have two options.  They either reset those initial expectations (now based on some of their own actual experience with Regent), or they "leave" Regent completely...having felt completely "snookered" and cheated... and take with them a lot of disappointment and animosity.

 

Like you and many other, we have never used Regent air, and have only a couple of times used Regent's "included" pre-cruise hotel (which, all in all, haven't been too bad for just the one night), if it came with suite level we had booked.

 

We still cruise exclusively with Regent...but our own "expectation yardstick" has become more accurately reset over the years through actual experience.  Best Regards.

I am afraid I am one of the snookered. I had thought our travel arrangements would be as superior as the steerage because of the cost. Now I am reading and hearing nightmarish stories that are making me dread the trip. This is a “bucket list” journey for my husband who has been diagnosed with a fatal medical condition. We booked late and have not received our passports yet, so we can’t deviate from our flights , lest we lose all transfers and pre-cruise hotel.. Our disembarkation in Anchorage is the scariest, with 12 -14 hour flights from there to DFW after getting up at dawn to catch shuttle from Seward to Anchorage. I can handle the schedule, but my husband will be spent.

[Pcardad]

15 minutes ago, danibethb said:

I am afraid I am one of the snookered. I had thought our travel arrangements would be as superior as the steerage because of the cost. Now I am reading and hearing nightmarish stories that are making me dread the trip. This is a “bucket list” journey for my husband who has been diagnosed with a fatal medical condition. We booked late and have not received our passports yet, so we can’t deviate from our flights , lest we lose all transfers and pre-cruise hotel.. Our disembarkation in Anchorage is the scariest, with 12 -14 hour flights from there to DFW after getting up at dawn to catch shuttle from Seward to Anchorage. I can handle the schedule, but my husband will be spent.

Why can you not deviate? Deviating has nothing to do with transfers and hotel.

[danibethb]

Just now, Pcardad said:

Why can you not deviate? Deviating has nothing to do with transfers and hotel.

Because we have not received our passports, we cannot do anything regarding flights. That was the reply I received from Regent this morning.

[Pcardad]

2 minutes ago, danibethb said:

Because we have not received our passports, we cannot do anything regarding flights. That was the reply I received from Regent this morning.

They booked your initial flights without a passport though....

I've never heard that response and I have booked almost 5,000 nights.