Air Travel Booked with Seabourn

[FlyerTalker]

Hank,

 

That may very well be a consideration for those who will only take one or two flights a year.  They probably don't want to have funds tied up in flight credits that they may not use for a while.  But you kinda miss one point...if someone has a ticket from USA to IST and the cruise gets changed to Dubrovnik, they STILL have to buy air to get to DBV (at least if they are still taking the cruise).  And those credits from the USA-IST flights can pay for the flight to DBV.

 

Now, if the guest chooses to cancel the trip completely, then there is no need to buy a ticket.  But all a port change means is a change in your flights, and some degree of fare adjustment, either up or down.  But that fare adjust would happen either way, whether with a cruiseline ticket or with an individually purchased one.  Further, those port changes aren't like a last minute "covid-like" situation where the whole industry is scrambling.  As you say, that DBV change is for August -- over 7 months from now

 

OTOH, if I have even a couple thousand in flight credits, they will get used up.  And given your amount of cruising, I suspect you'd use up those credits in a similar fashion.

 

Now....I do NOT mean to say that you are completely wrong.  But I think you may have had a small blind spot.

 

Finally, everyone's situation is a bit different.  Everyone has different priorities, different financial situations, different risk tolerances and more.  So there is NO one-size fits all answer.  My staunch belief is that all should do their research, their evaluation and come to their own conclusion as to what is right.....for them.

 

And thanks for providing a reasoned post.

 

 

[FlyerTalker]

2 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Those who had booked Flexair through SB, will simply have their flights changed (or they can go online and make their own change) at no cost.

 

Making the assumption that tickets to DBV will be the same cost as to IST.  Which may or may not be the case.

 

As always, the devil is in the details.

 

 

[Hlitner]

11 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Making the assumption that tickets to DBV will be the same cost as to IST.  Which may or may not be the case.

 

As always, the devil is in the details.

 

 

Even you should know that is not how it works.  If there are lower fares available, they can be accessed on SB's air site and simply booked.  Even if SB did nothing, anyone who booked their Flex Air could simply go into the web site and change their booking.  At this point they would have paid nothing (payments with Flex air options are no due until May for that particular cruise) so they would be free to take advantage of whatever deals are now available.  And by the way, if the cruiser was not happy with the new deals on SBs air site, they could simply cancel (they would not have paid any money at this point) and book somewhere else.

 

Now consider if that same person had purchased their own air (for which they would have immediately had to pay) through an airline or booking engine.  They would now need to change their flight and likely incur change fees (not to mention a different fare).  At that point they would need to go back to SB and file a claim to recover any change fees (SB says they will look at such claims).  The problem with that is those folks would be locked into the same airline (with which they booked to Istanbul) since their fare would generally not be refundable.  It may well be that other airlines are much more convenient for getting to Dubrovnik.  

[cruiseej]

4 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

if someone has a ticket from USA to IST and the cruise gets changed to Dubrovnik, they STILL have to buy air to get to DBV (at least if they are still taking the cruise).  And those credits from the USA-IST flights can pay for the flight to DBV.

 

I think that glosses over that the new flights would need to be on the same airline to use the credits. It might work out — but it's also very possible that the airline doesn't fly to the new city. Or doesn't have a good connecting time, requiring an extra night's stay somewhere, or an extra connection, and two days of travel to get to the destination or home versus the originally-booked flights. 

[frantic36]

This talk is all very interesting if US or even Europe/UK based but I'm going to jump in with a different perspective as someone coming from Perth West Australia.

 

I have only used Flight Ease one to fly international and won't again because the contracted airlines mean my flights become long and tedious even more so then previous flights I arrange myself. 

 

For example my Perth to Miami return flights earlier this year were multiple flights with some short connections on mainly US airlines. When my return flights got changed they were even worse and I had to spend time on board ship finding a suitable alternative. Seabourn did come to the accept my itinerary but I needed to push. 

 

My preferred airlines are Singapore, Qatar, Eva or Emirates which sadly Seabourn doesn't contract with.

 

I am using a flight credit with Seabourn mid next year but that's because it is a domestic flight and I'm comfortable with the product on short flights. Only frustratingly it seems I can't choose seats yet and that is one of the first things I usually do. I do know planes and seats change but I always check for that.