for fellow Canadians, currency switch

[1Virgo]

We decided to book rather than  lose money for a cruise.  Cruise is booked in Canadian dollars. FBC in Canadian dollars.     Well. To book seat selection, Air Canada online redirects to US website as booking nbr is US. apparently.   Seat selection and baggage fees, US $.    Not the first time this has happened.  FBC gal didnt “get” my problem of being charged in US.    Air Canada says FBC.  FBC says deal with AC.     Just a heads up on this.    FYI. the US charge was unreal

[Jim_Iain]

I would have to agree with Air Canada.   FBC is an agent and makes the decision on payment. 
Curious if there is a difference in prices.    I just purchased a flight Vancouver to San Francisco and full transaction including seat selection etc was in Canadian $ (not FBC).     The price ended up approximately the same if I had booked it on FBC.  

[1Virgo]

26 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

I would have to agree with Air Canada.   FBC is an agent and makes the decision on payment. 
Curious if there is a difference in prices.    I just purchased a flight Vancouver to San Francisco and full transaction including seat selection etc was in Canadian $ (not FBC).     The price ended up approximately the same if I had booked it on FBC.  

Canadian dollar no where US.     Your experience …. interesting 

[Kelownadon]

They say there is no such thing as a stupid question but what the heck is FBC?

[1Virgo]

23 minutes ago, Kelownadon said:

They say there is no such thing as a stupid question but what the heck is FBC?

Well think many names but Future booking credit or, put a deposit down now and book later.  when you are onboard you could do this

[Shadow9612]

 

1 hour ago, Kelownadon said:

They say there is no such thing as a stupid question but what the heck is FBC?

Flights By Celebrity

[mom says]

This is the problem I have with the use of abbreviations that can mean more than one thing. In this case it must be Flights  by Celebrity, since the situation has nothing to do with a Future Booking Credit.

 

So the first mistake was booking with Flights by Celebrity for a short hop like this in the first place. The second was not realizing that since the booking had been made by a US 3rd party agency, the airline would use US pricing for your add ons. 

 

In Jim_Iains case, they bought directly thru Air Canada, so priced out in CAD.

Edited January 22 by mom says

[mahasamatman]

What happens is that FbC is based in the U.S., so that's the point-of-sale (PoS) as far as Air Canada is concerned. FbC than uses its own conversion and charges the passenger in CAD for the flight only. All ancillaries are paid directly to Air Canada and are thus based on Air Canada's PoS.

[mahasamatman]

1 hour ago, Jim_Iain said:

Curious if there is a difference in prices.

 

Booking AC through the U.S. site or the Canadian site yield slightly different prices based on which conversion rate they're using at the time. It's typically on a couple of dollars different, but there can be substantial differences if foreign exchange is particularly volatile. I generally use the U.S site primarily because it's far more advantageous to use my U.S. credit card and I don't have to worry about arbitrage in the case of a cancellation or refund.

[LA24]

2 hours ago, 1Virgo said:

We decided to book rather than  lose money for a cruise.  Cruise is booked in Canadian dollars. FBC in Canadian dollars.     Well. To book seat selection, Air Canada online redirects to US website as booking nbr is US. apparently.   Seat selection and baggage fees, US $.    Not the first time this has happened.  FBC gal didnt “get” my problem of being charged in US.    Air Canada says FBC.  FBC says deal with AC.     Just a heads up on this.    FYI. the US charge was unreal

I found the same thing trying to book seat on line. Kept going to US dollars. I called AC and they told me it was because celebrity flight booked (flight) on US site. AC agent was able to do it on the phone for me re seats in CDN dollars.

[SEA DOGY]

3 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

I would have to agree with Air Canada.   FBC is an agent and makes the decision on payment. 
Curious if there is a difference in prices.    I just purchased a flight Vancouver to San Francisco and full transaction including seat selection etc was in Canadian $ (not FBC).     The price ended up approximately the same if I had booked it on FBC.  

Uhmmm. First time I see you around. Here 

Welcome on board 

Are you planing to try Azamara ?

We are 

[LA24]

8 hours ago, SEA DOGY said:

Uhmmm. First time I see you around. Here 

Welcome on board 

Are you planing to try Azamara ?

We are 

First cruise for me. Taking my daughter in March on the Ascent. Has been a big learning curve. Made many mistakes along the way but will know better for next time. Did booking on line through celebrity’s website during a sale. Kept everything which was smart. As somehow after a few days i got a new bill after paying in full. That I owed another couple grand. My promo discounts had been removed. Some IT issue? Found it a real hassle getting that resolved but did, hd to go to manger (supervisor) level. i also never looked at flights before booking. That was a mistake on my part and pretty prices for my dates from Ottawa imo.

Anyways learning lots, didn't find this site til after booking. But still excited about the cruise and looking forward to it. I know nothing about the Azamara….I will check it out:)

[loving goldens]

we  booked our flights with celebrity... you have to click go to canadian site... mock book ur cruise flights.... they are in Canadian funds... than i would call flights by celebrity and they will book in canadian flights...

[lienf]

11 hours ago, 1Virgo said:

We decided to book rather than  lose money for a cruise.  Cruise is booked in Canadian dollars. FBC in Canadian dollars.     Well. To book seat selection, Air Canada online redirects to US website as booking nbr is US. apparently.   Seat selection and baggage fees, US $.    Not the first time this has happened.  FBC gal didnt “get” my problem of being charged in US.    Air Canada says FBC.  FBC says deal with AC.     Just a heads up on this.    FYI. the US charge was unreal

What was the rate difference?

[bebe08]

This has happened to us as well.  Book flights thru Celebrity in CDN and when go to reserve seats its in USD.  I just went ahead and paid in USD.  Probably not the best way to go but didn't think there was a way around it.    I don't want to book flights direct with Air Canada as it doesn't offer the same protection and ability to hold off on paying and take advantage of price drops.  

[N.Ice]

3 hours ago, bebe08 said:

This has happened to us as well.  Book flights thru Celebrity in CDN and when go to reserve seats its in USD.  I just went ahead and paid in USD.  Probably not the best way to go but didn't think there was a way around it.    I don't want to book flights direct with Air Canada as it doesn't offer the same protection and ability to hold off on paying and take advantage of price drops.  

I'm just curious... in your example, was it like quoted 100 CDN and then you had to pay 100 USD?  or was there a converted USD amount?

[bebe08]

4 hours ago, N.Ice said:

I'm just curious... in your example, was it like quoted 100 CDN and then you had to pay 100 USD?  or was there a converted USD amount?

Flights were quoted and paid for in CDN.  When I went to Air Canada site to select seats it was in USD...didn't seem to be a way around this.  So I was charged in USD for seat selection only and the conversion happened on my credit card.  

[Jim_Iain]

20 hours ago, Kelownadon said:

They say there is no such thing as a stupid question but what the heck is FBC?

LOL.. we are bad about acronyms aren't we.   OP first mentioned booking and FBC..  FBC is Flights By Celebrity -  use to be called Choice Air.  

[Jim_Iain]

18 hours ago, SEA DOGY said:

Uhmmm. First time I see you around. Here 

Welcome on board 

Are you planing to try Azamara ?

We are 

 

Hmmm.... I've been around Celebrity Cruise Critic thread for 23 years.   Up until 6 months ago had never sailed any line except Celebrity.    

 

Azamara was on the short list but hasn't seen anything that excites us.   

[mahasamatman]

3 hours ago, bebe08 said:

Flights were quoted and paid for in CDN. When I went to Air Canada site to select seats it was in USD...didn't seem to be a way around this. So I was charged in USD for seat selection only and the conversion happened on my credit card.  

 

This is all fully expected.

[1Virgo]

On 1/22/2024 at 8:46 AM, lienf said:

What was the rate difference?

Sorry took long to reply. i  wanted to get a more accurate value. Credit card companies charge conversion plus a fee.  I calculated it was a 35.5% difference to be billed in US currency   So. we paid 35.5% more     

[N.Ice]

2 hours ago, 1Virgo said:

Sorry took long to reply. i  wanted to get a more accurate value. Credit card companies charge conversion plus a fee.  I calculated it was a 35.5% difference to be billed in US currency   So. we paid 35.5% more     

So does this mean if in your example, you think a $29 seat selection fee in USD would be a $29 CAD seat selection fee if booked on a Canadian website?  If that's the case, then I agree that you had to pay more (and generally, all US passengers are getting disadvantaged). 

 

I think some people think the same seat selection on the same flight would be $29 USD or ~$40 CAD, in which case the only difference would be the effective exchange rate used and any currency conversion additional fee.

[dion03]

We booked Air Canada flights to London with FBC for this summer as the price was very good and you don’t have to pay until cruise balance due.  We have not been able to book our seats online. FBC told us to do it online with AC but it is not available.  We know we have to pay extra for the seats but doesn’t seem possible to do it before flights are paid in full by FBC to AC.  Can anyone tell me how they went ahead and booked and paid for their seats. We live in Canada.

[1Virgo]

8 hours ago, N.Ice said:

So does this mean if in your example, you think a $29 seat selection fee in USD would be a $29 CAD seat selection fee if booked on a Canadian website?  If that's the case, then I agree that you had to pay more (and generally, all US passengers are getting disadvantaged). 

 

I think some people think the same seat selection on the same flight would be $29 USD or ~$40 CAD, in which case the only difference would be the effective exchange rate used and any currency conversion additional fee.

No. they arent the same price because of the currency conversion. it is the exchange rate plus depending on credit card, an extra fee added for the currency conversion.    On Canadian site I could have combined baggage and seat selection for a fee a whole lot cheaper.  Cant do that if it has been deemed a US booking. 

 

The flights were in Canadian as is our cruise.  However, when FBC submitted to AC the booking, FBC changed any taxes to US $.   So doing seat selection, automatic send over to AC American site.   That is why seat selection, baggage fees, and if you preorder any food/beverages, it is in US dollars.   Crazy.   but the conversion adds up

[If only]

1 hour ago, dion03 said:

We booked Air Canada flights to London with FBC for this summer as the price was very good and you don’t have to pay until cruise balance due.  We have not been able to book our seats online. FBC told us to do it online with AC but it is not available.  We know we have to pay extra for the seats but doesn’t seem possible to do it before flights are paid in full by FBC to AC.  Can anyone tell me how they went ahead and booked and paid for their seats. We live in Canada.

You cannot book your seats with AC until you pay for the flight. Sometimes you get a really good flight with FBC but unless you pay for the flight you will not have  a chance to book seats.