Rare NMTraveller Posted July 6 #51 Share Posted July 6 (edited) 3 hours ago, Ex-Airbalancer said: You get to pick your flights , so you can pick best for you it is no different than booking with Expedia or other booking sites All well and good until your flights are changed or you miss the cruise. Then you are dealing with a middleman to try to fix things. Best to deal directly with the airlines. For our flights we were missing TSA precheck on the tickets. Our group was split up on the flight change. I met others who were a couple of days late to the cruise who chose this option. I am not a fan of Expedia. Edited July 6 by NMTraveller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichYak Posted July 6 #52 Share Posted July 6 12 hours ago, NMTraveller said: You probably will not get frequent flier miles. I can't think of an example where this would be true. It is true with many hotel bookings via an OTA, but not airlines AFAIK. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canderson Posted July 6 #53 Share Posted July 6 4 minutes ago, NMTraveller said: Not a fan of Expedia. Which I believe is now the platform where RCI is managing their flights for RCCL and X these days. Really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare NMTraveller Posted July 6 #54 Share Posted July 6 (edited) 2 minutes ago, RichYak said: I can't think of an example where this would be true. It is true with many hotel bookings via an OTA, but not airlines AFAIK. I did not get Delta points. I even applied for missing points. Edited July 6 by NMTraveller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare NutsAboutGolf Posted July 6 #55 Share Posted July 6 13 hours ago, jlawrence01 said: Southwest does NOT participate. There are two benefits for us to use SWA over FBC. 1) Two free bags per person 2) No change fees. It is not uncommon for us to add a cruise before or after a Celebrity cruise. And occasionally, we will visit family while we are on the east coast as we don't get there often. As for non-stops, they are rare out of our airport other than LAX and SAN or they involve a drive in Phoenix where we have to pay for parking. The big US carriers eliminated change fees during covid and even Spirit eliminated them two months ago Some folks have a co-branded credit card or just like flying one airline for whatever reason which isn't a bad thing. As I pointed out, I can't even recall the last time I saw SW price-competitive with the flights I book. I have to fly to FLL from LAX next Saturday, the base fare for SW is double that of AA. I rarely need to check two bags but if I did in this case, I'd still be paying $50 more for SW and still have to use their undesirable boarding process. If I use AA, due to having a seat reservation I can actually show up at the gate after boarding begins. With SW, I have to be at the gate when boarding begins or risk being stuck in a middle seat, and if Ms. Nuts accompanies me, we might even get to sit together. I'm just pointing out, I don't see the value with paying more for SW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare NutsAboutGolf Posted July 6 #56 Share Posted July 6 8 minutes ago, NMTraveller said: I did not get Delta points. I even applied for missing points. What did they say and did you follow up? After booking a flight with FBC or any TA booking, you do need to ensure your loyalty number is linked 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canderson Posted July 6 #57 Share Posted July 6 10 minutes ago, RichYak said: I can't think of an example where this would be true. It is true with many hotel bookings via an OTA, but not airlines AFAIK. Agreed. Last year's WB TransAtlantic from Lisbon netted me the appropriate # of miles with United. Have always had miles when booking through Celebrity on those occasions when I do it - which is really when they have had a better 1 way fare to or from Europe for a TA. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare NMTraveller Posted July 6 #58 Share Posted July 6 (edited) 1 hour ago, NutsAboutGolf said: What did they say and did you follow up? After booking a flight with FBC or any TA booking, you do need to ensure your loyalty number is linked I followed up today. They submitted a second set of missing points requests. They claimed it was because my Delta number was not linked to the flight. Yet we upgraded with points for seats. And the previous request for points had our Delta number. We will see if attempts 3 and 4 go through… More of a mess than I want to deal with. The same when our flights were changed. Much easier to go on the Delta app and book the flights myself without the monkeys and 🤡 circus. Edited July 6 by NMTraveller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichYak Posted July 6 #59 Share Posted July 6 8 minutes ago, NMTraveller said: They claimed it was because my Delta number was not linked to the flight. Yet we upgraded with points for seats They’re probably correct. You can use your points to upgrade anyone’s seats, so that doesn’t prove that you skymiles number was on the reservation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare NMTraveller Posted July 6 #60 Share Posted July 6 (edited) 22 minutes ago, RichYak said: They’re probably correct. You can use your points to upgrade anyone’s seats, so that doesn’t prove that you skymiles number was on the reservation We also checked in on the app and checked bag status and passport info. Our flights showed up on the app. Not sure how to determine that they are not linked to our account? Not sure how to link them without a call/chat? Edited July 6 by NMTraveller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare NutsAboutGolf Posted July 6 #61 Share Posted July 6 43 minutes ago, NMTraveller said: I followed up today. They submitted a second set of missing points requests. They claimed it was because my Delta number was not linked to the flight. Yet we upgraded with points for seats. And the previous request for points had our Delta number. We will see if attempts 3 and 4 go through… More of a mess than I want to deal with. The same when our flights were changed. Much easier to go on the Delta app and book the flights myself without the monkeys and 🤡 circus. Delta is a bit tricky to see your previous trips, log in, go to my account and click "view receipts" and on the next screen it will show the last 90 days of flights; if you want older, there's a date range on the right. I'm guessing you won't see it as they already said it wasn't linked, but if you do see it, take a screenshot and send it to them 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare NMTraveller Posted July 6 #62 Share Posted July 6 (edited) 24 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said: Delta is a bit tricky to see your previous trips, log in, go to my account and click "view receipts" and on the next screen it will show the last 90 days of flights; if you want older, there's a date range on the right. I'm guessing you won't see it as they already said it wasn't linked, but if you do see it, take a screenshot and send it to them Thanks. I have the flights showing up with zero points but no receipts. No need to find the trip it shows up under recent activity. Currently working on points attempt #4 with an agent. Agent is getting some type of error … Edited July 6 by NMTraveller 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loracpin2 Posted July 6 #63 Share Posted July 6 On 7/4/2024 at 11:21 AM, JerseyGirlatHeart said: It is my understanding that I can book a flight on Celebrity Flights and if the price goes down between now and final payment, I have the option to change the booking, refare, or completely cancel the booked flight without penalty. What is the downside? I'll begin by saying I have read the majority of the replies, so I'm quite sure I will get slammed for mine but here goes!!!! While it might be the most convenient way to book flights with the Cruiseline, the downside is you have little or no control of your options once you book and changes might have to be made We have been on over 50 cruises to both the Islands and Europe and have never given control to anyone for the airline booking but ......us for domestic flights and our TA for International. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canderson Posted July 6 #64 Share Posted July 6 4 minutes ago, Loracpin2 said: While it might be the most convenient way to book flights with the Cruiseline, the downside is you have little or no control of your options once you book and changes might have to be made On my most recent Celebrity booking, FBC had me routed from DEN > EWK, then EWK > BCN, the latter on a 747. Granted, I'm about a month from final payment (where there is a deviation fee), but I asked them to change the routing to DEN > FRA on a 787, then FRA > BCN. I wanted a longer leg in Polaris class. No problem. No extra charges. I've made similar requests for routing changes without issue for the 3 years prior as well, though one was through Silversea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare NutsAboutGolf Posted July 6 #65 Share Posted July 6 With FBC, if you're AFTER the final payment and the airfare price goes down, will they refund you back the difference? When booking directly with the airline, you can rebook online or in the app yet you do get an airline credit vs a refund. If FBC doesn't give you anything back, this could be major a downside especially if they are paying for others like their kids (including adult kids). While airfare drops are uncommon, they do decrease during sales, and if the flights are fairly empty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare NutsAboutGolf Posted July 6 #66 Share Posted July 6 3 minutes ago, canderson said: On my most recent Celebrity booking, FBC had me routed from DEN > EWK, then EWK > BCN, the latter on a 747. Granted, I'm about a month from final payment (where there is a deviation fee), but I asked them to change the routing to DEN > FRA on a 787, then FRA > BCN. I wanted a longer leg in Polaris class. No problem. No extra charges. I've made similar requests for routing changes without issue for the 3 years prior as well, though one was through Silversea. Before changing, did you check the prices? I'm just curious if the price between the two matched or perhaps the second one was cheaper. It just seems unusual that they would book an entirely different itinerary if it were more expensive yet who knows, maybe you found a hack...Book the cheaper flight, call, and change to the more expensive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canderson Posted July 6 #67 Share Posted July 6 1 hour ago, NutsAboutGolf said: Before changing, did you check the prices? I'm just curious if the price between the two matched or perhaps the second one was cheaper. It just seems unusual that they would book an entirely different itinerary if it were more expensive yet who knows, maybe you found a hack...Book the cheaper flight, call, and change to the more expensive The one I asked for was actually $37 pp higher at United, but FBC didn't ask for any additional cash. I had rather expected that they would. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFree Posted July 6 #68 Share Posted July 6 I will call Flights by Celebrity to confirm this, but someone has mentioned to me that with FBC, you can now only fly to the port of departure, and only fly from the port of disembarkation. So to illustrate, if the cruise starts in Hong Kong, I can't book tickets with FBC to arrive a few days early in Phuket instead of Hong Kong. Is this correct? I know that was not true in the past. Tom & Judy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare NutsAboutGolf Posted July 6 #69 Share Posted July 6 (edited) 44 minutes ago, TFree said: I will call Flights by Celebrity to confirm this, but someone has mentioned to me that with FBC, you can now only fly to the port of departure, and only fly from the port of disembarkation. So to illustrate, if the cruise starts in Hong Kong, I can't book tickets with FBC to arrive a few days early in Phuket instead of Hong Kong. Is this correct? I know that was not true in the past. Tom & Judy I just tried a quick test for my FLL sailing Pre-cruise, you cannot fly more than 3 nights in advance; for my sailing that starts on the 16th, I can book the 13th but not the 12th. There is also some sort of distance restriction, I can fly roughly 330 miles away from FLL into Jacksonville but not Atlanta roughly 630 miles away from FLL Post-cruise, my FLL sailing ends on Aug 19, it lets me book on Sept 1 from Iceland to Vancouver Canada. Maybe there are additional rules but it does let me let me depart from one country to arrive in a different country which is a different country than the cruise starts/ends KEF = Iceland YVR = Canada Edited July 6 by NutsAboutGolf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canderson Posted July 7 #70 Share Posted July 7 (edited) 1 hour ago, NutsAboutGolf said: I just tried a quick test for my FLL sailing Pre-cruise, you cannot fly more than 3 nights in advance; for my sailing that starts on the 16th, I can book the 13th but not the 12th. It's an online limitation, seemingly related to a maximum 3 day pre-stay package, even if you're not buying that package. You will want to deal directly with Celebrity or your TA if you really want to go in 4+ days early. If you are doing a package using Celebrity's hotel, you'll need to book the extra nights (ahead of the standard 3) yourself with the hotel, and advise them that you're staying the 3 Celebrity nights as well. That way, they can set it up so that you don't have to move. I've since changed the itinerary to different flights, but same days. Flying out 1 Nov, cruise starts 7 Nov. No brain damage at Celebrity, but not bookable online. Edited July 7 by canderson 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFree Posted July 7 #71 Share Posted July 7 1 hour ago, NutsAboutGolf said: I just tried a quick test for my FLL sailing Pre-cruise, you cannot fly more than 3 nights in advance; for my sailing that starts on the 16th, I can book the 13th but not the 12th. There is also some sort of distance restriction, I can fly roughly 330 miles away from FLL into Jacksonville but not Atlanta roughly 630 miles away from FLL Post-cruise, my FLL sailing ends on Aug 19, it lets me book on Sept 1 from Iceland to Vancouver Canada. Maybe there are additional rules but it does let me let me depart from one country to arrive in a different country which is a different country than the cruise starts/ends KEF = Iceland YVR = Canada I called Flights by Celebrity. They no longer allow the kind of deviation I wanted to do (to fly to Phuket 9 days prior to the cruise, rather than directly to Hong Kong). The response from @NutsAboutGolf suggests that some "nearby" airports might be allowed. But Phuket (1425 air miles away) is not within that category. Because they could not route me to Phuket at all, I didn't ask the question about how many days prior to cruise I would be permitted to fly. I could have flown directly to Hong Kong via FBC, if they allow a very early arrival, and then found my own way to Phuket and back. But that seemed like too many moving pieces to make sense to me. This (apparently) new limitation is just stupid from my perspective. I say "apparently" because I am just about certain that, on other cruises in the past, we have booked flights with FBC where we flew to a different place before the cruise, and then took a short hop to meet the cruise a few days later. Tom & Judy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFree Posted July 10 #72 Share Posted July 10 On 7/6/2024 at 8:55 PM, TFree said: I called Flights by Celebrity. They no longer allow the kind of deviation I wanted to do (to fly to Phuket 9 days prior to the cruise, rather than directly to Hong Kong). The response from @NutsAboutGolf suggests that some "nearby" airports might be allowed. But Phuket (1425 air miles away) is not within that category. Because they could not route me to Phuket at all, I didn't ask the question about how many days prior to cruise I would be permitted to fly. I could have flown directly to Hong Kong via FBC, if they allow a very early arrival, and then found my own way to Phuket and back. But that seemed like too many moving pieces to make sense to me. This (apparently) new limitation is just stupid from my perspective. I say "apparently" because I am just about certain that, on other cruises in the past, we have booked flights with FBC where we flew to a different place before the cruise, and then took a short hop to meet the cruise a few days later. Tom & Judy Just to add an additional thought on this, another reason why flying FBC to Hong Kong, and then finding my way to and from Phuket on our own, was not attractive to me was that FBC was only giving us flight pricing to Hong Kong and home from Singapore was as high or higher than what I could book for myself. So then what was the point in trying to work around their limitations? My past experience has been that maybe 50% of the time, FBC was only quoting prices in business class that were the same as what I could get myself, while the other 50% of the time they could find contract pricing way better than what I could get myself. Maybe that no longer happens? Or maybe we booked this cruise, and thus were looking for flights, too late to find great pricing (booked cruise less than 6 months before the cruise). We have not done a Celebrity cruise in over 2 years, so it has been a while since exploring this. Tom & Judy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerseyGirlatHeart Posted July 12 Author #73 Share Posted July 12 Thanks for all the info. How far in advance do you normally book airfare. We are traveling 1-way from Rome to Fll and will be booking business class. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canderson Posted July 12 #74 Share Posted July 12 39 minutes ago, JerseyGirlatHeart said: Thanks for all the info. How far in advance do you normally book airfare. We are traveling 1-way from Rome to Fll and will be booking business class. Usually book a refundable fare concurrent with the cruise, provided we are within the year window for air with our cruise booking. Keeping a cancel/rebook option open can be helpful if a price drop of more than the non-refundable difference occurs. If booking with miles, or miles + $, sooner better than later with those airlines that limit miles seats, which is most of them. There's whole websites devoted to this topic that cover all kinds of scenarios. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare NMTraveller Posted July 12 #75 Share Posted July 12 Still dealing with the monkeys and circus 🤡. While I think that my persistence will pay off and eventually I will get my points.... I ask myself is the hassle worth my time??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now