Regent Air

We are looking into a Baltic sailing in the summer of 2011 and would likely take advantage of Regent's air included, but I have a couple of questions about this which I'm sure will be answered here.

We will be flying from Toronto and my guess is that there is unlikely to be a convenient direct flight to Stockholm or from Copenhagen on the way back, so I suspect we will be routed through London.

Has anyone used Regent on this route and, if so, can it be done so that you arrive on time for the sailing without having to stay in a hotel?

My other question is a little more complicated. Although I live in Canada I am English by birth and, if routed through Heathrow would like to break the journey and visit my dear old 90 year old dad (I will have seen him just a month or so before our cruise, but at his age I never want to pass up an opportunity to see him!). If I paid a deviation fee, would Regent accomodate me in this i.e. taking the second leg of my flight a few days later?

Just checked on flights this summer as nothing is shown yet for next summer and plenty of choices thru Iceland, Newark, Chicago O'Hare, etc. will get you there overnite and in plenty of time to board the next day after leaving late the day before. British Air does have connections thru Heathrow but, too late to make the ship. Would guess you would fly non-stop from the states if you have Regent book you.

As to flying thru Heathrow staying a few days in London and then on the Stockholm, know there are several flights from London to Stockholm every day as I took one of those flights last year for a Baltic cruise. Your big issue would be price. Normally, if you fly thru one city on the way to another, that is considered a thru flight and you pay the fare as if you didn't stop. However, if you "break" your trip by stopping in the connection city for a few days, you have to pay point to point (Toronto to London plus London to Stockholm rather than Toronto to Stockholm) and that is usually quite a bit more that the thru flight. It certainly can be done but, not sure what Regent does in a case like that but, sure they will charge you a lot more than the free air. And, since Regent gets Contract rates and you would probably be flying on regular rates, would expect a significant cost to you.

You might want to check this out yourself and see if you can do it for less than Regent considering you would probably get back in the neighborhood of $800 for booking your own air.

Suggest your Regent specialist TA who can probably help you with the specifics. FYI, schedules and costs for commercial air lines are usually published 330 days prior to the date you want to fly so add a month to when you plan to fly in 2011, subtract a year to 2010 and that's when your TA or you can check schedules and fares.

Hope it works out for the visit and have a great cruise.

Thanks, Rallydave. Of course, it didn't occur to me that we'd make a connection in the States, but that makes total sense, as does the concept of a through flight.

We've got a suite on hold at the moment that gives us business class air and I doubt that we'd be able to fly at that level given the good rates that Regent gets when arranging it ourselves. I will investigate further and see what I can come up with once the flights for next year are available to check.

We've flown Regent Air to Europe from Toronto a couple of times. They tend to use Star Alliance, so you could quite easily end up on Air Canada or Lufthansa, the latter with a connection in Frankfurt. We've never been routed thru the States, since Toronto is a hub for European flights.

It's really worth it for your peace of mind to pay the small deviation fee and go a day early, at least.

Edited: Oh sorry, I didn't read your post carefully enough. I don't think Regent will do this, let you break the trip. But it's worth asking.

Thanks, Wendy. I think we will go a day early whatever happens as I don't want to be stressed out worrying whether we, or our luggage, makes it in time.

Air Canada would suit me just fine!

I asked this very question about stopping over for a few days on the way to a cruise in 2011. First, I deal with an TA who is an expert on all matters concerning Regent. The short answer was that in my case Regent would allow a stop, but in addition to the $100 deviation fee there would be another $250 fee pp. Therefore, you have to do the math and check the specifics of your itinerary. For example, if you're using a Business Class promotion, it may easily be worth it, but if your doing this in Coach, than you have to compare Regent's total charges (including these fees) with obtaining the air credit and doing it on your own. The numbers I quoted are of course subject to change when the 2011 air schedules and contracts are finalized by Regent.

Definitely find out what your air credit would be if you opt out of the free Air. If the air *hadn't been* included, I would have suggested doing your own air to London and back, and having Regent pick up the air from London to Stockholm/Copenhagen. It still might be worth considering that, given the cheap charters from Toronto to London.

The non-use air credit for D-H cabins listed by our TA for the Baltics cruises in 2011 is $1000 per person. I assume that they would be the same for Canadian residents.

This is all such useful information, thank you. The hive mind of the Regent boards is a wonderful thing.

Our TA is very adept when dealing with Regent, so once we confirm this booking (it's a foregone conclusion, but my husband likes to believe he is still thinking about this) I wil get her working on this.

At least this summer, there are Air Canada direct flights from Copenhagen to Toronto. We are on a Voyager cruise in June and and are routed Copenhagen-Toronto-Edmonton on the way back. The only difficulty with the flight was that it was leaving at 11:20 AM which was a little too early to be comfortable in making the flight so we are staying a day in Copenhagen. We arranged our own flights, but Regent does use Air Canada at least some of the time.

Just FYI, since many believe that Regent prefers the Star Alliance airlines, just wanted to have all be aware that Continental joined the Star Alliance at the end of October last year and does code share now with United and Air Canada as well as other Star Alliance carriers.

Continental flies to many destinations in Europe including non-stop daily flights to Stockholm and Copenhagen so Regent carriers to Europe may be changing to include Continental flights thru Newark, Cleveland, or Houston which are Continental's USA hubs.

By the way I am a happy Continental customer flying often on what I believe to be the best airline in the Western Hemisphere.:D

Just FYI, since many believe that Regent prefers the Star Alliance airlines, just wanted to have all be aware that Continental joined the Star Alliance at the end of October last year and does code share now with United and Air Canada as well as other Star Alliance carriers.

 

Continental flies to many destinations in Europe including non-stop daily flights to Stockholm and Copenhagen so Regent carriers to Europe may be changing to include Continental flights thru Newark, Cleveland, or Houston which are Continental's USA hubs.

 

By the way I am a happy Continental customer flying often on what I believe to be the best airline in the Western Hemisphere.:D

I agree that Continental is a good airline, however, does it fly out of Canada? Regent booked us on Lufthansa (a favorite of theirs) for a couple of our flights out of Vancouver.

I agree that Continental is a good airline, however, does it fly out of Canada? Regent booked us on Lufthansa (a favorite of theirs) for a couple of our flights out of Vancouver.

Continental does fly out of every major city in Canada including Vancouver but, only to the US. You could fly out of Seattle on Continental, quite a few flights daily but, think they only fly to other US cities where you can connect to overseas flights.

Had Continental not joined the Star Alliance, would never been able to use my frequent flyers on our next Regent cruise. Flying Continental thru Seattle to Anchorage, then United from Hong Kong to San Francisco and US Air thru Phoenix back to Houston. Lufthansa is also a partner with Continental. Just looked at a route map and appears most of the international flights on Continental are from Houston, Cleveland, and Newark. Good for us, bad for you.:mad:

Just FYI, since many believe that Regent prefers the Star Alliance airlines, just wanted to have all be aware that Continental joined the Star Alliance at the end of October last year and does code share now with United and Air Canada as well as other Star Alliance carriers.

 

Continental flies to many destinations in Europe including non-stop daily flights to Stockholm and Copenhagen so Regent carriers to Europe may be changing to include Continental flights thru Newark, Cleveland, or Houston which are Continental's USA hubs.

 

By the way I am a happy Continental customer flying often on what I believe to be the best airline in the Western Hemisphere.:D

We've just booked Regent from Ft.Lauderdale to Lima Peru Jan/11, and we're struggling with the idea of using Regent Air -vs- doing our own air, especially since we want to fly Business. Regent is still offering the $999 Business upgrade from Lima back to the US, but I don't think we have any say in what routing, airline, or departure times they use. This we're having a problem with. We prefer to go a day early, use Continental (best routing) from Phoenix and stay an extra day before returning, also on Continental, via Houston. Has anyone had any experience with Regent on this? If we book our own air to get the routing we want, we pay $1000 more. Can't decide if its worth it for the peace of mind. Any thoughts?

We've just booked Regent from Ft.Lauderdale to Lima Peru Jan/11, and we're struggling with the idea of using Regent Air -vs- doing our own air, especially since we want to fly Business. Regent is still offering the $999 Business upgrade from Lima back to the US, but I don't think we have any say in what routing, airline, or departure times they use. This we're having a problem with. We prefer to go a day early, use Continental (best routing) from Phoenix and stay an extra day before returning, also on Continental, via Houston. Has anyone had any experience with Regent on this? If we book our own air to get the routing we want, we pay $1000 more. Can't decide if its worth it for the peace of mind. Any thoughts?

On our upcoming Med cruise in October, Regent wanted us to use Alitalia from Venice to Rome to Toronto. Sorry, but based on feedback from people who have flown them, we have had our TA go back to Regent and are now travelling Lufthansa. It was a tough battle, Regent fought back, but our TA has perservered and got us the LH booking through Regent. It means an extra night in Venice, but our TA is willing to pick up that cost considering how much money we spend with them. We also had her remind Regent of how much money we will have spent when our current bookings (including two other couples who we recommended Regent to) are done and how much potential future money we MIGHT spend with Regent. Get your TA (if you have one) to go to bat for you. Remember, you're the customer.

Elmwood: I think you mentioned that you have a suite that includes Business Air. If this is the case the credit may be more than $1000. I believe it is closer to $2500 but don't know if that is true for Canada. Have your T.A. check it out. Maxine

We've just booked Regent from Ft.Lauderdale to Lima Peru Jan/11, and we're struggling with the idea of using Regent Air -vs- doing our own air, especially since we want to fly Business. Regent is still offering the $999 Business upgrade from Lima back to the US, but I don't think we have any say in what routing, airline, or departure times they use. This we're having a problem with. We prefer to go a day early, use Continental (best routing) from Phoenix and stay an extra day before returning, also on Continental, via Houston. Has anyone had any experience with Regent on this? If we book our own air to get the routing we want, we pay $1000 more. Can't decide if its worth it for the peace of mind. Any thoughts?

I spoke with our TA today (they book Regent on a regular basis) regarding Lima to Vancouver (and Vancouver to Ft. Lauderdale). We are going to deviate ($100/person) in order to select the flights we prefer -- particularly from Lima to Vancouver. The itinerary(ies) we asked Regent for depart in the middle of the night -- the night before debarkation. This could work well since we could have the day in Lima, dinner on the ship and take a taxi to the airport around 10:00 p.m.

Although we won't know which itinerary Regent will accept, we were advised that they do not typically use Continental -- even though they are now part of STAR Alliance. Our 2nd choice was Air Canada through Toronto. Our only concern about that is the weather in January. We will know more about this next week.

Travelcat, sounds like we are on the same cruise out of Ft.Lauderdale to Lima on the Mariner in Jan/11. Although we live in Calgary, we'll be travelling out of Phoenix (our winter home). It seems like we should be able to select our preferred flight itinerary if we pay Regent the deviation fee, is that right? That would still result in a lower cost than booking the air ourselves and getting back the Regent "credit".

The itinerary(ies) we asked Regent for depart in the middle of the night -- the night before debarkation. This could work well since we could have the day in Lima, dinner on the ship and take a taxi to the airport around 10:00 p.m..

We thought about leaving the ship on the first night in Lima too, but now think we'll depart with everyone else in the a.m. and spend the day in Lima. We'll look for a hotel that might rent out "dayrooms" for a place to clean up & store our luggage for the day. We've done that before and it works well.

Travelcat, sounds like we are on the same cruise out of Ft.Lauderdale to Lima on the Mariner in Jan/11. Although we live in Calgary, we'll be travelling out of Phoenix (our winter home). It seems like we should be able to select our preferred flight itinerary if we pay Regent the deviation fee, is that right? That would still result in a lower cost than booking the air ourselves and getting back the Regent "credit".

You're right -- same cruise. We live in Washington state, but, live closer to Vancouver Airport than to Seattle. I agree that we should be able to select our preferred flight intinery after paying the deviation fee. . . . but, that is not exactly how it works. Regent books with airlines they have contracts with. It is rather difficult to figure it out. Once they put us on British Air (which was fine). The next time we paid the deviation so we could go on British Air and they imposed a $600 upcharge to use that airline. It will be interesting to see if we get what we requested.

I do have one unrelated question. . . . . do flights often get delayed or cancelled due to the weather in January where you live?

Thanks:)

Not in Phoenix, usually. But I know your area often has winter-related weather issues (I used to live in Vanc and still have family there). I've asked my TA to try to negotiate with Regent, will see what happens with that. I don't know how long it usually takes Regent to advise on their air routings, but if we have to book our own air, I want to do it soon. Right now, I can get to FLL from PHX for only $141!!! (The business class return from Lima is fairly pricey though).

You're right -- same cruise.

Unrelated to the thread, but..... I just realized we'd already "met" on roll-call for the Mariner! I'm looking forward to putting faces to names once onboard.

From our experience this year, it would appear that Regent's business air is more restrictive in terms of customers choosing itineraries and airlines than the included economy air. However, I do know that some people have had better results when the travel agency they use is willing to "negotiate" with Regent and discuss what is important to the client. A great travel agency cannot be beat!

We had requested our business class flight be out of Vancouver as Regent did provide that gateway. The options we were given for business class air were Vancouver through LAX which increased our flight times/wait times to almost double what we could have if the flight was provided out of Vancouver. Our agent was told that the airline out of Vancouver we wished to travel on was not a carrier that Regent used. We later found out that the information provided to our agent was not accurate. Because our current agent chose to take this policy as fact, we were not given other options and have booked our own air out of Vancouver.

I'm wondering, since you've used the Regent air in the past, at what point does Regent advise the cruiser what the offered air schedule is? I'd like to know what Regent would offer for the air routings, so that we can decide if we'd rather book our own. But I'd sure like that info soon, and don't know when it might be available. What was your experience?

we were told by Regent that flight information would be available 75 days before sailing.

I have a question regarding insurance. If cruise plans are cancelled before sailing, illness, for example, will the airline re-imburse Regent, or do we have to add the business class upgrade to our cruise insurance.

In our case, we have purchased $4000 worth of business class upgrade. ($999 pre person per flight.)