Celebrity Cruise Lines Choice Air

[TahitianVirgin]

Has anyone used Celebrity Cruise Lines Choice Air program? We are looking into flights for our September cruisetour and trying to find the most reasonable flights.

Thanks
Chuck

[ellbon]

most people book their own air these days. i heard they cruise lines do not give you the best connections. i always book my own air. sailing on Celebrity but i booked with Delta already for next July.

[Budget Queen]

Compare flights yourself using "multi city" booking feature. On cruisetours, I highly recommend you add at least a full day and more. Most cruisetours see very little of Fairbanks, and there is plenty of touring available. Just excellent with a car rental.

[negc]

Originally Posted by ellbon

most people book their own air these days. i heard they cruise lines do not give you the best connections. i always book my own air. sailing on Celebrity but i booked with Delta already for next July.

Choice Air allows you to pick your flights and avoids the problem of getting poor flight schedules or connections. Check out the cost to book your air on your own and compare what Celebrity will charge you. If Celebrity also includes transfers be sure to factor them into your consideration. Once you have compared the costs, your decision should be easier. One advantage of booking your air through the cruiseline has always been the fact that, if you found a better price on your own, you could cancel your cruiseline air up until final payment, without penalty. Be sure to see if this also applies to Choice Air. If it does, I might consider booking with Celebrity but continuing to check my other options and if a better deal became available, book it and cancel Celebrity's air.

[ellbon]

In Alaska i am flying in 3 days early to stay in Seward- there is enough thee to keeep me busy. on the return i am staying in Vancouver and Whistler for 5 nights.

When i wanted help was to get from WPB to MIA and they were no help at all. Called twice and still was told there was no cruise connection bus down so i am taking the train down.

[greatam]

Originally Posted by negc

Choice Air allows you to pick your flights and avoids the problem of getting poor flight schedules or connections. Check out the cost to book your air on your own and compare what Celebrity will charge you. If Celebrity also includes transfers be sure to factor them into your consideration. Once you have compared the costs, your decision should be easier. One advantage of booking your air through the cruiseline has always been the fact that, if you found a better price on your own, you could cancel your cruiseline air up until final payment, without penalty. Be sure to see if this also applies to Choice Air. If it does, I might consider booking with Celebrity but continuing to check my other options and if a better deal became available, book it and cancel Celebrity's air.

MOST cruise air tickets are consolidator tickets. Please read through this thread to become informed about all the downsides about consolidator tickets. PLEASE be aware that the cruise line has NO responsibility for you when using a third party vendor (hotel, air, transfers NOT directly owned by the cruise lines, excursions). And the cruise lines certainly have NO responsibility or liability if a late arriving plane forces you to miss the cruise. READ the cruise contract regarding third party vendors.
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=530322

I am currently in the AA lounge at LAX. It is a total zoo in the airport today due to the FAA computer glitch. One large group is going to miss at least part of their vacation (about 30 people) because of the shutdown. They were to fly at 8:00AM. That flight has been canceled because the plane is still at DFW. The 10:30AA flight to HNL is full (and severely delayed), there are only 11 seats on the 4:55PM flight (only AA flight to HNL today that has available seating.)

I heard the "leader" of the group trying to negotiate with the AA rep. They have CONSOLIDATOR/TOUR OPERATOR tickets. NO changes of airline allowed. Not much help from AA due to the class of tickets. They are essentially STUCK in Lax UNTIL AA has available seating to HNL for all 30 people (for some reason, they won't split up).

PLEASE UNDERSTAND ALL the ramifications of consolidator tickets. IF the group had been going on a cruise that departed today, they would have missed the cruise.

[TahitianVirgin]

Awesome discussion everyone!

I am flying from Columbus to Seattle a day early, playing in Seattle for the day then flying from Seattle to Fairbanks the next morning. Coming home is from Vancouver to Columbus with an overnight in Vancouver.

Choice air cannot/will not do three legs but CMH to SEA is less than $200 per person. However the rest if very competitive.

Chuck

[greatam]

Originally Posted by TahitianVirgin

Awesome discussion everyone!

I am flying from Columbus to Seattle a day early, playing in Seattle for the day then flying from Seattle to Fairbanks the next morning. Coming home is from Vancouver to Columbus with an overnight in Vancouver.

Choice air cannot/will not do three legs but CMH to SEA is less than $200 per person. However the rest if very competitive.

Chuck

SELF BOOKED, COMPLETELY ENDORSABLE tickets ROUND TRIP CMH/SEA are less than $400pp almost the entire summer. So $200 for a one way, CONSOLIDATOR ticket is NO bargain. In fact, I am seeing RT tickets for $198pp certain dates in August and ALL August tickets except 2 days in August (August 12/13) are less than $300 RT. These tickets are FULLY ENDORSABLE and CHEAPER than the cruise line consolidator tickets. You can spend the night in Vancouver and take Amtrak Cascades at 6:40AM or the Amtrak buses at 8 or 11:30AM to Seattle and save quite a bit. NO worries with using consolidator class tickets which are NO GOOD on any airline except the ticketing airline.

[travelbug17]

I would like to try Choice Air also for an Asian cruise in January. Would love any and all feedback!

[PhillyBoy]

I have used them twice and they were great

[CruzeroFan]

I booked for a European cruise and choice air had better connections at $140 less than I could get with the airlines, but another thing to consider if you have frequent flier miles for the airline that's booked is that you cannot use them to upgrade from a consolidator ticket.

[wacruiser77]

I have been looking at fares to Barcelona from the west coast for about 6 months to get an idea of when they are the cheapest. Yesterday I checked Choice Air and their rates are about 1/4 to 1/2 of the lowest price I have seen in this time frame.

I was greatly surprised as I thought Choice Air would be not that great. But whatever the potential problems, saving $500 to $1500 is no small thing.

[garrett619]

Originally Posted by wacruiser77

I have been looking at fares to Barcelona from the west coast for about 6 months to get an idea of when they are the cheapest. Yesterday I checked Choice Air and their rates are about 1/4 to 1/2 of the lowest price I have seen in this time frame.

I was greatly surprised as I thought Choice Air would be not that great. But whatever the potential problems, saving $500 to $1500 is no small thing.

Thanks for this. Been in same boat and San Diego to Barcelona this summer is $1400 plus a person...time to log onto choiceair

[Legran]

For our trip to Alaska this summer we did reserve with Celebrity Choice Air
They did answer our needs. Good connection, direct flight when possible.
Seats reservations. A phone number in case of emergency.
We had made our home work before calling them, and the price was competitive.
As good of any travel agency.
Of course same restriction as we had gone through any travel agency
for the same price.
We did uses them before,and we were very happy with the service.
We are leaving from Fairbanks, so the find the right flights was not that easy.
number of connections, amount of time between flight etc