Air deviation

I've read through a bunch of the air deviation posts, but still have a few questions. I've always booked my own air.

I'm going to be booking a December cruise out of Miami and Regent will refund $400/pp if we prefer to book our own air. If I use Regent air, I'll need to pay ($125/pp?) to deviate because we want to add a day to the trip. The flights I want are in the $700-$850 range (and even the cheapest flights are $600+). My questions:

1) If I use Regent and deviate, will they charge me more than the $125/pp? If they don't, it seems like my "cost" per ticket is $525, which is less than I could book for on my own.

2) Is the process that I tell my TA (at time of booking the cruise) that I want to deviate and these are the flights I'd like (listing several acceptable choices)? And Regent says yes or no immediately?

3) Do I get to earn frequent flier miles on the flight?

Thanks!

I've read through a bunch of the air deviation posts, but still have a few questions. I've always booked my own air.

 

I'm going to be booking a December cruise out of Miami and Regent will refund $400/pp if we prefer to book our own air. If I use Regent air, I'll need to pay ($125/pp?) to deviate because we want to add a day to the trip. The flights I want are in the $700-$850 range (and even the cheapest flights are $600+). My questions:

 

1) If I use Regent and deviate, will they charge me more than the $125/pp? If they don't, it seems like my "cost" per ticket is $525, which is less than I could book for on my own.

 

2) Is the process that I tell my TA (at time of booking the cruise) that I want to deviate and these are the flights I'd like (listing several acceptable choices)? And Regent says yes or no immediately?

 

3) Do I get to earn frequent flier miles on the flight?

 

Thanks!

Let me give it a go:

1. Last time we did an air deviation it was only $100pp. If they've upped the fee to $125 then that's what they'll charge you.

2. This is how we do it:rolleyes:

3. Yes.

Don't forget if you deviate you also have to pay for the airport/ship transfers. Hope that helps:o

Greg

We just dealt with this today. Does Regent really believe that those who choose to take their air are going to arrive on the day of the cruise? The deviation fee is really annoying and we will probably not use Regent air again. Their routing is often not good and is not up to the standard of a "luxury" cruise line. Our next cruise is 21 days and hope it lives up to our other Regent cruises of wonderful caring crew making the trip such a wonderful experience. The Regent "air department" needs to look at how the are alienating passengers.

Regent has excellent air but you have to request the flights you want. Know your schedule or get a good travel agent who can recommend some good flights. Regent seems to work a lot with Star Alliance carriers. If you book ahead of time, you generally can get exactly what you want. As for extra money, if the flights you want are not available in their air allotment, you might have to pay extra. They have a contract with individual carriers that limits the number of seats that can be sold at their prices. When that number has been met, they may have to go into other allotments that are costlier. If you book enough ahead of time, however, that won't happen and you can get your choice of flights.

Am definitely NOT a fan of cruise line air, but Regent does have some very well priced air. And, I am recently retired from 30 plus years in the travel business so I'm pretty well versed in this topic.

I only used Regent air for some overseas destinations. Last time, there was a $125 deviation charge. It went up from $100. Single supplement was based on the cruise price including air, so 50% was effectively added to the economy air portion. Then there was an extra $199 for flying from my area. The business class upgrade was substantial, but no single supplement on it. In addition, I had to pay for transfers when I did not use Regent hotels. Customizing can add up... However, Regent's business class total price was occasionally still slightly better or about equal to what I could get on my own. There was also the peace of mind that Regent would assist if my plans changed abruptly or mid-cruise.

Can Regent guarantee you will have your preferred flights? Not sure. I was not so lucky. The routings Regent used required extra flights and stop-overs. It had to do with fare basis availability. Only once was the routing what I preferred. I was credited the FF miles based on business class.

...Does Regent really believe that those who choose to take their air are going to arrive on the day of the cruise?...

I don't think so -- Regent offers a hotel included in the fare for the night before the cruise, without a deviation fee. Of course, you can opt out of the hotel for a credit, then you will have to arrive the day of the cruise or pay a deviation fee. But, you are not forced to arrive the day of the cruise or pay a deviation fee...

I don't think so -- Regent offers a hotel included in the fare for the night before the cruise, without a deviation fee. Of course, you can opt out of the hotel for a credit, then you will have to arrive the day of the cruise or pay a deviation fee. But, you are not forced to arrive the day of the cruise or pay a deviation fee...

If you chose to opt out of the hotel, how much is the regent credit??

The hotel credit depends on the destination. It's never a flat figure but is usually substantial. This is well worth while doing. It's normally no big thing to provide your own transfers.

The hotel credit depends on the destination. It's never a flat figure but is usually substantial. This is well worth while doing. It's normally no big thing to provide your own transfers.

Actually it is the air credit that varies on the destination and booking category (Penthouse and above gets higher credit due to Business Air when applicable). The hotel credit has been $600 per couple although I have heard, but, not seen a change to $500 per couple.

It's actually both, you are right and both vary according to the destination.

We used Regent air last year for our Mediterranean cruise. I couldn't find business air for $999/each way per person. I paid the deviation because we were going early and coming back later. I can't remember if it was $100 or $125/pp. I also had to pay extra because we were returning from Paris instead of Nice (cruise ended in Monte Carlo). I believe they charged me $400/pp for that. Even with the extra charges it was still cheaper to book business class air with Regent. They sent me the flights they had booked and I called them and gave them the flights I wanted. I had no problem changing the flights. They gave us $300/pp credit for hotel night before cruise. We are booked on Asia cruise next March and I'm using their business class air again. Even with the high fare of the cruise is still cheaper to get business class air with them.

Great thread! Thanks to you all.

Do they ever use sky team instead of star alliance? We are looking at nov 14 Voyager safaga to Mumbai. The business class is pricey at $1599 each way. The Mumbai to US is the one that concerns me.

Thanks for your thoughts!

That is actually a not bad price for business class.

Great thread! Thanks to you all.

Do they ever use sky team instead of star alliance? We are looking at nov 14 Voyager safaga to Mumbai. The business class is pricey at $1599 each way. The Mumbai to US is the one that concerns me.

 

Thanks for your thoughts!

Regent uses all the major carriers depending on where you are coming from or going. Certain people seem to think they have a preference for Star Alliance just because they seem to do a lot of flights with Star members without any factual data or information from Regent.

It is more likely that Regent has contracts with specific airlines who happen to be Star Alliance members. There are quite a few airlines in the Star Alliance that Regent doesn't use. Also, Regent will probably use any airline that you are willing to pay for.

Your best bet is to call the Air Desk yourself or have your TA do that and ask which carriers they use for your specific route and if you have a preference for a particular airline, ask if that airline is available for your route.

And, even if you have a TA, Regent's air desk will discuss these things with you without any cost and without you first requesting a deviation. Ask and ye shall find your answer. Don't ask about Alliances or Teams, ask about specific airlines. Sure Regent doesn't care what Alliance or Team the airline belongs to.

We just dealt with this today. Does Regent really believe that those who choose to take their air are going to arrive on the day of the cruise? The deviation fee is really annoying and we will probably not use Regent air again. Their routing is often not good and is not up to the standard of a "luxury" cruise line. Our next cruise is 21 days and hope it lives up to our other Regent cruises of wonderful caring crew making the trip such a wonderful experience. The Regent "air department" needs to look at how the are alienating passengers.

On my last Regent cruise, sadly, YES. They expected us to get from West Coast USA to FCO same day. Had their been any issues (like say having to run from one end of JFK to the other and almost missing boarding) chances are we would've missed the ship. In hindsight I probably should've changed the deviation to include two or so days padding.

From our recent experience, the question is more one of whether Regent has a contract for a particular flight rather than the airline or the alliance. We were trying to get from Atlanta to Rome and were first offered an unappealing trip on three different planes (they do seem to have an initial preference for Lufthansa). We asked for a deviation and requested the Delta nonstop from Atlanta to Rome. They told us they could not give us that as they "didn't have a contract for that particular flight"; however, they did put us on a much better connection through JFK, although still on Delta. Coming back from Istanbul, they again had us initially on three planes, including an impossible-sounding 40 minute layover in Munich in which to try to board a flight bound for the US. After a couple back and forths, they put us on a good connection through London on British Airways. It took some doing and it helps to have a list of several choices ready to suggest, but they did work with us to make everyone happy within the constraints of which flights they have contracted to use.

Thank you all. This has been very informative. I've learned a ton. I clearly will love this journey!