Question on Choice Air

I purchased a cruise going on Celebrity for October, and purchased my air through Choice Air

and paid for them. What happens to the air tickets if I decide to cancel, I would like to keep

them and use them on another cruise but different cruise line.

I purchased a cruise going on Celebrity for October, and purchased my air through Choice Air

 

and paid for them. What happens to the air tickets if I decide to cancel, I would like to keep

 

them and use them on another cruise but different cruise line.

Your Choice Air tickets are tied to your cruise booking. If you cancel the cruise, your air gets cancelled. There is probably a very hefty (possibly 100%) cancel fee on the air portion.

The only wiggle room you may have is if you move from Celebrity to Royal Caribbean or Azamara.

I purchased a cruise going on Celebrity for October, and purchased my air through Choice Air

 

and paid for them. What happens to the air tickets if I decide to cancel, I would like to keep

 

them and use them on another cruise but different cruise line.

Have you tried calling Cruise Air? Some tickets they sell are described as being "refundable" but minus the airline fees associated with the ticket.

The Choice Air tickets you booked with your cruise may not be refundable. They certainly could not be used for a cruise line not affiliated with RCI.

The airline would probably charge a change fee as well.

Only the Choice Air department could answer your questions.

Very interesting question. I hope the OP contacts Choice Air and gets an answer.

I would assume that the tickets would be theirs to do with what they want if the original cruise is cancelled. The Choice Air tickets are fully paid for at the time of booking and it wouldn't make sense that they be cancelled, especially if they are non-refundable, just because the cruise was cancelled.

I don't know how current this information is but this is what I found when I googled the inquiry which indictes refundable tickets would be cancelled and refunded while non-refundable become the property of the passenger.

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/customersupport/faq/details.do?pagename=frequently_asked_questions&pnav=5&pnav=2&faqType=faq&faqSubjectId=324&faqSubjectName=Air+Travel&faqId=3727

Q: What happens if a guest with ChoiceAir cancels their cruise?

A: Guests with non-refundable tickets will not be canceled. They own the ticket. Guest with refundable tickets will be refunded, but subject to the airline's rules, conditions and penalties.

Here we go again. It is all very, very dependent on the SPECIFIC FARE RULES of your ticket.

OP-what ARE those RULES? Do you know? Can you print them out (VERY large chance you either can't or get info about luggage or boarding rules but NOT the actual fare rules, which can sometimes be a couple pages long) or are you going to call Choice Air and get six different answers to the same question from six different agents because no one REALLY knows (this was just posted recently when someone called Choice Air and either got totally erroneous information or an "I don't know, call the airline"). They called the airline and because the cruise line customer WAS NOT the customer of the airline, were referred back to Choice Air.

I DO KNOW for a fact (it was posted on this forum by several people) that those who purchased the cheapest of the Choice Air tickets last year WERE NOT allowed to use their tickets for anything OTHER than ANOTHER cruise on the same cruise line company. This was primarily on cruises with Egypt as a port. And Egypt was cancelled so people either wanted to cancel the cruise ENTIRELY due to no Egypt or wanted to use their tickets for a land trip to Egypt. They were told NO-tickets were booked under cruise/vacation package rules (which no one could read nor had no knowledge of before purchase).

Either take a cruise on one of RCCL's cruise line's or your air ticket was NO GOOD. And there were no refunds for the cheapest, non refundable tickets if you just cancelled your cruise. One gentleman who posted was going to be charged $300 per ticket for the change fee PLUS somewhere in the neighborhood of an additional $400 which meant the new ticket to the new cruise (Europe or the Med, can't remember) cost almost twice as much as what buying on the open market would have cost-original cost of the ticket for the original cruise PLUS an additional $700 to change the ticket.

IF you have the COMPLETE fare code (not just H, Q, L, M, S or something but the ENTIRE generally six digit code), I have Sabre in my office and MAY be able to look it up for you. But some of those "non published-specially negotiated fares" are NOT in Sabre because they are contract purchases, with only the cruise line and the airline REALLY knowing what the rules are. They sometimes are NOT available in Sabre.

This is just another example posted by someone who knows quite a bit about fare rules in another thread:

"We went to Thailand in Jan/Feb. We narrowed it down to United and Delta.

United fare code was no change, no refund. Delta fare code was change-for a $300. fee.

We selected Delta for that reason. As luck would have it we had to return a few weeks early. Glad we paid attention to the fare code rules.

We booked on the airline sites. Sometimes on third party sites you do not seem to be able to get the fare code until AFTER you have made the purchase.

Don't like this aspect at all even though we have booked this way once or twice. "

This person purchased DIRECTLY from the airlines. And obviously read the fare rules or they wouldn't have picked the Delta flight (which was a great advantage to them-they DID NOT have to buy a new, very expensive walk up ticket to get home)

It is all in the pesky rules and the FINE PRINT few read, many, many discount because they "got the same flight, were able to pick their seats, etc. etc" and which is rarely available with Choice Air tickets.

Good luck-maybe you lucked out and can actually use your tickets because there are so many, many variations in fare rules.

The scenario the OP describes happened to us in 2011. We purchased non-refundable tickets via ChoiceAir one-way SFO-YVR in conjunction with a Celebrity sailing. Was given a record locator for the airline (WestJet), made seat selections, had ticket number, etc.

Before cruise final payment time, we changed our minds and switched from Celebrity to Disney, departing Vancouver on the same day. We simply canceled the cruise with Celebrity and got our cruise deposit back. The cruise cancellation had no effect on our airline reservations. I kept checking the WestJet website frequently, verifying our booking, etc. We took the flight without incident.

Just our experience......

Very interesting question. I hope the OP contacts Choice Air and gets an answer.

 

I don't know how current this information is but this is what I found when I googled the inquiry which indictes refundable tickets would be cancelled and refunded while non-refundable become the property of the passenger.

 

Q: What happens if a guest with ChoiceAir cancels their cruise?

A: Guests with non-refundable tickets will not be canceled. They own the ticket. Guest with refundable tickets will be refunded, but subject to the airline's rules, conditions and penalties.

Devil's in the details, and cruiseline air is chock full of "weasel words". The Q&A cited is totally accurate. You own the tickets, and the "airline's rules, conditions, and penalties" often state that it's up to the cruiseline. That could run the gamut from letting you use or change them with no difference from a directly purchased ticket, to only being valid for travel to a specific cruise. People have reported both situations and everything in between.

I agree that it will be interesting to hear what OP finds out with their specific tickets.

I made a "tentative" cruise reservation with "X". The rep asked me if I wanted to book the air through "choice Air" at that time. I asked if the air was completely refundable if we were not going to go on the cruise (I needed to check with my spouse about the cruise) I was told "no" that the air would be totally dependent on the cancellation policy of the airline, NOT Celebrity.

The dates did NOT work, I had to canx the cruise, and the deposit for the cruise was credited to my CC. Good thing I did not book the air when I booked the cruise.

A little bit off topic from the OP, but.....We are doing a TA on "X" and have booked choice air. I inquired about upgrading to Business class. How bizarre is this!?!?!?!?!.....if we flew OW in business class, it would cost us more for a 9hr plane ride then it will for a 15 day sailing in a concierge class veranda cabin!....we'll endure for 9 hours and sit in coach!

A little bit off topic from the OP, but.....We are doing a TA on "X" and have booked choice air. I inquired about upgrading to Business class. How bizarre is this!?!?!?!?!.....if we flew OW in business class, it would cost us more for a 9hr plane ride then it will for a 15 day sailing in a concierge class veranda cabin!....we'll endure for 9 hours and sit in coach!

Comparing cruise rates to air rates is comparing apples to oranges.

A little bit off topic from the OP, but.....We are doing a TA on "X" and have booked choice air. I inquired about upgrading to Business class. How bizarre is this!?!?!?!?!.....if we flew OW in business class, it would cost us more for a 9hr plane ride then it will for a 15 day sailing in a concierge class veranda cabin!....we'll endure for 9 hours and sit in coach!

Ya...how crazy is that! It costs almost $1000 more to sit in a seat for 9 hours than it does to spend 15 days on a ship!............Go figure!!!

A little bit off topic from the OP, but.....We are doing a TA on "X" and have booked choice air. I inquired about upgrading to Business class. How bizarre is this!?!?!?!?!.....if we flew OW in business class, it would cost us more for a 9hr plane ride then it will for a 15 day sailing in a concierge class veranda cabin!....we'll endure for 9 hours and sit in coach!

As mentioned, the economics of airlines versus cruise lines are completely different. Just because one gets you to the other does not mean they have any connection whatsoever. I have flown on a $5,000 business class plane ticket to close a $2,000,000 deal...in that regards, the plane ticket was dirt cheap. Apples and oranges is, in fact, the correct way to look at the two.

We booked non refundable flights via Choice Air but when we cancelled the cruise to rebook the same day with a different ta (not happy with first ta) our fully paid flights were cancelled too. It took literally hours of negotiation with Choice Air to get the flights reinstated. I wouldn't wish that stress on anyone

We booked non refundable flights via Choice Air but when we cancelled the cruise to rebook the same day with a different ta (not happy with first ta) our fully paid flights were cancelled too. It took literally hours of negotiation with Choice Air to get the flights reinstated. I wouldn't wish that stress on anyone

Do you have any way of knowing if the TA you were firing may have cancelled your flight reservations or the ChoiceAir staff? Whatever the case, it's another example of inconsistency and everyone has their own different story. Can't say I'm surprised, though. Your experience certainly goes against the official policy RickT posted earlier in this thread where RCCL's position states that non-refundable tickets remain intact regardless if the cruise is cancelled.

Your experience certainly goes against the official policy RickT posted earlier in this thread where RCCL's position states that non-refundable tickets remain intact regardless if the cruise is cancelled.

Please carefully re-read post #5 from RickT, and my comments in #8. RCCL does *not*, repeat *not*, state that tickets remain intact! They state they will leave it up to the airline's fare rules and conditions on the ticket. That could be anything from what you just said, to the tickets being worthless and unusable. It all depends on the bulk purchase the cruise line made; often they are severely limited or "scratch and dent" specials. That is why you're seeing all the inconsistencies and different stories...and it's mostly luck of the draw on what story you will purchase. :)

Do you have any way of knowing if the TA you were firing may have cancelled your flight reservations or the ChoiceAir staff? Whatever the case, it's another example of inconsistency and everyone has their own different story. Can't say I'm surprised, though. Your experience certainly goes against the official policy RickT posted earlier in this thread where RCCL's position states that non-refundable tickets remain intact regardless if the cruise is cancelled.

Definitely not the old ta. I spoke to Choice Air and Captain's Club myself and both said if the cruise is cancelled then so are the flights ( with no refund!!!) Luckily our new ta fought long and hard to get the flights reinstated. Will NEVER use Choice Air again no matter how cheap the flights

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Please carefully re-read post #5 from RickT, and my comments in #8. RCCL does *not*, repeat *not*, state that tickets remain intact! They state they will leave it up to the airline's fare rules and conditions on the ticket. That could be anything from what you just said, to the tickets being worthless and unusable. It all depends on the bulk purchase the cruise line made; often they are severely limited or "scratch and dent" specials. That is why you're seeing all the inconsistencies and different stories...and it's mostly luck of the draw on what story you will purchase. :)

Thanks for clarifying, and you're right. I'll consider ourselves very lucky to have still been able to use our non-refundable tickets even after canceling the cruise.