Choice Air

Does anyone have any experience booking flights to Europe last minute (within 30 days of departure) with Choice Air? Currently the airfare seems about the same as booking independently.

Our experience has been with one-way flights from the US to Europe, and Choice Air maintained a significant price advantage over the airline's website until I stopped watching the prices around 2 weeks before the cruise.

We purchased our flights with Choice Air and will never do it again. There have been numerous problems and I have spent hours on the phone trying to fix everything. We fly in a few days and I'm not going to be convinced that all of the problems were fixed until we arrive back home in a couple of weeks.

We purchased months ahead, for the same price that we would have had booking directly. I thought the purported "we will make sure to get you to your ship" insurance made it worth it to book through Choice Air. If I were looking at a last-minute flight for the same price as elsewhere, I certainly wouldn't go with Choice Air since you won't have time to address any problems. It took us months to get our issues addressed and, like I said, I'm still not convinced that it will all be ok.

May I ask what the issues were? We have also booked through ChoiceAir for this coming October, one way to Barcelona.

Quick reply because I have to get to work...

They changed our outgoing flight without notifying us. We were supposed to be leaving at 3:30 pm. They changed it to 7:30 am giving us an all-day layover in Atlanta. My husband just happened to check our flights and notice it. Then they tried to tell us that the 3:30 flight was cancelled when we could see that it wasn't. After several phone calls, promises of return phone calls that never happened, we finally got back on the 3:30.

Then, they somehow created 3 different codes for our reservation so we thought we had seats booked through them but they never got booked with the airline. Airline was telling us that with the different codes for the same flights, we may show up as flying on one code but show up as no-shows for the second code, thereby cancelling our return flights and putting our names on the no-fly list. But the airline couldn't help us because we didn't book with the airline.

Repeated phone calls again. People clearly reading off a script and not understanding what our issues were, just going back to the beginning of the script. Numerous promises of return phone calls without them actually happening. Seriously HOURS on the phone over a period of weeks and weeks....

I THINK we have it sorted out now, but am relying on them telling us that one of the reservation codes is a "dummy" code and that it won't matter that we don't have seats assigned under that code and that being no-shows for that code won't hurt us. We'll see.

As Bob mentions, Air2Sea really only makes sense for one way international fares.

Quick reply because I have to get to work...

 

They changed our outgoing flight without notifying us. We were supposed to be leaving at 3:30 pm. They changed it to 7:30 am giving us an all-day layover in Atlanta. My husband just happened to check our flights and notice it. Then they tried to tell us that the 3:30 flight was cancelled when we could see that it wasn't. After several phone calls, promises of return phone calls that never happened, we finally got back on the 3:30.

I don't think Choice Air changed your flight, the airline did but Choice Air definitely should have told you. I suspect airlines do that frequently to reservations not booked directly. I experienced a similar issue on our trip to Australia that I booked through another "cheap air" site. I had 3 different changes to our flights prior to flying, all done by the airline.

As Bob mentions, Air2Sea really only makes sense for one way international fares.

My daughter and granddaughter flew to fll on choice air and the return flight on American got cancelled. Without choice the options were not pretty but choice took only 10 minutes to rebook on another airline for for free. So in this case they covered the domestic flight issue rather nicely.

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Although I have not used them I have a friend that uses them all the time for one way travel to Europe ports. So far received decent customer service and pricing. I have priced them but not found them very different from booking directly with the airline.

I have booked with Air 2 Sea on three occasions now, most recently our 1 way flight to Copenhagen and their prices have been far better then what I could have gotten with the Airlines. I check our flights regularly right up to departure and have signed up to be notified of any changes. On our Copenhagen flight, I did notice on our Connecting flight in Reykjavik, we were separated so called and they moved my seat back to my husbands row since my row didn't have an available seat. and sent me the revised reservation.

I don't think Choice Air changed your flight, the airline did but Choice Air definitely should have told you. I suspect airlines do that frequently to reservations not booked directly. I experienced a similar issue on our trip to Australia that I booked through another "cheap air" site. I had 3 different changes to our flights prior to flying, all done by the airline.

May be true, but as you said, Choice Air definitely should have informed us. Plus, they lied to me repeatedly and kept trying to tell me that it was changed because the 3:30 flight no longer existed, when I could see that it did exist, and when ultimately they were able to book us on that "nonexistent" flight. It shouldn't have taken lies, multiple phone calls, and unfulfilled promises of calls back to end up back where we started. And that doesn't even get into the seat assignment fiasco...

I have used them in past years for one way international (and currently have bookings for later in '17 and one for '18) and you really need to manage and stay on top of this yourself - to be your own advocate. When making the reservation there is an email notification block that defaults to Air2Sea - I always change that to MY email address. That way I get the notifications.

After making the reservation log into the airline site. You can usually choose seat assignments and also sign up for email notifications of schedule changes directly from the airline. Many times I get the notice directly from the airline and am able to contact A2S with what I want them to do if the change has caused a problem. Be proactive.

Also, avoid code sharing flights whenever possible. Those are shown on the menu of flights to choose from (operated by XXX). The airline confirmation code you are given will only work on one airline, so you may not be able to access seat or other information on every leg or get schedule change notifications.

I generally book when flights open +/- 300 days out and they generally are refundable with a "fee" that seems to vary and I check the flight's status about the first of each month to catch changes we may not have been notified of. Usual savings we have seen is close to 50% for one way international premium economy. For that kind of $ I am willing to invest my time to manage the process. YMMV.

 

Also, avoid code sharing flights whenever possible. Those are shown on the menu of flights to choose from (operated by XXX). The airline confirmation code you are given will only work on one airline, so you may not be able to access seat or other information on every leg or get schedule change notifications.

 

Easy to say avoid code shares, but depending on where you live and where you are going, it might be impossible to book a single ticket without including code shares.

As for the confirmation code, if you have a code share segment all you have to do is contact the airline with whom you booked and ask for the confirmation code for the operating airline. Once you have that, you can go through the operating airline to choose your seats, assuming that airline and your fare class allows it. (Ex. Some European airlines don't allow advance seat selection on domestic flights, so it won't matter if you have their confirmation code or not.)

We've booked Air2Sea a few times now and have saved a lot of money compared to booking directly with the airlines and to date, our experience has been good.

Does anyone have any experience booking flights to Europe last minute (within 30 days of departure) with Choice Air? Currently the airfare seems about the same as booking independently.

You mention that the independent booking is about the same price. Book independent. There are some very fine print features when using Choice Air.

As for the confirmation code, if you have a code share segment all you have to do is contact the airline with whom you booked and ask for the confirmation code for the operating airline. Once you have that, you can go through the operating airline to choose your seats, assuming that airline and your fare class allows it. (Ex. Some European airlines don't allow advance seat selection on domestic flights, so it won't matter if you have their confirmation code or not.)

That's not always accurate when you have a mixture of US domestic and international only carriers (think SAS and United). Went through it not very long ago and it took weeks to resolve.

We only book cruise air if the price is right. So far, we have only booked a single one way transatlantic flight. It was excellent, both in terms of price, airline, and connection. It was an RCI Rome-BCN cruise. Cruise and one way cruise air home was booked inside the final payment window...about 35 days out as I recall.

We have done numerous transatlantic flights-return and one ways. Our experience is that we can get usually get as good, or better pricing, by booking it ourselves. Same has been true for one way flights from Australia to North America. Our preference is always to book with the airline however this is sometimes not possible. Third party booking engines often have price files that are not available to airline agents.

Just a caveat on many comments. Choice Air guarantees to get you to ship. Had some friends that had flight problems and missed first day sailing from Barcelona but arrived next day in Palma to continue cruise. That was a big plus for them by choosing Choice Air.

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We only book cruise air if the price is right. So far, we have only booked a single one way transatlantic flight. It was excellent, both in terms of price, airline, and connection. It was an RCI Rome-BCN cruise. Cruise and one way cruise air home was booked inside the final payment window...about 35 days out as I recall.

 

We have done numerous transatlantic flights-return and one ways. Our experience is that we can get usually get as good, or better pricing, by booking it ourselves. Same has been true for one way flights from Australia to North America. Our preference is always to book with the airline however this is sometimes not possible. Third party booking engines often have price files that are not available to airline agents.

Hi,

Does ChoiceAir charge a fee for booking?

Thanks,

NJ

Hi,

Does ChoiceAir charge a fee for booking?

Thanks,

NJ

Yes, $15pp for domestic and $25pp for international. Non-refundable.

Yes, $15pp for domestic and $25pp for international. Non-refundable.

Hi!

Any discount, waiver of fee of you're D+?

NJ

Hi!

Any discount, waiver of fee of you're D+?

NJ

No.

No.

Thanks Bob - maybe they used to give discount. Oh well!

NJ

Thanks Bob - maybe they used to give discount. Oh well!

NJ

There used to be some service called Choice Air Plus, which I was never sure of what this actually was. This was an extra cost service, but Platinum and above were given a one-time waiver of fee. I don't know if this is offered anymore.

Just a caveat on many comments. Choice Air guarantees to get you to ship. Had some friends that had flight problems and missed first day sailing from Barcelona but arrived next day in Palma to continue cruise. That was a big plus for them by choosing Choice Air.

 

 

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Here is the problem with that guarantee: what if you are doing a fall westbound TA and scheduled yourself for 4-5 days in your port city? Then, some huge storm (hurricane?) comes up and the flights are all delayed for a while. Choice Air guarantees to get you to the SHIP on time, but not your carefully planned precruise city.

I could have lost 4 days in Rome because of Superstorm Sandy if I hadn't spent HOURS on the phone talking someone into letting us on an earlier flight. BTW- some of the phone staff they hire in India didn't even know about this impending storm. At first, Choice Air wouldn't do anything until our flight was cancelled, which would have been too late. They finally let me speak directly to the Airlines and that worked after waiting 3 hours on the phone.