Choice Air-good idea?

We are traveling from Virginia to San Juan this November.

I've been reviewing info and posts on Choice Air. Many are over a year old so I was hoping to get some recent opinions.

What are the pros and cons of booking with CA?

Thanks!

We have used Choice Air to book one way flights when we do trans-Atlantic cruises. The main advantage has been price - $2500 at the airline site and $540 from Choice Air. I have read here that with domestic flights it is not always cheaper. Look at the Choice Air site and price it out and compare.

We've always had better prices with Choice Air than doing it with the airline or a place like Orbitz. You just have to compare. Where they're best is international.

I like to be in more control of my travel than CA allows. Too many horror stories around here about terrible fight times, weird changes etc. BUT, if I could save real money I would try it....so I just ran the fares for our AU/NZ trip in Nov 2015, CA saves me a whopping $20 per person and adds 7 hours to our outbound trip...... No thanks.

Going to San Juan and doing a round trip check the flights on the airlines before you buy choice air. Choice air is good for one way to Europe but for round trip sometimes it is good and sometime it is not. We always had better luck getting better airfare to San Juan from in our case AA than choice air.

I like to be in more control of my travel than CA allows. Too many horror stories around here about terrible fight times, weird changes etc. BUT, if I could save real money I would try it....so I just ran the fares for our AU/NZ trip in Nov 2015, CA saves me a whopping $20 per person and adds 7 hours to our outbound trip...... No thanks.

If you book your own air on choiceair.com, you pick your own flights. I'm booked Phoenix to Barcelona in October. I had a choice of about 40 flights. I picked the one with the best flight times for a reasonable price. I chose Delta. $517 p.p. on choice air, $2300 p.p. through Delta or any of the other travel sites such as Orbitz, and Travelocity. Once I got my Delta booking number, I went to delta.com and hand picked my seats. This is the sixth time I used choiceair.com for one way transatlantics and so far I giver them an A+. I know of several people who have used choice air and everybody swears by them.

Then I will keep checking with them....long way off to November for us. Thanks

Does chocie air allow you ,for a fee of course, to book flights that are a couple of days before the cruise and a couple of days after a cruise when flying to Europe?

Does chocie air allow you ,for a fee of course, to book flights that are a couple of days before the cruise and a couple of days after a cruise when flying to Europe?

They don't charge extra if you fly early. Last year we fly to London 5 days early, it makes no difference. It is like booking at any website. You pick the days. Just make sure you compare with other sites to make sure they are cheaper.

Does chocie air allow you ,for a fee of course, to book flights that are a couple of days before the cruise and a couple of days after a cruise when flying to Europe?

There's no additional fee! We have booked return flights home from London six weeks after our TA left us in Rome. It is extremely flexible, and as stated above, you have complete control on when, from what airport, and what flight you want to book.

We also use it for return air on TAs, and choose whatever flight is best for us. The poster above who states that they heard about "terrible flight times" either wasn't using choiceair or picked badly. We swear by the flights we've taken.

That said, they are NOT always the cheapest for round trip or domestic flights. So I would check it out, see what they offer, and then check the other sites. I like matrix dot itasoftware dot com which gives you all available flights (with a couple of exceptions like southwest) and has ancalendar showing which dates are cheapest.

I've found that the flight options are limited with Choice Air...but check one way flights each way and you sometimes get better options. I just booked one way flying to FLL for a Caribbean cruise in March. I wanted to book through CA going down in case there is bad weather and the flight is delayed. CA guarantees they will get you to the next port if you miss the ship. Coming home there is not that concern so I booked through Expedia. There was a flight that wasn't available on CA - better timing, direct flight, and price was cheaper than CA.

The Choice site doesn't list every possible flight. We like to fly AA business but didn't like any of the few flights listed on the Choice website so we called. Agent said any flight we could find on the AA site she could book. We've only used choice twice, both last year, but both times we got exactly what we wanted.

If you book your own air on choiceair.com, you pick your own flights. I'm booked Phoenix to Barcelona in October. I had a choice of about 40 flights. I picked the one with the best flight times for a reasonable price. I chose Delta. $517 p.p. on choice air, $2300 p.p. through Delta or any of the other travel sites such as Orbitz, and Travelocity. Once I got my Delta booking number, I went to delta.com and hand picked my seats. This is the sixth time I used choiceair.com for one way transatlantics and so far I giver them an A+. I know of several people who have used choice air and everybody swears by them.

Exactly the way to do it: book your own air on ChoiceAir, then with your located code and selected seats, the flight is as much yours as any flight booked regular way. The savings on one way trans-Atlantics are unbeatable: typically over $1,000, often $1,500 per person. Savings do not seem to apply on domestic flights or round trip T/A's.

There's no additional fee! We have booked return flights home from London six weeks after our TA left us in Rome. It is extremely flexible, and as stated above, you have complete control on when, from what airport, and what flight you want to book.

 

 

 

We also use it for return air on TAs, and choose whatever flight is best for us. The poster above who states that they heard about "terrible flight times" either wasn't using choiceair or picked badly. We swear by the flights we've taken.

 

 

 

That said, they are NOT always the cheapest for round trip or domestic flights. So I would check it out, see what they offer, and then check the other sites. I like matrix dot itasoftware dot com which gives you all available flights (with a couple of exceptions like southwest) and has ancalendar showing which dates are cheapest.

Completely agree with you. Today I booked a one-way flight from San Francisco to London, first class on Virgin Atlantic. We got exactly the flight we wanted and at approximately 1/3 of the airlines fare.

We've used Choice Air many times in the past for one-way flights.

I do have some advice if anyone uses Choice Air. Always check the chosen airline's site for time changes. Be proactive for yourself.

Does chocie air allow you ,for a fee of course, to book flights that are a couple of days before the cruise and a couple of days after a cruise when flying to Europe?

Not only will they do that but I have a family reunion in Rome before a Transatlantic this fall on November 1st. I booked business class with Choice Air to Rome on October 22nd for about a fourth of the going rate and am using points to get to London afterward. No fee necessary.

The savings on one way trans-Atlantics are unbeatable: typically over $1,000, often $1,500 per person. Savings do not seem to apply on domestic flights or round trip T/A's.

If the savings are better on one way Transatlantics than round trip, is it better to book two separate one ways than one round trip?

If the savings are better on one way Transatlantics than round trip, is it better to book two separate one ways than one round trip?

It's definitely worth checking!

thank you all for your post about your experience using choice air.

I will be cruising out of Barcelona in July of 2016. I have used the ITA matrix in the past to view all available flights that work in my time frame. I have used Delta because they have a daily non stop flight to Amsterdam MSP and connections on KLM. have also gone through JFK and Atlanta for flight to and from Europe.

Once flights are available for my time frame I will check choice air and the actual airline web sites too.

I'm going to play the big bad wolf here. We've used choice air and had no problems BUT the last time we were heading to South America for a repo which was a one way. Of course we couldn't beat the price. That's where choice air programs provide the best financial options if you are booking with your wallet.

BUT when booking domestic or round trip you may do better both financially and concretely booking via the airline of choice.

On Cruise Critic we have a board dedicated to air arrangements and cruise air programs. It is under the Discussions boards and the educated posters there can, and will, be your best resource. Why? Because your cruise air ticket COULD be a consolidator fare. It is extremely difficult for the casual traveler to read the fine print and determine the ticket restrictions beyond refundable and non-refundable. A "X" fare on Delta, for example could be at least three different types of tickets and it's almost impossible to figure out which X fare you are really paying. Some, even choice air, tickets will earn frequent flyer points, some may not if that is important to you.

Booking directly with an airline provides a direct link when issues arise.

The best advice I can give is read the sticky on the Cruise Air Forum. It may be old but most things have not changed, or if they have they have only gotten worse for the traveling masses.

When you need advice use the Cruise Air Forum BEFORE you book. Change fees and full flights aren't your best option.

As for November flights to SJU...we're heading down too and so are a lot of other people. If you are thinking about any flight near Thanksgiving don't dawdle. Prices will rise and even when Southwest opens bookings they may not be a bargain either.

The poster above who states that they heard about "terrible flight times" either wasn't using choiceair or picked badly. We swear by the flights we've taken.

 

Just because you've had good luck, doesn't mean everyone has. There have been numerous anecdotal reports of folks who booked Choice Air and had problems. Please note that I am not saying that everyone who books CA has issues, far from it. But problems can and do arise specifically because someone booked CA. There's a thread right now on the cruise air forum where someone booked with CA and then CA essentially changed their flights drastically. I won't go into detail here; you can head over to that forum and read it if you want. But to say that someone who heard about terrible flight times either wasn't using choice air or picked badly is not necessarily true.

As for the huge savings on international flights, if you are seeing CA quote $500 and the airline is asking $2500 for the same flight, you can bet your bottom dollar that you aren't getting the same ticket , and that there are some strict rules and restrictions attached to your ticket that you likely won't even know about it. If all goes, well you'll be fine. But if you experience flight disruptions you may find out what those rules and restrictions are and be very disappointed. Having a locator number and being able to choose your seats means nothing. As another poster said, much more info available on the cruise air forum.

Caveat Emptor.

Just because you've had good luck, doesn't mean everyone has. There have been numerous anecdotal reports of folks who booked Choice Air and had problems. Please note that I am not saying that everyone who books CA has issues, far from it. But problems can and do arise specifically because someone booked CA. There's a thread right now on the cruise air forum where someone booked with CA and then CA essentially changed their flights drastically. I won't go into detail here; you can head over to that forum and read it if you want. But to say that someone who heard about terrible flight times either wasn't using choice air or picked badly is not necessarily true.

 

As for the huge savings on international flights, if you are seeing CA quote $500 and the airline is asking $2500 for the same flight, you can bet your bottom dollar that you aren't getting the same ticket , and that there are some strict rules and restrictions attached to your ticket that you likely won't even know about it. If all goes, well you'll be fine. But if you experience flight disruptions you may find out what those rules and restrictions are and be very disappointed. Having a locator number and being able to choose your seats means nothing. As another poster said, much more info available on the cruise air forum.

Caveat Emptor.

The Choice Air hates have showed up :rolleyes:

How much money do you make on that $2500 ticket you want everyone to buy

If it was not for choice air, RCL ships would be traveling 3/4 empty on crossing

By the way that $500 ticket KLM is $3200 on KLM website , both are non refundable

Mark

Just because you've had good luck, doesn't mean everyone has. There have been numerous anecdotal reports of folks who booked Choice Air and had problems. Please note that I am not saying that everyone who books CA has issues, far from it. But problems can and do arise specifically because someone booked CA. There's a thread right now on the cruise air forum where someone booked with CA and then CA essentially changed their flights drastically. I won't go into detail here; you can head over to that forum and read it if you want. But to say that someone who heard about terrible flight times either wasn't using choice air or picked badly is not necessarily true.

 

As for the huge savings on international flights, if you are seeing CA quote $500 and the airline is asking $2500 for the same flight, you can bet your bottom dollar that you aren't getting the same ticket , and that there are some strict rules and restrictions attached to your ticket that you likely won't even know about it. If all goes, well you'll be fine. But if you experience flight disruptions you may find out what those rules and restrictions are and be very disappointed. Having a locator number and being able to choose your seats means nothing. As another poster said, much more info available on the cruise air forum.

Caveat Emptor.

Thanks for all the information . What I was referring to is that previous poster made it sound like you were 'assigned' flights with bad times, and that is just not true. You can pick your own flights and you have a wide variety of choices.

You sound like someone who has had a personal bad experience with Choice Air. Can you give us the details?

And I don't know about you, but I would MUCH rather pay $500 and take my chances with a possible flight change, than pay $2500 for the identical flight. What i do know is that when I pay $500, I WILL be flying home, no chance they're going to leave me there, and that works out great for me. I don't care what my code is, I'm coming home, and I'm getting a bargain.

Let me tell a little air story. A friend was coming to visit and I suggested he book with Delta directly. He chose to use Expedia instead. He got to the airport for his 7 AM flight, only to find out that Delta had changed the times and the flight had already left half an hour before. He ended up rebooking but losing an entire day of his three day vacation. Delta said they had no obligation to inform him of the change since he booked through a third party. Moral: it is your obligation as the consumer to check and recheck your flights, seat assignments, etc. If you don't, you have no one too blame but yourself, no matter HOW you book.

We just used Choice Air for one way to air to Rome 3 days pre-cruise and one way back from Venice 2 days post-cruise. We booked the airline, flights and seats of our choosing. We saved over $400pp. I can't afford to walk away from that kind of savings... :D

The Choice Air hates have showed up :rolleyes:

 

Mark: It's not a question of "liking" or "hating" Choice Air. Some posters on this forum only want to promulgate accurate information.

Many readers here believe the inaccurate information that Choice Air tickets are always the same as those purchased directly from the airline. Some of the experts here try very hard to debunk that myth, as well as the myth that the cruise line will assure that you arrive in time for embarkation.

I do not believe that Meg "hates" Choice Air. She just wants uninformed readers to have the correct information to allow them to make an informed decision on whether to use Choice Air.

Mark: It's not a question of "liking" or "hating" Choice Air. Some posters on this forum only want to promulgate accurate information.

 

Many readers here believe the inaccurate information that Choice Air tickets are always the same as those purchased directly from the airline. Some of the experts here try very hard to debunk that myth, as well as the myth that the cruise line will assure that you arrive in time for embarkation.

 

I do not believe that Meg "hates" Choice Air. She just wants uninformed readers to have the correct information to allow them to make an informed decision on whether to use Choice Air.

I can see on the airline websites that there are "different" types of tickets sold there as well, refundable/not refundable/or transferable as well. The more you pay, the more flexability you have.

As we always fly pre and post with days on each side, I am not worried about flight changes. CA has been excellent in pricing/service on all our flights and once booked I usually manage my reservation directly with the airline as if I had booked with them (not CA).

I never see the Cruise Air board poo poo any of the other very popular airline booking sites:confused: