islandnj

Yep! I never received a MoveUp email for my cruise. After digging a bit, I found a post here suggesting you go to the MoveUp website and enter that way. I did just that and made an offer there that was later accepted. https://www.celebritycruises.com/bid-on-cruise-room-upgrade At some point after I visited that link the first time, a banner appeared on my Manage Reservation page that took me there as well. Hope that helps!

Right. As I said, wrong assumptions. Now I know.

I guess what it boils down to is that I incorrectly assumed that the FBC travel agents were taking those factors--short connection time, travel time from the airport to the dock, and last call for embarkation--into consideration when offering it to me. Mea culpa. That does not change, however, that I am now unlikely to use them in the future. I normally do my own bookings and if I had seen things on paper, I may have thought differently when looking at all of my flight options. My use of FBC for this trip was mostly due to my cruise companion wanting the assurance that we'd have some protection in case we missed the boat. We had already purchased CruiseCare before we made the flight arrangements. Just to clarify on the service I received when I spoke with FBC last night: they told me, more or less, that I would not be able to get assistance from them until I actually did miss the connection. They added that they would not be able to change my flight since it looked like there were no other flights available--I'm certain that isn't their fault but due to restrictions on their ability to change bookings that the airline itself could handle with little problem. When I asked about what options I had right then, they had nothing to offer except that I contact the airline to see if they could change my reservation. What would have happened had I actually missed my connection is now a mystery. It's likely I would not have arrived in Frankfurt until after 10 a.m., missing the flight. The only flight option at that point would be a FRA-FCO flight over an hour later that would get me into Rome around 1:30 p.m. Getting through customs and to the cruise terminal before the boat set sail would be a real challenge. I'm glad that I don't have to see how that would actually play out. Also, separately and not directed at any one responder--I'm a he. 🙂

New outbound flight is EWR-FCO, instead of EWR-FRA-FCO. Return is FCO-YUL-EWR. Yeah, I will never use FBC again. First rep I got a hold of put me on hold and then disconnected me. Second rep told me to contact the airlines. So, I called United. They listened to my spiel and then directed me to Lufthansa. Lufthansa then cautioned me that they may not be able to service the reservation because it was initiated through FBC, but, in the end, were able to. Lots of headache, but I think this is an acceptable resolution, through no help from FBC.

The original booking was made through Lufthansa (via FBC) with codeshares with United and Air Canada. I called Lufthansa directly and they put me onto a direct Lufthansa flight that also had a codeshare with United.

I guess I'm glad I made this post this evening. FBC washed their hands of the matter and directed me to call the airlines. Long story short, because there was a flight reschedule at some point since the original booking, Lufthansa was able to move me to a direct flight that arrives in Rome at 8 a.m. with no cancellation/rebooking fee. Still is day-of arrival, but gives me six hours of breathing room instead of an hour and a half. Whew. Learned my lesson.

To be honest, it was the flights that were suggested to me when I was booking with the FBC rep. The assumption was that their recommendations would take into consideration these constraints just from their own experience. Obviously, that assumption was not grounded in any kind of reality... I'm seeing now that there are a couple direct flights to FCO on Friday night that would get us to Rome with multiple hours to spare. I guess I have a call to make tomorrow.

Anyone here have any experience with how FBC has assisted with missed connections? My cruise is coming up this Saturday (with FBC-booked air), and yesterday, while figuring out seat assignments and other travel logistics, I came across the flight schedule history for my first-leg flight to Frankfurt (FRA), with a connecting flight to Rome (FCO). My flight is scheduled to arrive at 9:10 a.m. and the connecting flight departs 1h35m later at 10:45 a.m. This flight departs daily and its track record for the past couple weeks seems to point at the flight being late by an hour or more, on average. The connecting flight gets to FCO at 12:35 p.m. and I have my check-in at the dock at 3 p.m. (3:30 is the last check in, I think?). All of this cuts check-in very close, especially considering the drive time from the airport to the dock. Anyone have any experience with similar situations that could allay my anxiety? 🙂 Thanks in advance! Edited to add: After doing another search through the forum, the opinion seems to be that arriving a day earlier is the correct plan of action. With the flight being a few days away and having a friend coming in from out of town on flight segments not booked with FBC, leaving a day early isn't a possibility--we really hadn't anticipated any of this when we booked back in November. Now we know for next time, but that doesn't help for this week...

Ship: Edge Length of Cruise: 7 Nights Cruise Sail Date: 5/28/2022 Date email offer received: Never received email offer. Found the offer from the MoveUp link. Captain’s Club Tier [“PREVIEW” = first Celebrity Cruise]: Classic Booked through Celebrity Direct OR via TA: Celebrity Direct Current Cabin: O1 - Ocean View Bid? Yes/No: Yes If YES - Bidding Details: Cabin Category: place winning category, if accepted (all category offers, can be mentioned in comments) Edge Stateroom with Infinite Veranda Bid Offer: $200 pp Notification Date: 5/17/22 Accepted / Rejected: Accepted General Comments (offer details, etc.) I had originally wanted a stateroom with a balcony but it wasn't in the budget at the time of original booking. I had kept an eye on the offers that were available on the MoveUp page but never pulled the trigger since they seemed a bit more than I wanted to spend. Watching availability over the past few weeks, I checked again and found that the minimum offer had been reduced. Made an offer just slightly above minimum about a week and a half ago for only the IV stateroom. Approval came today, but we were assigned to a room over the theater in category E4. I called and spoke with a representative and was able to move to an aft cabin in the same category with no questions asked.