Choice Air: Helpful Information

[Andy]

Recently there was a post on Choice Air and a schedule change. Yes, I know the airlines make the changes not Choice Air. But I have a question on this....if you book with Choice Air and the airlines do a schedule change, do the same rules not apply? Meaning, depending on the change, can I request a move to another carrier, time, etc? I've never booked with ChoiceAir as I've always done it on my own but I was thinking of it for my next cruise.

 

I am assuming booking thru Choice Air is similar to an agency as far as responsibility but I want to understand before I go this route.

 

Thanks

 

Hi Baseball fan !

 

Here is Troy's response :

 

Yes, we follow the airlines' policy regarding schedule changes. If the guest does not wish to accept the proposed change, we are happy to work with them and the airline to find a suitable alternative, or look at other carrier options, and request a full refund on the original tickets. Sometimes, there just aren't any great options, but we will provide the best there is. The ultimate decision of how to deal with the schedule change, is the guest's.

 

[KMR]

I purchased Choice Air for my Med. cruise so I know it was easily available to look at on the old Celebrity Website. With the new Celebrity Website I can't find it anywhere. I even searched the Celebrity search site on their website but I can not find a link anywhere to get me to Choice Air. With the new Celebrity Website (the old site was much better) how do you get to Choice Air to see what the air will cost you?

 

Thank you.

[TelecasterPlayer]

I purchased Choice Air for my Med. cruise so I know it was easily available to look at on the old Celebrity Website. With the new Celebrity Website I can't find it anywhere. I even searched the Celebrity search site on their website but I can not find a link anywhere to get me to Choice Air. With the new Celebrity Website (the old site was much better) how do you get to Choice Air to see what the air will cost you?

 

Thank you.

 

www.choiceair.com will redirect you to the RCL, Celebrity, Azamara choice air website.

[rafinmd]

I'll try to make this general although of course I have something specific in mind. I'm booked on the April 15th Solstace transatlantic and looking at air. When I immediately go into Choice Air it goes to a multi-city itinerary which comes out to about $2200 minimum from BWI. The system does let me search on individual 1-way flights with prices of about $250 to FLL and $550 back from Barcelona. Is buying individual 1-way flights really permitted on Choice Air?

 

Thanks

 

Roy

[gold1953]

I would assume that if they are showing it then it is . I called the agent to get my prices and was quoted the $550.00 back also. Their system will not allow searches when the cruises are B2B so I cannot do my own. Some people live close enough that they don't need a flight to the cruise.

[Mammoth Cruiser]

Just found out about Choice Air. It seems like a good option with reasonable pricing. We are doing an Xpedition cruise in June 2012. Can anyone give us some advice as to when to book our flights? Book now or wait for a few more months? Thank-you in advance.

[TelecasterPlayer]

I'll try to make this general although of course I have something specific in mind. I'm booked on the April 15th Solstace transatlantic and looking at air. When I immediately go into Choice Air it goes to a multi-city itinerary which comes out to about $2200 minimum from BWI. The system does let me search on individual 1-way flights with prices of about $250 to FLL and $550 back from Barcelona. Is buying individual 1-way flights really permitted on Choice Air?

 

Thanks

 

Roy

 

Yes, one way tickets are available for purchase. For our Apr2011 transatlantic, we flew Southwest (purchased via southwest website) down to Ft Lauderdale and flew American home from London (purchased via Choice Air at an incredible savings).

 

For our Nov2011 transatlantic, we purchased our tickets to Barcelona via Choice Air (again at a great savings) and are flying home via Southwest.

 

The international flights are where you really see a savings through Choice Air, especially the one way tickets. For domestic flights, I book through the airline usually.

 

My brother is doing a Med cruise and he got great tickets from California to Paris (for a short stop) then to Barcelona, and from Barcelona back to California. You can do multiple stop tickets through Choice Air but you need to call to book them. Multi stops can't be done through the Choice Air website.

[Kellie Poodle]

I just booked flights for our Buenos Aires to Valparaiso cruise in January. The prices I had looked at on Saturday, weren't available on Monday and I had booked the cruise on Sunday. My TA could not do any better. He said that there had been a fare increase over the weekend. I use Kayak so I could see every web-based travel company's price. I also went directly to the airline web site. Still way to high.

 

I called Choice Air and I guess they hadn't gotten the memo yet, so we booked with them saving several hundred dollars per person. YAY!

 

The negative was that they only decent price (still high) that was offered from our regional airport to the international one was 5 AM for a 9 PM flight and Choice Air could not even book that one. The ones available to them were outrageous! like $400 r/t for a 30 minute flight on an itty bitty plane (Embrair for those of y'all who know planes).

 

We decided to drive to the international airport (6 hours) and leave our car. Our Honda Civic gets great mileage, the lot is about $12 per day and we can stop and get a decent non-airport meal on the way.

 

This was the first time I tried Choice Air and I was very happy with the price. Our loyalty status excepted us from the fee. I'll be back for a future cruise. Especially with multi-city or a transatlantic.

[trainman62]

We recently were the beneficiaries of ChoiceAir's Assured Arrival policy, which saved our vacation. We had booked through ChoiceAir, scheduled to leave Hartford, CT for Newark, NJ on our way to Rome, Italy on Sunday, August 28 to meet the Equinox. Thanks to Hurricane Irene, our flights were cancelled. One phone call to ChoiceAir got us re-booked two days later to Athens, Greece, where we were able to meet our ship. In addition, we were met at Athens airport, taken to a lovely (and convenient) hotel, and picked up the next morning and brought to the ship. No muss, no fuss and not a dime out-of-pocket.

[2theship]

I'll try to make this general although of course I have something specific in mind. I'm booked on the April 15th Solstace transatlantic and looking at air. When I immediately go into Choice Air it goes to a multi-city itinerary which comes out to about $2200 minimum from BWI. The system does let me search on individual 1-way flights with prices of about $250 to FLL and $550 back from Barcelona. Is buying individual 1-way flights really permitted on Choice Air?

 

Thanks

 

Roy

 

Yes, we have used Choice Air twice on TAs. Used Choice Air for the Transatlantic flight, at considerable savings (about $600), and our own reservations on AirTran for Florida-home for less than $100.

[2theship]

Recently had the following experience with Choice Air:

We booked a one way DTW/AMS/FCO for our upcoming TA. The booking was on Delta/KLM. When we looked on the KLM website, the complete trip showed, but on the DL website, only the originating DTW/AMS flight showed. We questioned Choice Air about this, and they said it would not be a problem. But when DL changed the originating flight (they promptly notified us about the change to a later flight) we were now left with an impossible connection, since DL did not have the information about the connecting flight and could not change it. We called Choice Air, but they said they could not make any adjustment, it had to be done by another department. About 24 hours later, they called back with the adjustment, and now have a fine connection, with entire itinerary showing on the DL site.

[quinceemom]

We are considering a TA for next Nov/Dec and one of our major considerations is the one-way airfare. For those of you that used ChoiceAir for your one way, did you feel the price was comparable to what you could have done on your own? Is there a way I can select ChoiceAir when I make the initial booking and then elect not to use if if I feel the prices are too outrageous. (I do work for an airline and that's also an option for reduced airfare,but with the added stress of "standby".)

[Andy]

Hi Everyone,

 

As we've answered many outstanding questions from our Cruise Critic community over the past 2 months, it's time to close the ChoiceAir thread to new questions. Thank you for your questions, as they've helped us all learn a great deal about ChoiceAir. This thread will remain available for future reference.

 

I'd like to share a special Thank You to Troy Martin for meeting with me, and making himself available to answer our questions. Judging from the level of positive feedback and over 24,000 thread views - and counting... I trust you will agree the discussion was highly beneficial !

 

I firmly believe that direct from the source discussion brings a valuable connection to our community. I hope to visit with future Guests from the Royal Caribbean family. While I cannot make any promises, I will gladly reach out, should there be an interest. I welcome your feedback, and suggestions for future topics. Please contact me, by clicking on the link below.

 

In wrapping up this discussion, Troy asked to share his comments, below:

 

Thank you for the opportunity to share information about ChoiceAir. I really appreciate all of the input and thoughtful questions from the Cruise Critic community. I would like to extend special thanks to Host Andy for his professionalism and enthusiasm in facilitating his discussion. It's clear to me that he not only shares the passion and knowledge about cruising that brings this community together, but that he is also very committed personally to the members of the community. I appreciate the time he took to understand ChoiceAir, and to ensure that the answers we gave, met the needs of the members. We at Azamara Club Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, and Royal Caribbean International look forward to welcoming you aboard soon, and I hope that the information we have shared on this forum, will lead you to consider ChoiceAir as an option for purchasing airline tickets to your cruise. Should you have further questions, feel free to reach out to me or my team at choiceair@rccl.com or 800-533-7803.