choice air, yes or no?

[insidecabin]

Remember with flights you can now book any where some flights are cheaper if book through another country.

 

Another thing you can sometimes get flights cheaper by adding extra legs and not using them.

 

The German pirate site that searched for deals across all sellers now has a uk and us focus, return flights into the eu/uk from around $500 and loads of others.

[tidygirl]

We just used Choice Air to fly to Barcelona in Sept. I had watched the prices for a year and a half so I knew that most flight through travel sites ran about $1200 Choice air was running close to $1000 I was buying 6 tickets so that amount adds up. But I checked prices multiple times a day 1 day I checked it in the morning before work, about 5:00 Pm and for some reason again at 8:00PM the price had dropped to $780 needless to say I bought them. We had no big issues with our flights just a couple of half hour delays but nothing that really disrupted our travel plans. So it was definitely worth it for us!

[Hoopster95]

Just want to mention that I booked RCL cruise insurance for the first time for Serenade a couple of months ago. The RCL rep told me there's been a recent policy change... my air (any cancellations/delays) were not covered by the RCL insurance, flights only covered if you book through Choice Air.

[wacruiser77]

Just want to mention that I booked RCL cruise insurance for the first time for Serenade a couple of months ago. The RCL rep told me there's been a recent policy change... my air (any cancellations/delays) were not covered by the RCL insurance, flights only covered if you book through Choice Air.

 

 

What if it is too far out to book air? Seems to me the RCL insurance would have to be much preferred in order for this to work. I often find Southwest Air to be the cheapest option and this airline isn't included on travel agent quotes. Since travel insurance is best purchased at the time of booking you are taking a chance on getting an acceptable flight. What am I missing?

[krisko]

Interesting info...I'll now check choice air for every cruise I take. I normally drive but if I can get it cheap enough I'll fly to the port.

[Clarea]

What if it is too far out to book air? Seems to me the RCL insurance would have to be much preferred in order for this to work. I often find Southwest Air to be the cheapest option and this airline isn't included on travel agent quotes. Since travel insurance is best purchased at the time of booking you are taking a chance on getting an acceptable flight. What am I missing?

I've been able to increase insurance coverage to cover air after the initial insurance purchase.

[willing292]

Choice air is also cheaper for business class fares, especially for one way only.

 

 

Shirley, Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[ewenix]

i would like to hear from anyone who has used this service. does it really help you if your travel plans are delayed? thank you

 

I used choice air for our March 2014 on the Adventure sailing out of Puerto Rico. Without getting too far into it the ship had propulsion problems and we got back into port much later that expected.

 

The night before the captain had announced that we would be late but wasn't sure how late. That night I was able to get an island cell signal from the deck and I called choice air. I was told they would take care of it and I didn't need to do anything. I told them I was worried because there were a lot of folks in business center/internet cafe rebooking flights and I wanted to get them rebooked before all the seats were taken. They assured me they would get us rebooked to get home as soon as possible but couldn't give me the changed flight times while on the phone, nor could he transfer me to someone handling the rebooking.

 

We also got a note in our cabin that evening stating that since we had booked with Choice Air that we would be automatically rebooked and we would be receiving another letter with our new flight information. (This is one of the issue I have/had with the ship as we never did get the rebooking information as promised. I ended up standing in a 45 minute line at the guest services desk to get our flight info the next morning.)

 

Our flights originally left 11:40am on that day (sunday.) The rebooked flights were wednesday morning at 6am.

 

So to answer your question about if it helped when there was a problem.

Did Choice Air rebook automatically with no cost to me? Yes.

Was I happy with their service? No.

 

Note that I'm not blaming the flight issue entirely on Choice Air, but when I had a problem they basically told me over the phone they would handle it and let me know later. I understand there are a limited number of seats flying out of puerto rico on a given day. However, I was very disappointed that the best they could do was 3 days later. It really seemed to me as though I was paying for them to handle it automatically with no apparent regard given to the value of my family's time.

 

Would I use them again? A qualified yes. (Under some circumstances. e.g. flying internationally.)

[Clarea]

...Our flights originally left 11:40am on that day (sunday.) The rebooked flights were wednesday morning at 6am....

I would have been very upset if the best they could do was a flight 3 days later. Did they reimburse you for hotel and meal costs?

[RN4Nsy]

I will not use Choice Air again. We have had multiple problems re: giving us flights that arrive too late, not enough time between flights. They say 30 minutes is plenty of time to change planes, however I disagree. We have had difficulties with seat assignments. From now on, we will choose our own flights.

[dadroy]

Want to do a lot of reading about choice air? Read the stickys at the top of the cruise Air forum http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=128

 

Very informative. Fares can be low but sometimes "the cheap can be expensive" holds true. You often are being booked on rate codes that can create problems if flights are missed or delayed.

[waterbug123]

I understand there are a limited number of seats flying out of puerto rico on a given day. However, I was very disappointed that the best they could do was 3 days later. It really seemed to me as though I was paying for them to handle it automatically with no apparent regard given to the value of my family's time.

 

Would I use them again? A qualified yes. (Under some circumstances. e.g. flying internationally.)

 

Everyone's time is valuable, and yours is no more valuable than someone else's. The most likely explanation is that your ticket was likely a bottom of the barrel ticket, and that as such, the airline put you on the bottom of the priority list for rebooking. If that's the case, there was nothing CA could do. If there were no seats, there were no seats; the airline isn't going to bump someone from a later flight so that you can get rebooked.

[Desert Cruizers]

Bob when I booked our flights I was instructed to call Quantus to pick our seats. We went Economy, but for the 15 hrs if we had the money or the points we would have gone 1st class. We had to shuttle to LAX because the flight out of Palm Springs would have been rediculously high. For our TA back in 2011 we booked our own flights , Palm Springs, Ca connecting in PHX & Phil to Barcelona for $600 something PP.

 

Gay

[Sarvowinner]

QANTAS is an acronym - it does not have a U.

 

 

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[OnTheJourney]

I've read some of the posts regarding choice air. I have a Baltic cruise next summer and am considering using them. I see that someone mentioned that you don't get to choose your own seats when booking through choice air? Is that right? Also I'm a bit concerned about them reserving the right to change the itinerary and flights - hoping this would only be done in the event that it is necessary in order to assure timely arrival at the ship.

[Clarea]

I've read some of the posts regarding choice air. I have a Baltic cruise next summer and am considering using them. I see that someone mentioned that you don't get to choose your own seats when booking through choice air? Is that right? Also I'm a bit concerned about them reserving the right to change the itinerary and flights - hoping this would only be done in the event that it is necessary in order to assure timely arrival at the ship.

We have been able to choose our seats using Royal's Choice Air. When you book with Choice Air, you will get the airline's confirmation number. Use that on the airline's website to choose seats.

[tidygirl]

We used Choice in Sept our flights were with American and United we were able to pick our seats (that was important to me as we had 5 travelling together) I am not sure about some of the other airlines it seemed like they may charge to prebook?

I am also checking again for next Sept but the cheaper flights are through KLM and not sure about the Booking seats with them.

Flighst seem to be atleast $200 cheaper than booking directly with them, and last year after faithfully watching they dropped $400 over any travel site.

I guess we were fortunate we had no major issues just a few short delays which would have happened no matter if you booked with Choice or with the airline.

[Clarea]

We used Choice in Sept our flights were with American and United we were able to pick our seats (that was important to me as we had 5 travelling together) I am not sure about some of the other airlines it seemed like they may charge to prebook?

I am also checking again for next Sept but the cheaper flights are through KLM and not sure about the Booking seats with them.

Flighst seem to be atleast $200 cheaper than booking directly with them, and last year after faithfully watching they dropped $400 over any travel site.

I guess we were fortunate we had no major issues just a few short delays which would have happened no matter if you booked with Choice or with the airline.

True, some airlines have different policies about booking seats. We booked a British Airways flight using Choice Air and could not select seats. There was something about the type of ticket that Choice Air purchased from BA that prevented us (even with the option of paying a fee) from selecting seats in advance.

[trev71]

I found it more expeinsve then just booking direct with Delta. So we just booked direct with delta airlines. Still to this day its still the cheapest. Depsite Jet Blue being about 40$ cheaper a person the hours we get in was late at night and delta was early afternoon, for sure worth the extra 40$ to get to check out San Juan a bit more

[Clarea]

I found it more expeinsve then just booking direct with Delta. So we just booked direct with delta airlines. Still to this day its still the cheapest. Depsite Jet Blue being about 40$ cheaper a person the hours we get in was late at night and delta was early afternoon, for sure worth the extra 40$ to get to check out San Juan a bit more

Choice Air is usually more expensive than the airline's websites for domestic air travel.

[dagadget]

We have booked a cruise from Vancouver in May and we live in Florida then have a cruise tour and will fly out of Fairbanks does anyone have any examples to relate so I can make a good choice on using Choice air or not?

[Clarea]

We have booked a cruise from Vancouver in May and we live in Florida then have a cruise tour and will fly out of Fairbanks does anyone have any examples to relate so I can make a good choice on using Choice air or not?

You can see for yourself. Just go to http://www.choiceair.com and choose Quick Flight Search Only. Enter your desired flight into to get prices. Then compare the prices to airline websites.

Edited November 29, 2014 by clarea

[lizstas]

I believe Choice Air fee is reduced if you are diamond or above

[wacruiser77]

Choice Air worked well for us to Europe. Less for domestic but I always check. Just got an great fare for Primcess via Ezy Air fwiw.

 

 

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[zeridan]

I believe Choice Air fee is reduced if you are diamond or above

 

No longer true, as I covered earlier in the post. That was for Choice Air Plus (what it is called when you call ChoiceAir directly, usually for complex itineraries). That service is now free to everyone.

 

The $30 fee included in your transaction, no matter how you book, is applied equally to all Crown and Anchor levels.