ChoiceAir?

[Mackdogmolly]

Does anyone know if Azamara will continue with ChoiceAir? It’s still on their website with the ability to book, but don’t know if this is in error. Wish we had an active Blogging Officer!

Betsey

[wjfan417]

43 minutes ago, Mackdogmolly said:

Does anyone know if Azamara will continue with ChoiceAir? It’s still on their website with the ability to book, but don’t know if this is in error. Wish we had an active Blogging Officer!

Betsey

I booked it yesterday.

[Rabo]

I booked our flights last week using ChoiceAir for our February ’22 cruise. I was surprised that the flights were available, as the last flight is more than 330 days out.

Edited March 24, 2021 by Rabo

[Mackdogmolly]

Good to hear! I am going to wait a bit to book my November 2021 flights. Want to make sure the cruise isn’t canceled. It took me forever to get a refund last time I booked and cruise was cancelled. And these will be pricey flights.

[ShopperfiendTO]

That's an interesting issue you've raised: How will Azamara handle air once the sale is finalized? 

 

I assume that ChoiceAir will no longer be an option, so does that mean specific pricing from Az only, instead of the bulk buying power of the RCL group?

[Mackdogmolly]

32 minutes ago, ShopperfiendTO said:

That's an interesting issue you've raised: How will Azamara handle air once the sale is finalized? 

 

I assume that ChoiceAir will no longer be an option, so does that mean specific pricing from Az only, instead of the bulk buying power of the RCL group?

I believe the sale has been finalized.

[luv2travel90266]

4 hours ago, Rabo said:

I booked our flights last week using ChoiceAir for our February ’22 cruise. I was surprised that the flights were available, as the last flight is more than 330 days out.

I have a Feb 22 cruise too in Australia and NZ. I haven't previously used Choice Air. In the event the cruise is cancelled is the air refunded or do I have to pay extra for refundable tickets? I have been watching the business fares and they are extremely high. I thought I would wait till June or July to see where they settle. I also suspect flights to be added as we come out of the pandemic. 

 

I have been cancelled on 3 cruises so am a bit bruised in dealing with trying to get refunds on my own. 

[laurieb]

I don't know why Azamara wouldn't create a flight program of it's own if Choice Air stopped; I think you're safe to book it.  If we didn't have the more complicated air that we have for October I would have looked at using it

[laurieb]

2 minutes ago, luv2travel90266 said:

I have a Feb 22 cruise too in Australia and NZ. I haven't previously used Choice Air. In the event the cruise is cancelled is the air refunded or do I have to pay extra for refundable tickets? I have been watching the business fares and they are extremely high. I thought I would wait till June or July to see where they settle. I also suspect flights to be added as we come out of the pandemic. 

 

I have been cancelled on 3 cruises so am a bit bruised in dealing with trying to get refunds on my own. 

I'm sure that once the country opens up that there will be more and more flights

[luv2travel90266]

FYI the sale is now finalized and Sycamore owns the line.

 

https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/sycamore-completes-purchase-of-azamara-and-fourth-cruise-ship#:~:text=Royal Caribbean Group has completed,%2C retail%2C and distribution investments.

[uktog]

You never know, sometimes these days smaller niche operations get better prices than large conglomerates where the pricing risk can be higher 

[Aardvaark]

20 hours ago, Mackdogmolly said:

Does anyone know if Azamara will continue with ChoiceAir? It’s still on their website with the ability to book, but don’t know if this is in error. Wish we had an active Blogging Officer!

Betsey

I certainly hope they do continue the relationship, or an equivalent.  ChoiceAir changed our reservations homeward several times as our virus-cruise found one port after another closed to us.  We had a great trip home, while those who had done their own arrangements were scrambling to find new bookings.

[Mackdogmolly]

14 hours ago, luv2travel90266 said:

I have a Feb 22 cruise too in Australia and NZ. I haven't previously used Choice Air. In the event the cruise is cancelled is the air refunded or do I have to pay extra for refundable tickets? I have been watching the business fares and they are extremely high. I thought I would wait till June or July to see where they settle. I also suspect flights to be added as we come out of the pandemic. 

 

I have been cancelled on 3 cruises so am a bit bruised in dealing with trying to get refunds on my own. 

If your cruise is canceled, you can get a refund of your tickets booked with ChoiceAir 

Edited March 25, 2021 by Mackdogmolly

[luv2travel90266]

Went on Choice Air and  Azamara is still listed. At this time they don't offer non-stops from LAX to down under and back however  playing with GoogleFlightsI see that a few weeks before the trip American Air and Quantas both fly non-stops. Waiting till the air lines list there flights thru late Feb 2022 to accommodate our  trip schedule. Thanks for the feedback

[eggcream3]

this is what I posted last week.  There is NO information coming from Azamara on items such as Choice Air.  All we received since the purchase was some information on the loyalty program and a confusing announcement about Tony Marky (the memo says one thing and Tony says something else about his new position).   

[Mackdogmolly]

3 hours ago, eggcream3 said:

this is what I posted last week.  There is NO information coming from Azamara on items such as Choice Air.  All we received since the purchase was some information on the loyalty program and a confusing announcement about Tony Marky (the memo says one thing and Tony says something else about his new position).   

Not sure I understand. ChoiceAir is still on the Azamara website and seems to be processing reservations.

[eggcream3]

i was able to book air for feb 5 cruise from  auckland thru choice air the other day.  the good part about choice air under the current conditions if the cruise is going to happen is that payment for the air is not due until full payment for the cruise is do. so if the cruise is cancelled before full payment the flight is cancelled and there is no charge 

[Mackdogmolly]

2 hours ago, eggcream3 said:

i was able to book air for feb 5 cruise from  auckland thru choice air the other day.  the good part about choice air under the current conditions if the cruise is going to happen is that payment for the air is not due until full payment for the cruise is do. so if the cruise is cancelled before full payment the flight is cancelled and there is no charge 

I don’t remember this, but good news. I looked into flights through them for my November cruise, but although a bit cheaper than other flights I had found, the itinerary they came up with had us flying from the east coast west to Toronto before heading east again to Europe. Ugh. And right now the Canadian border is closed, so really complicated and convoluted.

[luv2travel90266]

If I understand Choice Air will allow us to book air and if the cruise cancels we get full refunds? I thought that was only if we bought tickets that were "cancellable". The difference for business class for my next rip might be an additional $2,000/ ticket for cancelable tickets  hence I haven't been anxious to book when  ships aren't cruising. 

[hiccups]

About six weeks ago I priced tickets for a January 2022 South American cruise, but because my husband was still kind of iffy if he wanted to travel to South America then, I didn't book them.  I checked last week and the business class ticket price jumped over $900 PP--Choice Air is now actually a little more expensive than booking directly with the airline.  Of course, we have the cancellation option with Choice Air.  I don't know if the higher price is a result of the sale, or just normal air fare fluctuations.

We thought about switching to another cruise, but prices are so high for 2022-23 that we may end up just cancelling and losing our deposit.

[crzrr]

We booked with Choice Air last week for our Feb. 2022 cruise.  They are only booking refundable tickets right now due to the uncertainty around cruises.  Even though the flight combination I wanted wasn't showing up on their website, I called and requested the flights that I wanted.  They were able to book those at the same price as the airline.  I was also able to get my seat assignments.  Payment for the flights is due at the same time as my final cruise payment in October.  Normally we would book our flights using miles, but given all of the uncertainty, this seemed like a great way to do it.  

 

[jelayne]

We have been booking our flights using miles as currently American is not charging a fee to reinstate miles if you cancel your flight.  We have cancelled 2 flights and are about to cancel a 3rd.

[Mackdogmolly]

48 minutes ago, jelayne said:

We have been booking our flights using miles as currently American is not charging a fee to reinstate miles if you cancel your flight.  We have cancelled 2 flights and are about to cancel a 3rd.

Oh, that is very good news! I may now look into that option.

[gnld]

On 3/25/2021 at 7:50 AM, luv2travel90266 said:

Went on Choice Air and  Azamara is still listed. At this time they don't offer non-stops from LAX to down under and back however  playing with GoogleFlightsI see that a few weeks before the trip American Air and Quantas both fly non-stops. Waiting till the air lines list there flights thru late Feb 2022 to accommodate our  trip schedule. Thanks for the feedback

We did a month in Australia 6 years ago on our own. Looked a business air LAX-Sydney on Qantas -- $8000r/t. Woof! Wound up booking Fiji Air 1-stop business class for half that!

[luv2travel90266]

I saw that. You have heard the saying a happy wife is a happy life? 😂