Fights by Celebrity seats together

[nicky6425]

I can get great prices on my flights from PHL to FCO, and BCN to PHL for the Beyond cruise 5/26/22....but I have been told I cannot get seats assigned until I make the final cruise payment 90 days out  because it is  foreign carrier  British Air on my return flight.  I was able to get seats on the AA flight to Rome. If I cancel once they are ticketed I will pay $200. fee. Has anyone had experience regarding seats together on Celebrity Air programs, or any advise? Thanks so much.

[jelayne]

Whether or not you can get seats assigned before the final payment varies by airline.  

 I haven't flown BA  in a few years but my experience has been with Business Class tickets and we were not able to select seats until 24 hrs before the flight (7 days if we were at a high level in their loyalty program) unless we paid extra for early seat assignments.  

 

 

[emmas gran]

With BA we had to pay about $100 to select our business seats on a flight to LAX about 5 years ago, I think you have to wait till check in otherwise.

[drowelf]

As with all the various cruise line flight programs, the ability to select seats is controlled by the airlines themselves. Celebrity has no control. Some let you select when the reservation is made, others you have to wait until they actually ticket the flight and still others make you wait until you actually check-in for your flight. Of course this all can be affected by your status with said airline or by paying extra fees. 

[C-Dragons]

1 hour ago, emmas gran said:

With BA we had to pay about $100 to select our business seats on a flight to LAX about 5 years ago, I think you have to wait till check in otherwise.

We just booked and paid for seats today for a BA flight for a cruise in the Fall.

Get ready for sticker shock! I was expecting to pay something close to what you quoted and could not believe how much they were charging. I've never paid that much in the last 10 years. I guess they're  trying to recoup $$$ they lost due to the Pandemic.

Edited December 1, 2021 by C-Dragons

[canderson]

26 minutes ago, C-Dragons said:

We just booked and paid for seats today for a BA flight for a cruise in the Fall.

Get ready for sticker shock! I was expecting to pay something close to what you quoted and could not believe how much they were charging. I've never paid that much in the last 10 years. I guess they're  trying to recoup $$$ they lost due to the Pandemic.

Yup, pretty ugly.  I checked this morning for 1 way Polaris class DEN to BCN on UA for next October ... $3319 per seat if no miles thrown at it.

[Jim_Iain]

I would go to the airline site and see if you can get a seat.    I have a couple reservations for April 2022 not paid for yet and have been able to select seats on Delta and United. 

 

On Delta I can access by putting in the Record Locator and reserve seats but the Reservation doesn't yet stay attached to my frequent flyer number until final payment.

[hrhdhd]

29 minutes ago, canderson said:

Yup, pretty ugly.  I checked this morning for 1 way Polaris class DEN to BCN on UA for next October ... $3319 per seat if no miles thrown at it.

Wow. I got RT to Rome in business class for about $2200 last night via Celebrity air. (Flights in Aug/Sept.)

Edited December 2, 2021 by hrhdhd

[canderson]

33 minutes ago, hrhdhd said:

Wow. I got RT to Rome in business class for about $2200 last night via Celebrity air. (Flights in Aug/Sept.)

I will definitely be checking with Celebrity - always do for TA cruises.  They usually offer good consolidator fares for 1 way flights that the airline can't touch.  I expect they'll be a lot better than $3319!  Then again, we're in Denver, not on one of the coasts, so we're always paying more.  So comparison to your $2200 isn't really possible, seeing as you seem to be from "Nunya, Business"!

[canderson]

Ugh.  I take back what I said.  No improvement with Celebrity's online site.  Will have to give them a call to see if they can improve on this.  $3430 (not $3319 as I recalled) with United, $3425 with Celebrity.  Identical flights.

 

 

 

[Jim_Iain]

Canderson -  Try https://www.google.com/flights  and see what they show.   I've been booking airlines direct at lower than Celebrity lately.  

[koolforkatz]

3 hours ago, nicky6425 said:

I can get great prices on my flights from PHL to FCO, and BCN to PHL for the Beyond cruise 5/26/22....but I have been told I cannot get seats assigned until I make the final cruise payment 90 days out  because it is  foreign carrier  British Air on my return flight.  I was able to get seats on the AA flight to Rome. If I cancel once they are ticketed I will pay $200. fee. Has anyone had experience regarding seats together on Celebrity Air programs, or any advise? Thanks so much.

 

I have a Beyond sailing in June, YVR to BCN and FCO to YVR and booked through Celebrity Air. My flights are both with British Air and I was able to get seats assigned for both segments.  I emailed Celebrity Air and asked for the record locator number and then was able to pick my seats on BA's website. No charge. 

[canderson]

4 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

Canderson -  Try https://www.google.com/flights  and see what they show.   I've been booking airlines direct at lower than Celebrity lately.  

Nope.  $3424 there for the same flight.  Doesn't look like any discounting going on yet for Polaris class type flights.

[jelayne]

I have found the same thing, 1 way fares to Europe with Celebrity Air are the same as booking with the airline.  Tried using AA miles but only reasonable mile options  are on  BA with high tax & fees, plus charge to pick seats.  Add the current requirement to get another Covid test when connecting in Heathrow we ruled out BA.

[BennyBrun]

I would just add to consider cancellation insurance and ask about cancellation policies with the ongoing pandemic/ endemic prepare for the unexpected.

[CyberTag]

4 hours ago, koolforkatz said:

 

I have a Beyond sailing in June, YVR to BCN and FCO to YVR and booked through Celebrity Air. My flights are both with British Air and I was able to get seats assigned for both segments.  I emailed Celebrity Air and asked for the record locator number and then was able to pick my seats on BA's website. No charge. 

How did you get seats on your BA flight?  We just booked through Celebrity for a June cruise, but was told seat assignments aren’t available until 24 hours before departure.  Did you do economy?  We are flying from SFO.  

[koolforkatz]

15 minutes ago, CyberTag said:

How did you get seats on your BA flight?  We just booked through Celebrity for a June cruise, but was told seat assignments aren’t available until 24 hours before departure.  Did you do economy?  We are flying from SFO.  

We did premium economy. After I booked flights I emailed Celebrity Air and asked for the record locator number for the flights. They emailed it together with my flight confirmation. I then just went on the BA website and was able to access my booking with the record locator number and book seats. It was very straight forward. 

[terrydtx]

14 hours ago, emmas gran said:

With BA we had to pay about $100 to select our business seats on a flight to LAX about 5 years ago, I think you have to wait till check in otherwise.

This is why we refuse to fly BA, we had them for a flight from DFW to Heathrow  to Barcelona for our canceled Infinity cruise. After we booked with CA I went to the BA website and paid $150 each to pick our business class seats. When the cruise was canceled after final payment we got our $6600 back for the air, but BA refused to refund the $300 charge to pick our seats, saying it was non-refundable.  I even tried to get the fees back on my Amex card with no success.  My advise is never fly BA.

 

BTW, we have always been able to go to any other airline's website we have flown with through CA and HAL Flight Ease and pre pick seating. These include, Delta, American, United, SAS and Lufthansa. 

Edited December 2, 2021 by terrydtx

[hrhdhd]

8 hours ago, koolforkatz said:

We did premium economy. After I booked flights I emailed Celebrity Air and asked for the record locator number for the flights. They emailed it together with my flight confirmation. I then just went on the BA website and was able to access my booking with the record locator number and book seats. It was very straight forward. 

I can probably find this, but what's the e-mail for Celebrity Air? My confirmation has what looks like record locators, but the airline pages said nope.

[C-Dragons]

14 hours ago, canderson said:

Yup, pretty ugly.  I checked this morning for 1 way Polaris class DEN to BCN on UA for next October ... $3319 per seat if no miles thrown at it.

Wow, that's insane! We normally fly First across the pond, seat assignments are free for that segment and we pay for Business on the connecting flight. This year there were no flights offering First, only Business class, on both AA and BA, so we booked Business and had to pay for advance seat assignments on both flights. The connecting flight prices were reasonable but the price for the TA flight was, as you say, pretty ugly. We booked the flights with FF miles so that helped.

[Cookie002]

18 hours ago, nicky6425 said:

I can get great prices on my flights from PHL to FCO, and BCN to PHL for the Beyond cruise 5/26/22....but I have been told I cannot get seats assigned until I make the final cruise payment 90 days out  because it is  foreign carrier  British Air on my return flight.  I was able to get seats on the AA flight to Rome. If I cancel once they are ticketed I will pay $200. fee. Has anyone had experience regarding seats together on Celebrity Air programs, or any advise? Thanks so much.

Hey! That’s our cruise! Hope you join the roll call!

alison

[Jim_Iain]

14 hours ago, canderson said:

Nope.  $3424 there for the same flight.  Doesn't look like any discounting going on yet for Polaris class type flights.

I also found that if you try a day or two earlier could also affect rates as well as different airports.    I am lucky that I have 3 airport local but have also got a great rate by booking out of LA instead of SFO and then buying a cheap ticket separately for that let.

 

Finally,  depending on how far out your flight is you may find better rates at 30-60 days from flight time. 

[koolforkatz]

1 hour ago, hrhdhd said:

I can probably find this, but what's the e-mail for Celebrity Air? My confirmation has what looks like record locators, but the airline pages said nope.

 

Hi - the email I used was reservationcelebrity@celebrity.com  Also, for what it's worth, my flights were directly with BA, not AA using BA planes.

[Bo1953]

9 hours ago, LGW59 said:

Seems like a scam 

... or self promotion???

 

bon voyage

[terrydtx]

15 hours ago, canderson said:

Nope.  $3424 there for the same flight.  Doesn't look like any discounting going on yet for Polaris class type flights.

We have a HAL cruise RT from Venice for next August with an Oceania pre cruise from Copenhagen to Stockholm. I used HAL flight ease to book from San Antonio to Copenhagen and back from Venice, we booked all flights on United Polaris business class for $3071pp which I thought was good. We booked this in early October and now the same flights are $3800pp.