Sixty days or 75 days?

[Frncie]

We are booked on a Splendor cruise in Europe for early May 2022. This is one of several cruises where the final payment date was moved from 6 months out to 60 days. So our final payment date is now in March. We plan on using Regent air. I see the usual airline booking routine begins 75 days before the cruise, in this case, some time in February. 
 

I am wondering whether we will still be able to choose our included flights if we haven’t yet made that final payment. If not, I think I’d be willing to make that final payment early just to get the matter settled. 
 

Some of these policy changes are fairly recent. Does anyone have any experience with this?

[LvnCruisin]

We are booked on Explorer at the end of April, our final payment is due mid February. We contacted our TA on Friday to see if we could still use Regent air and deviate the flights, which we did for $350 - we picked our airline and our seats. The only thing that changed is we will not have Regent get us from the airport to our hotel (we will still be booking the same hotel that Regent uses anyway). The savings from using Regent air to what we could book ourselves is several thousand, we can easily get ourselves to the hotel for less.

[1982CruzStart]

You can deviate(or guarantee) your flights at 270 days before embarkation day. You do not need to make final payment to do this.   If you want to have a say in the airline you fly and the route then you may want to pay the $175 pp fee to do so. You contact your TA or if booked directly with Regent, you contact Regent Air. If you are booked with a TA you can't deal directly with Regent Air unless your TA agrees to release your booking to Regent Air for the negotiation of the flights. 

Once contacted Regent Air will offer flights,  if they are not what you want you can make requests. You don't pay the fee until you agree to the flights.  You don't always get the airline or the exact route you want if Regent doesn't have contracts with that airline or on that route, but with luck you can find something that works for you. 

We always deviate, one reason is we always go to the port at least 1 day early and second reason we always want a say in the airline, route and seats.  

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Yes, you can deviate long before, but the question is, will Regent start assigning regular flights at 75 days, or at 60?  Good question, don't know the answer.  

 

(I also almost always deviate, because I like to choose my own flights, and I like to get to the embarkation port at least a day or so before the cruise.)

[SusieQft]

21 hours ago, LvnCruisin said:

We are booked on Explorer at the end of April, our final payment is due mid February. We contacted our TA on Friday to see if we could still use Regent air and deviate the flights, which we did for $350 - we picked our airline and our seats. The only thing that changed is we will not have Regent get us from the airport to our hotel (we will still be booking the same hotel that Regent uses anyway). The savings from using Regent air to what we could book ourselves is several thousand, we can easily get ourselves to the hotel for less.

If you deviate you lose the Regent transfer?  Is that because you changed the travel date, or do you always lose the transfer?

[rallydave]

6 minutes ago, SusieQft said:

If you deviate you lose the Regent transfer?  Is that because you changed the travel date, or do you always lose the transfer?

Not completely sure but, generally you lose the transfer because you are coming or going on a different day than embarkation or disembarkation.   Believe if you don't change the normal arrival or disembarkation date see no reason why you would not get the included transfers.  Seems logical.  Hope someone can confirm or deny this.

[Pcardad]

You lose the transfer if you do not buy both ends of the transfer from Regent.

 

Example - if you buy the airfare directly you do not get the transfer to the hotel. But, if you use Regent's hotel, you get the transfer from the hotel to the ship. If you buy the airfare from Regent but extend the hotel stay and do NOT buy that from Regent, you do not get the transfer to the hotel from the airport.

 

Make sense?

Edited January 27, 2022 by Pcardad

[rallydave]

33 minutes ago, Pcardad said:

Make sense?

The question was about deviating so using Regent Air.  If coming and going on the same date as the cruise should be no reason to not get transfers.  Arriving early or leaving later for sure no transfers.

[Pcardad]

3 minutes ago, rallydave said:

The question was about deviating so using Regent Air.  If coming and going on the same date as the cruise should be no reason to not get transfers.  Arriving early or leaving later for sure no transfers.

I was sharing the entire policy for the benefit of all.

[rallydave]

43 minutes ago, Pcardad said:

You lose the transfer if you do not buy both ends of the transfer from Regent.

Well, the above is why I was confused.  Believe you made a typo using transfer twice and believe you meant   "you lose the transfer if you do not buy both ends of the flight from Regent"

 

Losing the transfer if not buying the transfer does not make sense.   Hopefully just a typo.

[LvnCruisin]

We are both coming and going with extra days on each side, so no transfer to the hotel, we will still get the transfer to the boat. Like I said it is a very small price to pay for an extended time on both sides. Personally I thought we were too close to our sail date to get Regent Air (less than 90 days at the time), so it was a pleasant surprise, it never hurts to ask.

[Pcardad]

8 minutes ago, rallydave said:

Well, the above is why I was confused.  Believe you made a typo using transfer twice and believe you meant   "you lose the transfer if you do not buy both ends of the flight from Regent"

 

Losing the transfer if not buying the transfer does not make sense.   Hopefully just a typo.

No - that's what I meant.

 

There are 2 possible transfers being discussed. Transfer A is from the airport to the hotel. Transfer B is from the hotel to the ship. 

 

If you take Regent air and there is no hotel stay then you only need transfer B and Regent provides it. If you buy your own air and there is no hotel, Regent does not cover the transfer as you have not bought both ends from Regent...you have only bought the cruise.

 

Same for Transfer A - if you buy Regent air and go to the Regent provided hotel for the 1 free night than you get both transfers. If you buy Regent air and stay a few extra nights, in addition to the 1 free night, at the Regent hotel, you only get the transfer from the hotel to the ship. To get both transfers in this scenario, you would have to buy all the additional hotel nights from Regent.

[Pcardad]

2 minutes ago, LvnCruisin said:

We are both coming and going with extra days on each side, so no transfer to the hotel, we will still get the transfer to the boat. Like I said it is a very small price to pay for an extended time on both sides. Personally I thought we were too close to our sail date to get Regent Air (less than 90 days at the time), so it was a pleasant surprise, it never hurts to ask.

You can actually fly with Regent air out to 30 days from the start/end dates of the cruise.

[daetchief]

Simply put:  It you are under the Regent 'umbrella' of business - You're Covered.

If you arrange to arrive 2 or even 3 days before your cruise and you are booking your hotel through Regent at the Regent offered hotel;  there will be at least one maybe two SMS greeters to welcome you and ensure you get to the hotel.  Been there - saw it first hand.     

Likewise: if after your cruise you book an post cruise hotel stay at the Regent advertised hotel, there will be a car/van/bus to transfer you to the hotel and after those days of play, a similar vehicle will be waiting to take you to the airport.   

Deviate from that and you are saying "I got this, I don't need any accommodations from Regent."

[mj_holiday]

Totally agree with  daetchief. While people often say it is too expensive to stay in a Regent arranged hotel, there are reasons to do just that. 
Our cruise that was to start in Tokyo in April (now canceled) had enough “iffy “ and new about it that we wanted it all to be under Regent purview. We deviated and had a great flight in a day early. And a transfer to the Regent hotel etc. 

When the cruise got canceled, our TA and Regent took care of everything except our flight home . We had booked our flight from SFO (where we debarked) home and my responsibility to take care of. 
It was worth the extra cost of a Regent hotel, flight etc in this part of the world (totally new to us) and with Covid.  

[SWFLAOK]

On our first Regent Cruise, we paid for a deviation on the back end of our cruise since we were staying an extra week in Alaska to visit relatives. On the front end, we did not pay for a deviation, and were given a flight from Fort Lauderdale to Atlanta to Vancouver that had only 40 minutes in between at Atlanta, and showed a different terminal for the second flight. We would never have booked that flight on our own, and felt very uncomfortable with it. Once onboard,  our flight attendant told us they would be the crew all the way to Vancouver, so we didn't need to worry. We booked our own hotel room at the port in Vancouver since many posts that we had read said that the Regent hotel rates were too expensive. We had to pay 40 dollars plus tip for a taxi since the half filled Regent bus headed to the same intersection would not take us there. We paid 400 dollars for our hotel room at the port, but were upgraded to an 880 square foot Bay View suite. It was the best hotel room we've ever stayed in. And we had valet service for our luggage to the ship, as well as a great breakfast included.

But all of our Regent cruises since then have been booked in Concierge suites to get the pre hotel and transfers, and we've always taken the Regent flights (that's one of the things we like most about Regent). When adding extra hotel nights, we really don't want to pay for some of the hotels that Regent offers. For example, the Fairmont Rey Juan Carlos in Barcelona is not close enough to Barcelona to be worth the cost. It was included in one of our concierge level cruises. A shuttle bus was provided to La Rambla, but it's about 20 minutes to the bus dropoff/pickup which was very crowded, so there's no telling how long you'll need to wait for the bus to be able to pull in.

On other cruises, the hotels that Regent has used were very well located (Singapore , Sydney, Bangkok) and would be worth paying for at their rate.

[rallydave]

4 minutes ago, SWFLAOK said:

On our first Regent Cruise, we paid for a deviation on the back end of our cruise since we were staying an extra week in Alaska to visit relatives. On the front end, we did not pay for a deviation, and were given a flight from Fort Lauderdale to Atlanta to Vancouver that had only 40 minutes in between at Atlanta, and showed a different terminal for the second flight.

FYI, Next time when you deviate request flights you want both ways since the deviation charge of $175 PP covers both ways even if you don't come in early or head home later.  This would have solved your 40 minute connection at ATL.

[SWFLAOK]

Thanks for pointing that out Dave. On our subsequent Regent cruises, we've always paid the extra 175 pp so that we have more control over our flights. We feel that it's worthwhile, compared to the total cost of the cruise, since it eliminates one source of worry.