Flights changed now arriving at 2pm using Flights by Celebrity

[yvrbos]

So Delta just rescheduled me to a flight that has me arriving in at 2pm. Much too close for my comfort. I used Flights by Celebrity for my air and I am past final payment. My TA called and then said they could book me into the day before but it would take a week to get it approved. Does this sound reasonable? Or should I call again. I don’t leave until Nov 12th. Has anyone rescheduled their flights after final payment?

 

Thanks for your answers

[DCPIV]

Reasonable or not, flights are getting changed and cancelled all the time.  There's nothing Celebrity can do about it.  I'd take the flight that comes in the day before if I were able to do so.

[Mr. Click]

Taking a week to do it is not reasonable.  I would call again and push getting it down now and then follow up to make sure someone really did do it and not just "Yupping" you.   Schedules are always changing, even more so now than in the past so this is a good reminder to everyone to always check the schedules and do not rely on TAs or airlines to update you.  

[cruisestitch]

Where?

[roysue]

9 minutes ago, Mr. Click said:

Taking a week to do it is not reasonable.  I would call again and push getting it down now and then follow up to make sure someone really did do it and not just "Yupping" you.   Schedules are always changing, even more so now than in the past so this is a good reminder to everyone to always check the schedules and do not rely on TAs or airlines to update you.  

I had this exact situation happen to me. I tried to change through FBC and they were unhelpful and downright  rude.  They said it would have to be sent to Delta and could take 4-6 weeks.  I was very disappointed.  I kept the flight they reassigned me even though I wasn't happy.  The FBC agent told me if I wanted flexibility in the future, I should book directly with the airline.

Sue

[Nancycat]

Similar thing happened to me with FBC, our flight from Florida to Newark was in the afternoon in the summer, with only an 1hr and 10 minute layover.before out flight to Paris.

there was an earlier flight out of Florida, but they refused to change it I fought it for weeks.

so, our flight from Florida was delayed, due to thunderstorms,we missed our Paris flight and spent the night in a hotel in Newark!!!

Never Again 

[CHEZMARYLOU]

I've seen so many posts about disappointing bookings and changes when booking FBC I would never do it.

[cruiserchuck]

I have a non-cruise related flight scheduled with Delta.  I get an email about once a month informing me of flight changes.  So the flight changes have nothing to do with FBC.  

[BEAV]

Keep in mind that if/when you get the flight changed, the new schedule may very well change again between now and November. Airlines are constantly changing, canceling, rescheduling flights as they work around the shortage of employees, etc. 

[Mr. Click]

1 hour ago, cruiserchuck said:

I have a non-cruise related flight scheduled with Delta.  I get an email about once a month informing me of flight changes.  So the flight changes have nothing to do with FBC.  

The changes are made by the airlines and sometimes the airlines to send out emails or texts and sometimes they don't so it is up to us to be vigilant.   If you book through FBC or any other TA they technically own the reservation so only they can intercede with the airline.  There is no reason for it to take more than an hour to fix it.  The more I read about FBC the more likely I am to just book directly with the airline so I have some control over the changes.

[_Rick_]

2 hours ago, roysue said:

The FBC agent told me if I wanted flexibility in the future, I should book directly with the airline.

The more you can do to minimize your exposure of your travel plans to Celebrity's inept and inflexible 'customer service', the better.

Edited August 25, 2022 by _Rick_

[roysue]

44 minutes ago, _Rick_ said:

The more you can do to minimize your exposure of your travel plans to Celebrity's inept and inflexible 'customer service', the better.

Agreed!

[Virginia100]

I check my flights daily for my November and February cruises, the flights changed numbers for my February flight to FLL but not the times! But my original seat assignments were wiped out and  I needed to assign new ones on the airline app. 

[RichYak]

29 minutes ago, Virginia100 said:

I check my flights daily for my November and February cruises, the flights changed numbers for my February flight to FLL but not the times! But my original seat assignments were wiped out and  I needed to assign new ones on the airline app. 

Probably an equipment change.

[Host Anne]

I've only used FBC once about four years ago.  After my flight was booked, I worked directly with Delta after that.  Things may have changed since then but I had complete control of my Delta flights once they were booked.  Have you tried calling Delta direct?  Hold times can be long right now unless you call early in the morning (or late at night but I much prefer the folks working the phone lines early in the morning).  

 

Good luck....we have had lots of flights changed in the past four months.  It's a sad reality.  I often check my flights multiple times each week as we have both business and personal flights to follow.  

 

 

[jelayne]

A week to get 

4 hours ago, yvrbos said:

So Delta just rescheduled me to a flight that has me arriving in at 2pm. Much too close for my comfort. I used Flights by Celebrity for my air and I am past final payment. My TA called and then said they could book me into the day before but it would take a week to get it approved. Does this sound reasonable? Or should I call again. I don’t leave until Nov 12th. Has anyone rescheduled their flights after final payment?

 

Thanks for your answers

A week to get a change approved is not unreasonable in our experience.  There are so many cancellationsvand changes and FBC have no control over  what flight the airline assigns you to.  So they can request a different flight but they can’t control how fast that request will be responded to, so say a week and if it is 4 days that’s  a plus.

We recently requested a change of flights on a connecting flight, booked with One World miles, not thru FBC, and we’re told a week; it tool 3 days but it was changed.

[bdstickks0944]

1 hour ago, _Rick_ said:

The more you can do to minimize your exposure of your travel plans to Celebrity's inept and inflexible 'customer service', the better.

Nothing like trashing a good cruise line.  FYI, book through a travel agent, and you will never have to call customer service 

[bdstickks0944]

4 hours ago, yvrbos said:

So Delta just rescheduled me to a flight that has me arriving in at 2pm. Much too close for my comfort. I used Flights by Celebrity for my air and I am past final payment. My TA called and then said they could book me into the day before but it would take a week to get it approved. Does this sound reasonable? Or should I call again. I don’t leave until Nov 12th. Has anyone rescheduled their flights after final payment?

 

Thanks for your answers

Depending on where the cruise is going out of, good rule of thumb is to get there at least a day early. 

[sbcs5390]

United changed my return flight from LA meaning we'd no longer be able to do Celebrity's tour of LA that we wanted to do - they put us on an earlier flight that is before the cutoff for being on the tour. I asked FBC to ask United to make an adjustment to the departure flight - so I'd get to LA earlier and be able to tour on my own then before the cruise - and they said the same thing about timing. Well, actually, first person said 72 hours, then later it was a week. Meanwhile, my Mom decided to join me on the cruise and I didn't want the prices to keep going up on her flights while she waited to learn my destiny. FBC was telling me not to even trust the return flight change being accurate for me, even though I could log into United's site and see the change having been made! Because I have status with United, I decided to just call them directly. They told me that definitely what Celebrity said about the return flight maybe not being accurate was untrue, it was safe to book my Mom on the same flight. They also went ahead and made the change for me on the departing flight gratis. It was, they said, a special approval since technical Celebrity was supposed to be the one doing it. Give it a shot especially if you have airline status. 

[Tealing]

We booked our flights with FBC,  Toronto to Fort Lauderdale, direct both ways by Air Canada. Out leg was changed from 8:30 am to 6:30 am., not too much of an issue as we are spending two days in Fort Lauderdale before the cruise. However, the return flight was changed accordingly from 12:30 pm to 11:15 am which is now out with the parameters of Air Canada’s wiggle room for cruise passengers.

Our return flight was changed to 12:39 pm with a 45 minute layover in Chicago which I am not very comfortable with. I asked FBC to try and change it back to our original flight but one week later still waiting for reply from Air Canada.

If we booked direct with Air Canada it would never have been an issue. Normally we book direct but FBC had a better price. Lesson learned.

[mfs2k]

 

My Beyond cruise is departing Bayonne NJ and I live an hour away.

 

After reading this thread, I'm tempted to drive to the port the night before and sleep in my car so I don't miss the ship. 

[bdstickks0944]

2 hours ago, Tealing said:

We booked our flights with FBC,  Toronto to Fort Lauderdale, direct both ways by Air Canada. Out leg was changed from 8:30 am to 6:30 am., not too much of an issue as we are spending two days in Fort Lauderdale before the cruise. However, the return flight was changed accordingly from 12:30 pm to 11:15 am which is now out with the parameters of Air Canada’s wiggle room for cruise passengers.

Our return flight was changed to 12:39 pm with a 45 minute layover in Chicago which I am not very comfortable with. I asked FBC to try and change it back to our original flight but one week later still waiting for reply from Air Canada.

If we booked direct with Air Canada it would never have been an issue. Normally we book direct but FBC had a better price. Lesson learned.

We just booked direct w the airline as we are going to be in FLL two days before the cruise. Both flights direct from DFW. 

[wrk2cruise]

Called Delta last night.  18 minute wait.

[num1crewsfam]

On 8/24/2022 at 5:55 PM, yvrbos said:

So Delta just rescheduled me to a flight that has me arriving in at 2pm. Much too close for my comfort. I used Flights by Celebrity for my air and I am past final payment. My TA called and then said they could book me into the day before but it would take a week to get it approved. Does this sound reasonable? Or should I call again. I don’t leave until Nov 12th. Has anyone rescheduled their flights after final payment?

 

Thanks for your answers

Took Celebrity 6 weeks to change my outbound flights so we wouldn’t miss connection.  We leave September 11th and this was finally resolved two days ago.  From my experience, one week is not enough time and I wouldn’t look for this to be resolved until the end of October.  FWIW, our flights were also Delta.

[yvrbos]

Thanks everyone!