Beware of Flights by Celebrity!

[Charles4515]

11 minutes ago, drakes2 said:

This morning I had to call FBC 4 times. First 2 calls agent had issues with headset could not hear me. Third call agent could not email tickets and fourth agent gave incorrect record locator number. As usual I finally figured it out for myself.  This upcoming cruise in April will be my second time using them so hopefully no snags. Just wish Celebrity woukd train their phone reps. They are actually quite useless. 

FBC is likely contracted out. 

[cachouonacruise]

In my opinion, one the main key positives about using FBC, in addition to have their support when things do not go as planned ( at least, having them as an option) is the ability to book now pay later. This is particularly interesting for people like myself, not buying the most expensive type of fully refundable airfare, allowing me at no cost, to change the airfare (find a better deal) or just to cancel. Direct booking with airlines do not normally offer that option unless you book business or first class. 

 

[Bo1953]

3 hours ago, Tyler414 said:

I used NCL for flights for a NCL cruise and will never use any cruise line for flights, there really was no "problem" other than they choose the worst possible routes and connections.  Got home at 1am the next day, no thanks. 

t4 for our FBC flights, I determined which ones I wanted before booking and made a slight change after getting the pricing...

 

I have yet to experience X to tell me what flights they were putting us on vs telling them what flights we wanted and being accommodated accordingly, if I liked the price.

 

bon voyage

[Traveling Fools]

On 3/1/2023 at 6:54 PM, fstuff1 said:

 

Why are you booking in Sept, which is near last minute?

 

Our cruise departs in Sept 2024...not 2023.  You can't book air any earlier than a year out.

[Bo1953]

On 2/26/2023 at 5:25 PM, Mom2011 said:

I wish I had seen this earlier.  We book with flights by celebrity for our upcoming flight to Rome for a Mediterranean cruise, and have experienced lots of changes as well.  Fingers crossed that we get to and from.  

m2011 are these changes X made or the airline???

 

If airline, there is nothing X can do about it...

 

Just a thought...

 

bon voyage

[Ex-Airbalancer]

OP,  one post and gone 

[drakes2]

11 hours ago, Charles4515 said:

FBC is likely contracted out. 

It appears that way. Celebrity's so called team gave me incorrect record locator numbers on the email I received from them so could not enter flight info into the app. Then I got the tickets from the airline with their own numbers. Celebrity could not explain why the numbers differed. 

[terrydtx]

We had a great experience with FBC this yesterday.  We are flying to Sydney in January for our B2B Edge cruise and wanted to return from Melbourne after we spend 10 days driving in Australia. We found the flights we wanted from San Antonio to Sydney on American Airlines in Premium Economy with just one stop in LAX. We also wanted to fly home from Melbourne on Air New Zealand premium economy through Auckland to Houston and home with 2 stops. Booking 2 different airlines is nearly impossible booking direct. I was able to book online with FBC the exact itinerary we wanted on both airlines. I was not able to go to AA or Air NZ website after booking to choose our seats, so I called FBC this morning and got to choose our seats on all flights that we wanted. It took about 15 minutes to get all of this done with FBC and we saved a lot of money over trying to book ourselves.

[mahdnc]

16 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

We had a great experience with FBC this yesterday.  We are flying to Sydney in January for our B2B Edge cruise and wanted to return from Melbourne after we spend 10 days driving in Australia. We found the flights we wanted from San Antonio to Sydney on American Airlines in Premium Economy with just one stop in LAX. We also wanted to fly home from Melbourne on Air New Zealand premium economy through Auckland to Houston and home with 2 stops. Booking 2 different airlines is nearly impossible booking direct. I was able to book online with FBC the exact itinerary we wanted on both airlines. I was not able to go to AA or Air NZ website after booking to choose our seats, so I called FBC this morning and got to choose our seats on all flights that we wanted. It took about 15 minutes to get all of this done with FBC and we saved a lot of money over trying to book ourselves.

 

If I remember correctly, you usually book business class when you can.  If so, did you book PE because BC was not available or prohibitively expensive?

[terrydtx]

10 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

If I remember correctly, you usually book business class when you can.  If so, did you book PE because BC was not available or prohibitively expensive?

Business class is running well over $11k pp for next January, way out our budget. We are paying $4400pp for the RT PE seats to Australia we just booked with FBC. United flying from Houston direct to Aus. wants over $6000pp RT for Premium Economy. Air New Zealand RT to Aus from Houston is around $5800pp for PE seats.

 

It is not inexpensive to fly to Aus, even main cabin coach seats are over $2200pp

Edited March 22, 2023 by terrydtx

[drakes2]

48 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

Business class is running well over $11k pp for next January, way out our budget. We are paying $4400pp for the RT PE seats to Australia we just booked with FBC. United flying from Houston direct to Aus. wants over $6000pp RT for Premium Economy. Air New Zealand RT to Aus from Houston is around $5800pp for PE seats.

 

It is not inexpensive to fly to Aus, even main cabin coach seats are over $2200pp

Slightly off topic but is FBC not offering non refundable fares any more. I was looking for flights to Rome YYZ to FCO for end September and they were cheaper to book directly as opposed to Celebrity as only option was credit only or fully refundable fares.  

[mahdnc]

41 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

Business class is running well over $11k pp for next January, way out our budget. We are paying $4400pp for the RT PE seats to Australia we just booked with FBC. United flying from Houston direct to Aus. wants over $6000pp RT for Premium Economy. Air New Zealand RT to Aus from Houston is around $5800pp for PE seats.

 

It is not inexpensive to fly to Aus, even main cabin coach seats are over $2200pp

 

Thank you for your reply.  I was asking because I have been shopping for long haul tickets for a couple of trips and have been shocked (and unhappy) with BC fares.

 

In one instance I am securing award seats for our Vietnam cruise on Solstice in Dec (ORD-SIN and HKG-ORD).  Now that United has switched to dynamic pricing for their award seats, the number of miles needed tracks more closely with the actual price.

 

In another case, I may have a business trip to Japan coming up that may involve flying from ORD to ITM (Osaka).

 

In both cases the airfare (miles or dollars) for PE and BC have gone through the roof compared to pre-COVID.  Flying to Hong Kong or Singapore used to be 40k/120k/180k miles for economy, PE, and BC respectively for flights in 2022 (that were never took because the cruise was cancelled).  Now Economy is 100k, PE is 170k and BC is 300k miles.  Sheesh  

 

RT flight to Japan in BC is currently like $16,000!

[Ex-Airbalancer]

26 minutes ago, drakes2 said:

Slightly off topic but is FBC not offering non refundable fares any more. I was looking for flights to Rome YYZ to FCO for end September and they were cheaper to book directly as opposed to Celebrity as only option was credit only or fully refundable fares.  

Found the price on FBC was about same as everyone else , and nothing is cheap for end of October, 

only direct flight was on AC for about $1000, we went with TAP for $620 with one stop 

 

[drakes2]

8 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Found the price on FBC was about same as everyone else , and nothing is cheap for end of October, 

only direct flight was on AC for about $1000, we went with TAP for $620 with one stop 

 

For our cruise September 28th to October 9th FBCs cheapest fare was with Air Transat at $1210 which is exactly the same price as ATs fare which if cancelled offered you a future credit their non refundable fare is $1034 which is not even offered by Celebrity air. Air Canada's fare was $300 more pp which in my opinion  is not worth it.  At least they are both direct flights.  However, hotel prices in Rome for 2 nights pre cruise are through the roof. 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

8 minutes ago, drakes2 said:

For our cruise September 28th to October 9th FBCs cheapest fare was with Air Transat at $1210 which is exactly the same price as ATs fare which if cancelled offered you a future credit their non refundable fare is $1034 which is not even offered by Celebrity air. Air Canada's fare was $300 more pp which in my opinion  is not worth it.  At least they are both direct flights.  However, hotel prices in Rome for 2 nights pre cruise are through the roof. 

Didnt find Rome that bad end of October , boom an Airbnb 

How was the cost in FLL before your spring TA 🤔😱

now that was crazy 

[drakes2]

15 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Didnt find Rome that bad end of October , boom an Airbnb 

How was the cost in FLL before your spring TA 🤔😱

now that was crazy 

We booked the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina through Celebrity for $323 CAD back in October for April 21st. Our TA is the 22nd.  Its now $658 if booking independently.  

[Ex-Airbalancer]

1 hour ago, drakes2 said:

We booked the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina through Celebrity for $323 CAD back in October for April 21st. Our TA is the 22nd.  Its now $658 if booking independently.  

We book the Sleep inn for $215 in October and it over $350 now, we leave the 23rd of April 

[terrydtx]

6 hours ago, drakes2 said:

Slightly off topic but is FBC not offering non refundable fares any more. I was looking for flights to Rome YYZ to FCO for end September and they were cheaper to book directly as opposed to Celebrity as only option was credit only or fully refundable fares.  

Not sure what you are asking about. My experience with booking with FBC is flights are cancelable without a penalty up to the final payment for a cruise which is when the airfare is paid. We currently have BC flights booked for our September Apex cruise that will be paid at final payment in June for the cruise. I can cancel the flights anytime up to then, if I find a better deal on my own. We are flying on United to Amsterdam and flying home from Athens on American Airlines. Currently both airlines want over $2000pp RT more for BC than what we booked back at last November. Also, again we are booked on two different airlines which is near impossible to do directly booking.

[cruise4mom]

We have flights booked with FBC for our Hawaii trip this May. To be honest our return flight time was changed twice, then switched to a different airline and departing g time moved up by over 5 hours. We were able to pick our own flights. Each way, along with the airline, etc. The issues we are currently having is with the airline e not Celebrity The airline keeps changing the plane, time, airline, etc. we are in a waiting pattern and should have an answer by Friday regarding our returning flight. 

[terrydtx]

2 minutes ago, cruise4mom said:

We have flights booked with FBC for our Hawaii trip this May. To be honest our return flight time was changed twice, then switched to a different airline and departing g time moved up by over 5 hours. We were able to pick our own flights. Each way, along with the airline, etc. The issues we are currently having is with the airline e not Celebrity The airline keeps changing the plane, time, airline, etc. we are in a waiting pattern and should have an answer by Friday regarding our returning flight. 

Last year we booked our flights to Rome for our Reflection cruise with FBC. American Airlines kept changing their flights and went from one stop to 2 that took an extra 10 hours to get to Rome. We were able to call FBC and change to another airline, United, for no extra cost. If we had booked directly with AA we would have been stuck with their terrible changes and itinerary.

[cruise4mom]

2 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

Last year we booked our flights to Rome for our Reflection cruise with FBC. American Airlines kept changing their flights and went from one stop to 2 that took an extra 10 hours to get to Rome. We were able to call FBC and change to another airline, United, for no extra cost. If we had booked directly with AA we would have been stuck with their terrible changes and itinerary.

We are currently waiting for their reply. The day of our return flight is my bday. Our original flight didn’t leave until 11:45. Well they moved us to an 8 pm flight. This requires us to be to the airport by 5 whereas we were expecting 9:45. We were planning on sight seeing upon debarking and then going to a nice dinner. We have requested that they move us to a flight that’s only 1 hr earlier. We also just gave our TA another proposal if the refuse our first. Our serving proposal is for us to Leave the next day giving us one night in Vancouver. We are supposed to have sm answer by Friday. 

[cachouonacruise]

26 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

Not sure what you are asking about. My experience with booking with FBC is flights are cancelable without a penalty up to the final payment for a cruise which is when the airfare is paid.

My experience with FBC is that they deal with some airlines, which offer what they call "risk free", which means you can book the flights, change or cancel them until final payment date.

 

However, FBC also deals with airlines not offering the "risk free" program. Then the condition of your ticket are based on the airline's policy regarding your fare.

 

In short, not all flights provided by FBC include the "risk free" option. For some reasons, and it may be my imagination, but I believe American carriers are more likely to be included in the risk free program, versus international carriers, like Air Canada, which offers it on some flights, but not all.

[drakes2]

9 hours ago, terrydtx said:

Not sure what you are asking about. My experience with booking with FBC is flights are cancelable without a penalty up to the final payment for a cruise which is when the airfare is paid. We currently have BC flights booked for our September Apex cruise that will be paid at final payment in June for the cruise. I can cancel the flights anytime up to then, if I find a better deal on my own. We are flying on United to Amsterdam and flying home from Athens on American Airlines. Currently both airlines want over $2000pp RT more for BC than what we booked back at last November. Also, again we are booked on two different airlines which is near impossible to do directly booking.

What I'm asking is are flights now non refundable upon booking. In our case final payment for the cruise we're looking at is June 30 but FBC said flight is still non refundable. I called a large travel agency who is partnered with my bank and was told I can book NR, fare with  credit only and fully refundable which is $300 pp more. The FBC agent I spoke with had lot of difficulty finding the flight, had extremely terrible English and kept mumbling to himself. Just not a good experience. 

[wallysdtr]

On 1/20/2023 at 5:27 AM, bye-seaya said:

I know some folks have had good luck using Flights by Celebrity and cost savings.  Based on our experience we are now in the camp of “never again”. Our cost savings wasn’t worth losing control over the reservation.

 

I agree with everything you are saying.  It was recommended by fellow friend cruisers to try Flights but won't use them again.   The return flight for us in April is horrible and we found one cheaper with a better route but they won't/can't/don't care to change the flights because they books us on a non-refundable.  All 3 X I called AFTER calling the airline (who said we could change) refused to do anything at all.  I did wait for the survey and gave a big ZERO when asked if I would recommend "Flights by Celebrity" to anyone.  Very disappointed to say the least.   Also a family members flight got changed on the return flight to a day that we are out to sea!   Crazy

[johngalt181]

A few weeks we booked Savannah - London RT through FBC for an upcoming July 1, 2023 Scandinavia cruise. The savings were $5 pp vs booking directly with American Airlines. I belived their fluff and booked FBC. We got the flights and seats we wanted.

I have now paid for 2/3 of cruise + air and must pay the rest in a few days. This morning we got an email from FBC saying that (without my permission) our outgoing flights had changed. Upon checking, the layover at CLT was now (from experience) far too short. Our original flights were still available accodring to AA, BUT we could not get back to them without going through FBC. FBC now says they have made the request but it may take 3 weeks to confirm.

We are long term planners. We are now in a situation where we will, by Monday, have paid 100% of ship + air costs, yet have no idea if we will have convenient flights!!!

LESSON LEARNED: When you book via FBC you lose control of your flight planning, in our case for $5 pp savings! Never again unless there are meaningful savings. 

 

 

Edited March 26, 2023 by johngalt181