Beware of Flights by Celebrity!

[wallysdtr]

Just now, terrydtx said:

Why didn't you pay the $50 and make the change with AA?

I wanted to and if my husband wasn't in the room, I would have.  He was afraid that the original booking would be cancelled.  BTW the rep said we could book the miami flight but they would cancel our Fort Lauderdale flight and give us no refund.  

[terrydtx]

11 minutes ago, wallysdtr said:

I wanted to and if my husband wasn't in the room, I would have.  He was afraid that the original booking would be cancelled.  BTW the rep said we could book the Miami flight but they would cancel our Fort Lauderdale flight and give us no refund.  

You should know that if you had booked directly with AA and the price dropped you would not have received the refund if you moved the flight. You were also wanting to make the change after final payment if you were only a month from departing and FBC had already ticketed the flights. If AA offered to change the flight to Miami for only $50 that could have been done only by canceling the FLL flight regardless of what your husband thought. I fail to see why you blame FBC.

Edited April 13, 2023 by terrydtx

[wallysdtr]

1 hour ago, terrydtx said:

You should know that if you had booked directly with AA and the price dropped you would not have received the refund if you moved the flight. You were also wanting to make the change after final payment if you were only a month from departing and FBC had already ticketed the flights. If AA offered to change the flight to Miami for only $50 that could have been done only by canceling the FLL flight regardless of what your husband thought. I fail to see why you blame FBC.

The AA rep was clear even after I gave him all the details of the flight.  He said there would be no problem so why wouldn't I believe the guy that works for the airline.  He said nothing about cancelling the original flight.  anyway, we thought the FLL flight back when we were in Miami didn't make sense since we were booked one way. 

[jagoffee]

On 4/12/2023 at 7:27 AM, dezzy said:

Hi, my saga continues, today I have been told the booked flight which is supposed to be 11.50 am is now 7.45pm- 9 hours waiting at Barcelona airport is a nightmare. Never again.

I thought you got a great price, because you did actually have a particular flight.  Whey do you say that you flight was suppose to be at 11:59 AM?  When did Celbrity assign you that flight?

[fstuff1]

wow.. 11:50am flight moved to 7:45pm.

but is that FBC fault? or the airline's?

 

and yeah, never book FBC unless the flight had a discount.

or you can't replicate FBC's routes with flights.google.com

[emmas gran]

I have a one way Bus class flight to Rome booked with FBC late October, went to BA website yesterday and the price has dropped £100. My Celebrity VP checked and FBC say the price is still the same, do I cancel and book direct or stick with it!! 

[abbydancer2003]

I normally fly Star Alliance, but I had a credit from an American Airlines flight that I canceled, so I used that to get us from San Francisco to PBI.  I booked it with a reasonable layover in DFW.  About a month ago, I got a noticed from American that the flight had changed, and my layover got very short.  So I went back to the website and picked an earlier flight.  Turns out I put us back on the exact flight I'd booked in the first place.  No idea why they moved us.  So it's not just FBC doing it.

[chemmo]

35 minutes ago, emmas gran said:

I have a one way Bus class flight to Rome booked with FBC late October, went to BA website yesterday and the price has dropped £100. My Celebrity VP checked and FBC say the price is still the same, do I cancel and book direct or stick with it!! 

Your call…If it is a same day sail or afternoon flight arrival sailing next day I would stick with FBC simply so if anything goes wrong it is up to them to sort. If you are flying in a few days early I would be tempted to cancel and rebook, £100 buys a lot of tapas!

 

Also in our experience BA customer service has nose dived in recent years…I wouldn’t rely on them to offer fantastic service if anything goes wrong…a couple of examples.

 

We booked a Paris flight and paid a premium for booking the early morning flight rather than the late morning flight. Near to date we were told our flight time had changed to the later time. The later time now matched our earlier time flight number. There was now a new flight number at the time we had originally booked ££ more…Absolutely no attempt to resolve our complaint and request to be transferred back to the time we had booked.

 

We booked business to the US. We booked our seats early, (three of us) and regularly checked. Thank goodness we did we ended up totally separated…We literally had to argue to at least get two in close proximity…No explanation or apology and if I hadn’t registered for wheelchair airport transfers (indicating I had some mobility issues) I am not sure they would have done that. More frustrating, when we actually got on our flight it looked like our three seats close together had been allocated to strangers, not a family group with children as we had been told.

 

 

 

 

[emmas gran]

Chemmo The flight is the day before the cruise, I've read many stories of travelling the day of the cruise. Another factor is BA and strike action more horror stories.  

1 hour ago, chemmo said:

Your call…If it is a same day sail or afternoon flight arrival sailing next day I would stick with FBC simply so if anything goes wrong it is up to them to sort. If you are flying in a few days early I would be tempted to cancel and rebook, £100 buys a lot of tapas!

 

Also in our experience BA customer service has nose dived in recent years…I wouldn’t rely on them to offer fantastic service if anything goes wrong…a couple of examples.

 

We booked a Paris flight and paid a premium for booking the early morning flight rather than the late morning flight. Near to date we were told our flight time had changed to the later time. The later time now matched our earlier time flight number. There was now a new flight number at the time we had originally booked ££ more…Absolutely no attempt to resolve our complaint and request to be transferred back to the time we had booked.

 

We booked business to the US. We booked our seats early, (three of us) and regularly checked. Thank goodness we did we ended up totally separated…We literally had to argue to at least get two in close proximity…No explanation or apology and if I hadn’t registered for wheelchair airport transfers (indicating I had some mobility issues) I am not sure they would have done that. More frustrating, when we actually got on our flight it looked like our three seats close together had been allocated to strangers, not a family group with children as we had been told.

 

 

 

 

 

[chemmo]

59 minutes ago, emmas gran said:

Chemmo The flight is the day before the cruise, I've read many stories of travelling the day of the cruise. Another factor is BA and strike action more horror stories.  

 

I’d forget the £100 and stick with FBC. Much as £100 is not to be sniffed at FBC does offer an extra layer of protection, I guess. I certainly wouldn’t want to rely on BA to pull out all the stops for you!
 

Surprisingly (or perhaps not so surprisingly) I know of two couples (who don’t know each other) who have changed their usual routine of flying into Europe two days pre cruise to adding one week+ land holidays to their Mediterranean cruises this year. They both independently had the same reasons. 
 

Increasing cruise fares meaning they are only having one cruise this year not two. This releases  ‘spare’ holiday days to use up. 

 

Worries about flights and prices of flights too. Both told me independently that they are sick of airports, changes to flights, stress of possible changes even if every does go according to plan….

 

I must confess I can see their point of view…

Edited April 14, 2023 by chemmo