Benefits of Booking Flights Through Celebrity

[ccheng6401]

We will be embarking Celebrity from Fort Lauderdale on 11/25 and I have been debating whether or not to book a 11/24 flight through Celebrity. My understanding is that our tickets would be refundable before the cruise final payment date. The only direct flight from Portland, OR arrives at nearly midnight on 11/24. If the flight is canceled, we will not be able to make the embarkation time on 11/25.  Will Celebrity fly us to the next port if we miss the embarkation?   Traveling during the holiday week is making me nurvous. 

 

Internet & excursion - when is the best time to purchase to get the best price?  We are new to Celebrity.  

Thanks

[Cruise a holic]

We like the idea of booking with celebrity.  Our main reason is that we get the flights we would have booked with Delta as we can choose.  We get the points from Delta.  The best reason is that we do not have to pay until we pay for the cruise.  Since we book cruises so far in advance, we get usually a better rate.  You can cancel before you pay for the cruise without penalty- 

[lynncarol]

This happened to us a number of years ago when because of weather we missed our flight from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia and thus our flight on to South Hampton England.  Because we had booked air through Celebrity, I naively thought they would take care of us.  Hah! Celebrity told us they were not responsible for weather delays and therefore it was up to us to get the airline to reschedule our flights.  Consequently we didn't catch up to the ship until Oslo where Celebrity then tried to deny us boarding because we didn't have a ship card. A big mess.  Fortunately there were now eight folks trying to board in Oslo and after creating quite a fuss, someone from the ship came over to the gate to admit us. 

[Bo1953]

4 hours ago, ccheng6401 said:

We will be embarking Celebrity from Fort Lauderdale on 11/25 and I have been debating whether or not to book a 11/24 flight through Celebrity. My understanding is that our tickets would be refundable before the cruise final payment date. The only direct flight from Portland, OR arrives at nearly midnight on 11/24. If the flight is canceled, we will not be able to make the embarkation time on 11/25.  Will Celebrity fly us to the next port if we miss the embarkation?   Traveling during the holiday week is making me nurvous. 

 

Internet & excursion - when is the best time to purchase to get the best price?  We are new to Celebrity.  

Thanks

Do you happen to be new to cruising?

 

Not a good idea to arrive the day of embarkation unless one drives to the port.

 

Holiday week at that???

 

Good luck in this choice and I trust no snafus occur And that you have travel insurance, too.

 

bon voyage

[dateacher]

I would book your own flights so you have control and definitely arrive at least a full day in advance since you are coming from the west coast.  We take the first flight out the day before and we have lots of flight options,  With such limited options, you may want to spend a full day in FLL just to make sure.

[NutsAboutGolf]

1 hour ago, lynncarol said:

This happened to us a number of years ago when because of weather we missed our flight from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia and thus our flight on to South Hampton England.  Because we had booked air through Celebrity, I naively thought they would take care of us.  Hah! Celebrity told us they were not responsible for weather delays and therefore it was up to us to get the airline to reschedule our flights.  Consequently we didn't catch up to the ship until Oslo where Celebrity then tried to deny us boarding because we didn't have a ship card. A big mess.  Fortunately there were now eight folks trying to board in Oslo and after creating quite a fuss, someone from the ship came over to the gate to admit us. 

 

Would you mind elaborating?  Did you pay extra out of pocket or did Celebrity pay for the change from England to Norway?  Did they cover your Norway transfer from the airport to the port?

 

Local port security isn't supposed to admit anyone without a keycard, one would request they call someone from the ship but occasionally, like you experienced, getting them to do so can be challenge

[Zach1213]

5 hours ago, ccheng6401 said:

Will Celebrity fly us to the next port if we miss the embarkation?   Traveling during the holiday week is making me nurvous. 

 

They may try, yes. No guarantees. There need to be flights to the next stop...and there needs to be seats on those flights, during a holiday week. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

5 hours ago, ccheng6401 said:

We will be embarking Celebrity from Fort Lauderdale on 11/25 and I have been debating whether or not to book a 11/24 flight through Celebrity. My understanding is that our tickets would be refundable before the cruise final payment date. The only direct flight from Portland, OR arrives at nearly midnight on 11/24. If the flight is canceled, we will not be able to make the embarkation time on 11/25.  Will Celebrity fly us to the next port if we miss the embarkation?   Traveling during the holiday week is making me nurvous. 

 

Internet & excursion - when is the best time to purchase to get the best price?  We are new to Celebrity.  

Thanks

 

Based on this, book with Flights by X, have a layover, it far better than landing at midnight and not even checking into a hotel until 1am

 

With the internet, pre-sailing is the best deal, they may have flash sale, make a note to check 4th of July and Labor day, if nothing on labor day, you're fine to buy.  With tours, you can book now to ensure they don't sell out and if there's a flash sale, cancel and rebook.  We just had a memorial day sale and many including ourselves were able to cancel our sold out tour and rebook it

[39august]

Please do NOT fly to the port on same day as embarkation. Too many things can go wrong and you can miss your ship. 

[gfkcruiser]

5 hours ago, ccheng6401 said:

We will be embarking Celebrity from Fort Lauderdale on 11/25 and I have been debating whether or not to book a 11/24 flight through Celebrity. My understanding is that our tickets would be refundable before the cruise final payment date. The only direct flight from Portland, OR arrives at nearly midnight on 11/24. If the flight is canceled, we will not be able to make the embarkation time on 11/25.  Will Celebrity fly us to the next port if we miss the embarkation?   Traveling during the holiday week is making me nurvous. 

 

Internet & excursion - when is the best time to purchase to get the best price?  We are new to Celebrity.  

Thanks

You can choose your flights and price them with celebrity and thru airline. Don’t have to take their suggestion.  I personally would not take the flight arriving at midnight.  That would be the last flight of the day and more of a chance it would be cancelled.  Go for best cost but don’t rely on celebrity getting you there on time as this is a holiday time and airlines and airports will be very busy.   Recommend going a day early from someone who has missed two sail aways.  

[scidee]

I agree that flying the day of embarkation is not our preference.  However, 5 years ago we had a situation where we needed to fly from Chicago to Fort Lauderdale the morning of sailing.  We had a 6 am flight with a connection in Cincinnati.  Chicago flight had a light out in the restroom which resulted in a 1.5 hour delay.  Missed connection.  Missed sailing.  By the time we got to FLL Celebrity Air had emailed us instructions to cab to Miami, reservations at the Sheridan, tickets to Grand Cayman, and reservations at a resort in GC for 2 days until the ship arrived.  They covered the entire cost.  Thus we are fans of Celeb Air.  Do wish we could book using air miles.

[Zach1213]

2 hours ago, scidee said:

I agree that flying the day of embarkation is not our preference.  However, 5 years ago we had a situation where we needed to fly from Chicago to Fort Lauderdale the morning of sailing.  We had a 6 am flight with a connection in Cincinnati.  

 

I am never a supporter of flying out day of departure, but the only reason I would ever even consider in is a nonstop. Flying between two of the largest metro areas in the US via (checks notes)...Kentucky...is an interesting choice. 

[lynncarol]

Nutsaboutgolf.  I will be happy to elaborate about our disastrous experience with Celebrity Air.  As mentioned, once our flight to Philly was interrupted by bad weather, Celebrity told us we were on our own to rebook.  But now we had to rebook to Oslo, not England and needed another connecting flight.  Celebrity told our airline we were only authorized for 2 legs, not three.  Fortunately, the airline agent felt sorry for us and comped our third leg of the flight. When I phoned Celebrity with our new arrival info, I begged them to let my elderly parents, who were supposed to fly from North Carolina to Philly and onwards with us, know what happened.  This was in 2007 and I had no way to contact my parents who had no cell phone nor knew how to use the internet. Turns out 2 days went by before my folks were told what happened to us and my frantic father (who was on blood thinners) while desperately looking for us in South Hampton, tripped and got badly bruised.

Meanwhile, Celebrity told us their port agent in Oslo would pick us up and we would be provided free overnight accommodations in Oslo then taken to the ship the next day.  None of that happened as planned.  The agent was nowhere to be found but finally the information desk at the airport was able to phone his home.  An hour later, we were picked up.  He assured us the hotel would be free and he would pick us up and take us to the port the next day. Hah!  We had to get ourselves to the port, and then once we were on the ship the agent had the nerve to come onboard where we were waiting at guest services and say we never paid for the room. At this point, I lost all control and gave the guest service folks onboard a full accounting of our shabby treatment. They promptly escorted the agent off and told us 'everything will be taken care of'.  I will say that the ship's customer service manager after hearing the whole sordid tale, did give us a $500 onboard credit. Much of this we used to buy drinks for my parents, myself and my husband as we were all traumatized by this time.

[sonoma03]

I would also caution against thinking that Flights By Celebrity will take care of you in case of a problem.  I did a Galapagos cruise with the extension to Machu Picchu with Celebrity last November and booked our flights through Flights By Celebrity because our cruise price included a flight credit (I had to fight with them over the amount of the credit but that's a different story).  The night before our flight home from Lima to San Francisco, there was an accident at the Lima airport that shut down the airport since they only have one runway and we were notified via the app that our American Airlines flight was cancelled, along with all other flights that were leaving the next day.  We asked our Celebrity tour guide if we should rebook our flight directly with AA or if Flights By Celebrity would take care of it, and he advised us to wait for Celebrity to do it, and told us he would contact Celebrity to see if they would handle the necessary extended hotel stay.  In the meantime I was checking in the AA app periodically and noticing that the flight options for us to rebook were rapidly going away.  After not hearing back from our tour guide for an hour and noticing that all remaining flights that entire week were no longer available, I finally got through to AA by phone and rebooked us, but by then the first flight out was 3 days later, which wasn't even available to us on the app.  We had to pay for the extra hotel nights on our own.  Many hours later, we finally got an email from Flights By Celebrity that simply restated the flights we had rebooked ourselves.  Had we waited for Celebrity to rebook us, we probably would have had an even longer delay getting home.

[ccheng6401]

Thanks everyone for sharing your stories and suggestions. I think we will book outbound flights for 11/23 Thanksgiving day so we don't have to worry about the potentical risk of missing the cruise. Also we will book the flights ourselves.  

 

I thought Celebrity excursion is not refundable but I am wrong. I will wait for the next promotion (Juy 4th?) to book our excursion. 

[wrk2cruise]

8 hours ago, ccheng6401 said:

I thought Celebrity excursion is not refundable but I am wrong. I will wait for the next promotion (Juy 4th?) to book our excursion. 

 

I would book any excursions now and cancel/rebook if you see a lower price.  They often manipulate the prices to make promos look good when they aren't.  We have seen excursion prices rise dramatically lately.

[Lastdance]

I am still waiting for my refund through Celebrity from AA canceling our flight with less than 12 hours to departure.  Talking with AA, they had no availability, so I just booked the last two seats on a United flight.  Celebrity has sent two requests for a refund, but no response from AA.  I as told to call FBC again in two more weeks; my refund was to take 7-14 business days.  AA suggested that we rent a car and drive a few hours to the airport in California for flights that would eventually take us to Miami instead of FLL, but we could just take the bus.  Unfortunately, we were at a hotel by our airport because our original flight was very early.  Anyway, AA even canceled that flight, so we would have not made our sailing, even though we allowed two days.  It is always crap shoot, but you just make your best guess at the time and go with it.  Personally, I like to have control of my flights, especially due to the nature of he beast.  At least I can use the money for other flights.  So many times I originally book with Celebrity, but find my exact flight cheaper doing it myself.  I just cancel my FBC and pay for my own before the 90 days.  The airlines are very hit and miss nowadays.  AA lost our business, even though their flights are cheaper.  I have also written the CEO with details of my experience; no reply at all after 42 days!

Edited June 10, 2023 by Lastdance

[StartrainDD]

13 hours ago, ccheng6401 said:

Thanks everyone for sharing your stories and suggestions. I think we will book outbound flights for 11/23 Thanksgiving day so we don't have to worry about the potential risk of missing the cruise. Also we will book the flights ourselves.  

 

I thought Celebrity excursion is not refundable but I am wrong. I will wait for the next promotion (Juy 4th?) to book our excursion. 

Check Southwest.  Currently a sale is on and the bags are free.

[micruiser2002]

I have heard multiple issues with peoples flights when using Celebrity Air.  My friends sons flight was changed the morning of the flight.  He booked with CA and his mom booked direct with airline so they were on different flights.  He was on the phone early in the morning trying to get it resolved and Delta would not deal with him since it was booked by CA.  Luckily it all got fixed but I could not believe they changed his flight the same morning as the flight.