Israel Next week Voyager

[Susan64]

Regent had the chance to do the right thing as other cruise lines did. FCC/ Refund 

Sometimes the right thing is not easy or cheap, but you see a company’s true colors 

If forcing a bunch of people who don’t want  sail, is their idea of a good decision, then I would never want to be with them in case of an emergency.  You see where there priorities are.

 

Regent had a chance to show its humanity, to people who are afraid, and chose a full ship instead 

[Texasrocks]

3 minutes ago, mrlevin said:

Texas, you so eloquently stated the problem; sanity is not part of the decision process.  They need to spend five minutes on the phone with each client (how many can there be on Regent air) to discuss before finalizing.  This is the exact reason that I have not been using Regent air.

Yes and I found when taking air out of the equation SS is better on price.  And after the debacle on my Regent NZ to Bali cruise regent is batting .330 good for baseball but not a luxury cruise line.  Jennifer Teagan...... crickets

[melbox4]

34 minutes ago, Texasrocks said:

I hear what you are saying but we had AF flights already with them on Wednesday the 11th (tomorrow)  but instead of booking available connection to IST, The geniuses at Regent booked one of our rooms to Friday on Turkish and the other on BA to LHR with a 7 hr connection arriving at midnight on Saturday.  Had the air only asked ours was an easy fix and there are still seats on TK Wednesday and Thursdays.  We are will to get our own hotel what seems to be a win win but the lack of communication resulted in a horrible situation for us.  I recommend this cruise and regent to 3 other couples and feel responsible and embarrassed at Regents response so far.  We booked regent because of the air and this is frist time using that service.  I doubt we will sail them again and have 3 cruises to cancel and a FC cert.  We had a good time on SS and now that they are going more casual it becomes an easy decision.  Our TA will be calling in the AM to try to get switched to a Thursday or Wednesday flight.  I tried today as well and got a very rude agent Janine who said they are doing everything they can, i told he I disagreed.  After the call ended and before we disconnected she yelled "GODDDDD" .  Great service.  

Our experience on the phone with an agent who called us this morning was similar.  She hung up on my spouse. I am shocked at the poor customer service skills of the agent. They booked us this morning all the way through to Turkey. Now they have us flying only to NYC and they dropped the second leg. They did not cancel our flights to Israel until this afternoon. They should have offered a credit or refund. It would have freed up time for them and made for happier customers. This is a luxury cruise line. I expect more.

[Pcardad]

1 hour ago, Texasrocks said:

I hear what you are saying but we had AF flights already with them on Wednesday the 11th (tomorrow)  but instead of booking available connection to IST, The geniuses at Regent booked one of our rooms to Friday on Turkish and the other on BA to LHR with a 7 hr connection arriving at midnight on Saturday.  Had the air only asked ours was an easy fix and there are still seats on TK Wednesday and Thursdays.  We are will to get our own hotel what seems to be a win win but the lack of communication resulted in a horrible situation for us.  I recommend this cruise and regent to 3 other couples and feel responsible and embarrassed at Regents response so far.  We booked regent because of the air and this is frist time using that service.  I doubt we will sail them again and have 3 cruises to cancel and a FC cert.  We had a good time on SS and now that they are going more casual it becomes an easy decision.  Our TA will be calling in the AM to try to get switched to a Thursday or Wednesday flight.  I tried today as well and got a very rude agent Janine who said they are doing everything they can, i told he I disagreed.  After the call ended and before we disconnected she yelled "GODDDDD" .  Great service.  

All Regent Rep calls are recorded - you can call and get a supervisor and have the tape reviewed.

[Pcardad]

18 minutes ago, melbox4 said:

Our experience on the phone with an agent who called us this morning was similar.  She hung up on my spouse. I am shocked at the poor customer service skills of the agent. They booked us this morning all the way through to Turkey. Now they have us flying only to NYC and they dropped the second leg. They did not cancel our flights to Israel until this afternoon. They should have offered a credit or refund. It would have freed up time for them and made for happier customers. This is a luxury cruise line. I expect more.

All Regent Rep calls are recorded - you can call and get a supervisor and have the tape reviewed.

[melbox4]

15 minutes ago, Pcardad said:

All Regent Rep calls are recorded - you can call and get a supervisor and have the tape reviewed.

We are aware they record phone calls. When we called and asked to speak to a supervisor we were told that we would have to call back tomorrow to speak to a supervisor in the air department.

[papaflamingo]

1 hour ago, Texasrocks said:

I hear what you are saying but we had AF flights already with them on Wednesday the 11th (tomorrow)  but instead of booking available connection to IST, The geniuses at Regent booked one of our rooms to Friday on Turkish and the other on BA to LHR with a 7 hr connection arriving at midnight on Saturday.  Had the air only asked ours was an easy fix and there are still seats on TK Wednesday and Thursdays.  We are will to get our own hotel what seems to be a win win but the lack of communication resulted in a horrible situation for us.  I recommend this cruise and regent to 3 other couples and feel responsible and embarrassed at Regents response so far.  We booked regent because of the air and this is frist time using that service.  I doubt we will sail them again and have 3 cruises to cancel and a FC cert.  We had a good time on SS and now that they are going more casual it becomes an easy decision.  Our TA will be calling in the AM to try to get switched to a Thursday or Wednesday flight.  I tried today as well and got a very rude agent Janine who said they are doing everything they can, i told he I disagreed.  After the call ended and before we disconnected she yelled "GODDDDD" .  Great service.  

This is an incredibly unusual situation for all. So I certainly wouldn't feel responsible or be embarrassed about recommending Regent.  For me, I would have worked directly with my TA since that's what her job is and let her work it out. 

I won't say much about the agent's attitude other than to say I was a Coast Guard Pilot and Senior Duty Officer and a 29 year Airline Captain.  I dealt many times with upset, angry, and distraught people all during very high stress times, be it searching for their loved ones lost at sea or dealing with delays and cancellations with the airlines.  I often had to use the same line "we are doing all we can."  And you know what?  We WERE doing all we could.  So when someone comes back with "I disagree," it's only natural to yell "GODDDDD."  I just managed to not let anyone hear me yell it. 😎

Anyway, I agree, given how you feel, you are probably well advised to cancel your future cruises and sail on a different line.   I wish you luck and happy cruising on Silversea or whatever line you choose. 

[HotelSnob1]

So sorry for our fellow cruisers’ dilemmas. Truly! We never, ever book our air thru a cruise line, we feel it simply gives up our autonomy with flight times, layovers, seat selection, etc.  Learned our lesson about 12 cruises ago when RSSC booked us through Toronto after AK cruise and it was not pleasant. And barely is there a price difference. Never, never again.

We were fortunate that we re-booked with United thru to IST via MUC fairly quickly after R’s email on Sunday.

See everyone on board.

[NYC-London]

I think at the end of the day, Regent may regret some of their decisions. I am now reading on other travel sights not even dealing with cruising that while other companies have been more understanding and forgiving, Regent seems to have forgotten that they are trying to portray an image of outstanding service, in which in this instance, they have failed miserably.

 

I have friends scheduled to sail on this cruise and if Regent had just taken the time to keep them informed, it would have at least seemed they cared. I also recommended Regent to them so now I also have egg on my face. The number one rule when dealing with a bad situation - communication communication communication! Any decent PR person will tell you that. The new flights they received are totally unacceptable, especially since there were quite a few available options that did not require excessive layovers.

 

 Regent eliminated quite a few of the back office staff in order to save money and when needed, did not have the manpower necessary to address the situation at hand. Regent is not a stand alone entity, it is a subsidiary of a much larger corporation and should have the knowledge and ability to deal with a crisis situation. 

 

Sometimes companies need to think outside the box. A number of years ago, there was a snafu with the British Airways website and I was able to purchase tickets to Europe and Asia for less than $20 round trip. Now, British Airways could have simply canceled all of the tickets claiming computer error. Instead, they honored the tickets and the amount of goodwill and positive press they received was priceless - there is even a Harvard Business school case study about the incident. So while in the short term it cost BA, in the long run it turned out to be a very wise corporate decision. It seems that Regent has not learned this and they may eventually regret that they are late learners.

 

 

[stanleyheller]

Regent has cancelled the Israeli three day portion of the trip, substituting two days at sea with embarkation in Turkey. Despite clear U.S. State Department warning about travel to Egypt and noting the murder of three tourists in Alexandria on Octoberer 8th,, Regent, at present, plans to continue the Egyptian portion of the cruise. I think it is unwise and risky to do this, but if I were to go on the cruise, I would need to stay on board the two days in Egypt. Then there is an additional day at sea. This is crazy and I will be demanding a refund.
PLEASE NOTE: From the U.S. State Department - today!!!

Egypt “RECONSIDER TRAVEL TO EGYPT DUE TO TERRORISM”

The Embassy is aware of multiple foreign tourists killed in an attack in Alexandria today, Oct 8, 2023. This incident may be related to ongoing hostilities in Gaza and Israel.
U. S. citizens in Egypt should exercise increased security awareness and precautions.”

 

It is both nonsensical and risky for Regent tp visit Egypt next week on this cruise. I cannot begin to contemplate the liability cost to Regent and its insurer if something goes wrong and passages are injured or killed.
 

[Pcardad]

1 hour ago, HotelSnob1 said:

So sorry for our fellow cruisers’ dilemmas. Truly! We never, ever book our air thru a cruise line, we feel it simply gives up our autonomy with flight times, layovers, seat selection, etc.  Learned our lesson about 12 cruises ago when RSSC booked us through Toronto after AK cruise and it was not pleasant. And barely is there a price difference. Never, never again.

We were fortunate that we re-booked with United thru to IST via MUC fairly quickly after R’s email on Sunday.

See everyone on board.

You can choose all of those items yourself and still book through Regent.

[PhD-iva]

I just read thru the Celebrity thread covering this topic. One thing that is different is that X also canceled the Egyptian ports. So, now it doesn’t go to Israel or Egypt.

Did that make a difference in the decision to offer refunds/FCC?

[cruiseluv]

1 hour ago, stanleyheller said:

Regent has cancelled the Israeli three day portion of the trip, substituting two days at sea with embarkation in Turkey. Despite clear U.S. State Department warning about travel to Egypt and noting the murder of three tourists in Alexandria on Octoberer 8th,, Regent, at present, plans to continue the Egyptian portion of the cruise. I think it is unwise and risky to do this, but if I were to go on the cruise, I would need to stay on board the two days in Egypt. Then there is an additional day at sea. This is crazy and I will be demanding a refund.
PLEASE NOTE: From the U.S. State Department - today!!!

Egypt “RECONSIDER TRAVEL TO EGYPT DUE TO TERRORISM”

The Embassy is aware of multiple foreign tourists killed in an attack in Alexandria today, Oct 8, 2023. This incident may be related to ongoing hostilities in Gaza and Israel.
U. S. citizens in Egypt should exercise increased security awareness and precautions.”

 

It is both nonsensical and risky for Regent tp visit Egypt next week on this cruise. I cannot begin to contemplate the liability cost to Regent and its insurer if something goes wrong and passages are injured or killed.
 

As history has shown us, staying onboard the ship while in Egypt might not be the best course of action. At this point in time this itinerary is nuts

[cruiseluv]

3 minutes ago, PhD-iva said:

I just read thru the Celebrity thread covering this topic. One thing that is different is that X also canceled the Egyptian ports. So, now it doesn’t go to Israel or Egypt.

Did that make a difference in the decision to offer refunds/FCC?

What it shows to me is that Celebrity, or its parent company Royal Caribbean, its not nuts to go to Egypt

[Golf Mad Girl]

3 hours ago, mrlevin said:

Texas, you so eloquently stated the problem; sanity is not part of the decision process.  They need to spend five minutes on the phone with each client (how many can there be on Regent air) to discuss before finalizing.  This is the exact reason that I have not been using Regent air.

Would never use air option.  Like to book our own flights when we want them and our seats etc.  

 

[Pcardad]

5 minutes ago, Golf Mad Girl said:

Would never use air option.  Like to book our own flights when we want them and our seats etc.  

 

Can do all this through Regent if you wish.

[jelayne]

We were thinking about moving from Celebrity to Regent which is why I was on the Regent board and found this thread.

 

Now I’m thinking maybe not.  

[Texasrocks]

11 minutes ago, jelayne said:

We were thinking about moving from Celebrity to Regent which is why I was on the Regent board and found this thread.

 

Now I’m thinking maybe not.  

the onboard experience was very good.  the Pre-cruise customer experience is very poor may as well book carnival for that(sorry pcardad)   Sad but I have seen that multiple time now.  screw me once shame on you screw me twice shame on me,  Not going to happen a third time.

Edited October 11, 2023 by Texasrocks

[Pcardad]

1 hour ago, Texasrocks said:

the onboard experience was very good.  the Pre-cruise customer experience is very poor may as well book carnival for that(sorry pcardad)   Sad but I have seen that multiple time now.  screw me once shame on you screw me twice shame on me,  Not going to happen a third time.

The have better music on Carnival and their internet is better too! 😉

[roninman]

8 hours ago, papaflamingo said:

I often had to use the same line "we are doing all we can."  And you know what?  We WERE doing all we could.  So when someone comes back with "I disagree," it's only natural to yell "GODDDDD."  I just managed to not let anyone hear me yell it. 😎

 

This is actually a good point.  No doubt the agents ARE doing all they can, because they are acting within the guidelines of management, who apparently told customers days ago no refund, no credit, don't ask us any questions, just sit back and take whatever we give you.  So while the agents may be doing all *they* can- and sadly for them they are the ones stuck delivering the message to customers- the question is, is corporate, in its back room- where it doesn't have to face customers- doing all *it*can?

 

Apparently, and to their credit, management in competitive cruise lines is somehow able to do so.  much.   more.

 

 That being said, there is never an excuse for rudeness in a customer-facing job.  Regent management needs to get control of that right now, because- anecdotally here at least- CSR frustration is evident and growing.

[

[melbox4]

7 hours ago, cruiseluv said:

What it shows to me is that Celebrity, or its parent company Royal Caribbean, its not nuts to go to Egypt

It is nuts for Regent to go into Egypt. It seems that they could careless about our safety or providing good customer service. 

Edited October 11, 2023 by melbox4

[melbox4]

It is being reported in the news that Israel is warning Egypt not to provide aid to Gaza or Israel will strike the Egyptian conveys. 
Egypt does not sound safe. 

[papaflamingo]

2 hours ago, roninman said:

This is actually a good point.  No doubt the agents ARE doing all they can, because they are acting within the guidelines of management, who apparently told customers days ago no refund, no credit, don't ask us any questions, just sit back and take whatever we give you.  So while the agents may be doing all *they* can- and sadly for them they are the ones stuck delivering the message to customers- the question is, is corporate, in its back room- where it doesn't have to face customers- doing all *it*can?

 

Apparently, and to their credit, management in competitive cruise lines is somehow able to do so.  much.   more.

 

 That being said, there is never an excuse for rudeness in a customer-facing job.  Regent management needs to get control of that right now, because- anecdotally here at least- CSR frustration is evident and growing.

[

Just for the record, I wasn't excusing any rudeness, I was simply pointing out that at some point an agent, who has remarkably limited authority and information, is the butt of everyone's frustration.  Might have been less "rude" had she not been called a liar. 

[melbox4]

Just now, melbox4 said:

 

RSSC needs to do the right thing. They should cancel this luxury cruise through a potential war zone. 

 

[loriva]

9 hours ago, Pcardad said:

Can do all this through Regent if you wish.

 

It is true you can deviate and make initial airline preferences (sometimes at a significant cost increase from the included air price).

 

What you cannot do if you booked air through Regent is rebook air when a situation occurs.  We had this happen last year when Hurricane Ian closed our return airport.  Although there were seats available on earlier flights, we had to wait three days--at our expense for lodging, meals, and transportation to the airport--for Regent-rescheduled flights.  The concierge onboard Splendor explained it was because Regent did not have any seats contracted/had run out of contracted seats on the earlier flights.  We had no personal choice on the rescheduled flights.

 

We feel for all of the people involved, both on the ground and those scrambling for alternatives.