Custom Air Question

[Cruisin2007]

We are taking a cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale next year. When we booked we designated JFK as our gateway airport. In doing a little research, I found that Continental out of Newark has much better flights. Since we decided to go down a day early, we need to go custom air. Do I first need to call reservations and change our gateway, or can custom air handle everything?

 

I repriced our itinerary out of Newark, and they quote airfare as about $130 cheaper than JFK, so I'd like to see the savings, too.;)

 

As a side question...would love to hear opinions about booking airfare on your own vs. through Celebrity. We'd really prefer to go JetBlue in an ideal world, but Celebrity doesn't book with them. Thanks!

[gracecarmo]

Well, my recent experiences with custom air: at first I booked with X for the custom air. Then, I had to change my request, to one more night pre cruise (in London) and this is all in the package deal from X.. I was then charged the $75.00 per person for change.However, there were extenuating circumstances. This is because I also booked another add-on pre cruise night through X as an add-on. This was for London, and at an added cost for the hotel. Now, I am charged the $75.00 per person for making this change. Understandable, as this is for the airline cost.

Now, the airline, has changed all our original air deviation requests for US. We are not leaving KC to Newark, Newark to London.Not to our first requests, but later times, etc. We now leave from Houston to London. and the return flight time is much later than we want or first agreed to in the air deviation request .We still have to pay the $150.00. So, be careful as to your first air deviation requests.

I am still somewhat satisfied with our air, as it is still much less expensive than booking individually and we still get the transfers that are important to us, especially in Gatwick to London and London to Dover..

This is for an over seas flight, Kansas City to Houston, Houston to Gatwick, then on return from Newark to Kansas City.(we are on a transatlantic)

I still think that Celebrity air arrangments are ok and much less expensive for this trip, due to the individual pricing and the transfers included. I guess I just have to go with what is available, eat the $150 and be satisfied?

[ocngypz]

For domestic air.. book your own. You don't need transfers in FLL as a cab is cheaper.

 

Europe is a different story.

 

When you combine CEL air with CEL pre or post hotel, you do not pay a deviation fee.

 

When you want to pick your flights with the CEL pre or post hotel, yes you do have to pay the deviation fee, which should be waived for Captain's Club members.

[denali1]

We have used custom air to London twice, and itwas much cheaper than booking ourselves. And Captains Club helped with avoiding the deviation charges.

[Cruisin2007]

Thanks for the information.

 

We are Captain's Club members, so we should get the fee waived. I'm just hoping there isn't some other kind of change fee from reservations b/c we want to change our airport. I was hoping we could just designate a gateway city, since we are willing to go out of JFK, LaGuardia or Newark...but they made us pick a specific airport when we booked.

[outlaw1]

if you booked thru a TA they should be able to change the point of departure w/ any penalty to you and still pick up the reduced fare. If you booked the cruise yourself then call Celebrity and give them your res# and they can make the changes for you again w/o penalty. This happens a lot more frequently than you think and X has always been able to make the change.

[hisfirstm8]

We are using X custom air next April for our cruise which end at Port Liberty. We are flying one way back to Tampa and the custom air price was much cheaper than we could get and then pay for a taxi to JFK. Also, with Celebrity transfers, we will get off first and not have to wait in the taxi line. Prices on travelocity for air have gone up $79 already since we booked with Celebrity

Barbara

[hajekfam]

The waiver of the deviation fee for Captain's Club members is for one deviation (including coming & going). If you set up your dates and flights for other than normal air for day of sailing and debarkation, and then decide to change those arrangements, Celebrity does charge Captain's Club the deviation fee for the second set of re-arrangements.

[Cruisin2007]

The waiver of the deviation fee for Captain's Club members is for one deviation (including coming & going). If you set up your dates and flights for other than normal air for day of sailing and debarkation, and then decide to change those arrangements, Celebrity does charge Captain's Club the deviation fee for the second set of re-arrangements.

 

Thanks for the info. I guess we better be pretty certain of what we want to do before we arrange custom air. I hate extra fees!

[gracecarmo]

I guess this is what happened to me....Since I added another night pre cruise (X's hotel package) I was charged a change fee.

At the time of my initial air deviation request we could only go to London for one night. Circumstances changed and we added another night.

I learned a lesson! Make sure of your arrangments before air deviation request.

[svnelvn]

For the first time we are making our own arrangements to a Baltic cruise. X wanted to charge us $400 more pp than we could get on our own. We are Captain Club members, but we were not traveling out of a gateway city. Maybe that is why.:(

 

 

Suzanne