Custom Air

[Fitnessmaniac]

What is Custom Air and when would you use it? Thanks.:)

[Sue L]

It is when you get to choose your flights, for example non-stop, leaving at a certain hour etc. When you book through the cruiseline they choose the flight. You can end up with 2 or 3 stops and arrive late in the day. Not only does this make for a stressful day on whether or not you will make the ship but additional stops also make for additional chances to lose your luggage!

 

If you decide to book your air through the cruiseline I would definitely do the custom air which there is a charge of I think 75$ but it would give you control on how you fly in.

[negc]

Custom air allows you to choose your airline and flight schedules and still book your air through the cruiseline. Whether or not you should use it will depend on whether the airfare that you can book on your own is more expensive than what the cruiseline is charging. Based on your history of past RCI cruises, it appears that you are, or are eligible for, platinum status with RCI which means that they will waive the fee to use custom air. Compare the air prices and, if RCI's price is better than you can get on your own, have your TA request custom air. You should get a response fairly quickly as to whether or not they can grant your request. On occasion, where the airfare for the flights you want exceeds what RCI is paying for airfare, you might be asked to pay the difference. If that is the case, you can still compare the costs and go with whichever way is best for you. You should also factor in the value of the transfers that you will get if you book through the cruiseline.

[Fitnessmaniac]

Thank you for your replies...So..my understanding is..once you book through cruiseline..you can go through their Custom Air and have them make it a direct flight? (I'm a Diamond member..but..never used Custom before) I would pay difference if there is a price difference between their quote and the airline I prefer? Thanks. :)

[Slam308]

Custom air also can be used to fly in the day before the cruise. If you use RC's hotel, and book through them, there is no custom air fee. However, if you want to fly down the day before and stay at the hotel of your choosing, you would have to pay the custom air fee.

[Sue L]

Thank you for your replies...So..my understanding is..once you book through cruiseline..you can go through their Custom Air and have them make it a direct flight? (I'm a Diamond member..but..never used Custom before) I would pay difference if there is a price difference between their quote and the airline I prefer? Thanks. :)

 

 

You can choose the flight yourself from the ones that are available from your area. You can choose a direct assuming there is one. You should definitely check out the prices to book your own as opposed to theirs, most times they are more expensive but not always.

 

For our Alaska cruise I was considering RCCL air because they were 609 pp +75$ custom air fee (only gold) from NYC to Vancouver and anything I could find was in the 700-750$ range. I did find a sale and was able to get it for $336 on sidestep.com. Plus I wanted to go in a day early and their hotel prices were ridiculous, I am not positive that if you have RCCL air if you must use their hotels or not. I would definitely find out about that from them or maybe someone else here can give this info.

[cruisenfever]

When you get flight fare from RCI, be aware that transfers to and from the port are also included. Try to find out what the transfer fees are and subtract that from the airfare......that is what RCI is charging you for your flights.

 

We always use custom air and usually get the flights that we want. Once in a while we have to pay a little extra, even with the air deviation fee being waived, because the cost of the flights that we want are not within RCI's "budget". But it's worth it.

 

The air deviation fee can only be waived one time............so if you have flights and then want to change them, you will be charged the air deviation fee.

[CHAMPDDS]

I was quoted $50 per person fee to go to down the day ahead of time, since we were staying at a non-RCCL hotel (Radisson at the Port-Port Canaveral). We opted to drop the flight segment from the package.

 

Interesting fact for us super planners- When we booked our original reservation, I inquired as to when we could know what our flights would be, and was told to call 60 days before our departure date. This stressed me a lot, since there are VERY limited flights out of Chattanooga to Orlando, and the good flight times are likely to be booked early. But when I called and asked about the custom air option of arriving the day before, inquiring to what hotels they offered also, I was given all my flight options AT THAT TIME..(8 months ahead of time). This would, in my opinion, if we had opted to do the RCCL hotel option,been a great stress reliever...They even sent an email confirming the flights that were available for me to pick.

 

That being said, since we are staying at the non-RCCL hotel, they do NOT offer the 'free' transportation, so we are renting a car both ways for less than $60 each way for my family of 5, and I booked nice flight timed airfare with Delta.:D

[cruisenfever]

I was quoted $50 per person fee to go to down the day ahead of time, since we were staying at a non-RCCL hotel (Radisson at the Port-Port Canaveral). We opted to drop the flight segment from the package.

 

Interesting fact for us super planners- When we booked our original reservation, I inquired as to when we could know what our flights would be, and was told to call 60 days before our departure date. This stressed me a lot, since there are VERY limited flights out of Chattanooga to Orlando, and the good flight times are likely to be booked early. But when I called and asked about the custom air option of arriving the day before, inquiring to what hotels they offered also, I was given all my flight options AT THAT TIME..(8 months ahead of time). This would, in my opinion, if we had opted to do the RCCL hotel option,been a great stress reliever...They even sent an email confirming the flights that were available for me to pick.

 

That being said, since we are staying at the non-RCCL hotel, they do NOT offer the 'free' transportation, so we are renting a car both ways for less than $60 each way for my family of 5, and I booked nice flight timed airfare with Delta.:D

That's the nice thing about custom air.........knowing so far in advance and being able to get your seats. I have to agree with you, booking a cruise is so simple.............getting there can be a nightmare (unless, of course, you don't need to fly)!:)

[negc]

You can choose the flight yourself from the ones that are available from your area. You can choose a direct assuming there is one. You should definitely check out the prices to book your own as opposed to theirs, most times they are more expensive but not always.

 

For our Alaska cruise I was considering RCCL air because they were 609 pp +75$ custom air fee (only gold) from NYC to Vancouver and anything I could find was in the 700-750$ range. I did find a sale and was able to get it for $336 on sidestep.com. Plus I wanted to go in a day early and their hotel prices were ridiculous, I am not positive that if you have RCCL air if you must use their hotels or not. I would definitely find out about that from them or maybe someone else here can give this info.

 

You can use RCI air without booking their hotels. We have done so frequently when we could book a hotel for considerably less than it would cost us through the cruiseline. On our last TA we used their custom air program to fly to London on the airline and flight of our choice a few days early but used frequent traveller points to stay three nights at a hotel that was not one of the ones that they offered. We did book our final night in London in one of their hotels to obtain their transfers from London to Harwich. :)

[Sue L]

You can use RCI air without booking their hotels. We have done so frequently when we could book a hotel for considerably less than it would cost us through the cruiseline. On our last TA we used their custom air program to fly to London on the airline and flight of our choice a few days early but used frequent traveller points to stay three nights at a hotel that was not one of the ones that they offered. We did book our final night in London in one of their hotels to obtain their transfers from London to Harwich. :)

 

thanks for the info, now I know for future reference. I never got that far in the process so I wasn't sure. I knew someone here would have the right info.

[isujim]

But keep in mind if you don't use their air........you can't use their transfers IF.......you come in the day before........

[isujim]

Another tip is that RC WILL WAIVE the fee after you use it once for your cruise IF the airline changes your flights or cancels your flights. Sometimes if you book early enough like we do, you invariably get flight changes.........once we went from a flight we picked at 12:25pm to a 10:00am flight the airlines changed us to........way to early to be safe and RC changed our flight after we picked again with no penalty to us.

[Majesty Fan]

I would check prices before using the air with RCI. I however got a great deal on the Hawaii airfare. We are paying $750 for the ait with transfers and I got to pick my own flights and seats. First they had us driving to Orlando some 6 hours away. I told them they had a choice of 2 airports if not I would cancel my cruise!

Lexi

[TravelingMawMaw]

Be careful when booking custom air though. We are platinum members therefore the custom air fee is waived, but the additional air charges for the flights we wanted were over double what I booked the flight for myself from Charlotte to Galveston and I booked direct flights. RCCL has only certain flights booked and if you do not request those then will pay a premium is what we were told. Even with the cost of the transfers I still saved $230 each. So much for custom air benefit. I too like the control of knowing when I am flying.

[negc]

Be careful when booking custom air though. We are platinum members therefore the custom air fee is waived, but the additional air charges for the flights we wanted were over double what I booked the flight for myself from Charlotte to Galveston and I booked direct flights. RCCL has only certain flights booked and if you do not request those then will pay a premium is what we were told. Even with the cost of the transfers I still saved $230 each. So much for custom air benefit. I too like the control of knowing when I am flying.

 

No one has claimed that custom air is always best, but when they advise you of any extra cost, you still have the option to decline it and do what you did, book on your own. The important thing is to explore your airfare options and then decide how to proceed.:)