Celebrity air advice

[skyview851]

Oh woe is me. I found cruise critics after we booked on Feb '05 cruise with air thru celebrity. Since our cruising in the winter always corresponds with a major snowstorm in the east, we have always flown in a day ahead of time to avoid any problems if weather causes flight delays. We have not rec'd any documentation from Celebrity on our flights yet, but I would like to request the day earlier flight. I called customer service, and they said the only way to change this was to cancel the existing cruise & reschedule with an additional day in Miami. I THINK NOT! Has anyone else ever dealt with this before? I know now I should have made my own air arrangements, and I will next time, but what do I do now? Pray that it won't snow in Feb?

[tbelian]

Maybe I missed something.?

 

Why not cancel the cruise anyway, reschedule, and book your own air, without the additional day in Miami?

[skyview851]

We want the extra day in Miami, X won't allow it since we booked without it. I looked into rebooking & the cost of the cruise has gone up more than the savings in the airfare.

[tbelian]

Ah. Well, ok, here is another thought. Have you cruised with Celebrity before, and are you a captain's club member? If so, there is something called 'custom air' ... but I don't know the specifics. It might address this situation. Call Captain's Club and see??

[wv4891]

Can you just cancel your air piece without penalty and book your own? I would think you could do this as final payment has not been made yet. Even with penalty you may be able to book your own air cheaper????? You would just have to take a taxi to and from the pier.

 

 

I know now I should have made my own air arrangements, and I will next time, but what do I do now? Pray that it won't snow in Feb?

[gracecarmo]

skyview: I do believe that you can just cancel the air portion, I have done it before with no penalty prior to final payment.

Since we also live in a "snow" issue, I book my own air and come into Fla. 2 days early.

Good luck, and let us know how you make out.

 

Grace

[skyview851]

We are C club members, so I will try that option first. If not, I will investigate cancelling the air....I didn't know that was an option either. Thanks to everyone.

[cechase]

We live in the Reno/Sparks, Nevada area, and we book our cruises through Icruise.com. For our May 2004 cruise out of Fort Lauderdale, we also booked our air through Celebrity. While weather was not a concern, we were concerned that it is almost an all day trip.

 

With one important exception - the Celebrity air arrangements were just fine, including putting us up at the Sheraton Fort Lauderdale Airport hotel [which is not cheap], and providing us transfer from the hotel to the pier, and upon disbarkation from the pier to the hotel. The exception - on each of the four legs to FFL and then from FLL to Reno-Tahoe International - we were not sitting together!!!!! And you do not find out about your air arrangements until about three weeks before embarkation when you receive your cruise documents. The only saving grace was that we flew from Reno on American West Air, and I was able to upgrade us for $100.00 each to first class and sitting together on the Reno to Phoenix leg. The long leg to FLL - four hours was miserable.

 

For our 2/19/2005 cruise on Century, we booked our round trip on American West Air, and for $200 extra each, are traveling first class. We are also staying one extra day in FLL after disembarkation, because the airport on Saturday is a mess with people sleeping or sitting on floor - because all of the cruise ships dump their pax into the airport at around 9:00 or 10:00 a.m., and the flights usually are in the afternoon.

[theawesome1]

3 weeks before? Was this your first cruise? Reason why I ask is I received an email in March for our September cruise with Continental air flight # & times for both ways & a note in red at the bottom for me to call them to make seat arrangments. That was 9 months prior. Who is your TA? Maybe you need mine ;-)

[Nanatravel]

Skyview, why isn't your TA assisting you? Did you book directly with cruise line? Mistake #2. You probably could have saved money and lots of aggravation. Book you own air to arrive a day early and just cancel the cruise line air portion. We do it often when price or change of heart is the option.

Bon Voyage

[zurmoly]

You can cancel your air with them up until final payment. Look around and book your own air, going down one day early. Don't wait though, prices for Feb are getting high.

[txtravelgal]

Could you email me the name of your TA?

 

cbhilton@cox-internet.com

[LovetheSea]

We changed air with Celebrity before and just had to pay for an air deviation? We also wanted to go a day ahead instead of the same day that they had booked for us. They may has changed since our cruise a couple of years ago. It is bad to rebook the whole thing if the price has gone up since you first booked. Unless they can give you the same price. Also sometimes the air has gone up. Check prices on Orbitz and Travelocity and see if you can do better with your own air.

Good Luck.

[Desertbelle]

We are booked for Europe in June 2005 on the Millennium. Currently we have our air booked through Celebrity at $1298 pp. including transfers. This is from Las Vegas. At this time open jaw tickets LAS -> VCE, BCN -> LAS are running at about $1700 + .

 

So, unless we can find airfare a lot cheaper than that it seems that Celebrity has the best price going. They don't have any pre-stays and post-stays open yet and that may make a big difference in the costs.

 

I am hoping I can find tickets in the $800-900 range and book our own hotels, etc.

 

Wait and see....I guess time will tell. :)

[TWOFERTWO]

I would cancel the air through Celebrity, like the others have said. If you have not cruise with Celebrity, and you want their air, you can use custom air and pay$50 (domestic) and $75 (foriegn) per person.The information below is from the Celebrity web site. :)

 

 

air arrangements

What is the Custom Air program?

Celebrity Cruises is pleased to announce new value added features to the Celebrity Cruises Custom Air travel service. An adjustment to service fees is also being made. Custom Air provides air travel arrangements on the flights of your choice, at the times of your choice, and in the class of service of your choice. Custom Air can handle air arrangements for gateways "not offered" and can service guests in different cabins that want to travel together. Custom Air also provides the value of airport transfers and baggage service which is a part of Celebrity's standard air program.

 

Custom Air requests may be done over the phone for both Individual and Group guests. The phone number is 800-636-2440. Custom Air requests for Celebrity Cruises may also be made through e-mail at customair@celebrity.com.

[greatam]

We are booked for Europe in June 2005 on the Millennium. Currently we have our air booked through Celebrity at $1298 pp. including transfers. This is from Las Vegas. At this time open jaw tickets LAS -> VCE, BCN -> LAS are running at about $1700 + .

 

So, unless we can find airfare a lot cheaper than that it seems that Celebrity has the best price going. They don't have any pre-stays and post-stays open yet and that may make a big difference in the costs.

 

I am hoping I can find tickets in the $800-900 range and book our own

 

Wait and see....I guess time will tell. :)

 

Just a suggestion. Book RT LAS to Barcelona or for even cheaper fare, RT London/LAX through LAS or buy a separate ticket to LAX from LAS. Then buy a one way ticket (or even a RT if the price is right and throw the return away) from London to Venice and BCN to London. MUCH cheaper than cruise line air. Or take the train to London after your cruise. Love the overnight trains in Europe. There are a lot of REALLY cheap intra Europe flights. Some tickets as little as $5.00US (special) However, watch the luggage allowance on Ryan Air and Easy Jet. One 20kg checked. Sometimes the excess luggage fee is cheaper than the extra airfare.

 

We did this in March-booked RT Phoenix/NYC (America West), ticket 2-NYC/London (AA), ticket 3- London to AMS (BA). Total price, including porters to schlepp the luggage and all the misc. stuff-$641.47pp. Took 2 hours longer than a direct flight, PHX/AMS, with a stop in London and saved over $300.00pp. And by breaking up the flights, it was not nearly so long a trip. If you have never done it, it is a LONG trip from LAX/LHR.

 

I guess what it really comes down to-do you spend the money and make the trip easy or do you do the research, put up with a little hassle (and maybe have a great adventure along the way) and save the money? I personally like the adventure.

[stanjj111]

I believe that most cruise lines will guarantee that you do not miss the ship or will arrange for transfers to the next port.

[hajekfam]

We book our transatlantic cruises with air - and because we book them so early - the day they are published - we never set up the custom air at that time. Our TA just books them with air and then a few months before the cruise, she calls the custom air people at Celebrity and changes us to custom air arriving a few days before our cruise. We did not take Celebrity's hotel package on our last trans.

Custom air can be booked up to 7 days prior to sailing for North American cruises and 35 days for European and international cruises. There is a fee of $50 and $75 respectively which is waived for Captain's Club members. You will have to pay for any difference in airfare between Celebrity's package and the flights you are booking. To avoid this airfare difference, our TA asks which airlines Celebrity is dealing with and uses one of them.

Custom air has their own department - phone and email address. Try dealing with them instead of customer service to book your custom air.

As far the poster above who throws away the other half of a round trip ticket, I was reading in the Wall Street Journal about the airlines cracking down on this and billing customers for a one-way ticket. Also with today's heightened security, I would really worry about traveling to Europe and not showing up for the return flight and being listed on some sort of watch list (the paranoid part of me coming out).

[wv4891]

If you had a frequent flyer program with that airline(s) then you may forfeit all your accumulated miles with them (my best guess).

 

As far the poster above who throws away the other half of a round trip ticket, I was reading in the Wall Street Journal about the airlines cracking down on this and billing customers for a one-way ticket. Also with today's heightened security, I would really worry about traveling to Europe and not showing up for the return flight and being listed on some sort of watch list (the paranoid part of me coming out).

[greatam]

Please reread my post. I did not advocate throwing away part of your RT transatlantic air ticket. Unless you travel to Europe very frequently and fly the SAME intra Europe airline, IMHO, I think the chance of the airline "catching" you throwing away the return portion of an intra-Europe flight would be negligible.

 

However, if you were a BA, Swiss, Alitalia, etc., etc. FF and threw away an intra Europe ticket on any of those airlines, you would probably get caught and loose your FF miles and possibly your FF account and could have to pay for the difference in fare. So yes, in some ways, what you read in the WWJ is correct. American carriers do not fly intra-Europe so no worries there. I was using the example of Ryan Air and Easy Jet, although they have AWFUL luggage limitations.

 

I think $1200.00 open jaw transatlantic coach air is a crime and I would not pay it.

[Cruise Junky]

As far the poster above who throws away the other half of a round trip ticket, I was reading in the Wall Street Journal about the airlines cracking down on this and billing customers for a one-way ticket. Also with today's heightened security, I would really worry about traveling to Europe and not showing up for the return flight and being listed on some sort of watch list (the paranoid part of me coming out).

 

I've done this in the past, but never in Europe. I told them upon checkin that I won't be using my return ticket. They've always been fine with it. Really, why should they care, if you tell them, it opens up the seat so they can actually sell it twice. I think a lot of people were doing this with Air Canada as now their North American flights are pretty much based on two one way tickets.