RetroRod

4 hours ago, BQEC said:

Sounds about right!

What “sounds about right”???

I paid in full today for a Dec 22 cruise and took the opportunity to talk with my TA about my May 23 cruise. We went over the new Regent Custom Air form process since that opens up for me on Aug 12 and I wanted a 3-way call. She spoke to Regent to confirm. Below is what she was told

“As for your May2023 cruise, Christopher the agent that I spoke with said that only if you leave 30days or less before departure they would be able to do the phone conference for the air.  He also said, there is no form that he is aware off and I need to call in your air request.

It appears my TA gets a different answer to questions every time she speaks to Regent. I’m about ready to just book my own air so I don’t have to deal with Regent. Maybe that’s their goal.😕

5 hours ago, Mike Moore said:

Apologies for that @RetroRod  - I reached out to that team this morning to ensure they have the correct answer, which is as I stated above. 

Thanks Mike. Maybe the last 10% of the office will get the memo😊

Rallydave, I have read the Mike Moore post and related it to my TA. My post #80 is what a Regent agent told my TA. A little confusing at best when you get info directly from Regent. 

I contacted my TA and she spoke with Regent. Below is what she was told. (Name deleted)
“Just spoke with xxxxx at the cruise desk and she said the form is on the Guest portion under My account.  You can do this only 270 days before departure.”

Maybe that form populates in “My Account” when you hit the 270 days prior.
Please don’t tell me to read post #57 or #55 and #71. The customize air tab in my account is NOT THERE. 

14 minutes ago, pingpong1 said:

Mike - Thanks so much for stepping in and clarifying.  That now makes a lot of sense and should put many questions to rest (but probably not all questions).  For myself, I really appreciate Regent staff, such as yourself, "monitoring" these pages and offering their insight and relevant information, when they feel it's appropriate.  I appreciate you doing that.  Best Regards.

Agree with pingpong1. Also, thanks to Pcardad for some good info. 

Reviewed post#57. In my account, for a cruise in May 2023, I have Customize Shore Excursions, Customize Butler Service and Roundtrip Air, NO CUSTOMIZE TAB. Do you have to be within the 270 day window to get that tab?? Sure would be nice if Regent was a little more forthcoming with info. Jennefer what say you???

Just checked my account. No place to customize air travel. I’ll see if my TA can shed any light on this “new and improved” process. This shouldn’t be this hard!

On the June 3 post of the Jason Montague video re: custom air he stated the new process would be coming “soon”. Jennefer in Customer Relations posted here the new online submission form would be coming “next week”. I haven’t found any form to request custom air. Has anyone seen this new form online? If so, where is it located? 

I found a video on YouTube that will give you some idea of the atmosphere during a holiday cruise. We booked a holiday cruise for Dec 2022 partly based on what we saw on this video. 

Jennefer responded to a concern on Custom Air process and May be able to help you

Jennefer Teegen | Director of Guest Experience and Loyalty
P: +1 954.940.7217 

jteegen@rssc.com| www.rssc.com

Regent Seven Seas Cruises

7300 Corporate Drive, Miami  FL 33126

Great tip especially when traveling. Thanks

Thank you Jennefer for your timely response and shedding some more light on the current Custom Air issue. Hopefully, the new and yet to be implemented process changes will help in making timely custom air reservations. 

This is the email I sent to Jennefer Teegen at RSSC.  Hopefully, we get a response. 
Hello Jennefer
From a previous post on Cruise Critic you identified yourself as the Regent Director of Guest Experience and Loyalty. There have been a number of posts by upset customers on CC regarding the changes to the custom air process. The posts on the Regent board are listed in the post titled “change to custom air procedures”. It would be very helpful if you could read what people are saying and respond accordingly. I and the Regent community look forward to hearing from you. 
Regards
“Retrorod”
 

Just watched the video about the changes to the Custom Air process. What I took away is all the issues are caused by factors beyond Regent’s control. However, Regent’s answer is to eliminate calling directly to the custom air department and a request form and online request system are coming. Maybe putting more people in the Custom Air department to handle the work load should have been considered by Regent. I know when there are long lines in my local stores they open up another register, even putting managers on the front line. Yes, I know there are many businesses looking for workers but I suspect the Regent agents aren’t minimum wage employees. 

I had my TA contact Regent regarding the post about not contacting Regent Air for custom flights. According to Regent, as of today, I am not affected by this change since my cruise isn’t until May 2023. I still contact Regent Air 270 days prior which is August 12, 2022. Also, my TA said if I was affected Regent would have notified her about it. With all the changes going on I’m not real confident that is true. Time will tell how this plays our. I’ll post more later. 

On 5/25/2022 at 7:06 PM, taxare said:

Hello, Received this message from Regent today!

 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

NEW REGENT CUSTOM AIR REQUEST PROCEDURES

I have 4 cruises booked with Regent and have not received any messages like the one Taxare posted. Has anyone else received such a message?

Thank you to all for the very good and informative responses to my questions. Looking forward to the cruise. 

We have a cruise booked on the Splendor for Dec 2022. It will be a full canal transit from the Caribbean to the Pacific. Does anyone know which canal Regent (Splendor) uses i.e. old 1914 canal or the wider 2016 one? We watched a documentary on the canal and it stated the 1914 canal was more interesting with more to see going through the locks. Also, any suggestions on the best ship viewing locations for the transit?

I purchased these vinyl holders to make our supplied tags a little more secure and convenient to attach to our bags prior to boarding.  Looks like we may have to go the DIY route if Regent doesn’t change their policy.🙁

Good news for the Georgetown port. Regent has added 7 more excursions for a total of 9. More options now so most folks should find something they "like".🙂     

I checked back today for the Georgetown port and lo and behold there is now a waitlist for the one "free" excursion being offered at this time! We were able to get on the WL. I guess someone from Regent monitors CC and got the message.   

I'll try to clarify my post re: shore excursion sold out. My point was two-fold. First, there were only two excursions listed and both sold out. Second, no waitlist. It had nothing to do with not liking the excursions, there was nothing available. As Flossie009 stated they were even waitlisted at the 365-day mark.  The response from the Regent agent, that day, was interesting saying they had no control over excursions. With no waitlist how would Regent know what the demand for a port/excursion was? Thanks to info from UUNetBill I was able to see what was available in the past.  Hopefully, as I get closer, more things may become available. As far as reading right over the details, I included an extract from their website to show that was not true in my case.     

From the Regent website "Embrace amazing opportunities in each port of call with more than 2,000 FREE Unlimited Shore Excursions across every region of the world...". I know Regent reads CC and maybe this post will spur some action from them. 

We are booked on the Dec 22 "Christmas on The Canal" cruise. Since we were not in a Concierge or above cabin, we were able to book shore excursions 300 days prior to departure. I realized that others could book 365 days prior and that some of our first choices may not be available, so I had second and third choices ready. Generally, we were able to get our first choice in many ports, except one. George Town, the first port on the cruise only had TWO excursions listed. The included excursion was sold out with no waitlist.  The other was a Regent Choice which was available at $69 PP but was of no interest to us. I understand that some ports are small and tour vendors may be limited. However, since Regent advertises "Unlimited Shore Excursions " I called Regent to find out how that would handle this port. The agent said they have no control over the tours since they are contracted locally and there MAY be additional tours added. I said with no waitlist how would Regent know what the demand is. He said in the event nothing is added I should have a plan B. Really??!! I know the departure date is months away and things may change. Has anyone encountered something like this? How did Regent respond? 

I found this video on YouTube that shows what went on during a Christmas cruise. Very informative. It helped us decide to book the 2022 Christmas/New Years  Panama Canal cruise on Splendor.