NyerinOH

Thank you! My cruises on Celebrity have been great, and I hope that another good experience may change my mindset to never cruise with them. Right now, I'm wrapped up in all the stress and emotion of getting airfare resolved. My significant other is going on her 22 cruise, while this is my 5th and she mentioned Cruise Critic to me. Great site, and I really appreciate all the experiences, insights that others have shared here!

I was VERY surprised that even though I booked Premium economy, I still had to pay almost $200 to select my seats (there are only four rows of Premium economy). Air Canada and American didn't have that added cost.

The prices were no cheaper or expensive than others I saw independently. My thought was having that added layer of assurance if flights were cancelled, if something happened where I would miss the departure, I knew Celebrity would get me to the next port to catch my cruise, whereas if I booked my own airfare, I was on my own. I was still planning to arrive the day before, but back in June of 2023, airlines were a hot mess with schedules. As you noted, the benefit was I locked my airfare cost (mostly, not 100%) and didn't have to pay for it until 90 days prior to cruising. If I cancelled my cruise, I didn't lose any money related to airfare.

The biggest mistake I made was booking airfare via Celebrity for a May Scandinavian cruise, and wondering if others have had issues? I booked the cruise 11 months in advance, and understand flights change. However, in my case, after my initial flight was cancelled, they waited months, then gave me an itinerary that made no sense, cancelled that, and in the past 2 weeks have had airfare changed FOUR TIMES!! Now, when I go to pick my seats (I booked Premium Economy), the airline wants to charge me an additional $218 dollars!? Celebrity has been horrific!! I booked far in advance so that me and my significant other could sit together, by a window where there are only two seats, and now I can't even get middle seats unless I pay $218? And there are no window seats available. Of course, they have all my money, my cruise is in less than 90 days! Am I the only one having such nightmares with Flights by Celebrity. I've loved cruising with them, but after this nightmare, I will never sail with them again!! The only thing they have done was apologize over and over, thank me for my patience (which is long gone) and gave each of us $100 onboard credit, which ironically doesn't even show up on my account. #Celebrityneveragain