Choice air - low one way prices to/from Europe..GONE?

A month ago we booked flights from Barcelona to Tampa on choice air for around $560 pp...we are flying to Europe on air miles. I just checked again today and found that choice air is now charging exactly what the airlines charge for a one way ticket. It isn’t date dependent and I checked a uk transatlantic and the return air London to Tampa would cost almost $2000 per person....bcn to Tpa would be $2200.

I don’t know if it’s just a system glitch, some contract hasn’t been agreed on or if this is the new norm.....but if you are thinking that choice air is still offering low one way flights, I suggest you check before making plans.

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It may be the flights/ Class you are checking.

2 weeks ago I booked 1 way prem econ from DFW- Santiago thru Choice Air for $650pp less than the airline. Today that flight is the same price on Choice Air as the airline BUT economy is $750 less pp on CA and Business Class is $1250 less than the airline.

Glad I booked Prem Economy when I did.

We are cruising out of Venice this summer. Airline prices through Choice Air are Double what we paid this year. It is a Multiple city trip both times. In 2018 the fare was $899 pp and in 2019 they are currently $1792 pp for regular economy. We are waiting a while to book in hopes they come down. The CA prices and airline prices are almost identical. In 2018 the CA price was about $500 less than the airline direct.

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That's a disturbing trend, which if it continues will impact many folks travel plans. I think it's probably more a function of airlines not giving discounted one way fares to cruise lines than of cruise lines hiking things. Either way it's something that will give pause to many travelers. Perhaps those fares are too far out yet to show optimum prices. Generally the best time to book air travel is from 120-90 days prior. That is tough when booking a transatlantic cruise early and then rolling the dice to get reasonable air a year later.

I’ve never rolled the dice like mentioned above. I book only when the cruise and the air fall within my guidelines, then I book them the same day. We only book cruises we really want to take so cancelling the cruise at a later date because of high priced air won’t happen.

Should you have to cancel your cruise at the last minute, though, I believe HA will refund your fare if flights are booked through Choice Air. That’s a huge plus, at least for me, if unexpected business issues pop up.

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Hope this isn’t the case. We booked for our TA this October and got a great price on Air France. We have a TP booked in 2020 out of Sydney and will have to cancel if airfare is outrageous.

Should you have to cancel your cruise at the last minute, though, I believe HA will refund your fare if flights are booked through Choice Air. That’s a huge plus, at least for me, if unexpected business issues pop up.

 

 

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Fares from Choice Air could be either refundable or non-refundable depending on what you selected when booking. It may be that if you booked cruise insurance through X that would include air I not sure as we don’t purchase insurance through the cruise line.

The flights we currently have booked through CA are non-refundable fares. However our travel insurance would reimburse them if we cancelled for a covered reason (not work).

I just reviewed several Celebrity and Royal Caribbean Transatlantics and priced one-way air returning to Atlanta using the choice air tool. The fares were uniformly outrageous. My guess is the airlines have eliminated the preferential one way pricing they offered through choice air in the past. $2000+ for a one way economy ticket between a European port city and Atlanta is sheer insanity. I am finding that with all the mergers in the airline industry that airlines are becoming uniformly more and more consumer unfriendly than ever before. The cruiselines are 110% at their mercy, and the contract terms are controlled by the airlines.

Should you have to cancel your cruise at the last minute, though, I believe HA will refund your fare if flights are booked through Choice Air. That’s a huge plus, at least for me, if unexpected business issues pop up.

 

 

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If the original airfare you booked through choice air is non refundable (which is the default option) then the cruise line has ZERO leverage with the airline and they will not be able to refund your purchase. You would have to work with the airline directly to see if any portion of the ticket could be applied, with a change fee, toward an alternate flight. Change fees can vary from $200 per person for domestic trips up to $750 per person for international trips.

It has to be a glitch in their system. I have a flight booked on 28 Apr 2019 from FCO to IAD for $1180pp business class. The Sea2Air website now shows flights for 10 different airlines on the same date with economy fares for all 10 at the exact same price of $2173.54pp.

I would suggest researching flights you want then calling Sea2Air to get a price.

I looked at Heathrow to Pittsburgh for next April, knowing that BA will be offering nonstop flights then. Nonstop through ChoiceAir is $2200+ (with a choice of refundable or not), and with one stop, on Air Canada, is $367. Maybe certain airlines are just not participating.

[emoji30] We’re on Silhoutte’s TA in November and haven’t booked our flights back to the UK yet as we are not sure of the date we will be coming home yet. A look at ChoiceAir’s flights just now and the flights are around $2000 per person for economy one way for the dates we are looking at. Previously they were around $300.

We do have the option of flying Norwegian for around $250 each, but the dates and times aren’t our preferred choice.

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For all the people that travel/dine/lodge that post on sites like this, I'm missing why one does not use the value of using point(not miles) for ones air trips. We have a Vancouver to Sydney trip flight that cost points and 66 dollars in taxes. Our two night lodging in Sydney was free with points.

For all the people that travel/dine/lodge that post on sites like this, I'm missing why one does not use the value of using point(not miles) for ones air trips. We have a Vancouver to Sydney trip flight that cost points and 66 dollars in taxes. Our two night lodging in Sydney was free with points.

Not everyone can use points. Obviously if they could, they would.

Not everyone can use points. Obviously if they could, they would.

^^ This ^^

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Getting points with Canadian credit cards are crappy :loudcry:

[emoji30] We’re on Silhoutte’s TA in November and haven’t booked our flights back to the UK yet as we are not sure of the date we will be coming home yet. A look at ChoiceAir’s flights just now and the flights are around $2000 per person for economy one way for the dates we are looking at. Previously they were around $300.

 

We do have the option of flying Norwegian for around $250 each, but the dates and times aren’t our preferred choice.

 

 

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We have flown Norwegian, but would only recommend their premium class. Take care, they have changed most of the flights from FLL to LGW to be serviced by WAMOS airlines. This airline does not get good reviews!!! We are flying one way FLL to CDG with Norwegian on their Dreamliner and then a short flight to LGW with Vueling, works out very reasonable. I would say Norwegian Premium is better than Virgin or BA premium but it is not business class with flat beds

The price I paid, 1400 one way to Rome on business class went from 1400 to 8000. I'm feeling good I already have my tickets and hope it is a short term issue with the airlines and choice air. There are a lot more choices these days for transatlantic flights. WOW and Norwegian and other new routes are going to put pressure on the mainstream Airlines.

The big draws for transatlanticss and other foreign cruises were cheap cruise fares and cheap airfare. The cruise fares (the categories I want), have risen dramatically and still no perks. The air fare discussed above, have negated that advantage. If the air fares are real, it’ll be interesting to see what happens to international cruising in the future.

We’ve done it six times so we’ve enjoyed it while it was a real deal.

Have done 12 TAs using Choice Air. The combination of decent cruise pricing (we have no use for perks) and very reasonable Choice Air fares caused us to book. With TA fares heading north fast (they have become trendy, thus expensive) and Choice Air rocketing up, our AZ Pursuit TA next month will be the last.

Choice Air:

Just checked Orlando to Rome one way October 20, 2018 is $3200 per person. Paid under 500 p/p!

Maybe because so close to sailing.

Price not up yet for next November Miami to Barcelona.

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something strange going on with choice air...I looked at a flight in September 2019 and this is what I got....

106.00 Fare

+

1,771.23 Taxes & Fees

1,877.23 Total

I am appalled at the high cost of air through choice air. For my TA in April the cost had been 400 from Europe to DTW. Was waiting to decide where I wanted to fly back from. What was previously 400 from Amsterdam is now 2300! 900 from Dublin. Both these are mid May. I called choice air and they said basically oh well.

Never saw prices jump so drastically. I should add that these are main cabin and not business class. Cost to fly to FLL doubles for the one way trip - only $10 less than airline website. Celebrity needs to change their website for choice air to remove “low airfare”.

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I have noticed this surge in airfare too. I booked my flights when they first came out for Edge in 2019. For business class one way from LHR it was 1200 pp to Reno. A friend of mine lives in Maryland and hers from LHR in business were 5000 for two! Yes, something is going on here for sure. I also have a westbound TA booked for 2019 in November, but those flights are not out yet. It will be interesting to see...I read an article last spring saying the airline rates were going to go up substantially this fall...guess the article was right!