Considering trying a cruise with Regent sometime...any suggestions or advice?

I'm sorry but I don't think that this statement is entirely correct. We live in Europe but has used an American TA to book our first Regent cruise departing from Rio. It is completely correct that no flights are included, but we were still offered a cheaper base price, OBC and a considerable cash back.

I’d guess that the lower fare would correspond to the published fare minus the air credit. I think TC was saying that US fares are quoted with Business Class air included, European fares are quoted with Economy air, and Australian fares are cruise only (no air at all). I could be wrong on that but that was my understanding.

As always, you can tailor your air by either taking the air credit and booking your own air, or ‘downgrading’ to economy air for a lower fare. I dont’ think the air credit is usually enough to cover what you’d pay for air if you were to book it yourself but it’s a good option for people with miles or points who can arrange air for less.

My past OBCs and cash back deals usually came from the TA or the travel company and were separate from any offers Regent had going.

Since neither my wife nor I travel much for work any more, we don’t have miles like we used to so we generally just use the included Regent air and pay the deviation fee to get the flights we prefer.