How to re-confirm airline tickets??????

[new cruiser 2010]

I am not very savy at international travel, so I hope to get info on how to re-confirm airline tickets while away from home, and on a cruise???? We need to call the airline 24 hours in advance, right???

What do I do if I don't have a working cell phone and there is not internet available???

Is the best thing to do, is get the airlines phone number and call from a public pay phone??? What if we are at sea in the last 24 hours prior to flight????

Not sure here and need some guidance...Thanks in advance!

[SeaShark]

I am not very savy at international travel, so I hope to get info on how to re-confirm airline tickets while away from home, and on a cruise???? We need to call the airline 24 hours in advance, right???

What do I do if I don't have a working cell phone and there is not internet available???

Is the best thing to do, is get the airlines phone number and call from a public pay phone??? What if we are at sea in the last 24 hours prior to flight????

Not sure here and need some guidance...Thanks in advance!

 

When I need the facts concerning airline travel, I usually ask either the airline or the travel agent (if used).

 

Have you addressed your questions to the airline? What was their response?

[uppitycats]

I am not very savy at international travel, so I hope to get info on how to re-confirm airline tickets while away from home, and on a cruise???? We need to call the airline 24 hours in advance, right???

What do I do if I don't have a working cell phone and there is not internet available???

Is the best thing to do, is get the airlines phone number and call from a public pay phone??? What if we are at sea in the last 24 hours prior to flight????

Not sure here and need some guidance...Thanks in advance!

 

How did you book your plane? If you used a travel agent, generally they will do this for you. Otherwise, yes, get the phone number of the airline and call from a pay phone. A pre-paid international phone card comes in handy for this, or check your home phone service. They sometimes have programs that you can access when travelling abroad, to make these sorts of calls.

[MMastell]

You should have received a confirmation number when you booked your ticket.

 

Go to the airline's website and pull up your reservation using your confirmation number. Depending on how far off you flight is you will be able to pick your seats. If you can't pull up your flight then call the airline to find out if there is a problem and get the correct confirmation number. Note: Confirmation may be a combination of letters and numbers. i.e. A34C01.

 

24 hours before your flight you can and should do online check-in. You really don't need to print your boarding pass, if you have checked luggage, since you will need to check your bags and receive a new boarding pass at that time. Just make sure your flight number and seat assignment haven't changed.

 

Have a good flight.

[DMAB]

I am not very savy at international travel, so I hope to get info on how to re-confirm airline tickets while away from home, and on a cruise???? We need to call the airline 24 hours in advance, right???

What do I do if I don't have a working cell phone and there is not internet available???

Is the best thing to do, is get the airlines phone number and call from a public pay phone??? What if we are at sea in the last 24 hours prior to flight????

Not sure here and need some guidance...Thanks in advance!

 

From a cruise ship, the best bet is to use the internet to reach airlines website. If you haven't already done so, get on their website from home and be sure you know how to use the airlines website instead of learning at the cruise lines high internet rate.

[nlt46]

One can try to confirm and check in from the ship's internet, but if you are in Europe, that isn't going to happen. We tried from out at sea and the airline website explained that we had to check in .. in person. No problem, we did. Of course, if it is from here in the US, things would be easier. Good luck and enjoy your cruise.

 

Nancy

[garycarla]

I know they always required you to check in 24 hours in advance years ago. Maybe they still do. But, in our last dozen intl trips, we have never called the airline. Often I do go to their website and do the online check-in - which often never completes because they want to see your passport, in person.

 

As said, have your flight information handy. Go to an internet terminal to check of flight status, and maybe get lucky enough to get better seats. If you do not have a Freq Flyer number for that airline, get one today, online.

[DebPhill]

The last time I flew International, I was told you cannot check in online for International Travel.

[lambs2]

The last time I flew International, I was told you cannot check in online for International Travel.

Same here as stated above and it was just last May in Amsterdam. What we could do (we did it on the iternet at our post-cruise hotel) was to check and make sure our flight was at the same time our tickets showed and that our seat assignments had not changed. Everything else we did at the airport on the morning of our flight.

[new cruiser 2010]

Thanks alot for the information guys! So, do I understand that if a person doesn't re-confirm the tickets, your seat is NOT forfeited???

You can walk into the airport on the day of your flight and check in at the counter, and your seat is still valid?

Just wondering, since that is what it sounds like from some of the posts.

...Why would the seats assignments have been changed?

When I purchased the tickets I was able to choose my seats at that time. I was pleased with that, and would be a little ticked if the seats got changed!

Thanks...

[mike@sea]

Unless it is s charter flight where reconfirmation sometimes is still required in which case it says so on the travel documents ( due to possible departure time changes ), airlines do not(!) require reconfirmation anymore. Why ? Because it is way too expensive and absolutely useless (to the airline).

If you have assigned seats, those stay with you untill the check in-deadline which varies from airport to airport but is usually within 1 hour of your flight ( sometimes longer, sometimes even shorter ). You can check on the check-in deadline on your airlines website. Seat assignemnet changes (should) only happen, if a different type of aircraft is being used than what was planned.

That´s how "my" airline handles it ( Lufthansa) and I know that´s how most other airlines handle it as well. With most airlines you can check in online from 23 hours before departure, regardless whether it´s international or not ( again cost reasons and to fasten the actual airport check in).

Hope this helps.

[Globaliser]

So, do I understand that if a person doesn't re-confirm the tickets, your seat is NOT forfeited???

You can walk into the airport on the day of your flight and check in at the counter, and your seat is still valid?

mike@sea is correct about this. For the vast majority of scheduled flights, no reconfirmation is necessary.

 

Many airlines do have online check-in for international flights, if you can get to a computer to do it. But it isn't compulsory. Some airlines encourage you to do this by (for example) not allocating seats at all until you check-in. But if you already have allocated seats, then this won't apply to you. Pre-allocated seats are usually not released to other passengers until check-in closes - but see below.

When I purchased the tickets I was able to choose my seats at that time. I was pleased with that, and would be a little ticked if the seats got changed!

You need to be aware that this can always happen. Choosing your seat is only a request for that seat. The airline does not have to honour the request, and can change your seat allocation at any time for any reason - even after you have boarded the aircraft. (They do like to bury this bit very deep in the small print, though.)

 

So seat allocations can change before the flight opens for check-in, for all sorts of reasons - that's been touched on already and this is the biggest source of complaints from CC members. Also, they can be changed during the check-in process if (for example) a group has to be allocated seats together and cannot be split up. But this is relatively rare. After check-in closes, allocated seats are usually released for anyone who's standing by for a flight, or to accommodate outstanding seat change requests. So if you're late to check in, you may then find that your allocated seats have gone to someone else and you have to take whatever's left (if you're allowed to check in at all, which by then will be dubious).

[lambs2]

mike@sea is correct about this. For the vast majority of scheduled flights, no reconfirmation is necessary.

 

Many airlines do have online check-in for international flights, if you can get to a computer to do it. But it isn't compulsory. Some airlines encourage you to do this by (for example) not allocating seats at all until you check-in. But if you already have allocated seats, then this won't apply to you. Pre-allocated seats are usually not released to other passengers until check-in closes - but see below.You need to be aware that this can always happen. Choosing your seat is only a request for that seat. The airline does not have to honour the request, and can change your seat allocation at any time for any reason - even after you have boarded the aircraft. (They do like to bury this bit very deep in the small print, though.)

 

So seat allocations can change before the flight opens for check-in, for all sorts of reasons - that's been touched on already and this is the biggest source of complaints from CC members. Also, they can be changed during the check-in process if (for example) a group has to be allocated seats together and cannot be split up. But this is relatively rare. After check-in closes, allocated seats are usually released for anyone who's standing by for a flight, or to accommodate outstanding seat change requests. So if you're late to check in, you may then find that your allocated seats have gone to someone else and you have to take whatever's left (if you're allowed to check in at all, which by then will be dubious).

 

Last year our seats had NOT been assigned previously as it was a partner flight. So when we got computer access at our hotel the night before our flight we were able to pick seats together for the next morning's flight. The Eurpoeand trip six months before we already knew our seat assignments and did not even check in until we got to the airport. However, what we did miss was a notification that the last leg of our flight had been cnacelled and the one we were rbooked on had a 7 hour layover before we took off at JFK airport! Nothing we could have done about that, though...

[meaclasact2]

We have always used NCL's air and I never worried about reconfirming.

 

For our upcoming trip I will be booking my air independently (NCL's rate for ONE is what I will be paying for two, round trip, direct flights). Anyway...

 

I was also concerned about reconfirming for my flight home from Barcelona to the States.

 

Thanks for all the terrific responses and thanks to the OP for reading my mind too ;)!

[NMLady]

On International flights from Europe after our transatlantic cruises we have never confirmed our flights. Confirming is mostly to make sure the time hasn't changed.

 

In Venice there was a 4 hour traffic controller strike that either delayed or cancelled ALL flights from Venice for the entire morning. Even if we'd confirmed and learned about our cancelled flight, we couldn't have done anything about it since NO flights on any airline were departing and we'd have to leave the ship anyway.

 

From Rio our seats on flight to US hadn't been assinged so we tried doing it online on the ship, no luck, emailed from ship, only to be told all seats would be assigned at airport, so trying to confirm did no good.

 

We don't worry about confirming flights, seats, etc anymore.

[Barb Nahoumi]

We tried to access American Airlines website from the ships internet. Doing so was difficult that day, so the internet cafe attendent helped us.

 

He printed our boarding passes for us.

 

Barb

[garycarla]

Please, please folks. You do not need to print boarding passed while on the ship and pay for something you do not need. When you get to the airport, you can either print them at a kiosk, or get them at the counter.

 

Yes, you can checkin, or at least check your flight while onboard. But, there is no need to print a boarding pass.