Deviating

[ranles]

Seems like we need to understand using the deviate process, and the pluses and minuses.

 

 

Do I start by finding a bunch of acceptable inteneries and then call Regent to see if we can have one of them?

 

Becides the direct fee to Regent for the deviation, what other fees costs/fees/changes are there? Do I pay more because I picked a more expensive one stop? What happens to the transportation from the AP to the hotel at our port? What about coming home? If the flight is cancelled or some other problem how does this change our responsibilities from our just taking what they gave us and the same thing happens....?

 

Leaving late February from San Diego to Rio. Return Miami to San Diego

[ridolphi]

Most people who deviate, do so to arrive and/or depart a day or two earlier/later. Regent can still do your air, you pay the fee, and work with them for acceptabole flights. Its a good idea to have two or three possibilities in mind each direction. Then you and/or your TA work with the air department to see if Regent can book those flights. Once you have an itinerary that you like, the fee is then charged and is non refundable. There may or may not be a supplemental charge for some flights and they will tell you if that is the case, it just depends on their contracts, and if particular flights have seats or not they can use under their fare codes. You or or TA really needs to work with the air department to get the best information. Regent will issue the e-tickets. At that point, you will be responsible for your own transfers and hotel situation. However, you can still use their one night included hotel if you like and then get the ship transfers, by booking additional nights at the same hotel they would be using for you.

 

Others prefer to take both the air and hotel credit and book everything on their own. We for instance are on the upcoming Nov Monte Carlo to RIO cruise, we decided to go to Paris since we have never been there for a couple of days ahead, so we did our own air with miles and booked our own one night hotel in Monte Carlo, and also booked our own hotel in RIO.

 

I did find out while working on this, that Regent does not have a contract with United out of South America, or at least that is what I was told, and we are traveling with a couple using Regent Air, and they are flying USAir via Charlotte on the leg home and Regent is flying them via Munich on UA to Monte Carlo. They booked their own hotel to be with us, and I did a transfer for them with the same transfer company we will use in Nice.

 

Sorry don't mean to go on and on and give you more information than you want or need, was just giving an example.

 

You can use their air, or not, use their hotel or not, and if you book the extra pre nights thru Regent then you would still get transfers airport to hotel to ship. Same at the end, you could book a hotel thru Regent and then get transfers ship to hotel to airport if doing air thru them, but keep in mind their extra hotel nights can be more expensive than doing it on your own, as they charge per person not per room.

 

I know its confusing, but if you have a TA he/she will have to work with Regent on this, if you booked directly you can work with Regent. I have always found the agents to be very helpful and willing to answer questions, etc.

 

I hope this was helpful, not more confusing. Hope you have a wonderful cruise.

[nana541]

If you are going to want to pick your own flights you really need to do this as early as possible... Waiting, and I think your cruise is in Feb is the worst thing you can do.... They only have so many sits available on certain flights and as the desirable flights fill up with folks who "deviated" months ago your options become fewer and less desirable.

 

Just my opinion but Feb will be here before you know it, don't wait for Regent to see what you might get in the way of flights, you very likely will just get what s left over and not be a happy cruiser!

[DOCMAC]

Seems like we need to understand using the deviate process, and the pluses and minuses.

 

 

Do I start by finding a bunch of acceptable inteneries and then call Regent to see if we can have one of them?

 

Becides the direct fee to Regent for the deviation, what other fees costs/fees/changes are there? Do I pay more because I picked a more expensive one stop? What happens to the transportation from the AP to the hotel at our port? What about coming home? If the flight is cancelled or some other problem how does this change our responsibilities from our just taking what they gave us and the same thing happens....?

 

Leaving late February from San Diego to Rio. Return Miami to San Diego

 

Joann gave great info. We have done air through Regent and also on our own. We have a cruise next month, and did it thru them this time. We took the deviation and air upgrade to business, and are going to Monte Carlo a day earlier. We also paid their ridiculous price and are paying for the extra night at the hotel thru them. But the flip side....since I usually do all the planning, this will be totally relaxing for me. We'll be met in Nice and taken to the hotel....then on our own until the transfer to the ship. If their are any problems, Regent's air people take care of it. We were in Manila when the Tsunami hit Japan. We did our own air that trip, but many people were booked by Regent to fly thru Tokyo on their return flights. Regent rebooked every person scheduled that way, so no one had to worry about possible radiation exposure, etc. Pros and cons to doing air thru the cruise line.

[computerworks]

If you are going to want to pick your own flights you really need to do this as early as possible...

 

Thanks for this topic.

 

How early? Is a year in advance too soon? When would you be able to find out what flight arrangements are planned for you?

 

We have booked a 10/2013 trip and plan to deviate on the return, to stay a few extra days.

[Travelcat2]

Thanks for this topic.

 

How early? Is a year in advance too soon? When would you be able to find out what flight arrangements are planned for you?

 

We have booked a 10/2013 trip and plan to deviate on the return, to stay a few extra days.

 

You can deviate 270 days in advance of your cruise. You find out what Regent has arranged for your flights about 75 days in advance.

[computerworks]

You can deviate 270 days in advance of your cruise. You find out what Regent has arranged for your flights about 75 days in advance.

 

Thanks...so, if I understand, you can submit a deviation request 9 months out, but you will not know the results until 2.5 months before your departure date?

 

:confused:

[DaveFr]

Thanks...so, if I understand, you can submit a deviation request 9 months out, but you will not know the results until 2.5 months before your departure date?

 

:confused:

When you submit a deviation request, you find out if you have the requested flights immediately. Regent books the flights at that time but doesn't ticket the flights until 30 - 60 days before the cruise. At least with Lufthansa, when Regent books the flights, you can go to the Lufthansa website and select seats.

 

If you do not do a deviation request, you find out what flights you have 75 days before the cruise.

 

Hope this helps.

[EAGLESLOVER]

Thanks...so, if I understand, you can submit a deviation request 9 months out, but you will not know the results until 2.5 months before your departure date?

 

:confused:

 

We had our flight information and were able to select our seats on USAIRWAYS immediately. We deviated at 270 days out.

[Travelcat2]

Thanks...so, if I understand, you can submit a deviation request 9 months out, but you will not know the results until 2.5 months before your departure date?

 

:confused:

 

Not exactly. I did not explain it very clearly. First, because you plan on spending a few extra days after disembarking, you will have to deviate. Adding extra days always requires a deviation. Here is a link to a website where you can calculate 270 days http://www.timeanddate.com/date/dateadd.html .

 

If you do not add extra days, you can still deviate and book flights at 270 days. When you book this far in advance, you will have more choices of flights and seats, however, you are deviating without knowing what Regent would have booked for you. You can wait until 75 days and see what Regent books. If you don't like it, you can still deviate but may have fewer choices.

 

Hope I have not made things even more complicated.:o

[Wendy The Wanderer]

I've usually deviated when flying overseas with Regent, and I admit I haven't picked out flights too often, but rather usually simply told them when I wanted to fly, and asked them what they could offer. If that weren't acceptable, then I could go try to find my own.

 

Once I tried to get Business flights through London on BA, but they couldn't do that, because they didn't have a contract with BA. So we were offered Lufthansa instead. In that case I fought with them to get me a decent connection in Frankfurt, rather than the "legal" connection they first offered me--to me, a decent connection time means peace of mind!

[ranles]

Thank you for the discussion. Maybe a bit dense, but...IF I deviate, I do not loose my included transport from the AP to the free hotel night, my transport to the ship, or my transport from the ship to the AP on the way home? Yes/no?

 

We are not looking for staying more nights at either end.

 

We ARE trying to avoid flights that get us in Rio at 11:30 PM, which would likely get us to the hotel at 1 AM, hardly a restful night before the crusie. Lots of these exist as flights. Also some 32-38 hour flight connections.

 

There are connections that leave here early afternoon and arrive in the late morning the next day, which is fine. That is the only reason we are even looking at this deviation process.

[computerworks]

(Ranles...hope it's OK for my adds to this thread...it seemed relevant).

 

From what I've read, an air deviation does lose your AP transfers with Regent.

[Travelcat2]

The question about transportation to the hotel and back to the airport at the end of your cruises is really a difficult one. "Usually" (important word:-) if you do not opt out of the hotel and use Regent Air to book your flights you will still have transfers included. If you opt out of Regent air you almost always lose your transfers.

 

A couple more considerations......... there are more and more flights being cancelled. If you deviate and your flight is cancelled, you may be responsible for another deviation fee to book another airline.

 

Regent contracts make it clear that it is your responsibility to get to the ship on time. Cancelled flights, etc. are not an excuse. However, if you book through RSSC, if your flight is cancelled, Regent will do everything it can to find you another flight and get you to the port for embarkation.

 

As Wendy indicated, not all carriers have contracts with Regent. We once asked for British Air and was told there would be an additional charge of $1,000. However, last May, Regent elected to put us on BA (not a deviation). Calling Regent Air when it time to deviate (or having your TA do so) is a great idea. Have your choices in front of you. (Note: I use our TA to interface with Regent -- I write down two or three flight choices -- times, flight #'s, etc. in an email. They email Regent Air and get an answer. For me this is easier than figuring things out on the telephone).

 

IMO, Air Deviation is one of the most complex parts of Regent (and I've been checking the notes I received from my TA when posting -- I do not know this all from memory).

 

P.S. Regent would not book you on a flight with a 32 hour flight connection:)

[Wendy The Wanderer]

I agree, in general, you would indeed lose your transfer from airport-hotel going into Rio. But perhaps not, since you're using their hotel. It perhaps depends on the timing--if most of their people are coming in late, they won't have transport available early. It's usually a bus, after all.

 

Depending on where you're staying in Rio, I would definitely ask that question of your TA and/or Regent, and get a definite answer. If the answer is "no transfer", then see if you can arrange a private transfer of your own. We had somebody pick us up at the airport, and it was a big plus. We got to chat with her in the car, brush up our Portuguese pronunciation (i.e., learn how to pronounce "Rio"--"Hio").

 

What hotel do they have you in in Rio?

[Travelcat2]

Wendy, the reason I hedged my answers about transfers was because we deviated our flights returning from Rio. Our TA thought we would not get transfers but we did (go figure). We also received transfers on our April, 2012 flight to Barcelona (we deviated but used Lufthansa). To further complicate matters, passengers on our upcoming cruise to India that completely opted out of air will have a transfer to the hotel (perhaps because there is a 3-night pre-cruise trip?)

 

We had difficulty finding flights out of Rio. As you mentioned, Regent may have contracts with a carrier for flights in Europe but not in South America. If we were to fly out of Rio again, we would deviate.

 

P.S. Just checked "Yapta" (an airline site). The best (shortest) flight I saw from GIG (Rio) to JFK (where I think computerworks would fly into) is U.S. Airways through Charlotte.

[ranles]

Boy, this is a mess.

 

We booked our program thru a TA. It includes airfare, transfers and hotel.

As our cruise is not until late February, we do not know what hotel or what our air arrangements will be.

 

IF, by paying Regent for deviation (getting a sure, comfortable timing potentially) we must also pay for transfers too, then I will just forget about the whole thing and just wait for my flight information and take it.

 

IF I "only" have to pay for the deviation fee, and can get the flight with UA (San-Hou to Rio) or similar then I would pay that fee.

 

Also IF I must pay more for my fligts, then I will also skip it.

 

I feel like a "newbe" but we have taken lots of cruises with NCL (2), Royal Car (2), Holland Am (5), Celebrity (1), and some one else, and yet never thought much about included air. We were almost always satisfied with the arrangements made. Only a month ago, with all the talk on this board of "everyone" doing deviations, and insisting that one should do it NOW, I have become conserned. This would not be such an issue, except there are so many nightmare routing available from San Deigo to Rio. I just assumed when we booked, that the "class" of Regent would suggest comfortable routing (still may be true). Several routings take us from SAN in the late morning/early afternoon and land us in Rio the next day at 9-noon. These tend to be more expensive. Unfortuantely, dozens of routings take us to Rio and land us at near midnight, making the included night in the hotel of questionable value versus the advertised reason for the hotel to insure you are rested.

 

Thanks everyone for their input.

 

computerworks, no problem, glad to have "you along for the ride"

[ridolphi]

Have your TA call the air department and ask if they are showing a "potential" air schedule at this point, which could be subject to change, and see what they might show, your TA can do that.

 

Then if you don't like the schedule, you and the TA could come up with a couple of potential itineraries, deviating only the flight to your liking, still using the hotel and not deviating your dates, and the TA can then ask if Regent can book any of those flights and if there would be a supplemental charge to any of them. This can be done without committing to anything. If they can book one of your options you can then choose to commit to the deviation, if they can't or there is a supplemental charge you don't want to pay, you can then choose to use whatever they assign you, which you can find out the definite schedule at 70 days out I think. Your TA can also ask at that time if transfers would be included, which I think they might, as long as you don't deviate the arrival/departure dates, meaning you arrive in RIO the day before, and depart on the day of disembarkation.

 

Its worth a couple of phone calls for your sanity. :) Good luck, hope you get it worked out.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Good luck with finding out what you can. I will say that usually the default air arrangements from Regent are very good, so you may have nothing to worry about. While your TA is on the phone, they can ask if you still get your airport-hotel transfer included if you deviate.

 

Oh, and your TA should be able to find out what hotel you'll be at.

 

Just an FYI, I'm sure you have most things set, and are happy about it, but in general, repeat Regent customers do not take the included hotel, but instead ask for a credit, and book their own hotel. This means your own transfers, of course, but it's almost always cheaper. However in Rio, as I've said, there's something to be said for having a transfer pre-arranged, since it's a huge sprawling city, and somewhat intimidating at first.

[pingpong1]

Hi Wendy (others) - I just need a bit more clarification. Like many other Regent travelers, I plan on "backing out" the Regent-provided hotel accomodation on our Oct 2013 booking and making/paying for our own alternative hotel reservations in Rome prior to embarkation (We'll be arriving in Rome a few days early). I'm pretty familiar with FCO-Rome "thing" and feel comfortable doing this. I also feel sure that I can get as nice/nicer accomodations in a more central part of town for less money - by doing it on "my own". I have already opted out of Regent's air arrangements (received the credit during initial booking) and am booking my own flights over to Rome and back from Venice.

 

Can I "assume" (always risky) that all I have to do is get myself and my luggage from my own selected hotel in Rome over to the Regent-selected Hotel (Hotel Albani Roma) on the morning of ship embarkation (Voyager) and will be able to take Regent's arranged transportation (bus) from the Albani to the port (civitavecchia) and board the Voyager along with everyone else? Or, would Regent NOT let me use their transportation to the port/ship simply because I didn't stay in their pre-cruise hotel overnight?

 

On our recent Navigator cruise to Alaska, it seemed like there were folks who met us at the Regent's hotel (Sheraton Vancouver) on the morning of embarkation and took Regent's shuttle over to the ship, who didn't necessarily stay at the Sheraton the night before. Best Regards.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Hi Wendy (others) - I just need a bit more clarification. Like many other Regent travelers, I plan on "backing out" the Regent-provided hotel accomodation on our Oct 2013 booking and making/paying for our own alternative hotel reservations in Rome prior to embarkation (We'll be arriving in Rome a few days early). I'm pretty familiar with FCO-Rome "thing" and feel comfortable doing this. I also feel sure that I can get as nice/nicer accomodations in a more central part of town for less money - by doing it on "my own". I have already opted out of Regent's air arrangements (received the credit during initial booking) and am booking my own flights over to Rome and back from Venice.

 

Can I "assume" (always risky) that all I have to do is get myself and my luggage from my own selected hotel in Rome over to the Regent-selected Hotel (Hotel Albani Roma) on the morning of ship embarkation (Voyager) and will be able to take Regent's arranged transportation (bus) from the Albani to the port (civitavecchia) and board the Voyager along with everyone else? Or, would Regent NOT let me use their transportation to the port/ship simply because I didn't stay in their pre-cruise hotel overnight?

 

On our recent Navigator cruise to Alaska, it seemed like there were folks who met us at the Regent's hotel (Sheraton Vancouver) on the morning of embarkation and took Regent's shuttle over to the ship, who didn't necessarily stay at the Sheraton the night before. Best Regards.

 

Hi pingpong, when you book your own air, you do not get transfers included. You might be able to purchase it from Regent, I don't know that, but you could ask.

 

It's not that you didn't stay in their hotel, it's because you're booking your own air. That was perhaps the case in Vancouver. You might want to ask this question over on the Regent board.

 

And of course the destination board here at CC will have lots of discussion of getting from Rome to Civitavecchia on your own, or with a car service.

[nana541]

Pingpong1, as you already know "don't assume".... It is unlikely you can just show up...the transfer from Rome to the port for embarkation is a long bus ride and Regent/and their ground agents will have arranged transportation for a specific number of passengers. They have not included you in that head count as you have "opted out" of the transfers.

It is possible you can pay for that transfer but I'm betting if they plan on transferring 120 passengers then that is the amount of buses they have arranged and if 500 show up well that's just not going to work.

 

Suggest checking with Regent and also your TA for alternative transport ie the Train or a private car service.... There are lots of outfits that provide transportation to the port.

[Travelcat2]

Hi pingpong, when you book your own air, you do not get transfers included. You might be able to purchase it from Regent, I don't know that, but you could ask.

 

It's not that you didn't stay in their hotel, it's because you're booking your own air. That was perhaps the case in Vancouver. You might want to ask this question over on the Regent board.

 

And of course the destination board here at CC will have lots of discussion of getting from Rome to Civitavecchia on your own, or with a car service.

 

Wendy, again, the rules are not hard and fast. Regent booked our air to Barcelona but we opted out of the hotel and did not get the transfer. I suppose Regent does not want to drop off passengers at other hotels.

 

Also, passengers flying to Delhi in late November will get hotel transportation -- even though their opted out of Regent Air. Col. Wes talks about this in our Roll Call.

 

This is one subject that, IMO, has too many "deviations".

 

pingpong1: Although you will not get transportation through Regent, IMO, it isn't that big of a deal. Even when we have included transportation, many times we let the bus take our luggage to the ship and we go on our own. It is much faster to check in when a bus load of passengers are not being dropped off at the same time.

[pingpong1]

TC/Wendy - Thanks for the input. When we went on our Navigator cruise from Vancouver up to Alaska, I arranged my own air. But I did use Regent's Hotel (Sheraton). When we arrived in Vancouver, we got our own taxi to take us from the airport over to Regent's hotel and stayed in the "free pre-cruise hotel accomodation" that Regent provided. Then the next day, got on the bus with everyone else who had stayed at the Sheraton and rode it on over to the ship.

 

But this new scenario for the Voyager trip is a bit different. I'm not using Regent's air OR Regent's Hotel. So they're not "making money" off of me (presumably - to defray the cost of the bus transport up to the port) for either service (air and hotel).

 

TC - You are correct, there are private car hires/limo service available from Rome that we can easily book to take us from our own hotel up to the ship, and we will most likely do just that. Once again, great advice from everyone. Regards to all.