Regent Air to Rio

[briar14]

Any tips in getting Regent to change our air itinerary. Currently, March 8, business class, Charlotte, JFK, São Paulo, Rio, on TAM, about 24 hrs. travel time vs. Atlanta to Rio, Delta business, 10 hrs. travel time. Regent has put other passengers on Delta flight and seats are available. This is cruel punishment! Thanks for any advice.

[Michael@ssrp]

Way worth it to pay the deviation and get your TA and Regent Air to come up with a more civilized routing. Have done this route before on Regent and we did US Air via CLT. Very good service, and non-stop too!!

[rallydave]

Any tips in getting Regent to change our air itinerary. Currently, March 8, business class, Charlotte, JFK, São Paulo, Rio, on TAM, about 24 hrs. travel time vs. Atlanta to Rio, Delta business, 10 hrs. travel time. Regent has put other passengers on Delta flight and seats are available. This is cruel punishment! Thanks for any advice.

 

About the only way to get this changed would be to deviate and pay the deviation fee. Problem with that is you are less than 2 months prior to your cruise so most probably would incur a cost for the seats as well as the deviation fee.

 

Unfortunately Regent will book you in the most cost effective manner for them and sure TAM is less expensive than Delta. Routing is a secondary consideration to cost.

 

Sorry I don't have any tips other than next time after reading all the stories about Regent Air, you will deviate at the 270 day mark when deviations are first available which should get you the best rate and routing. You can still try at this point as you don't pay anything until you agree on the deviation but, for sure you will pay $350 ($175 pp) and if lucky, you might not have any additional costs however based on your routing,

[briar14]

We did pay a deviation fee when we booked the cruise in late October and requested nonstop flights! As of last week plenty of seats were available on the Delta flight in business. Not sure US Air flies nonstop anymore, will check. We are flexible on departure city and date. Have taken several Regent cruises and never had this problem.

[rallydave]

We did pay a deviation fee when we booked the cruise in late October and requested nonstop flights! As of last week plenty of seats were available on the Delta flight in business. Not sure US Air flies nonstop anymore, will check. We are flexible on departure city and date. Have taken several Regent cruises and never had this problem.

 

Can;t explain your lack of previous problems, perhaps you were simply lucky in the past. Flights to South America are a real crap shoot which are part of your problems.

 

If you paid a deviation fee in October, you would have had your flight information at that time. Paying a deviation fee does not result in simply a request, it ends up with an agreement on the flights and then you pay the fee. Believe you are confused over the difference between paying the upcharge for Business Class seats and paying a deviation fee where you choose your flights.

 

Paying the Business Class upcharge which is what it appears you did leaves the choice of flights to Regent and you get your flight information later. Paying the $175 pp plus the upcharge for business allows you to work with Regent Air Dept. and knowing before you agree to the payment which flights you are actually going to be ticketed on. There still is the possibility of an upcharge along with your initial upcharge and deviation fee if your chosen flights cost Regent more and you can't use published ticket prices to determine that. Regent determines these prices and they are what they are however you can keep trying other flights until you are happy with the results and then, and only then do you pay the fees and upcharge(s).

 

You need to be aware of the fact that paying the $999 or $1299 or $1599 or whatever business class upgrade fee, that is the upcharge and not the deviation fee. The upcharge is for the fare difference, the deviation fee is simply a Regent charge to do the work to find you an acceptable set of flights.

 

A subtle but important difference. If you used a TA, they should have explained the difference and given you the choice back in October. If you booked directly with Regent, those people should have informed you of the difference but, unfortunately they are not the most informed people and often miss items like this and just another reason to use a good TA who will earn their commission buy helping you in times like this.

 

You can still pay the $175 pp Deviation Fee and see what it will ultimately cost to get your choice of flights. Pretty sure it will also entail another up charge for your non-stop but, worth a try.

 

Hope this explains things and if I have misunderstood, post again and we will try to help.

Edited January 12, 2014 by rallydave

[briar14]

We did understand all that, paid upgrade and deviation when we booked. In the last few days we learned of passengers on this cruise (friends) booked on nonstop flights after Regent said to us that none were available. Thought we had a good TA, now not so sure. Thank you for your help.

[Eager2Travel]

Briar 14, I left you a message on the roll call. As Rally Dave mentioned I am not sure why Regent didn't get your approval on the fights when you paid the deviation fees. That is confusing.

 

Rally Dave, that was a great explanation of the deviation process.

 

Good luck in getting things changed

Edited January 13, 2014 by Eager2Travel

[briar14]

Thank you to both of you. We (Regent, TA) are working on a solution.

[Travelcat2]

We have cancelled two cruises starting (or ending) in Rio due to airline difficulties. Regent's hands are tied in many cases. Their contract only allows for so many seats on contracted flights. People who deviate early have the best shot of getting the flights they want. In our case, it takes 3 flights and, IMO, we've been to Rio once and do not want to subject ourselves to that. Also, due to traffic, it took Regent transportation 4 hours to get to the airport. We technically missed the plane (it was held due to the number of guests tied up in traffic).

 

P.S. In addition to the cost to upgrade to business class and the deviation fee (which fortunately we do not pay as we are platinum level), there was a $1,000 per person charge to use American Airlines one way. This is not uncommon as we paid $1,000 per person to fly from Sydney to Vancouver direct -- in addition to a expensive business class upgrade.

 

Keep in mind, the airlines are causing the skyrocketing prices -- not Regent.

Edited January 15, 2014 by Travelcat2

[rallydave]

Keep in mind, the airlines are causing the skyrocketing prices -- not Regent.

 

There is no way anyone who doesn't work for Regent to state as a fact that the airlines and not Regent are causing the "skyrocketing" prices that Regent charges for the included air as well as deviations and upgrades.

 

It can only be the posters opinion unless they have access to the Regent pricing strategies. It would not be logical for Regent to not tag onto the bettering economy and increase their margins for air as well as cruise fares. When prices are increasing, everyone jumps on the band wagon to grab a share of the increases to help the bottom line and Regent is no exception especially when Regent's air pricing is something that the average person has no viability into. This is especially true as the credits for not taking Regent Air are going down which shows another place where Regent is increasing their margins.

 

The only thing we as customers can do is compare the best fare we can get on our own directly thru the airlines with what we pay Regent and take the lowest resultant cost to us.

[AWED23]

:cool:

There is no way anyone who doesn't work for Regent to state as a fact that the airlines and not Regent are causing the "skyrocketing" prices that Regent charges for the included air as well as deviations and upgrades.

 

It can only be the posters opinion unless they have access to the Regent pricing strategies. It would not be logical for Regent to not tag onto the bettering economy and increase their margins for air as well as cruise fares. When prices are increasing, everyone jumps on the band wagon to grab a share of the increases to help the bottom line and Regent is no exception especially when Regent's air pricing is something that the average person has no viability into. This is especially true as the credits for not taking Regent Air are going down which shows another place where Regent is increasing their margins.

 

The only thing we as customers can do is compare the best fare we can get on our own directly thru the airlines with what we pay Regent and take the lowest resultant cost to us.

 

Dave, right on as usual.:D

[rallydave]

You think that is why the Oceania board is so much more calm and reasonable, not to mention informative....???;)

 

While you are mostly correct, sometimes the more equals are there as well and may be there more since they have indicated on another thread their needing to get away from Regent and spending more time on Oceania.

 

There are some on Oceania who cheer lead way too much as well in order to keep their additional perks similar to our more equals but, mostly they are correct in what they post which avoids the need to correct and have arguments and deleted posts/threads.

[Travelcat2]

I am using simple logic here. I know exact costs for us to travel from Vancouver to many places in the world on different airlines, with various amounts of stops, etc. This is something I follow all of the time. It would be nearly impossible for people living in the U.S. to not know that airline costs have skyrocketed (and continue to do so).

 

Perhaps a re-read of what I posted is necessary. I did not state that increases in deviation fees is caused by skyrocketing airline prices. It seems quite obvious that Regent cannot hold its upgrade prices when the airlines increases continue on the rise. I am quite amazed that "free" (or included) airfare is offered with Regent. Seabourn and Silversea no longer offer this. In fact, Silversea stopped it mid-year - 2013.

[rallydave]

I am using simple logic here. I know exact costs for us to travel from Vancouver to many places in the world on different airlines, with various amounts of stops, etc. This is something I follow all of the time. It would be nearly impossible for people living in the U.S. to not know that airline costs have skyrocketed (and continue to do so).

 

Perhaps a re-read of what I posted is necessary. I did not state that increases in deviation fees is caused by skyrocketing airline prices. It seems quite obvious that Regent cannot hold its upgrade prices when the airlines increases continue on the rise. I am quite amazed that "free" (or included) airfare is offered with Regent. Seabourn and Silversea no longer offer this. In fact, Silversea stopped it mid-year - 2013.

 

Perhaps if you read which part of your post I quoted and was responding to is necessary. While I didn't intend to talk about the costs to deviate, I was talking about the added costs for deviated flights, since you brought that up, the cost of just the deviation fee has gone up 75% ($100 to $175) in approximately 2 years. Quite steep with inflation in the US running around 3% per year.

 

I also did not disagree about airfares increasing however I don't think skyrocketing is an appropriate description as your studied fares from Vancouver do not represent all of the airfares. For instance, I just purchased a round trip from Houston to Seattle for $216 on United.

 

I'll repeat what I said earlier which is true and you missed and that was your comment that the increased costs Regent is charging are solely due to the airlines and not Regent. There is absolutely no way you can know that unless you have access to the Regent financials. With Regent raising the deviation fee 75% over approx 2 years, and only your single point of reference for airfares, it is likely that some of the increased upgrade fees, extra costs for tickets purchased when deviating, and especially the amounts for not using Regent Air are coming from Regent. Neither any of us or you cannot possibly know without insight into Regents accounting and planning know if the costs are from the airlines, Regent, or most likely a combination of both.

 

Also, really not surprising the Regent continues to provide included air as this allows them to advertise "free" airfare which we agree is not and to charge more than what they actually pay for the tickets and refund less than what they actually would have paid for the tickets when the air is refused. A win win situation for Regent and not discernible by the customer.

[Travelcat2]

My, my..... all of this uproar from the three of you (who always agree with each other) over one sentence:

 

"Keep in mind, the airlines are causing the skyrocketing prices -- not Regent."

I did not say "solely" or mention any of the other things that "some" posters are arguing so strongly over. Take a deep breath for goodness sakes.

 

Have to laugh about comments (comments which are quite unnecessary in my opinion) about the Oceania board. I certainly post there and will do so more often as our next Riviera cruise gets closer.

 

Hopefully the three of you will permit the thread to return to the subject. I would not have posted on this thread if I did not cancel a Regent cruise ending in Rio a few months ago. Prior to that (also less than 6 months ago), we cancelled an Oceania cruise ending in Rio. I spent countless hours trying to work all flights and came upon problems that may have been encountered by the OP.

[rallydave]

My, my..... all of this uproar from the three of you (who always agree with each other) over one sentence:

 

"Keep in mind, the airlines are causing the skyrocketing prices -- not Regent."

 

I did not say "solely" or mention any of the other things that "some" posters are arguing so strongly over. Take a deep breath for goodness sakes.

 

Have to laugh about comments (comments which are quite unnecessary in my opinion) about the Oceania board. I certainly post there and will do so more often as our next Riviera cruise gets closer.

 

Hopefully the three of you will permit the thread to return to the subject. I would not have posted on this thread if I did not cancel a Regent cruise ending in Rio a few months ago. Prior to that (also less than 6 months ago), we cancelled an Oceania cruise ending in Rio. I spent countless hours trying to work all flights and came upon problems that may have been encountered by the OP.

 

Not an uproar and if you simply agreed that your sentence was not correct and certainly means for most people that you are saying that Regent is not causing the increased costs it would be clearer to the newbies you claim to be helping.

 

It is extremely tiresome when no matter what you write, it is correct and you defend things that you are the only one interpreting it a certain way and seem to never make any errors!!