Recent Experience with Choice Air

[KiRiMi]

Does anyone have any recent experience (good or not so good) that they could pass on? I have been on the Choice Air Forum and it seems a mixed bag regarding experience. We are booked on the Silhouette Baltic Cruise this summer. We were quoted a slightly better price by Choice Air than directly with Delta Airlines. We have always booked directly with Delta so feeling a little nervous and uncertain about trying Choice Air.

 

Thanks for any input and advice you can provide to us.

[jerseygirl3]

I've dealt with them many times. I've always had wonderful service.

 

 

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[grandgeezer]

Does anyone have any recent experience (good or not so good) that they could pass on? I have been on the Choice Air Forum and it seems a mixed bag regarding experience. We are booked on the Silhouette Baltic Cruise this summer. We were quoted a slightly better price by Choice Air than directly with Delta Airlines. We have always booked directly with Delta so feeling a little nervous and uncertain about trying Choice Air.

 

Thanks for any input and advice you can provide to us.

 

I'm surprised the pricing was so close. We've used Choice Air several times and the price has always been about 1/4 of what it would be buying directly from the airline. We are going, on way, Phoenix to Barcelona, in October, on Delta, and even with comfort plus seating, it was about $645 p.p.

[lucinjo]

Choice air seems to be the way to go on international one way fares, often less than half the cost of buying direct from the airlines. Seems like you save around 25-30% with some "open jaw" trips and not much on a regular round trip.

[chancey61]

:) First time using choice air and the prices seemed about the same. Disappointed though today that they changed our non-stop flight to a stop and we will be getting home later than first thought

[jelayne]

:) First time using choice air and the prices seemed about the same. Disappointed though today that they changed our non-stop flight to a stop and we will be getting home later than first thought

 

Did Choice Air move you to a different flight or did the airline change their flight?

 

We booked a direct flight on KLM to Amsterdam thru Choice Air. A few weeks ago we got notified that the date of our flight had been changed to 1 day earlier. In checking it was KLM that discontinued the direct flight on 3 days each week, so moving us to the direct flight a day earlier was the best option to get us to Amsterdam. Staying with the original date required 2 stops and 20+ hours.

[alcpa1]

KiRiMi,

If your Delta fare is close to Cruise Air, go with Delta. You avoid the middleman in case of any issues. The middleman is Cruise Air.

To prepare for your flight, join Delta's frequent flyer program if you are not already a member.

Without seeing the fine print, there is no way of knowing if you will get full frequent flyer miles with Cruise Air. You will with Delta for most classes of service.

As always monitor your reservation from time to time checking for any changes of flight times and/or aircraft. FYI Delta just did an "adjustment" last weekend and some of our flights got jiggled. That's true of any airline but more prominent on the big 3. You can also check your seats and watch for paid upgrades to economy plus or business class.

[SPacificbound]

I booked Choice Air for our flight from Miami to Buenos Aires February 10, 2015 arriving BA February 11.

 

I did price shop before booking with CA, but the cost for Business Class with Choice Air was quite a bit lower then what I found for BC on the exact same flight.

 

I was kind of concerned about the booking, since CA only guarantees that they will get you to your cruise embarkation on time. Since my booking was 5 days before embarkation, and we had $$$$ plans that would have fallen apart if we did not get to BA by February 11, it was a bit of a worry.

 

Our CA flight did leave on time and it all happened as was scheduled.

 

Will I use CA again? It depends.

 

Our next cruises are in October 2015, but we are going to Europe 3 weeks in advance of the first cruise. I called Choice and reaffirmed that their guarantee was to get us to the ship on time. I just didn't want to take that gamble, we have too many things planned for that 3 weeks.

 

If we have an overseas cruise in the future that doesn't have plans ahead of the cruise then yes, I will check with CA again in that case.

[waterbug123]

CA only guarantees that they will get you to your cruise embarkation on time.

 

Choice Air actually makes no such guarantee.

[dodger1964]

Choice Air actually makes no such guarantee.

 

That is true, BUT they do guarantee that they will get you to the ship at some time, which an airline would laugh in your face at if you told them they needed to get you to different city without more$$ (of course there is some VERY RARE exceptions...they aren't going to fly you to ship on helicopter if the TA leaves and has no ports to fly you to)

[SPacificbound]

That is true, BUT they do guarantee that they will get you to the ship at some time, which an airline would laugh in your face at if you told them they needed to get you to different city without more$$ (of course there is some VERY RARE exceptions...they aren't going to fly you to ship on helicopter if the TA leaves and has no ports to fly you to)

 

Your wording is probably better then mine. :) However the CA person I spoke with used the wording I stated.

Edited April 17, 2015 by SPacificbound

[KiRiMi]

I'm surprised the pricing was so close. We've used Choice Air several times and the price has always been about 1/4 of what it would be buying directly from the airline. We are going, on way, Phoenix to Barcelona, in October, on Delta, and even with comfort plus seating, it was about $645 p.p.

 

We are flying to Berlin for a few days in advance of our cruise that leaves from Amsterdam. We asked them to check one way fares after they first quoted a price close to the airlines cost. They were able to reduce the cost by a couple hundred dollars and also include a flight from Berlin back to Amsterdam the day before our cruise. I don't have a problem with a schedule change that the airline makes, this does happen occasionally even when booking directly through them.

[Iamthesea]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SPacificbound

CA only guarantees that they will get you to your cruise embarkation on time.

 

Choice Air actually makes no such guarantee.

 

Your wording is probably better then mine. :) However the CA person I spoke with used the wording I stated.

 

Here's what the Choice Air site says.

 

We have experts on hand monitoring your flights, and if any delays or cancellations jeopardize your travel plans, we work quickly with the airline to get you on the next available flight to get you to your ship.

 

It doesn't say by embarkation.

 

I have tried several times in the past year to get a quote from Choice Air and I keep getting a message that says This page will not load, or something to that affect.:rolleyes: When I try to refresh the page, I get kicked off and sent to the Cruising Power web page.

 

We are flying to Berlin for a few days in advance of our cruise that leaves from Amsterdam. We asked them to check one way fares after they first quoted a price close to the airlines cost. They were able to reduce the cost by a couple hundred dollars and also include a flight from Berlin back to Amsterdam the day before our cruise.

 

We did the same thing last May. :) So worth it to do Berlin on your own instead of on the Baltic's cruise.

 

We may pay a little more for booking on our own, but we at least have control over the booking. The only time that we saved was when we did an open jaw to Hawaii.

Edited April 17, 2015 by Iamthesea

[waterbug123]

That is true, BUT they do guarantee that they will get you to the ship at some time,

 

In all likelihood, yes, they would get you to the ship at some point, but even that is not a 100% guarantee. It is completely dependent upon seat availability on alternate flights. If the flights are booked solid, CA has no authority to boot people off a flight to make sure you get accommodated. Again, in all likelihood there would be an available seat on some flight at some point to get you to the cruise eventually, but it's not a firm guarantee. ;)