Choice Air

[slidergirl]

Well, when the information is:

 

a) Based upon experiences on BA, which the OP is not flying

b) Based upon never flying DL, which the OP is flying

c) Simply flat out wrong

 

Gee...I dunno....seems like that's three strikes towards why this would be posing a problem.

Most of us try to make a point of contributing accurate information. Or we make it clear when it is just an opinion, guess or extrapolation.

 

Finally, when the frequent flyers here do make an error, we're the first to fess up and thank folks for the correction.

 

Thank you for answering for me. Some people think comparing apples to oranges is totally appropriate and do not understand/can't comprehend why people dismiss their "contribution." Sigh. I've done many "mea culpas" on this board. And I usually thank someone for pointing out my error.

[karelet]

I am looking at booking Choice Air from Madrid to Sacramento in May. CA is roughly $500 one way. Travelocity shows the same flights for $2200. We usually use CA from Europe but book domestic with Southwest. We have also had no problem upgrading with the airline for a fee for the premium seats once we have booked thru CA.

[RTLS]

Am I correct in thinking that choice air allows a one way booking to Europe and that I don't need to book with them for the return which for us will be from Asia? I'd like to use FFpoints for the return but don't have enough for both ways.

 

Thanks

[Clarea]

Am I correct in thinking that choice air allows a one way booking to Europe and that I don't need to book with them for the return which for us will be from Asia? I'd like to use FFpoints for the return but don't have enough for both ways.

 

Thanks

Correct, Choice Air (now Air2Sea) allows one-way bookings, and does not require you to book the return with them.

[waterbug123]

Am I correct in thinking that choice air allows a one way booking to Europe and that I don't need to book with them for the return which for us will be from Asia? I'd like to use FFpoints for the return but don't have enough for both ways.

 

Thanks

 

As a general rules, you can also book a one way flight directly through the airline; you don't have to go to Choice Air to do that.

 

Another note: If you are flying into one city but flying home from another, and you do want to book it all on one ticket, you use the "multi-city" search option. Sometimes that will be cheaper than booking two one ways, sometimes it won't.

[RTLS]

Thanks to both of you.

 

The reason I'm looking Choice Air for a one way to Dubai, is it seems much less expensive than booking through the airline. I imagine that a consolidator ticket will be used in this case but I'm OK with that. I'll book to arrive a couple of days prior to embarkation.

 

By the way, I had not heard that Choice Air is now Air2Sea, I'll change my bookmark.

[RTLS]

Thanks to both of you.

 

The reason I'm looking Choice Air for a one way to Dubai, is it seems much less expensive than booking through the airline. I imagine that a consolidator ticket will be used in this case but I'm OK with that. I'll book to arrive a couple of days prior to embarkation.

 

By the way, I had not heard that Choice Air is now Air2Sea, I'll change my bookmark.

Just to add, we are travelling Celebrity and I think the Air2Sea may be Royal Caribbean?

[Clarea]

Just to add, we are travelling Celebrity and I think the Air2Sea may be Royal Caribbean?

It's the same program on Celebrity.

[Mr. Click]

A heads up to those considering Choice Air. We used them for a one way on our AU/NZ cruise last November and it was all good. So, I checked with them again for our Amsterdam to Rome cruise in Sept...all was good at first. Very good fare, got to pick our seats in biz and the price was right. Got the confirmation with the booking codes for the airlines AA and BA. Went in to double check our seats only to find out that on the AA segments one flight was missing a seat so I fixed that, on the BA segments--booked as AA code share --there are no seats and if I want to book seats now I have to pay an extra $242 or I can just take what seats I can get at T-24. So I called Choice Air today to inquire and got a very not nice lady with poor English telling me that I just don't understand code shares and airlines and it is just too bad. Actually I do understand code shares and airlines too. I have flown over a million miles in the past 45 years and when the Choice Air web site told me I should pick my seats I expected that those seats would be mine....so, bottom line is Choice Air says too bad and I say, no more booking with Choice Air. Better to be honest and up front with fees and rules than to screw people over.

[Clarea]

A heads up to those considering Choice Air. We used them for a one way on our AU/NZ cruise last November and it was all good. So, I checked with them again for our Amsterdam to Rome cruise in Sept...all was good at first. Very good fare, got to pick our seats in biz and the price was right. Got the confirmation with the booking codes for the airlines AA and BA. Went in to double check our seats only to find out that on the AA segments one flight was missing a seat so I fixed that, on the BA segments--booked as AA code share --there are no seats and if I want to book seats now I have to pay an extra $242 or I can just take what seats I can get at T-24. So I called Choice Air today to inquire and got a very not nice lady with poor English telling me that I just don't understand code shares and airlines and it is just too bad. Actually I do understand code shares and airlines too. I have flown over a million miles in the past 45 years and when the Choice Air web site told me I should pick my seats I expected that those seats would be mine....so, bottom line is Choice Air says too bad and I say, no more booking with Choice Air. Better to be honest and up front with fees and rules than to screw people over.

Very good to know, thanks for the info. I had a similar problem with BA flights purchased through Choice Air. I understand BA has fares that don't include seat selection, but it seems only ethical that Choice Air should make this known prior to purchase.

[Mr. Click]

It seems ethical to me.....but not to them...oh well. Next time I will just suffer with UA's Non-stops.

[waterbug123]

I checked with them again for our Amsterdam to Rome cruise in Sept...all was good at first. Very good fare, got to pick our seats in biz and the ........Got the confirmation with the booking codes for the airlines AA and BA. Went in to double check our seats only to find out that.... on the BA segments--booked as AA code share --there are no seats and if I want to book seats now I have to pay an extra $242 or I can just take what seats I can get at T-24.

 

It is very common on European carriers not to be able to select seats for domestic (within Europe) flights until the last minute. Too bad CA made it sound like you could, but it likely is an airline issue that would have been the same even if you booked directly with the airline.

[Mr. Click]

The first part of the trip is trans-Atlantic but anyway you look at it, CA should not have told me to select seats....had I known then I had options to book the outbound on American rather than the code share on BA. On another note, the reason I went in thru the AA web site to check is the seat maps CA provided were not really correct. They showed the seating in Biz class as 2-4-2.....oh well. It saved me using 80,000 UA miles for the upgrade and I can use those to upgrade for our China/Korea/Japan cruise next March.

[Mr. Click]

I did follow up with an email to Choice Air customer service. It took the better part of a week to get a reply. Reply was polite but said the same thing. Bottom line is they really don't care. At least our seats are in biz so they can't be too terrible. Lesson learned on my side, I doubt the other side has learned anything...

[Mercruiser]

. . . Went in to double check our seats only to find out that on the AA segments one flight was missing a seat so I fixed that, on the BA segments--booked as AA code share --there are no seats and if I want to book seats now I have to pay an extra $242 or I can just take what seats I can get at T-24. . . .

 

I was surprised by this also when I just booked a FF award on British Air using my Alaska Miles. It was a biz class ticket. So I went to the BA web site to make seat assignments. I was really surprised to find out that BA only provides free advanced seat assignments for First Class (not Biz) or to people with BA Executive Club elite status. See this web page: http://www.britishairways.com/en-us/information/seating/choosing-your-seat

 

This is BA's policy, not ChoiceAir's. Anyone will have this problem with BA regardless of how they buy the ticket.

 

On a related note, the whole code share situation is very confusing and annoying. I try to avoid booking code shares whenever possible.

 

[waterbug123]

 

On a related note, the whole code share situation is very confusing and annoying. I try to avoid booking code shares whenever possible.

 

 

I would imagine that makes a lot of international travel, particularly to secondary cities or more remote locations, much more challenging.

[Mr. Click]

Merccruiser, I agree that it is a BA issue but since I was booking with Choice Air and they told me to select my seats, I expected that seats were included. They should have told me upfront that there was an extra change for seat assignments made in advance. That would have given me the option of declining the booking and looking at other options. All I am asking Choice Air to do is be up front and honest from the get go....and they don't get that part.

[waterbug123]

Choice Air ..... They should have told me upfront that there was an extra change for seat assignments made in advance. .....All I am asking Choice Air to do is be up front and honest from the get go....and they don't get that part.

 

They would probably be happy to do so......IF the phone agents actually understood all of the products they are selling. I suspect most of them have no idea whether a particular airline or ticket class allows you to pre-select seats, or knows what is really meant by "fare code" etc. And if you used the website, it is probably set up with a basic template that doesn't allow for the differences from one ticket to the next (such as whether you can actually select seats or not.)

[zoncom]

Just booked one way back from Europe to Aspen on Choice online. RCL is parent company. $600 from Choice vs.. $2400 from United.Would have preferred Lufthansa but was not offered this time. Its late. I never do BA. Remember it stranded my BF in London when I was to meet him in Paris yrs. ago. Just do bookings ON LINE.

Edited March 5, 2016 by zoncom

[Mr. Click]

I did do the booking online...and it allowed me to choose my seats....I used Choice on this one because it saved me $600 and 80,000 miles over United. Choice saved me over $1,000 on our trip to Australia last October. I know they can save me money in some cases but their service is a problem for me. My own profession is/was photography. If I quoted a price for an event and then added "oh prints and an extra $200" after the fact, I would not have managed to stay in business for over 40 years.... Be upfront, be honest and yes Meg, know your product.

[6rugrats]

For informational purposes, BA has charged for advanced seat selection, except for F, since 2009.

 

You can still choose seats at no charge when you do OLCI.

[Mr. Click]

Thanks Rugrats6...so if they have been charging since 2009 and it is now 2016 why would Choice Air not know this? And why wouldn't they tell? and why would they send me to a web page to pick my seats? My complaint is with the way Choice Air has handled this, not with BA policy. Yes, I should have looked more closely. 90% of my flying is with United where I have had Premier/Elite status for the past 25+ years but they have gotten so bad over there that I am now open to other options. Honestly, if I could avoid flying all together I would but the reality is that I have to fly to get to some of the place I want to go. Thankfully I am now retired and don't have to fly for work anymore.