Royal Caribbean flights from UK

[Lane1344]

Hi

I have just been given our flights from the UK after booking for the Harmony way back in April. We are flying in August from Manchester to Rome on our first ever cruise. The flights RC have given us are pretty rubbish and actually change in Paris. It should only be about a 2 and a half hour flight direct but is now taking closer to 5 hrs. It doesn't help that my husband is petrified of flying and needs medication to get on a plane. The travel agent has said she is going to contact RC and see if she can get us a direct flight.

I wondered if anyone had any advice or have been in the same situation and possibly got it resolved.

Thanks

Elaine

[papcx]

Hi there.

 

Not sure where in England your from but there are loads of direct flights to Rome.

 

RC should sort you out, if not it might be worth just booking (at your cost of course) your own flights.

 

I'm not a fan of flying and would pay to go direct over changing.

[Lane1344]

Hi

I'm from Birmingham. Originally I was told that we could get our flight changed to Birmingham but the TA said today that RC have no direct flights from Birmingham either. I'm hoping that they can sort it as I'm used to package hols and using their flights meant they would provide transfers. It would be more of a stress if we then had to organise our own transfer if we booked our own flight. It's our belated honeymoon as well so want it all to go smoothly.

I'm tempted to try and change to a Southampton sailing but really wanted to stay in Rome for a few days pre cruise and go for the first time on Harmony

Thanks

Elaine

[papcx]

Hmmmm. Rome or Southampton? Not much of a completion there.

[peteukmcr]

Quite a strange situation as Jet2 fly direct from Manchester to Rome and RCI have used them in the past. However, RCI will use the cheapest option they can. You can normally request direct flights from the RCI flight dept but they will charge you a supplement.

 

RCi don't use charter airlines like Thomson, Thomas Cook etc which is what you may have been used to with a package holiday.

Edited December 16, 2015 by peteukmcr

[Lane1344]

Travel agent has just phoned. They can do direct there but not direct back. May have to go to London if we still want flights from RC. Don't know if we can cancel the flights with them without penalty now so we can do it independently.

[Maverick911]

You will find that RCI won't speak to you as you booked through a TA. So the TA has to do the work for you. Tell them what you want ie direct flight and get them to sort it. Also worth letting them know that it is being discussed on CRUISE CRITIC ( It's amazing how this helps ) and if you feel generous find a flight that suits you and give the TA the details and cost. Good Luck

[Bobal]

We had the same situation last year. We usually make our own flight arrangements but occasionally RC have had a good offer including flights. Having flown from Birmingham (to Barcelona) with Monarch in the past with RC we booked a cruise with flights from Birmingham. When the flights were announced, we had been allocated flights via Paris on the way out and Amsterdam on the way back :eek: We live around 20 mins drive from Luton which has several direct flights to Barcelona every day so the idea of taking such convoluted routes was ridiculous.

 

I telephoned RC customer relations and explained the situation and asked if we could cancel and book our own flights. We weren't able to do so without losing a big deposit but they did change the flights to direct flights from and to Gatwick with BA.

 

I would speak with RC and see what other options are available. Incidentally we did book with a TA but the people I spoke with in Guatemala were very helpful and changed the flights for us.

Edited December 17, 2015 by Bobal

[Janet524]

It seems like RC books flights that are the absolute cheapest, regardless of how poor the routing might be. We stopped using RC to do our flight bookings years ago. We found that we could always book better connections and typically for the same price or less.

[Clarea]

It seems like RC books flights that are the absolute cheapest, regardless of how poor the routing might be. We stopped using RC to do our flight bookings years ago. We found that we could always book better connections and typically for the same price or less.

For US/Canadian bookings, you can no longer purchase the old cruise air where the cruise line picks the flights. Now they offer the Air2Sea service where you pick the flights yourself.

[Ms Jo UK]

Never have and never will let anyone but myself book my flights and especially not UK to Europe and sourcing transfers is not usually a big deal/hassle.

[Jackamama]

We have experienced this twice, and it has taken ages to resolve.

 

We prefer to fly to one of the European ports and really don't like sailing from Southampton. The problem is that RCI will always choose the cheapest flights, regardless of how inconvenient they may be.

 

We were once allocated flights (without being consulted) that involved a five hour stop off, which was ridiculous, as the direct flights which were available on the airline's websites, were only 3 hours.

 

The first time it happened we had booked through a travel agent. We soon learned that RCI will not deal directly with the customer unless they have booked direct. It was quite an ordeal, and took weeks of trying to move things forward. We eventually got it changed to direct flights, but then had to pay an additional £600, which was much more expensive than it would have been to book the flights ourselves. Their flight booking service is, in my opinion, totally shambolic!

 

The second time, and for all of our subsequent cruises, we book direct with RCI (we never will use a travel agent again) and insist on direct flights (where they are available on the airlines website). If they are unable to do this as a package at a reasonable price, we book the flights ourselves - same times, flight numbers etc as they are offering, and usually much cheaper.

 

Have a great first cruise. It will be wonderful :)