Celebrity ChoiceAir

[roxievegas]

We are on a transatlantic cruise now. I booked the return air on way flight through choice air. I picked my seats and was done. Then two months later I got a "flight change" when I looked, it would not work for us and so I spent three days on the phone between choice air and british airways trying to get things fixed. They fixed the flights right away, but wanted to charge me more to get my seats assigned, which I did not pay for in the first place, And since I did not cancel the original flight, why should I be penalized. I finally got a wonderful customer service rep for british airways to get me my seats with no charge. Thank you

[J&B in GA]

We are sailing on Celebrity later this year out of San Diego thru the Panama Canal to Ft. Lauderdale. Will ChoiceAir allow an initial flight to another Calif. city a few days prior to the cruise and then a 2nd leg flight from there to San Diego , with our 3rd leg from Ft. Lauderdale to home ?

[silkismom]

I'm about to book our flts to Quito for Celebrity Xpedition next Nov. Every time I go to CA there is a red line that says to expand our dates, I do that and still get the same message. I can see flts for our Azamara cruise in Feb 2017!! Guess I'll have to call them, but like to shop around first.

[fbvolpb89]

We booked ChoiceAir for an upcoming cruise. We did a ton of looking around and found that ChoiceAir was far cheap ($500/person) for flights from smaller cities. If you're coming from ATL or somewhere else it may not be, but it was definitely the best price for us.

[Clarea]

We are sailing on Celebrity later this year out of San Diego thru the Panama Canal to Ft. Lauderdale. Will ChoiceAir allow an initial flight to another Calif. city a few days prior to the cruise and then a 2nd leg flight from there to San Diego , with our 3rd leg from Ft. Lauderdale to home ?

I would call them. I have been able to get routings that do not appear on their website by calling them, but I suspect that you could have a problem with the extra stay since that would be more than one ticket.

Edited April 19, 2016 by clarea

[Gonzo70]

I'm about to book our flts to Quito for Celebrity Xpedition next Nov. Every time I go to CA there is a red line that says to expand our dates, I do that and still get the same message. I can see flts for our Azamara cruise in Feb 2017!! Guess I'll have to call them, but like to shop around first.

 

I had the same issue arise for my Galapagos cruise; not sure if this is always the case for Choice Air with Galapagos or periodic. I was able to book via telephone for no extra charge. I used the ITA Matrix to search for the flights I wanted beforehand (https://matrix.itasoftware.com/) and then informed the Choice Air call center what I wanted.

 

Personally I generally prefer to book flights directly with the airlines; easier IMHO if something goes awry than having to depend on Choice Air for help, and also safer in regards to not risking receiving consolidator type tickets with potentially significant restrictions my flight were to be greatly delayed or cancelled. However if the savings are massive I will consider utilizing Choice Air, but taking extra precautions (i.e. arriving at least a couple of days early and making sure I have lots of wiggle room if there is a connecting flight involved).

 

For Galapagos the price was the same as booking direct with the airline, but the travel agent I used gave me a credit of approximately $600 towards Choice Air flights, so I went with Choice Air that time.

[Wine-O]

We just booked Solstice for a February 2018 cruise. Any idea what I should expect for Choice Air round-trip airfare from the East Coast to "Down Under"?

Edited April 19, 2016 by Wine-O

[Mr. Click]

No way to guess on that one Wino-O. It is just too far out and there are too many factors that come into play. We did that trip last Oct/Nov. Found a great deal coming back directly from Air New Zealand about 10 months out but I had to go to Choice Air to get home.. We paid about $1200 per person going from LAS to MEL in Premium Economy but paid $2100 per person coming home also in Premium Economy. The return was booked with Choice Air and that saved us $500 per person over what the ANZ web site was showing. We found ANZ's PE service on a 777-300 to be wonderful.

[debshomespun]

We used Choice Air for our Celebrity Infinity Cruise from Buenos Aires this past January. We boarded the ship on 1/31. We left Pittsburgh via choice air and flew to Lima, Peru (with a layover in Miami). We then stayed 7 nights in Peru (we did a trip to Machu Picchu on our own), then was able to book choice air from Lima, Peru (7 days after our original flight) to Buenos Aires. For our return flight after our cruise on the Infinity, we were flying from Buenos Aires, to Miami, so we could board RC Serenade of the Seas. We chose to do a 1 way through Choice Air and it was attached to our Serenade cruise. Fortunately, we did not have any problems with our flights. We got excellant pricing on all the flights.

 

In Jan/2015, we used Choice Air to fly to Sydney, Australia for our cruise on Solstice. We flew in 3 days early. We departed Solstice in Auckland, spent 6 nights in New Zealand. We then flew (on our own) back to Sydney for a 3 day stay, then did an 11 night cruise on RC Rhapsody, before flying back home through Choice Air out of Sydney. This trip was all connected to our Celebrity Solstice cruise. So it seems you can book your air to or from many days from the actual dates of your cruise. We had 20 days after we left the Solstice until we actually flew home.

[Cop Chef]

Choice Air can indeed have some great prices but sometimes there are little "surprises". We booked out flights for our Sept 3 cruise from AMS with them. Great price on biz class on American but one flight is a code share with BA. During the booking process I was told to choose our seats and I did just that, also took time to join AA's frequent flyer club. A month later I am checking things again for schedule changes and the like and I find our seats on the AA portion are mess up but I fixed it so I went to check on the BA portion only to find out that it would cost me an additional pile of money (about $300) to get advance seat assignments. Had I known this when I was booking I would have had the chance to avoid the AA/BA code share segment. When I complained to Choice Air they reply was too bad...well that is the short version. So, when we get to 6:25 EDT on August 31, 2016 I will be dashing to get us checked in and get our seats confirmed.....Lesson learned. Always compare, always ask questions. Always get names of the people giving the answers.

 

Thank you to everyone for sharing your sound advice and past experience. I have seen when booking a Flt the double coding but never paid much attention to it and never knew that BA charges extra for seating. Was BA charging extra for Business seating only or is this a standard practice they charge for all seating.

[MareT]

We are on Reflection's 9/30/16 sailing. After checking the airlines website for pricing we had our TA check with Choice Air. Pricing was significantly lower with Choice Air so we booked with them and were able to pick our seats. We are flying United.

Edited April 23, 2016 by MareT

[rogfam]

It's too early for me to book, but I checked fares based on flying to Rome Nov, 2016.....I was amazed. When I went to the airlines, including Expedia and others like it, I was quoted business at $7000+ per person...when I went to Choice Air I got a quote of $4300 +/-. Incredible!!!! :D

 

If you have AmEx Platinum and book Business (they use fully refundable fare) it is buy one ticket, second is only taxes. Used them a number of times.

[Mr. Click]

Cop Chef, BA charges for both biz class and economy seat reservations unless you are a high level frequent flyer with them. We are in Biz class so I was surprised at the fee. I should have done more research but when Choice Air told me to pick my seats......I had no idea I was playing with air and going no where on that part. The AA part of our trip, the return, we got our seats without any real issues. One seat was missing the first time I checked but I was able to add it on the AA web site.

[ChucktownSteve]

Well I just got screwed out of $200 by ChoiceAir. When I booked with my cruise, the price per person for a 2 hour flight was $425 each. It was the same on United's web site so I booked and had to pay in full at that time.

 

Today, the flight is $100 less per person but according to my TA ChoiceAir will not make any changes, refunds but cancelling will forfeit the $850 I paid.

[Hydrokitty]

If you have AmEx Platinum and book Business (they use fully refundable fare) it is buy one ticket, second is only taxes. Used them a number of times.

 

Alas, I do not have AmEx platinum....just plain old AmeEx corporate :D But I will look into it and see if it's worth the annual fee. Buy one BC and second one is tax only is VERY attractive!!

[Wine-O]

Well I just got screwed out of $200 by ChoiceAir. When I booked with my cruise, the price per person for a 2 hour flight was $425 each. It was the same on United's web site so I booked and had to pay in full at that time.

 

Today, the flight is $100 less per person but according to my TA ChoiceAir will not make any changes, refunds but cancelling will forfeit the $850 I paid.

 

No, you didn't get screwed by Choice Air. They are a travel agent and gave you the same price that you could have gotten if you went direct to the airline and purchased the ticket.

 

It's very similar to the cruise line dropping prices after final payment to sell the remaining cabins.

[rogfam]

Alas, I do not have AmEx platinum....just plain old AmeEx corporate :D But I will look into it and see if it's worth the annual fee. Buy one BC and second one is tax only is VERY attractive!!

 

Card has a great deal of perks for people who travel: Free access to airport lounges no matter what class of service you book, 5 free years of Global Assist, hundreds of hotels that are part of their Fine Hotel selection that all include breakfast, late checkout, upgrades and $100 per stay perk at the same cost as booking independently, $200 credit to any airline you pick to cover baggage/change fees, just to name a few things.

[Mr. Click]

Wine-O is correct. Fares do go up and down so it is always a game on picking the right time. I probably spend too much time looking are fares, passenger loads etc when we are planning a trip but I usually come up with some decent fares. Now trying to use miles to upgrade, especially on international flights, that is a whole other game.

[sippican]

Card has a great deal of perks for people who travel: Free access to airport lounges no matter what class of service you book, 5 free years of Global Assist, hundreds of hotels that are part of their Fine Hotel selection that all include breakfast, late checkout, upgrades and $100 per stay perk at the same cost as booking independently, $200 credit to any airline you pick to cover baggage/change fees, just to name a few things.

 

Are you talking about the AMEXPlatinum? We have looked into this card a number of times. As far as the airport lounges, they are limited to Delta, AirSpace (very few available) or Priority Pass, which still requires an additional fee of $27 pp. Am I correct in presuming that you can only use the Delta lounges with a same-day Delta boarding pass (we rarely fly Delta)? Or same-day, any airline boarding pass?

Edited April 23, 2016 by sippican

[ChucktownSteve]

OK I didn't get screwed by CruiseAir. I got screwed by United which upped their flight change fee to $200 for the same flight four months from now.

[waterbug123]

Well I just got screwed out of $200 by ChoiceAir. When I booked with my cruise, the price per person for a 2 hour flight was $425 each. It was the same on United's web site so I booked and had to pay in full at that time.

 

Today, the flight is $100 less per person but according to my TA ChoiceAir will not make any changes, refunds but cancelling will forfeit the $850 I paid.

 

Choice Air didn't screw you. They won't change it because United would charge a change fee

 

OK I didn't get screwed by CruiseAir. I got screwed by United which upped their flight change fee to $200 for the same flight four months from now.

 

What was the prior fee and when did it change? It almost certainly wasn't less than $100, which means that even if it wasn't as high as $200, it wouldn't have been worth the $100/ticket savings. Change fees are standard with most airlines, and are usually even higher for international flights.

[waterbug123]

Are you talking about the AMEXPlatinum? We have looked into this card a number of times. As far as the airport lounges, they are limited to Delta, AirSpace (very few available) or Priority Pass, which still requires an additional fee of $27 pp. Am I correct in presuming that you can only use the Delta lounges with a same-day Delta boarding pass (we rarely fly Delta)? Or same-day, any airline boarding pass?

 

Yes, correct. To access a Delta Sky Club with the platinum American Express card, you must hold a same-day Delta boarding pass. Also, only the cardholder is given access. Used to be able to bring a guest in with you but no longer; however, you can pay a reduced fee for a guest pass. I think it's $27 (?) instead of the usual $50 cost of a day pass. Lastly, it's rare, but Sky Clubs CAN restrict access if the lounge is crowded. If they do that, they can deny Amex guests and limit access to those who actually have a club membership.

[midwestchick]

I booked ChoiceAir for next cruise, UA had schedule changes (of course) I went directly to them to get the flts we wanted. I got an email from CAir several days ago FINALLY noticing the changes I made months ago. You have to keep up with the actual airline.

 

 

We're flying United to Europe for the first time. Are schedule changes a common occurrence with United? :eek::eek:

I noticed our return flight from Rome is only about half full, if that and we are flying in May.

[Mr. Click]

Most airlines adjust their schedules every 3 months or so. You need to keep an eye on your reservations for those changes because the airline won't do it for you. Our air travel to Vancouver in July has has 5 changes since I first booked it. 4 of those changes required me to call United because they were not working for me. 2 hour layover in SFO turned into a 4 1/2 layover so we switched to the new EWR-YVR non-stop keeping out first class seats. Then the swapped aircraft and our first class seats vanished, back to a change in Chicago then a change or two on our return flight just to keep it interesting... It happens so keep an eye on your reservations and if the change is ugly just call the airline and ask nicely for some help.

[midwestchick]

Most airlines adjust their schedules every 3 months or so. You need to keep an eye on your reservations for those changes because the airline won't do it for you. Our air travel to Vancouver in July has has 5 changes since I first booked it. 4 of those changes required me to call United because they were not working for me. 2 hour layover in SFO turned into a 4 1/2 layover so we switched to the new EWR-YVR non-stop keeping out first class seats. Then the swapped aircraft and our first class seats vanished, back to a change in Chicago then a change or two on our return flight just to keep it interesting... It happens so keep an eye on your reservations and if the change is ugly just call the airline and ask nicely for some help.

 

 

So far, we've been fortunate. We've had some changes in the past that only amounted to a matter of minutes. I was hesitant about booking United but they had the best options. I didn't book until I made final payment this time. We're actually flying from ORD to EWR and then to BCN. Home bound is direct from FCO to ORD. In the past, Delta sent us e-mail notifications with any flight changes. I've been watching...👀. I'm hoping they don't mess with our flight home. None of us like being at the mercy of the airlines, but that's the way it is, unfortunately.