Princess vs. Celebrity Air

[Jimbo59]

Princess E-Z Air allows you to reserve air and pay for the air tickets at final payment.

 

Celebrity Choice Air requires air payment at time of booking.

 

Advantage Princess, especially for Transatlantic or Transpacific travel.

[jelayne]

Interesting but not something that would be a factor in deciding on a cruise line.

[jagoffee]

Princess E-Z Air allows you to reserve air and pay for the air tickets at final payment.

 

Celebrity Choice Air requires air payment at time of booking.

 

Advantage Princess, especially for Transatlantic or Transpacific travel.

 

With Princess do you pay the price of the airfare at the time of the final payment or the price when you book it? My memory is a little foggy, but I thought if you did not pay the air it was subject to a higher price.

[Cruise Junky]

Princess E-Z Air allows you to reserve air and pay for the air tickets at final payment.

 

Celebrity Choice Air requires air payment tat time of booking.

 

Advantage Princess, especially for Transatlantic or Transpacific travel.

 

Ironic seeing as you didn't used to be able to book one way fares on Princess so they were useless for Transatlantics/Transpacifics

 

Don't think it would be a deal breaker for us, I'd rather lock in the price with it being paid.

[Cruzaholic41]

Interesting but not something that would be a factor in deciding on a cruise line.

 

Agreed. I'm not going to book an inferior cruise line just because their airfare has better booking perks. I book my own airfare anyway.

[caribill]

With Princess do you pay the price of the airfare at the time of the final payment or the price when you book it? My memory is a little foggy, but I thought if you did not pay the air it was subject to a higher price.

 

Princess has two options.

 

One is flexible and you do not have to pay until final payment time. But the big benefit is if you find a lower price up to 45 days before the earlier of the cruise or the first flight, you can rebook at the lower price with no penalty for the change, even if to a different airline or even cancel the flight with no penalty up until that 45 days. Although it has been said the price could go up if you had not yet paid for the tickets, nobody has reported that it has happened to them.

 

The other choice is restricted. You pay when you book the flights. Cannot reprice or get a refund if cancelled, just like with most airline tickets you book directly with an airline.

 

For some reason, the flexible fares are usually lower than the restricted ones, so you get the best possible combination: lower pricing and ability to get a lower price if one becomes available in the stated time frame.

Edited December 19, 2016 by caribill

[jagoffee]

Princess has two options.

 

One is flexible and you do not have to pay until final payment time. But the big benefit is if you find a lower price up to 45 days before the earlier of the cruise or the first flight, you can rebook at the lower price with no penalty for the change, even if to a different airline or even cancel the flight with no penalty up until that 45 days. Although it has been said the price could go up if you had not yet paid for the tickets, nobody has reported that it has happened to them.

 

The other choice is restricted. You pay when you book the flights. Cannot reprice or get a refund if cancelled, just like with most airline tickets you book directly with an airline.

 

For some reason, the flexible fares are usually lower than the restricted ones, so you get the best possible combination: lower pricing and ability to get a lower price if one becomes available in the stated time frame.

 

Thank you for the information. It is interesting that although the price can increase before the final payment that no one has reported that any price has actually increased. Seems really odd considering that it is very common for airfares to change.

Do you think a lot of people take the option risk and hold off paying for the air at the final payment date?

When using Princess do you usually take advantage of the flexible option?

 

Thanks, again.

[iancal]

We have used Celebrity Air several times and we usually look up the cost of flights prior to booking. The Celebrity, and the RCI, site is extremely user friendly. One ways are a snap. You can get a flight that does not have to originate or end at you home airport.

 

We found Princess air very difficult to deal with and to use. Especially for one ways and for post disembarkation air to a city that is not your home.

 

We also like the options that Celebrity Choice air provides....often as many as six to eight airlines with different routes and prices.

 

We are not bothered about payment since we often book inside the final payment window. Normally, any air that we book is either non refundable or has a change charge.

 

Celebrity and RCI use the same base. The last air we purchased wasa one way ticket home from a last minute RCI Med cruise. The cruise was discounted, the air was a bargain. Worked out well. We tried to buy Princess Air one way home from Australia. Never got to end of job...Princess did not, or could not sell it since it was a few weeks after the cruise ended.

Edited December 19, 2016 by iancal

[Hlitner]

Personally, we have never been impressed by the air fares (and service) offered by either Celebrity or Princess (we have used both). These days we cruise and travel a lot more then in the past (out of the country over 6 months a year) and seldom to ever use cruise line air services. We can usually find the same or lower prices by handling our own air bookings (via online sites) and this also gives us maximum flexibility to choose flights, seats, etc. Each of our last two bookings through cruise air were problamatic. In the case of Celebrity they made a huge mistake with dates (they had us returning home in the middle of a cruise when our ship was far at sea) and after I pointed out their error...tried to blame us (because they transposed the dates). On another Celebrity booking to and from Buenos Aires the Celebrity contractor (in Buenos Aires) managed to lose the luggage of over 30 cruisers (later found at the airport by the intervention of our Hotel Concierge) and also messed up our airport to hotel transfers (the transfer company told us we would have to wait at the airport nearly 2 hours for folks coming on the later flight).

 

Hank

[iancal]

That is exactly the reason why we never buy cruise line transfers. We only do carry on so it is not such a big issue for us.

 

We don't buy cruise line hotels either.

 

We very seldom find that cruise air is price/convenience advantageous. The last Celebrity air that we did was Miami-Liberia, Costa Rica (not our home location). Flight was two weeks after we disembarked a TA. Saving was small but there was not problem getting the ticket.

 

We looked at Princess air to South America for our cruise next month. Their prices were out to lunch. Never bothered to look again.

Edited December 19, 2016 by iancal

[zigdilcru]

Princess E-Z Air allows you to reserve air and pay for the air tickets at final payment.

 

Celebrity Choice Air requires air payment at time of booking.

 

Advantage Princess, especially for Transatlantic or Transpacific travel.

 

Just booked air today at Choice Air for next September, into Venice (one way) and out from Barcelona. Now we live near a dinky airport (knoxville, tn) so air is always expensive. Travel agent got us a smoking deal, into Venice for $496.35 and out of Barcelona for TA DA $243.71 Do I mind paying in advance for those prices, HARDLY. I am a happy camper.

[2theship]

Both cruise lines' air programs are the best value when booking an open-jaw ticket. Princess is annoying in that if we use Princess Air to fly to Europe for a transatlantic, we also have to use it to get home from the Ft. Lauderdale. The only airline that flies non-stop from FLL to home is Southwest and that's not part of the program. But, the price is good enough for us to bite the bullet. Also, with the Princess Air website, you don't get your choice of airports. We are near Columbus, OH but sometimes it's convenient to fly out of Detroit. We have to call Princess, have them change the city option and go from there.

 

I think that Choice Air is easier to work with in many ways, including allowing you to book a one-way flight. But, I'm still basking in the glow of having gotten a killer fare for business class to Venice and home from Rome this year. I will never fly coach to Europe again!

 

However, since we live in the Eastern US, we never book cruise line flights to Florida, there are just too many other options available. I always look just to be sure but we're always better off booking our own.

[iancal]

We been able to find competitive open jaw and one way transatlantic flights on several occasions. We have only used cruise air once for a one way TA. It was well priced but nothing special. It allowed us to take a flight from our disembarkation port instead of getting a low cost flight from another city.

[Lastdance]

April will be my first time with CA...I have heard the good, the bad and the ugly...but I hate United!

 

 

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[caribill]

When using Princess do you usually take advantage of the flexible option?

 

 

If I use the Princess EZAir, then I will use the flexible option if it is the lesser cost of the two options (and it usually is).

 

Personally, we have never been impressed by the air fares (and service) offered by either Celebrity or Princess (we have used both). These days we cruise and travel a lot more then in the past (out of the country over 6 months a year) and seldom to ever use cruise line air services. We can usually find the same or lower prices by handling our own air bookings (via online sites) and this also gives us maximum flexibility to choose flights, seats, etc.

 

Of course pricing offered by a cruise line for flights should always be compared to what you can get booking directly with the airlines.

 

What I have found on Princess is that they offer a number of flight choices, but do not include some airlines such as Southwest. But once booked I have no problem choosing seats per the airline's seat reservation policy that would apply no matter how the flight was booked.

 

My most recent use of Princess' EZAir allowed me to book a one way flight from London to Houston for over $1500/person less than any flight I could have booked with any airline I checked. I looked at booking a round trip with an airline and just not using the return ticket. I still saved over $700/person using the cruiseline air booking. (Round trips to/from Europe can be reasonable in price from an airline. One way seldom is.)

[Longboysfan]

My question on this is.....

 

If I want first fly in and then tour about Europe for a few weeks then repo cruise back and fly home from FLL or Miami.

 

Are the flying Apps able to handle that?

[2theship]

My question on this is.....

 

 

 

If I want first fly in and then tour about Europe for a few weeks then repo cruise back and fly home from FLL or Miami.

 

 

 

Are the flying Apps able to handle that?

 

 

It's always worked for us but maybe we stayed within certain parameters. You can check flights without booking on the Choice Air website.

 

 

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[Hlitner]

The key for us, when booking any cruise or flight, is to simply shop around and compare the options. For example. SAS (we love this airline) does offer 1 way flights without penalty as does Aer Lingus. La Compagnie is an all business class airline (flying to Paris) that offers business class for not much more then most airline's Economy fares. Air New Zealand (who some think is one of the best airlines in the world) has the most amazing Premium Economy (better then business class on some competitors) which can sometimes only be purchased directly on their own web site. In fact, we have seen this on certain other airlines where you do not normally find their Premium Economy on anything other then the airline's own web site. On the other hand, we have sometimes found better international business class prices through certain cruise lines (or River Cruise Lines). Like most large purchases...it often pays to simply shop around.

 

Hank