Very disappointed with Celebrity Air today

[jsf]

I had quite a go round with Celebrity air this morning. First we are flying Celebrity Air on Delta airlines in about 3 weeks our connecting flight only allowed us 30 minutes to get to our next flight and I looked online and found an earlier flight. The problem is that they require you to be at the gate at least 15 minutes ahead of time and you have to get from one gate to the other, I've been watching the flight status for the last couple of weeks and some flights were on time and some not. I thought we could do this but it would be very close if both flights were in the same terminal. Starting last week some of the flights were going to a different terminal so this made it even tougher. I called Celebrity and told them the problem and the best they do was to change to the earlier flight but it would cost me $600.00. I told them that was unacceptable and if we missed our flight they would have to get us to our cruise regardless.

I then called Delta and explained the problem and they said no problem and booked the early flight at no cost and even picked out the seats I had been looking at. This is the first time I have had problems with Choice Air but now I'm wondering about future flights.

Sorry for the long post but I was a little upset by all this.

J.

[grandgeezer]

4 minutes ago, jsf said:

I had quite a go round with Celebrity air this morning. First we are flying Celebrity Air on Delta airlines in about 3 weeks our connecting flight only allowed us 30 minutes to get to our next flight and I looked online and found an earlier flight. The problem is that they require you to be at the gate at least 15 minutes ahead of time and you have to get from one gate to the other, I've been watching the flight status for the last couple of weeks and some flights were on time and some not. I thought we could do this but it would be very close if both flights were in the same terminal. Starting last week some of the flights were going to a different terminal so this made it even tougher. I called Celebrity and told them the problem and the best they do was to change to the earlier flight but it would cost me $600.00. I told them that was unacceptable and if we missed our flight they would have to get us to our cruise regardless.

I then called Delta and explained the problem and they said no problem and booked the early flight at no cost and even picked out the seats I had been looking at. This is the first time I have had problems with Choice Air but now I'm wondering about future flights.

Sorry for the long post but I was a little upset by all this.

J.

 

Didn't you pick out your own flights to avoid something like this, or did they change the times? We always pick our flights.

[jsf]

They did change the times but Celebrity would not help me get the earlier flight.

[Bo1953]

If I Am correct, X has very little flexibility to change flights within their contractual commitments with the airlines, if the flights met the original guidelines.

 

When issues like this arise, most passengers call the airline direct, which has more flexibility in changing flights... sooooo to be mad/upset at X maybe a bit displaced considering their contractual restrictions.

 

It is a good thing you thought to call DL to get it changed, where others might not.

 

Now you can go have a relaxing sailing...

 

bon voyage

[jagoffee]

38 minutes ago, jsf said:

They did change the times but Celebrity would not help me get the earlier flight.

Yes, I am not surprised.  That is exactly how I would expect to deal with airline changes once booked and paid.  It happens frequently with airline reservations.  

 

 

[hcat]

The few times we have flown DELTA (mostly  overseas) they have changed our flights sev times...We had to keep tracking them.  They are good about no charge switches but at least once we had to stay over a dsy b/c the new flight times could not be resolved.   Extra transp and hotel and food ...

 

We do.not use  Cruise Air programs anymore, but heard they have improved  ..hope so.

[2Long2NxtCrz]

So it sounds like what happened to your flight was a scheduling change.  It's something that all the airlines do in the spring.  And then the computers automatically rebook folks (or if things are within their tolerances, they do not rebook).

 

This happened to us last year on all of our flights.  I'd booked them in January for August and November and then they got shuffled around.  Very badly in the case of Alaska.  Because the airline had changed our flights they do not charge to rectify the scheduling issues.  I'm really not sure how CruiseAir's contract works, but they don't have that ability as far as I know.  They should have told you to call the airline directly since it was the airline who made the change.

 

[bkbarrym]

Surprised that you could even book the connecting flight with only 30 minutes leeway in the first place. Would have been concerned about checked baggage getting transferred to the connecting flight.

[ALANG]

DW and I will be flying Delta in a few months from now.  SO far they have change flight times or equipment eight times.  However, each time I have called Delta and they have resolved any issues with no problems and some to my benefit. Needless to say I check my flights on a daily basis.

[Lastdance]

You are your best advocate, along with being tenacious!  Very happy it all worked out for you!

[clskinsfan]

14 minutes ago, ALANG said:

DW and I will be flying Delta in a few months from now.  SO far they have change flight times or equipment eight times.  However, each time I have called Delta and they have resolved any issues with no problems and some to my benefit. Needless to say I check my flights on a daily basis.

 

Same thing here. My departure times on origination flight have changed at least 6 times since I booked it. It is not a big deal to us as our second flight doesnt leave for an hour and a half until our arrival. But I could see how this would be a big issue for travelers. The funny thing is they changed our departure time earlier every time. Then last week changed it back to the original departure time 😕

[mek]

3 hours ago, clskinsfan said:

 

Same thing here. My departure times on origination flight have changed at least 6 times since I booked it. It is not a big deal to us as our second flight doesnt leave for an hour and a half until our arrival. But I could see how this would be a big issue for travelers. The funny thing is they changed our departure time earlier every time. Then last week changed it back to the original departure time 😕

I'll bet I've received 5 or 6 messages from Delta with time change notices for our next trip and all of them have been 1 minute differences.  So funny, but I have had changes that are significant and I've never had any problems rescheduling when I contacted the airline directly.

[chemmo]

3 hours ago, mek said:

I'll bet I've received 5 or 6 messages from Delta with time change notices for our next trip and all of them have been 1 minute differences.  So funny, but I have had changes that are significant and I've never had any problems rescheduling when I contacted the airline directly.

 

Same here! Each time we receive a mail we cringe in case our comfortable connection time has been compromised, then we check and breathe again!

[39august]

I had a similar situation with Celebrity Air and Delta as OP. When I contacted XAir they told me that they would have to request the change I wanted from Delta and would have the answer in a couple of days. Within 24 hours X Air contacted me that the change had been approved and no charge at all. This has been the case twice when I desired a change to a longer lay over time. Are several of you saying that despite booking thru'Celebrity Air, you called Delta direct to change at no charge?

[gold1953]

Our flight to Santiago was switched. I called Celebrity who said I needed to call the airline. I told them that our friends who we were travelling to Valpraiso with were now on another flight. They happily switched us

[waterbug123]

On 4/8/2019 at 1:07 PM, jsf said:

Celebrity Air on Delta airlines in about 3 weeks our connecting flight only allowed us 30 minutes to get to our next flight.... best they do was to change to the earlier flight but it would cost me $600.00....

I then called Delta and explained the problem and they said no problem

 

Delta's MCT (minimum connect time) for domestic flights is 35 minutes so yes, if they change to a schedule that only gives you 30 minutes, they will change you to a different flight at no extra charge.

 

On 4/8/2019 at 1:12 PM, grandgeezer said:

 

Didn't you pick out your own flights to avoid something like this, or did they change the times? We always pick our flights.

 

There would have to have been a schedule change; Delta would not allow a booking with less than 35 minutes for a domestic connection.

 

On 4/8/2019 at 1:51 PM, Bo1953 said:

If I Am correct, X has very little flexibility to change flights within their contractual commitments with the airlines, if the flights met the original guidelines.

 

When issues like this arise, most passengers call the airline direct, which has more flexibility in changing flights.

 

It's interesting that even though the change caused a connection that Delta wouldn't allow, Celebrity said they couldn't do anything.  If the pax hadn't called Delta, likely in time the computer would have caught up with the issue and rebooked them.  In theory, at that point Celebrity would have been notified so they could inform the pax.

 

[mek]

4 hours ago, 39august said:

I had a similar situation with Celebrity Air and Delta as OP. When I contacted XAir they told me that they would have to request the change I wanted from Delta and would have the answer in a couple of days. Within 24 hours X Air contacted me that the change had been approved and no charge at all. This has been the case twice when I desired a change to a longer lay over time. Are several of you saying that despite booking thru'Celebrity Air, you called Delta direct to change at no charge?

Yes, contacted the airline directly and never spoke to Choice Air.

[MCazer]

I am guessing a lot of this has to do with the Boeing airplanes that were pulled from service.  They were supposed to go back into service with the computer fix, but that has been delayed.  Which leaves the airlines scrambling, cancelling and trying to work around it.  Delta is one of the airlines effected, as is Southwest.

[ericosmith]

5 hours ago, MCazer said:

I am guessing a lot of this has to do with the Boeing airplanes that were pulled from service.  They were supposed to go back into service with the computer fix, but that has been delayed.  Which leaves the airlines scrambling, cancelling and trying to work around it.  Delta is one of the airlines effected, as is Southwest.

 

I don't believe this is the case as I don't think Delta has any of the max variant.  

[waterbug123]

12 hours ago, MCazer said:

I am guessing a lot of this has to do with the Boeing airplanes that were pulled from service.  They were supposed to go back into service with the computer fix, but that has been delayed.  Which leaves the airlines scrambling, cancelling and trying to work around it.  Delta is one of the airlines effected, as is Southwest.

 

Nope, Boeing doesn't have any MAX aircraft.  Southwest does, as does American I believe.

[mikkelhansen]

Delta neither owns nor has ordered any 737 MAX units - Southwest and AA (and United) have active orders and delivered units.

A full list of all orders AND completed deliveries can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Boeing_737_MAX_orders_and_deliveries#Orders_and_deliveries_by_customer.

Edited April 10, 2019 by mikkelhansen

[MCazer]

1 hour ago, mikkelhansen said:

Delta neither owns nor has ordered any 737 MAX units - Southwest and AA (and United) have active orders and delivered units.

A full list of all orders AND completed deliveries can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Boeing_737_MAX_orders_and_deliveries#Orders_and_deliveries_by_customer.

I checked out that list and was going to post it also.  Weird, a small local station here in NY reported that Delta was one of those that had them. And not a day later my husband’s Delta flight was canceled for the following week.  So I just assumed that was the reason. 

[smtcan]

We had an issue with ChoiceAir last year.  An ice storm was forecast and we were told that the airport would probably be closed for several days.  We called ChiiceAir to find our options.  They said they would change our flights ( bring them forward a day) and would call back to confirm.  Several hours, no call.  Called back they said they were working on it and would call back.  No call, so called again, they said they wouldn’t change our flights because our flight hadn’t actually been cancelled.

 

Called AirCanada, they changed our flight right away.  Outcome - we got out just before the airport was closed.  If we had relied on Celebrity we would have missed our TA cruise.  

Edited April 10, 2019 by smtcan

[Nancynurse]

Once we had booked through Celebrity, I only dealt with Delta from that point forward.  There were several changes and they took care of any issues.

 

Nancy