Flights

[gydell]

Has anyone booked their flights through Celebrity? If so were the prices better than you could get on your own? Thanks!

[cruisestitch]

Yes, otherwise I probably would have reverted to self-booking.

[keesar]

I have found that the prices are comparable flying from my area.  You have to compare apples to apples.  A lower price may be an Economy fare versus the airline's Main Cabin fare -in which you can immediately choose your seat.  

[hiccups]

For domestic, not usually (or maybe only a few dollars), but international, yes.  We've still used them at times for domestic because of the "we get you to the ship" policy.

[CruzerDeb]

If you book thru Celebrity, for which I understand that no payment is due until the cruise final payment, if airfare drops between the time you select your flights and that final payment, will Celebrity automatically give you that lower airfare, or do you have to keep an eye on it yourself?  If you have to watch for lower airfare, will Celebrity then honor that lower fare?  

[gydell]

Thanks everyone!

[Cruise a holic]

1 hour ago, gydell said:

Has anyone booked their flights through Celebrity? If so were the prices better than you could get on your own? Thanks!

We are going on a cruise in a few weeks.  We booked Celebrity air- yes it was cheaper.  What is great, you can book months in advance but you do not pay for the fare until you pay for the cruise- so no outlay of money.  Good because if you cancel the cruise you cancel the air without a fee.

 

However, I wanted to change the flight departure time and was advised by Celebrity that I would have to pay a $200 change fee!  If I booked directly from Delta, not sure what they would have, if any charged us.  We also are in First Class, so I do not believe Delta would have charged us a change fee.  Needless to say, we aren't changing flight times.

[Sugarmag13]

I have been looking at prices and there is no real difference, so I will be booking on my own.

[Pier290]

Yes and I monitored the flights and when the rates went down I called Celebrity and they adjusted the rates!✈️✈️✈️

[Mike981]

Second year in a row that the comment "not so much for domestic", is correct for us.

I actually just booked our Jan 9th FLL air this morning direct with Delta. I have been watching Minneapolis to Miami and FLL since February. I got an alert for Miami this morning, not great. Then I checked FLL and it was higher than I had seen since February. Later this morning for some reason I checked FLL again and it was $64 pp less and the best price I have seen. Booked it and glad that is over.

It turns out to be $190 less pp than I paid for the same time last year to Miami.

[FlyingAnchor]

22 minutes ago, Mike981 said:

Minneapolis to Miami

 

Hello to a fellow MN Celebrity cruiser! 

As to the OP's question: We have only booked through Celebrity ChoiceAir one time and that was when we were flying to Europe for our honeymoon cruise. We booked through Celebrity so that for this particular cruise, since we were traveling such a long distance, if any delay occurred Celebrity would get us to the ship.

My only caution is to double check the policies of the airlines you are considering booking. We found our cheapest option. We booked it. Afterwards, between baggage fees and seat selection roundtrip we ended up paying the equivalent of a third ticket! And for that price we could have flown non-stop on another airline instead of connecting. 

[hiccups]

5 hours ago, CruzerDeb said:

If you book thru Celebrity, for which I understand that no payment is due until the cruise final payment, if airfare drops between the time you select your flights and that final payment, will Celebrity automatically give you that lower airfare, or do you have to keep an eye on it yourself?  If you have to watch for lower airfare, will Celebrity then honor that lower fare?  

You have to monitor it yourself.  We've had three price drops on the tickets for our upcoming cruise.

[Mike981]

1 hour ago, FlyingAnchor said:

 

Hello to a fellow MN Celebrity cruiser! 

As to the OP's question: We have only booked through Celebrity ChoiceAir one time and that was when we were flying to Europe for our honeymoon cruise. We booked through Celebrity so that for this particular cruise, since we were traveling such a long distance, if any delay occurred Celebrity would get us to the ship.

My only caution is to double check the policies of the airlines you are considering booking. We found our cheapest option. We booked it. Afterwards, between baggage fees and seat selection roundtrip we ended up paying the equivalent of a third ticket! And for that price we could have flown non-stop on another airline instead of connecting. 

 

Howdy neighbor. 🙂

 

[CruzerDeb]

41 minutes ago, hiccups said:

You have to monitor it yourself.  We've had three price drops on the tickets for our upcoming cruise.

 

Sorry, this is probably a stupid question, but to monitor it yourself, you go back on Celebrity and re-run the flights?  You can do this even though you already have flights booked?  And then if the price is different you just re-book?  Or do you call CS and they do it for you?

[alcpa1]

CruzerDeb,

First of all where are you going and when?

As noted domestic airfares are close to comparable.

Travel to Europe and multi city flights and one ways CAN, but not always be less via Celebrity's air program. We've had it both ways.

There is a dedicated air forum on Cruise Critic. Look under the Discussions section. It's noted as Cruise Air. There are members who have vast knowledge on air travel. 

The experts will tell you that fares are coded and if you can't see which fare class you are ticketed in you can't truly determine how beneficial any particular fare might be.

Now as to monitoring flights for fare adjustments you should use the airline's web site but be aware that every airline booked in full via any site will incur a hefty change fee. The airlines web site is also the place to monitor time or equipment changes that could affect your travel. Prior to final payment Celbrity's air may or may not charge you their own change fee on top of the airline fee. For example the change fee for a Domestic fare on Delta is $200. The change fee for an international flight on Delta starts at $350. The other option to avoid change fees is to book a fully refundable fare but these fares are overly expensive.

If you are uncertain about the process do post in the Cruise Air forum BEFORE you book a ticket. Your best advice will be there.

[waterbug123]

13 hours ago, Cruise a holic said:

However, I wanted to change the flight departure time and was advised by Celebrity that I would have to pay a $200 change fee!  If I booked directly from Delta, not sure what they would have, if any charged us.  We also are in First Class, so I do not believe Delta would have charged us a change fee.  Needless to say, we aren't changing flight times.

 

Delta change fees start at $200 and can range from $200-500 per person.  As for first class, if you booked discounted first class (most likely) you would still be charged a change fee.  Only if you booked a fully refundable first class fare would the change fee be waived.  Fully refundable fares are usually outrageously expensive so I doubt that is what you booked.

 

There are some exceptions, but they are rare.  You can read details here:

https://www.delta.com/us/en/change-cancel/change-flight

 

[hiccups]

9 hours ago, CruzerDeb said:

 

Sorry, this is probably a stupid question, but to monitor it yourself, you go back on Celebrity and re-run the flights?  You can do this even though you already have flights booked?  And then if the price is different you just re-book?  Or do you call CS and they do it for you?

I use the Choice Air link on the Azamara site because I find it quicker, but you can also search on the Celebrity site (at the top click on Shop Flights, search for a cruise, click on the itinerary and then search for flights).  When I saw lower prices, I called Choice Air and had them re-book the tickets.  Until final cruise payment, which is when you actually pay for the tickets, you can do this as often as you like without any fee. 

For the last price drop, we had to switch our outgoing flight to one that departed an hour earlier, but we were fine doing that to save $90 PP.  Our flights have come down $290 PP since we booked the cruise.

[JOVERNITE]

I agree 100% with all the above. We've always found air through X is more expensive.

 

One caveat: we are lucky in that we have JetBlue in Richmond (VA) so we always book through them. Checking prices daily. For a few seconds spent checking daily it can really pay off. We do the same thing for any cruise we're booked on for price drop. The other thing which is very important to us is that they have a non-stop RIC to FLL and FLL to RIC.

 

Happy Flying and Cruising!

 

Joanne

[Mike981]

I fly out of Minneapolis, so 99% of the time it's Delta. I have a cruise out off FLL this coming January and have been monitoring flights since I booked this cruise this past February. We choose to book Comfort+ seats and they hovered around $620/$670 for months. Yesterday morning I checked at it was $653 pp, then my ADD kicked in and I checked again two hours later and it was $589 pp. I nabbed two and glad I can close that file. Actually happy with the price especially compared to this past January to Miami, it was $777 pp.

Experience shows that these winter flights out of the frozen north to southern Florida are always sold out and will most likely increase quite a bit.

[CruzerDeb]

9 hours ago, alcpa1 said:

CruzerDeb,

First of all where are you going and when?

As noted domestic airfares are close to comparable.

Travel to Europe and multi city flights and one ways CAN, but not always be less via Celebrity's air program. We've had it both ways.

There is a dedicated air forum on Cruise Critic. Look under the Discussions section. It's noted as Cruise Air. There are members who have vast knowledge on air travel. 

The experts will tell you that fares are coded and if you can't see which fare class you are ticketed in you can't truly determine how beneficial any particular fare might be.

Now as to monitoring flights for fare adjustments you should use the airline's web site but be aware that every airline booked in full via any site will incur a hefty change fee. The airlines web site is also the place to monitor time or equipment changes that could affect your travel. Prior to final payment Celbrity's air may or may not charge you their own change fee on top of the airline fee. For example the change fee for a Domestic fare on Delta is $200. The change fee for an international flight on Delta starts at $350. The other option to avoid change fees is to book a fully refundable fare but these fares are overly expensive.

If you are uncertain about the process do post in the Cruise Air forum BEFORE you book a ticket. Your best advice will be there.

 

Thank you!  Off to look at the Cruise Air forum.

[2theship]

If you are sailing from Ft. Lauderdale or Miami and live in an area that's well served by Southwest or Jet Blue, you'll probably be better off booking your own air. Until recently, the only non-stops we could get to FLL were on Southwest so they got our business. However, we check cruise line air first when flying to Europe. Since we always go several days early, help getting to the ship due to delayed flights is not the issue. A few years ago, we discovered how reasonable business class fares can be to Europe. When you have a long overnight flight across the ocean, nothing beats a lie-flat seat.

[cangelmd]

1 hour ago, Mike981 said:

I fly out of Minneapolis, so 99% of the time it's Delta. I have a cruise out off FLL this coming January and have been monitoring flights since I booked this cruise this past February. We choose to book Comfort+ seats and they hovered around $620/$670 for months. Yesterday morning I checked at it was $653 pp, then my ADD kicked in and I checked again two hours later and it was $589 pp. I nabbed two and glad I can close that file. Actually happy with the price especially compared to this past January to Miami, it was $777 pp.

Experience shows that these winter flights out of the frozen north to southern Florida are always sold out and will most likely increase quite a bit.

Ah, flights, a fav topic. We have never used Choice Air, mainly because we live at the very end of air service, and have a long relationship built up with Delta. We have FF miles and yearly companion tickets, so we do a lot of our cruise flying for “free” or half price - just hasn’t seemed worth it to me to involve a 3rd party.

Question about Choice Air, when you book thru CA, do you get communications from the airline about schedule changes? Do they come directly, through CA or do you have to check to find out about time changes? We book far in advance, especially if we are using miles to get the best deals, and our flight times get changed often, and sometimes it is a significant change, like hours.

[hiccups]

45 minutes ago, cangelmd said:

Ah, flights, a fav topic. We have never used Choice Air, mainly because we live at the very end of air service, and have a long relationship built up with Delta. We have FF miles and yearly companion tickets, so we do a lot of our cruise flying for “free” or half price - just hasn’t seemed worth it to me to involve a 3rd party.

Question about Choice Air, when you book thru CA, do you get communications from the airline about schedule changes? Do they come directly, through CA or do you have to check to find out about time changes? We book far in advance, especially if we are using miles to get the best deals, and our flight times get changed often, and sometimes it is a significant change, like hours.

I've received emails from Choice Air about flight time changes, but with our upcoming Choice Air booking on Azamara, checked our flights on  the United website and found we'd been changed to another flight and didn't receive notification.  Called and got it fixed (we had paid for business class and they changed our connecting flight to coach), and then two weeks later, another change to a different flight, once again stuck in coach!  Called again and got it changed, and so far, nothing else has happened.  Choice Air couldn't tell me why we weren't notified, even though we'd already received time change emails.

[Cruise a holic]

2 hours ago, cangelmd said:

Ah, flights, a fav topic. We have never used Choice Air, mainly because we live at the very end of air service, and have a long relationship built up with Delta. We have FF miles and yearly companion tickets, so we do a lot of our cruise flying for “free” or half price - just hasn’t seemed worth it to me to involve a 3rd party.

Question about Choice Air, when you book thru CA, do you get communications from the airline about schedule changes? Do they come directly, through CA or do you have to check to find out about time changes? We book far in advance, especially if we are using miles to get the best deals, and our flight times get changed often, and sometimes it is a significant change, like hours.

Yes you do get notices from CA and if a real "change"  you can change your flight without any fee.  But if you have miles certainly best to go direct with Delta.

Edited July 11, 2019 by Cruise a holic

[gydell]

Thanks everyone! I just booked thru Celebrity and it was about $1200  cheaper than if I’d booked it myself. That’s business class from Atl - Venice.