Cudos to Celebrity Air

[ericosmith]

We were booked back to back on the Solstice when it was announced that the second half of our back to back in Australia was canceled.  That meant that instead of flying home from Auckland as originally planned, we would have to fly home on different dates from Sydney.  Got on the phone with Celebrity Air and they were able to re book us a return with a transfer through Auckland with Preferred Economy as originally booked.  Perfect, avoided lots of hassle.  Arrived at the airport in Sydney and made it to the front of the check in line when we were informed that the Auckland airport had been closed 10 minutes earlier to transit passengers.  That threw the second booking out the window.  Got on the phone to Celebrity Air once more and there weren't many options to be had as transfers were closed in many airports and flights were full.  Finally they were able to come through with seats and a routing which were to be truthful were a PITA, but at least they got us home and my credit card never had to come out of my wallet.  I shudder to think of what kind of mess this would have been if I had booked my own airfare and had to find an expensive one way fare home from Sydney after I'd already paid for the Auckland round trip.  

 

This was the first time I'd ever used Celebrity Air and boy was a glad I did.  

[NutsAboutGolf]

One trick in the travel industry is you can buy business class upgrade certificates/points on ebay for american and united; it used to be around $350ish each way but with the pandemic pricing is currently all over the map.  With NCL, you have no idea what airline or how many layovers you have.  X/RCL are so much better because you can pick your flights.

[emairs]

We were on the same sailing with my brother and SIL. We also had Celebrity Air, but had a different experience.

We received an email confirmation from Celebrity confirming a revised flight from Sydney to Toronto via San Francisco. We managed to get my brother and SIL on the same flight through Expedia.

When I went to the front desk to request our boarding pass, they told me that we were not on that flight. We were not ticketed and there were no more seats available.
Celebrity Air had to scramble to find us another flight, which luckily they managed to do, via DFW.
Had I not gone to the front desk, we would have showed up at the airport with no flight.

 

[ericosmith]

Perhaps the difference was that I called Celebrity Air directly and arranged the flights myself.  At some point a couple hours later, I received the revised itinerary from the Pursers desk.

[emairs]

13 hours ago, ericosmith said:

Perhaps the difference was that I called Celebrity Air directly and arranged the flights myself.  At some point a couple hours later, I received the revised itinerary from the Pursers desk.

I spoke to Celebrity Air twice, and so did our Concierge. Didn’t make any difference. They still screwed it up, and sent a confirmation that didn’t exist.

[jjmock]

We were booked on Solstice for March 20 Barrier Reef cruise. We cancelled on March 9, including the flights arranged by Celebrity, nearly $5K. We were told we'd have a credit card refund within 10 days. Still waiting. Still waiting on FCC, too, as well as refunds on excursions and dining.