Air2Sea reviews?

[craig01020]

I've been pricing airfare for a multi-city Europe cruise and Air2Sea seems to be the best deal by far. I've never used Air2Sea before, and was wondering what others' experience was like. The online booking screen seems rather bare-bones, can you speak to an agent on the phone? Were you happy with Air2Sea? Would you use them again, what would you do different?

 

Thanks.

[hun]

We’ve had great luck with Air2Sea on Europe sailings over the years on both Celebrity and RCCL, cost-wise and service-wise. For our May 2020 Med cruise, we had unknowingly booked refundable air tickets and so we got that money back when the cruise was cancelled.  We have booked online and have also spoken to a rep (all precovid though).  After booking with air2sea, I would contact the particular airline with the airline’s confirmation number and hold specific seats. 
 

Edited January 29, 2022 by hun

[Tlbecker1]

We have also had great luck with Air2Sea.  They have great customer service.  We had 2 cruises that were cancelled and our refunds were returned to us quickly.  I always call them, because their website doesn’t work 1/2 of the time.  800-533-7803.

[publicpersona]

There have been times when ChoiceAir (predecessor of Air2Sea) had extraordinary deals on transatlantic flights, compared to airlines direct. I will still check their prices just to see. However, especially after a recent experience with them, I plan to avoid them if their pricing is comparable booking direct. Why?

 

• Air2Sea's website has been down a lot. And I mean a lot. I just tried it again and got their sorry page "Sorry! Our services are down."
• The last time I booked through them (a couple months ago), you couldn't browse flights that were not the sail date. We wanted to fly day before. You have to call and have them read choices to you on the phone (hopefully, this has changed back).
• Unless you are uncomfortable using websites, booking and managing flights is so much easier than working through Air2Sea. What should be a five minute task to book a flight turns into a 20 minute phone call. And want to make a change that would be five minutes on a website? That could stretch to 30 minutes or more on the phone.
• The airlines are being more open to your making changes to your flight. However, if you are beyond final payment, Air2Sea charges a punitive change fee even if the airlines would allow you to do it for free.
• When Air2Sea owns your booking, you can't do anything with your booking yourself. Not even assign seats. You have to get on the phone again.
• When AA made substantial changes to our flight itinerary, I did get an email from Air2Sea saying they'd be in touch, but unless my cruise was within 72 hours, do not call them. They would follow up within one week. Three weeks later, no contact received. So I called them and they said there would be a charge to change flights .. even though AA had changed flight time > 2 hours. (Here is where AA would definitely have made the change for free).
• Since we had to change our flight, I relented. Then the Air2Sea agent booked it on the wrong date and admitted the date he booked didn't match the notes he had taken about the change. But then he said there was nothing he could do about it, and I'd need to call in and make another change, starting from scratch.
• Their marketing words (such as "Assured Arrival") try to imply that they guarantee that they will get you to the ship on time. There is no such guarantee. Sure, they will work on your flight changes, but they are in no better position to do that than you are. And you pay for the difference. And no, they don't "hold the ship" for you. There are times when ships depart late because systemic issues in air travel that day are causing hundreds of pax to be late, but that has nothing to do with how those people booked their flights. On a normal departure day, they aren't going to hold the ship because two people flying from Des Moines missed their flight.

Besides the occasional price advantage on transatlantic flights, one positive I would mention is that if the cruise line cancels your cruise, your flights booked through Air2Sea are supposed to be cash refundable. I say supposed to be because our cruise was cancelled several weeks ago and we still haven't even heard from Air2Sea (or Royal) about that refund.

[HicksRA]

My only gripe is that every time I use A2S, the flights always get changed with no notification and we lose our seats. 
We’re on a flight tomorrow that just got changed. My wife is stuck in a middle seat and I don’t even have one assigned. Called AA from the ship on a 2 hour hold and basically told TS they’ll stick me somewhere at check in. 

[taglovestocruise]

9 hours ago, craig01020 said:

I've been pricing airfare for a multi-city Europe cruise and Air2Sea seems to be the best deal by far. I've never used Air2Sea before, and was wondering what others' experience was like. The online booking screen seems rather bare-bones, can you speak to an agent on the phone? Were you happy with Air2Sea? Would you use them again, what would you do different?

 

Thanks.

We have used them many times for oneway  international flights, the domestic prices always seem overpriced.  We had a flight booked on American Airlines a few years ago that was cancelled last minute due to extreme weather in NYC.  One phone call to Air2Sea and we were rebooked within minutes on Air France LAX to Rome  with no charges whatsoever.  As HUN said,  my wife always calls the airline the next day to reserve or confirm seating. All this also pre covid.

[smokeybandit]

Air2Sea is junk now that if your booking is held by a TA or you want to fly in/out on days other than embarkation/disembarkation days, you have to call.

[craig01020]

2 minutes ago, taglovestocruise said:

All this also pre covid.

***sigh***   I barely remember pre-covid. 😪

[gmerick]

Post-COVID experience:  4 cruises booked all using Air2Sea.  2 cancelled by RCI, refund promptly processed.  December 2021 - Not my preferred departure airport, but booked on the web for day prior departure.  United airlines announced 3 flight changes between booking and sailing.  Yes I had to request seat assignments each time, but that's what happens when the equipment (aircraft type) changes.  

Jan 2022, same departure airport, 4 equipment changes, same old same old.  This time I grabbed a first class upgrade from United, for $100, and I get 2 free bags instead of paying $80 to check them.  

Biggest benefit:  I'm protected if (when) RCI cancels a sailing.

Yes, I'm happy with Air2Sea.

Once this COVID mess settles down, I'm going back to Orbitz, though.  I like the bigger choice of airlines (I prefer Delta), and departure airports.  

[smokeybandit]

18 minutes ago, gmerick said:

Once this COVID mess settles down, I'm going back to Orbitz, though.  I like the bigger choice of airlines (I prefer Delta), and departure airports.  

I've had no issue getting flight combinations from Air2Sea that weren't initially offered

[karena1]

11 hours ago, craig01020 said:

I've been pricing airfare for a multi-city Europe cruise and Air2Sea seems to be the best deal by far. I've never used Air2Sea before, and was wondering what others' experience was like. The online booking screen seems rather bare-bones, can you speak to an agent on the phone? Were you happy with Air2Sea? Would you use them again, what would you do different?

 

Thanks.

We used them for the first time ever when we did Adventure out of the Bahamas in August once cruising resumed.  They were half the price of booking with AA directly.  Everything went perfect.  We are looking to use them again for our April 2023 Rhapsody out of Barbados if they are less than booking direct.  Normally we use SW to San Juan when we cruise out of there, but for the Adventure they were by far cheaper.  We still did our own transfer from the airport to the ship, we just grabbed a cab.

 

And yes, you can call them direct 844-278-9745

[bigr14]

We tried to get seat assignments with the last two legs going from Sydney to Orlando on American Airlines and cannot do it. American says it must be done thru Air2Sea and Air2Sea says they cannot do it since American has not provided them with the seat maps. Qantas (1st leg) says talk with American.

So, be careful, Air2Sea website states they can assign seats but we now find that the rep said it happens quite often that they cannot assign  seats. Guess we might be stuck with middle seats for 6 hours. Could have avoided this mess by not using Air2Sea. Lesson learned