Change in Custom Air Procedures

[mnocket]

One thing I learned from this thread...... Now is a good time to buy airline stocks📜

[NCCruzQueen]

The latest from Jason Montague on this topic.

 

 

[GOARMY]

All:

 

Just viewed Jason M's video on changes to Custom Air requests.  Nothing new; but reiterating more changes are in train (how soon that train leaves the station--not specified.  

 

GOARMY!

 

[Dwtlion]

Per a video emailed today featuring R's President, a form will be forthcoming to make an air request. This will eliminate calling (and long hold times) to make a request. Form can't come soon enough IMHO.

[DeepFreeze63]

1 hour ago, Dwtlion said:

Per a video emailed today featuring R's President, a form will be forthcoming to make an air request. This will eliminate calling (and long hold times) to make a request. Form can't come soon enough IMHO.

I'll "wait and see"! I'm giving up Regent Air through a terrific TA for a promise about access via the web-site that's functionality has disappointed me for years.

[RetroRod]

Just watched the video about the changes to the Custom Air process. What I took away is all the issues are caused by factors beyond Regent’s control. However, Regent’s answer is to eliminate calling directly to the custom air department and a request form and online request system are coming. Maybe putting more people in the Custom Air department to handle the work load should have been considered by Regent. I know when there are long lines in my local stores they open up another register, even putting managers on the front line. Yes, I know there are many businesses looking for workers but I suspect the Regent agents aren’t minimum wage employees. 

[edgee]

25 minutes ago, RetroRod said:

Just watched the video about the changes to the Custom Air process. What I took away is all the issues are caused by factors beyond Regent’s control. However, Regent’s answer is to eliminate calling directly to the custom air department and a request form and online request system are coming. Maybe putting more people in the Custom Air department to handle the work load should have been considered by Regent. I know when there are long lines in my local stores they open up another register, even putting managers on the front line. Yes, I know there are many businesses looking for workers but I suspect the Regent agents aren’t minimum wage employees. 

I agree. Phone lines intended to provide excellent service to premium cruise line customers gets overcrowded...so get rid of the line and put extra barriers/hoops for the customer to jump through. Not emblematic of a customer-focused company.

[mrstanley]

If Regent can’t expand the Air Department to handle phone calls who’s going to be responding to the online forms and questions? How long is it going to take to hear back ? Who responds when someone has a flight issue? Needs to be rebooked, etc. 

 

 

[RetroRod]

This is the email I sent to Jennefer Teegen at RSSC.  Hopefully, we get a response. 
Hello Jennefer
From a previous post on Cruise Critic you identified yourself as the Regent Director of Guest Experience and Loyalty. There have been a number of posts by upset customers on CC regarding the changes to the custom air process. The posts on the Regent board are listed in the post titled “change to custom air procedures”. It would be very helpful if you could read what people are saying and respond accordingly. I and the Regent community look forward to hearing from you. 
Regards
“Retrorod”
 

Edited June 6, 2022 by RetroRod
Clarify

[Jennefer Teegen]

13 hours ago, RetroRod said:

@RetroRod  Thank you for reaching out to me. To clarify, due to all the reasons pointed out in Jason Montague's video posted on this thread, the Custom Air Department is experiencing a very high volume of phone calls to their direct number, which is causing very long hold times - and the majority of the calls they are taking are for new requests. As these new requests can be taken by our general reservations agents, by routing the calls to that larger team instead, we are freeing up the Custom Air agents to be able to work with the airlines on all of the requests in the queue. As Jason also mentioned, in the next week we’ll also be launching the online form for Custom Air requests to further alleviate the need to call to submit a request.

Regent has almost doubled the amount of our air agents and continues to hire more, however training takes time as each airline has different classes of service for contracts, plus we have certain time windows, based on ships departures guest must arrive within. 

If flights are cancelled day of, the airlines take complete control of the inventory and route guests accordingly.  If guests do have an emergency during our hours of operation, our reservation team will connect them to an air agent.  Outside of our normal business hours, for emergency services, guests can call our regular 800 number and press 7, and be connected to our afterhours emergency service group.     I hope this provides additional clarity. Thanks all for your patience! 

 

Jennefer Teegen | Director of Guest Experience and Loyalty
P: +1 954.940.7217 

jteegen@rssc.com| www.rssc.com

Regent Seven Seas Cruises

7300 Corporate Drive, Miami  FL 33126

 

13 hours ago, RetroRod said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the email I sent to Jennefer Teegen at RSSC.  Hopefully, we get a response. 
Hello Jennefer
From a previous post on Cruise Critic you identified yourself as the Regent Director of Guest Experience and Loyalty. There have been a number of posts by upset customers on CC regarding the changes to the custom air process. The posts on the Regent board are listed in the post titled “change to custom air procedures”. It would be very helpful if you could read what people are saying and respond accordingly. I and the Regent community look forward to hearing from you. 
Regards
“Retrorod”
 

 

[Jimmcdaniel]

I think throwing a bunch of untrained people into the custom air department would be a disaster. This situation certainly isn't ideal but hopefully it will also sort itself out soon. What Regent is proposing sounds like a reasonable action--at least for the short term. 

[RetroRod]

Thank you Jennefer for your timely response and shedding some more light on the current Custom Air issue. Hopefully, the new and yet to be implemented process changes will help in making timely custom air reservations. 

[Go9ersjrh]

In case you were interested....Our flights landed in our portal last night.  As I suspected we are flying from LAX to ATL and then on to Barcelona.  The good news is that our flight from LAX to ATL is 1st class followed by the business class flight to Spain.  Based on comments here, I was afraid that our flight across the country would be in economy.

Coming home we are in economy from JFK to LAX but on an airline that we have status on - so no bag fees and I should be able to upgrade our tickets.  The flight home is at 5pm.  Since we have never cruised with Regent before, are they going to kick us off the ship early and make us sit at the airport for hours?

In the end, no need to use custom air.

[mrstanley]

Everyone has to be off by 9:00 am

They sometimes have a excursion set .U need to ask.

 

If not hire a private guide for a few hours.

[Go9ersjrh]

Since I have status on American, I'll probably look to move my flight to earlier in the day once the flight is ticketed or it will be an afternoon at the Admirals Club.  I did look and there are plenty of flights to LAX from JFK.

[rallydave]

34 minutes ago, Go9ersjrh said:

Coming home we are in economy from JFK to LAX but on an airline that we have status on - so no bag fees and I should be able to upgrade our tickets. 

couple of thoughts.   Your bags should be checked thru to LAX so once you clear Customs you should be able to recheck your bags right after customs with them tagged to LAX so no status needed for the domestic flight.

 

As far as upgrade for the LAX flight, that will be on a wait list basis based on your check in time in JFK.

[Go9ersjrh]

We are debarking the ship in New York.  We will be checking our own bags to LAX at the airport.  I figure I'll either try to change the ticket early or when we get to the airport ask to be put on the next flight to LAX.  There are lots of American flight to LAX before the 5 pm one we are scheduled for.

[edgee]

1 hour ago, Go9ersjrh said:

We are debarking the ship in New York.  We will be checking our own bags to LAX at the airport.  I figure I'll either try to change the ticket early or when we get to the airport ask to be put on the next flight to LAX.  There are lots of American flight to LAX before the 5 pm one we are scheduled for.

And remember if you do get upgraded to business class on AA for a JFK to LAX flight you are entitled to use of the amazing Flagship Lounge at JFK, so much better than the Admiral's Club.

[2SailingNomads]

All the airlines are over loaded these days.  Some are better than others, in particular Delta allows you to instead of being on hold listening to the same thing 900 times to request they call you back.  Hawaiian & AA the two most recent ones I dealt with require you to hold for indeterminate amounts of time, and in the case of HA had to call back 3 times after 45-70 minutes on hold each time and the person I eventually spoke to did the wrong thing until I got the 3rd one. So does this mean even if you contact them at 270 days - which for us is coming up in a couple of weeks - you will not hear back for a 7-10 days?

Edited June 11, 2022 by 2SailingNomads
Wrong time...

[makai 7]

And so the fun begins…. We paid for custom air and accepted a rather large surcharge for our preferred airline and flights a few months ago.

Prior to this change in policy the flights were changed by Regent twice without our approval, and we were able to manage and correct the changes (our exceptional TA did all the work).

Today they again changed our outbound flights to a completely different airline - most likely their standard flights for the cruise, with absolutely no explanation, and we verified that our original flights are still available for booking.  No change in the flight schedule that would trigger a modification.  Our TA has been told that they will contact her eventually, maybe 2-3 weeks from now, to discuss the changes.

We refuse to pay for the custom air fee and the surcharge for their standard flights, and are reconsidering even taking this cruise at all.

Sometimes the push isn’t worth the shove.  If it is this hard just to have flights we want, maybe it is a sign we should not do the trip at all.  Or even the next one after.  Maybe we just stop cruising with Regent altogether.  They are certainly not providing the level of service expected from a luxury line.

 

Thanks for letting me vent.

[Kwaj girl]

@makai 7or do what we do - make our own arrangements from the get-go.  Then the airline emails schedule updates immediately and directly to YOU as they happen.  At least that has been our experience with Delta over the years.

[makai 7]

Hi kwaj  girl,  we book our own flights in many circumstances, but when going places like Bali or South Africa, we prefer to have Regent deal with ground transfers and all the potential Covid cancellations.  We know we pay extra for the convenience (or inconvenience in this case!).  In the past it was never a problem like this current debacle.

[ChucktownSteve]

19 minutes ago, makai 7 said:

And so the fun begins…. We paid for custom air and accepted a rather large surcharge for our preferred airline and flights a few months ago.

Prior to this change in policy the flights were changed by Regent twice without our approval, and we were able to manage and correct the changes (our exceptional TA did all the work).

Today they again changed our outbound flights to a completely different airline - most likely their standard flights for the cruise, with absolutely no explanation, and we verified that our original flights are still available for booking.  No change in the flight schedule that would trigger a modification.  Our TA has been told that they will contact her eventually, maybe 2-3 weeks from now, to discuss the changes.

We refuse to pay for the custom air fee and the surcharge for their standard flights, and are reconsidering even taking this cruise at all.

Sometimes the push isn’t worth the shove.  If it is this hard just to have flights we want, maybe it is a sign we should not do the trip at all.  Or even the next one after.  Maybe we just stop cruising with Regent altogether.  They are certainly not providing the level of service expected from a luxury line.

 

Thanks for letting me vent.

 

Thankx for venting.  You confirmed my decision to take the Regent Air credit was correct.  Delta changed my flight from direct to a non direct. However I was able to immediately select another direct flight online and not be on hold.  No deviation fees. No extra charges to select my airline.

I wouldn't dump the cruise line because their air stinks.  Just deal directly and get the flights/airline you want without as much hassle.

[makai 7]

Update:

my TA was actually able to speak to a Regent Air representative and have a 3-way call with me today, not waiting 2-3 weeks as originally stated.  Even though we see our old flights as available on the airlines web site, they are actually changing to unacceptable options.

Regent is removing the surcharges over and above the standard air allowances for the outbound flights.  It is a compromise we can accept and I am pleased that they are being fair about the charges.

 

Our next cruise after this one we had already decided to take their standard  air arrangements, even if it means possibly getting stuck on yet another crappy international  United flight with broken lavatories in business class ( yes, every United overseas business flight we have been on has had a broken head, run out of meal selections for dinner and breakfast, and had poor service).  At least we won’t have the stress of constantly changing flight itineraries at an extra cost.

 

again, thanks for letting me vent…

[Kwaj girl]

@makai 7at least your United flights actually operated!  The last 2 times we had international flights with them they were actually delayed MANY hours or cancelled altogether...we ended up on Delta in both cases. 😄