Flights with Celebrity don't match flights with airline!

[talljules1]

So we have our first ever fly-cruise coming up in a few weeks. Flights booked with Celebrity, via a travel agent (as was the cruise).

 

Our flights are with Lufthansa.  No issue with outbound flights.

Flights home on Celebrity site match what we thought we were getting. However, they don't match what is on Lufthansa flight (as we discovered when we logged in to do the seat reservations).  The original flights would have seen us land in Manchester (UK) at about 5pm on disembarkation day.  The flights as they appear on Lufthansa don't get us into Manchester until 11pm (later departure from Barcelona plus ludicrous 4.5 hour layover in Munich).

 

Is this normal (for the flights not to match)? It doesn't feel normal! Making it hard to book transport to the airport as we don't know what time our return flight lands.

 

It's taken us 2 weeks to get a response from our (usually very good) TA - and that response has been "Celebrity have so many flight changes at the mo - you might find out about a week before departure".  This seems very unimpressive.  Rather anxious about this.

[cruisestitch]

Sounds like Lufthansa had a schedule change.  
 

can you look to see if your original flights and routing even exist anymore? 

[hrhdhd]

I noticed a flight change that had me flying to the U.S. from Rome to an intermediate city and then on to my home THE NEXT DAY. I called and got different flights, but it was a pain. Look for the flights you might want (your original ones may no longer be available) and tell your TA to call and suggest those.

[BaumD]

Airlines are changing flight schedules daily and canceling flights left and right. Once the airline makes a change I’m sure it takes celebrity a few weeks to catch up and notify the passengers. Unfortunately, this is the new normal.

 

 

c

[Fly and Sail]

Lufthansa has cancelled 1000+ flights per month for this summer due to staff shortages. Sounds like you were affected by one of those and your flights got changed.

 

Call Flights by X and have them find an alternative.

[Fly and Sail]

I swore that I will never use FBC again but right now I couldn't believe my eyes as I was offered a one way on Qatar Airways Bangkok-Doha-Rome for $155.50 after a $500 discount for the ow. Booked!

 

Normally QR offers upgrades for cash during check-in which would bring it to under $1000 for Business Class.

Edited June 19, 2022 by Fly and Sail

[Ride-The-Waves]

Flights by Celebrity is notoriously bad/slow in updating you actual itinerary.  They booked us US-Rome and it was perfect.  Took them 3 months to book Rome-US and continued to defer actual reservations.  Finally able to get them to book us on LH returning.  Then they sent  a note saying that their booking was inconsistent with policies for disembarkation day and rep booked us on AA.  Not a happy camper, but it gets us home.  The conundrum: even after the rebooking Flights by Celebrity continue to show a return flight that didn't connect with anything...the transAtlantic segment was missing.  Good news was the "final" cruise booklet showed the correct flights.  Its not LH, its incompetence at FBC.

[Virginia100]

The last message is confusing. When I use FBC I have already listed the flights I want thru  research on other sites. I know the times and $. I then call FBC to book, get final $ amount, then I get them to get my seat assignments.  It’s all set. I use the locator code to check occasionally to see if a flight change the FBC might be slow to email me.

[talljules1]

Thanks all for the replies.  It has taken a while to get an answer from Celebrity via TA, but it turns out the later (poorly timed) flights are what we actually have, not the ones listed in our eDocs. Whilst far from ideal, at least they do get us home. Must try to roll with the punches.

Must try to roll with the punches.

Must try to roll with the punches.

Must try to roll with the punches.

Must try to roll with the punches.

Must try to roll with the punches.

🙂

 

[chemmo]

24 minutes ago, talljules1 said:

Thanks all for the replies.  It has taken a while to get an answer from Celebrity via TA, but it turns out the later (poorly timed) flights are what we actually have, not the ones listed in our eDocs. Whilst far from ideal, at least they do get us home. Must try to roll with the punches.

Must try to roll with the punches.

Must try to roll with the punches.

Must try to roll with the punches.

Must try to roll with the punches.

Must try to roll with the punches.

🙂

 

Much easier said than done….So many people this year have booked early, paid a premium for direct flights or ones with good timings only to have things totally changed near to their vacation. I must confess with age and a few mobility issues against us we chickened out of flying and opted for a Canary Island cruise from Southampton. Not our favourite itinerary but definitely less stressful this year.

 

Focus on the drinks package as you board, blue sky and sunshine ☀️….

 

Looking at things from the glass is half full perspective at least you have decent flights out 🤞 

 

Sincere best wishes for a great cruise!

[talljules1]

22 minutes ago, chemmo said:

Much easier said than done….So many people this year have booked early, paid a premium for direct flights or ones with good timings only to have things totally changed near to their vacation. I must confess with age and a few mobility issues against us we chickened out of flying and opted for a Canary Island cruise from Southampton. Not our favourite itinerary but definitely less stressful this year.

 

Focus on the drinks package as you board, blue sky and sunshine ☀️….

 

Looking at things from the glass is half full perspective at least you have decent flights out 🤞 

 

Sincere best wishes for a great cruise!

Thanks Chemmo (and lovely to see you here!)

 

You are right. We have good flights out. I am very worried I made a mistake when booking, as we fly out on the day. Yes, I know, I know.  OH is convinced this was my choosing and fault - but he was there when I made the booking and didn't push at the time. Still, first flight out of the day, so hopefully we will get there.  First day is still going to be a LONG day. Will learn the lesson for next time.  At least we are booked with Celebrity, so *hopefully* we will get to the ship. Otherwise we might be holidaying in Frankfurt lol.

 

It has been ages since we flew for a holiday, so feeling anxious about it - but we will have our masks on.

 

It is going to be our first warm water cruise in ages too - that will be a nice change. We have some excursions booked, but not for every port. (I think the only one I am truly fussed about is Santorini, so as they are all paid for out of OBC, we will roll with it and see how we feel. They've changed the times of some of the excursions to early AM, so might end up giving them a miss.)

[chemmo]

53 minutes ago, talljules1 said:

Thanks Chemmo (and lovely to see you here!)

 

You are right. We have good flights out. I am very worried I made a mistake when booking, as we fly out on the day. Yes, I know, I know.  OH is convinced this was my choosing and fault - but he was there when I made the booking and didn't push at the time. Still, first flight out of the day, so hopefully we will get there.  First day is still going to be a LONG day. Will learn the lesson for next time.  At least we are booked with Celebrity, so *hopefully* we will get to the ship. Otherwise we might be holidaying in Frankfurt lol.

 

It has been ages since we flew for a holiday, so feeling anxious about it - but we will have our masks on.

 

It is going to be our first warm water cruise in ages too - that will be a nice change. We have some excursions booked, but not for every port. (I think the only one I am truly fussed about is Santorini, so as they are all paid for out of OBC, we will roll with it and see how we feel. They've changed the times of some of the excursions to early AM, so might end up giving them a miss.)

At least with Lufthansa there are later options…Budget lines are frequently one per day.
 

Next flight we are on (next year) we will be wearing masks and I will have antibacterial wipes for tray etc…I used to wipe down my ‘personal space’ before covid to try and avoid noro…
 

As I am sure you know, early excursions in the Med are almost a necessity at this time of year. You can always compensate with a well deserved siesta…However, I do think you have done the right thing not to book excursions every day, you do also  need time to relax, unwind and enjoy the ship…Santorini is my favourite port too. I would definitely recommend an early excursion there (partly because of the heat) but also so you  have extra time to perhaps visit the local museum (well worth a visit and easily walkable from the cable car) or to simply enjoy the view from one of the many bars…

 

Enjoy!

 

 

[Arizona Wildcat]

The local TA that books air travel for the University and several large corporations reported they were getting thousands of changes a month - an average of 3 changes per ticket in just May and June.

Absolutely impossible today to keep up with notifications.   WestJet cut 20% of flights for the summer.  American cancelled about 1000 flights last week.

Other that not booking new flights and telling passengers to check their reservations what can agents do?  It gets really messy if a ticket is on multiple airlines as one change often creates downtime connection issues, but the computers do not always notice.

Be flexible and proactive.