Should of listened to warnings about Flights by Celebrity- very frustrated

[Susanb10567]

I have read so many posts bashing Flights by Celebrity and was hoping I wouldn’t have an issue with them. However, we are booked on the 9/3 Edge cruise out of Rome. I booked flights many months ago with Flights by Celebrity  -outbound  was a United flight codeshare with Swiss air…
JFK to FCO connecting in ZHR… a couple of weeks ago I noticed the flight stopped appearing on the Swiss air website but was still on my United Ap..I immediately called Flights by Celebrity and United and they both said the flight was not canceled..so I let it go

 

Fast forward to this morning and the flight from JFK to ZHR was gone..however the ZHR to FCO was still there…not very useful

 

I immediately called United thinking once I was ticketed I would be able to make changes to the reservation..the United agent said they could switch me to a non-stop out of EWR  which I was thrilled with until he looked further and said I needed to call the agency that I booked it with to make the changes. 
 

I quickly called Flights by Celebrity only to be told that it could take up to a month to make the changes… I was floored. Who knows what kind of availability there will be in a month with all the cancellations going on… who knows when Flights by Celebrity would of let me know of the cancellation to begin with..

 

so buyer beware…it was a great fare but if anything goes wrong you may not be able to get things handled in the manner you would like.

[Bo1953]

Go up the food chain at FBC...

 

Points out the need to monitor regularly, regardless of where/how you booked really.

 

I must point out, that quite frequently rather I booked with X or airline direct, it has been hit or miss in terms of notifications (timely) of flight changes.

 

bon voyage

[bh6605]

this really worries me as we've booked half of our group via celebrity for, as you said it, the price.  cr*p!

[Susanb10567]

2 minutes ago, bh6605 said:

this really worries me as we've booked half of our group via celebrity for, as you said it, the price.  cr*p!

Yes I really wonder how this is going to turn out. If I hadn’t been watching my Ap ..who knows when I would of been notified about the cancellation..the agent from United said that there is a number for Flights by Celebrity to call to make the change but they refused to do that when I called and said they have a procedure and it could take up to thirty days…ugh!!!!

[Jim_Iain]

I ran into the same problem recently but had booked with Chase Sapphire Travel -   I was originally told the same by American Airline and told to call may agent as they couldn't modify an agents reservation.   I called Chase and the agent was able to make the change while I was on the phone.

 

I had stopped using FBC after I tried to make a reservation change with FBC like you and was told they put in a request and could take up to a month but I would be advise by e-mail.    Never received an email but when I looked at American's Site 2 days later saw the change on my reservation.

[39august]

I believe FBC has to ask the airline if they will approve the change. I have been told up to 3 days. Never took more than 2. 

[Susanb10567]

3 minutes ago, 39august said:

I believe FBC has to ask the airline if they will approve the change. I have been told up to 3 days. Never took more than 2. 

Thanks..hopefully that is the case…there aren’t that many seats left in business so I hope it comes through…as it stands now I can’t even sit next to my husband..

[Susanb10567]

6 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

I ran into the same problem recently but had booked with Chase Sapphire Travel -   I was originally told the same by American Airline and told to call may agent as they couldn't modify an agents reservation.   I called Chase and the agent was able to make the change while I was on the phone.

 

I had stopped using FBC after I tried to make a reservation change with FBC like you and was told they put in a request and could take up to a month but I would be advise by e-mail.    Never received an email but when I looked at American's Site 2 days later saw the change on my reservation.

That’s good to know about Chase sapphire rewards…that was my next option for the flights but we were hoping to save them for next year since we thought we were getting such a good deal with FBC..hopefully it still comes through….

 

 

[Jeremiah1212]

9 minutes ago, 39august said:

I believe FBC has to ask the airline if they will approve the change. I have been told up to 3 days. Never took more than 2. 

 

This is where the issue is. When there is a monetary difference in flights it complicates things. Celebrity can't just put you on a new flight that costs more without getting the airline to agree to adjust the price. If your travel is more than 60 days away they still quote 45 days for these things to be resolved. 

 

The other thing to watch out for is if you have a request in to change a flight and in the mean time yet another schedule change occurs, your initial request may disappear. I just dealt with a 10am departure that was changed to 10:10am. It wiped out the request to change to a 12:50pm. 

[Arizona Wildcat]

Two important things about FBC or a TA. 

 

If you book through them they must make any changes.  Doesn't matter whether a local TA, Chase or FBC.

 

Hope you have noticed there are hundreds of changes in flights daily.  Your flight is over 2 months away and is like to change again.  Agents are mostly dealing with travelers that are flying within a couple days or are enroute.

 

FWIW we are now at 8 changes for our Florida flights in 2023.  We do not even bother trying to look at the details.

[hrhdhd]

27 minutes ago, Susanb10567 said:

Thanks..hopefully that is the case…there aren’t that many seats left in business so I hope it comes through…as it stands now I can’t even sit next to my husband..

I hear you about business class, but as long as you're both on the same plane, does it matter if you have adjoining seats? 😉 My DH and I prefer aisle seats, and sometimes we sit in different rows so we each can have an aisle seat. I figure we'll be together when the plane lands. If he's lucky . . .

Edited June 29, 2022 by hrhdhd

[Susanb10567]

50 minutes ago, hrhdhd said:

I hear you about business class, but as long as you're both on the same plane, does it matter if you have adjoining seats? 😉 My DH and I prefer aisle seats, and sometimes we sit in different rows so we each can have an aisle seat. I figure we'll be together when the plane lands. If he's lucky . . .

No I don’t really care if we are next to each other at this point I just want to have a flight

[Susanb10567]

 At this point it is a waiting game…I was really checking the Ap for my flight on United in two weeks for the Maiden Voyage of the Disney Wish…

 

I guess one cruise at a time and hope for the best…

[Dolebludger]

This kind of mess is why I am not booking any cruises right now, nor any other trip that requires flying commercial. Domestic airlines are cancelling 500 flights per day this week. Internationally, it is no better. And through all of this, airlines are still overbooking! 

[Spif Barwunkel]

I understand the frustration, but it might be a bit early to totally jilt Flights By Celebrity. Unfortunately, frustrations are going to continue in the world of travel, that is a given. Whether or not you deal with FBC or directly with the airline, hold times, disconnects, noise, language(accent) barriers etc. will be ongoing. Prior to Covid, differences in flight costs could be significantly lower when using FBC. Not so much the case nowadays due to Covid and its resulting complications. Same goes for customer service, on both sides, and the tremendous staffing shortages that plaque all things travel. 

 

Through all of this I have never not satisfactorily completed my flight reservations, seat assignments and any flight changes necessary due to re-scheduling. The attempts, in some cases, were arduous but me and FBC got it done. If it were not for one big factor relevant to the flight game, I would probably deal directly with the airline more often than not. That of course is flight cancellations. You reserve through FBC, and X is obligated to get you where you are supposed to be, with no extra charges. If flight arrangements are made directly with the airline, you are on your own and X will see ya when they see ya...if they see ya. In the meantime, your donation to the cabin fund is much appreciated. Of course, you can also defer full payment for airline tickets until full payment for the cruise and changes are allowed with no penalty.

 

I would consider reconciliation with FBC with the understanding that you will still be susceptible to future exasperation. Perhaps if you increase your patience load - hard to do sometimes - it will decrease your perturbation. Worth a try.  

[TFree]

Yes, I don't know if it is quite fair to say that you "should have" listened to warnings about Flights by Celebrity."  This spring we had B2B Celebrity cruises followed by a river cruise and extension ending in Prague.  The first Celebrity cruise was a transatlantic, so we just booked one way domestic tickets to FLL.  To get home from Prague, we decided to use AA miles to purchase BA business class tickets the first day they became available, 11 months prior.  So there was no TA involved, just me using our AA account to purchase BA seats using miles.  As we were leaving town the day before flying to FLL, one of the people who was going to be traveling with us on the river cruise called me to alert me to the fact that the short hop flight we were both taking from Prague (PRG to LHR) had been cancelled.  I looked at my AA account and my BA account and realized that he was correct.  I tried to call BA, but their hold time was estimated in hours.  So I called AA and got through, and eventually was able to re-book the short hop for an earlier flight, resulting in an 8 hour layover at LHR.  But we got home.

 

My point here is that neither AA nor BA ever notified us of the cancellation of the short hop flight in a timely manner.  I don't even remember if we ever heard this directly from the airlines.  Fortunately my friend got notice and alerted us.  So at least right now, in the world of airline understaffing, the airlines can screw this up all on their own, without needing Flights by Celebrity to screw it up for them.

 

Tom & Judy

[jelayne]

4 hours ago, 39august said:

I believe FBC has to ask the airline if they will approve the change. I have been told up to 3 days. Never took more than 2. 

The need to get approval is limited to FBC.  We booked a flight from JFK-BCN on Iberia using AA miles.  There was a time change that resulted in a short connection since we had booked thru AA we had to call them to change the 2nd leg.  AA said they had to request the change from Iberia and it normally took 2-3days for approval.  We were notified of our new flight 2 days later. 

[Jim_Iain]

6 hours ago, Susanb10567 said:

That’s good to know about Chase sapphire rewards…that was my next option for the flights but we were hoping to save them for next year since we thought we were getting such a good deal with FBC..hopefully it still comes through….

 

 

In addition to use of your Rewards they often have some pretty good deals to purchase or if low on miles can do a combination of points and cash.     The flight I had was a credit card purchase as it was about 20% cheaper than the airline direct purchase.