Booking airfare through Celebrity?

[Saukkey1]

I’ve always used Princess Air when doing a Princess cruise. I’ve been happy with the prices and the ability to make changes before I pay the final payment. If I book through Celebrity, can I make changes myself online?

[Esprit]

Good question. I'd like to knw the answer too for a Beyond cruise next year.

[wrk2cruise]

You may want to browse this recent thread.   It seems that people are having a lot of trouble when flights are cancelled getting new flights assigned.   Taking 30 days or longer.   When booked direct with airline this can usually be done online in minutes.

 

I personally wouldn't use a middle man TA/Consolidator at this time given the current flux in the airline industry.

 

 

[hrhdhd]

You cannot make changes yourself online. Everything requires a phone call.

[Fly and Sail]

You can't do anything online with Flights By Celebrity. They are a nightmare!

[jelayne]

In the past FBC was fine and we got some great fares and service was fine.  Now with the complete chaotic state of air travel the customer service staff at FBC are overwhelmed.  
We used FBC for our upcoming Dec cruises and are keeping our fingers crossed.

 

We booked flights ourself for our October cruise from Spain and so far have had 5 changes to our 1st flight and the flights we were moved to by airline had us arriving in NY after our flight to Spain left.  I have spent hours on the phone redoing the flights and this is just 1 flight for 2 people.  I can’t imagine having thousands and thousands of changes on multiple airlines to try and work through.

Right now I’ll book my own, no FBC.

Edited August 11, 2022 by jelayne

[theopup]

Thanks for all the comments and input. I need to book flights for February for our cruise out of San Juan. 

 

I however am having a difficult time not only finding reasonable prices, but also decent flight times home.

[chilliano]

@theopup  I'd advise against it.  This far out there will likely be a flight change.  I booked just a couple months ago or so and was initially very pleased.  I paid extra for the earliest flight I could get (a 1 pm flight).  Just got notice that my 1 pm flight was changed because that flight was canceled, and a new 11:55 am flight was put on the books. but which flight did we get put on?  a 3 pm flight.  Annoying because I could have paid a cheaper price and been placed on that flight to begin with.

 

I ended up canceling.  I will pay more, but I will be in control and if I need to change something, I can do it myself.

Edited August 11, 2022 by chilliano

[lorimay]

Also the FBC website with the "what's included" in the airfare is not always correct. For example, we booked with them for a one-way to Rome in October. There is a non-stop from MIA to FCO on ITA (old Alitalia). If we booked through FBC with tickets branded ITA it was half the cost of tickets branded Delta (same plane, just code sharing). However, the Delta flight (according to the FBC chart) supposedly got one free checked baggage and advanced seat selection. We booked Delta, thinking we could use miles to upgrade seats or at least pick seats in advance. Turns out not to be true - ITA says we can't get seats until we check in. Delta says they can't choose the seats. We are basically out of luck. And there's huge wait time to get through to FBC, Delta and ITA. 

 

Never again.

[Cruise Junky]

I was going to ask the same question about making changes.  Their system is pretty bad.  I have no idea what type of fare they’ve booked, can’t search for alternatives.  Don’t believe it includes a checked bag which is showing as possibly $70 each way 🤬. At this point I’m ready to give up and do it myself.   Currently using HAL’s flights too for April and it’s a 1000x better.  

[John182]

We have used Celebrity Air for our cruise out of Tampa in December 2022. First time we have not arranged our own air travel on a cruise. There was a deal being offered and he prices were very competitive. That was a few months back. By chance we looked at our air booking to remind ourselves which seats we had booked on the four legs of the whole booking. Lucky we did as we found out the Virgin flight to Boston  had been cancelled and we had been rebooked for the following day despite the fact the the Boston to Tampa leg with Delta was still on the day before ! No communication of this change from Celebrity, Virgin or Delta. We sat in a queue on the phone for over an hour to Celebrity in the UK and for another half an hour when we did get through to an agent. Eventually we had a new set of outbound flights given to us the following day. Or rather we went on and looked at our booking since we had no direct communication from Celebrity. The new flight across the pond is with Delta rather than Virgin. Sadly they had booked us into economy which is not what we had paid for. A quick e-mail got that partially corrected but still the cabin on the Boston flight is not the equivalent of what we had on the original Virgin flight. Another wait on the phone is upcoming methinks,,

 

Our bottom line is that we probably won't choose to have Celebrity arrange our air travel again.

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