Business Air through Regent

[slidebite]

On 1/19/2023 at 9:08 PM, ysolde said:

I am not sure if something is wrong with the website or with my reservation.  DH and I have a cruise on Regent Voyager out of Miami in April.  It's a two-week TA, so it goes to Barcelona.  When I tried to do a "Custom Air Request", it gave me an "Error: Invalid Passenger Name".  Which is strange since I had not typed anything in yet, just clicked on start.  I tried it again, and got the same Error message.  I am concerned that there is something wrong with our Regent Air reservations at this point, actually, and would like to give them a call tomorrow.  Is there a particular phone number to call with regards to this issue?  The more I think about this, the more concerned I get.

 

Talk me off the ledge, folks, and tell me someone at Regent will work this out for us.

 

Many thanks.

Don't sweat it, if you have a reservation # and you paid for it, I'm sure you're on it. Call your TA or Regent if you keep having problems... their website isn't exactly a shining star example of quality lol.

 

For what it's worth, Mrs. Slidebite and I are on that cruise too (April 5?) and we're starting to get to the 60 day mark which is when everything is locked down for Regent Air.

 

I think the regent business is a bargain and actually what makes the cruise "money well spent" as I cannot book business class for anywhere remotely close to what Regent must be able to get it for with their internal airline restricted deals. For example, for this flight 1-way Lufthansa/Air Canada for the 2x of us is literally 80% the cost of our entire cruise if we were to buy it on our own.

 

Not a fan of the "economy" they generally do for domestic flights so I took the air credit for that and have the flexibility to book ourselves, especially since I'd have to pay for a deviation anyhow.

[RELS]

10 hours ago, SusieQft said:

For us to fly out of LAS (Las Vegas), it is $124.50 per person each way, $249 PP round trip. 

 

It is $124.50 pp each way, total $249 pp round trip from PDX, at least it was when we booked our Dec '23 cruise in Sept '21. This was the price for flights r/t PDX in 2018, too (I obviously have to clean out my files 🙂 )

[ysolde]

5 hours ago, slidebite said:

Don't sweat it, if you have a reservation # and you paid for it, I'm sure you're on it. Call your TA or Regent if you keep having problems... their website isn't exactly a shining star example of quality lol.

 

For what it's worth, Mrs. Slidebite and I are on that cruise too (April 5?) and we're starting to get to the 60 day mark which is when everything is locked down for Regent Air.

 

I think the regent business is a bargain and actually what makes the cruise "money well spent" as I cannot book business class for anywhere remotely close to what Regent must be able to get it for with their internal airline restricted deals. For example, for this flight 1-way Lufthansa/Air Canada for the 2x of us is literally 80% the cost of our entire cruise if we were to buy it on our own.

 

Not a fan of the "economy" they generally do for domestic flights so I took the air credit for that and have the flexibility to book ourselves, especially since I'd have to pay for a deviation anyhow.

I got a call back from Regent today and told the PCC what was going on.  She said she totally understood, as the system is glitchy, and they have the same problem on their end all the time.  I told her the flights we want to take (we want to fly in to Miami one day before the cruise, as we are flying in from PHX, and it is as overnight flight anyway, so best to arrive the morning of April 4 rather than the morning of April 5, I think).  And given the flight options out of BCN, we figured our best options s to fly out one day after the cruise, on April 20, so that we can take an 11:15 am flight that has one stop in EWR, rather than the best option n the 19th (the flight they put us on) which leaves BCN at 1:15 pm, but goest to Montreal, then from Montreal to Chicago, and then from Chicago to PHX.  Less room for error if we leave directly form the cruise port on the day the cruise arrives, but way too much room for error with that many connections.  Best to stay overnight in BCN, I think.

[ToxM]

Can a UK’er please give me some info on whether long haul business is included in the cruise cost? 

 

We are booked next year on Capetown - Rio in Cat H cabin, we went cruise only as I understood the flights were economy but if it’s not I may reprice with Regent. 

 

Thanks!

[flossie009]

@ToxM,

Regent's base pricing for UK guests only includes for economy flights (except for PH & above on cruises starting or ending in Europe)

You have two choices for business class flights:

1. Ask Regent for an extra-over price for business class flights. Often their pricing is very competitive especially when the cruise begins & ends in different parts of the world i.e. requiring so called  "open-jaw" flights

2. Take the air credit from Regent and make your own arrangements. You can do this for either the outbound or inbound or both. Things to remember if going the cruise only route:

  - as well as air you will also have to arrange your own transfers

  - if Regent make any changes to the cruise itinerary, or the cruise is late arriving at the disembarkation port, they are not liable for any alterations you have to make to your flights or transfers

  - the Regent booking is no longer a "package"  under the relevant UK consumer protection law

 

Hope this helps.

We often take the air credit from Regent if we are able to book business class flights using airmiles/Avios (Avios bookings are economic for open-jaw flights and are refundable if things change)

 

 

 

[slidebite]

20 hours ago, ysolde said:

I got a call back from Regent today and told the PCC what was going on.  She said she totally understood, as the system is glitchy, and they have the same problem on their end all the time.  I told her the flights we want to take (we want to fly in to Miami one day before the cruise, as we are flying in from PHX, and it is as overnight flight anyway, so best to arrive the morning of April 4 rather than the morning of April 5, I think).  And given the flight options out of BCN, we figured our best options s to fly out one day after the cruise, on April 20, so that we can take an 11:15 am flight that has one stop in EWR, rather than the best option n the 19th (the flight they put us on) which leaves BCN at 1:15 pm, but goest to Montreal, then from Montreal to Chicago, and then from Chicago to PHX.  Less room for error if we leave directly form the cruise port on the day the cruise arrives, but way too much room for error with that many connections.  Best to stay overnight in BCN, I think.

We're getting into MIA very late on the 3rd. We don't have our flight schedule yet from BCN - I'm hoping we don't need to spend a night there if we can avoid it, but I am prepared for a very long day coming back.

[ToxM]

3 hours ago, flossie009 said:

@ToxM,

Regent's base pricing for UK guests only includes for economy flights (except for PH & above on cruises starting or ending in Europe)

You have two choices for business class flights:

1. Ask Regent for an extra-over price for business class flights. Often their pricing is very competitive especially when the cruise begins & ends in different parts of the world i.e. requiring so called  "open-jaw" flights

2. Take the air credit from Regent and make your own arrangements. You can do this for either the outbound or inbound or both. Things to remember if going the cruise only route:

  - as well as air you will also have to arrange your own transfers

  - if Regent make any changes to the cruise itinerary, or the cruise is late arriving at the disembarkation port, they are not liable for any alterations you have to make to your flights or transfers

  - the Regent booking is no longer a "package"  under the relevant UK consumer protection law

 

Hope this helps.

We often take the air credit from Regent if we are able to book business class flights using airmiles/Avios (Avios bookings are economic for open-jaw flights and are refundable if things change)

 

 

 

Thank you - this is how I thought it was. I have a sweet deal brewing involving miles and Virgin to get us Upper to Capetown and LATAM offer a good value indirect from Rio in biz. We have a precruise land tour with Regent and plan to stay in Rio a couple of days post cruise so even with delays we should be ok. 

 

I will still check as you say open jaw might be worthwhile especially for the return lag, outbound I think the Virgin flight will be a points win.

 

This is our first Regent cruise after being long time Oceania cruisers and I have always found it much easier to book our own flights (actually really enjoy the process).

 

This is really useful thank you!

[flossie009]

2 hours ago, ToxM said:

We have a precruise land tour with Regent and plan to stay in Rio a couple of days post cruise so even with delays we should be ok. 

 

I will still check as you say open jaw might be worthwhile especially for the return lag, outbound I think the Virgin flight will be a points win.

Sounds like a good plan.

Since you are doing a Regent pre-cruise you may find that Regent will provide the transfer from C/T airport, even though you are arranging your own flights.

Certainly worth getting a price from Regent for the return flight from Rio. This does not have to be on the day the ship docks so you could still plan to stay a few days after the cruise. 

[roxette]

11 hours ago, flossie009 said:

@ToxM,

 

  - the Regent booking is no longer a "package"  under the relevant UK consumer protection law

 

 

 

 

I actually am quite sure it still is considered a package. 

[ToxM]

13 hours ago, flossie009 said:

Sounds like a good plan.

Since you are doing a Regent pre-cruise you may find that Regent will provide the transfer from C/T airport, even though you are arranging your own flights.

Certainly worth getting a price from Regent for the return flight from Rio. This does not have to be on the day the ship docks so you could still plan to stay a few days after the cruise. 

 

Yes, I think transfer is included as we have the precruise. I will deffo check the inbound cost as that is the one I am really shopping around for. I will let you know Flossie, thanks so much 🙂