Air By Celebrity - GRRRRRR

[Shiba_Lover]

Air By Celebrity - rrrrrr - Had booked a flight with them for a Galapagos cruise because we had a promo that had a big discount on the airfare.  We needed to make a change, so I called to do that.  We were originally booked with fully refundable tickets.  The agent made the change and applied the discount.  He told me we could make any changes we needed, cancel, etc no worries and then we just needed to pay for tickets at final payment.  I again asked about the promo discount, and he said, yes, you get that - it is part of your Galapagos cruise.

 

I went onto the airline site to get seats and saw the connection flagged as "risk" due to the 40 minute time, so I called to change the flight to one with a longer connection.  I was told - you can't change the flights are non-changeable, non-refundable and if we change anything now - you lose your airfare promo discount and you have to pay for these tickets + the new ones!!!!   WHAT!  Not what I was told.    So frustrating!  Why would i go from refundable tickets to non-refundable tickets.  Plus the agent who changed my flights said they were changeable/refundable!

 

They said they will pull the call logs and listen to them to verify but I need to call back in 72 hours for an update.  Has this happened to anyone else?  

[Funky Fusion FoodsJ]

9 minutes ago, ehall said:

Air By Celebrity - rrrrrr - Had booked a flight with them for a Galapagos cruise because we had a promo that had a big discount on the airfare.  We needed to make a change, so I called to do that.  We were originally booked with fully refundable tickets.  The agent made the change and applied the discount.  He told me we could make any changes we needed, cancel, etc no worries and then we just needed to pay for tickets at final payment.  I again asked about the promo discount, and he said, yes, you get that - it is part of your Galapagos cruise.

 

I went onto the airline site to get seats and saw the connection flagged as "risk" due to the 40 minute time, so I called to change the flight to one with a longer connection.  I was told - you can't change the flights are non-changeable, non-refundable and if we change anything now - you lose your airfare promo discount and you have to pay for these tickets + the new ones!!!!   WHAT!  Not what I was told.    So frustrating!  Why would i go from refundable tickets to non-refundable tickets.  Plus the agent who changed my flights said they were changeable/refundable!

 

They said they will pull the call logs and listen to them to verify but I need to call back in 72 hours for an update.  Has this happened to anyone else?  

Have you made final payment?

 

[39august]

This would be true after final payment. Not correct if final has not been paid. 

[Shiba_Lover]

I have not made final payment

[jmelnick]

Call back.  Maybe a different rep will have the response that you want?

[mahdnc]

I agree, call back to get a different agent, you may get a more favorable answer.

 

I am a month away from needing to book my Galapagos air although I do not have the air discount promo with FBC.  I was thinking of looking into what FBC offers--which has to be done by phone and cannot be done on the web from what I can see.  The alternative is to book the air independently which is what I am most likely to do.

[dgparent]

This is mis-information, I was on hold with X for 45 minutes yesterday and was assured 32 times by the recording that Celebrity Air is completely awesome and reliable.

[drakes2]

11 minutes ago, dgparent said:

This is mis-information, I was on hold with X for 45 minutes yesterday and was assured 32 times by the recording that Celebrity Air is completely awesome and reliable.

Awesome and reliable doesn't equal refundable. Best to get the call log pulled.  You can  sometimes speak to 10 agents get 10 different answers. They just don't know. 

[NMTraveller]

And now you know why I use a TA.  Let them deal with the phone agents.  I would not want to.

[drakes2]

13 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

And now you know why I use a TA.  Let them deal with the phone agents.  I would not want to.

They mess up too. And guess who had to clean up their mess?

[NMTraveller]

17 minutes ago, drakes2 said:

They mess up too. And guess who had to clean up their mess?

Get a different TA then.

 

The amount of time spent on the phone with Celebrity is  a bit much.

Edited December 18, 2022 by NMTraveller

[Lastdance]

Traveling is frustrating because of so many variables, not to mention inexperience of so many people.  I just received a message from FBC today that basically said that something is happening to your flight, but we do not know what it is; however, it should be clarified in about 30 days.  It could be as simple as a flight number or a cancelation...gosh, I expected as much because this is life when you travel.  Thanks for the warning, so I can think about it for thirty days or so...not!  I mad my other reservation myself because it was international and important.  This one is just in the USA.

Edited December 18, 2022 by Lastdance

[drakes2]

16 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

Get a different TA then.

 

The amount of time spent on the phone with Celebrity is  a bit much.

He's actually been very good and works for Celebrity but puts in long hours.  Well you pay the price when you put in too much overtime.  What happened is my sister and I booked an infinite veranda we decided to book individual cabins so she now has her own booking and her shore excursion on old booking got cancelled and refunded. Next day I called to get reinstated but no she had to rebook at the higher rate.  So I pushed for compensation and got some obc so worked out but he neglected to inform us that once you leave booking not everything gets transferred over. That's his job. 

[Shiba_Lover]

Success.  I had them pull the call log (took 4 days to pull / review).  But after this and speaking with another agent who did not understand - I finally received a call from a supervisor today.  After reviewing the call log - they have agreed that the agent who moved my original refundable ticket changed my flight to a non-refundable AND went ahead and ticketed the flights.  Then told me the usual - the flights are refundable, changeable, etc up until final payment when we ticket.  So Celebrity made the changes I wanted at their cost.  I told them my biggest issue was that after I reviewed the flights on the AA website, and went to assign seats - it had a warning about the connection time in DFW (40 minutes) and since we were flying to Quito - I did not want to risk missing the flight as there would be no way to get to Quito in time and the agent did not go over that with me when choosing flights (in addition to moving me from refundable to non-refundable tickets).  I also told them to educate the agents about providing accurate information.  Very frustrating, but I am happy they were able to take care of it.  Although it is not a good business practice as this type of mistake results in increased cost, which I am sure is passed on to us, the customer in the long run.