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Fee to talk to Regent Custom Air Department

bbstx

By bbstx,
in Regent Seven Seas Cruises

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pappy1022 Great Review Rare

pappy1022

Posted
Posted

I am more than willing to pay the $175 to select the flights I want. I find that I can get reasonable flights through this process. I don’t have a lot of airline points so getting business class fare through Regent is best for me because the refund you get for not using their “included” air is nowhere near the cost of a business class seat. I just don’t understand Regent’s motivation to charge an extra $75 to talk to an agent. 

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Pcardad

Pcardad

Posted
Posted
9 minutes ago, pappy1022 said:

I am more than willing to pay the $175 to select the flights I want. I find that I can get reasonable flights through this process. I don’t have a lot of airline points so getting business class fare through Regent is best for me because the refund you get for not using their “included” air is nowhere near the cost of a business class seat. I just don’t understand Regent’s motivation to charge an extra $75 to talk to an agent. 

Apparently a lot of people are calling and not taking custom air...

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Pcardad

Pcardad

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Posted

The best way to handle this is to research the flights you want - come up with a few options - and then ask the Air Desk for pricing and availability on all off them. Having a great flight with no layovers is worth a LOT...and for such a small cost. Be proactive - or have your TA be proactive. 

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Pcardad

Pcardad

Posted
Posted

The best way to handle this is to research the flights you want - come up with a few options - and then ask the Air Desk for pricing and availability on all off them. Having a great flight with no layovers is worth a LOT...and for such a small cost. Be proactive - or have your TA be proactive. 

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Wendy The Wanderer

Wendy The Wanderer

Posted
Posted
22 hours ago, annapolitan369 said:

The $75 will be charged if you don't accept their proposed routing.  If you accept, it will be taken off of the usual $175 fee.  I do agree that this looks like part of the trend to increase fees, little by little, which IMHO flies directly in the face of Regent's all-inclusive policy and their increased cruise rates.

 

Gheesh!

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NanJ0508

NanJ0508

Posted
Posted

From the Regent email: "

  • Check availability online – this will show you flight options from your departure city. If the lowest business class fare does not show available, it is not likely available within our contracts.
  • Note any options that are your preferred schedule and routing - including the pricing of each of those flights."

 

What site are they referring to? Their site? We have a cruise booked in December and I do not see a place on our account where we can check flights that Regent has within their contracts. Am I not understanding their instructions? Or is this just for intercontinental flights (ours departs from Miami)?

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1982CruzStart

1982CruzStart

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Posted

I am not impressed with this change. Yes, it is nothing in the big scheme of things of paying 10's of thousands of dollars but that really isn't the point.

 

We always deviate, never had a problem with paying the $175 or for us the $225 per person to get the flights that we want.  We always pay to fly in a day or 2 before the cruise and sometimes for staying a day or 2 after. No problem happy to pay for the ability to get something close to what we want.  For us on the west coast of Canada there is no way we could get anywhere near business class flights for the credit we get from Regent. It is one of the MAJOR reasons we tried Regent out the first time and have mostly stuck with them. 

 

However i do have a problem if i have to pay every time i need to call them to correct their screwups on our flights. For our last cruise, Jan 2023, the flight schedule was an ongoing exercise if patience. If i had to pay $75 ( probably $100 for us)pp every time i called to fix their screwups it would have added 100's of dollars to my cruise.  I accepted the flights, paid the deviation, had many schedule changes (not their fault), some of which made absolutely no sense, continuously tried to correct screwed up seat assignments and ended up with flights that were not what we paid the deviation for.  Now i get to pay for the privilege of fixing their issues. 

 

I do extensive research before i contact Regent Air to make sure the process is as painless for me and the Regent Air rep as possible. I always have a couple of options and to the best of my ability my preferred seats. I have never failed to have to call them to fix seat assignments that they didn't want to deal with at the time i was making the arrangements with them.  Now i would have to pay for that?

 

After our last cruise we are questioning continuing with Regent and this may be the teeny tiny straw that broke that back.  It is not the fee itself, it is the direction that Regent seems to be headed.  We have Grandeur booked ofr 2024, will pay to deviate and hope that we con't have to pay extra fees just to get what we want. 

 

 

 

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1982CruzStart

1982CruzStart

Posted
Posted (edited)
15 minutes ago, NanJ0508 said:

From the Regent email: "

  • Check availability online – this will show you flight options from your departure city. If the lowest business class fare does not show available, it is not likely available within our contracts.
  • Note any options that are your preferred schedule and routing - including the pricing of each of those flights."

 

What site are they referring to? Their site? We have a cruise booked in December and I do not see a place on our account where we can check flights that Regent has within their contracts. Am I not understanding their instructions? Or is this just for intercontinental flights (ours departs from Miami)?

They are suggesting you check airline websites or sites like ITAmatrix or google flights that give you lots of options for routes and if it is not on any site at the lowest business class fare, don't ask for it as you won't get it. 

Edited by 1982CruzStart
typo
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gwesq

gwesq

Posted
Posted
43 minutes ago, NanJ0508 said:

From the Regent email: "

  • Check availability online – this will show you flight options from your departure city. If the lowest business class fare does not show available, it is not likely available within our contracts.
  • Note any options that are your preferred schedule and routing - including the pricing of each of those flights."

 

What site are they referring to? Their site? We have a cruise booked in December and I do not see a place on our account where we can check flights that Regent has within their contracts. Am I not understanding their instructions? Or is this just for intercontinental flights (ours departs from Miami)?

I'm not understanding it either.   "If the lowest business class fare does not show available"  is the part that I find confusing.   The sites I am aware of show the fares available - how am I to know if there WAS a lower fare that is no longer available, thus not showing?  

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labonnevie

labonnevie

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, PaulMCO said:

100 percent correct on the point especially on Biz air.   Our included air is $4500 RT to Japan for March 2024.   Can you purchase any biztickets to Japan during the main spring tourist season for $4500 ?  The current air credit for new bookings is now $6400, with the associated increase in the cruise price.  Cheapest DIY air so far has been $6000 with most at 8k.  Someone has to pay for that delta -- won't be me.

 

Of course with all of the schedule changes the Air department is very busy with this aspect.

For our Tokyo rt in two weeks, the Regent air allowance was $5500. 
We booked our own business class for $4300 in August. May have reflected the slow reopening of Japan. 

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pappy1022 Great Review Rare

pappy1022

Posted
Posted

My latest air deviation process resulted in Regent suggesting a direct flight home from a carrier that wasn’t anywhere near the cheapest when you look at online published rates. I assume that Regent has contracted rates with some carriers that aren’t available for us to see online. 

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PaulMCO Holiday Sharing Rare

PaulMCO

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, labonnevie said:

For our Tokyo rt in two weeks, the Regent air allowance was $5500. 
We booked our own business class for $4300 in August. May have reflected the slow reopening of Japan. 

Yes they were cheap then.  I traveled their during the shutdown and had to get a special visa at the DC embassy.  We booked in March of 2022.  The allowance was $4500 and is now $6400.  Current search for next year (Feb) is $6200 to 11,000 (with most at 9K)

 

3 minutes ago, pappy1022 said:

So how do we know what carriers Regent has their contract rates with and what those rates are? I’m sure they aren’t going to share this information with us. 

 

You do not, as it is constantly changing and they may have only a few seats on a particular airline and route.  I have seen some great and terrible routings -- like 1 stop to Capetown on Qatar (in a Q suite) to multi stops (2) to the EU.  You could also be put on Icelandic in Saga class which is really not a "true" biz class.

 

There is a deviation "sticky" that people should consult.

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Michyfis

Michyfis

Posted
Posted

First time on Regent for us and not impressed.  For our Tokyo trip in October, we tried to deviate and the only flight they were offering us was a flight from Boston to Honolulu coach) and Honolulu to Tokyo.  When our travel agent called them back the deviation fee had gone up to $3000.  We checked Amex Platinum and found the non-stop for around $250 per ticket over the credit. JAL had the flight for $10,000 per ticket. We took the credit and booked with Amex.  Nice thing about it was, we also got our seat assignments.  We have been assured that Regent  will pick us up at the airport since we are doing the 3 day pre-cruise tour.  Fingers crossed.  

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rcandkc

rcandkc

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, wcsdkqh said:

Good luck on getting picked up beat airport by Regent. I have always been of the understanding that if you book your own air, then you are on your own.

If you book your own air..yes you get no transfer.  That does not mean if you book with Regent with deviation…you would still get transfer. 

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