What if the Airline Changes the Flight Schedule, Equipment or Route After Regent Books Your Deviation Flights

[pappy1022]

 

It isn’t that uncommon these days for airlines to change flight schedules, equipment or routes after you have booked a flight. Given that deviated flights can be booked 210 days out, I would think that this issue occurs. Having experienced those changes, but not on a Regent booked flight, what is the Regent process when an air carrier makes significant changes that will impact your schedule, route or even seat assignment because equipment is changed?  Will Regent notify you of such changes? What does Regent do for the customer to help them get new flights and does this type of change require another deviation fee? With the new Regent air coordination policy, does the customer have a different avenue to talk to a Regent air coordinator, or do they wait in the queue to talk to an agent. Does the TA get involved any more with regards to air planning?

[irishwitchy]

Great questions and way to much confusion, changes and yuk for me.  The person that cares the most about my flights is me, hence I book myself and track them accordingly.   Works rather, well, but I’m not overly concerned about being in First or business class all the time.  

[warmwater]

Because of where I live, having Regent do the air is far cheaper for me, and so much less hassle. I'd like to think they keep on top of it, as I have a cruise in June and the air has been changed at least once since it was booked. The RSSC site hasn't been the greatest showing the change, but the airline website seems to have it ok. Fingers crossed!

[pappy1022]

Warmwater, how did you become aware of the change? What changed for you? Time, plane equipment, seat assignment, etc.?

[jjs217]

Regent notified me by email of changes to my deviated air schedule.  Fortunately, they weren't major changes and didn't require a change in our plans.  My guess is if it is a major change, Regent will let you know what needs to be done.

[Portolan]

As Irishwitchy notes, nobody cares about your arrangements as much as you should.  If you rely on Regent providing timely information, or your TA (and ours is excellent, but she has other customers), you won't be staying immediately on top of things.  Others may know differently, but I'd be surprised if Regent would notify about an equipment or seat change.  If the arrangements get you from the correct place to place and at about the same time, then they probably don't see this as an urgent notification.  Especially on equipment or seat changes, I like to be the first to notice because I'm very picky about the seat assignments and want to have first shot at the new options.  So, I do a quick scan of all our upcoming air trips daily.  Takes no more than a couple of minutes since, for United at least, I can get a page with all flights listed and any changes will be highlighted.  But then I treat travel as a game which, if played well, is OK to great and if not can be terrible.

[snorkle lover]

36 minutes ago, Portolan said:

As Irishwitchy notes, nobody cares about your arrangements as much as you should.  If you rely on Regent providing timely information, or your TA (and ours is excellent, but she has other customers), you won't be staying immediately on top of things.  Others may know differently, but I'd be surprised if Regent would notify about an equipment or seat change.  If the arrangements get you from the correct place to place and at about the same time, then they probably don't see this as an urgent notification.  Especially on equipment or seat changes, I like to be the first to notice because I'm very picky about the seat assignments and want to have first shot at the new options.  So, I do a quick scan of all our upcoming air trips daily.  Takes no more than a couple of minutes since, for United at least, I can get a page with all flights listed and any changes will be highlighted.  But then I treat travel as a game which, if played well, is OK to great and if not can be terrible.

 

[snorkle lover]

Portolan, that is such good advice. I decided to check our flights for an upcoming cruise, only to find a time change. It is not too significant but still we don't want inaccurate information.

Edited April 6, 2023 by snorkle lover

[warmwater]

On 4/6/2023 at 10:15 AM, pappy1022 said:

Warmwater, how did you become aware of the change? What changed for you? Time, plane equipment, seat assignment, etc.?

Email via my travel agent. The flight times were completely different, (about 2 hours earlier!) And at this point it appears they have booked my return on a different airline because of the time to get from the ship to the airport to make the flight (cruise ends in NYC) Cruise is in June, Montreal to NYC. 

[Dolebludger]

This is the problem some of us have with cruising as much as we used to do. Airlines have become unreliable, and we need to use them to - from a cruise. As I understand it, Regent  really has no control over airline scheduling, delays, and cancelations. In fact, nobody does, since airlines are largely unregulated. Recommended that one get travel insurance covering airline rescheduling/cancelations that prevent getting to the cruise. 

[pappy1022]

Absolutely agree that we need to take direct responsibility for our airline itinerary and stay informed of any changes. My question was more geared toward what actions Regent takes, if any, if there is an issue with an airline reservation that changes significantly. For example, let’s say we find out about a change in our airline itinerary where it was originally a direct or 1 stop flight and now has multiple stops or may make us concerned about connection times or some other aspect of the new itinerary.  We may find about this change months or weeks in advance. Will Regent work with us to change the itinerary, maybe even to a different airline or are we stuck with whatever the originally scheduled airline offers after the original booking? If Regent gets involved to help us get a more reasonable itinerary do we pay another deviation?

[papaflamingo]

2 hours ago, pappy1022 said:

Absolutely agree that we need to take direct responsibility for our airline itinerary and stay informed of any changes. My question was more geared toward what actions Regent takes, if any, if there is an issue with an airline reservation that changes significantly. For example, let’s say we find out about a change in our airline itinerary where it was originally a direct or 1 stop flight and now has multiple stops or may make us concerned about connection times or some other aspect of the new itinerary.  We may find about this change months or weeks in advance. Will Regent work with us to change the itinerary, maybe even to a different airline or are we stuck with whatever the originally scheduled airline offers after the original booking? If Regent gets involved to help us get a more reasonable itinerary do we pay another deviation?

If you read the policy it states  "Please note, schedule changes made by the airlines are outside of our control. If there is a significant change in schedule, our Air Concierge will find a better alternative without charging a new custom air fee."

[warmwater]

Thanks for the policy wording, that makes sense. Now I need to check the new return flight time to see if we can indeed make a 11:49 am flight from Laguardia after docking in New York. Sounds too close to me

[Wendy The Wanderer]

They did last summer when we were booked in the Baltic. TA consulted us about changed several times including day changes. We ended up cancelling so don't know how it would have played out.

[Dolebludger]

And the problem here is not with Regent. It is the unreliable airlines. This is the reason why I haven’t booked any cruise since 2019. I have to fly to the cruise, and the airlines cannot be depended on from one day to another. It is a shame.

[papaflamingo]

4 hours ago, Dolebludger said:

And the problem here is not with Regent. It is the unreliable airlines. This is the reason why I haven’t booked any cruise since 2019. I have to fly to the cruise, and the airlines cannot be depended on from one day to another. It is a shame.

We have flown a number of times since 2019 and have little problem. Yes there have been some adjustments like departure or arrival times slipping a bit but nothing more than a few minutes.  Of course we fly out of a major hub (Atlanta) so that may have some impact.  But I wouldn't let concerns about flight changes stop me from cruising.  Just give yourself a day or so to be able to adjust if necessary and go on a major carrier, not a low cost.

Edited April 14, 2023 by papaflamingo

[Wendy The Wanderer]

8 hours ago, Dolebludger said:

And the problem here is not with Regent. It is the unreliable airlines. This is the reason why I haven’t booked any cruise since 2019. I have to fly to the cruise, and the airlines cannot be depended on from one day to another. It is a shame.

I agree Richard.  We're avoiding flying completely, perhaps for good.  Might consider Alaska which would be a flight across Canada from Toronto.  Luckily we winter in Florida, which means we can drive to Miami for a cruise (which we did in January--Splendor is amazing), or take a train to Montreal for a leaf-peeper cruise (which we've done in the past.)  You're kind of stuck being in the middle of Colorado.

[Pcardad]

We been on 6 cruises and 10 round trip flights (with another next week) and while it can be a little tricky, there are no insurmountable problems. Plan ahead, allow some extra time and all will be well.

[TheShag]

Is there a way to do ongoing flight checks on the Regent My Account site? Or, do I have to log into each booked segment with the respective airlines? Thanks kindly.

[rallydave]

4 minutes ago, TheShag said:

Is there a way to do ongoing flight checks on the Regent My Account site? Or, do I have to log into each booked segment with the respective airlines? Thanks kindly.

Only on each airlines site.

[rallydave]

1 hour ago, rallydave said:

Only on each airlines site.

I will add IMHO always better to work directly with the airline as working with the cruise line simply delays things by adding another party to th usseye. 
 

I always check dhtrectky with the airline and avoid the cruise line for hrlp

 

Had my flight home from Reykjavik two weenn JB s ago cancelled snd never even considered phoning the cruise lie sir desk that booked my flights. Since airlines are third parties uo you cruise line relationship all Ts snd cs require you to work with the airline directly and that is always my plan. The cruise line has to work thru the airline and best to avoid the middle man. Got home a bit Kate but the air line protected me in a different airline still in business class providing a day room and transportation plus meals and the cruise line could not have done any better snd orobsbky wouldn’t have delayed my flight home. 

[wcsdkqh]

Time to invest in a spell checker.

[loriva]

On 4/6/2023 at 8:01 AM, pappy1022 said:

 

 

It isn’t that uncommon these days for airlines to change flight schedules, equipment or routes after you have booked a flight. Given that deviated flights can be booked 210 days out, I would think that this issue occurs. Having experienced those changes, but not on a Regent booked flight, what is the Regent process when an air carrier makes significant changes that will impact your schedule, route or even seat assignment because equipment is changed?  Will Regent notify you of such changes? What does Regent do for the customer to help them get new flights and does this type of change require another deviation fee? With the new Regent air coordination policy, does the customer have a different avenue to talk to a Regent air coordinator, or do they wait in the queue to talk to an agent. Does the TA get involved any more with regards to air planning?

 

Our flight to Sydney booked with Regent Air changed itinerary--a direct flight going to SFO via EWR is now going via IAD and will have a departure time 40 minutes earlier.  (Airlines usually only consider any change over two hours as "significant," triggering a free change or refund.)

 

I discovered the change in my account on the Regent website, on the air schedule under Custom Air.  Neither Regent nor my TA (big box) had notified me of the change.  The airline might have notified me of the change, but I had not yet input my passenger record number and linked the reservation to my frequent flyer account to trigger that.

 

So, in my case, there was no notification by Regent of the change.  As others have said, I would not expect them to notify us of any changes in equipment or seat assignments.  And, echo others in recommending checking constantly with the airline's website on your flights.  I do this monthly initially, then change to weekly when closer to the flight, and then daily the final week.  (Which is probably overkill, but I have the time to do it and it doesn't hurt me or anyone else.)  I'd also recommend checking historical records for your flights in FlightAware to determine the timeliness of flights and setting flight alerts.  I do the former for the itineraries I'm considering to determine if connection times are adequate.

 

[TheShag]

For my upcoming cruise I booked everything through the Regent consultant. I have not gone to the various airline's websites to advise that I am the contact. There has been one small change so far in which Regent Air Dept did advise me of the change. Do you think I should change the airline reservation contact info to my contact info or leave it as is since Regent was/is in charge of the flight arrangement? My cruise is ~120 days away. Thanks all!

[rallydave]

26 minutes ago, TheShag said:

For my upcoming cruise I booked everything through the Regent consultant. I have not gone to the various airline's websites to advise that I am the contact. There has been one small change so far in which Regent Air Dept did advise me of the change. Do you think I should change the airline reservation contact info to my contact info or leave it as is since Regent was/is in charge of the flight arrangement? My cruise is ~120 days away. Thanks all!

You ALWAYS want your contact info available to the airline. Believe the only way to do that is with a frequent flyer number as that gets you an login on the airlines site   Believe you can add your contact info to the airline site possibly without a ff nimber but good to have that number. 
 

and to Ioriva any flight time change allows you to make free changes not 2 hours or more. Not sure about cancellation. I know as have made changes as free as short as a 10 minute flight change.  The agent will Lilly to push back but simply state the flight had a change and you want a free change brcause if their change.