“Last minute” bookings and airfare risks

[Clutj]

We are a couple months away from a possible January 2024 cruise out of Australia.  Our TA says at this point, we have to pay the full amount in making a booking ($60k) first, and only then can we pay the $79 diversion consult fee to see what flights Regent Air would put us on.  It looks like getting our own airfare is prohibitively expensive, like another $22k beyond the air credit.  So as I understand it, we have to trust that Regent will do us right on the flights, since at this date we can only get 25% of our full payment back, and that drops to 0% soon at 75 days out. 
 

Any advice on this?  (Besides “book earlier”!).  The ship seems to have “Available” in almost all categories, so I am puzzled how Regent has any shot at filling the rest of the rooms with these flight risks.  Also, there are lots of full excursions, many without a waitlist option, so any prior experience with what that mean would be helpful; we’ve had good luck on other lines getting off the excursion waitlists. 

[PaulMCO]

Unfortunately, you do not state where you are leaving from and when. 

 

Regents air can be a bargain.  They contract for flights early but do not ticket until 45 to 60 days out. 

 

As you stated you cannot deviate until you book.  Then you may be able to deviate and at least find out what Regent is planning on booking you on. There is not much choice that works to get you from US to SYD.  But they could route you through Tokyo or through Auckland

 

I would do some research ahead of time to see what is available as a discount biz (under 10K)...

 

If you are on the 19th SYD to SIN Cruise, United and AA have flights for around 8K

 

I begin by using --  https://matrix.itasoftware.com/search

[PhD-iva]

There is a sticky thread at the top of this Regent forum with lots of information on Regent flights. I deviated for my 2 February 2024 BsAs to San Antonio Chile cruise. I paid an upcharge bc the flights R wanted to book me on were not v good. Austin to JFK for a 10 hour layover then flight to BsAs. No thx! Flights home are 3 flights on some South American discount (?) airlines. So, if I lived in the NYC region, I would have been happy with my pre-cruise flights……
Anyway, check out the sticky. Good luck!

[Tsunami74]

All the recent chatter about the flight deviations is getting me pretty worried.

 

We are also on the cruise out of Australia in January and have not gotten our flight itinerary yet.

 

We have never done anything special, and have always had good air provided by Regent despite definitely not flying from a US gateway city.

 

The flight to Sydney will be the farthest that Regent will book us although they were fine with Bangkok and Hong Kong,

 

Of course, now that I think about it, the other long flights were pre-covid.

[papaflamingo]

14 hours ago, Tsunami74 said:

All the recent chatter about the flight deviations is getting me pretty worried.

 

We are also on the cruise out of Australia in January and have not gotten our flight itinerary yet.

 

We have never done anything special, and have always had good air provided by Regent despite definitely not flying from a US gateway city.

 

The flight to Sydney will be the farthest that Regent will book us although they were fine with Bangkok and Hong Kong,

 

Of course, now that I think about it, the other long flights were pre-covid.

Any particular reason why you didn't choose to deviate and go a day or two early?  Is Deviation still a possibility? 

[Tsunami74]

2 hours ago, papaflamingo said:

Any particular reason why you didn't choose to deviate and go a day or two early?  Is Deviation still a possibility? 

We are concierge so will be arriving a day early. 

According to our cruise documents arriving 1/18 with included "free" Shangri La Hotel embarking 1/19.

It is too short of connections that I am concerned about.

[papaflamingo]

4 minutes ago, Tsunami74 said:

We are concierge so will be arriving a day early. 

According to our cruise documents arriving 1/18 with included "free" Shangri La Hotel embarking 1/19.

It is too short of connections that I am concerned about.

What is your connection time and what airport?  But you can deviate and still arrive the same day as your concierge suite will get you there.  Have you considered that?  

 

Edited October 26, 2023 by papaflamingo

[Tsunami74]

46 minutes ago, papaflamingo said:

What is your connection time and what airport?  But you can deviate and still arrive the same day as your concierge suite will get you there.  Have you considered that?  

 

We do not have air travel schedule!

I guess, and my TA agrees, Regent is busy rescheduling the Mid East so our will be done at the last possible time - I think it is November 5 or 6.

Another post said they missed connection due to a short connection time.

We do not know what ours will be.  Several previous Regent air trips were perfectly fine, but recently people have been complaining.

[PhD-iva]

I think the advice you will receive on this forum is to pay the deviation fee and select/customize your flights. Its the only way to control the process.

[papaflamingo]

2 hours ago, Tsunami74 said:

We do not have air travel schedule!

I guess, and my TA agrees, Regent is busy rescheduling the Mid East so our will be done at the last possible time - I think it is November 5 or 6.

Another post said they missed connection due to a short connection time.

We do not know what ours will be.  Several previous Regent air trips were perfectly fine, but recently people have been complaining.

If I were you I'd see about using Deviation and pick your own flights.  What airport are you leaving from?  Also the thread about the missed cruise is missing lots of important information.  The poster stated that they were unsatisfied with the first routing so called and had it changed to a different routing.  Then the plane "turned back from the tarmac" so obviously there was a major enough problem that the original flight was significantly delayed or canceled.  What they don't say is what the original turn time was or why the flight "turned back on the tarmac."  It would be easier to understand if they came through with ALL the information. 

I wouldn't worry too much, that was an airplane problem that caused the misconnect.  You could have a 5 hour turn time and end up missing the connection (I'm a retired airline pilot, I could tell you TONS of stories).  But to alleviate the worry, we ALWAYS deviate, even if going the same day.  And that doesn't guarantee anything.  I booked our flight through Regent Air a couple months ago from Atlanta to Hong Kong with a 4 hour turn in San Francisco.  Then United changed the SFO-HKG flight and now our turn time is 1:49.  Fine if we're on time, but not much "wiggle room."  However there isn't anything else any better.  So we'll just see how it goes.  Fortunately we are going a day early AND have a 3 day pre-cruise excursion, so should be NO problem making the cruise, but might miss a day or so of our excursion.  Guess we'll see. 

[Tsunami74]

Can you wait to see what you get and then deviate if you do not like their offering?

[DaveFr]

1 hour ago, Tsunami74 said:

Can you wait to see what you get and then deviate if you do not like their offering?

You can wait to deviate but if you do so, the chance of getting a better flight is extremely slim.

 

Dave

[Wendy The Wanderer]

I would worry about the excursion availability for sure.  I'd also deviate for sure, and go at least a day in advance if you're no Concierge already. Lateness definitely has a downside I guess, not sure what I'd do.

[PhD-iva]

7 hours ago, Tsunami74 said:

Can you wait to see what you get and then deviate if you do not like their offering?

This is a bad idea. By the time R tickets your flights, if you’re not happy there will be limited options available. That’s a suckers bet.
The pros deviate at 210 days out - this is the current first opportunity to deviate.

Enjoy your cruise!

[Tsunami74]

On 10/26/2023 at 9:45 PM, PhD-iva said:

This is a bad idea. By the time R tickets your flights, if you’re not happy there will be limited options available. That’s a suckers bet.
The pros deviate at 210 days out - this is the current first opportunity to deviate.!

Back in October, I thought this was a snarky comment since that was what it was going to be for us ("That's a suckers (sic) bet"). 

I am almost afraid to write this out, but we just got our flight, and I could not have asked for any better.  A one stop  (in Houston) from Pittsburgh to Sydney with decent connection time.

I am so grateful.  We had previously always been treated well for flights by Regent, but these posts had me so worried!

[PhD-iva]

19 minutes ago, Tsunami74 said:

Back in October, I thought this was a snarky comment since that was what it was going to be for us ("That's a suckers (sic) bet"). 

I am almost afraid to write this out, but we just got our flight, and I could not have asked for any better.  A one stop  (in Houston) from Pittsburgh to Sydney with decent connection time.

I am so grateful.  We had previously always been treated well for flights by Regent, but these posts had me so worried!

I am glad that you are very happy with your itinerary. Many other people have posted that they were not happy w their flights.
I’m glad it worked out for you. The smart money deviates at a very early date. Nothing snarky about that.

[Kwaj girl]

On 10/26/2023 at 10:41 AM, PhD-iva said:

I think the advice you will receive on this forum is to pay the deviation fee and select/customize your flights. Its the only way to control the process.

 

But even then...you can't "control" what the airlines do once you've booked your preferred flights.  Can't tell you how many cancellations/misconnects we've had THANKS TO THE AIRLINES ::rolleyes::

[Kwaj girl]

On 10/26/2023 at 8:45 PM, PhD-iva said:

This is a bad idea. By the time R tickets your flights, if you’re not happy there will be limited options available. That’s a suckers bet.
The pros deviate at 210 days out - this is the current first opportunity to deviate.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

And once R tickets your flights....then you can be under some serious penalties for changes.  The time to make any change is prior to ticketing.

[PhD-iva]

1 minute ago, Kwaj girl said:

 

But even then...you can't "control" what the airlines do once you've booked your preferred flights.  Can't tell you how many cancellations/misconnects we've had THANKS TO THE AIRLINES ::rolleyes::

You make a good point!