Delta Cancels Contract with Regent

[pappy1022]

Been on Regent 4 times and also cruised on Crystal and Oceania multiple times. Next cruise is on Paul Gauguin. I choose based on itinerary. My assumption, and it is an assumption, is based on the fact that the difference between what I could get on my own for the exact air itinerary that Regent provided vs what the credit they were offering was almost 3X. I wouldn’t think that Regent gets that much of a discount. 

 

[Dolebludger]

Along these lines, I got an interesting email ad from Regent a few months ago concerning intercontinental flights with “free business air”. It offered a discount for those willing to fly premium economy instead. I wasn’t interested, and I have heard nothing about this option since. Just curious, as it seems that Regent’s air program regarding business air is having problems. It has gotten to the point that we check business air availability before we put down a deposit on a cruise. 

Edited February 6 by Dolebludger

[jeb_bud]

16 hours ago, papaflamingo said:

I believe Regent only charges what the airline charge to them is.  So the fact that Icelandic Air is not lay-flat but actually domestic first class is already factored into the equation. 

I think you’re probably correct in the aggregate but not in specific personal results. Regent calculates their air credit for everyone and charges that. You live in Georgia, I live in Oregon. If we are both on a cruise embarking in Southampton using Regent air we will both have a $2,500(or thereabouts) air credit. I am pretty sure your flight would cost Regent less than mine but they would average around $2,500. I can never match Regent’s credit to Europe, and I can usually beat Regent’s credit to Australia, which is a shorter trip for me. 

[labonnevie]

2 hours ago, jeb_bud said:

I think you’re probably correct in the aggregate but not in specific personal results. Regent calculates their air credit for everyone and charges that. You live in Georgia, I live in Oregon. If we are both on a cruise embarking in Southampton using Regent air we will both have a $2,500(or thereabouts) air credit. I am pretty sure your flight would cost Regent less than mine but they would average around $2,500. I can never match Regent’s credit to Europe, and I can usually beat Regent’s credit to Australia, which is a shorter trip for me. 

Exactly our experience. 
In April, we flew LAX to Tokyo for our Explorer cruise. Regent’s flight credit was $5500 when we made our reservation (it later increased to $6000). We booked ANA business class on our own for $4300. Nice little savings. However, I am certain that if we had been flying from the east coast, we would not have been able to come close to Regent’s credit. Flying to Istanbul and home from Dubai in November/December we couldn’t come close to Regent’s air credit. 
Net: your home location and embarkation/disembarkation ports probably has a lot to do with whether you can meet or beat Regent’s air credit for a given cruise. 

[rallydave]

On 2/4/2024 at 11:15 AM, papaflamingo said:

The way it works is that Regent includes a specific amount in your cruise fare for air.  You can see this amount on the website.  

Not true.  The cruise fare and air inclusion is usually more than what the credit is depending on where your starting point is.  This is because everyone pays the same price for the cruise and air no matter your starting airport thus for instance for cruises in Europe the fare Regent will pay to get you to or from Europe with an east cost departure will certainly be less than flights to the same destination from the west coast and vice versa for flights to Asia.  Yes it is a set amount for every cruise likely based on a middle of the US departure so Regent wins some and loses some depending yon your  departure location.

 

The air credit is also a fixed amount no matter your starting location and being a business, IMHO the Regents air credit may be more or less than for your specific starting location and likely less than the amount included so Regent likely makes some money on do it yourself air.  Not a simple process for Regent to do this but, imagine the number of different fares depending o your starting location as well a multiple credits for do it yourself air??

[rallydave]

21 hours ago, Dolebludger said:

To answer the question about Iceland Air business class, it is the same as business class on domestic flights

Actually the seats on Icelandair in Business are the same as First Class domestic  US flights.  Bo ot believe any US airline has Business Class flights within the US. 

[rcandkc]

28 minutes ago, rallydave said:

Actually the seats on Icelandair in Business are the same as First Class domestic  US flights.  Bo ot believe any US airline has Business Class flights within the US. 

There are a few true business class seats within the US. AA has some select flights from east to west coast with lay down business seats. 

[rallydave]

1 hour ago, rcandkc said:

There are a few true business class seats within the US. AA has some select flights from east to west coast with lay down business seats. 

True some planes configured with business class lie flat seats do fly domestic routes however tickets are sold as first class thus the flights are first class and my comment stands that no business class domestic flights. 
 

that said flights to Canada and Mexico are classified as international business class not first class. 

[ysolde]

1. I have found that Regent's product, with International Business Class flights included in the price, is difficult to beat in our neck of the woods.  We live in Scottsdale, so PHX is our airport.  While we have lots of flight options, they are often expensive.  We recently purchased an NCL cruise (on one of the newer, less overwhelmingly large ships, Viva) that is similar in many ways to the kind of cruise we enjoy on Regent (late season, lots of ports, many of them unusual, TA).  We upgraded to a non-Haven suite (when I got our travel agent on the phone, and she confirmed to DH the size of our balcony cabin, he was . . . less than impressed).  A suite is larger and gets us a few perks, though not the entire ship within a ship Haven experience, which is just fine with us.  Nothing is included, really.  A couple of nights at specialty restaurants, and a basic drinks package (I need to speak to the travel agent, because what we need is the soda package, since we don't really drink much alcohol).  We need to add in gratuities for everything and everyone.  Plus the extra tips we will bring in cash for the people who really impress us.  Then there is the whole booking our own business class airfare.  Not a must for most people.  But we are older and have our aches and pains and don't take a long flight unless it's in business class.  When you add all of this up, the NCL cruise will probably cost us more than the Regent cruise.  I don't think we will be taking another NCL cruise again.

[edgee]

On 2/3/2024 at 2:13 PM, tnr said:

We just booked our air to Barcelona through Regent Air.  My TA also told me that my Delta choices were not available as Delta had cancelled the contract.  Of course, this could just be verbiage that the air department is using……or not.

We tried to book return from transatlantic flying BCN to JFK for cruise from Miami to Barcelona leaving late next month. Was offered Delta non stop at the, but at a ridiculous additional surcharge. Ended up cancelling Regent air and booking United to EWR non stop using points instead, but in Premium Economy, since it is a day flight.

[Whinenowine]

We took the domestic air credit for our Grandeur cruise out of Miami later this year. At $800/pp I thought it was quite generous, considering it's economy class. I used Avios on AA and for a paltry 33k miles/pp was able to get biz class tickets. I'd call that a win.

[kirtihk]

4 minutes ago, Whinenowine said:

We took the domestic air credit for our Grandeur cruise out of Miami later this year. At $800/pp I thought it was quite generous, considering it's economy class. I used Avios on AA and for a paltry 33k miles/pp was able to get biz class tickets. I'd call that a win.

Did Regent increase it to $800 recently?  We had a December 2022 Regent cruise from Miami to LA, and the (economy) credit was $300 pp.

[Whinenowine]

1 hour ago, kirtihk said:

Did Regent increase it to $800 recently?  We had a December 2022 Regent cruise from Miami to LA, and the (economy) credit was $300 pp.

I don't know if/when it changed, but I booked this about 4months ago and it still looks to be the same today, $800/pp.  I found that quite a lot for economy, which is freely available for $350-400/pp.  I'll suck it up and pay for my own Uber Black!  😁

[Dolebludger]

Has anybody taken the “free intercontinental business class” without deviation and request for a certain  airline and route? I ask because we never have done this, and we are just curious how good or bad the  flights are this way.  On such flight itineraries, I’d like to know if there were additional connections, inconvenient times, and such

[fdnycruiser]

We did it in April of 22 from Rome to Orlando. They booked us on American Airlines to Charlotte on a mid morning non stop, and on to Orlando with a short layover.

[Chateaunole-du-pape]

On 2/6/2024 at 4:42 PM, rallydave said:

for cruises in Europe the fare Regent will pay to get you to or from Europe with an east cost departure will certainly be less than flights to the same destination from the west coast and vice versa for flights to Asia. 

This is not how airline pricing works. Give it a try on a couple of sample itineraries. It took me all of one attempt to find nonstop business class flights, to the same European gateway, that are more expensive from the east coast than from the west coast.

[Dolebludger]

On our near future cruise to the Caribbean on the Splendor. We took the credit and booked our own flights. We don’t want basic economy. We don’t like connections (we have been stranded too many times by connecting flights that didn’t connect). We want business and as few connections as possible. Even with all that, we still have one flight leg (Miami to Denver) where business class was full, and we had to take premium economy. We are wait listed for business. News at 11.

 

our Regent cruise after that is a London to London cruise, and we need air  from Durango to London and back. We knew it would involve a connection in  Denver (United) or Dallas (American). But we wanted as few as possible connections, other than in one of those hubs. We researched and found a direct Denver to London and back on United in business. Other airlines from our accessible hubs had no such thing. Several connections within the US that we knew would be basic economy as soon as we cleared the “pond”.  And we know the more connections, the less the fare. We feared Regent would  put us on that type of routing. So, without no knowing that, we had our TA request a deviation that would United’s direct Denver to London in business, git it, and paid the deviation fee. But we’ll never know what routing Regent would have chosen for us. And he we waited to find out, the business class seats on our preferred direct flight might well have been sold out — as was on our Miami to Denver flight mentioned above.

 

Airlines simply have too few business class Sears on their planes.  And they have crammed economy so much that demand for business exceeds supply. And that perhaps is the problem here.

 

 

[papaflamingo]

12 hours ago, Dolebludger said:

we’ll never know what routing Regent would have chosen for us

Actually, we are flying Tokyo to Atlanta in March.  When I deviated, I called Regent (I always handle my own deviation requests) and when I was talking to the very nice agent and found that the non-stop on Delta from Haneda to Atlanta had an up charge, I asked what could I get without the up charge for the same day.  She told me I could get Japan Airlines to Boston (I think) then JetBlue to Atlanta (coach only on JetBlue).  So I chose the non-stop.  But if you handle your own deviation, they'll tell you what flights are available on straight contract rates, so you can find out the routing they'll likely give you.

[papaflamingo]

On 2/6/2024 at 4:42 PM, rallydave said:

The cruise fare and air inclusion is usually more than what the credit is depending on where your starting point is.

I can't argue with your logic at all, but  the difference between "included air" and "cruise only"  on line is the air credit.  So if I choose to pay my own air, I can see on line how much "cruise only" will cost and it's a published rate. For example, if I look at the May, 2, 2026 Navigator cruise from Bangkok to Tokyo the "all inclusive fare" (includes air) is $19,299.  The "all inclusive cruise fare" (no air) is $13099.  So the air credit is $6200.  If I follow it out and select "Atlanta" as my departure, the total for 2 is $37,288 and if I select Los Angeles as my gateway, the cost is also $37.288.  When I select "no air" the total for 2 is $24,888 or $12,400, $6200 per person.  I checked some other gateway's too (Mobile, Milwaukee, and Omaha) and the price doesn't change. 

I will say the "booked" cost is lower than the published fare,  Don't know why, probably my frequent cruiser discount.

[rallydave]

Yes papa the difference is the air credit. But because it is the same in all your examples it is the same no matter where you live and f  oh r sure sir fares vary for sure depending on your home airport. 
 

IMHO obviously the air credit is not necesrry what regent pays for your flights and likely less. We don’t ever know exactly what regent pays for air. In some cases people can fly in the credit and others can’t. 
 

thanks for agreeing and proving my hypothesis. 

[Dolebludger]

Papaflamingo, just a question. On your flight, I understand that economy on Jet Blue is not what most of us Regent cruisers would like. But in addition, would you have to claim and recheck your luggage when you changed from JAL to Jet blue in Boston? We find that to be true often when connections involve an airline change, and that is a “deal breaker” for us. 

[papaflamingo]

25 minutes ago, Dolebludger said:

Papaflamingo, just a question. On your flight, I understand that economy on Jet Blue is not what most of us Regent cruisers would like. But in addition, would you have to claim and recheck your luggage when you changed from JAL to Jet blue in Boston? We find that to be true often when connections involve an airline change, and that is a “deal breaker” for us. 

Don't know... but likely.  I turned it down and opted for the non-stop. 

[papaflamingo]

1 hour ago, rallydave said:

thanks for agreeing and proving my hypothesis.

Hmmm.....ummm..... ok....sure... if you say so. You're welcome (I guess).   However I'm guessing that,  like me, you have no idea how the contract really works and are simply "opining."  And I'm retired airline, and I have no idea either,  All I can pass on was what I was told.  And I was told Regent doesn't profit from air fare.  Believe it or don't, it really makes no difference, the cost of the cruise is the cost of the cruise and the cost of air is the cost of air. Book it or don't based on what YOU perceive as "value."  

 

Edited February 8 by papaflamingo

[Dolebludger]

papaflamingo:
 

And, oh yeah, another question. We were able to choose a non-stop on United  Denver - London (not knowing what Regent’s alternative would be) for the deviation charge only. So my question is, how much was your up charge for Delta direct?

Edited February 8 by Dolebludger

[edgee]

On 2/6/2024 at 6:38 PM, rallydave said:

my comment stands that no business class domestic flights. 

Your comment does not stand. AA sells their NY LAX and a few other routes in 3 classes First, Business, or economy in their specially designed A 321 planes.I fly the route often from JFK to SNA where I have family. Have sometimes been upgraded to business which has lie flat pod like seating. Have yet to be upgraded to first class which has one one seating in each row instead of the two two seating in Business.