Flights by Celebrity

[iamphil]

I can't attest to how they operate out of Canada, but I used FBC for my recent sailing in February which was from Florida to Greece without any issues.

 

FBC was a little more expensive versus me booking myself, but when I thought about the hassle of missing one of the flights (there was no route without having 2 layovers) I felt the price difference was worth having them deal with the hassle of getting me to the ship. Both legs of the trip went without issues. Only time we heard from FBC was when we got an alert that one of our flights was taking off earlier than anticipated from the original itinerary. 

[kay0522]

Please be careful using FBC.  We used them for a cruise for our family the week prior to Christmas week.  Our cruise was amazing.  We arrived at the airport to go home, 3 days prior to Christmas.  After sitting on the plane for almost 2 hours, they told us the plane couldn't depart because a toliet wouldn't flush.  We deboarded (all 10 of us, 6 adults and 4 preteen to teenager.  I immediately called FBC.  We took turns being on hold for 7 hours - we were disconnected 14 times. They never answered, except to tell us to continue to hold for a supervisor.   We ended up rebooking new flights ourselves and paying for 2 nights of 3 hotel rooms with meals.  Our grandkids were brokenhearted to miss Christmas at home.  We never did hear back from Celebrity after repeated phone calls.  Fortunately the airline reimbursed us for flights.  The customer service through FBC is terrible.  

[bavrail18]

On 3/8/2024 at 10:49 AM, leaveitallbehind said:

 

• Seats can be selected at the time of booking.

 

On some airlines you can select seats at time of booking. We had business class flights booked on Air Canada. (Florida to Amsterdam).
They would not assign seats until the flight was payed for and tickets issued.

It is a good idea to check with the airline when they will assign seats.

[NutsAboutGolf]

12 minutes ago, kay0522 said:

Please be careful using FBC.  We used them for a cruise for our family the week prior to Christmas week.  Our cruise was amazing.  We arrived at the airport to go home, 3 days prior to Christmas.  After sitting on the plane for almost 2 hours, they told us the plane couldn't depart because a toliet wouldn't flush.  We deboarded (all 10 of us, 6 adults and 4 preteen to teenager.  I immediately called FBC.  We took turns being on hold for 7 hours - we were disconnected 14 times. They never answered, except to tell us to continue to hold for a supervisor.   We ended up rebooking new flights ourselves and paying for 2 nights of 3 hotel rooms with meals.  Our grandkids were brokenhearted to miss Christmas at home.  We never did hear back from Celebrity after repeated phone calls.  Fortunately the airline reimbursed us for flights.  The customer service through FBC is terrible.  

 

No doubt FBC is bad with the long hold times and sounds like they don't increase the number of employees during the holidays.  However, what did the airline do, rebook you on another flight?  Most likely, FBC would want to know what the airline offered before they would do anything

[kay0522]

Please be careful using FBC.  We used them for a cruise for our family the week prior to Christmas week.  Our cruise was amazing.  We arrived at the airport to go home, 3 days prior to Christmas.  After sitting on the plane for almost 2 hours, they told us the plane couldn't depart because a toliet wouldn't flush.  We deboarded (all 10 of us, 6 adults and 4 preteen to teenager.  I immediately called FBC.  We took turns being on hold for 7 hours - we were disconnected 14 times. They never answered, except to tell us to continue to hold for a supervisor.   We ended up rebooking new flights ourselves and paying for 2 nights of 3 hotel rooms with meals.  Our grandkids were brokenhearted to miss Christmas at home.  We never did hear back from Celebrity after repeated phone calls.  Fortunately the airline reimbursed us for flights.  The customer service through FBC is terrible.  

[kay0522]

The airline did nothing except offer us 1 night hotel room and would book us another flight on December 26th.  If we wanted additional hotel rooms, we (all ten of us) had to come back (via our own transportation) to get another voucher.  My son in law found us flights on Christmas morning on another airline and we used some reward points to assist with our hotel stays.  

[NutsAboutGolf]

6 minutes ago, bavrail18 said:

On some airlines you can select seats at time of booking. We had business class flights booked on Air Canada. (Florida to Amsterdam).
They would not assign seats until the flight was payed for and tickets issued.

It is a good idea to check with the airline when they will assign seats.

 

Everything you say is accurate, I just wanted to point out it has to do with if you receive a free seat selection when booking with the carrier directly.  With Air Canada, except for business class, if you book with their "basic" or "standard" ECONOMY fare class, they do not offer free seat selection and when using a TA like FBC, it'll be the same

 

Assuming you do NOT book a basic fare, southwest or with an ultra-low-cost carrier like Spirit, the main US-based carriers offer free seat selection regardless if you book directly or with a TA like FBC

[NutsAboutGolf]

5 minutes ago, kay0522 said:

The airline did nothing except offer us 1 night hotel room and would book us another flight on December 26th.  If we wanted additional hotel rooms, we (all ten of us) had to come back (via our own transportation) to get another voucher.  My son in law found us flights on Christmas morning on another airline and we used some reward points to assist with our hotel stays.  

 

I always wondered if FBC would be willing to book someone on a different airline if the original flight was canceled

[jwlane]

25 minutes ago, kay0522 said:

Please be careful using FBC.

Sounds like an airline problem, not FBC.

[ScottC4746]

Our last cruise we flew LAX-SEA using Celebrity Air and it really did not come out cheaper we found after I booked.  When we booked we were only offered Delta when we knew that American and Alaskan had flights also.  Closer to the cruise date we found the other airlines underpriced Delta's offering on Celebrity Air.  I will say you earn airline miles and status service for those that qualify on the different airlines.

On the plus side, we were alerted of schedule changes from Celebrity Air before Delta alerted us.

 

This time we are on the same flight LAX-SEA round trip and we booked directly with the airline.

Not sure about service if the flight is delayed or cancelled with Celebrity, but we learned never to arrive the same day you sail out.  Too stressful.  We will come home the same day we return, if we can.

[NutsAboutGolf]

9 minutes ago, jwlane said:

Sounds like an airline problem, not FBC.

 

That's what I'm getting at yet IDK, would FBC rebook you to another airline on your way home?  You'd imagine they might get you to the ship as every day the ship cruises along further away from the original port but perhaps not home

[iamphil]

18 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

That's what I'm getting at yet IDK, would FBC rebook you to another airline on your way home?  You'd imagine they might get you to the ship as every day the ship cruises along further away from the original port but perhaps not home

Their website reflects they ensure you get to the ship and home so I would interpret that as if there is an issue either way they handle. As others have said though, I guess that would depend on if they answer or not. 

Edited March 12 by iamphil

[kay0522]

FBC tells you to contact them with any problems - but they were beyond unreachable.  Yes, the airline was at fault for the cancellation, but FBC was no help in anyway.  

[39august]

Do your own research before booking Check several different airlines. FBC offers many different flight schedules. Just ASK. We have always paid less, sometimes not a lot, with FBC. Love having all the options before final payment. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

2 minutes ago, iamphil said:

Their website reflects they ensure you get to the ship and home so I would interpret that as if there is an issue either way they handle. As others have said though, I guess that would depend on if they answer or not. 

 

This spells it out and while it doesn't mention the return flight, all it's really saying is it'll put you on the same airline's next flight that has availability.  Most if not all the airlines will automatically do the same, rebook you to the next flight with availability and may let cancel for a refund if you would prefer to book on another airline.  If you're already at the airport, the airline will probably let you go on standby (take over a no-show's seat)

 

[NutsAboutGolf]

12 minutes ago, 39august said:

Do your own research before booking Check several different airlines. FBC offers many different flight schedules. Just ASK. We have always paid less, sometimes not a lot, with FBC. Love having all the options before final payment. 

 

IMO the big downside is the $200 change fee that the airlines don't charge

[jwlane]

2 hours ago, iamphil said:

Their website reflects they ensure you get... home.... 

Where? 

[NMTraveller]

3 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

This spells it out and while it doesn't mention the return flight, all it's really saying is it'll put you on the same airline's next flight that has availability.  Most if not all the airlines will automatically do the same, rebook you to the next flight with availability and may let cancel for a refund if you would prefer to book on another airline.  If you're already at the airport, the airline will probably let you go on standby (take over a no-show's seat)

 

If you book directly with the airlines there is a chance they will put you on another airlines' flights.  I booked Air Italia (sp),  they cancelled,  and I was put on a better Delta flight.

 

Booking hotels or flights with a middle man makes me nervous.

Edited March 13 by NMTraveller

[NutsAboutGolf]

10 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

If you book directly with the airlines there is a chance they will put you on another airlines' flights.  I booked Air Italia (sp),  they cancelled,  and I was put on a better Delta flight.

 

Booking hotels or flights with a middle man makes me nervous.

 

I could see that yet am wondering if the airline wasn't willing to book you on another airline would FBC do so

 

One issue with not booking hotels directly is some will refuse to add your loyalty number and benefits such as possible upgrades or free breakfast

[iamphil]

8 hours ago, jwlane said:

Where? 

https://www.celebritycruises.com/flights-by-celebrity

[radarcruiser]

30 minutes ago, iamphil said:

https://www.celebritycruises.com/flights-by-celebrity

It doesn’t say when it will get you to the ship, or when they will get you home. I’m not posting to defend FBC, I’ve used them a couple of times because they offered a better deal than I could book myself.  Each time I’ve had issues (on return flights) that were the airline’s fault and I dealt directly with the airline to resolve.

 

I gather the OP was traveling around Christmas to/from Florida.  Flights are ALWAYS full at these times, and any hiccup in the system is difficult to recover from.  They can’t just move you, especially a large group, to another flight quickly because there’s no availability.  Often when issues occur around this time it can be days before you can be accommodated.  It’s frustrating, but sometimes there’s nothing they can do.  In almost all cases US airlines will not book you on another carrier, they just tell you to come back when they have availability.  

[publicpersona]

2 hours ago, iamphil said:

https://www.celebritycruises.com/flights-by-celebrity

 

You need to stop reading marketing word salad and instead look at the terms and conditions. After all, these are the marketing geniuses that came up with "Always Included .. every sailing, every booking, every time" but meant "not actually every sailing, not actually every booking, not actually every time" but I digress.

 

Flights by Celebrity makes no guarantee that they will get you to the ship, and specifically doesn't offer to absorb any costs of alternate travel. They have no control over the ship either. What they commit to is (in marketing words) "be there for you", "have your back", "peace of mind knowing we are there", etc. which actually means they will try to assist making alternate travel arrangements if your flight is delayed or canceled. Exactly what the airline itself or any travel agency does, nothing more.

[terrydtx]

We have successfully used FBC for every overseas cruise we have done with Celebrity. Most recently in January for our flights to Australia. The big advantage was we could book one airline to Sydney (AA) and another for the return flight from Melbourne, (Air NZ) with both in Premium Economy. The cost was a lot less than we could have done booking ourselves. We booked these flights last May and on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving we got an offer to upgrade to BC on the flights to Sydney from AA, we jumped on this.

 

Earlier this week there was a post on another social media site about FBC from a very happy FBC passenger. They were flying from NYC to Venice last year. The morning of their flight they woke up to a message from FBC that their flight to Venice on United had been changed to a flight on Swiss Air to Zurich connecting to Venice. At first they were very upset and called FBC to find out the change was made because during the night the UA flight to Venice had been canceled and FBC was able to move them to Swiss Air. The poster's comment was he was happy to not be one of the other 200+ UA passengers trying to scramble on their own to bet rebooked to Venice.

Edited March 13 by terrydtx

[39august]

There is NO change fee for changes made before final payment. Have done it several times. 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

3 hours ago, 39august said:

There is NO change fee for changes made before final payment. Have done it several times. 

That depends on the ticket , some tickets need to be paid when booked

some tickets you pay at FPD