Celebrity Air

[sabrefan]

Booked for two back to back cruises starting in March 2025. First cruise is Hong Kong to Singapore and second cruise is Singapore to Sydney. Just wondering if Celebrity is able to get lower cost air fares than what we can get on our own? Looking at either business class or premium economy fares. Would fly to Hong Kong from either Rochester, NY or Toronto Canada to Hong Kong depending on air fare costs. Very interested in hearing from others regarding your experience with Celebrity Air. 

 

 

 

[leaveitallbehind]

Typically on international flights is where they have the best opportunity for lower fares.  But they at least will be the same as, and not higher than, booking directly.  The primary advantages are that booking through Celebrity does not require a deposit or payment in full for the airfare until your final payment date for the cruise as the airfare is linked to your cruise on your booking, and if the airfare should be reduced you can rebook the flights to capture the lower fare.  You can also cancel or change the flights without penalty prior to final payment.  They will also directly support assisting with new flights should there be any changes to your flights or any issues that would cause a delay in your arrival to the cruise departure port.

 

We frequently book our flights through Celebrity with good success and in fact just booked flights yesterday through them for our upcoming 11/24 cruise.

Edited April 15 by leaveitallbehind

[happy cruzer]

Check out the Cruise Air board.  There is some interesting discussions over there.  You might want to look at a Round The World ticket.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/77-cruise-air/

 

And do look at the Celebrity pricing as well.  We have found good international rates.  But remember that Celebrity will be in the loop if there are changes or refunds after ticketing.  That was an issue for us.  We booked the air about 1 year out, then when we flew there was an delay that caused a downgrade in the ticket and a refund.  The airline refunded the payer of the ticket i.e. Celebrity.  It look month to get Celebrity to issue us the refund.  Still would use them for significant savings.

[Jeremiah1212]

I just tried them again, against my own judgement, and within 48 hours was fed up and canceled the tickets. Their price on a mixed ticket business class R/T to Europe was substantially cheaper than I could book on my own. Within 24hrs of booking I had a flight cancelation notice for a flight that was definitely not canceled and the fare had reduced even further by about $700. After nearly 2.5 hours on the phone, they quote their infamous "30 business days" to contact the airline to get approval for replacement flights. You also have to call back for the status and I find typically it's not handled correctly then they like to quote another 15-30 day window for resolution. I also potentially had $700+ on the line because of the flux in pricing that they cannot secure.  

 

The efficiency they operate with is really embarrassingly poor. Had the flight truly been canceled and I had booked direct, I would have had this resolved via the airline app in 30 seconds. I gladly paid more after popping over to Delta and booking within minutes, which took 1hr 19 minutes via Celebrity on the first call. 

 

That is just one experience but it is par for the course in dealing with them.