Different Flights for travel agent

[Tigermad]

A few weeks ago I looked online to book the Italy and Croatia cruise. There were no fights from Gatwick and Heathrow had a 9 hour flight via Turkey. So I went to a travel agent and on the exact same cruise they found some non stop flights from Gatwick still through Celebrity. So I booked through them. 
 

How did they see flights but you can’t see them yourself online? I would have preferred to book direct. 

[alexandria]

They don't.  How did you "look online" for the flights you wanted?

 

If you are flying into Rome or Athens, I found multiple daily non-stops for LGW-FCO and for LGW-ATH and it only took me about two minutes on Google Flights.

[Tigermad]

6 minutes ago, alexandria said:

They don't.  How did you "look online" for the flights you wanted?

 

If you are flying into Rome or Athens, I found multiple daily non-stops for LGW-FCO and for LGW-ATH and it only took me about two minutes on Google Flights.

I looked on the flights section on the celebrity website. I did a search and none from Gatwick to Venice. They are economy flights that were booked in the end but surely I should still have seen these?

[Tigermad]

30 minutes ago, alexandria said:

They don't.  How did you "look online" for the flights you wanted?

 

If you are flying into Rome or Athens, I found multiple daily non-stops for LGW-FCO and for LGW-ATH and it only took me about two minutes on Google Flights.

Try finding Gatwick to Venice VCE May 5th returning to Gatwick from Rome FCO on 16th May using celebrity’s flight search. 
 

Edited August 30 by Tigermad

[alexandria]

32 minutes ago, Tigermad said:

I looked on the flights section on the celebrity website. I did a search and none from Gatwick to Venice. They are economy flights that were booked in the end but surely I should still have seen these?

My experience with Flights by Celebrity has been very poor each time I considered using them.  Most recently, when I booked a Galapagos cruise, their flight selection was limited to economy seats on just two carriers.  No business class at all and nothing on any other carriers, including AA (apparently due to a contractual dispute between Celebrity and AA).  And to book with Celebrity would have cost me substantially more than the airfare booking independently.

I also have found that much of Celebrity's marketing of included airfare to be quite deceptive.  When they market "Free Air and Savings Offer" promoting "Flights on Us", if you look carefully at the various fare options, Celebrity charges significantly more when they include airfare vs cruise only.  In what universe is that "free" or "on us"?  When I have looked into using Celebrity for flights, I have not found any value to using them.  Others, however, prefer a "one-stop" approach where the cruiseline handles everything, even if there is a premium associated with going that route.

 

For those and other reasons, I have just stuck with what has always worked for me.  Booking my flights and any pre-cruise and post-cruise accommodations separately.

 

 

Edited August 30 by alexandria
Spelling and grammar.

[Tigermad]

2 minutes ago, alexandria said:

Perhaps they don't book WizzAir, which appears to be the only airline with a nonstop (two daily) from LGW-VIE. 

 

My experience with Flights by Celebrity has been very poor each time I considered using them.  Most recently, when I booked a Galapagos cruise, their flight selection was limited to economy seats on just two carriers.  No business class at all and nothing on any other carriers, including AA (apparently due to a contractual dispute between Celebrity and AA).  And to book with Celebrity would have cost me substantially more than the airfare booking independently.

I also have found that much of Celebrity's marketing of included airfare to be quite deceptive.  When they market "Free Air and Savings Offer" promoting "Flights on Us", if you look carefully at the various fare options, Celebrity charges significantly more when they include airfare vs cruise only.  In what universe is that "free" or "on us"?  When I have looked into using Celebrity for flights, I have not found any value to using them.  Others, however, prefer a "one-stop" approach where the cruiseline handles everything, even if there is a premium associated with going that route.

 

For those and other reasons, I have just stuck with what has always worked for me.  Booking my flights and any pre-cruise and post-cruise accommodations separately. 

But I have EasyJet and Vueling flights booked (both non stops) for this trip that the travel agent could see but I could not (see screenshot in my post above). All done through Celebrity.

Edited August 30 by Tigermad

[alexandria]

24 minutes ago, Tigermad said:

Try finding Gatwick to Venice VCE May 5th returning to Gatwick from Rome FCO on 16th May using celebrity’s flight search. 
 

 

That's a reason not to use Flights by Celebrity and book it yourself.  Here are your options if you book it independently:

 

 

 

 

[alexandria]

5 minutes ago, Tigermad said:

But I have EasyJet and Vueling flights booked (both non stops) for this trip that the travel agent could see but I could not (see screenshot in my post above). All done through Celebrity.

I have heard that sometimes Flights by Celebrity can book flights you or your travel agent select if they fall within some specific parameters (dates of travel, cabin class and airline) even if they don't appear on the Flights by Celebrity search.

However, I have not had that experience.  Each time there was an excuse why they couldn't book it (we don't use XXX airline, we don't book business class flights to that destination and so on).

[Tigermad]

1 hour ago, alexandria said:

 

That's a reason not to use Flights by Celebrity and book it yourself.  Here are your options if you book it independently:

 

 

 

 

Thanks. I can see there is only one journey into Venice that will make the cruise in time an thats the one I have booked. More options on the way back though.

[jelayne]

When we have used flights by Celebrity we do our own flight search, determine what flights we want and then call FBC to book.  Sometimes the price is better sometimes not.  But FBC doesn’t show every flight.

[wrk2cruise]

I have found that when you call and speak to a FBC agent there can be more options available.  It pays to do your research prior.  Also if they find something you might consider but are still looking have them hold the possible contender as I have had the situation where just minutes later the price is different.

 

[canderson]

5 hours ago, alexandria said:

They don't.

If I understand the original post, yes, they do.

 

FBC has access to a great many flights that don't show up on the online FBC web site.  My next cruise is an example of that.  If there's a real desire to book flights through Celebrity, it's always best to do your own search for a couple of itineraries you like, and start your live conversation with FBC with those if you don't find them on the FBC site.

[alexandria]

19 minutes ago, canderson said:

If I understand the original post, yes, they do.

 

FBC has access to a great many flights that don't show up on the online FBC web site.  My next cruise is an example of that.  If there's a real desire to book flights through Celebrity, it's always best to do your own search for a couple of itineraries you like, and start your live conversation with FBC with those if you don't find them on the FBC site.

 

My response was to OP's inquiry "How did they (travel agents) see flights but you can’t see them yourself online? I would have preferred to book direct."  The TA and consumer both have the same access to flight schedules and pricing using tools like Google Flights and (at least according to my TA) if a flight doesn't appear on the FBC site when a customer is searching, the TA won't see it on the FBC site either.  

I suspect OP's TA did exactly what has been discussed upthread.  Found flights that worked for the OP using whatever search engine they use for that purpose (similar to Google Flights, Skyscanner or ITA Matrix) and then called FBC to book through them.

[celebrity cruiser]

I dont always use FBC but when I do, I always check multiple sites first. Find what I need, then call FBC to book. I've had time when they say they dont use that airline. On 2 occasions, they quoted me a higher price then I found. When I asked, they reconfirmed the pricing on their end and each time processed it with the lower price.

Hope this helps 

[Arizona Wildcat]

4 hours ago, jelayne said:

When we have used flights by Celebrity we do our own flight search, determine what flights we want and then call FBC to book.  Sometimes the price is better sometimes not.  But FBC doesn’t show every flight.

Correct.  FBC has contracts with certain airlines.  Not all of them.  A search engine will search most airlines but always all - Southwest for example.  A TA can search everything.

Agree looking first then decide if the possible restrictions and price makes FBC worth booking.  Domestically often not.  International flights probably.

[canderson]

12 minutes ago, alexandria said:

 

... the TA won't see it on the FBC site either.  
 

Yes, a TA sees the same thing we do on the FBC site (it's all a filtered front-end through to Expedia anyway, which is what most of the big lines have switched to now - they've quit maintaining their own schedule links to the airlines), but a phone call by the TA can have different results, same as by pax.

[Tigermad]

43 minutes ago, alexandria said:

 

My response was to OP's inquiry "How did they (travel agents) see flights but you can’t see them yourself online? I would have preferred to book direct."  The TA and consumer both have the same access to flight schedules and pricing using tools like Google Flights and (at least according to my TA) if a flight doesn't appear on the FBC site when a customer is searching, the TA won't see it on the FBC site either.  

I suspect OP's TA did exactly what has been discussed upthread.  Found flights that worked for the OP using whatever search engine they use for that purpose (similar to Google Flights, Skyscanner or ITA Matrix) and then called FBC to book through them.

No they didn’t do that. They did it all online while I sat beside them. 

[Tigermad]

4 minutes ago, canderson said:

Yes, a TA sees the same thing we do on the FBC site (it's all a filtered front-end through to Expedia anyway, which is what most of the big lines have switched to now - they've quit maintaining their own schedule links to the airlines), but a phone call by the TA can have different results, same as by pax.

That did it all online while I sat by them. No calls were made. 

[canderson]

2 minutes ago, Tigermad said:

That did it all online while I sat by them. No calls were made. 

Then if your TA could see it (and my agent tells me she thinks the FBC site can be fiddly about what it shows depending upon how you slice and dice things), you should have been able to see the exact same thing if you were concurrently logged into your own account sitting side by side and providing it with the same input. 

 

However, we know two things.  FBC will never show you all of the possible itineraries because they don't support them all, sometimes even at an entire airline level (as noted above) since they haven't got contracts with them all.  That said, the filters they use against the Expedia database in an attempt to limit the flights shown for those reasons and others also causes the public (including TA) online FBC site to not show certain flights that a phone call to FBC suddenly makes possible (who knows if it's an algorithm problem or intentional).  It's a 'rules based' algorithm for filtering, and apparently not perfect.

 

Again, my recent experience with an upcoming cruise in November was case in point.  Neither I nor my TA could get the FBC site to generate a specific obvious and very agreeable one stop itinerary choice from DEN to BCN, and she's even better at manipulating the site than I am.  She then called FBC and landed the exact itinerary I had wanted to book.