Air Canada potential strike - any one cruising in the next week and booked on a cruise?

[sixpackeddie]

We are scheduled to embark on the Infinity on Sept 19th from Athens. We are booked on Air Canada Sept 17th direct. Looks like pilot strike will happen. Looking for options....

[cruizingOmi]

Find yourself another flight. Try Iceland Air, Air France Any Airline flying to Europe and take a connector to Athens. 

[Liao]

7 minutes ago, sixpackeddie said:

We are scheduled to embark on the Infinity on Sept 19th from Athens. We are booked on Air Canada Sept 17th direct. Looks like pilot strike will happen. Looking for options....

Another airline?

[sixpackeddie]

Thank you for your reply's, been trying too book another carrier that everything is very booked up. 

I did find one flight from Toronto to Frankfurt then to Athens but a one way for 2 is $5000 Canadian or approximately $3200USD. 

May not have a choice.... I guess we would loose our cruise fare with celebrity if we missed the cruise?
 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

15 minutes ago, sixpackeddie said:

We are scheduled to embark on the Infinity on Sept 19th from Athens. We are booked on Air Canada Sept 17th direct. Looks like pilot strike will happen. Looking for options....

How about this for one way to Athens $680 cad a person

 

 

[jayoldschool]

Lots of good direct to Europe out of Montreal. Check options.Take the train from Toronto, get off at Dorval.

[cbfb]

If you have to cancel and do not have insurance call celebrity to ask to move to another cruise. Many times this can be done with only a $100 per person fee. 

[Cruise Junky]

I’d phone them and see if you can go earlier.  Give yourself a few days grace.  

[Cruise Junky]

They’ve reached a tentative deal. Fingers crossed you’re ok. 

[Andy_P]

Hope it works out for you, but you're wise to have a Plan B.  Must be terribly stressful.

 

We were booked with Air Canada on 31 Oct and cancelled and rebooked with Porter, with whom we'll book in future.  Our last two trips were with Air Canada and every leg was either delayed or cancelled at great cost to us and they weasled out of compensation.  Some "national" carrier!

[Ex-Airbalancer]

23 minutes ago, Andy_P said:

Hope it works out for you, but you're wise to have a Plan B.  Must be terribly stressful.

 

We were booked with Air Canada on 31 Oct and cancelled and rebooked with Porter, with whom we'll book in future.  Our last two trips were with Air Canada and every leg was either delayed or cancelled at great cost to us and they weasled out of compensation.  Some "national" carrier!

It isn’t a national carrier any more as it is privately owned now 

[Cruisingirl2012]

Good news!!! Tentative deal reached that will avert a strike happening!! What a relief for all that have flights booked. 

[sixpackeddie]

Yes, thankfully they settled.

Appreciate all the assistance here! Thank you so much.

[chemmo]

31 minutes ago, sixpackeddie said:

Yes, thankfully they settled.

Appreciate all the assistance here! Thank you so much.

So pleased for you! You will need a cruise to unwind from the stress of the last few days…

[bebe08]

We are also booked with AC for upcoming cruise...flights SEp 18.  We booked back up flights through Porter.  They offer an option of fully refundable flights up to an hour before your flight.  We will now cancel Porter as they were more expensive and not direct.  While we were glad to have a plan B, was also worried about the chaos at the airports if there was a strike.

 

So happy the strike is averted!!

 

[Dunchues]

13 hours ago, sixpackeddie said:

Thank you for your reply's, been trying too book another carrier that everything is very booked up. 

I did find one flight from Toronto to Frankfurt then to Athens but a one way for 2 is $5000 Canadian or approximately $3200USD. 

May not have a choice.... I guess we would loose our cruise fare with celebrity if we missed the cruise?
 

Insurance?

[RickT]

On a Porter flight right now.  I had originally booked an Air Canada flight and as we got closer to our sailing date with a strike still looming we grabbed a Porter flight (flying in a few days earlier than originally planned) in order to not deal with the stress of the will they or won’t they go on strike.  
Thankfully we were able to cancel our AC flight and will now spend a few days precruise in beautiful Whistler before making our way to Vancouver to catch the cruise. 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

There still could a strike if the member vote down the agreement, wouldn’t be the first time it has happen 

[mrgabriel]

I heard an ‘airline expert’ on City News the other day. While  the risk of strike is averted - at least for the moment - his advice was to book a refundable flight on another carrier. For the sake of those travelling on AC in the next week or two, I hope this deal is finalized

[BeachTunes]

We disembarked the Solstice this morning and are currently (And thankfully!) on our Air Canada flight back to Toronto.

 

I booked a very expensive last-minute Plan B flight with Porter that we cancelled once we heard the news. Being on the ship the wifi wasn't the greatest to cancel the Porter reservation so we had to call. We learned that they don't have a 24/7 call centre. When we finally reached a representative, cancelling was easy the refund is on the way. 

 

Sadly, it seems there aren't any 100% reliable airlines these days. There was a strike earlier this year that affected WestJet flights for several days. 

 

My tip to anyone booking a backup flight is to read the fine print of the fare rules very closely. I once thought I booked a refundable fare but it was only refundable 24 hours after booking. 

 

Wishing everyone smooth flights and smooth sailing!

Edited Sunday at 06:58 PM by BeachTunes