Delay- Flight Arrangements with Custom Air

[Nibby1]

In June we booked a Hawaiian cruise (Honolulu to Vancouver) for next April through Celebrity and included the air arrangements in the package. My travel agent requested custom air (with the suggested flight times I gave her for Charleston to Honolulu and then Vancouver to Charleston on the return). This was done a month ago and Custom Air told her then that the return flights for Vancouver are not loaded into their system yet. She has called back several times now, and they keep telling her that the return flights are not loaded yet and to try again in a month (they can't book the departing flight without doing the return flight). I know Custom Air says they can book your flights from 8 to 10 months in advance and I really would like to get them locked in, what with all the problems airlines are having these days. My TA keeps working on it, and gets the same answer. And, of course, I can't call Custom Air directly when I'm using a TA. Has anyone else had this problem when trying to book through Custom Air? I guess I'll wait another month and then press again for my booking (which would be six months in advance of our trip). If anyone has other suggestions, please let me know.

[ger_77]

I don't understand why your TA doesn't have the fares loaded into their system - if you look online you can get prices yourself. I don't blame you for wanting to ensure you've got your flights locked in; prices can escalate overnight.

 

Have you checked to see if you can get a better price on your own, or is the cruise line's price really that much better?

 

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

[Nibby1]

It's Celebrity's Custom Air department that doesn't have the YVR return flights loaded yet in their system. And yes, I have been continually checking the airfares that I could get on my own, and they are at least $400 more per person than what I have from my June 3rd booking. So I guess I'll keep checking a little while longer. Thanks for the reply.

[paul929207]

Major airlnes posts their flights 330 days in advance. You are well inside that. If Celebrity can't help you, look to book your own flights.

[phoenix1181]

I had the same problem with RCCL for our November cruise.

We travel in November every year and I generally book my flights right around New Years. I did my homework and gave my TA our flight choices the beginning of January. We didn't get everything confirmed until the beginning of April! I was very unhappy but there really isn't anything to be done. When we choose to take air though them, we have to play by their rules and roll with it.

The price was good but I'm not sure it's worth the stress. I'll be booking my own air from now on...............

[budster]

We had the same problem with RCI custom air. We could not get our deviation in place and then they dropped two ports and replaced only one. So, we cancelled and went over to Celebrity. They would not give us any deviation information until we actually booked the new cruise. Well, I booked and then they told me they did not have the deviations in their system yet. Talk about frustrated!:( I found out on the new roll call some already had their deviation two months prior to our booking. So, I called back and got a different rep and got the deviation with no problem. The bottom line is their customer service needs help. We should have been able to book the air 10 months out. So, it was very frustrating but we finally got everything in place.:)

[ocnlvr3]

I am booked on a March 09 cruise. I went online a month ago selected my flights from an airline and then called Princess Flight Choice. They booked me directly with the airline and I paid the deviation fee. The fares were exactly what I would have paid on my own and was quite easy.

I even went on the airlines website to verify I was on those exact flights.

May I suggest you find the flights you want and then give them to your TA? I hope it all works out for you.

[Hamburg Avon Lady]

We booked our return airfare through RCCL for our flight home from Santiago, Chile to Orlando. This was a savings of over $ 2000 per person ! compared to if we had booked on our own. The airfare was posted to our

cruise about 1 month after the initial booking - only problem, I won't

know the return air schedule until 30 days prior to departure. Bummer !!

[greatam]

We booked our return airfare through RCCL for our flight home from Santiago, Chile to Orlando. This was a savings of over $ 2000 per person ! compared to if we had booked on our own. The airfare was posted to our

cruise about 1 month after the initial booking - only problem, I won't

know the return air schedule until 30 days prior to departure. Bummer !!

 

As posted previously, there were quite a few ways to get from SCL to Orlando that were relatively inexpensive. In fact, someone on your cruise found one way airfare for less than $500.00 to FLL. And they KNOW their flights NOW, not 30 days pre cruise. You just have to do a more little research and find airlines that sell TRUE one way international tickets. Quite a few USA airlines DON'T.