mphall

We have been long time Regent Cruise fans. We have booked a cruise to Europe and took advantage of the free airfare plus business class upgrade.
There isn't one single flight that we can find that doesn't include an additional upcharge of $800 to $1000 per person. Very sad. Sorry Regent.

DaveBlaine

That's kind of how it goes.

Oh sure, cruise lines have great last minute deals to try and fill those boats up but then you're really up against it buying last minute airfare too.

Good luck and hope it works out for you.

DJ_Iceman

That's a nice sentiment, but I agree it's BS on the part of the cruise line. It is THEIR responsibility to find an acceptable flight arrangement. A so-called luxury line shouldn't leave it to their customers to do this, even more insultingly leaving them only additional cost options.

piper28

Most of those offers that I've seen generally stipulate that the free airfare is pretty much from some specific major hubs like new york or la. I'd say it's pretty normal that there's an extra charge if you're trying to fly from somewhere else. The offer I currently see says free airfare plus business class upgrades from $499, so not sure if that's the same offer you booked or not, but also in the fine print, it lists these airports: ATL, BOS, CLT, DEN, DFW, DTW, EWR, FLL, IAD, IAH, JFK, LAX, LGA, MCO, MDW, MIA, MSP, ORD, PBI, PHL, PHX, SAN, SEA, SFO, TPA, YUL, YVR, YYZ

mphall

This is how it plays out. I have never used Regent airfare and am totally out of any points for anything. So, $1000 per person is included in cruise rate for coach airfare. $175 per person if you want to go earlier or later for destination city. $499 per person each way for upgrade to business class air. If leaving from Nashville its an additional $249 per person. Using Delta is not allowed. Depending upon their contracted rates, they give you whatever they want. So five stops from Nashville to get to Lisbon. If I want only two stops, I have to pay $899 per person.

Linda VH

We cruise Regent but always book our own airfare. We happily take a credit for airfare AND pre-cruise hotel as we like to book our own.

mphall

Yes, it would be nice to do at this time. However, you don't seem to realize that Nashville has no international flights and Portugal is not a major hub or city to visit. I thought Regent would do a nice seamless job but I am working just as hard getting them to book my airfare that if I had done it myself. I will probably cancel the cruise.

MSPeconomist

DL has some very nice RT Z fares to Lisbon.

DaveBlaine

Of course it's not. It's actually a country.

mphall

Neither is Lisbon

DaveBlaine

Fair enough.

Calliopeflyer

That would be the way I would do it as well.....I want to choose which flights I want to take, since airlines and seat configurations matter to me. Still, I don't expect to be trying Regent any time soon because of their high single supplements for solo travelers like myself.

Randyk47

While we haven't cruised with Regent we have cruised with several lines that include or offer supposedly discounted airfare as a part of their cruises. We've always chosen to make our own arrangements and usually get some kind of credit from the cruise line. Part of the problem, if not the main, is that we don't live all that close to an International gateway airport. Now on the surface you wouldn't think flying from San Antonio to Dallas would add all that much to a ticket but as soon as you ask a cruise line to do that the once included or discounted airfare goes up typically $400 to $600 per person. All kind of surprising and a bit irritating as we could book our flights to Dallas for a lot less. As I said the end result is that we've found it more economical to book our own travel and offset the cost through cruise fare discounts or other credits. Point is that the OP has run into the typical practice of most cruise lines and not an overt "bait and switch".

Doc Savage

If you like the cruise line itself, I'm not sure why you would completely stop using them because of this issue. Why not book your own flights if the cost is substantially less? Some of the increased cost of the cruise line booked flights may be because the cruise line then essentially guarantees you will be hooked up with the ship in the case of delays, self-insurance by the cruise that has some cost to them.

I always prefer to book my own flights so I can arrange to be at the port a day or two early "just in case" and enjoy visiting the port.

YMMV

Often1

If you are in the higher-end market, I would suggest booking the cruise line & cruise separately from the air and pre-post hotels unless you are a major hub (and even then beware). Travel insurance (which is pretty important for a cruise anyway) solves all of the misconnect, baggage delay and the like problems anyway.

The only way the discounts work is for the cruise line to buy bulk fares and rely on unpopular routings, do not earn miles, may not include seat selection, upgrade eligibility and the like.

For what it's worth, the BNA origin makes a roughly $2K difference per ticket over MIA, ATL & JFK. That is likely the problem OP is encountering in his current booking attempts.

I don't think that any cruise line suggests that it is in a position to provide great connections at low prices in any class of service, let alone J, between any two places on the globe.