RoadtoNowhere73

Our December Oasis of the Seas cruise will be our family's first experience with RC, but our 4th cruise. We booked in August 2023 and took advantage of the Air2Sea reservation system at the same, arranging for roundtrip flights to/from our home city to the departing RC port in Miami.
Here is my issue: At the time of online reservation via the website, I distinctly remember selecting seat assignments for my family, so we could sit together. I kept a folder of all email receipts (paid in full) confirming air travel details, but I never until today (over 3 mos later) thought to check for the one aspect of the flight rez that was missing: those seat assignments. 
So this morning I downloaded the AA app, entered my flight number, and low and behold not only were my seat assignments absent, but the number of available seats on my scheduled flight was significantly diminished as you might expect 3 months later. The AA app prompted me to select seats in order to continue viewing my already paid-for trip/could not proceed in app without it. I ended up selecting upcharge seats, purely for the desire to maintain my family being able to sit together on the outbound flight on the one row still available. For the return flight, there were still two rows at the back of the plane available and no upcharge. It seems these seat assignments are now confirmed, albeit this time properly with AA.
I called A2S to ask what happened to my previously selected seat assignments. They forwarded me my flight rez receipts, again with no seat assignments confirmed, as a response. The agent then also suggested AA may cancel flights/make changes/have a practice of not honoring seat assignments unless paid for explicitly. I was a bit taken aback.
I next called AA, to ask if I could cancel my upcharge seats, and they said no as these are non-refundable. The agent next suggested I should have always confirmed with the airline from day 1 what my seat assignments were, and that they have no record of my ever securing seat assignments previously, and won't comment on how or what A2S (or any 3rd party for that matter) may have promised, as they didn't make it themselves.
So, it seems this is my fault. Fair enough. Lesson learned, seat assignments arranged through A2S aren't definitive, and I should just book my own flights through the airline directly (AA or otherwise) when cruising. It's just a shame that I participated in a process and assumed it was already taken care of. It wasn't. Not the end of the world to be sure, and I'm glad my family can still sit together on a long flight that's supposed to be a fun trip together (albeit now at an additional cost), but I can't help but feel I found a gap in the reservation process in my opinion. 

Thanks all for the informed responses. I work in a hospital system with 13 different unions, and I thought I had a pretty good handle on collective bargaining (in healthcare, anyway), but it seems flight attendants (and this railway act) are nuances I'm not familiar with.
I truly appreciate all the advice. I feel better.

Welcome to the boards,
I have to say I found that pre-ordering rideshare is an increase in cost. You are paying a premium for the convenience. But overall, the cost for all services has increased. One thing to keep in mind is that there are often airport shuttles at the port to take you to the airport. It's usually $10pp which works out to be less than rideshare if you have 3 people or less. Also check with your hotel about shuttles. 

So weird, because I'm ExecPlat too and I can't remember ever having a seat assignment changed due to a simple schedule change. Not saying it doesn't happen, maybe I've just been lucky, but in my 15 or so years of being Exec Plat, I don't remember one time where just a schedule change alone (same flight numbers, same aircraft type) has caused a seat re-allocation. Heck, just yesterday I had a rather large schedule change on one leg of an upcoming ELP-LAX-HND-CTS trip, and I just reconfirmed that all of my seats are the exact same. 

Our December Oasis of the Seas cruise will be our family's first experience with RC, but our 4th cruise. We booked in August 2023 and took advantage of the Air2Sea reservation system at the same, arranging for roundtrip flights to/from our home city to the departing RC port in Miami.
Here is my issue: At the time of online reservation via the website, I distinctly remember selecting seat assignments for my family, so we could sit together. I kept a folder of all email receipts (paid in full) confirming air travel details, but I never until today (over 3 mos later) thought to check for the one aspect of the flight rez that was missing: those seat assignments. 
So this morning I downloaded the AA app, entered my flight number, and low and behold not only were my seat assignments absent, but the number of available seats on my scheduled flight was significantly diminished as you might expect 3 months later. The AA app prompted me to select seats in order to continue viewing my already paid-for trip/could not proceed in app without it. I ended up selecting upcharge seats, purely for the desire to maintain my family being able to sit together on the outbound flight on the one row still available. For the return flight, there were still two rows at the back of the plane available and no upcharge. It seems these seat assignments are now confirmed, albeit this time properly with AA.
I called A2S to ask what happened to my previously selected seat assignments. They forwarded me my flight rez receipts, again with no seat assignments confirmed, as a response. The agent then also suggested AA may cancel flights/make changes/have a practice of not honoring seat assignments unless paid for explicitly. I was a bit taken aback.
I next called AA, to ask if I could cancel my upcharge seats, and they said no as these are non-refundable. The agent next suggested I should have always confirmed with the airline from day 1 what my seat assignments were, and that they have no record of my ever securing seat assignments previously, and won't comment on how or what A2S (or any 3rd party for that matter) may have promised, as they didn't make it themselves.
So, it seems this is my fault. Fair enough. Lesson learned, seat assignments arranged through A2S aren't definitive, and I should just book my own flights through the airline directly (AA or otherwise) when cruising. It's just a shame that I participated in a process and assumed it was already taken care of. It wasn't. Not the end of the world to be sure, and I'm glad my family can still sit together on a long flight that's supposed to be a fun trip together (albeit now at an additional cost), but I can't help but feel I found a gap in the reservation process in my opinion. 

Thanks L2C2002. This helps. I do recall the original flight departure/arrival times changed with AA (by <30 min), where all other details remained the same, but I was not aware this prompted a seat assignment reset. Now I do. I'll stay on top of these airline details much more closely and diligently going forward. 

This is true. It's a lesson learned. But it should not 100% deter you from using Air2Sea in the future. Most regulars here know that I have a love/hate relationship with Air2Sea, yet I continue to use them for domestic and international flights. There are benefits to Air2Sea (like assured arrival and the ability to re-price before final payment) that outweigh some of the cons of using them. I am in no way defending them, but when using Air2Sea, you have to do your due diligence as well, and like you mentioned, you do have to keep on top of your Air2Sea bookings for changes.
I don't know how it works with Air2Sea and AA, but when I book Air2Sea with Delta, I can select seats, and I always check with my Delta app to make sure I have those seats. I also make it point to check once a week (at least) on my Air2Sea reservations (using my Delta app) to make sure those seats have not disappeared or moved. This can, and has happened many times. Often it's when Delta changes a schedule or flight number and that can prompt my selected seats to disappear and then I have to re-select.

Our December Oasis of the Seas cruise will be our family's first experience with RC, but our 4th cruise. We booked in August 2023 and took advantage of the Air2Sea reservation system at the same, arranging for roundtrip flights to/from our home city to the departing RC port in Miami.
Here is my issue: At the time of online reservation via the website, I distinctly remember selecting seat assignments for my family, so we could sit together. I kept a folder of all email receipts (paid in full) confirming air travel details, but I never until today (over 3 mos later) thought to check for the one aspect of the flight rez that was missing: those seat assignments. 
So this morning I downloaded the AA app, entered my flight number, and low and behold not only were my seat assignments absent, but the number of available seats on my scheduled flight was significantly diminished as you might expect 3 months later. The AA app prompted me to select seats in order to continue viewing my already paid-for trip/could not proceed in app without it. I ended up selecting upcharge seats, purely for the desire to maintain my family being able to sit together on the outbound flight on the one row still available. For the return flight, there were still two rows at the back of the plane available and no upcharge. It seems these seat assignments are now confirmed, albeit this time properly with AA.
I called A2S to ask what happened to my previously selected seat assignments. They forwarded me my flight rez receipts, again with no seat assignments confirmed, as a response. The agent then also suggested AA may cancel flights/make changes/have a practice of not honoring seat assignments unless paid for explicitly. I was a bit taken aback.
I next called AA, to ask if I could cancel my upcharge seats, and they said no as these are non-refundable. The agent next suggested I should have always confirmed with the airline from day 1 what my seat assignments were, and that they have no record of my ever securing seat assignments previously, and won't comment on how or what A2S (or any 3rd party for that matter) may have promised, as they didn't make it themselves.
So, it seems this is my fault. Fair enough. Lesson learned, seat assignments arranged through A2S aren't definitive, and I should just book my own flights through the airline directly (AA or otherwise) when cruising. It's just a shame that I participated in a process and assumed it was already taken care of. It wasn't. Not the end of the world to be sure, and I'm glad my family can still sit together on a long flight that's supposed to be a fun trip together (albeit now at an additional cost), but I can't help but feel I found a gap in the reservation process in my opinion. 

Really excited about this cruise, there are 6 of us and we have cruised before but it's our first holiday cruise.  We have our matching pajamas for Xmas morning and just really looking forward to taking advantage of the drink package, well not fully but partially. 

We have an extended family of 18. From 60yr old to 1yr old. Going to be fun. Never been out of New England for holidays and first cruise for half the group.
Hoping for same good weather but will be fun either way.

I'll stick with the real stuff

I did this privately and it was amazing!  Highly recommend!  The river tubing is pretty calm.  If your adventurous (and good swimming teen) can climb up to Blue Hole, then the jump from the top is quite a thrill!

Not sure if this one was posted..but this shows how scary it got. The end of the video is pretty surreal. https://www.instagram.com/reel/CzuUvVeuEKq/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Pier. The windows on the port side of the vessel all shattered and sent glass shrapnel flying. There were quite a few people bleeding and bruised from falling due to the impact. The event was caused by a dock line anchor point that had broke loose and was offset pointing out at window level. The crew had zero situational awareness and could have easily prevented this incident by docking on the opposite side which was empty. I noticed the metal and was trying to communicate it the crew who was too busy texting to respond quick enough. This world is filled with incompetent people who are placed in the wrong positions and responsible for more then they can mentally or physically handle. These idiots are lucky nobody was killed. The subject vessel is the same one that sank. 

Thanks all for the informed responses. I work in a hospital system with 13 different unions, and I thought I had a pretty good handle on collective bargaining (in healthcare, anyway), but it seems flight attendants (and this railway act) are nuances I'm not familiar with.
I truly appreciate all the advice. I feel better.

I feel for you and this situation. We were impacted by the SAS strike last summer and I was forced to book new flights a few days before my son was due at a very expensive camp in the UK. It was the height of summer with revenge travel in full force. I paid 2x what I paid for the original airfare.
I certainly wouldn't wait until a day or two before your trip to see what happens, that is whacky advice. If things are not looking good a week out, perhaps consider booking tickets from an airline that will allow you to reschedule if need be. The flight can be pushed out to cover a future trip. I have done this myself with Delta. It was not ideal, but in the long run it worked out.

The airline I work for is over 83% union and airline unions are always threatening to strike when they are in negotiations.  I've been in this business for over 27 years now I've gone through many contract negotiations and have seen many strike threats, strike votes, threats to walk out.  However here in the US airline employees can't simply go on strike the Railroad Labor Act comes into play when the union authorized a strike and there are a plethora of steps that must be taken by law before any airline union employees can go on strike. 
Even though it is the Railroad Labor Act it does apply to airlines and Congress can step in and impose a contract preventing a strike just like they did late last year to the nations railroad employees which prevented them from going on strike.  The issue is the nations airlines are such an intricate part of the US economy a strike would be a huge blow to the economy.  If American and their flight attendants ever got to the point where the nations railroad employees found themselves just last year Congress would for sure step in an impose a contract on them and I can promise you American's flight attendants would never let it get to that point because they wouldn't get half the things they are asking for in a new contract.
What I will say is airline management loves violating contracts they have with their employees and in most cases the union looks the other way especially if their membership doesn't file grievances.  What can happen is the union can tell its membership to fly the contract and not give American an inch of leeway, if that happens that could cause complications with their daily operation.  Airline management really relies on employees not knowing the contract which allows them to get away with a lot of things and most employees don't care as long as they are getting paid.  But if the union enforces the contract to the letter that could cause problems for AA's daily operation but they can't simply go on strike.

This will be our family's first RC cruise, we're all super excited. Praying for good weather and looking forward to meeting good people.

Hello all, new to the forum.
My family is booked for the Oasis of the Seas for a Christmas cruise out of Miami next month. We also booked our flight plans through RC, from California to Miami (direct).
My concern is this: I understand the union of flight attendants for American Airlines has agreed to strike, but the question is when. Some speculate the most leverage they will have will be right before the holidays. This makes me very nervous, as our flight (through RC) is with AA, and the possibility of missing our expensive cruise (which I paid for in full) because of a flight attendant strike is making me crazy.
I called RC and they said their Emergency Travel Team will attempt alternate flight arrangements for us if this happens, if there is anything available with other airlines but not to call them until a day or two before our cruise. Worst case they will fly us to Jamaica so we can join the cruise ship from there, missing the first 2 days of our cruise (not to mention the 1 night in Miami I already reserved and paid for the day before the cruise). This is unacceptable. And I cannot afford to make another set of roundtrip plane tix for my entire family as a plan B. 
And yes, I'm an idiot because I did not opt for insurance, and even though my cruise is about 40 days away I can't add it at this point either. My heart is sunk.