We're not off to a very good start here.

[ShopperfiendTO]

Curiosity question: which cruise line charges the highest deviation fee? We have never cruised with another line so I was just wondering.

 

This question would only apply to cruiselines that include air in their prices, so the survey may be more limited to other cruiselines that have included air promotions and allow deviations (for example, RCCL group lines including Azamara seem to be Choice Air credits of offset the Choice- Air flight booked).

 

For Crystal, it seems when applicable the fee is $100pp: http://www.crystalcruises.com/legal.aspx?TPT=21&TPTB=85

 

New Personal Choice Air Itineraries

Our Air/Sea Concierge Desk will customize an air itinerary to meet your individual needs. You may prefer to arrive in the port city a day earlier or spend additional days after the cruise. Or perhaps you wish to upgrade your flights to Business , Premium Economy or First Class, request a specific carrier, stop in a city en route to the ship, leave or return to a city not included in Crystal’s available air/sea cities or pay for a one-way itinerary. Crystal’s Personal Choice Air Program allows you to create an air itinerary that will complete your perfect vacation. A non-refundable service fee of $100 per person will apply. Any additional air cost due to the custom itinerary is the responsibility of the guest. For new cruise reservations within 90 days of departure, Personal Choice Air requests must be received within three working days of the cruise booking. All requests are subject to flight availability. Please note: date deviations forfeit transfers.

[Travelcat2]

I would guess that 90% of people who are embarking in a country other than the one they live in will fly in the day before embarkation. Arriving the day of embarkation presents several problems from missing the ship entirely to arriving very early in the morning and having to sit outside waiting to get onto the ship. Having to pay a deviation fee to arrive the day before embarkation makes absolutely no sense to me. I can think of no one that would be comfortable flying out of the United States and expecting to land in Asia, South America, Africa or most other places in the world at 10:00 a.m. on the day of embarkation. We have friends that tried to fly from Phoenix to Vancouver, B.C. the day of embarkation and they ended up missing the ship, having to fly at their own expense to the next port of call and paying for 2 nights at a hotel.

[Sopwith]

So, now that I have the "free" air thing out of my system, here's a couple of questions for experienced O cruisers. If I book a cruise say 8 or 10 months in advance and hypothetically accept the included air, when will they tell me what the air arrangements are? If I then decide I don't like what they have proposed, can I opt for a deviation at that point? What is the latest time you can make a deviation request?

 

(As you might have guessed, I am very fussy about air travel arrangements, which comes from spending far too much time with an airplane strapped to my backside.)

 

Thanks...

[LHT28]

So, now that I have the "free" air thing out of my system, here's a couple of questions for experienced O cruisers. If I book a cruise say 8 or 10 months in advance and hypothetically accept the included air, when will they tell me what the air arrangements are? If I then decide I don't like what they have proposed, can I opt for a deviation at that point? What is the latest time you can make a deviation request?

 

Thanks...

 

I am a little confused

Most people doing a deviation will be flying in days before the cruise or staying on after the cruise ..is that your intention?

If so you should book the deviation request about 270 days out .

 

If you are planning on flying in the same day as the cruise departs & flying home the same day the cruise ends ..I do not really see the point of paying the deviation fee YMMV

 

We were still able to book a deviation about 90+ days out when we booked the cruise

I think some have mentioned you get the air schedule at 75 days out if you just take what O gives you ...no deviation

 

The best way to get the correct information is to ask the person you booked the cruise with.

 

Sorry I did not really answer your questions

 

Lyn

[Sopwith]

 

If you are planning on flying in the same day as the cruise departs & flying home the same day the cruise ends ..I do not really see the point of paying the deviation fee

 

 

As I mentioned, I'm fussy. After a few hundred thousand miles on aircraft, I don't do middle seats, I don't do redeyes in Y, and I will go to great lengths to avoid multiple connections (your chances of a misconnect quadruple with each stop). I also pay close attention to connection times, the type of aircraft and the (alleged) seat pitch.

 

In the case at hand, I'm thinking of Europe, so it matters.

 

Mr. Murphy is alive and well, and is in charge of quie a few airlines, it seems.

Edited February 12, 2014 by Sopwith

[LHT28]

As I mentioned, I'm fussy. After a few hundred thousand miles on aircraft, I don't do middle seats, I don't do redeyes in Y, and I will go to great lengths to avoid multiple connections (your chances of a misconnect quadruple with each stop). In the case at hand, I'm thinking of Europe, so it matters.

 

Mr. Murphy is alive and well, and is in charge of quie a few airlines, it seems.

 

You can select your seats ..depends on the airline of course when

Unless you upgrade to Business class or EC ..your ticket will most likely be Q class ;)

 

We usually fly in a few days early for Europe so we either pay the deviation fee & pick the flights that suit us best or opt out & just book our own air

 

It is a personal choice

 

Lyn

[rallydave]

As I mentioned, I'm fussy. After a few hundred thousand miles on aircraft, I don't do middle seats, I don't do redeyes in Y, and I will go to great lengths to avoid multiple connections (your chances of a misconnect quadruple with each stop). In the case at hand, I'm thinking of Europe, so it matters.

 

Mr. Murphy is alive and well, and is in charge of quie a few airlines, it seems.

 

Based on your knowledge of Mr. Murphy and going all the way to Europe, don't believe you have any choice but to deviate and go in early. They won't provide flights until 75 days prior to your cruise or believe if you make final payment and contact O they will provide your flights at that point.

 

That does not leave you sufficient time to deviate at that point and get a good unexpensive flight and while you could at that time get the minimal credit and buy your own ticket, you know all too well how flights go up in price the closer you get too departure. And you really don't want to miss an overnight flight to Europe as then almost impossible to make up the time. O will try to book you as inexpensive as they can and that means possibly multiple connections and??????

 

Pay the extra money now and relax. Also, deviating means that they at least reserve your flights once you accept the deviation so depending on the airline, you could get your seats at that point rather than at the 75 day or later time period.

 

Good luck and have a great time.

[JimandStan]

As I mentioned, I'm fussy. After a few hundred thousand miles on aircraft, I don't do middle seats, I don't do redeyes in Y, and I will go to great lengths to avoid multiple connections (your chances of a misconnect quadruple with each stop). I also pay close attention to connection times, the type of aircraft and the (alleged) seat pitch.

 

In the case at hand, I'm thinking of Europe, so it matters.

 

Mr. Murphy is alive and well, and is in charge of quie a few airlines, it seems.

 

Being fussy, you will want to buy into the Deviation early (as in before all the good seats are already spoken for), so you won't have the opportunity to "wait and see" what the free arrangements would have been before you book.

 

Oceania usually finalizes the Air Arrangements for Non-Deviation Guests just after Final Payment is due on the Cruise (90 days out) with everything settled by the 75 day mark; so you see, it would not do to wait until then if you wanted (or needed) to make other arrangements.

[YoHoHo]

As I mentioned, I'm fussy. After a few hundred thousand miles on aircraft, I don't do middle seats, I don't do redeyes in Y, and I will go to great lengths to avoid multiple connections (your chances of a misconnect quadruple with each stop). I also pay close attention to connection times, the type of aircraft and the (alleged) seat pitch.

 

In the case at hand, I'm thinking of Europe, so it matters.

 

Mr. Murphy is alive and well, and is in charge of quie a few airlines, it seems.

With all that experience and your criteria it seems to me that you should simply take the air credit and book your own flights. Cruise line is just cruise line air with its ensuing limitations. It sounds to me that you will be happier if you book flights directly yourself. You could spend many days going through deviation requests and still not know the classification. If you do want to try a request, it costs nothing to enquire, ask for a specific flights that you have already researched. Bear in mind that if they can get you those specific flights at no additional charge beyond the deviation admin charge of $175 pp, they might book it w/o further consultation.

[potterhill]

Bear in mind that if they can get you those specific flights at no additional charge beyond the deviation admin charge of $175 pp, they might book it w/o further consultation.

 

In our experience, booking deviation on all our cruises except first one when we didn't know about it, they have always sent back for final acceptance.

 

Mo

 

 

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[LHT28]

In our experience, booking deviation on all our cruises except first one when we didn't know about it, they have always sent back for final acceptance.

 

Mo

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

 

Same with ours

You have 48 hrs to accept or decline ..they will not book them without confirmation from you

 

Lyn

[floatplan]

With due Respect, even those who are primarily paying the $350 fee because they want to fly in a day earlier are also enjoying the ability to select their flights and make their own Air schedule.

 

Are you saying that you would be willing to give that up in order to fly in a day early without the Deviation fee?

 

That CERTAINLY would not work for me

 

You don't seem to get that flying in the day of the cruise is something many people will NEVER do and risk missing the boat. Too much stress that day, and days before watching the weather and the inbound. So they must pay for deviation or DIY.

 

If O's Free Air offered the free option of arriving the day before (and of course the cruiser must buy hotel and transfers) that solves THE big worry for most people of missing the boat. It would open up more flights for O to book since they can bring people in much later. It may result in even longer layovers i.e. still leaving at 5am but arriving at 8pm.

 

But for O I suspect there is just too much money to made with the current "Free Air" system. If 2/3 of 1250 pay for deviation that's $150,000 x 30 cruises is $4.5 million per year per boat.

 

I agree with you that even if the "free air" offered the day before option its offers such a possibility of awful flights I would rather choose to fly on Ryanair, check a bag, forget my boarding pass and end up at a remote airport. Some of what people have said here remind me of O'Leary quotes.

 

I'll pay the $350 or DIY to pick my times, connections, seat, and know the schedule well in advance. There may be some destinations where it works ok due to limited flights, so the majority are on the same charter, like Tahiti.

 

In short, I think a lot of people would take a day before flight option ... at least once. Yes, they don't enjoy the benefits of deviation, until their second O cruise.

[Mura]

Just as a personal aside -- and I'm sure we aren't alone.

 

We usually book our own air. If we use O's we take a deviation -- but not for only one day. We almost always want to spend 2-3 days at least in the departing and ending ports. I wouldn't consider it all cost effective to fly in only one day in advance, whereas 2-3 or even more days is another kettle of fish.

 

If you're getting the deviation ONLY to make sure you get there in time for the cruise, it can be worth it. I won't argue that point. But many of us just want the extra time in a new city. (Or even an old city!)

 

Even on our first Renaissance cruise, when they gave us two days in a hotel pre-cruise, we went in two days before that ... then again, that cruise was leaving from Lisbon, one of our favorite cities.

 

Mura