Oceania on board reservations warning

[JVilleGal]

I agree with you to a point, but the Oceania Ambassador cant be expected to cover every aspect of every issue for every client in every conversation, either.

 

Is personal responsibility no part of ANY equation, any longer?

 

On a separate subject , RonRick, welcome back! :D I guess that the grass was not as green in those other pastures as you had been led to believe.

 

I guess that Oceania will have to "do". ;)

 

 

I don't even know how to respond to this. Exactly what does personal responsibility have to do with being able to change dates of their cruise and not lose their deposit.

 

The Agents on board are professionals.....aren't they? Not their first time at the rodeo?

 

StanandJim you are the recognized experts of all things Oceania on this board, don't you think something somewhere is amiss with this story?

But "personal responsibility " seems to be trying to blame the OP and I'm not at all sure the OP did anything wrong, other than believe the terms spelled out by the Oceania Agent onboard.

 

 

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[ohmark]

The benefits are illusory and when they make promises about being able to roll over to other cruises they then rely on the small print that you only see later.

Please tell us what was in the "small print." Are you saying that this portion of the contract ("small print") was not in the agreement when you signed it onboard or are you saying that you simply didn't bother to read it?

Edited February 4, 2015 by ohmark

[JVilleGal]

Please tell us what was in the "small print." Are you saying that this portion of the contract ("small print") was not in the agreement when you signed it onboard or are you saying that you simply didn't bother to read it?

 

 

Hmmmm ?

 

 

 

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[ELLISV]

1 I don't know who FDR is, but if he is Mr Oceania he should want to contact me because I am a disgruntled customer and my wife and I are (were?) repeat business.

 

2 I booked on-board which means the contract is not governed by Australian law or regulations. Oceania should be dealing with me rather than hiding behind its agent and refusing to engage.

 

3 Forfeiting my deposit is a penalty and hence legally unenforceable (it was not liquidated damages). But it is difficult for me to sue Oceania in the US as I am in Australia.

 

4 All Oceania has to do is contact Cruise Office (its agent in Australia) to get my contact details and engage with me. I actually want to go on the Rome to Venice cruise in September this year - all Oceania has to do is apply my AUD1000 deposit to that cruise.

 

5 Unless and until Oceania engages with me it is entirely apposite for me to alert Australians to be careful with on-board bookings with Oceania.

[ronrick1943]

I agree with you to a point, but the Oceania Ambassador cant be expected to cover every aspect of every issue for every client in every conversation, either.

Is personal responsibility no part of ANY equation, any longer?

On a separate subject , RonRick, welcome back! :D I guess that the grass was not as green in those other pastures as you had been led to believe.

I guess that Oceania will have to "do". ;)

 

Jim&Stan

Personal responsibility yes, but "O" has responsibility to it's customers also. And thanks for the welcome-We did go on a SilverSeas cruise, and it was great. However we never left "O", we just didn't see eye to eye with are TA. We'll be back on soon---my partner had some medical issue's that we had to deal with over the last 8 months. He's getting better, but no travel for awhile until he's much better----but when we do "O" will be in the picture, we love the suites and doing nothing but relaxing.

[Paulchili]

2 I booked on-board which means the contract is not governed by Australian law or regulations. Oceania should be dealing with me rather than hiding behind its agent and refusing to engage.

.

 

You may have booked on Oceania but unless you specifically requested otherwise, your booking was transferred to your TA (who I assume is in Australia); hence you have to deal with (or through) your travel agent and not Oceania directly.

This would also be the case for me as a US citizen (unless I specified to keep the booking with Oceania and not my travel agent).

[Mumofnine]

I have dug out the paperwork we received when booking on board last year for our cruise this September (which as already stated we have amended twice).

It states:

"Please remember that, should your plans change, the deposit and exclusive Onboard Club Savings can be rolled over to another booking at any time before the Final Payment Date".

I would request that your Travel Agent take it up with the Oceania Rep who can liaise with the Cruise Office and the Wholesaler with whom it was originally booked.

When you book on board your booking goes back to the Wholesaler who handled your booking at the time. It is only recently that Australian Travel Agents are able to book direct with the Cruise Office or online.

Good luck and hope for a resolution.

[StanandJim]

I don't even know how to respond to this. Exactly what does personal responsibility have to do with being able to change dates of their cruise and not lose their deposit.

 

The Agents on board are professionals.....aren't they? Not their first time at the rodeo?

 

StanandJim you are the recognized experts of all things Oceania on this board, don't you think something somewhere is amiss with this story?

But "personal responsibility " seems to be trying to blame the OP and I'm not at all sure the OP did anything wrong, other than believe the terms spelled out by the Oceania Agent onboard.

 

 

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I so appreciate your kind words, JVilleGal, and although it seems that your heart is in the right place, let's keep in mind that in order for those Professional Agents on the Ships to do the kind of a job that you are suggesting, they would have had to have told the OP:

 

"Yes Sir, your Deposit Is freely transferable, provided that you don't change cruises three times AND carry this transaction over into a third calendar year."

 

With the greatest respect to all concerned, in my humble opinion, when you start getting into that number of variables, we all have to read our own fine print.....or pay the consequences.

 

Speaking of consequences, Australians who have successfully worked their way around this issue, are now volunteering information and strategies on the other Thread that the OP has started on this topic

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2161368&page=2

 

....but the OP now seems to be avoiding that Thread in favor of posting incorrect statements about jurisdiction, here. ( it is dependent on your Passport and your Mailing Address, sir, where you made the transaction is of no importance).

 

Still, I continue to hope that he will reference Post 28 over there, and get something accomplished. It took us three and a half years to get that far.

Edited February 4, 2015 by StanandJim

[qldtraveller]

Sydney Australia. Oceania in Australia hides behind wholesale travel agents who generally only deal with retail travel agents (except for Fiona Miller of Cruise Office who was lovely and tried valiantly to help) and won't let you talk to them direct to try to get a sensible resolution - all I wanted was to roll-over my 2014 reservation for a 2015 reservation. I named the 2015 cruise and was ready to place a firm reservation. Oceania was intractable!

 

I am Australian. Every time we sail Oceania(7 times) we always book onboard a cruise we are not using( ghost booking). Sometimes we book 2 of these.

 

We pay a deposit for 2 of us in AUD( same for each one and less than if we book in Australia). We always book a ghost trip some 9 - 12 months away so final payment is not needed till 6 - 9 months on. Currently, we are awaiting the cruises for rest of 2016 to be released in March 2015.

We then contact our travel agent and we transfer the ghost booking( it is an actual cruise) to the one we want with no issues or extra monies needed.

We go thru travel agent to wholesaler/ consolidator who then contact Oceania.

 

Someone is misleading you and I Suspect the TA is not doing their job properly. Oceania and consolidator have always worked with this process in how it is described.

Australia is the 3rd largest market for Oceania and they do not go against the offer.

It is true that things like free air, pre-cruise may not be available but local consolidator can assist even though we never use them.

We have dealt with 3 Oceania ambassadors on our numerous cruises and never once have they mislead us.

[JVilleGal]

+ 1 the OP is being mislead by her TA!

[Paulchili]

Obviously I am not the OP but I am glad that you posted your experience qldtraveller.

It confirmed what many of us suspected -i.e. that the problem is with OP's travel agent and not Oceania itself. If the process works for you as an Australian (many times over) then there is no good reason why it should not work for the OP.

Edited February 7, 2015 by Paulchili

[Wol]

I cannot comment on the OP's experience, but it is correct to say that the Oceania handling in Australia is not straightforward.

 

You have to work through a travel agent, who has to phone the Oceania (in Sydney, I believe.) They are not available at weekends and can take a couple of hours to answer the phone anyway.

 

They have to contact Oceania in New Zealand, who then contact Miami (presumably online.) I have to say that NZ is far more responsive than than the Australian office when we have contacted them direct.

 

Quite apart from the cost involved, the whole thing is anachronistic in these days of the internet. I can appreciate that many want to have an agent handle everything for them, but it would be far simpler for those who do not to be able to book directly with Miami online, and much cheaper for Oceania.

[BillPizzaiolo]

Currently on board Marina. Tried to get specialty reservation was told that cannot for tonight as a large group on board booked it for the entire night every seat taken. I guess it pays to be part of a large group.

 

 

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