Another Oceania-specific quirk--Deviation fees

[Bruin Steve]

Okay, so I've figured out there's NO WAY I book Oceania's hotel "deals" (Even though that's the way we have gone with Royal Caribbean and Celebrity in the past. I'm willing to pay a small premium, but Oceania's prices are just too far out of whack)...

 

So, in order to fly into Istanbul two nights early and fly out of Venice two days later, for the first time in our lives, we're asking for deviations...

 

Having never done this before, I rely on my travel agent...

 

She tells me don't worry...I can find out if there's going to be additional charges before committing to it...

 

Obviously, I'm doing this to save money on the hotels, I don't want to end up saving on hotels and wasting it on additional air charges...

 

My TA calls me back and tells me she's spoken with Oceania and, curiously, their policy on deviation requests is different than every other cruise line...

 

With other cruise lines, you ask about a deviation and they tell you what the costs are and you can take it or not...(In fact, with Celebrity, as a Captains Club member, we have no deviation "Fee" at all)...

 

But, with Oceania, the Fee gets tacked onto your costs at the time of the request...unless there are additional charges attached, you may not back out...

 

My TA asked why and was told that Oceania didn't want people to bother them with deviation requests if they weren't "serious"...

 

I find this curious...

 

I'm waiting to know whether or not this makes sense before I go searching for (and perhaps committing to) hotels and other arrangements...

 

I've put $1000 deposit on the cruise...My TA and I are putting in work expecting it all to come together...But Oceania doesn't want to tell me whether I have to pay more for or can get flights unless I pay them a fee RIGHT NOW?

[geta911]

After submitting your deviation request (flight specific), Oceania will advise you of the cost of the deviation. You then have the option of accepting it or declining it. They don't arbitrarily add on a cost without your approval.

[Bruin Steve]

What I was told was that you only have the choice of rejecting it if there is added cost ABOVE the deviation fee.

 

If the cost is limited to the deviation fee, you have no choice. This is the point on which Oceania differs.

[digby]

Why not take the credit from Oceania and just book your own flights? I have never used a cruise line's flights and have always been able to get just what I wanted with no additional money or problems. Also doing it yourself allows you to use FF miles to upgrade to Business Class for those long flights.

[FinelyCruising]

I agree with digby. We declined the cruiseline air, ("free air")took the credit, once we asked what the credit was for the air deletion, and booked our own flights, although for Newark to Miami. For us putting aside FF miles, and that is a whole nother topic/maneuver as I found, we think you save and have the control.

 

Do not know pricing of flights for Europe, but I'd run a check and compare the economics to get a feel.

[john2003]

My recollection is that the last time I considered a deviation with HAL it was more restrictive than Oceania. I have found them fair in my past dealings but there was an incremental airfare so that may have been the difference.

[LHT28]

We paid $150. each extra for our non-stop flights to LHR so it was not too bad....but the transfers were a killer!;)

 

$50.deviation fee

$100. extra fare to go BA

[drwong]

Their contractor used to run deviation price searches for customers without charging you a fee, but now that Oceania staff is doing it in-house, they've eliminated the back-and-forth negotiating that used to go on when trying to find acceptable alternative flight that didn't have outrageous price differentials. My understanding of the new policy is that if you request a deviation, there's an automatic $50 per person assessment. You can choose whether you want a flight itinerary with a differential, or not. Either way, you're forced to choose your flights.

 

Given the fact that Oceania doesn't release the flight schedules for "Free Air" participants until immediately before the trip, there's a chance that you might have booked (as your differential-less deviation) a flight that Oceania would have booked you on anyways, given that there are only so many excursion-class seats on a given flight. So use your deviation request judiciously - make sure you know what flights are available that day so you can request a flight for which you can add FF miles to your account, get a decent meal, and/or a convenient time schedule (using your existing FF miles for upgrades on those tickets are out of the question, given the low seat categories Oceania purchases).

[cruisin'cats]

Richard, thanks for the insight but I spoke to an O customer rep before deciding to book because we usually do book our own air and take the credit or don't take the charge for the air fare BUT I was told by this guy that there was NO CREDIT for the May 17th flights. I don't know why or what made this one a different deal. Neil and I were thinking of looking up flights and finding one that would work better for us--including just driving up to JFK and flying non-stop if possible to Istanbul. But, if there is not going to be any credit given and we'll still have to pay for getting to JFK on our own--as well as for parking there--it doesn't sound worth the effort. I was kind of frightened by some of the postings that mentioned 24+ hour trip arrangements for the people who took the O air package home from a cruise. BTW--the customer rep told me that, from Philadelphia, I'd probably be on a flight that went from PHL to either BWI or JFK anyway.

[PurpleCow]

Keep your fingers crossed, Oceania flew me from Orlando to JFK and then non-stop to Istanbul. All Delta.

[cruisin'cats]

PurpleCow--was that just as they booked it or did you request it? One can only hope that this would be the way it would work for us too. Of course, they'd have to fly us up to JFK so that would be another leg but I'd take the 10 hour non-stop flight over stops in between. (It was 10 hours, right?)

[SeaCCruiser]

Crusin'Cats, I would check again with Oceania about the air credit. We booked last May for the 5/17/06 sailing, and received credit, and friends of ours made reservations in August, and also received the air credit. The "Free Air" offer is still listed on Oceania's site.

[PurpleCow]

PurpleCow--was that just as they booked it or did you request it? One can only hope that this would be the way it would work for us too. Of course' date=' they'd have to fly us up to JFK so that would be another leg but I'd take the 10 hour non-stop flight over stops in between. (It was 10 hours, right?)[/quote']That was just as they booked it. I think it may have been only 9 hours (only?) but I'm not sure. It was just the reverse flying home from Athens. Direct to JFK and then to Orlando. There were a handful of people on the same cruise on the flight from JFK to Istanbul, but easily a couple dozen on the flight from Athens to JFK. It was quite a party! In Istanbul I joined my aunt, who had flown from San Francisco to Dulles to Hamburg to Istanbul and returned from Athens to Amsterdam to San Francisco. She must have had a stop between Amsterdam and SF, but she hasn't mentioned it.

[Shirleya53]

Crusin'Cats, I would check again with Oceania about the air credit. We booked last May for the 5/17/06 sailing, and received credit, and friends of ours made reservations in August, and also received the air credit. The "Free Air" offer is still listed on Oceania's site.

 

 

When we booked for the May 17 sailing on July 31st, we could get about $600 credit from DFW. I am trying to get air deviation now to stay one day longer in Athens.

My TA, an exclusive Oceania rep, keeps trying for me but they say they cannot do air deviation with both AA and British Airways that I requested. She also said free fly is not available anymore.

 

If I try to do my own air, with the increases in fuel charges now, I would be paying $300-500 ea more per ticket. I think I will just take my chances with them. :(

[cruisin'cats]

Thanks everybody, I will call my CA (as opposed to a TA, mine is a cruise only agent but she'd never booked an Oceania cruise in all her years b/c she's got the mass market lines and that's what most of her clients call for--I'm her "experiment"). When we did research on cruises Celebrity was charging almost $1000 pp for airfare and I knew that we were able to beat that price and with the air included, O's cruise was only about $500 more than C's. **Sounds like a math problem, doesn't it? ;-)** But a $600 credit, which is not what I was told when I asked, isn't enough unless you cover it with FF miles. OK, now I've got information and I'll check it out...thanks again. RE: PurpleCow--hey, that's not bad at all; it's just about as good as we could do ourselves and if so, well, then it's not worth worrying about. RE: Bruin Steve: sounds like you keep hitting walls with cooperation. I wish you better luck--I agree about the hotels and have read several people's postings that they did better on their own. That's what Neil and I usually do if we're prebooking, it's all on our own and have never been penalized by a cruise line for it but that's probably b/c we booked our own air.

Helene

[LHT28]

My TA, an exclusive Oceania rep, keeps trying for me but they say they cannot do air deviation with both AA and British Airways that I requested. She also said free fly is not available anymore.

 

Are you trying to book 2 different airlines?

Maybe AA and BA do not code share you could get you TA to book through a consolidator 2 one ways.

 

O is still show free air on their website for that cruise!

[Shirleya53]

Are you trying to book 2 different airlines?

Maybe AA and BA do not code share you could get you TA to book through a consolidator 2 one ways.

 

O is still show free air on their website for that cruise!

 

AA & BA are code share and One World Partners. Going thru the AA site they booked it with BA.

[SeaCCruiser]

Cruisin' Cats wrote > "But a $600. credit, which is not what I was told when I asked, isn't enough unless you cover it with FF miles."

Actually with the $600. credit, plus the additional air tax and deviation fees, that we didn't have to pay to Oceania, was enough for to cover the fare from ORD-IST & ATH-ORD. It also allows us to book the airlines, dates, and specific itinerary we want.

[cruisin'cats]

I was just wondering if anyone else out there who will be sailing with us has been given credit for their air fare despite the 'free' air promotion? I'm getting curious about this and wondering if I was given misinformation when I called the line before booking.

 

Also, is there any reason that Oceania has to charge $29 over the cost for each visa? I've seen that Frank Del Rio reads these posts and if he's out there, can he answer this? There's highway robbery and then there's piracy on the high seas--I can understand a fee for the service of making an advance purchase for a 'guest' but why such a surcharge for such an item that is hardly difficult to obtain?

[drwong]

Also' date=' is there any reason that Oceania has to charge $29 over the cost for each visa? I've seen that Frank Del Rio reads these posts and if he's out there, can he answer this? There's highway robbery and then there's piracy on the high seas--I can understand a fee for the service of making an advance purchase for a 'guest' but why such a surcharge for such an item that is hardly difficult to obtain?[/quote']

 

Probably for the same reason Oceania's price for pre- and post-cruise hotel stays are higher than you could get on your own -- they've found that some customers are willing to pay a premium for the convenience. Same goes for the "private" 4-6 passenger shore excursions Oceania offer - you could get a lower price using any of the guides recommended on these boards, but you'd have to make all the arrangements yourself.

 

I've found that folks on CruiseCritic tend to be well-informed and information-seeking independent travelers, but nevertheless, there are significant number of cruisers who sign up for everything the ship offers, thinking it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. Few of them are aware of CruiseCritic or the OceanaCruiser YahooGroup - despite selling out all 684 berths, it was impossible to round up 20 passengers to qualify for a complimentary on-board party on some cruises! They'd rather let the cruise line bother with all the arrangements ("After all, we're on vacation!"), and who am I to disturb their tranquility?

[cruisin'cats]

I agree that it's a convenience charge. My husband isn't upset about it, he sees it as a business deal and that's the cost for doing business this way. In his book, it's easier to let the cruise line do it than take time away from what he needs to concentrate his efforts on. I'm the one who looks at it differently. (I'm also the one with the ulcers so what does that tell you? :-))

 

I have enjoyed reading the Cruise Critic postings and I do appreciate the information but I've taken cruises where I didn't question the cost of the excursions because I liked the security of knowing that the cruise line was responsible for my safety, my being able to get back onboard, etc. We had friends who took great chances in Russia by hiring a private tour guide in St. Petersburg. In the end they had a great time, a good tour, but almost missed getting back onboard in time. While in the Caribbean recently (last Nov. Celebrity Summit) one of the line's shore excursions ended up getting caught in a mudslide on St. Kitts and was hours late getting back to the ship--the departure was delayed and the cruisers were finally reunited with the ship long after dinner (and to Celebrity's credit, arrangements were made for dinner for these people). If they'd been on a privately arranged tour, they'd either be swimming (still!) to catch up with the ship or they'd have had to get air arrangements to catch up at another port. To date, other than the pre-/post-cruise hotel/tours that I've booked privately, I have never taken the chance on a private tour operator during the cruise (other than getting off and walking around the cities or islands on our own--which was easy to do in some European cities). I am more willing to book with a private guide now thanks to the feedback of the Cruise critic people.

[NYDee]

I just made our flight reservations for the 3/16/05 cruise from Beijing. We are leaving from Rochester, NY which is not a gateway city. I did my own flight research. Decided I wanted United from Rochester to Chicago to Beijing 5 days prior to sailing and United from Hong Kong to Chicago to Rochester the day after debarkation. I gave the dates, airline, flight numbers to my TA. She contacted Oceania, and emailed their response with the exact flights I wanted. The email had the following information, "FEES: There is a $50.00 per person non-refundable/non-commissionable administrative fee for all deviations and $150 per person fare differential total $200 per person."

 

We were happy. The flights would have cost $1700 is we had made them ourselves. So with applying the "free air" we saved $500 pp.

[Boopsie]

I was told by Oceania that I could submit (by fax or email) the airline choices I wanted to them and they would let me know if they could get what I wanted. If I accepted, then I would be charged the deviation charge of $50 pp (plus additional charges if there were any); if they didn't get me the air that I wanted, I could refuse and not pay the deviation fee. There is a substantial credit if you choose not to have them do the air, however.

[NYDee]

The "substantial credit" was $1000 pp. So in our case we saved $700 pp through Oceania.

[Shirleya53]

The "substantial credit" was $1000 pp. So in our case we saved $700 pp through Oceania.

 

My credit was only $600. I guess it depends on where you live.