Oceania Air Deviation / Custom Air Question

[LNYOhio]

We are booked on a June 18- June 28 2019 Coastal Creations Mediterranean cruise.  There are 6 of us in our family and we have 3 cabins.  When we made the original booking, we asked about business class but decided it was too much money times 6 people.  We chose to pay the $199 fee to go to "premium air economy".  Now my mother-in-law is having second thoughts about the long flight and I was looking at a flight class Delta has called "Premium Select".  On the Delta website, for a flight from Detroit to Nice the difference is about $1000 increase from a regular seat (from $2003 to $2905) - but way less than business class.  I called our travel agent and she checked with Oceania and they told her they don't book Delta "Premium Select" seats.  The travel agent said perhaps we could do an upgrade directly with Delta once the tickets are issued.  I'm not sure if that would work or not.  Oceania told her our included air would be booked on/around April 2nd.  

 

Some of my questions are:

 

• Should we wait and see what is assigned to us on April 2nd and then try to change to something else by paying the $175 air deviation fee?
• If we pay the $175 air deviation fee now, can we tell Oceania the specific flight we want and just pay the difference? 
• Would they tell us that they can't book the "Premium Select" seats even if we pay the $175 and the flight cost differential?
• Would the differential that Oceania would try to charge us be the $1000 or so that I see as the true difference on the Delta site?  Or will they say it is a lot more?
• Is there another airline I should check for a similar type of seat?  (My project for the upcoming weekend!)

 

Thanks!

 

 

[pinotlover]

You need become acquainted with seat terminologies. You have requested an upgrade to Premium Economy. Delta Airlines does not have P.E. seats. P.E. service and seats far surpasses Delta Select by far. Delta’s partner Air France does have P.E. service, you’ll need to check if they have it out of Detroit.

 

The $199 Oceania PE upgrade is only for the over the water sector of your flight. Therefore two scenarios arise. 1. They will put you on AF out of Detroit, if the service exists, to Paris, then coach to Nice. 2. If no PE service exists out of Detroit, they will fly you to another Airport ( US or Canadian) and put you on a flight with PE service to mainland Europe, then coach to Nice.

 

The cost to upgrade an Oceania bulk rate ticket to business class may be as much as buying a BC ticket independently unless you have significant status with Delta.

 

Consult with your TA and have Oceania Air give you pricing options now. There are no charges until you accept any deviation or additional charges. By doing so you can get accurate pricing and only then explore self booking options. 

 

First I would implore you to learn seat terminology and respective services so to understand the options and be able to compare options. True PE is a far cry superior to Delta Premium or any US airlines economy offerings.

[LHT28]

Whew I was tired just reading  your post

 

I would  ask your TA  to check with Oceania  what they will offer if you pay the deviation fee now

Do not request Delta  now  just see what airlines O will offer

I do not know what Delta premium seats are  but maybe check  the legroom  compared  to AF, AC KLM   and see what the difference is

Option 2  take the air credit & book your own seats 

Option 3  just take  the PE Oceania offers

JMO

 

 

[Mura]

I think we would take the credit and book our own air -- there are consolidators out there that do business air for much less than the airlines and we've had good luck with them.  No complaints, anyway.

 

Still, they are not cheap, and with 6 fares the cost does add up, I grant you that.  It can be bad enough when you are only one couple.

 

Are you 6 adults?  If there are children involved, perhaps they could go in coach while you fly "up front".  It does sound like you are all adults in which case that wouldn't work at all!

 

As has been pointed out, PE depends on the airline and from what I have heard (all this is not recently) Delta doesn't have real PE to begin with.  Costs go up when you are leaving from a non-gateway city.  For us, leaving from NYC makes it easy.  Extra stops add cost and time.  And yes, with the "restricted business" that O sometimes offers, it's only business air flying over water.  Again, that works well for US since we're virtually always flying from NY to/from a major foreign city so we rarely have to deal with a flight over land, and if we do it is a short one.  (But only once was it worth it to us to take O's restricted business because even then their fares are huge.)

 

Mura

 

 

[LHT28]

I looked at the Delta Premium Select    they look like PE on other airlines

https://www.delta.com/en_US/traveling-with-us/onboard-experience/delta-premium-economy

 

so I would not worry  about the flights O will provide  for PE  seats

the only  better seating your MIL could do is BUS  with the lay flats seats  but  quite a bit more $$ than PE

[LNYOhio]

Thanks everyone.  I have done some more reading about what Premium Economy consists of and think that as long as we stick with the Premium Economy upgrade that we have already booked it should be sufficient.  So at this point perhaps I will just wait and see what they assign to us in April.  I am supposed to touch base again with our travel agent next week so I will see what else she has found out since we last talked.

 

We are celebrating my oldest son graduating from college - so although they are "kids" they are all boys and all almost 6 ft tall.  They will be 22, almost 20 and 15 at the time of the trip.

[cruiseaholic78]

I think Delta/people are getting confused. They offer Economy Comfort+ which is slightly better than Economy for an additional fee and Premium Select which is more than twice the price of a normal economy. The Premium Select from Delta and Air France offer the same level of service and seating.

I have recently gone into this in great detail for my flights in November,  that said Delta offer either one or the other on their flights not both so you have to check.

All is shown quite clearly below:

https://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/traveling-with-us/onboard-experience.html

Rosalyn

Edited February 22, 2019 by cruiseaholic78
Adding detail

[chuckcarole]

14 hours ago, LHT28 said:

Whew I was tired just reading  your post

 

I would  ask your TA  to check with Oceania  what they will offer if you pay the deviation fee now

Do not request Delta  now  just see what airlines O will offer

I do not know what Delta premium seats are  but maybe check  the legroom  compared  to AF, AC KLM   and see what the difference is

Option 2  take the air credit & book your own seats 

Option 3  just take  the PE Oceania offers

JMO

 

 

We took the $199. up grade on a flight to Germany AF, It was a wonderful surprise to find Business class seats.  I can find seat discriptions on any airline on Seatguru. 

[ORV]

2 hours ago, chuckcarole said:

We took the $199. up grade on a flight to Germany AF, It was a wonderful surprise to find Business class seats.  I can find seat discriptions on any airline on Seatguru. 

What gets tricky is when you've booked on a flight that the configuration is not in service yet. There is generally no info on SeatGuru for these, so you have to go with what the Airline website is showing you. 

 

I believe AA and Delta are both rolling out PE, or already have it. 

[LHT28]

Just now, chuckcarole said:

We took the $199. up grade on a flight to Germany AF, It was a wonderful surprise to find Business class seats. 

also BUS class on some airlines are like first class on others  😉

 

Last summer we booked AC BUS  for Europe they were lay flat seat at the front of the plane 

BUS  clas to the USA  are more like larger seats  what some European carriers call  PE

You need to look at the airline & aircraft  to see what you will be getting on your specific flight

[LHT28]

Just now, ORV said:

 

I believe AA and Delta are both rolling out PE, or already have it. 

 I saw the lay flat seats on the Delta  site  for flights overseas  &  PE  also

 

[chuckcarole]

19 hours ago, LHT28 said:

 I saw the lay flat seats on the Delta  site  for flights overseas  &  PE  also

 

Right LHT28,  We're on a Delta flight to Amsterdam in May, and we're in their  Business class and we have lay flat seats.

[LHT28]

Just now, chuckcarole said:

Right LHT28,  We're on a Delta flight to Amsterdam in May, and we're in their  Business class and we have lay flat seats.

Love the lay flat  seats

we flew AC  last year  & had the best sleep ever on a plane 😉

now I am spoiled

[Paulchili]

45 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Love the lay flat  seats

we flew AC  last year  & had the best sleep ever on a plane 😉

now I am spoiled

Now you see why I work so hard getting those miles 

[chuckcarole]

On 2/23/2019 at 9:29 AM, LHT28 said:

Love the lay flat  seats

we flew AC  last year  & had the best sleep ever on a plane 😉

now I am spoiled

Right, We are too,  unfortunately for our saving account.

[pinotlover]

Delta Premium service is now only available on a select few Delta A350 planes on a limited number of flights. Delta’s plan is to first retrofit those planes before starting to retrofit the B-777 class planes. Currently plan are to have all those planes retrofitted by late 2021.

 

One will currently find very few Delta flights offering that service. More will be available if booking 2020 flights.

Edited February 24, 2019 by pinotlover