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Oceania's current booking cancellation policy vs industry


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We have 3 cruises/36 days sailing in the Med and Europe in June and July.  All three cruises came with all 3 O Life benefits, which was played a major part in our decision to book them.  Would not like to lose them!  We are just playing the waiting game to see what happens.

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Oceania has cancelled sailings to Italy in April and May.  They are offering a 100% credit for sailings up to the end of September of this year which can be paid forward.  These cancellations will be further reviewed as things change in Europe.  Let us just hope that the virus is not a long living one.

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3 hours ago, majo7777 said:

It was offered as an incentive to past Oceania cruisers

How many O cruises do you have?

I have seen the Ultimate package offered on select cruises (mostly for UK clients) but never as a perk for past Oceania cruisers - at least we were never offered this perk in our 30+ O cruises.

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35 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

How many O cruises do you have?

I have seen the Ultimate package offered on select cruises (mostly for UK clients) but never as a perk for past Oceania cruisers - at least we were never offered this perk in our 30+ O cruises.

 

Just one (Barcelona to Rio on Insignia) about 10 years ago. We were interested in the TA on Riviera so I called to get a quote and the rep made this offer. Could not refuse...hope it gets carried over as we probably will postpone.

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5 minutes ago, majo7777 said:

 

Just one (Barcelona to Rio on Insignia) about 10 years ago. We were interested in the TA on Riviera so I called to get a quote and the rep made this offer. Could not refuse...hope it gets carried over as we probably will postpone.

I hope it will but I doubt it. If you have to cancel and re-book chances are that whatever promo is offered with the new cruise will be what you'll get.

It would be a shame to lose that rare offer - and it is quite uncommon for N.A. cruisers. As I said, we have never been on an O cruise that offered that.

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7 hours ago, Paulchili said:

How many O cruises do you have?

I have seen the Ultimate package offered on select cruises (mostly for UK clients) but never as a perk for past Oceania cruisers - at least we were never offered this perk in our 30+ O cruises.

I have only seen it on South American Itineraries   for N.A.  cruisers

 

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2 hours ago, LHT28 said:

I have only seen it on South American Itineraries   for N.A.  cruisers

 

Paul and Lyn, I believe last Fall there was an offer of all 3 Olife benefits on a couple of the South American itineraries and a couple of Trans Atlantic Itineraries.  I can't remember if it was via email or US mailer, but did receive the offer.  Thought it was very unusual, but it was real.  Discussed the possibility of taking advantage of the offer with my wife, but the timing did not work out.

Usually Olife benefits do not transfer- the terms listed for the new cruise apply.

Herb

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14 minutes ago, arima22 said:

Paul and Lyn, I believe last Fall there was an offer of all 3 Olife benefits on a couple of the South American itineraries and a couple of Trans Atlantic Itineraries.  I can't remember if it was via email or US mailer, but did receive the offer.  Thought it was very unusual, but it was real.

Sometimes it is listed under "special offers"  on the O website

 We do not drink much or take ships tours  & have enough OBC to get rid of  so I rarely pay much attention to those offers LOL

But  yes they do happen on occasion

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13 hours ago, majo7777 said:

We were offered all 3 O-life benefits by the Oceania rep (Ultimate package?) instead of the choice of only one. We had 2 days to accept which we did.

 

9 hours ago, Paulchili said:

I hope it will but I doubt it. If you have to cancel and re-book chances are that whatever promo is offered with the new cruise will be what you'll get.

It would be a shame to lose that rare offer - and it is quite uncommon for N.A. cruisers. As I said, we have never been on an O cruise that offered that.

 

3 hours ago, LHT28 said:

I have only seen it on South American Itineraries   for N.A.  cruisers

 

I've had it once and it was on a South American cruise. It was actually added after we had booked. Obviously it wasn't selling well as our price went down $500pp in our category and all 3 perks were added at the same time. 

 

This is the first I've heard that their customer service reps can offer it as an incentive. 

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If Oceania would offer upgrades now or other perks to those of us booked on cruises over the next few months as an incentive not to cancel, that would go a long way towards keeping the cruise and making the final payment. As each person on a sailing cancels, offer their cabin to someone booked in a lower category as an upgrade. That frees up the lesser priced cabin for Oceania to sell again and encourages more people to book cruises in the next few months. It keeps revenue coming in. Unless Oceania starts discounting, I can't see them getting any new bookings to replace all the cancellations that they are getting now. If I didn't already have air tickets for my Marina Baltic cruise in June, I would consider canceling and going with Princess or Celebrity,  lines that are offering great deals now. And there are super prices on airline tickets to Europe at the moment.

Example: a 9 day Baltic on NCL Escape inside is $900 each. Sky Princess 11 night inside is $1947. Holland America 10 night inside is $1326 pp. My 10 day Baltic inside on Marina is $3100 each. I know it is a different cruise experience but if someone was going to book now a Baltic cruise for this summer they likely wouldn't choose Oceania with the big price difference.NCL, Princess, and HAL have the same cancellation policy as O so that's not an incentive.

 

If someone from Oceania is reading this they might want to think out of the box about ways to get through the virus hysteria to keep the money flowing.

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1 hour ago, susiesan said:

If Oceania would offer upgrades now or other perks to those of us booked on cruises over the next few months as an incentive not to cancel, that would go a long way towards keeping the cruise and making the . If I didn't already have air tickets for my Marina Baltic cruise in June, I would consider canceling and going with Princess or Celebrity,  lines that are offering great deals now. And there are super prices on airline tickets to Europe at the moment.

 

Just keep your air  then look for  a cheap cruise  that would still work using the  air you have

Even if you have to do  a short haul flight  to accommodate your existing return air ticket  it would be cheaper than O in the long run

 

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susiesan, I understand exactly where you're coming from. We,however, are booked in an Oceania suite on the 5/1 cruise on Marina. I would be upset if O decided to upgrade everyone without making at least a comparable monetary offer to me. My take away is what is fair? The company has a very difficult balancing problem.

BTW we have talked long and emotionally and are going. The article in today's NYT travel section sealed the deal unless things change dramatically. 

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I don’t want them to discount or offer upgrades (and we are in a B3). I would much rather the ship sails 60% full with passengers who have paid the full price, than 100% full with deal chasers.

The lower the passenger load the less prospect of transmission of illness between passengers. I am still in two minds about sailing in July in the med, but if the ships are sailing at less than full capacity it will give me more confidence to sail.

 

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newlondon: that is what a guarantee booking is, you agree to a price and you get a cabin, could be a suite could be an inside. At the time I booked my cruise O was not offering guarantees but now they are. I could cancel now, rebook as a guarantee and possibly be in a suite like you. I have asked my TA look into doing just that. Maybe you should do that too.

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3 minutes ago, Beagle5 said:

I don’t want them to discount or offer upgrades (and we are in a B3). I would much rather the ship sails 60% full with passengers who have paid the full price, than 100% full with deal chasers.

The lower the passenger load the less prospect of transmission of illness between passengers. I am still in two minds about sailing in July in the med, but if the ships are sailing at less than full capacity it will give me more confidence to sail.

 

But if the ships are sailing at less than full capacity they may not sail at all. If you think you have less chance of getting the virus because there are less people on the ship I don't think you understand how it is transmitted. You would have to be the only person on the ship to have a 100% guarantee that you won't get it, but you could still get it from a crew member.

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38 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Just keep your air  then look for  a cheap cruise  that would still work using the  air you have

Even if you have to do  a short haul flight  to accommodate your existing return air ticket  it would be cheaper than O in the long run

 

Airlines are rearranging schedules and cancelling flights more than usual.  Our return from Heathrow to the US has just been changed to a 3 hour earlier departure.  If we so desired, we could now cancel the business class round trip tickets and get a refund since any schedule change of more than an hour, at least on AA, allows the ticket holder to cancel without penalty.

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5 minutes ago, amusea said:

Airlines are rearranging schedules and cancelling flights more than usual.  Our return from Heathrow to the US has just been changed to a 3 hour earlier departure.  If we so desired, we could now cancel the business class round trip tickets and get a refund since any schedule change of more than an hour, at least on AA, allows the ticket holder to cancel without penalty.

The airlines are revising their change/cancellation policies as we speak. My tickets are on UAL and they now only allow a cancellation if the schedule change is 25 hours or more. AA may follow UA soon.

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35 minutes ago, susiesan said:

newlondon: that is what a guarantee booking is, you agree to a price and you get a cabin, could be a suite could be an inside. At the time I booked my cruise O was not offering guarantees but now they are. I could cancel now, rebook as a guarantee and possibly be in a suite like you. I have asked my TA look into doing just that. Maybe you should do that too.

That would  be  a real dream come true  for some

Book an inside GTY & get  a top suite for the same price  LOL

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You would think that since the government is now saying we should avoid cruise ships as they try to contain the virus the cruise lines would have their own insurance protecting them for something of this nature. In addition they should forget this policy about FCC and just give refunds .... It would be cleaner and done..... How are we going to rebook a vacation in a certain period of time when we don't know what the future will be and what availability there will be too go someplace we would even want to go. IMO

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2 hours ago, eldaradoe said:

You would think that since the government is now saying we should avoid cruise ships as they try to contain the virus the cruise lines would have their own insurance protecting them for something of this nature. In addition they should forget this policy about FCC and just give refunds .... It would be cleaner and done..... How are we going to rebook a vacation in a certain period of time when we don't know what the future will be and what availability there will be too go someplace we would even want to go. IMO

They probably do have business interruption insurance. I have it for my business, in case it burns down or some other catastrophe happened. This type of insurance would pay my employees and keep a certain amount of revenue coming in while I were to get the business back up and running.

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4 hours ago, eldaradoe said:

You would think that since the government is now saying we should avoid cruise ships as they try to contain the virus the cruise lines would have their own insurance protecting them for something of this nature. In addition they should forget this policy about FCC and just give refunds .... It would be cleaner and done..... How are we going to rebook a vacation in a certain period of time when we don't know what the future will be and what availability there will be too go someplace we would even want to go. IMO

+1     Very well said.

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Since I am over 65 and have health problems (lungs among other things), I cancelled an O cruise 5 days before sailing date of March 8. Thursday or Friday comes the new refund policy for cruises beginning March 10  -  BEFORE MY SHIP EVEN CRUISED.  i told them ( my O agent on his voice mail in my 3rd message) I'd be thrilled to get a credit on a future cruise. I'm not wealthy or healthy, was traveling solo for a low fare, obviously did not have the "right" insurance. My emails to my agent are bouncing back "undeliverable".and my calls to him are not being returned. When I see what other lines are doing for their passengers, I am shocked at their decision not to include cruises departing March 7, 8, and 9. Why not? And now, incommunicado. This was to be my 1st O cruise. No response = never again...not that they care.

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Why not try contacting Oceania directly, this is what I did when our cruise to Asia was cancelled and everyone else except us had been informed. We were told our T.A. had been informed however it appeared she was no longer with the company, finally managed to contact someone to get a new T.A.

Good luck 

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On 3/8/2020 at 12:13 PM, ORV said:

 

 

I've had it once and it was on a South American cruise. It was actually added after we had booked. Obviously it wasn't selling well as our price went down $500pp in our category and all 3 perks were added at the same time. 

 

This is the first I've heard that their customer service reps can offer it as an incentive. 

I was just looking at an email in my secondary email acct from the end of Feb and noticed they were offering the Ultimate option on a group of Alaskan cruises coming up on the Regatta

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On 3/8/2020 at 4:39 PM, susiesan said:

newlondon: that is what a guarantee booking is, you agree to a price and you get a cabin, could be a suite could be an inside. At the time I booked my cruise O was not offering guarantees but now they are. I could cancel now, rebook as a guarantee and possibly be in a suite like you. I have asked my TA look into doing just that. Maybe you should do that too.

Any Guarantee I have had on O is you are Guaranteed AT LEAST the cabin you pay for, not less. Who would do that?

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