Air deviations and schedules

[mauibabes]

Ditto ORV, never have paid a changed credit card fee to Oceania. I will often use multiple cards depending on the credits I am collecting at the time. $50, NO THANK YOU.

 

Sometimes when we have had to make the two hour drive from Sacramento to San Francisco, we have found using and dropping a rental car at the major airport is a very cost effective option compared to paying for transfer services. From Santa Barbara it can be a couple hour drive to LAX at the wrong time of day I would guess.  Sometimes we just opt to fly down to LAX, blow some Marriott credits for a nights stay and get a good nights sleep and not add the travel day stresses. I always compare SFO and LAX flight options when considering  Oceania air options. 
 

[ORV]

Just to add a little more info about the baggage. There is no guarantee that this will work, but I have booked a flight from our airport to one of our connecting hubs, DFW, ATL or ORD on the same airline that Oceania assigns us to and with the right gate agent have been able to route the luggage to the final destination. They do see your flights in their system. Having said that I have also got the wrong gate agent and had to go to baggage claim, get luggage and check back in at the gateway airport.  You definitely want to give yourself plenty of cushion for that to happen. I have also done what Mauibabes suggested above on going to the gateway a day early and burning some Marriott or Hilton points for a room. It all depends on the routing and what we're comfortable with. 

[goletans]

2 hours ago, ORV said:

Say what now? When did this start? I've paid using different cards on the same cruise for various reasons over the years. 

 

From your understanding is this an Oceania policy or the Travel Agency you're using? 

That was my reaction. WHAT?!?!?!?!?!  Our TA said this is O's policy. I've never had this issue before with changing cards. I'll do so to get more rewards that change on various cards from time to time. We were told that the only way to get the new card into their system, so that we could request that card be charged for custom air, was to pay $50.

 

Maybe Jancruz can shed some light on this.

[Jancruz]

17 hours ago, goletans said:

That was my reaction. WHAT?!?!?!?!?!  Our TA said this is O's policy. I've never had this issue before with changing cards. I'll do so to get more rewards that change on various cards from time to time. We were told that the only way to get the new card into their system, so that we could request that card be charged for custom air, was to pay $50.

 

Maybe Jancruz can shed some light on this.

Hi all,

This is not and never has been O's policy..I would definitely check and see where your $50 went..if it went to O please let me know and I will research for you..and get it back..

Jancruz1

[goletans]

With fear and trepidation I opened today's email from our TA titled, "I was wrong" "The $50 is not a penalty to use a new credit card, it was a further deposit on the booking to establish the new credit card in the booking prior to the air desk charging the $350." So that is cleared up. Here's a bit of other related and not surprising news from Oceania: "With regards to the tickets please note that due to Covid-19 situation and due to the constant flight cancellations and schedule changes, we issue tickets at 30 days or less before sailing." 

 

 

[Jancruz]

1 hour ago, goletans said:

With fear and trepidation I opened today's email from our TA titled, "I was wrong" "The $50 is not a penalty to use a new credit card, it was a further deposit on the booking to establish the new credit card in the booking prior to the air desk charging the $350." So that is cleared up. Here's a bit of other related and not surprising news from Oceania: "With regards to the tickets please note that due to Covid-19 situation and due to the constant flight cancellations and schedule changes, we issue tickets at 30 days or less before sailing." 

 

 

That may have cleared it up for you..but I never heard of charging $50 to esatblish a CC something rotten in  Denmark!!

I know about the airline tickets..I am flying to Miami for a cruise in January and booked my own tickets a couple of months ago..they have changed 3 times in each direction already and I am sure they will change again..I did them so far ahead because they are for January 2nd and I was concerned about the holiday..but now my times are completely different as are my seats..I can only take AA because they are the only airline that flys non stop LAX to Miami and return..good for Oceania for protecting their pax!!

Jancruz1

 

[nikless]

21 hours ago, goletans said:

Here's a bit of other related and not surprising news from Oceania: "With regards to the tickets please note that due to Covid-19 situation and due to the constant flight cancellations and schedule changes, we issue tickets at 30 days or less before sailing." 

 

 

We are 27 days from flying, 30 days from sailing.  Yesterday the Air department said tickets were issued and we should get an email...the email only showed that arrival time for the first leg had changed and nothing about tickets.  I had to go to the Lufthansa website and look up my booking to find that the tickets were issued, and saw the e-ticket number.  Should we get anything else?

[pinotlover]

If O doesn’t book the flights, you can’t choose your seats. Planes have been flying mostly full. 
 

One of the things I learned from my trip this summer is to not waste money booking a favorable itinerary.  You may well end up with a crappy itinerary after three flight changes, cancellations, and consolidations and fill really stupid that you gave them premium dollars upfront for a better itinerary. For Jancruz; one of those cancellations was a nonstop that was replaced with 2 stops.

[ORV]

2 hours ago, pinotlover said:

If O doesn’t book the flights, you can’t choose your seats. Planes have been flying mostly full. 
 

One of the things I learned from my trip this summer is to not waste money booking a favorable itinerary.  You may well end up with a crappy itinerary after three flight changes, cancellations, and consolidations and fill really stupid that you gave them premium dollars upfront for a better itinerary. For Jancruz; one of those cancellations was a nonstop that was replaced with 2 stops.

Funny you mention that, I took a domestic trip a couple of weeks ago that I had booked back in the spring. I bought the cheap ticket with a less than favorable itinerary. That one wound up being changed, to something even worse, but I had the option to not accept it. I called in, (3 hours on hold with AA, so I guess I paid for it) and I wound up with the itinerary that was most favorable for us at no extra charge. Fortunately they didn't change it at all after that, which really surprised me. Plane was completely full and they were offering $250 + to volunteer to reschedule at the gate. 

Edited October 9, 2021 by ORV

[goletans]

Interestingly, our flight schedule las two legs with United. I have my reservation # and confirmation # and on UA's website found that O has assigned us two seats. I am able to change and upgrade these seats online, paying for the upgraded seats. This puzzles me because O has not ticketed the flights. The United rep I spoke to confirmed that I could change and purchase seats AND that the flights were not "properly" ticketed. I take this to mean that the flights are on hold with O and the ticketing has not been completed. Since it is very possible that there will be schedule changes, it would not be smart for me to change/upgrade seats now as we are still four months out from sailing. Puzzled about why the chance to pay for seats on this unticketed flight is even possible.