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Flights with Oceania ……Warning!


welshfamily
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Please don’t depend on Oceania to do the right thing even if you pay the deviation fee.
We  lost our flights on Sunday which were carefully chosen by us months ago. This was not Oceania’s fault. Our flights with KLM were cancelled by KLM as Schiphol airport in Amsterdam is not coping with the post covid boom and the Dutch Government has ordered the company to cut the number of passengers. We have been given a flight 4hrs 45mins later with an impossibly short change in Amsterdam to return to Manchester. Travelling with us is our 6 foot  6 inches son. Issue … we are now on a plane that has a seat pitch of 29 inches the Dutch equivalent to Ryan air. We have lost our Economy comfort seats …KLM’s equivalent to premium economy. We simply cannot fit our son in one of these seats and we know it is extremely unlikely that we will make our contraction. 

Our TA has spent hrs trying to get Oceania to change these flights. Oceania have refused. Yesterday she rang me back regularly to discuss the options she had given them and their refusal to move. Not only that she has been told by Oceania we do not have to go though security or passport control in Amsterdam when we transit.
We do !!!!!!!

Oceania do not know the difference between Schengen countries and non-Schengen countries. The UK , USA, Canada ..or indeed any country not in the EU falls under these rules.


She is now looking at booking return flights again with us footing the bill.

 

if anyone knows of any way of getting Oceania to see reason. Please post.

lesson to all.

Don’t accept flights when you have no say when things go wrong.

 

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2 hours ago, welshfamily said:

Please don’t depend on Oceania to do the right thing even if you pay the deviation fee.
We  lost our flights on Sunday which were carefully chosen by us months ago. This was not Oceania’s fault. Our flights with KLM were cancelled by KLM as Schiphol airport in Amsterdam is not coping with the post covid boom and the Dutch Government has ordered the company to cut the number of passengers. We have been given a flight 4hrs 45mins later with an impossibly short change in Amsterdam to return to Manchester. Travelling with us is our 6 foot  6 inches son. Issue … we are now on a plane that has a seat pitch of 29 inches the Dutch equivalent to Ryan air. We have lost our Economy comfort seats …KLM’s equivalent to premium economy. We simply cannot fit our son in one of these seats and we know it is extremely unlikely that we will make our contraction. 

Our TA has spent hrs trying to get Oceania to change these flights. Oceania have refused. Yesterday she rang me back regularly to discuss the options she had given them and their refusal to move. Not only that she has been told by Oceania we do not have to go though security or passport control in Amsterdam when we transit.
We do !!!!!!!

Oceania do not know the difference between Schengen countries and non-Schengen countries. The UK , USA, Canada ..or indeed any country not in the EU falls under these rules.


She is now looking at booking return flights again with us footing the bill.

 

if anyone knows of any way of getting Oceania to see reason. Please post.

lesson to all.

Don’t accept flights when you have no say when things go wrong.

 

Sorry for your issue.

Get bizclass seats and you won’t have “pitch” problems. FWIW: air tix are always best done as DIY. Take the O air credit (even if you have the O Club free deviation perk).

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Totally agree DIY flights. Due to COVID and cancellation issues with several other cruises we broke the rule of a life time and took Oceania’s flights.

Waiting to hear what credit they may give us at this late stage.

For Short hops in Europe Business class is the same with the middle seat empty.Width not length.

Best Choice was Economy comfort with 5inches extra leg room. This is only our 4 Oceania cruise so had to pay deviation 

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I regularly fly KLM between the UK & Schengen countries - you don't go through security again, just passport control.  Last week it was quick & you can still use the e-gates so that side of it is not an issue.  I did Glasgow - Amsterdam - Berlin & return last week, with 45 minutes in Amsterdam on the return and still had time for a quick Heineken pitstop in the KLM Crown Lounge.

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Thank you,

We have 50mins I believe. It’s the last flight to Manchester of the day. Again not something we would have chosen. 
Have you been on a city hopper? What are they like?
At the moment cannot upgrade to business.

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7 minutes ago, welshfamily said:

Thank you,

We have 50mins I believe. It’s the last flight to Manchester of the day. Again not something we would have chosen. 
Have you been on a city hopper? What are they like?
At the moment cannot upgrade to business.

CityHopper are KLM's regional arm & operate new Embraer regional jets - they aren't a low cost & the legroom decent.  Seats are 2 on each side of the aisle.  Same on board service as KLM mainline, but the crew are younger & keener.

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Have you tried dealing with KLM  since they cancelled the flight?

 It seems most airlines are experiencing crew shortages

 

Just got an email from Air Canada  they are cutting flights over the next several months to deal with staff shortages not only with their crew but with airport staff  in many places

 

I would talk to KLM  staff at the gate & explain about your son   maybe they will get him a seat with more legroom  at the least

 

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21 minutes ago, welshfamily said:

Oh thank you.

perhaps we are worrying about nothing. Not good at relinquishing control and having no choice.

 

You probably would have been dealing with the same issue if you booked your own

Travelling right now  & maybe the rest of the year  may still have  flight issues   world wide

JMO

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1 hour ago, LHT28 said:

Have you tried dealing with KLM  since they cancelled the flight?

 It seems most airlines are experiencing crew shortages

 

Just got an email from Air Canada  they are cutting flights over the next several months to deal with staff shortages not only with their crew but with airport staff  in many places

 

I would talk to KLM  staff at the gate & explain about your son   maybe they will get him a seat with more legroom  at the least

 

Air Canada flight cancellations affect domestic and transborder routes for July and August. Toronto and Montreal will see the biggest impact. As well, a few routes will be suspended: Montreal to Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Kelowna; and Toronto – Fort McMurray. No international impact announced so far.

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I have flown KLM Cityhopper on the Embraer 175 jets many times between Amsterdam and Toulouse.   I am 6'2" and find the leg room more than adequate, even comfortable.   I prefer these jets over the 737 for intra-Europe flights.     Not as much headroom on these jets when standing up, son may need to watch his head during boarding, but no issue when sitting down.

 

Joe

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Left AMS today on AA in BC, not that BC matters. From the time we hit luggage check in to making the gate was 3 hours. We got there 4 hours before flight time and boarding was starting within about 15 minutes of our arrival. Flight oversold, people getting bounced from the flight.

 

It’s not only AMS. Friends had their Copenhagen-EWR flight canceled on UA. Took three days to get another flight out.

 

The flight board at AMS was loaded with flights being cancelled.

 

1. All this is out of Oceania’s control. Things are projected to get worse until at least October. Now is probably not a good time to delegate flights to a third party.

 

2. You do realize that Oceania buys bulk rate discount tickets? What priority  do you believe those tickets have when problems arise? 

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2 hours ago, WESTEAST said:

Air Canada flight cancellations affect domestic and transborder routes for July and August. Toronto and Montreal will see the biggest impact. As well, a few routes will be suspended: Montreal to Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Kelowna; and Toronto – Fort McMurray. No international impact announced so far.

Thanks

The email did not  say Domestic & transborder  only 

But forewarned & all that 😉

 

 

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Thank you for your suggestions

All comments true,

However Flights were bought by Oceania but difference paid by us as opposed to their ‘

“offered” flights. Thought this would protect us from their bulk buy flights.

As I stated we have never had flights included before. We always arrange our own flights but due to COVID went with Oceania.

lesson learnt.

If we had booked our own we would be entitled to our money back plus compensation under EU law which we could have put towards new flights of our choice.
Its the lack of control and the take it or leave it attitude of Oceania which is frustrating.  

 

 

 

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From the comments, it appears Oceania is just being stubborn as to air travel right now.

 

We had our flights with O premium economy for over 6 months for flights July 17 and 31st.  When I checked for several months the return flight just would not come up under seat guru.  Finally, last week I went directly on SAS's web site (a direct flight) only to find out the flight never existed for July 31st but did fly Aug 1.

Brought to attention of TA who followed up with O.  O told the TA the flight had just been cancelled (a blatant lie) and took a further day to reschedule on another non direct flight, only it was not premium economy (this trip's deposit was paid for in 2019).  Check on Seat guru showed PE sold out.  TA and I still awaiting O rescheduled flight with PE.

As I am writing this, received email from TA with correct seating on another stop over flight.

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4 minutes ago, GICNJC said:

We had our flights with O premium economy for over 6 months for flights July 17 and 31st.  When I checked for several months the return flight just would not come up under seat guru.  Finally, last week I went directly on SAS's web site (a direct flight) only to find out the flight never existed for July 31st but did fly Aug 1.

 

A direct flight is not nonstop  if that is what you were thinking

Usually it stops someplace but no need to change planes

 

Is there a non stop flight from Stockholm to YYZ?

 We have always had a connection  when coming from ARN

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I’ve taken flights off O cruises when they have been booked with no issues - I am in the UK. Take the flights, leave any transfers, book your own flight and let O know what time your flight arrives if you are getting a transfer.

 

 

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On 6/30/2022 at 12:31 PM, LHT28 said:

Thanks

The email did not  say Domestic & transborder  only 

But forewarned & all that 😉

 

 

I got the same email from Air Canada … and yes, it did not mention domestic and transborder only, but details of their schedule changes are on the AirCan website.  I went there to check if our DEN-YYZ flight at the end of July was impacted.  So far so good. 

 

https://www.aircanada.com/us/en/aco/home/book/travel-news-and-updates/2022/summer-2022-schedule-adjustments.html#/

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We once had a Norwegian fiord cruise booked on Viking and opting for their bargain air fares.  The booked flights were horrible, booking us on a two stop connecting flight to LHR from CLT, instead of a direct flight on AA.  The cruise was cancelled due to Covid and we have not tried Viking since.  Our experience with Oceania flight service has been much better, but these are challenging times to be traveling on airlines for anyone.  The best practice is booking your own flights but flights can still be cancelled leaving you in a bind, that’s the playing field for now.

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The airline industry seems to be in disarray at this moment due to a number of possible causes. We prefer to book our own flights but this is not a perfect guarantee of no difficulties. Hopefully, as time goes on improvements will be seen. 

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For anyone with flights on SAS Airlines their pilots are on strike and they filled for bankruptcy today. I don't know if Oceania is using SAS for flights to northern Europe but if they are, your flight has likely been cancelled.

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We've always done DIY flights, as I have heard some of these stories even before Covid. Prefer to have some control over that.  That said, we did DIY flights for our June Riviera sailing Rome to Barcelona, arriving in Rome 2 days before the cruise (2 nights hotel).  It doesn't help when airlines shorten the connections after you have booked (British Airways chopped 30 minutes layover time off our Phoenix-London segment).  Not to mention every one of those flights the week before departed late (I was monitoring).  Our flight was late, and then there was a plane sitting at our gate, so we held on the tarmac.  We needed every minute to get from terminal 3 to terminal 5 due to shortages in security, etc. No bathroom stops, no food/beverage stops, and fast-paced walk. 

 

Thank goodness our return from Barcelona-London-Phoenix was OK.  However, in these times, it figures that Business Class passengers on our London-Phoenix segment got into a scuffle during the boarding process (ON THE PLANE!), so we ended up spending 4 hours on the tarmac due to sorting the mess out (another story).  At least we were on the homebound leg of our trip.  

 

BOTTOM LINE:  Flying is still an adventure, the airports are crowded, and just about anything can happen!  DIY or book through Oceania, it could still be an adventure! 😛

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2 hours ago, DENIE said:

We've always done DIY flights, as I have heard some of these stories even before Covid. Prefer to have some control over that.  That said, we did DIY flights for our June Riviera sailing Rome to Barcelona, arriving in Rome 2 days before the cruise (2 nights hotel).  It doesn't help when airlines shorten the connections after you have booked (British Airways chopped 30 minutes layover time off our Phoenix-London segment).  Not to mention every one of those flights the week before departed late (I was monitoring). 

LHR  is notorious for late  flights

then sitting waiting for  a gate  or bused from the tarmac

I try to avoid connections there  😉

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