OBC

[di T]

Sorry if this has been asked,We took the onboard credit instead of the drink package.

will we be able to pay our daily service charge with obc? Thanks,Dianne

[LHT28]

Yes

You are just paying upfront  for the Gratuities  anyway  by taking the OBC perk

[Cruise Junky]

There is no point taking OBC. The price increase you pay between cruise only and an OLife perk is exactly the same as the OBC you receive.  Make sure you do the math with taking OLife.  If the OBC is $600, will you get $600 worth of drinks at lunch and dinner out of that?  Sometimes booking cruise only is your best bet.  

[EasyGoingGuy]

I'm not sure I follow you. I think what you're referring to is the "With OLife Choice* package, enjoy 2 for 1 Cruise Fares, Roundtrip Airfare and Airport Transfers* plus choose one: ... ".  As I understand it, this is the airfare included price. I always take 'cruise only' (no airfare) price and always choose the OBC. For non-airfare travelers I believe this (or shore excursions or beverage package depending on your preference) is the best value (coupled with some O 'kickbacks' from the TA).  Anyone agree/disagree?

[Flatbush Flyer]

7 hours ago, EasyGoingGuy said:

I'm not sure I follow you. I think what you're referring to is the "With OLife Choice* package, enjoy 2 for 1 Cruise Fares, Roundtrip Airfare and Airport Transfers* plus choose one: ... ".  As I understand it, this is the airfare included price. I always take 'cruise only' (no airfare) price and always choose the OBC. For non-airfare travelers I believe this (or shore excursions or beverage package depending on your preference) is the best value (coupled with some O 'kickbacks' from the TA).  Anyone agree/disagree?

You’re confusing your terms:

The published “cruise only” fare includes no O Life perk options. The “O Life” fare includes the O Life perk option of your choice plus economy air tix OR a DIY air credit (which you can opt for when you book).

That said, as has been pointed out: choosing the O Life SBC perk is a $ wash with the fare paid. In most cases, the best O Life perk remains the allowable excursions which can have a value that is double the SBC perk. Also, O Life tour picks count toward your cruise’s minimum tour buy requirement for the 25% YWYW discount on any paid ones.

IMO, the booze choice is only worthwhile if you upgrade it to the “prestige package” with mostly unlimited spirits ($20 pp/per day additional charge). But, even that only gets you mediocre wines on the wine-by-the-glass list.

[di T]

Thanks for the reply’s,We book in the Uk and although we have cruised over 40 times with other cruise lines ( most with Celebrity) thought we would give Oceania a try! I booked without the airfare as I always like to  tailor the trip with some stays in the area of the embarkation port. The excursions on the cruise from Barcelona are of no interest to us as we have traveled to all the areas many times.So I thought take the $600 obc and use it for the daily tips. Looking forward to see if Oceania food is as good as reported! 

[LHT28]

8 hours ago, EasyGoingGuy said:

I'm not sure I follow you. I think what you're referring to is the "With OLife Choice* package, enjoy 2 for 1 Cruise Fares, Roundtrip Airfare and Airport Transfers* plus choose one: ... ".  As I understand it, this is the airfare included price. I always take 'cruise only' (no airfare) price and always choose the OBC. For non-airfare travelers I believe this (or shore excursions or beverage package depending on your preference) is the best value (coupled with some O 'kickbacks' from the TA).  Anyone agree/disagree?

If you take the "cruise only"  fare  not OBC or excursion/drinks are in that price   so you must be paying  for those

[NeedToChill]

Seems like a lot of people are used to being the smartest person in the room. 🤔 😉

 

To answer the original question directly, yes, you can use OBC for everything that is charged to your account, which includes gratuities. But I assume you gathered that.

 

As for what's "best," your mileage may vary. In our case, the difference between the cruise only and Olife fare at the time of booking was barely more than the cost of airfare if we were to do it ourselves. Since Olife includes airfare, we took it, and OBC, because we don't drink and we're only interested in 2 or 3 excursions in 23 days.

 

There's a reason it's called Olife *Choice*. 

 

Have a great time aboard!

 

--Julian

[shepherd really]

3 minutes ago, NeedToChill said:

Seems like a lot of people are used to being the smartest person in the room. 🤔 😉

 

To answer the original question directly, yes, you can use OBC for everything that is charged to your account, which includes gratuities. But I assume you gathered that.

 

As for what's "best," your mileage may vary. In our case, the difference between the cruise only and Olife fare at the time of booking was barely more than the cost of airfare if we were to do it ourselves. Since Olife includes airfare, we took it, and OBC, because we don't drink and we're only interested in 2 or 3 excursions in 23 days.

 

There's a reason it's called Olife *Choice*. 

 

Have a great time aboard!

 

--Julian

Olife and airfare are two separate things.  You can choose either one without the other or neither one.  

[LHT28]

10 minutes ago, NeedToChill said:

Seems like a lot of people are used to being the smartest person in the room. 🤔 😉

 

 

No  it is just some of us understand  the O Life  Choice  benefit 

🙄

But if it works  for you   then take the OBC  

 

[NeedToChill]

10 minutes ago, shepherd really said:

Olife and airfare are two separate things.  You can choose either one without the other or neither one.  

 

Interesting. Does that depend on your loyalty level? On the booking page they don't say they can be split:

 

"With OLife Choice*, our limited-time inclusive package, enjoy 2 for 1 Cruise Fares, Roundtrip Airfare and Airport Transfers* plus choose one..."

 

--Julian

[LHT28]

5 minutes ago, NeedToChill said:

 

Interesting. Does that depend on your loyalty level? On the booking page they don't say they can be split:

 

"With OLife Choice*, our limited-time inclusive package, enjoy 2 for 1 Cruise Fares, Roundtrip Airfare and Airport Transfers* plus choose one..."

 

--Julian

No  anyone can book the cruise  with air/olife

Without  air  but with O Life

without OLife   with air

Cruise only  no air or O Life

 

If you can find  a  TA  that deals a lot with Oceania  they can help  with the  booking  process to get the best  deal for you

 

 

[shepherd really]

6 minutes ago, NeedToChill said:

 

Interesting. Does that depend on your loyalty level? On the booking page they don't say they can be split:

 

"With OLife Choice*, our limited-time inclusive package, enjoy 2 for 1 Cruise Fares, Roundtrip Airfare and Airport Transfers* plus choose one..."

 

--Julian

 

2 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

No  anyone can book the cruise  with air/olife

Without  air 

without OLife   with air

Cruise only  no air or O Life

 

If you can find  a  TA  that deals a lot with Oceania  they can help  with the  booking  process to get the best  deal for you

 

 

What she said 

[NeedToChill]

3 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

If you can find  a  TA  that deals a lot with Oceania  they can help  with the  booking  process to get the best  deal for you

 

Very good to know. I'll look into agents before we book again.

--Julian

[LHT28]

8 minutes ago, NeedToChill said:

 

Interesting. Does that depend on your loyalty level? On the booking page they don't say they can be split:

 

"With OLife Choice*, our limited-time inclusive package, enjoy 2 for 1 Cruise Fares, Roundtrip Airfare and Airport Transfers* plus choose one..."

 

--Julian

It may also depend on the Country you  are booking in   what you can see on the website

Since I am just  stating what is offered in North  America  you can check  the O website  for the  region you are in

 

A good idea is to put your Country in your Profile  so you will get  information that is to do with that Country when booking O

JMO

[LHT28]

3 minutes ago, NeedToChill said:

 

Very good to know. I'll look into agents before we book again.

--Julian

Ask your fellow shipmates  for recommendations 😉

 

[Guppy99]

7 hours ago, NeedToChill said:

Seems like a lot of people are used to being the smartest person in the room. 🤔 😉

 

To answer the original question directly, yes, you can use OBC for everything that is charged to your account, which includes gratuities. But I assume you gathered that.

 

As for what's "best," your mileage may vary. In our case, the difference between the cruise only and Olife fare at the time of booking was barely more than the cost of airfare if we were to do it ourselves. Since Olife includes airfare, we took it, and OBC, because we don't drink and we're only interested in 2 or 3 excursions in 23 days.

 

There's a reason it's called Olife *Choice*. 

 

Have a great time aboard!

 

--Julian

Exactly!!!

[Psoque]

The discussion here is another evidence that a simple sticky to explain how Oceania cruises are priced may be helpful to many new and experienced Oceania customers, since Oceania is doing an excellent job of making is really unclear.

[Psoque]

Just to make it simple and clear:  I’m not completely comprehensive by any means, but I think this will answer a lot of questions, both new to and not so new to Oceania:   This illustration is for double occupancy for passengers who need to fly to and fly home from the cruise, either on their own or buying that through Oceania:

 

The total “retail price” of a cruise consists of three components:

A-Cruise Only Fare-this varied depending on itinerary/cabin class/and possibly date of purchase

B-OLife Add-on….this is an OPTIONAL ADD ON, not a free perk.

C-Air Add on…this is an optioal fee to pay Oceania for them to buy you airfare in  a particular manner they offer it.  (more of that later).

 

When you look at Oceania website, they list two different prices per itinerary, for each cabin category:

 

“OLfie with air fare”. is A+B+C

”Cruise only fare” is A

 

B is typically the same amount per person as the per-person dollar amount of O Life OBC….so basically if you decide to pay for OLife with an intention of just gettin OBC, you are permanently converting your liquid cash to cruise-only funny money that has to be used up during the cruise.

 

So by using this information, you can calculate C, the cost of “free airfare.

 

Some travel agencies can quote you online “Cruise with OLife add on only” which is A + B.  You can use that to calculate B and C also.

 

The true cost of airfare is a bit more complicated, since the airfare you get by paying C is arrival on embarkation day only, departure on disembarkation day only, from selected “gateway” airports only, most likely on consolidator fare classes.

 

If you wan’t to have Oceania book you flights outside of these constraints (if they can do it, of course), the extra add ons include, but not limited to:

 

-Flight from/to non-gateway airports….$99 per each way, per person (approx $200 per person for round trip/open jaw).

 

-Arriving/departing date adjustments…$175 per person for the entire itinerary.

 

Oceania also reserves rights to charge you other fees, especially if the desired flights are more expensive, in that case the difference in fare will also be levied to you.

 

So the “true price” of “free airfare” could be as high as C + $198 + $175 per person.

 

That, or the variation thereof that is based on your flight needs, is the price you should beat if you want to book your own flights.  In case of an open-jaw flights for our Barcelona-Istanbul cruise in Nov. 2023, flights out of Indianapolis (non-gateway airport city) and arriving/leaving a few days before and after the cruise, our “true cost” of “free airfare” from Ocenia turns out to be something like’

 

C=$1,100 per person (this of course depends on the itinerary/and date of purchase)

+ $198

+ $175

 

If we want to drive to Chicago, stay a night before and after the flights (which we don’t really want to do), the true cost would be:

$1,100

+cost of parking at ORD minus cost of parking at IND or lack therof

+cost of transport to ORD

+cost of hotels near ORD

 

either way, If we can get flights at around $1,473 per person or less, we break even.

 

I hope this explains the whole mess enough for now.

Edited November 3, 2022 by Psoque