HAL flight ease

[worldlady]

If air is booked through HAL does the money spent add extra days to your mariner account?

[Haljo1935]

4* don't know that answer as I rarely use FE, so very interested in seeing responses from those who do know.

Great question, thanks for asking.

Safe travels  - enjoy your cruise!

[Gigi1977]

My experience- no it does not.  Only onboard spending and pre purchased excursions, spa, dining etc. count toward mariner bonus. 

[erdufylla]

I don’t have a definitive answer. I know that on my last 7-day cruise (in a verandah), I earned 14 Mariner credits, which, if my calculations are correct, means they gave me bonus credits for $2100 spent “on board.” ($300 spending per extra credit x 7.) Our total onboard spending, including daily gratuity, pre-booked excursions, and some promotional OBC I received, was about $950 ($850 if you exclude the OBC). Nowhere close to the $2100. 
 

We booked the HIA package fare (I don’t have the exact difference in cost vs base fare, but let’s estimate an added $50/person/day, so roughly an extra $700 total), and our FlightEase flights were about $3k total. 
 

If you take all those totals ($4650) and divide them by 2 (because we had two travelers), you get $2325/person in extra spending. That’s the only way I can get close to accounting for that +7 credits. So… not a definitive answer, because I don’t know what HAL would say if you called and asked, but just looking at the numbers from my recent cruise, I’d say yes, FlightEase flights do count toward calculating extra Mariner points.

[Mary229]

Pre and post cruise don’t  count including air, hotels or tours with the minor exception of an “excursion” like city tour with transfers

[cbr663]

8 hours ago, worldlady said:

If air is booked through HAL does the money spent add extra days to your mariner account?

 

No.  I was just checking with the HAL site for the answer:

 

"Onboard Spending Bonus Effective with cruises on or after September 18, 2009, one bonus Cruise Day credit will be granted for each $300 in eligible onboard purchases. This is calculated on the combined folio charges for all guests on the booking, regardless of who signs each charge and who pays the bill. Only the first two guests on the booking receive the limit of one bonus day for each day sailed; 3rd and 4th guests on the same booking do not earn the onboard spending bonus."

 

https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/mariner-society.html

 

Upon reading this I checked our online bill for our recent May cruise and did notice that none of the purchases I made and paid for prior to sailing were noted on the final bill.  This means these items were excluded from the Onboard Spending Bonus.  Something to keep in mind if you are working on obtaining a certain star level as you may want to wait until you board the ship to book most of your cruise spending.

[SusieKIslandGirl]

Did you max out your Onboard Spending Bonus? You can only earn 1 per day no matter how much you spend.

[Mary229]

8 hours ago, cbr663 said:

 

No.  I was just checking with the HAL site for the answer:

 

"Onboard Spending Bonus Effective with cruises on or after September 18, 2009, one bonus Cruise Day credit will be granted for each $300 in eligible onboard purchases. This is calculated on the combined folio charges for all guests on the booking, regardless of who signs each charge and who pays the bill. Only the first two guests on the booking receive the limit of one bonus day for each day sailed; 3rd and 4th guests on the same booking do not earn the onboard spending bonus."

 

https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/mariner-society.html

 

Upon reading this I checked our online bill for our recent May cruise and did notice that none of the purchases I made and paid for prior to sailing were noted on the final bill.  This means these items were excluded from the Onboard Spending Bonus.  Something to keep in mind if you are working on obtaining a certain star level as you may want to wait until you board the ship to book most of your cruise spending.

Things that are purchased prior to the cruise for use during the cruise like internet, beverage packages and  tours do count.  It is the things that will be used prior to actual boarding or after being debarked that don’t count. 

[rodndonna]

Whenever I would read these threads - I wondered why would someone try to pre-count what they might get for Mariner credits.

 

And then on our last cruise when our credits showed up we are now just "ONE" credit short of becoming a 3 start - uugghh!!!!! You think they could have just rounded us up 🙂

[Mary229]

2 minutes ago, rodndonna said:

Whenever I would read these threads - I wondered why would someone try to pre-count what they might get for Mariner credits.

 

And then on our last cruise when our credits showed up we are now just "ONE" credit short of becoming a 3 start - uugghh!!!!! You think they could have just rounded us up 🙂

Welllll, next cruise go to the desk and tell them.  They might honor the one day and grant you that star 😊

[Longstraw]

Actually, I would call the Mariner Society at least a few weeks before the next cruise. I was 3* with a 28 day total days cruise pending (2 14 days b2b) and called to request that they move me up at the end of the first 14 day leg as I was only 2 days short; they bumped me up to 4* immediately. The gal who did so told me that they had a policy that if you were just a few days short (I think it was no more than 3), they would go ahead and move you to the next status level. Now this was years ago pre-Covid but it never hurts to ask. Good luck!

[floridababa]

Has anyone had problems with air reservations?

[0106]

5 hours ago, floridababa said:

 

Has anyone had problems with air reservations?

 

I have not had any problems although sometimes the actual site is glitchy.  If so, I try the next day.  I like FE for one way flights to Europe.  I also like the fact that I don’t have to pay for them until 90 days before the cruise.  I like that I can keep checking flights after I booked to see if prices have decreased.  I have used FE on American and Delta.  I can see the flights and seats I selected from the moment I book on FE on the airline apps

[Haljo1935]

5 hours ago, 0106 said:

I have not had any problems although sometimes the actual site is glitchy.  If so, I try the next day.  I like FE for one way flights to Europe.  I also like the fact that I don’t have to pay for them until 90 days before the cruise.  I like that I can keep checking flights after I booked to see if prices have decreased.  I have used FE on American and Delta.  I can see the flights and seats I selected from the moment I book on FE on the airline apps

I am not able to check for flight changes once I booked flights. They aren't paid for yet, but do show in our booking. When I go into FE to search, my flights (with seat assignments) populate. If I want to search new ones, the only option is to cancel those and do a new search.

How do you search without canceling the current ones?

[0106]

@Haljo1935Here is a screenshot from my iPhone of one of my flexible flight bookings.  If you click on change flights, it does not cancel your booked flights,  it just shows other available flights and their cost.  Then you have the option to change or not change.  

[Haljo1935]

17 minutes ago, 0106 said:

@Haljo1935Here is a screenshot from my iPhone of one of my flexible flight bookings.  If you click on change flights, it does not cancel your booked flights,  it just shows other available flights and their cost.  Then you have the option to change or not change.  

Perfect, thanks. I should have paid closer attention to notice there were both "change" and "cancel" options. I would have been hesitant to click "change" though thinking I would lose my current selection, so I deeply appreciate your response.

The flights we got are considerably less than offered directly through airline at the time, but I'm now seeing prices (for other bookings) leaning the other way and wanted to check.

As usual, CC Community to the rescue!!

[POA1]

2 hours ago, Haljo1935 said:

Perfect, thanks. I should have paid closer attention to notice there were both "change" and "cancel" options. I would have been hesitant to click "change" though thinking I would lose my current selection, so I deeply appreciate your response.

The flights we got are considerably less than offered directly through airline at the time, but I'm now seeing prices (for other bookings) leaning the other way and wanted to check.

As usual, CC Community to the rescue!!

The change button puts you in a sort of preview mode. You can play with flights and nothing changes unless you commit them. Just read the screen carefully and it's pretty straightforward.

[dawnvip]

If I book a flexible FlightEase after the final payment date for the cruise, does the flight get ticketed automatically or can I still change?

[POA1]

29 minutes ago, dawnvip said:

If I book a flexible FlightEase after the final payment date for the cruise, does the flight get ticketed automatically or can I still change?

You'll have to look at the screen, but I think once you get to final payment you are locked in.

[dawnvip]

12 minutes ago, POA1 said:

You'll have to look at the screen, but I think once you get to final payment you are locked in.

That is my concern. We have a cruise in November, which may be impacted by Air Canada Pilot's strike.

Final cruise payment is due in a few weeks, so the "flexibility" isn't really a consideration for this instance.

 

I really want to book the direct flight on Air Canada, and use some points, but am considering booking the same flight through FlightEase (without using points) and having the security of HAL getting us to the boat if the pilots really do go on strike. Air Canada is the only airline offering a direct flight, so other options are considerably longer. Does anyone have experience with FlightEase arranging alternate flights when things go wrong?