Latest from Oceania on Rio - Amazon Cruise Deviations

[Tropic]

Here is a copy of the information sent my agent by Oceania regarding deviations, upgrades, etc.:

"Below you will find the cost for the outbound air deviation request; however, we are not able to provide air deviations from Manaus (MAO) due to the utilization of charter flight on disembarkation date. We will be using commercial air service into Rio (GIG) like UA, RG, AA and CO.

The roundtrip cost of Restricted Business Class is $2400.00/person from SLC and $2300.00/person from IAD. Please contact the Reservations department to add B/C to the booking.

FEES: There is a $50.00 per person non-refundable/non-commissionable administrative fee for all deviations. There may be fare differential applicable depending on availability. An exact quote will be provided once the guests have selected an exact date of travel.

TRANSFERS: Airport transfers will be removed from the guests' booking for the deviated direction (if the transfers were purchased, they have been removed and refunded. Guests are responsible for their own independent airport transfers on the deviated dates."

The Bus Class fare seems high given only one direction... but it is what it is. Not happy about charter from Manuas, however, does have a nice side to it since the flight from Manuas to Miami will be significantly shorter that going back to Rio and then back from there to Miami. Anyway, just some information and comments on my part. Would be interested in your thoughts on this.

[meow!]

Return business class air fare for many routes can be more expensive than the cruise itself. For those who can afford it, that is great. However, for the rest of us, while we are being "cramped" in economy for ten hours each way, we can tell ourselves that the money saved is good for the next cruise! When we took the free air for our Regatta Mediterranean cruise, our legs got a little numb, and there was slight soreness in the back and the behind, but other than that, it was not that bad. We could get over it when the day was over and we enjoyed the destination.

[stefer]

We are taking the Radisson Mariner from Buenos Aires to Manaus in late January.. I found an amazing business class fare on Travelocity from Mexico City to Buenos Aires (one stop) and then from Manaus non-stop to Miami for a total of $1350 per person on LAB Airlines!!! While not a top name airline, the aircraft on our flights are the newer 767 planes so made me feel more confident... We bought economy to get us to Mexico City and back home from Miami for $380 pp... So the total damage is $1730 pp with all business class travel in South America... Here's a tip I found... Don't start your travel request on the various search engines originating in the US (eg.. Miami, LA, New York), but rather start your travel in Mexico or elsewhere outside US and it seems the fares are much cheaper... Then you can just book your domestic economy flight separately to get you to Mexico like I did.. Note that will knock out Orbitz and other sites that must start search request from airport in US... Also Expedia doesn't return difficult searches well either (eg.. Manuas requests yielded "no flights found")... Travelocity and CheapSeats are the best in my opinion responding to tough itineraries... Another tip -- you need to check Travelocity every couple hours as the fares varied WILDLY (actually unbelieveably wildly) when I checked over a 3 day period... Usually I found during the day -- popular time for searches --the search engine returned outrageous fares (eg.. $5000 pp)... I found the great deal above at 4am... Maybe a coincidence, maybe not?? Good luck and hope this helps...

[stefer]

Just about ready to log-off to call it a night, and I decided to check Travelocity for the itinerary you were interested in... Punched in Feb.12 and found one-way business class rate from Mexico City to Rio De Janeiro of $1300 pp on Avianca Airlines (Boeing 767)... I'm in LA so easy to add 4 hour ecomomy flight for about $300, making total $1600 as opposed to $2400 that Oceania is supposedly asking... (Not sure if the $2400 gets you business class all the way -- often forced to do econmy anyway until get into international space)... Bye!