thepla

HI

I'm doing a Bermuda trip on Insigna over Thanksgiving and was told base fare, no Olife, included Wavenet basic internet. All Is need for WIFI calling and maybe some text  messages.

My question is basic WIFI included without Olife?

Thanks

39 minutes ago, vswan said:

I thought I read somewhere that cruises booked with FCC are not eligible for future adjustments if the prices drop. On my last cruise I was able to upgrade OV to a balcony (for no additional dollars) when the overall cruise price dropped — some received 25% OBC if no cabin was available. Does anyone else recall reading this or know if this is the case? I'm considering taking the FCC 125% offer and booking with the 20% discount, but prices are high even with the discount. I am tempted to just book a low level cabin (one that would be okay, but not what I would prefer) and hope prices go down and I can adjust. If that is not an option I will probably just sit tight and wait for prices to go down. Know that I may be able to "bid" on a higher cabin but that only increases the price.

I rebooked and asked that specific question and was told yes. I know they can be changed. I originally book one date and changed to another with no issues. Fare was a little lower and got better price.

Hi just booked pearl and price for BF was 25 more per person than BA. CAS person tried to explain a few things and I went with BF. Looking for experience here pertaining to two. 

I did say I wanted to be ensure not a cabin with solid metal type enclosure in very front of ship on port side. I did get explanation of more private sides to cabin vs. more open between balconies. I went with more private in area on charts seems in middle of ship floor 10.

5 hours ago, rallydave said:

Carol, you can use both Amex and Platinum/Gold/Green to get multiple benefits since Chase only requires any portion of the cruise to be paid with the card.  Cannot get Cruise Privileges without paying 100% with the Amex Card but, Chase Reserve triple points vs. Amex single makes up for that.  Then just make a $750 payment toward your cruise with the chosen Amex cards to get the bonus points.  It's win win!!! 

I do think I get 5x points for cruise now, always 2x. I put deposit on Chase booking directly with NCL transferred to Amex and received cruise privileges. Not part of $225 deal but you can get some Chase credit.

13 minutes ago, tinaincc said:

Does this also apply to the cruise cost as well? If I charge $7000 ???

I got $225 back for an initial deposit of $1500. Terms and conditions would seem paying for cruise qualifies. If you or I cancel they probably would catch it and reverse.

Thanks everyone for information! This is perfect for me as I don't drink but a nice memory for my collection of liquor from all countries I've visited.

7 minutes ago, ORV said:

Meanwhile I used the Amex offer for Celebrity and got $150 credit on a $500 purchase. 

 

I have 3 amex cards, Hilton, Delta, and Everyday, none of them had the Oceania offer. I did have and used the Oceania offer a few months ago. 

Hi. I have platinum and 225 came back within days directly from Oceania. They also gave 280 obc for using card. I did transfer to another agent and 280 will be replaced by standard 300 plus free wine tasting and bottle of wine which is part of amex cruise priledges program. Agent threw in an additional 75 obc. To me this was pretty good as it turns out to be worth 600 and bottom line I'm really looking forward to Oceania which is most important to us. 

Here is a crazy question so bear with me. My 11 year old and I just booked a bermuda cruise and amex promo is free wine tasting and bottle of wine. I don't drink alcohol and other than my son wants to drive me to drink he obviously doesn't drink.

Strangely I collect some bottle of alcohol for every country I've visited, which is around 70. Now my question is I heard Oceania has its own winery, or their parents company. On ship are there any bottles  with their label? Not exactly a country but would be cool for my collection as if possible I'd chose that bottle to keep.

1 hour ago, Paulchili said:

In your example, do you have to have 290000 points to buy the ticket and then get a rebate or can you just have 188000 to buy the ticket - a big difference. Also, are there any $ fees or taxes in addition to the points?

Still, even at 188K it's a LOT of points. On KLM I can have that business class ticket for as low as 63K miles on some dates and similarly on Iberia and BA.

2:35 PM San Francisco (SFO) 9:45 AM  +1  Amsterdam (AMS) Trip duration: 10h10	Lowest fare 63 000 Miles + 210.35 USD*
KL606 2:35 PM       San Francisco, International Airport 9:45 AM +1 Amsterdam, Schiphol Operated by K L M Aircraft 781 Class World Business Class

Just so you know you can split tender with amex points and amex charge. So in our example if you had 100k amex points you could offer 1000 dollars with points and pay 1900. In end you'd have bc ticket and still have 35k rebate and 5 times points on 1900 dollars or 4500 more points. Therefore almost 40k points in bank but out 1900 dollars. Klm happens to be one of airlines like ba and af with high fuel charge fees on awards. In your example over 400 round trip for a "free" no mileage earning ticket 

9 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

63K in business is one way.

Your quote of 188K was round trip?

I apologize for doing a lousy job explaining.

Amex is 1 cent per dollar. They have a special fare reduced from 3300 to 2900 round trip sfo to ams I think I chose some random dates like Feb 22 to match 3, do not remember.

2900 is actually 290k points but their iap program rebates 35 pct on all bc fares, hence net around 188k.

In old days iap program was buy one bc get one free but had to be full j which might be over 7k per ticket. New way is better 

Klm coach is best 21k each way. My guess that's a mix of coach outound and bc inbound. No miles earned plus 200 taxes. I just had one way coach klm ord to Goa and it was 21k off season one way award. I transferred thank you points for ticket so I'm not real familiar with their award chard but 63k round trip would be great in bc 

Aa is 57k one way bc to Europe with 5 taxes or so. Klm and air France which are together have high taxes in their awards.

Amex is all in and a mileage warning ticket. 

I have way over those points on amex 

11 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

As I no longer have my Amex Plat card, can you give me an idea of how many points would a flight from SFO to AMS be in business class?

FWIW, buying the ticket is a few bucks cheaper directly with TAP (lowest fare airline on that route) than buying it with iap.

TIA

I picked random dates. Published air was 3300 they sell for 2900 using 290000 points. You would get a 35 percent reverse miles posted for a net 188000 points or so. It would be like getting a 3300 airfare for 1880 if we use 1 cent per dollar. You also warn miles on airline since you really are buying that bc ticket.

Chase Sapphire is 1.5 cents compared to 1 but theirs nets 220000 points because they don't have a special fare and 35 pct back. I think op for Chase sees a great value for transfer partners. 

I find best use for amex points to buy tickets through iap program which has better fares and I get 35 percent points back.

Iap works for 35 percent back on business class tickets or chosen airline.

Seems to have worked out well for data point.

My 225 credit already came back directly from Oceania. Transferred to a ta and got 300 obc from amex and 75 obc from agency plus free wine tasting and bottle of wine from amex.

Oceania btw gives an immediate 280 obc for amex which gets reversed when applying 300 obc.

32 minutes ago, Carol From California said:

I logged in to my American Express account. I then looked up American Express Offers.  There were 100. For Oceania it states: Spend $750+, get 22,500 Membership Rewards® Points.  It expires 12-31-19. 

 

I use my Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card to book my cruises because you get 3x reward points. You also get travel insurance by paying with the Sapphire card.

I too have both and in my case I have 225 statement credit and 300 obc so used amex for my first Oceania cruise. Ultimate rewards have 1.5 redemption and like you said insurance. My son and I are planning 2 to 3 cruises pet year so I look at all options. I think amex gives 5x membership rewards points now.

Doing an Oceania cruise (Insignia ??) to Bermuda. Price seems great, going with my 11 year old so no real kids stuff except pool and  mini-golf. We've now done two Royal, one NCL and second on next March and one MSC. MSC was great on ship but will never do again due to their customer service.

Oceania prices out close to same as Royal to Bermuda inside room, balcony's are very expensive. Ociania is a tad cheaper than Royal when you consider Amex is $300 OBC for all cabins on Ociania ($100 for inside on Royal but one free soda for my son), $225 statement credit promo now for Amex on Oceania, No taxes or port fees on Ocieania (Almost $600 for Royal). I always buy internet for wifi calling and drink package (standard) which is free has shakes and no alcoholic drinks, Royal is just sodas.

My son and I do everything together so not having a kids club is not a loss to us.

I am looking forward to this cruise, never did a cruise in an inside except quick two night one from Italy to Spain via France on MSC.

I'm only really posting this because I did not see anywhere where Oceania has taxes / port charges in their price.

I did not do Olife thing of air.

1 minute ago, ORV said:

I'm not sure what you mean by the first sentence. You need to charge $1000 to Oceania for the offer. 

Mine is $750 spend for $225 statement credit. I'll check for sure but deposit was $750 per person for $1500. Either way I'm over requirement. Amex cruise privileges also has $300 OBC for any room type when paid with Amex Plat or Centurian.

I have offer. I would assume it's combinable with $300 OBC part of cruise privileges. Booked a cruise and made deposit of over $750 to complete terms.

TO me this was best perk ever. We were, my 11 year old son and I, were going on a 5 day cruise with Royal but airfare was almost 700. I tried Delta miles, AA miles, UA miles even British air and Amex and all were like 100,000 points for 2 of us combine. I happen to see NCL had this promo. We got an Oceanview (may do Balcony as this will be first cruise not in Balcony) for less money, all in, than airfare. NCL must be pre-buying a zillion tickets in advance. Seems we got free air, I chose internet and dining options. They did add 32 dollars to each of us and I was told I can take them off. I checked and uber or taxi is like 20 each way do 40 vs 64 isn't really a big deal. There is also at 15 dollar service charge for each of us for dining which relates to 79 at 20%. Not sure what we get for 79 but who cares. 

On 8/7/2019 at 12:07 PM, Beamafar said:

 

The low post count gave it away (that, plus the "attitude").

22 hours ago, mk-ultra said:

Any time I've priced a cruise through AMEX travel, I've found that I can beat it in total cost by just booking it myself.  It's a great card, and I easily get way more out of it than the high annual fee since I travel quite a bit.

 

One note: if you have a corporate AMEX through work and are thinking about getting a personal platinum card, definitely apply through your corporate account's web login.  AMEX will refund $150 per year of the annual fee each year you have both.  That makes the platinum card a steal if you're able to use the annual benefits for Uber, airline, Saks, Global Entry / TSA Pre, etc.

7 hours ago, mk-ultra said:

Any time I've priced a cruise through AMEX travel, I've found that I can beat it in total cost by just booking it myself.  It's a great card, and I easily get way more out of it than the high annual fee since I travel quite a bit.

 

One note: if you have a corporate AMEX through work and are thinking about getting a personal platinum card, definitely apply through your corporate account's web login.  AMEX will refund $150 per year of the annual fee each year you have both.  That makes the platinum card a steal if you're able to use the annual benefits for Uber, airline, Saks, Global Entry / TSA Pre, etc.

Hi just got to hotel so can read a little better.

I agree when I first did quote via Amex they were clearly higher. I told them what I saw with Illinois credit and than they came back with what I found plus their stuff. I read here, maybe somewhere else, any travel agent can go to their portal and get same Amex benefits. Not sure but I feel in this case I ended up with a $300 value on a nice father / son trip balcony around $800 per person prior to AMex OBC. We did San Juan to ABC Islands and St. Kitts on way home. I would have bought it plus they exchanged their free Champagne SPIFF with another soda package for me. All in all Amex was good value and rep was dang nice. 

Thanks for info. My corporate card is for my own company, really a sole proprietor with irs Corp standing.

I must not be doing something as I admit I'm real new at this. Cruise price was same no matter what I did but amex had a true value of 200 obc soda package and Johnny rockets. I would not have done Johnny rockets. I travel with my son so it saved me 300 

I used my amex Corp for royal 

200 obc. Balcony

Johnny rockets only 2 of us but I think up to 4

Free drink for my son. That too could me more kids 

Amex called and I was allowed to swap champagne for another drink. I think terms and conditions are this is only for a room without adults but I explained I don't drink and amex with royal approved 

Seemed to work well 

I think Johnny rockets and soda, know as destination family, add on is if booked with amex ta. 200 obc is paying with amex. Don't hold me to this part as it was how terns were written for family part.  200 obc is a pay with card benefit if setup by any ta. 

.my random amex agent was great. Called to change cabins explained everything to this newbie 

Btw I believe benefit if amex are good enough to justify annual fee