goletans
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Posts posted by goletans
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It should be played on the ship on Thanksgiving Day.
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I hope the Sirena menu continues to have the VEGGIE grilled vegetable patty, Caribbean mango salsa. We do enjoy Waves ~~~~~
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I am likely in the super tiny minority, but I'm saddened that the old veggie burger has been replaced with the Impossible burger. I find this product line impossible to eat because the offerings are too "meaty."
DH is happy with his favorites still on the menu, though.
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Gorgeous! Did you notice any signs/schedule for the SMART shuttle. It should have been available at the dock? We want to use it in August to get to the cemetery.
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We were on the waitlist for a business upgrade on AA last week. Our names were listed on the monitor near the boarding door.
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We've had offers from UA and AA to upgrade as the departures approach, but we were not given a better price, so did not take the offer. We have requested the wait list for an upgrade, but never cleared the wait list.
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We just finished a similar conundrum for March-April. The flight matrix didn't help much. We finally chose Delta for flights to and from. The prices were the best we found. Business return from Tokyo and Delta/ANA to Beijing with Delta Premium Select after researching the classes on many airlines. Prices for business are silly expensive and have gone up over the last month.
We wish you a successful search; it is lots of work and a few headaches.
Take a look this this forum:
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Thank you, FlyerTalker!
I did more research and we've decided against Hainan. Now the search continues for the outbound flight.
I checked Delta for the multi-city option, but it would be too silly expensive.
I know folks say, "I appreciate you" alot, but sincerely, we appreciate you on this topic and so many others.
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"Hainan has long been known for phantom inventory"
I didn't know that. The rep I spoke to yesterday helped me make the reservation, but I have yet to receive confirmation when the flights we want reappeared. I am quite concerned.
Skytrax has this: “The only 5-Star Airline in China, Hainan Airlines has in recent years developed a product and staff service level to match the best international carriers. Emphasis on delivering the highest service standards is supported by consistent and friendly cabin crew with good language skills, and the Business Class product sets some Best Practice standards for catering and amenities.”
We chose Delta for the outbound flight because the value couldn't be beat. Our overall price although expensive, saves us about $3000 each over Oceania's price.
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After almost 4 hours with phone calls and emails and Hainan reps researching the issue I finally was instructed to add the III to the last name. I saw that China Air instructs to add the suffix to the first name.
It depends on the airline. You are right; I would not chance getting the name wrong because my assumption could be wrong.
Anyway, we finally got the flight all the way to the payment page only to run into another problem. Although the website showed that our payment was being processed, it never was completed. I called our CC and it was not a problem on this end. After 4 hours, the price increased just over $1000 pp AND all flights for the day we wanted were no longer available.
HUGE disappointment because the flights were as good as we found.
I will label this experience a lesson on Chinese airlines.
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Greetings, oh knowledgeable ones.
I found reasonable flights for our return from Tokyo on Delta.
Our flight to Beijing is still not booked. The best we've found is on Hainan - really good reviews and best prices we've found. However, while entering my husband's name, there is no place to note his suffix - III. It is on his passport so we want the passport and reservation to match. I called Hainan and the rep said she would find an answer, but I'm still waiting.
Does anyone have experience with this issue?
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24 minutes ago, basor said:
I have sent out a bag with delicates and written cold wash and low temp dry (large black letters, circled and with stars around!) and they have come back just fine.....t
That's what we do, too, and we have been very happy with the service. You may also get 3-4 vouchers for pressing.
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"Why’d you expect your spouse to get a free cruise before he has enough credits to be Platinum."
I didn't; I had asked, "My husband does not have as many sailings as I do so we will not reach our 20th cruise at the same time. We will be together on my 20th cruise. How does this enter into the free cruise deal?"
There were several responses that indicated otherwise such as
My qualification for the free cruise was not an issue. Didn’t make 20 until later. Don’t know what would if I attempted a second free one.
and similar responses within the link to the prior topic from September 21, 2023. Here's one:
We booked what I thought what was going to be my first "Milestone Cruise" on the Vista for this December. Our Oceania Ambassador on board my recent ATW sold it to me on board, based on my having accumulated 30 cruise credits...15 from my solo 2019 ATW, and 15 from this years, (sharing with my wife). We had used her "Milestone Cruise", (earned prior to our wedding), for the segment from Miami to San Francisco. Since I was included with her on that, they now say that I had already had my first Milestone (even though I had not yet earned it at that time). That was contrary to what the O Club Ambassador promised. As instructed by the Ambassador, prior to the final payment date, I notified Oceania that I wished to take this as my Milestone cruise. A couple of days ago, Oceania told me I had to pay in full, as I already had my milestone cruise. They even claimed this new one would have been my third! My wife had one previous to us meeting, and the one we shared in December was her second.
So you see how this can be confusing.
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Yes, but he is quite a few credits behind me and we're not getting any younger.
It will come down to O's math
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Just in from our elite TA:
Only the person in the cabin who has reached their milestone cruise is entitled to the savings. So what Oceania’s Oceania Club Deck will do is apply your milestone cruise to your portion of the cruise fare only.
I don't see how this is a good deal........
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2 hours ago, ATWCruiser said:
Hope this link helps on your question. It looks like you can take your free cruise together but your husband won't be able to double dip once he reaches his milestone as they have his info on record that a free cruise was already used.
Thank you. I had missed this topic.
I see that as usual with O it depends on who you talk to and when as perks change.
For now I will assume that I will be able to request my free 14-day cruise 180 days before sailing and that my husband may also get the perk. However, he will not get an additional free cruise on his 20th. Any other benefits we may or may not receive is up in the air for now. Oceania will figure out how much we will pay for the sailing. We hope it will be a solid savings.
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Thank you, all.
Flatbush Flyer, I think SOL means spouse out of luck, yes?
We are working with our TA on this who will be sorting out our credits. She was rather busy last week as you can imagine with the new bookings.
Hopefully something will come up with the September releases that is at least 14 days. It's hard to find an itinerary with enough new-to-us ports that merit a cruise. I'd love to see Easter Island as a stop.
So many details.
Maybe someone will join in with first hand experience on this.
Our TA told us to book our 20th, (so we could select the cabin we wanted) and 6 months out from the cruise date, she’d tell O that we wanted to take it as our freebie. Had no issues with them saying OK, and adjust the invoice accordingly.
This. makes sense to us.
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At least I hope these are new questions. I did search for answers before posting.
My husband does not have as many sailings as I do so we will not reach our 20th cruise at the same time. We will be together on my 20th cruise. How does this enter into the free cruise deal?
Also a question on timing. We have several cruises booked into 2026 with my 19th (19 credits) booked. At what point will O expect/allow us to reserve the free cruise - now? or after completing my #19? We always book as soon as itineraries we want are released.
with appreciation for your experience and insights ~
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20 hours ago, happy cruzer said:
You may want to look again at Gardyloo's advice. At first the RTW or Circle tickets look complicated, put a little work and practice yielded great options. I spent a few hours seeing how the RTW ticket works and now I am a believer!
Will do. Work and practice will be good for my aging brain. 🙃
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22 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:
My only further suggestion is that in your research you use BJS as the code for Beijing and TYO for Tokyo.
GREAT advice! Thank you.
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20 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:
So, your two options are:
1) Fly LAX-PEK, land tour to HKG, cruise to TYO, Fly TYO-LAX
2) Fly LAX-HKG, land tour to PEK, Fly PEK-HKG, cruise to TYO, Fly TYO-LAX
I personally doubt that you will be able to find business class tickets PEK-HKG low enough to offset any savings by going to HKG vs PEK for the first leg. But only actual research will answer that question.
Oh, good. I made sense. Yep, research continues. Although not the dates we need, this shows the range of costs - from Chase Travel.
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Absolutely, it makes more sense to end the tour in the city where the cruise starts. We could achieve this with PEK to HKG to start the cruise. What I think I'm finding is that a flight from PEK to HKG at the end of the land tour, adding this to a LAX to HKG at the start may dollar-wise be better than LAX to PEK at the start. Does this make sense? I know what I'm saying, but may not be making this clear.
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WOW! I knew you all would come through with facts and ideas to ponder.
We are looking at Hong Kong and Beijing as starting points for the land tour because we can reverse the order of the cities we want to visit. The cruise is Hong Kong to Tokyo. LAX is easy to start from and end at, and we want to minimize flight time duration.
Although we will accept airline credit we prefer credit back to our form of payment.
“One other item of note: IMO, there is a significant service differential between the mainland Chinese carriers and other Asian airlines. By mainland, I mean Air China (NOT China Airlines, which is much different), China Southern, China Eastern, Hainan, and Shenzhen. OTOH, both China Airlines and EVA, from Taipei, are quite good. Same with JAL, ANA, Korean, Cathay and Singapore. So don't just be focused on price.”
We are happy to look at all airlines that serve our itinerary. These are helpful suggestions.
Are there any airlines you advise against? Do you have favorites?
Yes, we are willing to pay a slightly higher fare with the option to cancel. We will consider South Korea. Thank you for that idea.
We completely understand the cost of refundable travel and have experienced its value when we had to cancel for a situation that insurance did not cover. It also brings peace of mind that is hard to put a price on.
We have considered offers such as "Circle Pacific” but prefer to keep things as simple as possible.
The cruise line is Oceania. While using O flights can be a very good value, I prefer to have control over our flights and lock in said control and choice earlier than O will allow.
We will only accept cheap for short, direct flights from our local airport. We are looking at reasonable connections. Singapore Airlines to Hong Kong is definitely a consideration.
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As we're about a year out from our March cruise, it's time to get serious about flights. We're looking at LAX to either Hong Kong or Beijing to begin a DIY pre cruise tour. At this point refundable, business class air is our preference. Today I found American and United to Beijing at $25,000. This is a firm Nope. Does anyone have suggestions on airlines, one-way tix vrs multi-city flights? It's too early to get good results on the Google Flights matrix. We may consider premium seating but were really spoiled recently by Qatar.
Skagway plan including lunch
in Alaska
Posted
Following up on the shuttle, I assume this is the SMART shuttle. I see that it runs continuously, but we are wondering if there is a separate SMART to the cemetery, and where to catch it. I asked their customer service:
"We could catch the shuttle at the dock or in town.