Air Reservations Through Oceania

[lulu52]

Does anyone have any comments on using the air reservations made by Oceania for a cruise?

[LHT28]

We always fly in early so use the deviation process

so far so good

[Terryd444]

Our first cruise coming up March 28th. We booked through a TA and used the free Oceania air fare, and are praying we have no glitches. They booked us from DC Dulles to Miami the day of the cruise start. It's an early flight out so we are taking a chance, even though everyone says to arrive day before!

 

Our flights back were ugly...we had a very long layover in Texas...so DH wrote and asked if they could do something different because of my health issues. They changed us to a Reagan airport return with a faster trip...no deviation charge. So we are singing their praises right now!

 

Will update how it went after we return!

 

Terry

[Mura]

We usually do our own air but have used O's air on occasion and it's always worked fine. But we fly out of NYC so don't have to get to the gateway, which makes things easier.

 

We would use their air more if the business upgrades weren't so costly. So far, whenever I've investigated I've discovered that their contracts don't allow us to upgrade using miles. And when biz air through O costs more than buying biz air on my own, then clearly it isn't worth doing.

 

But we've had decent connections.

 

When we have used O's air, we've also asked for a deviation because we do want to spend time in the departure and arrival ports.

 

Mura

[airheadfan]

Used them once (Vancouver-Santiago; Papeete-Vancouver) and they did not send us through Toronto - we would gladly have payed the deviation fee to avoid Toronto anytime but especially in late December. Cannot fault Oceania for their flights - the best they could do at that time and with our originating city. However, I would pay almost anything to never ever have to fly Air Tahiti Nui again, which was one of their carriers out of French Polynesia.

 

My only comparison is with Holland America's flight arrangements. Oceania gets a 10 compared to HAL's -1.

[jgiblin]

Has anyone experience booking economy-plus or business air through the deviation program? I am planning the Riviera's 7/19/2014 Black Sea cruise and would fly from Boston to Istanbul. I would want to arrive a few days before the cruise to enjoy the city. Oceania does seem to offer business class upgrade for some 2014 cruises but not all.

 

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

[Mura]

In the past their usual surcharge for business fares is outrageous. Far more than doing it on your own. Recently they did have good prices on business upgrades on a select number of cruises.

 

Depending on airline and awards program, sometimes you can use miles to upgrade. But I discovered I couldn't do that with Delta because O's contract with Delta only permitted Medallion members to do so.

 

Mura

[Andromeda93]

We bought air through O for an upcoming trip and got the exact flight and carrier we wanted even though it wasn't an airline O typically uses; with no extra fee other than the deviation.

 

Lulu52, you may already know but I only discovered recently that you can split the O air credit - you can use their air for a flight in one direction, and book your own air for the other flight. You receive half the normal air credit on your O invoice when you do this. It came in handy this year when we found a really low one-way flight to our embarkation port, but flying home from a different country was terribly expensive...until we used O's air for the return. Of course, this is all in economy class.

 

Others have suggested figuring out which flights you'd really prefer to take, then have your TA check with O about what fees would be charged to secure those specific flights. No harm in asking!

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Has anyone experience booking economy-plus or business air through the deviation program?

 

Yes. We just booked air with O for our crossing on Riviera in November. We were going to deviate anyways, and got our first choice of flights, MIA-LHR-BCN, in British Airways, in "World Traveller Plus", their Premium Economy. The upgrade price was very reasonable, and we retained half of our air credit since we only needed one way.

[ronrick1943]

We like to keep control, and since we go in early and come back a few days later we book are own. But people tell me "O" is pretty good most of the time.

[hondorner]

Oceania's flights work so well with us that we either take Oceania air (with deviation) or use miles and take the creidt. We have rarely booked and paid for our own flights. We hit the jackpot this year, round trip to San Diego and back to Florida, one way home to florida from Barcelona, round trip to Seattle and back to Florida, and one way to Copenhagen in Business Class, all with miles and around $100 in taxes and fees. But, most other times we use Oceania air. I think it's the best air department in the entire cruise industry.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

And remember it shares its air dept. with Regent. I'm thinking they are the only two lines who consistently offer included air--so they'd better do a good job!

[alexandra cruiser]

remember inc.air comes at a price...we booked own air for $300 roundtrip from Montreal to Orlando and got $600 off from Oceania for "inc.air reduction".So check BOTH ways to see which is better.

We prefer to pick own to handle all the details ourselves after a few mess ups with other cruiselines,etc.So really varies.;)

[ellasabe]

We always handle our own air arrangements, but for the first time in my life I let someone else handle it--Oceania--because their air AND $300 fee equaled the best prices of fares that I could find. Not only that, they could get me on the best routes with the shortest layovers, while on my computer those same flights were showing as not available.