OLife Air

[dszrew]

I generally prefer to book my own air, in particular to control the aircraft and seating arrangements I get. I'm concerned, however, that air prices are climbing in anticipation of an increased ability to fly. It seems like pricing overall is higher than pre-pandemic. OLife pricing generally has airfare to Europe still around $1000 of the price you pay, which may work out to be a good deal if air prices remain high. 

 

Anyone seeing or suspecting the same thing? I would ignore OLife with air but wonder if I'd be wise to book it. My TA says you can always drop the air prior to final payment...

[PhD-iva]

My TA also recommended we book our 7-day Rome to Venice (2023) cruise with OLife air. We can later drop it if we want to make our own arrangements. The TA is seeing high prices to Europe, but things can always change. OLife is your “safety” air, like the local college you applied to just in case you couldn’t get into the college of your choice.

[marieps]

We chose to do OLife air on our Transpacific...but had to pay a hefty deviation fee because we wanted to fly into SFO a day early (I never fly day of voyage), and we wanted to leave Tahiti 5 days after the cruise departed.  I can't imagine flying to Rome to arrive the morning of departure, although I know people who've taken that risk w/o issue.     If you want to spend anytime pre or post cruise you ought to investigate how much they'll charge to deviate if you go OLife.  JMHO.

[LHT28]

I know this is  a nit pick 😬

but O Life  does not really apply to airfare  ..yes I know the marketing says otherwise

 

 You can take the air with or without the O Life Perks

Everyone get the free internet (1 account per cabin)

 

Check what the air credit will be   then check prices  that you can DIY

If you want to deviate there is an extra fee of $175 USD PP

So do the math & do what works best for you

JMO

 

[patty1955]

I prefer to book my own airfare as well but went with OLife air for our upcoming cruise. We paid $800 each plus $350 deviation fee for our flights. Since the cruise starts in Venice and ends in Barcelona, it's an open jaw flight which are notoriously costly. I was seeing prices of $1600 pp for the pair of flights so OLife saved us some money. I'm keeping an eye on it but it would have to drop considerably for us to change. The deviation fee is non-refundable.

[LHT28]

46 minutes ago, patty1955 said:

I prefer to book my own airfare as well but went with OLife air for our upcoming cruise. We paid $800 each plus $350 deviation fee for our flights.

What was the $800 PP extra for?

 

[Paulchili]

People please - listen to Lyn.

There is no such thing as O Life air. There is O Life and there is air - the two are entirely separate and you can take both, either one or none.

So please do not call it O Life air - it only confuses others.

[patty1955]

1 hour ago, LHT28 said:

What was the $800 PP extra for?

 

The airfare from Seattle to Venice and Barcelona to Seattle

[clo]

2 hours ago, patty1955 said:

I prefer to book my own airfare as well but went with OLife air for our upcoming cruise. We paid $800 each plus $350 deviation fee for our flights. Since the cruise starts in Venice and ends in Barcelona, it's an open jaw flight which are notoriously costly. I was seeing prices of $1600 pp for the pair of flights so OLife saved us some money. I'm keeping an eye on it but it would have to drop considerably for us to change. The deviation fee is non-refundable.

Open jaw isn't necessarily more expensive. You'll want to check the specific flights.

[patty1955]

1 minute ago, clo said:

Open jaw isn't necessarily more expensive. You'll want to check the specific flights.

I'm tracking them on google flights. Currently Seattle to Venice is $1037 and Barcelona to Seattle is $786. 

[arima22]

The air rates can be better if you pick your US to Europe round trip city - like Seattle to Heathrow or Paris.  Then do the within Europe flights in a separate booking.  We have used Delta/Virgin for SEA to LHR, Premium Economy.  Then business class on British Air for LHR to BCN or Rome or Athens.  You can stay overnight at Heathrow hotels without extra charges when booking yourself.

For Premium comparison of price you have to add the Oceania air upgrade fee of $199 PP each way plus the deviation fee, and possibly the additional fee for an airline the they do not have on contract.

[LHT28]

2 hours ago, patty1955 said:

The airfare from Seattle to Venice and Barcelona to Seattle

Did you decline the included air  when you booked ?

otherwise it does not make sense to pay airfare again 🤔

[mauibabes]

 During these uncertain times it can be beneficial to have O doing your flights or DIY, just run the numbers and consider the risk of cruise suspension/ cancellations. We elected to have O book our flights for our Riviera cruise from SFO to Istanbul. Of course we have not had them book them yet because if the unknowns. I still have the option to book a DIY. 
We are sitting here with $2000 in Delta’s coffers and hoping they do not expire from a South America cruise cancellation. Just waiting to decide when and if we should book a flight to Istanbul. Do we book Delta and then have to cancel again IF Oceania elects not to sail Riviera. We may even have to add even more money to the Delta flight to get our Premium Economy Upgrade. The flight looks like we will be flying KLM and not even Delta.   
Right now I am sitting tight and waiting awhile longer to see if our cruise is sailing. Yes we will have an Oceania Air Deviation Fee if we use the Air but we are fortunate because it is Free for us based on our O Club level. 
It is still a “Run the Numbers”  Exercise and do what is best for you. There can be Air Credits available to include in the computation so have fun.
 

[LHT28]

2 hours ago, patty1955 said:

I'm tracking them on google flights. Currently Seattle to Venice is $1037 and Barcelona to Seattle is $786. 

Try the multi city tab  not one ways

https://matrix.itasoftware.com/

 

Did you ask O for a specific routing/flights 

If you already paid the non refundable deviation fee  it makes no sense  to keep looking for  cheaper flights 

JMO

[avalong]

15 minutes ago, mauibabes said:

 During these uncertain times it can be beneficial to have O doing your flights or DIY, just run the numbers and consider the risk of cruise suspension/ cancellations. We elected to have O book our flights for our Riviera cruise from SFO to Istanbul. Of course we have not had them book them yet because if the unknowns. I still have the option to book a DIY. 
We are sitting here with $2000 in Delta’s coffers and hoping they do not expire from a South America cruise cancellation. Just waiting to decide when and if we should book a flight to Istanbul. Do we book Delta and then have to cancel again IF Oceania elects not to sail Riviera. We may even have to add even more money to the Delta flight to get our Premium Economy Upgrade. The flight looks like we will be flying KLM and not even Delta.   
Right now I am sitting tight and waiting awhile longer to see if our cruise is sailing. Yes we will have an Oceania Air Deviation Fee if we use the Air but we are fortunate because it is Free for us based on our O Club level. 
It is still a “Run the Numbers”  Exercise and do what is best for you. There can be Air Credits available to include in the computation so have fun.
 

Forgive me if I'm telling you something you already know. I distinctly remember the Delta rep telling me that to use my future flight credit (obtained for a cancellation due to covid) with one of their partners (KLM in your case), the arrangements HAD to be made over the phone with a Delta representative. Of course, things might have changed since then, but just wanted to alert you. 

[mauibabes]

Thank you Avalong, to be honest I have only searched flights and what Delta/KLM OPTIONS  were available. Once I know we are sailing, I will let Oceania Air Dept come up with their option, then I will make a decision. My real point was to make a decision based on what is best for you and that may not necessarily be based solely on $$. Good flight times over a pond and direct flights w/o hopping across the US and then a pond are best for me, but that is me.

Good luck travel decision makers.

[avalong]

28 minutes ago, mauibabes said:

Thank you Avalong, to be honest I have only searched flights and what Delta/KLM OPTIONS  were available. Once I know we are sailing, I will let Oceania Air Dept come up with their option, then I will make a decision. My real point was to make a decision based on what is best for you and that may not necessarily be based solely on $$. Good flight times over a pond and direct flights w/o hopping across the US and then a pond are best for me, but that is me.

Good luck travel decision makers.

I completely agree with you. After spending a 5 hour layover in Amsterdam to get from LA to Rome, I vowed "never again."  The next time we flew Alitalia non-stop from LA to Rome. More expensive, but SO WORTH IT.

[patty1955]

3 hours ago, LHT28 said:

Try the multi city tab  not one ways

https://matrix.itasoftware.com/

 

Did you ask O for a specific routing/flights 

If you already paid the non refundable deviation fee  it makes no sense  to keep looking for  cheaper flights 

JMO

We've already paid the non refundable fee so I'm not really looking. I get alerts from google when the price rises or fall but it would have to be a huge change for us to even consider changing. 

Thank you for the advice about the multi city tab, I hadn't noticed it before.

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

58 minutes ago, patty1955 said:

We've already paid the non refundable fee so I'm not really looking. I get alerts from google when the price rises or fall but it would have to be a huge change for us to even consider changing. 

Thank you for the advice about the multi city tab, I hadn't noticed it before.

 

That explains your reference to open-jaw flights as 'notoriously costly.'  IME they are no more expensive than round trip (averaging the cost of the two cities involved).  Venice and Barcelona are both big Delta cities, so a multi-city flight search on the Delta website will show you the best range of flights and fare categories.  [I always double-check on the ita website – which also does multi-city searches – and rarely find anything better than Delta, since my home airport is JFK.]

[patty1955]

2 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

That explains your reference to open-jaw flights as 'notoriously costly.'  IME they are no more expensive than round trip (averaging the cost of the two cities involved).  Venice and Barcelona are both big Delta cities, so a multi-city flight search on the Delta website will show you the best range of flights and fare categories.  [I always double-check on the ita website – which also does multi-city searches – and rarely find anything better than Delta, since my home airport is JFK.]

I know a lot of people won't agree but we're not  fans of Delta. The last time we flew on them, the flight was change 3 time (time and routing) and the gate was change several times while we were at the airport. Interestingly enough, our flight from Barcelona to Seattle is on Delta. 

[Host Jazzbeau]

2 minutes ago, patty1955 said:

I know a lot of people won't agree but we're not  fans of Delta. The last time we flew on them, the flight was change 3 time (time and routing) and the gate was change several times while we were at the airport. Interestingly enough, our flight from Barcelona to Seattle is on Delta. 

Everybody has their horror stories about various airlines.  There was period when Delta was changing our flights on a regular basis; most changes were minor but a few were bad – they were very good about waiving the [then mandatory] change fees to rebook.  More recently, Delta has been much more stable.  We are very happy that they are introducing Premium Economy on more and more international flights, but even their Comfort Plus is a very nice product [and cheap enough to allow us to fly in an extra day early and pay for a hotel with the savings – you can always get a better night's sleep in a hotel than even in the best Business class seat!].  Our experience with American and United, while limited, is not nearly as good [we have visited Cuba once – involuntarily, thanks to American – but that's another story!]  As I noted, our hub is also a big Delta hub – and also a big hub for their partners Air France, Alitalia, KLM and Virgin Atlantic which adds to the availability.  One thing I have learned by experience is to make sure there is at least one later flight on the day I book – so that if my flight is cancelled, there is an easy Plan B.

[dszrew]

8 hours ago, Paulchili said:

People please   There is no such thing as O Life air. There is O Life and there is air - the two are entirely separate and you can take both, either one or none.

So please do not call it O Life air - it only confuses others.

Well from Ocenia's website, to be technical, they call it "OLife Choice" (air + choose an amenity) or they say "OLife fare with Airfare". you can also do "OLife" only which is choosing an amenity without air. 

I think you are splitting hairs that few care about. saying "olife air" is certainly faster, although it may be ambiguous if you mean airfare only or airfare with the amenity. 

at least for US websites, it is very easy to find cruise-only pricing aka "no OLife". 

[dszrew]

39 minutes ago, patty1955 said:

I know a lot of people won't agree but we're not  fans of Delta. The last time we flew on them, the flight was change 3 time (time and routing) and the gate was change several times while we were at the airport. Interestingly enough, our flight from Barcelona to Seattle is on Delta. 

my preference for Delta international flights is their seating configuration--often 2-4-2. United and American and others are often 3-3-3 or 3-4-3 which are quite tight. 

 

[dszrew]

5 hours ago, arima22 said:

For Premium comparison of price you have to add the Oceania air upgrade fee of $199 PP each way plus the deviation fee, and possibly the additional fee for an airline the they do not have on contract.

are you saying if you want to use their $199 premium upgrade you also have to pay the deviation fee?

and, is the $199 each way? sounds like a bargain until you add that all up--$575 for a round trip upgrade?

[LHT28]

13 minutes ago, dszrew said:

are you saying if you want to use their $199 premium upgrade you also have to pay the deviation fee?

and, is the $199 each way? sounds like a bargain until you add that all up--$575 for a round trip upgrade?

Yes if they offer Premium Econ  it is each way  usually on  "the over water" part 

They usually use the true premium econ seats  Not sure if they use Delta now or not

maybe someone will comment

 

The Deviation fee is if you want to fly in pre cruise  earlier  and/or stay longer post cruise

We took the offer  from LHR to YYZ on Air Canada for our TA cruise