I read in an earlier thread that you could book O-Life and get a credit for airfare, even if you don't book air through them.

[Stockjock]

Is this correct?  Does it add any further cost to the cruise, other than the cost of O-Life, which I think is $200 per person versus the "cruise only" rate?

Perhaps I misinterpreted what I had read.

 

Edited June 5, 2022 by Stockjock

[AMHuntFerry]

If the cruise only rate is, for example, $2500 per person so $5000 per cabin, and the O-Life SBC is $600 (but don't choose that one unless you want a lecture on economics 😉 )per cabin, than the total fare is $5600 per cabin. Sometimes numbers are just easier  🙂

[LHT28]

The best thing to do is call your TA or Oceania & ask how much the difference  is  if you still want to take  the O life perk but not the air

I would not bother with the O Life perk if you are going to take the OBC  as your perk  but if you will use the ship excursions  then it may be worthwhile

JMO

 

[Cruzin Terri]

To each his own.  The OBC works very well for us.  We rarely do ship excursions, but occasionally do.  We use it for drinks, corkage fees, and spa treatments and gratuities. it works well for us.,  We do not yet have 10 cruises so we don’t always get free gratuities from our TA.

it really depends on how you use it. If you are just going to go shopping in the boutique at the end of the cruise to use it up, than it is not worth it.

Terri

Edited June 5, 2022 by Cruzin Terri

[LNielsen]

Yes, you are correct. No further added cost.  

Edited June 5, 2022 by LNielsen

[LHT28]

22 minutes ago, Cruzin Terri said:

To each his own.  The OBC works very well for us.  We rarely do ship excursions, but occasionally do.  We use it for drinks, corkage fees, and spa treatments and gratuities. it works well for us.,  We do not yet have 10 cruises so we don’t always get free gratuities from our TA.

it really depends on how you use it. If you are just going to go shopping in the boutique at the end of the cruise to use it up, than it is not worth it.

Terri

If you want to pay the OBC  ahead of time so you have a credit  onboard  it can work  for those that want to minimize the final balance

 

For us  we just pay any expenses at the end of the cruise  via CC

either way you slice it

It is your money  you should  spend it the way that works best for you

[Flatbush Flyer]

OP: search here on CC for my (and others’) multiple comprehensive posts on O Life strategy.

Do a mock booking:

 

The difference of “cruise only” and “O Life” fares equals the value of air tix and SBC in the “O Life” price vs their elimination in the “Cruise Only” price.
 

Note (just below the title of the cruise)  how much SBC comes with that cruise. (Note as well that the SBC equals the “base” value of the tours option at $100 per tour).

 Choose a cabin category and note the O Life fare. Select your cabin level and at the top of the next, you can select Yes or No for “need air?” 
Select “No” air and note the difference in price for your cabin on the prior page. That difference is the value of the “air credit.”

Then, if you want to better understand O Life, subtract the O Life SBC amount listed on the first page and you’ll see that the net cost left equals the “cruise only” fare.

As to which O Life option to choose: it’s a personal choice. But note that the excursions allowed can be valued at up to $199 for each one of your allotted number of tours (effectively double the SBC option)

 

FWIW: We always take the air credit and DIY. Also: NEVER use O bizclass (search for my posts here to understand why). 

[Stockjock]

2 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Here's something I don't fully understand.

On the 7-night cruise I'm considering, O-Life costs an extra $400 over the base fare.

But, for the most part, it seems that the perks offered are worth about $400.  The exception might be the drink package, which is worth a touch over that.

So what's the major advantage of O-Life?

[Flatbush Flyer]

5 hours ago, Stockjock said:

8 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Here's something I don't fully understand.

On the 7-night cruise I'm considering, O-Life costs an extra $400 over the base fare.

But, for the most part, it seems that the perks offered are worth about $400.  The exception might be the drink package, which is worth a touch over that.

So what's the major advantage of O-Life?

I just explained it to you in the post above.

Again: the difference from”cruise only” to “o life” is the value of the air fare and the o life SBC. It’s a wash. 
But if you take O Life, you can select the excursions instead of SBC. So, if the deal is 4 excursions, they’re the same value as $400 SBC. But, you can pick 4 excursions valued at up to $199 each - effectively doubling the perk. You can also get more value with the booze package - if you drink enough. It’s only the SBC option that is a wash.

And, as aforementioned, if you choose O Life to get the better deal on the excursions or booze, you can say no to the air tix and get the air credit instead.

Edited June 5, 2022 by Flatbush Flyer

[edgee]

2 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

I just explained it to you in the post above.

Again: the difference from”cruise only” to “o life” is the value of the air fare and the o life SBC. It’s a wash. 
But if you take O Life, you can select the excursions instead of SBC. So, if the deal is 4 excursions, they’re the same value as $400 SBC. But, you can pick 4 excursions valued at up to $199 each - effectively doubling the perk. You can also get more value with the booze package - if you drink enough. It’s only the SBC option that is a wash.

And, as aforementioned, if you choose O Life to get the better deal on the excursions or booze, you can say no to the air tix and get the air credit instead.

Minor additional factor: In situations where TAs rebate a portion of their commission, using O life for on board credit is slightly better than a "wash."  With my TA a $600 O Life purchase increases my rebate by $50 to $60.

[Stockjock]

4 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

I just explained it to you in the post above.

Again: the difference from”cruise only” to “o life” is the value of the air fare and the o life SBC. It’s a wash. 
But if you take O Life, you can select the excursions instead of SBC. So, if the deal is 4 excursions, they’re the same value as $400 SBC. But, you can pick 4 excursions valued at up to $199 each - effectively doubling the perk. You can also get more value with the booze package - if you drink enough. It’s only the SBC option that is a wash.

And, as aforementioned, if you choose O Life to get the better deal on the excursions or booze, you can say no to the air tix and get the air credit instead.

I think this is where I'm getting confused in part.  Because it seems that I can select O-Life and then choose airfare or not.  If I choose airfare, it's about $1,000 more, plus or minus ($500 per person).

So...

I can choose O-Life (extra $400 cost) and the air (extra $1,000 cost) for $1,400 "extra" to get those perks.  Then, I can fly on my own, if I can get the tickets for less than $1,000 for two and instead get the $1,000 in OBC, in addition to whatever I chose as the base O-Life benefit?

Or...

I can strip out all of those things and go with a base fare that is $1,400 cheaper, but doesn't include air or any perks.

I might be missing something.  This is a domestic sailing, fwiw, so I'd be flying SAN to MIA.

Edited June 5, 2022 by Stockjock

[Flatbush Flyer]

4 minutes ago, Stockjock said:

I think this is where I'm getting confused in part.  Because it seems that I can select O-Life and then choose airfare or not.  If I choose airfare, it's about $1,000 more, plus or minus ($500 per person).

So...

I can choose O-Life (extra $400 cost) and the air (extra $1,000 cost) for $1,400 "extra" to get those perks.  Then, I can fly on my own, if I can get the tickets for less than $1,000 for two and instead get the $1,000 in OBC, in addition to whatever I chose as the base O-Life benefit?

Or...

I can strip out all of those things and go with a base fare that is $1,400 cheaper, but doesn't include air or any perks.

I might be missing something.  This is a domestic sailing, fwiw, so I'd be flying SAN to MIA.

You don’t get OBC if you say no to airfare with O Life. The “credit” is a reduced price. Do the mock booking each way.

[Stockjock]

7 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

You don’t get OBC if you say no to airfare with O Life. The “credit” is a reduced price. Do the mock booking each way.

Okay, I think I've got it.

One of the YouTube cruise fellows acted as if O-Life was an amazing deal.  But it seems that unless I'm missing something, it's a wash, or close to one, under most circumstances.

I have an Amex Platinum, which I believe gives me $300 OBC plus a bottle of wine plus a wine tasting event.  And if I read it right, I can bring on a lot of wine (7 bottles?).  So I'm thinking I'd be better off stripping away everything to the base fare, buying cheap flights to MIA, bringing on my own wine, and using American Express OBC to fund some of the onboard expenses.

 

Edited June 5, 2022 by Stockjock

[1985rz1]

1 hour ago, Stockjock said:

Okay, I think I've got it.

One of the YouTube cruise fellows acted as if O-Life was an amazing deal.  But it seems that unless I'm missing something, it's a wash, or close to one, under most circumstances.

I have an Amex Platinum, which I believe gives me $300 OBC plus a bottle of wine plus a wine tasting event.  And if I read it right, I can bring on a lot of wine (7 bottles?).  So I'm thinking I'd be better off stripping away everything to the base fare, buying cheap flights to MIA, bringing on my own wine, and using American Express OBC to fund some of the onboard expenses.

 

For us, the SBC is a wash.  You pay $X to O have $X of non-refundable SBC.

 

The beverage package does not work for us.  Our booze expenses are less than the cost of O-Life. We do the calculation for comparison.  Others may have a different experience, depending on how much they drink.

 

If you take ship tours, the excursion selection can make sense if you choose your ship tours wisely.  You are effectively paying $100 pp per tour.  However, you may choose any of the standard tours tours (i.e. no OS or OE, or any other of the many letter designations) up to about $199 pp.  So in this way you do get a financial benefit.

 

As FF said, if you decline O's air, it's a price reduction.  You do not get SBC for the difference.

Edited June 5, 2022 by 1985rz1

[Hawaiidan]

15 hours ago, AMHuntFerry said:

If the cruise only rate is, for example, $2500 per person so $5000 per cabin, and the O-Life SBC is $600 (but don't choose that one unless you want a lecture on economics 😉 )per cabin, than the total fare is $5600 per cabin. Sometimes numbers are just easier  🙂

Yes the numbers speak..... That $600.....   thats your $600....Aint no pot of gold that you get by booking a more expensive option......

[Hawaiidan]

1 hour ago, Stockjock said:

Okay, I think I've got it.

One of the YouTube cruise fellows acted as if O-Life was an amazing deal.  But it seems that unless I'm missing something, it's a wash, or close to one, under most circumstances.

I have an Amex Platinum, which I believe gives me $300 OBC plus a bottle of wine plus a wine tasting event.  And if I read it right, I can bring on a lot of wine (7 bottles?).  So I'm thinking I'd be better off stripping away everything to the base fare, buying cheap flights to MIA, bringing on my own wine, and using American Express OBC to fund some of the onboard expenses.

 

Correction..... you are not limited to 7 bottles of wine...... your are permitted to bring as much  wine, beer, liquor as you can carry.... not only at boarding  but in every port too!     Just respect the rule, to only drink it in your cabin    ( I have seen some take their coke can to the room  fill it with booze and bring it to the pool deck.....   dont't let that be you!

[Hawaiidan]

2 hours ago, Stockjock said:

I think this is where I'm getting confused in part.  Because it seems that I can select O-Life and then choose airfare or not.  If I choose airfare, it's about $1,000 more, plus or minus ($500 per person).

So...

I can choose O-Life (extra $400 cost) and the air (extra $1,000 cost) for $1,400 "extra" to get those perks.  Then, I can fly on my own, if I can get the tickets for less than $1,000 for two and instead get the $1,000 in OBC, in addition to whatever I chose as the base O-Life benefit?

Or...

I can strip out all of those things and go with a base fare that is $1,400 cheaper, but doesn't include air or any perks.

I might be missing something.  This is a domestic sailing, fwiw, so I'd be flying SAN to MIA.

Most of us go for the cruise only  fare.   We use points, or stuff   to get free air or reduced cost.  We plan shore trips our selves.... getting custom private tours for 1/2 what the ship would charge. 

 Sailing To MIA  there are not a lot of spendy shore excursions and in many cases each port you will encounter throngs of people/offering tours for pennys on the dollar.     

  Overall, you have total control of your travel,  reduce your initial cash outlay,.  In fact by leverage of credit cards and their due date,  rather than spending X $$ 60 days before the cruise, you can shift it to 30-35 days AFTER the  cruise giving ,you 1/4 of a year of free money... an interest free loan!...  Heck, with a good CC you can rack up miles/points  to reduce future travel..  ( never spend $1  that you do not get $1.25 back in value)

AND You get to pick you flights on who and when at no additional charge.... 

 Be smart  be in control....  it cost you nothing 

Edited June 5, 2022 by Hawaiidan

[Stockjock]

41 minutes ago, Hawaiidan said:

Most of us go for the cruise only  fare.   We use points, or stuff   to get free air or reduced cost.  We plan shore trips our selves.... getting custom private tours for 1/2 what the ship would charge. 

 Sailing To MIA  there are not a lot of spendy shore excursions and in many cases each port you will encounter throngs of people/offering tours for pennys on the dollar.     

  Overall, you have total control of your travel,  reduce your initial cash outlay,.  In fact by leverage of credit cards and their due date,  rather than spending X $$ 60 days before the cruise, you can shift it to 30-35 days AFTER the  cruise giving ,you 1/4 of a year of free money... an interest free loan!...  Heck, with a good CC you can rack up miles/points  to reduce future travel..  ( never spend $1  that you do not get $1.25 back in value)

AND You get to pick you flights on who and when at no additional charge.... 

 Be smart  be in control....  it cost you nothing 

I assume that you can drink your own wine in the restaurant but have to pay a corkage fee, correct?  Just did this on RCCL and I think their cost was $25, but they didn't charge me.  Late dinner on the last night, so they may have been closing out their billing system.

[1985rz1]

18 minutes ago, Stockjock said:

I assume that you can drink your own wine in the restaurant but have to pay a corkage fee, correct?  Just did this on RCCL and I think their cost was $25, but they didn't charge me.  Late dinner on the last night, so they may have been closing out their billing system.

Yes.  You can take your own bottle to a dining venue and pay a $25 per bottle corkage fee.  If you don't finish the bottle, the sommelier (or server) will store the bottle for you to be available and any dining venue.  

 

The only big no-no is to take wine from your room, by the bottle or glass, and drink it elsewhere on the ship.  Most honest pax obey this rule.  BTW, the glasses in the room are different than the glasses in the dining venue, so servers, etc will notice.

Edited June 5, 2022 by 1985rz1

[Flatbush Flyer]

2 hours ago, Stockjock said:

Okay, I think I've got it.

One of the YouTube cruise fellows acted as if O-Life was an amazing deal.  But it seems that unless I'm missing something, it's a wash, or close to one, under most circumstances.

I have an Amex Platinum, which I believe gives me $300 OBC plus a bottle of wine plus a wine tasting event.  And if I read it right, I can bring on a lot of wine (7 bottles?).  So I'm thinking I'd be better off stripping away everything to the base fare, buying cheap flights to MIA, bringing on my own wine, and using American Express OBC to fund some of the onboard expenses.

 

O Life IS an “amazing deal” IF you choose the excursions option and book the most expensive allowable ones at $199 (thus doubling the $100 per tour basic perk value). If you then buy an additional number of tours sufficient to meet the total number required for YWYW discount on paid ones, you ultimately save a bundle - particularly on longer cruises.

 

And finally, as aforementioned, a 7 day trip on an O ship is a “boat ride.” This cruise line shines best with cruises of much longer duration (and to far more exotic places than the Caribbean).

[Stockjock]

28 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

O Life IS an “amazing deal” IF you choose the excursions option and book the most expensive allowable ones at $199 (thus doubling the $100 per tour basic perk value). If you then buy an additional number of tours sufficient to meet the total number required for YWYW discount on paid ones, you ultimately save a bundle - particularly on longer cruises.

 

And finally, as aforementioned, a 7 day trip on an O ship is a “boat ride.” This cruise line shines best with cruises of much longer duration (and to far more exotic places than the Caribbean).

I believe it.  But we haven't tried Oceania, so this would give us an opportunity to check it out at a reasonable price.  Plus, my GF has a milestone birthday 2 weeks before this sailing, so I figure it would make a pretty nice gift.

Edited June 5, 2022 by Stockjock

[LHT28]

15 minutes ago, Stockjock said:

I believe it.  But we haven't tried Oceania, so this would give us an opportunity to check it out at a reasonable price.  Plus, my GF has a milestone birthday 2 weeks before this sailing, so I figure it would make a pretty nice gift.

We have done several Caribbean cruises with Oceania  & the experience its just as good onboard as  an overseas cruise

Go & enjoy then decide for yourself

JMO

[GICNJC]

I have done both.  Pre Covid the credit was US$175 if not using their air.  What we have found is it is important to land in the embarkation point at least one day earlier to minimize stress and to become somewhat accustomed to the time change.

Another point is one way flights are much more expensive that return in case start and end points of the cruise are different.

 

 

[LGW59]

7 hours ago, Hawaiidan said:

Correction..... you are not limited to 7 bottles of wine...... your are permitted to bring as much  wine, beer, liquor as you can carry.... not only at boarding  but in every port too!     Just respect the rule, to only drink it in your cabin    ( I have seen some take their coke can to the room  fill it with booze and bring it to the pool deck.....   dont't let that be you!

Unless they just recently changed their policy, I believe they only allow 6 bottles of wine brought on board per stateroom.

[1985rz1]

17 minutes ago, LGW59 said:

Unless they just recently changed their policy, I believe they only allow 6 bottles of wine brought on board per stateroom.

That is their "official" (read CYA) policy, but as long as folks don't abuse the latitude they currently provide, the limit is not enforced.