Simply more's impact on current bookings?

[1985rz1]

2 minutes ago, MnDAL said:

 

I am not sure if your definition is different than O's, but this is straight from the Simply More FAQ posted on the website:

 

Is there a ‘Cruise Only’ option?
Yes, if your clients want to secure their own flights, there is a Cruise Only option/price that does not include airfare.

O's definition of "cruise only" is SimplyMore without air.  Guess we have to get used to it.

[Flatbush Flyer]

1 hour ago, EJL2023 said:

So you are saying on your cruise that you booked prior to SM, you were not receiving a 25% discount if you booked the required minimum number of excursions??

Not all itineraries offered YWYW. If they did, it (and the required number of qualifying tours) would appear on page one of the “shore excursions” PDF and YWYW price would be displayed next to each tour online.

[the mice]

2 hours ago, Rainbow3fe said:

I agree. It's interesting to see that others have similar ideas about excursions.

      In South Africa we stuck with Oceania excursions because the places we wanted to visit were 90 minute drives from the ports. Only 1 out of 7 was extremely disappointing. 

     On our upcoming trip to New Zealand we only found a few private tours that look exciting.  We booked mostly OS and OE excursions and at 25% off they're quite reasonably priced  

      Again, everyone needs to do homework and decide what to choose. 

     We are staying with Olife minus air.

😎🌊🎉

      

      

We have taken 4 O cruises.  On our first, on Marina, we did 3 Olife excursions.  2 were very good, with one being something very unusual that could not have been arranged privately to the best of my knowledge (it was from Bilboa to an estate up in the hills way away from Bilboa with an incredible car collection, including a Rolls Royce from every model year).  The 3rd one booked was cancelled since we could not tender into St. Jean de Luz due to weather.  We only had one day left to fit in a tour - they subbed a trip to San Sebastian which was a bit of a haul.  But the guide made the best of it for us, despite poor weather.  Not the best, not the worst. 

We did cruise only for our next 3 cruises, a mix of DIY and private group tours.  Of those private tours, some were good, and some were mediocre.  Small groups of strangers are not always compatible just because they are small groups.  We found that out as well on our Australia/NZ cruise on Celebrity.    

 

Recently we cruised a B2B on Azamara where they handed out so much OBC that we had to use a lot of it for ship excursions - again, mostly good, but some average.   Our roll call there was inactive so we sucked it up and paid a lot for some private tours in ports where we wanted to go farther afield.

 

Now we are booked for a 26 day Asia cruise on O.  It's part of a long extended journey.  Our segment has had minimal roll call activity.  We have booked excursions with Olife and added a few more to get the 25% discount due to logistics in some of the ports.   I have booked some private excursions.  I have also followed the roll call for the full extended journey.  What I have noticed in the posts for private tours in the other cruise segments, is that the guides want to be paid in USD cash.  This has also been the request from the private tours I've booked.   So if you are doing a bunch of private tours for two people, you would need to be carrying around a lot of cash.   That also figured into my choice of booking ship tours.

 

Would I prefer a cruise only choice in most cases?  Probably yes because we don't drink and I like to do my own planning and touring when possible.  Will we continue to cruise with O?  Undetermined after our currently booked cruises.  Going forward, itinerary will matter most, whether it is a cruise, a land tour, or independent travel. There are lots of things that go into the decision process, such as what I described above about shore excursions on Oceania.  . 

Edited July 3, 2023 by the mice
typos

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, Lorna Doone said:

On the 01/09/24 Oceania is not providing any discount for those that switch to SM nor before SM were they providing a discount for those that booked a certain no of tours.  This cruise is on the Vistal

 I would give it  a few weeks for the site to get sorted out

 JMO

[Flatbush Flyer]

1 hour ago, midwestsunshine said:

I called Oceania to inquire about switching our Nov 2023 cruise to Simply More.

I was told that since my present cabin category (A-3) is now waitlisted I could not switch to Simply More.

 

Yes most promotions, at least in the past, required cabin availability in your class to qualify for the deal.

[midwestsunshine]

6 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Yes most promotions, at least in the past, required cabin availability in your class to qualify for the deal.

Thank you!

[YourWorldWithBill]

3 hours ago, Rainbow3fe said:

We booked mostly OS and OE excursions and at 25% off they're quite reasonably priced  

      Again, everyone needs to do homework and decide what to choose. 

     We are staying with Olife minus air.

😎🌊🎉

        

Your point about using OS and OE excursions is a good point that many aren't including in the excursion discussion.

[golfguyhhi]

7 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Yes most promotions, at least in the past, required cabin availability in your class to qualify for the deal.

Flyer,

 

I think sunshine said they have already made final payment, which I think has more bearing on the ability to make a change that may impact the cost of the cruise.

I'm in the middle of trying to make a change to SM on a cruise that has not gotten to final payment.  I'll let you know how that goes.

[Flatbush Flyer]

1 minute ago, golfguyhhi said:

Flyer,

 

I think sunshine said they have already made final payment, which I think has more bearing on the ability to make a change that may impact the cost of the cruise.

I'm in the middle of trying to make a change to SM on a cruise that has not gotten to final payment.  I'll let you know how that goes.

Depends on whether s/he did “book onboard” which has a “price drop match” guarantee until embarkation. BUT, there must be cabin availability in your cabin class.

[EJL2023]

5 minutes ago, golfguyhhi said:

Flyer,

 

I think sunshine said they have already made final payment, which I think has more bearing on the ability to make a change that may impact the cost of the cruise.

I'm in the middle of trying to make a change to SM on a cruise that has not gotten to final payment.  I'll let you know how that goes.

I was just able to upgrade to SM on a previously booked cruise! Hopefully goes as smoothly for you as it did for me.  

[sunlover12]

1 hour ago, jazznruby said:

 

I know we've hijacked the topic, sorry, but one question if I could...since I think I've read that you use United a lot...or maybe exclusively...have you or anyone else here had recent issues ( like for months, not just the last week) with united.com? When doing a search, I can get to the first page, but that's it. Long pause, then error that says 'unable to complete request, please call'. Continuously. Matter of fact, the only way I've been able to get past the error message is through Google flights. The other issue is that when I know I've chosen aircraft with PE (777-300, which is great btw), United site doesn't show that as an option. Any clue?

 

Have used different browsers, different times of the day etc. No luck.

I use united.com quite a bit and haven't had trouble.  In recent months it no longer works using Safari so I use Google Chrome now.

I believe that some 777 aircraft do not have premium economy. If the flight you are looking at has it, it will be listed as an option on the page that shows fares. Some of United's 777 aircraft only offer business, economy plus, and economy. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

[FetaCheese]

17 minutes ago, sunlover12 said:

I use united.com quite a bit and haven't had trouble.  In recent months it no longer works using Safari so I use Google Chrome now.

I believe that some 777 aircraft do not have premium economy. If the flight you are looking at has it, it will be listed as an option on the page that shows fares. Some of United's 777 aircraft only offer business, economy plus, and economy. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

Paid $169pp for UA EP - EWR/BCN.  A compete waste of money, for maybe an inch more pitch.  BTW, meals were horrible on UA, compared to econ meals on DL.

 

  A guy much taller than me, on same flight and cruise, when I asked him, said back there in reg econ was just fine.  Have learned from this.

Edited July 3, 2023 by FetaCheese
Addl info

[susiesan]

18 minutes ago, sunlover12 said:

I use united.com quite a bit and haven't had trouble.  In recent months it no longer works using Safari so I use Google Chrome now.

 

I use United.com almost daily on an iMac using Safari browser and I have no trouble accessing the award booking calendar. I have no trouble booking awards with Safari.

[sunlover12]

8 minutes ago, susiesan said:

I use United.com almost daily on an iMac using Safari browser and I have no trouble accessing the award booking calendar. I have no trouble booking awards with Safari.

 It's because of the age of my MacBookPro.  Safari is getting to be a problem.

[jonthomas]

3 hours ago, midwestsunshine said:

We are booked on the Marina in Nov 2023 leaving out of Barcelona. We’ve already paid our final payment in June. Does anyone know if we’re still eligible to switch to Simply More?

Thanks

 

I think we are on that one...bcn to Mia, transatlantic...we have cruise and prem air with O...dont need Olife and dont want "simply". 

[PinonNoir]

On 7/1/2023 at 2:39 PM, AMHuntFerry said:

But, I do not see the discount. Did you pay more than $10,149 for OLife (no air)?

 

AMHuntFerry, thanks for pulling out the huge catalog!  So I was embarrassingly interpreting my invoice completely incorrectly.  My TA emailed today and corrected me, much like you did with your breakdown.  Simply More would indeed by "simply more $$" to the tune of $700/person.  That'll teach me to keep my big mouth (or in this case fingers) shut until I know more.

 

I will not be opting for the Simply More, and will just bring my own wine onboard.

[vtgumby]

3 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

 

I assume you know that they’re the same websites. ITA Matrix is the far more detailed one that shows you all ways to get from A to B (and/or C, D, etc). Many of the prices you’ll see on ITA Matrix require separate tix (particularly if you want to mix cabin classes). Most, if not all, airlines will not do ticketing for mixed cabin classes unless they publish it and may not issue tix for the mix of non-partner airlines with your primary one.

With only the exceptions of a few airlines who don’t subscribe, what is the benefit of ITA Matrix is that it shows you every possible way to do an itinerary.

And, BTW, the choices and pricing you see on the actual airline site may not be accurate nor complete. I know for a fact that, when you search “any time” for your chosen dates on United, it does not list all flights. That’s one of the reasons, I have the ITA Matrix list in front of me and also ask the phone rep if s/he can find anything better within my parameters. That one question alone can save you some significant cash. 

Never knew about this ITA Matrix, GREAT information, thanks!

[TFree]

Here is another example of the way that the Simply More program would apply to an existing booking. We are booked on the Vista Panama Canal Cruise on November 3. We booked it with Olife without air. We chose the excursions option, so we would get four “free“ excursions each in the non-excluded categories, up to $199 each. We are not big drinkers, so that the beverage package option would never make sense for us, but we would each have a wine or beer at dinner, and possibly at lunch. 

 

The cruise is currently waitlisted in all categories, so I was not even sure if they would give us a quote on the difference, if we wanted to choose Simply More instead of our existing booking. The travel agent reported that in her original call, she was told that they could not quote this since the cruise is sold out. But after checking with some supervisor, they called her back to say that we can make the switch, and the total difference for us would be $798 (meaning, $399 per person).

 

I am going to study this in more detail , when I get a chance, but the way I am looking at it, it is probably worthwhile to us. It is not an amazing deal by any means, just probably worth it. First, we would definitely use the second Wi-Fi login, and probably would have purchased it.  This is a 16 night cruise, so the charge for an additional login would be just under $400. I don’t know if they ever or frequently discount that on board, but that is the list price of the additional login. Then, I don’t know what the going rate for a glass of wine or beer at dinner is, but I am guessing that for a glass of wine and a beer, that might be around $20 per dinner. So that would be about $320 worth of liquor, even if we never have a wine or beer at lunch (and we probably would). We currently get (in effect) an excursion credit that would be worth up to $796 person ($199 X 4), but with very few if any of the excursions eligible and right at the $199 price point that would max out the benefit and based on excursions currently booked, we would get $586 benefit per person. Instead, under Simply More, we would get $1000 worth of excursions, with no limitations as to which excursions we must choose.

 

So, all told, I can argue it either way. I could say that we might end up spending a few additional dollars with simply more, because the size of our excursion credit will be shrinking. But, on the other hand, if wine and beer are more expensive than I am guessing, or if we have more than one at dinner, and occasionally a wine or a beer at lunch, we would probably come out a little ahead with simply more. 
 

I would be curious if others have any reaction to this. Also, anybody with recent experience who can give a better ballpark estimate of the cost of a glass of wine or beer within the categories that would be included in Simply More, that would be helpful.

 

Tom & Judy

[Benita]

Hi TFree, my husband and I are on the same Vista cruise. I just did the math. We also took the four free shore excursions each and did our own air to LA.  We live in S Florida, so only needed a flight to LA and will Uber home.

    The Simply more price on the website for our PH2 is $800 pp more than we paid for cruise, also with no included airfare. We already booked our shore excursions- got about $1000 worth of excursions in the included 4 each, so that was a wash.  We don’t drink alcohol. It would be nice to have the second wifi included, but I will save the $1600 and either share the one connection or if the wifi is good, buy a second one.

    

    

[LHT28]

29 minutes ago, TFree said:

I would be curious if others have any reaction to this. Also, anybody with recent experience who can give a better ballpark estimate of the cost of a glass of wine or beer within the categories that would be included in Simply More, that would be helpful.

 

Tom & Judy

The  drink menus are listed in this thread   unless they decide to raise the price  in Oct

 

 

[1985rz1]

@TFree Remember to add the 20% gratuity to the drink prices listed by @LHT28.

[Rainbow3fe]

2 hours ago, sunlover12 said:

I use united.com quite a bit and haven't had trouble.  In recent months it no longer works using Safari so I use Google Chrome now.

I believe that some 777 aircraft do not have premium economy. If the flight you are looking at has it, it will be listed as an option on the page that shows fares. Some of United's 777 aircraft only offer business, economy plus, and economy. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

I would assume that Economy Plus might be  another airlines word for Premium Economy. Look at the schematics of the specific airline's airplane and check the seat measurements as well as the pitch.

[LHT28]

4 minutes ago, Rainbow3fe said:

I would assume that Economy Plus might be  another airlines word for Premium Economy. Look at the schematics of the specific airline's airplane and check the seat measurements as well as the pitch.

do not think UA EP  is the same  as other airlines  PE

https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly/products/travel-options/economy-plus.html

UA also have Premium Plus  which might be closer to PE  on other carriers

 

[AMHuntFerry]

1 hour ago, PinonNoir said:

AMHuntFerry, thanks for pulling out the huge catalog!  So I was embarrassingly interpreting my invoice completely incorrectly.  My TA emailed today and corrected me, much like you did with your breakdown.  Simply More would indeed by "simply more $$" to the tune of $700/person.  That'll teach me to keep my big mouth (or in this case fingers) shut until I know more.

 

I will not be opting for the Simply More, and will just bring my own wine onboard.

I do math really well, but I've been known to make an arithmetical error here and there (and the 4 on my ten-key is finicky...grrr!)...glad to know there are others who occassionally have a brain blip 😉 When it's important I always have at least one person check my work (yay for your TA!).  

[jazznruby]

47 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

do not think UA EP  is the same  as other airlines  PE

https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly/products/travel-options/economy-plus.html

UA also have Premium Plus  which might be closer to PE  on other carriers

 

 United Premium Plus is only available for SFO-EWR and for LAX-EWR domestically, and some long haul international flights. It's a big step above most other airlines' PE in terms of legroom, seat pitch, service. It's a small section (24 seats) directly behind Business. Only on the 777-300. I'll book it whenever possible.