Oceania New Flexible Air Dates Policy

[jonthomas]

We have a cruise in Nov, a TA , bcn to Mia..

 

Have O air with prem econ...out of Toronto...

Going 2 days earlier to allow for the craziness...

Got prem econ with O at time of booking for 149pp...

Waiting to hear from O, what kind of flights they are going to give us...doing this through a TA...

Will post how it all shakes out for anyone interested. 

[GeorginaSpica]

20 hours ago, jonthomas said:

We have a cruise in Nov, a TA , bcn to Mia..

 

Have O air with prem econ...out of Toronto...

Going 2 days earlier to allow for the craziness...

Got prem econ with O at time of booking for 149pp...

Waiting to hear from O, what kind of flights they are going to give us...doing this through a TA...

Will post how it all shakes out for anyone interested. 

We are flying out of Toronto in Oct.  Having had a good experience the last time with O, during covid in 2021, I thought it would be okay this time.

 

Air Canada has it's issues for sure but while AC has direct flights to both start and end locations, O booked us with AC going but alternative airlines returning & not direct. And changing is going to cost more than booking AC directly.  In hindsight, should have just booked on my own from the start. 

[jonthomas]

Thank you for sharing this.

 

Booking on our own would not get us anywhere near the price O gave us, 149pp prem econ.

There is nothing direct to bcn on the way there  but AC does fly back direct to Toronto.

[LHT28]

Be careful what you ask for 

In the industry  there is  a difference between Direct  & Non stop flights

 

"Non-stop flights behave exactly as they sound; you'll fly straight from one airport to another, with no stops along the way. Direct flights, on the other hand, aren't quite as convenient. While the flight number doesn't change, the term “direct” means the plane may make one or more stops along its route."

[GeorginaSpica]

39 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Be careful what you ask for 

In the industry  there is  a difference between Direct  & Non stop flights

 

"Non-stop flights behave exactly as they sound; you'll fly straight from one airport to another, with no stops along the way. Direct flights, on the other hand, aren't quite as convenient. While the flight number doesn't change, the term “direct” means the plane may make one or more stops along its route."

Yes I understand, the flights I checked were non-stop.  But I am okay with direct flights too.  More than once I have had flights stop in Montreal to pick up additional passengers. 
I just would prefer not to deplane and hang out in an airport for hours in front of next gate or have to rush to get to the gate and hope one's luggage makes it to the new plane. 
And sometimes stuff happens to cause a direct non-stop to have to land.  Earlier this year, our flight home had to land in Phoenix to fill up because the departure airport, San Diego, had issues with fuel delivery. Never had that happen before.  

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, GeorginaSpica said:

Yes I understand, the flights I checked were non-stop.  But I am okay with direct flights too.  More than once I have had flights stop in Montreal to pick up additional passengers. 
I just would prefer not to deplane and hang out in an airport for hours in front of next gate or have to rush to get to the gate and hope one's luggage makes it to the new plane. 
And sometimes stuff happens to cause a direct non-stop to have to land.  Earlier this year, our flight home had to land in Phoenix to fill up because the departure airport, San Diego, had issues with fuel delivery. Never had that happen before.  

I agree

I would take a nonstop any day over connecting

This past year or so  the airlines  are switching & swapping flights  all the time

Had a nice non stop  to YUL  now we have a connection in YYZ

Going to practice my "Carry on" packing  skills 😄

[cjwags]

Our O Air booking experience for our June Vista cruise was a long and tedious one, but we ended up with decent flights on the dates we wanted.

 

Just this week, our TA just requested custom air for us for a March voyage on Rivera in Japan. We sent flights we would be interested in, flying in two days early.  They sent back one leg we requested, and a different one for the return flight - Along with a $398 custom air fee and a $1598 differential!  

 

We know that O Air will charge the custom air fee if you don't just accept the flights they offer. The high priced differential seems just too much.  We will start shopping for air ourselves and see what we can do! 

 

I agree with others that there are much easier ways to do this.  We have booked air with Celebrity on their online booking engine before and found it to be so much easier and more reasonable!

[LHT28]

16 minutes ago, cjwags said:

Just this week, our TA just requested custom air for us for a March voyage on Rivera in Japan. We sent flights we would be interested in, flying in two days early.  They sent back one leg we requested, and a different one for the return flight - Along with a $398 custom air fee and a $1598 differential!  

 

We know that O Air will charge the custom air fee if you don't just accept the flights they offer. The high priced differential seems just too much.  We will start shopping for air ourselves and see what we can do! 

 

I would agree the differential is  OTT

Did you ask for Premium seats??

 

I thought they only charge the fee  once you agree on the flights offered  has this changed ?

 

 

[jonthomas]

Yes doing flights with Celebrity was very easy, no deviation fees, very accommodating.

Too bad cruising with Celebrity no longer appeals to us.

 

[ORV]

17 hours ago, cjwags said:

Our O Air booking experience for our June Vista cruise was a long and tedious one, but we ended up with decent flights on the dates we wanted.

 

Just this week, our TA just requested custom air for us for a March voyage on Rivera in Japan. We sent flights we would be interested in, flying in two days early.  They sent back one leg we requested, and a different one for the return flight - Along with a $398 custom air fee and a $1598 differential!  

 

We know that O Air will charge the custom air fee if you don't just accept the flights they offer. The high priced differential seems just too much.  We will start shopping for air ourselves and see what we can do! 

 

I agree with others that there are much easier ways to do this.  We have booked air with Celebrity on their online booking engine before and found it to be so much easier and more reasonable!

I guess I'm confused. Did you accept the air or not? You do know you can counter also?

[cjwags]

6 hours ago, ORV said:

I guess I'm confused. Did you accept the air or not? You do know you can counter also?

Did not accept the offer.  Yes, I know we can counter.  Did that on our last booking with OAir.  Went back and forth for quite a while before finally agreeing.  Just not sure I want to do that again and watch time pass by and prices go up. 

 

We found great nonstop LAX to Narita on Singapore Airlines for less than the air credit from Oceania.  Don't want to loose the transfer, but it may be worth it. We could also request this flight form OAir, but will have to pay the custom air fee.  Oh my!

 

 

[LHT28]

17 minutes ago, cjwags said:

Did not accept the offer.  Yes, I know we can counter.  Did that on our last booking with OAir.  Went back and forth for quite a while before finally agreeing.  Just not sure I want to do that again and watch time pass by and prices go up. 

 

We found great nonstop LAX to Narita on Singapore Airlines for less than the air credit from Oceania.  Don't want to loose the transfer, but it may be worth it. We could also request this flight form OAir, but will have to pay the custom air fee.  Oh my!

 

 

Would  a transfer  be more than the  custom air fee 🤔