Charter flights for cruises?

[Tropic]

Has anyone had any experience where Oceania used a charter flight? If not with Oceania what was your experience like particularly on long overseas flights. The last time I flew a charter was coming home from Vietnam, so my experience is limited... what is seating like??????????????????? etc. thanks.

[drwong]

Unlike the old Ren and their Omni Air partners, Oceania uses regular commercial carriers - Lufthansa, Delta, Air France (until recently), and even Icelandic Air. So if you're collecting frequent flyer miles (or have enough miles for an upgrade), you're in luck.

BTW, if you're allowing Oceania to book your air, they provide an air deviation option that allows you to select your preferred airline and itinerary for a mere $50 surcharge. You can minimize your changes of planes (we try to keep it down to one) and cut 3-6 hours off your travel time. I'd highly recommend paying the fee if you want to have some control over your routing and flight times. Otherwise, have fun in Reykjavik!

Richard

[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=0000ff&cdt=2004;4;3;17;00;00&timezone=GMT+0000[/img]
From the Insignia's Inaugural sailing (4/3/2004)

[meow!]

We used Oceania's free air. While it was at "bulk rate", we still got our frequent flier points. However, I read in Jan's earlier posting that you could not upgrade the free air to business class with points (?)

[goeurope]

>>Otherwise, have fun in Reykjavik!<<

Hey, don't knock Reykjavik! where I live, it's more convenient to reach Europe via Reykjavik than through JFK or O'Hare. :-)

The $50 deviation fee is certainly a bargain, compared to what some other deviations cost.

--
Durant Imboden
Europeforvisitors.com

[Tropic]

Still interested in hearing about charter experiences so I know how to respond to that alternative if and when it comes up... thanks for you input to this point.

[eknightley]

Hi all,

Thanks to all who posted responses that cover air deviation which I'd like to know more about please.
1) What is the cut-off point for paying the air deviation fee?
2) Do I contact my travel agent or contact Oceania directly?
3) If I have received my documents, can I still pay the fee and change the reservations? (doesn't seem likely--just wondering)
4) Does paying the fee mean that I can specify to Oceania which airline and which flights I wish to take and Oceania will make those exact arrangements? Or do I have to make my own reservations?

I'm new to this process, so sorry for asking questions that have obvious answers to some of you.

Thanks very much! I enjoy reading your many helpful postings and can't wait to take my first Oceania cruise!

Emma

[smeyer418]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by eknightley:
Hi all,

Thanks to all who posted responses that cover air deviation which I'd like to know more about please.
1) What is the cut-off point for paying the air deviation fee?
[B]They will allow you to do this at any reasonable time but remember besides the deviation fee you pay the extra amount that the airlines charges the cruise line.[/B]2) Do I contact my travel agent or contact Oceania directly? [B]Supposed to be through your TA.[/B]3) If I have received my documents, can I still pay the fee and change the reservations? (doesn't seem likely--just wondering) [B]Yes but you may pay steeply to do this since the airfare may be much higher.[/B]
4) Does paying the fee mean that I can specify to Oceania which airline and which flights I wish to take and Oceania will make those exact arrangements? Or do I have to make my own reservations? [B]You can tell them how you want to go but you pay the increased cost plus the deviation...[/B]
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I put what I think in bold above for you. I would be interested if other people agree/disagree

[barwalt1]

We had a charter flight from Costa Rica to Los Angeles in February. It was fairly crummy and first class was not as nice as economy on most flights. However people who stayed over and made their own reservations were on a comperable flight for considerably more money. There are certain places that you are not going to be comfortable flying to or from so when you travel you just have to grin and bear it.

[drwong]

It looks like Oceania had to use charter flights for lesser-travelled itineraries where there might not be enough airline capacity to take everyone home, but for the European ports, there was an abundance of common carriers available.

I made the humorous comment about Reykjavik because of the smaller number of flights out of there. For example if you missed the daily flight to Barcelona because of a late departure from the States (believe it or not, they do happen!), Icelandic Air might not be able to fly you out until the next day! On there other hand, Air France could have put you on any one of their later flights from CDG into BCN.

It's true that Oceania books "bulk rate" tickets (Q class to be exact) that are so cheap that it's practically impossible to upgrade them, even to Economy Plus! I've got over 100,000 FF miles and six free electronic upgrade certificates in my United account and the gate agent wouldn't let me use any of it for an upgrade.

Richard

[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=0000ff&cdt=2004;4;3;17;00;00&timezone=GMT+0000[/img]
From the Insignia's Inaugural sailing (4/3/2004)

[This message was edited by drwong on 05-28-04 at 02:06 AM.]

[Tropic]

Dr Wong,

We are headed to other than Europe so that is our concern as you have indicated... thus the interest in what Charter's are like?

[spindrift]

Well, this isn't Oceania, but we went to Tahiti and were on ATN. Wonderful. Returning Princess put us on OMNI, and I told Princess I love them, but I would never ever sail them again if they put us on OMNI.

It is an old DC10 with the middle overheads taken out. You have to put your items under your seat, and if you aren't in the right location, then you are in deep trouble. I had a broken foot, and I had to sit with my foot on a piece of luggage in front of me and not able to flex at all. Amazing. Just opt out of OMNI.

[Wanderlusty]

I'll be interested in seeing what they use for our March '05 flight to Manaus and back from Bridgetown. Maybe Varig from Sao Paolo, maybe something smaller? Just booked and will start looking into deviation possiblities soon. As always this thread has been really helpful--thanks, y'all!

[raffeer]

Wanderlusty -
There's a Yahoo Board for the South American cruises -
[url="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Oceania-SA-2005reunion/"]http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Oceania-SA-2005reunion/[/url]

We had a discussion going on the flights to Manaus. Not too practical by other than direct flight. Commercial flight goes from Sao Paulo, north to Brasilia and then on to Manaus. All in all 12 happy hours vs 5 by direct flight. Hence the Oceania charter looks like a very good choice.
Come over and join us.
Beatrice

[douganswerphone]

We were on an Oceania Charter flight in January, LAX to San Jose Costa Rica. It was actually a United aircraft, 737 or 757 (I can't remember). Other than some confusion about where to check in, that nearly caused us and 4 others to miss the flight, it was a standard economy experience with about a 4 hour flight. The United crew treated us just like "regular" passengers. The transfer to the ship was included, and was efficiently organized, considering there were 150 of us arriving at once in a third-tier airport. It was a two hour drive over a road that was only fair. The scernery was probably excellent but since it was dark when we landed we didn't see any of it.

One-way fares on this route are about $500, and I'm sure Oceania chartered the whole aircraft for a small fraction of that, since they had a planeload going back as well.

I think you'll see a lot of charters for open-jaws cruises like this, particularly to remote destinations in Latin America like Costa Rica or Manaus, that don't have a lot scheduled air capacity. European cruises are far more likely to continue to use commercial air, due to higher traffic loads and lots of competition. The major air carriers have mothballed hundreds of aircraft that could be brought back into service in a hurry, if air travel continues to grow.

BTW, we were on a Ren-Omni charter back in 2001 for an Istanbul-to-Athens cruise. The flight was fine, but the seats were the narrowest we've ever had. (About 16 inches I'm told; industry average in economy is about 18 inches.) We saved nearly $500 each compared to commercial air on that trip so we put up with it, but I'd think twice about flying on an Omni DC-10, unless the pricing was incredible.

We'd go on an Oceania air charter again without any worries. These guys are a class act worried about developing and maintaining their image, and they appear to understand very well that a major source of complaints is cruise line-provided air, particularly charters.

So I wouldn't woory a lot about an Oceania flight. The bigger question is can they get you travel times/flights you want at an attractive price, or are you better off booking your own? We normally prefer the latter, but to each his own.

Doug n Sherry

[Wanderlusty]

Thanks, raffeer. I'm able to get a direct flight from Chicago to Sao Paulo, then direct from Sao Paolo to Manaus. But the price is far higher than the pittance Oceania's charging us, and surely the layover time in Sao Paulo can't be any worse using Oceania's program! (With nine hours there, you might as well go through Brasilia.)

[spindrift]

We are doing South America/Antartica in December. Anyone know anything about flights into Santiago and out of Buenos Aires (Houston based).

[Tropic]

Has anyone heard any updates on air to SA destination if you have tried to deviate?