The pleasure of air deviations

We are planning a South Pacific cruise on Marina in February......what better time to go to the South Pacific? Long flights ATL-LAX and LAX-PPT and living in ATL there are advantages to flying Delta so with the ship boarding on Sunday the 25th we thought it would be worth it to go ATL-LAX on Friday and then LAX-PPT on Saturday and overnight on Tahiti before boarding. With limited flights LAX-PPT I figured why not give Oceania a shot at "custom air" figuring they probably have most of the seat booked to and from PPT on the days around the cruise..

Round 1 missed the target........ATL-LAX (on Delta) Friday then an 11pm flight Friday night to PPT arriving 0530, not exactly what we had asked for but no increase in fares and tentatively booked on Delta and it only takes a simple change from the Friday LAX-PPT to Saturday. Return home day of disembarkation.

Round 2, Keep the ATL-LAX on Friday but LAX-PPT on Saturday with arrival at 11 pm was the request. We got Saturday morning ATL-LAX and Saturday afternoon LAX-PPT. Still Delta ATL-LAX and no fare increase.What I missed is they also changed out date of return.....now the day after the ship docks.

Round 3; what could be difficult about changing the ATL-LAX flight back to Friday night like Round 1? Nothing! They got it right......Delta to and from LAX, overnight in LA before LAX-PPT and arrival at PPT at a "reasonable" hour (at least not 5 am).

But........what did I miss? The return trip. I paid attention to getting there and the first itinerary had the right return so once the out-going flights were right I didn't bother to check the return flights.....and I accepted the custom air itinerary. We are now awaiting Round 4 which will incur another custom air charge and which I hope, and pray, won't have some new deviation or excessive fare increase.

It is my fault, I acknowledge that. I don't know if the problem lies with Oceania custom air or the travel agent intermediary but this has taken over a month and far too many iterations for such a simple request. I', hoping the fourth time is the charm.

I always gave them the exact flights I wanted and let them come back yes no or for what charge for yes.

I don't understand why you had so many gyrations?? I will admit that when doing Air arrangements , or working out Air issues, having a TA is a PITA.

I normally book it myself and take the credit.

Will they not do it in writing for you to review before accepting? I would definitely mess it up if it is just verbal.

Thanks for sharing and hope it works out great for you.

What's wrong with the return flight? As I recall all the Air Tahiti Nui flights leave PPT around midnight so if that's the problem, the only alternative is the mid-day Air France flight to LAX. I heard that is an expensive deviation, if you can even get it.

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Round 4 was a success and contrary to the prediction we only got a single charge for the deviation. Al's well that ends well.

I always gave them the exact flights I wanted and let them come back yes no or for what charge for yes.

 

I don't understand why you had so many gyrations?? I will admit that when doing Air arrangements , or working out Air issues, having a TA is a PITA.

 

I normally book it myself and take the credit.

Normally I book it myself but with the limited flights to/from PPT the cost, even with the deviation fee was much less than booking it myself. I like your approach of "these are the flights I want"

What's wrong with the return flight? As I recall all the Air Tahiti Nui flights leave PPT around midnight so if that's the problem, the only alternative is the mid-day Air France flight to LAX. I heard that is an expensive deviation, if you can even get it.

 

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Instead of departing late on the day the cruise ended it was late on the next day.......not that another day in Paradise would be horrible but my wife has to get back to work.

My exploration didn't turn up that Air France flight which would be preferable to waiting all day in Paradise

I like your approach of "these are the flights I want"

I always thought that was one of the main reasons for paying for the deviation.

 

My exploration didn't turn up that Air France flight which would be preferable to waiting all day in Paradise

I'm pretty sure it doesn't run every day. Maybe yours was an off day.

Yeah disembarkation day in Papeete is a rugged day. I wouldn't want to endure it twice!

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Now that you are presumably back from your French Polynesian cruise... How were your flight?

I have just booked a January 31st itinerary on Marina and am looking at flights. We want to fly in two to three days pre and then fly home on disembarkation day.

Did you fly Air Tahiti Nui LAX - FAAA and return? If so, how was it? We also want to fly Delta ATL - LAX R/T.

We flew in a few days early and took the midnight flight home on dusemarkation day.

In retrospect, I wish we had flown in the night before the cruise and spent several days after the cruise.

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Now that you are presumably back from your French Polynesian cruise... How were your flight?

I have just booked a January 31st itinerary on Marina and am looking at flights. We want to fly in two to three days pre and then fly home on disembarkation day.

Did you fly Air Tahiti Nui LAX - FAAA and return? If so, how was it? We also want to fly Delta ATL - LAX R/T.

I’m not the OP however thought I’d post my experience. I’m currently sitting in an over the water bungalow in Hilton Moorea having just got off Air France flight this morning. I’ll do a full Marina review once I’m home....

We did Delta SEA/LAX code share with AF. Don’t know if Air Nui code shares. AF 11:55pm-6am flight was great. Upgrade to business unbelievably expensive ($3400 per person ... ah .... no!) so didn’t do it. Premium economy also very expensive and totally not worth it... read several seat reviews on seat guru and others that the recline was less than economy and these seats did seem rigid when I walked by and looked at people getting into their seats. I think Prem economy was over $1000 diff when I booked so again incredibly expensive for what little you got.

The AF economy seats are the thinnest/tightest ever!! Ugh! The good thing is They reclined the best of any economy I’ve ever been in, slept well. Food was great for economy also.

I’m flying back on AF as well. From the fantastic advice here on this forum from the likes of Hawaiian Dan and others, I really studied the whole air deviation vs. Get your own airfare thing. Amazingly enough I found my own airfare slightly less than Olife (this is supposedly rare for French Polynesia) so I took the Olife air refund and booked on my own.

Also I feel and was advised a must is flying in at least two days before and flying out a day or two after. Trying to fly home day of disembark meant at least $1200 per person more on airfare as well as those dreaded midnight flights... instead we stay at the intercontinental two nights post cruise and take cosy flights back on AF at 8:40am For $1200 less [emoji846]

I’ll be on Marina Mar 7 for the 12 night sailing.

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. Amazingly enough I found my own airfare slightly less than Olife (this is supposedly rare for French Polynesia) so I took the Olife air refund and booked on my own.

 

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Glad things worked out for you.

Just a word of clarification for “newbies” about your post. There is no such thing as “O Life air refund”.

Perhaps you meant that you took air credit and not O Life air refund ?

O Life and air credit are two separate and not connected matters.

You can take O Life and still choose to get air credit or take neither O Life nor Oceania’s air - this is called “cruise only” option.

Have a great cruise!

I’m not the OP however thought I’d post my experience. I’m currently sitting in an over the water bungalow in Hilton Moorea having just got off Air France flight this morning. I’ll do a full Marina review once I’m home....

 

We did Delta SEA/LAX code share with AF. Don’t know if Air Nui code shares. AF 11:55pm-6am flight was great. Upgrade to business unbelievably expensive ($3400 per person ... ah .... no!) so didn’t do it. Premium economy also very expensive and totally not worth it... read several seat reviews on seat guru and others that the recline was less than economy and these seats did seem rigid when I walked by and looked at people getting into their seats. I think Prem economy was over $1000 diff when I booked so again incredibly expensive for what little you got.

 

The AF economy seats are the thinnest/tightest ever!! Ugh! The good thing is They reclined the best of any economy I’ve ever been in, slept well. Food was great for economy also.

 

I’m flying back on AF as well. From the fantastic advice here on this forum from the likes of Hawaiian Dan and others, I really studied the whole air deviation vs. Get your own airfare thing. Amazingly enough I found my own airfare slightly less than Olife (this is supposedly rare for French Polynesia) so I took the Olife air refund and booked on my own.

 

Also I feel and was advised a must is flying in at least two days before and flying out a day or two after. Trying to fly home day of disembark meant at least $1200 per person more on airfare as well as those dreaded midnight flights... instead we stay at the intercontinental two nights post cruise and take cosy flights back on AF at 8:40am For $1200 less [emoji846]

 

I’ll be on Marina Mar 7 for the 12 night sailing.

 

 

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I agree with you about how insanely expensive the upgrade to business class is. Our Air Nui PPT - LAX cost $2,900pp. I grumbled all the way to the airport. Upon check-in we discovered that we had access to the Air Nui lounge. Having access to beverages, snacks and air conditioning made the 3 hour wait go by quickly. Nothing special about business class but we would spend the extra $$$ again.

I’m not the OP however thought I’d post my experience. I’m currently sitting in an over the water bungalow in Hilton Moorea having just got off Air France flight this morning. I’ll do a full Marina review once I’m home....

 

We did Delta SEA/LAX code share with AF. Don’t know if Air Nui code shares. AF 11:55pm-6am flight was great. Upgrade to business unbelievably expensive ($3400 per person ... ah .... no!) so didn’t do it. Premium economy also very expensive and totally not worth it... read several seat reviews on seat guru and others that the recline was less than economy and these seats did seem rigid when I walked by and looked at people getting into their seats. I think Prem economy was over $1000 diff when I booked so again incredibly expensive for what little you got.

 

The AF economy seats are the thinnest/tightest ever!! Ugh! The good thing is They reclined the best of any economy I’ve ever been in, slept well. Food was great for economy also.

 

I’m flying back on AF as well. From the fantastic advice here on this forum from the likes of Hawaiian Dan and others, I really studied the whole air deviation vs. Get your own airfare thing. Amazingly enough I found my own airfare slightly less than Olife (this is supposedly rare for French Polynesia) so I took the Olife air refund and booked on my own.

 

Also I feel and was advised a must is flying in at least two days before and flying out a day or two after. Trying to fly home day of disembark meant at least $1200 per person more on airfare as well as those dreaded midnight flights... instead we stay at the intercontinental two nights post cruise and take cosy flights back on AF at 8:40am For $1200 less [emoji846]

 

I’ll be on Marina Mar 7 for the 12 night sailing.

 

 

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Following the post Paul made I'd be curious if you got the Olife perks or if you paid the cruise only fare?

ATN code shares with AA, I don’t believe they do with Delta. I can sometimes get flight quotes on AA for BNA- PPT in BC for less than LAX- PPT on ATN with ATN being the operator of the code share flight from LAX- PPT!

Part of the games of ticket pricing!

Following the post Paul made I'd be curious if you got the Olife perks or if you paid the cruise only fare?

Hooefully I get the wording correctly... I booked Olife with air included considering all the advice here on CC was that Olife air 99% of the time is cheaper than on your own to Tahiti (rest of world prob easier to get your own flights)... which I found very true except for the one set of flights I found and booked. As PaulChili said, I took the air credit and retained all the Olife benefits.

Best advice ever to get here a day or two early... remember the thread a week ago when the O charter on AF was delayed to 2pm next day rather than overnight flight, so cruisers were set to arrive at midnight day of embarkation missing pretty much the entire first day.

Plus a day early allows you to experience this

Moorea is insanely beautiful! Come all this way just to get immediately on a cruise ship is not the way to go in my humble opinion

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Whoops... sorry for the double post of the pictures. Btw, that sunset is for real, not edited or photo shopped, with my iPhone6 last night from the bar. Magic!

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I’m not the OP however thought I’d post my experience. I’m currently sitting in an over the water bungalow in Hilton Moorea having just got off Air France flight this morning. I’ll do a full Marina review once I’m home....

 

We did Delta SEA/LAX code share with AF. Don’t know if Air Nui code shares. AF 11:55pm-6am flight was great. Upgrade to business unbelievably expensive ($3400 per person ... ah .... no!) so didn’t do it. Premium economy also very expensive and totally not worth it... read several seat reviews on seat guru and others that the recline was less than economy and these seats did seem rigid when I walked by and looked at people getting into their seats. I think Prem economy was over $1000 diff when I booked so again incredibly expensive for what little you got.

 

The AF economy seats are the thinnest/tightest ever!! Ugh! The good thing is They reclined the best of any economy I’ve ever been in, slept well. Food was great for economy also.

 

I’m flying back on AF as well. From the fantastic advice here on this forum from the likes of Hawaiian Dan and others, I really studied the whole air deviation vs. Get your own airfare thing. Amazingly enough I found my own airfare slightly less than Olife (this is supposedly rare for French Polynesia) so I took the Olife air refund and booked on my own.

 

Also I feel and was advised a must is flying in at least two days before and flying out a day or two after. Trying to fly home day of disembark meant at least $1200 per person more on airfare as well as those dreaded midnight flights... instead we stay at the intercontinental two nights post cruise and take cosy flights back on AF at 8:40am For $1200 less [emoji846]

 

I’ll be on Marina Mar 7 for the 12 night sailing.

 

 

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We are on the 19th March cruise on Marina. We are doing the same and going straight to an OWB at the Hilton in Moorea. We booked on the proviso that we could get AF business through Paris. When the flights were released Oceania offered us an insane upgrade cost. It was more expensive for the upgrade as it was for me to book business class direct.

In the end, Oceania refunded us GBP 1,450 per person and we booked Manchester-Paris-LAX (technical stop)-PPT then return from LAX to Manchester for GBP 3,450. Oceania wanted GBP 3,500 per person just for the upgrades. It is probably different travelling from Europe but I don’t think that we will ever let Oceania book our flights. Economy from UK to PPT is not something that we would consider.