how do you change air flights booked by Oceania

Flying from Miami to Cape Town. I just received flights booked by Oceania. 3 plane changes; 7 hour layover in Heathrow. My TA has been no help. Has anyone had success in having Oceania change flights when they are already booked. I did not pay for an air variance when I booked and flights leave on 2/3/18.

Help!!!!!:(

Flying from Miami to Cape Town. I just received flights booked by Oceania. 3 plane changes; 7 hour layover in Heathrow. My TA has been no help. Has anyone had success in having Oceania change flights when they are already booked. I did not pay for an air variance when I booked and flights leave on 2/3/18.

Help!!!!!:(

Before you make an issue of it, I'd suggest that you check to see what else is out there and available.

Sometimes there just aren't any "good alternatives", so Oceania has to pick what will get you there, period.

It sounds like it might be too late to cancel the air portion and book your own. You must have made final payment by now. But you can certainly check. Too bad your TA is not proactive on your behalf. Lessons learned, always deviate, it's worth the fee, if you take the cruiseship air. And find yourself a better TA next time.

We had a long layover after a transfer from Heathrow to Gatwick. We took a day room, having arrived early on the morning. We had showers, lovely sleep, and an early dinner. We still talk about how much easier it made the trip. Had an even longer overnight layover enroute to Kenya after late departure caused us to miss the connection on the only day of the week they ran only one flight. We were travelling with our teenage son and

took the train downtown so he could see some of the sights. It’s a really long flight from London to Southern Africa. I would suggest a long layover can ease the pain.

Mo

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Assume your flights are for Feb 3, 48 or so days from now. March 2 would be a wee but better with more lead time.

Regardless, as JimandStan advised first find out what is available at this late date and the pricing. Remember that the cruise line air is not expensive flights.

And as potterhill suggests a long layover for along series of flights might not be a bad thing.

Then if you still want to pursue a change you must involve your TA. O cannot discuss flights directly with you as you have an Agent who is to act in your behalf with O. How is it the TA is no help? Are they refusing or just telling you things you do not want to hear such as 'its too late'. If they are just refusing to help or nit communicating reach out to management at the Agency. The Agency's reputation and your future business with them us on the line so they might step in for an unresponsive TA

To answer your question, no, I have never tried to change O flights after they have been booked

Edited to add, waste no time. The flights have been booked but MAYBE not yet ticketed. If they are ticketed you are out of luck for changes (and maybe this is what your TA knows)

Good luck. Enjoy the cruise once you get there!

Always remember that Oceania runs its Air Department as a profit center, not as a cost center.

Case in point, we just booked a cruise in and out of London (Southampton). O made the contract to Southampton airport. If we took any flights into Southampton it would result in horrible connections. I queried my TA on making it LHR. Answer , O wants a deviation to do that when you book the flights. I will take the Air credit, book my own flights, when the time comes, and save enough per ticket to pay for the Premium Beverage Package once aboard for each of us.

I just saw that Mo already posted what I was thinking ... when we flew to Nairobi from NY many years ago we had a day room in Amsterdam which made all the difference. It certainly beat sitting at the airport for many hours! We had a nice nap and then dinner in Amsterdam. Back to the airport in plenty of time for our late night flight to Nairobi.

If you are ticketed..it could be very pricey to change and almost impossible..if you are not ticketed, you can check and see if there are better flights..

Jancruz1

As J&S stated you should check your alternatives first.

There is no real good way of getting to Cape Town.

All flights (whether through LHR or FRA) in Europe leave in late evening thus the long layover.

Only alternative of near direct is on SA via there DC connection, that still requires changing in Jburg and that has a stop in Ghana for refueling. BA is definitely a better choice especially if you can get a PE seat.

Thanks for all the responses.

I did look up flights and found one on KLM that changes in Amsterdam and then goes directly to Capetown. Only two stops and less than 24 hours. RT flight (including return from Singapore) costs $1600. Tempted to book myself if O will give me airfare credit; but since it is booked don't give it much hope at this late date.

TA is sick and not in office. I will not use him again. I always booked my air myself. Guess I will go back to it.

Another couple on cruise indicated that they have been booked the same way. Maybe we can have a cruise critic meet and greet in 7 hr layover in Heathrow. Also may be worth getting membership in AA club.

Maybe you all would want to consider a day room at an airport hotel ... at least you can rest more comfortably in a room. It might be more definitive with a 10 hour layover, but 7 hours is also pretty significant.

More than once I've seen people taking over a whole row of seats in the business lounge while they slept ...

Wish I could remember the exact layover time we had in 1987 ... my diary doesn't indicate that info. But I'm sure it was at least 7 hours ...

Mura

Assume your flights are for Feb 3, 48 or so days from now. March 2 would be a wee but better with more lead time.

 

Regardless, as JimandStan advised first find out what is available at this late date and the pricing. Remember that the cruise line air is not expensive flights.

 

And as potterhill suggests a long layover for along series of flights might not be a bad thing.

 

Then if you still want to pursue a change you must involve your TA. O cannot discuss flights directly with you as you have an Agent who is to act in your behalf with O. How is it the TA is no help? Are they refusing or just telling you things you do not want to hear such as 'its too late'. If they are just refusing to help or nit communicating reach out to management at the Agency. The Agency's reputation and your future business with them us on the line so they might step in for an unresponsive TA

 

To answer your question, no, I have never tried to change O flights after they have been booked

 

Edited to add, waste no time. The flights have been booked but MAYBE not yet ticketed. If they are ticketed you are out of luck for changes (and maybe this is what your TA knows)

 

Good luck. Enjoy the cruise once you get there!

Hi,

On the same subject, I today received my air itinerary for an Oceania cruise from Miami in late April. We are flying from Montreal to Miami and the routing is terrible. Air Canada is offering a direct flight both ways for 461 CAD pp.

My ta has told me that she will speak to their air department on Monday.......do you think I will be able to get better flights?

Had I realized, I would have gladly booked and paid for my own air.

I have a related question. If you book your own air travel, do most people take the cruise only fare? OLife seems like a good deal on the surface, but I’m sensing it may have issues.

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You can book your own flights with or without the O Life.

If you think O lIfe is a good deal then book it (we usually do - with our own fare).

What issues are you imagining? Since oLife came into being we have taken it. For us the main question is the tours -- we don't take the drink package and we already have free internet. So a few ship's tours have always worked out for us. We usually do more private tours with an occasional ship's tour, but we've been lucky with the ship's tours we've taken with one occasion in Malta -- and we just chose the wrong tour that time. Our bad, not O's. We do compare the surcharge on the fare cost with what the tours would cost us if we booked them on our own.

But we haven't run into "issues".

While on a few occasions we have used O's air, we pretty much book our own. We *could* be tempted to use their air these days since we no longer have to pay the deviation fee BUT we don't want to fly in economy any more ... so we've pretty much stuck with doing our own. The few times in recent years when we did O's air was because there was a $99 surcharge for PE. But that charge has increased as well ...

By the way, for those who don't know, if you take O's "restricted business" fare that means you are in business over the water, but in economy over land. For us that doesn't mean much if we're going to Europe since we fly from either JFK or Newark and if restricted mean we might be in economy for a few hours overland, that's okay. If we were flying from the west coast ... I don't think so!

Mura

Since this is our first cruise, I apparently don’t understand O’Life. I thought it was all or nothing. I would like to have the tours and internet. But I also want to fly direct to Europe from the west coast. I don’t want to get caught in tough weather conditions the week of Thanksgiving when we return. Thank you for all the info!

Since this is our first cruise, I apparently don’t understand O’Life. I thought it was all or nothing. I would like to have the tours and internet. But I also want to fly direct to Europe from the west coast. I don’t want to get caught in tough weather conditions the week of Thanksgiving when we return. Thank you for all the info!

Hi,

It can be a little confusing. Air is not part of O-life. O-life is a completely separate amenity offering. If you book curse only then there is no air and no O-life. But you can book with O-life and decline the "free included" air and will get a credit on your invoice for that.

For those who like the O-life options but want to book their own air, i.e. to use points; or a specific flight / carrier or business class or...; taking he air credit can be a good option.

But if you want to do that you need to bear in mind that the amount air credit can decrease as it gets closer to sailing date

Thank you so much! Much clearer now! We'll go ahead and book the flights we want. :-)

Mura,

We have taken O's "Restricted Business" fare, and, by using the same airline from origin to destination, we have gotten BC on the domestic legs, and gotten it from a non-gateway city. You are correct about domestic coach and international BC if you change airlines, such as JetBlue to JFK and Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong, for example.

Also, I research the flights as soon as the airlines publish their schedules at 330 days out. I then give my TA the flights I will be willing/interested in taking and she discusses them with O's air department. In every case (so far) O has agreed that my choices are acceptable with no deviation (I come in the morning of the cruise) and no surcharge. I think I've been lucky so far that O has an arrangement with Delta and with American, as those are the two carriers I've used.

By the way, O's "Restricted Business" fare for both Savannah-Barcelona/Athens-Savannah (multi-city) and Savannah-Copenhagen/Lisbon-Savannah (multi-city) for mid-2019 is $3,700, much better than any BC fare I could find - with 1 stop or 2 stop minimal layover flights.

Since this is our first cruise, I apparently don’t understand O’Life. I thought it was all or nothing. I would like to have the tours and internet. But I also want to fly direct to Europe from the west coast. I don’t want to get caught in tough weather conditions the week of Thanksgiving when we return. Thank you for all the info!

Thank you so much! Much clearer now! We'll go ahead and book the flights we want. :-)

Just to add SandyS49 we too are on the west coast and will be flying the same time as you. We are taking O's air however. I booked a looong time ago with a good deal on Premium Economy add-on compared with what we can normally get from here. But it is contingent on what we can get from an air deviation so have to add in the US$350 . Like you we too do not want a stop over in the East. A much more comfortable (international vs. domestic) and shorter flight can be had using the polar route but might have to work on it.

Just to add SandyS49 we too are on the west coast and will be flying the same time as you. We are taking O's air however. I booked a looong time ago with a good deal on Premium Economy add-on compared with what we can normally get from here. But it is contingent on what we can get from an air deviation so have to add in the US$350 . Like you we too do not want a stop over in the East. A much more comfortable (international vs. domestic) and shorter flight can be had using the polar route but might have to work on it.

We booked our own premium economy flights on Delta from Seattle to Paris and then on to Venice. We’ll be flying in early to have a few days in Venice before we sail.

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