Oceania Arranged Air Issue

[Nuka]

Is anyone else having issues with Oceania arranged air?

 

I paid the air deviation and the difference in fare early in this summer for a cruise this November 25th from Barcelona to Rio. We are flying from Vancouver to Barcelona and then after the cruise from Rio to Vancouver.

 

The TA arranged the seats at that time. The flight numbers got changed which certainly wasn't Oceania's fault and so we had to re-book the seats because the booking system automatically cancelled the seats.

 

A few weeks ago, I checked online again and now I see that the return flights have completely disappeared from the online booking system (checkmytrip.com). Apparently, Oceania in the process of moving its air reservation system from Amadeus (checkmytrip.com) to Sabre (virtuallythere.com). In the process my flights on United got turfed as they didn't port over properly.

 

The TA has called them a few times and was told they are 'working on it' now, but did tell her earlier that it would be fixed last week. I asked my TA why they couldn't just leave the existing booking on the old system and was told that one cannot use two reservation systems at once. I called Oceania myself today and the agent after checking with air deviation department told me the same thing. They are "working on it." I asked what the eta would be for resolution, and was told politely and firmly that if she knew when this was going to be fixed she would have told me. She also mentioned again that they were "working on it."

 

Maybe advance seat selection isn't a big deal to some, but this is one reason why on my next cruise, I might just arrange the air portion myself. Its a minor irritant for me that is not being resolved in what I think is a timely manner and I was not given an eta for resolution. Oceania says that my air is all arranged, but the flights say 'cancelled' online and when I call the airline directly they say they have no record of any booking under our names.

 

I'm going away for the next little while and might not be able to check my email regularly, so I was hoping that this could be resolved soon. I'm not asking for much...just the ability to reserve two seats together 1 month before I leave on pre-arranged flights, but Oceania hasn't been able to cough up a reservation number for United so I can accomplish this.

 

Any suggestions/comments?

[Druke I]

You said your Travel Agent is working on the issue.

 

While I understand your concern, why not let her/him continue to deal with it, rather than allowing yourself to get all worked up about it?

[Paulchili]

Most people have learned from their own experiences and that of others that it is best to make your own air arrangements by yourself and not to leave it to the cruise line (unless you don't care when/where/whom you fly).

[Ms Understood]

I dont have any advice but I do offer my sympathy. I would be freakin' out myself in your shoes. I am a control freak and must know that I have seats and where they are. Of course, that is why I always book my own flights. Good Luck. I am sure it will be resolved soon.

--------------

Helen

[Nuka]

Yes, I like everything in place as well ;) Lesson learned I guess.

 

I've never taken 'cruise air' before nor sailed with Oceania so I thought by paying for the deviation and difference in fare price many months ago, it would have been settled when I made the air booking and all confirmed since I made final payment some time ago. I presume that this doesn't happen often as my dealings with Oceania have been excellent so far and my friends who sail with them can only say nice things.

 

My family was planning on having a family reunion next year on an Oceania cruise at my recommendation. I'll have to consider the air arrangements for that as I don't think this type of situation would sit well with some elderly family members.

 

Does anyone know when does Oceania typically issue air tickets? I'm a month away from my planned departure of November 21st.

 

Much thanks!

[Sharicruz]

Yes, I like everything in place as well ;) Lesson learned I guess.

 

I've never taken 'cruise air' before nor sailed with Oceania so I thought by paying for the deviation and difference in fare price many months ago, it would have been settled when I made the air booking and all confirmed since I made final payment some time ago. I presume that this doesn't happen often as my dealings with Oceania have been excellent so far and my friends who sail with them can only say nice things.

 

My family was planning on having a family reunion next year on an Oceania cruise at my recommendation. I'll have to consider the air arrangements for that as I don't think this type of situation would sit well with some elderly family members.

 

Does anyone know when does Oceania typically issue air tickets? I'm a month away from my planned departure of November 21st.

 

Much thanks!

 

Hi Nuka,

 

The air is ticketed approximately 30 days prior to sailing. The tickets are e-tickets.

 

Shari

ShariCruz6

[ebobh]

For Oceania's Amazon cruise two years ago, we opted to have Oceania do the air reservations. On the return leg, they routed us from Miami through JFK New York to San Diego...if we were interested in added air miles for our rewards program, the 3-4 extra hours in transit might have been worth it; since then, we do our own with our TA's help. Between his resources, our research on Expedia and others, we have always found a great rate with good connections, etc.

 

We reserve as far in advance as we wish, get the exact route we want (within reason) and don't wait for that 30 day prior date to find out where we will go (and sit) enroute to the cruise. One more way to make the "getting to" as stress-free as possible for our vacations.

 

Bob H

[Sharicruz]

For Oceania's Amazon cruise two years ago, we opted to have Oceania do the air reservations. On the return leg, they routed us from Miami through JFK New York to San Diego...if we were interested in added air miles for our rewards program, the 3-4 extra hours in transit might have been worth it; since then, we do our own with our TA's help. Between his resources, our research on Expedia and others, we have always found a great rate with good connections, etc.

 

We reserve as far in advance as we wish, get the exact route we want (within reason) and don't wait for that 30 day prior date to find out where we will go (and sit) enroute to the cruise. One more way to make the "getting to" as stress-free as possible for our vacations.

 

Bob H

 

 

Hi Bob,

 

The air is ticketed approximately 30 days prior to sailing, however, the air itineraries are done 75 days prior to sailing.

 

Shari

ShariCruz6

[zoncom]

You sound detail oriented. Next time do your own air. You will be surprised how much $$$ you will save.

[potterhill]

Not when you fly from Canada. We have always used Oceania air and it has always been waaay cheaper than booking our own. Now, we don't do business class. Just regular economy.

 

For example on our Lisbon to Rio cruise the air on our own would have been $3300. We had an inside cabin, and our entire cruise was less than $2000/person including air and all taxes. Can't beat that. I also like to use cruise air because if you dont fly in early they wait for you. However having said that, we only went direct on our first cruise, the others we have done a deviation.

 

Mo

[Nuka]

Yes, I also found that it was much less expensive to take Oceania's air. The cheapest I could do it for was around $3000 and that was more expensive than the price of the cruise itself with the advertised 'free air'. Being from Vancouver, the Oceania air is a great deal to Europe and South America I have discovered.

 

They re-booked and ticketed me today so the flights are there now. Can't do some seat assignments yet because they have 'duplicate' fight segments booked, and Lufthansa can't fix that. Oceania tried a couple of times to fix it, but I'm still waiting for resolution. I think that their moving their reservation system didn't go as smoothly as they would have hoped. I'm confident this will be addressed shortly. The fellow I've been speaking with in reservations who has been interfacing with the flight deviation department has been great. I was a little embarrassed to ask my TA to do this for me. She would not have minded, but she had been calling them almost daily for the past few weeks to get this fixed.

 

Because of timing in rebooking the seats, I'm sitting 10-20 rows back on all of the flights from where I was originally assigned and on some I'm sitting in the middle of the plane as of now. In the end, I've decided its not something I'm going to be concerned about. I'd rather be sitting 10-20 rows back from where I hoped to be seated than not going on a holiday at all.

 

For next time, I'll know that if I have paid for a deviation, the seat assignments might change and that the booking should be monitored periodically to make sure it doesn't get cancelled or go astray.

[ClaudiaF]

I always book my own flights.. had one experience with cruiseline marathon flights and learned my lesson.

[hondorner]

I've always used Oceania's air, always with a deviation, and have always had better results than I could do on my own. On our next Oceania cruise, I declined the air and took the air credit, because I was certain I could do better on my own.

 

We're sailing from Miami, and I live just two hours away, so I didn't need any outbound air. We're headed for Barcelona, and then on to Rome on a back-to-back. So, all I needed to do was get back to Miami from Rome. I took a credit of $600 and saved $404 in air taxes on the first leg, and got another air credit for the second leg from Barcelona to Rome, and then set about to find my own flight home.

 

The results were disappointing -- the one way flights from Rome were horrendously expensive. I could have booked a round trip from Rome to Miami and back to Rome for about 1/3 of the cost, but technically that is a non-no. While they seldon do so on an individual basis, it's technically possible they could change the fee to a one-way and attempot to collect from me if I failed to take the other half of the round-trip flight.

 

Just for the heck of it, I asked my agent to ask Oceania to make a proposal for me on the flight home from Rome.

 

They came back with an itinerary on Lufthansa with one stop in Frankfurt and the shortest overall travel time of any itinerary I had seen, with a total cost, including the deviation fee (which is now up to $100 pp), that was less than any possibility I had found, including the round-trip option. MUCH less. Obviously, I let Oceania book it. I had already received around $2,000 in air credits per person. The total deviation fee and airline fare I am paying Oceania was about $600 per person. If someone knows a way to get back from Rome to Miami next April 17 on a one-way flight with only one stop for less than $600 pp, please let me know how it can be done.

[potterhill]

The only seats I really don't want ever again are at the back against the bulkhead (I think that's the correct term). They only recline about 1", and that makes for a really long trip. Happened to us once, never again. I suppose someone has to sit there if the flight is full, which is happening more often these days with fewer flights, but it doesn't have to be me. Done my time!

 

Congratulations on the upgrade. They offered us one, but it wasn't for a balconey so we turned it down. We liked the location of the room we had already booked. You will love the Rio cruise. I'd like to do it again.

 

Mo

[MightyQuinn]

If someone knows a way to get back from Rome to Miami next April 17 on a one-way flight with only one stop for less than $600 pp, please let me know how it can be done.

Have you looked at Aer Lingus? They offer one-way flights Rome to JFK via Dublin for ~250 Euros pp. You'd also need JFK to Miami but there are lotsa cheapie flights on that route. Trade-off of saving $$$ vs making an extra connection. I haven't done this personally but I've read about Aer Lingus on the Cruise Air Forum. Many helpful experts there.

[sable1]

I tried Aerlingus for return from Paris in April and they aren't offering any flights after Oct. 2009. They did have excellent rates.

I got a flight on Icelandair on April 21 from Paris to Seattle for under $600, then Southwest to Oakland for $105, p.p. Very pleased.

 

Joanne

[hondorner]

Have you looked at Aer Lingus? They offer one-way flights Rome to JFK via Dublin for ~250 Euros pp. You'd also need JFK to Miami but there are lotsa cheapie flights on that route. Trade-off of saving $$$ vs making an extra connection. I haven't done this personally but I've read about Aer Lingus on the Cruise Air Forum. Many helpful experts there.

Yep. Aer Lingus would leave Rome at 12:15 PM and get to JFK at 7:15 PM, exactly 13 hours. The fare is 252 Euros, but there is 40 Euros tax, for a total of 292 Euros, or $438 pp. There are lots of flights from JFK to Miami. They run as low as $125, but at that hour on Saturday night, they all have at least one stop and take about 12 to 13 more hours. So, I could stop in Dublin, JFK and Raleigh or Atlanta, take about 26 hours and save $38 per person.

 

Remember, my $600 pp (it's actually $601) includes Oceania's $100 pp deviation fee -- the total fare is just $501.

[MightyQuinn]

There are lots of flights from JFK to Miami. They run as low as $125, but at that hour on Saturday night, they all have at least one stop and take about 12 to 13 more hours.

Bummer that connections with Aer Lingus won’t work for you. Yes the final segment JFK-MIA would be a problem. Nevertheless Aer Lingus has some amazing deals which don’t often show up in flight booking engines.

[Nuka]

Oceania contacted my TA yesterday and after pressing by her, they did the seat selection over the phone. There are still duplicate flight segments for the outbound journey showing on the Lufthansa website and they say they will be deleted. I wouldn't have thought it mattered but Lufthansa said even though only one of the bookings is ticketed, the other still shows and this can create problems at check-in.

[2 AJ's]

Oceania contacted my TA yesterday and after pressing by her, they did the seat selection over the phone. There are still duplicate flight segments for the outbound journey showing on the Lufthansa website and they say they will be deleted. I wouldn't have thought it mattered but Lufthansa said even though only one of the bookings is ticketed, the other still shows and this can create problems at check-in.

Nuka, We are also from Vancouver. On the same cruise as you, but getting on in Venice and off in B.A. Flying Lufthansa YVR to Venice. Somehow we also got a double booking on the Air Canada partnered Lufthansa flight to Venice. Neither A.C. nor Lufthansa can get rid of it! (it's a month after our departure date). Lufthansa told us not to worry. We are only ticketed for one flight? We fly on the 31rst of Oct. I'll let you know when we get to Venice if it's a problem checking in with Lufthansa at Vancouver airport. We did our own air. Saved enough for a two day stay in Venice! cheers, A & A