Mariner Benefits/air deviation fees

[oaktreerb]

Just reading about the mariner benefits. Can somebody tell me what air deviation fees are? It might be helpful to know what this is if I should need it as I had Hal make my flight arrangements and I'm not thrilled with the 5:00 Delta flight out of Vancouver. I'd like to fly out earlier if possible. Or does it mean that they will get me to the ship if my flight is late????

[mllewis48]

If you are eligible for these fees as a mariner you can ask HAL to change your flight times and not be charged the normal fee. I experienced this on my flight to NYC for a Bermuda Cruise.

 

Good to know

[RuthC]

When you book air with HAL they generally put you on the most round-about, crazy routing possible. Cheaper that way.

For a price you can tell them what flights you want them to book. So long as it's the carriers they were using anyway, they'll do that. And collect the extra funds. That's called air deviation.

For Mariners with enough days, that fee is waived when you pick your flights and have HAL book them.

[SeaShoreX2]

We want to fly out 2 days early because it will be January and bad weather time - also because there is only 1 hour and 35 minutes between flights in Dallas/FtWorth and there will be security and a change of gates.

 

Our Ta checked and if we go 2 days early we lose our "free" hotel and they want over $500 for the 2 nights. Now they are already charging 375 more than if we booked ourselves so I feel that the hotel is already paid for and we are willing to pay for the 2nd night. I wonder if it is because they get a group booking price and want everyone to go the day before even though it is risky.

 

The other thing is that HAL will not let us choose seats - wonder why not? It shouldn't make any difference to them once a person has paid.

[RetiredMustang]

... For a price you can tell them what flights you want them to book. So long as it's the carriers they were using anyway, they'll do that. And collect the extra funds. That's called air deviation.

 

For Mariners with enough days, that fee is waived when you pick your flights and have HAL book them.

 

We are now 4-star Mariners and do not pay the deviation fee any more, but we did several times in the past. The last we did so, in 2009, the cost was USD $75 each. We thought it a good deal, because we were able to get direct flights at the time we wanted. We have done so again for our flight to embark Eurodam in Dover in a few weeks (yay!), but did not have to pay a fee to get the air deviation for the direct flights at the time we wanted.

 

However, we fly from D.C. -- usually out of Dulles to Europe airports and Reagan National to U.S. airports. I recognize that the connections are generally many and often direct from D.C. and you may not have the options that we have and may have to settle for one or more flight changes.

 

Dave

[RetiredMustang]

...

The other thing is that HAL will not let us choose seats - wonder why not? It shouldn't make any difference to them once a person has paid.

 

I have done the air with HAL several times, and only in the last few years learned how to select my seats. It may be that the airlines have changed and the WWW is now much more prevalent, or I finally broke the code or something, but I have been able to choose our seats the last few times.

 

What HAL does is give you a 6-letter/digit booking code and a link to Virtually There. With that, you can find your booking, and the airline's booking number, which is usually different than the HAL code. For us, it has been United for the last few flights. With the United code, I can go to their website and log in and choose our seats. I believe that, in general, HAL does not assign seats; the airlines do. Maybe you can have the same luck picking your seats via the airline website.

 

Dave

[DutchByAssociation]

Just want to clarify one thing with the fee. It's $50-75/pp usually for the fee, but you would also be responsible for any additional airfare if something about the change in flights makes the basic cost of the flight go up.

 

Say your air is $500/pp, you make some chages and not it's $600/pp. You would need to pay the deviation fee AND the extra $100/pp.

 

The 3/4 star benefit for removing the deviation fee gets rid of that typically $50-75/pp cost.

 

And just to touch on Ruth's comment, the flights are booked automatically in the system if I recall what I was told correctly. No one is deliberately sending anyone on an "adventure" but depending on the contracted carriers and starting/ending points as well as the contracts in place for some guests it can seem that way from time to time I suppose.

 

One last thing, and here's a great time to use a deviation. Even if you don't insist on business class or a direct flight, etc let's say you're flying with a bunch of family and you all need to get from SEA to SAN and you all get HAL air. Depending on how many slots are still available, family on those multiple bookings could be split up. Doing a deviation you can all request to be on the same flight.

[SeaShoreX2]

DBA - on one of our cruises HAL routed us from Vancouver through Toronto to Fort Laud. Trouble was, there was only one hour and 15 minutes between flights - in Toronto we would have had to pick up our luggage, usually half an hour, go through customs - who knows how long, catch a shuttle that runs every 20 minutes to another terminal 20 minutes away. There was no way we could make the connecting flight - which was the last one of the day and would have missed the sailing.

 

I knew this because my SIL had the same connections the week before and they all missed the flight.

I phoned HAL and told them about the problem - the rep that answered said it wouldn't be a problem because we wouldn't have to go through customs - when I explained that yes, we would have to collect the luggage and go through customs she was startled - asked me to hold and one hour later came back and said that our itinerary would be changed and hung up.

I found out later that they had routed a large group of people on that flight and had to change them all.

would have been nice for a thank you for the heads up.

 

So, sometimes it is a case of ignroance on the part of the folks making the arrangements but it was also the cheapest and most inconvenient routing.

[SeaShoreX2]

Dave - thanks for the tip - I will certainly give it a try - the only thing we find is that we don't get the airline information until much closer to the flight and often there are no decent seats left -have checked the flights we want to take and there are very few seats left this far out as it is.