There Really is a Live Body Who Answers the Emergency Hot Line Number

[Gail Boertzel]

I have often wondered what would happen if one needed to call and found out on October 19th when I went online to print boarding passes. We were scheduled to fly Lufthansa to Munich on October 20th to connect to Rome arriving on October 21st. Arrangements were made by Oceania. At 10pm I learned our flights were canceled. I then did a little checking and found out that the reason was due to pilots staging a one day strike. I called Lufthansa on one phone and Oceania on another phone holding both phones to my ears to see whose "hold" would be shorter. Although it took quite a while, Oceania won. The Oceania representative (and I apologize because now I have forgotten her name) was well aware of the problem and was working on rebooking over 100 people. She said she was unable to get through to Lufthansa through her means either. I asked her to call me whenever she had news, regardless of the hour. We spoke two more times because needless to say I was not sleeping and at 2 am she advised me that she had rebooked us. We actually had better arrangements (which I would guess cost Oceania) in that it was now a direct flight to Rome. And we arrived much earlier in the day allowing us to walk around Citavecchia and board at 11am and enjoy a leisurely first day on board the Nautica. So often we are all guilty of only posting criticism and not recognizing a job well done, so just wanted to share a positive experience.

[Solar Yellow]

I had a similar experience in May with a last minute flight cancellation. The lady at Oceania went above and beyond!

[RJB]

I had a similar experience in May with a last minute flight cancellation. The lady at Oceania went above and beyond!

Nice to hear good things here. Mostly we just get complaints. I know how wonderful Oceania is but I guess I do not post enough of the praise. :):)

[Hunding]

It's so great to read about the good stuff, isn't it? Really. We read about the bad so often, and it's happened to all of us now and then; but we rarely read about the good - and the truth is that's happened to all of us, too. And most of the time - most of the time things are pretty swell, and a lot of people are working very hard to make sure that's true. Thanks for your post, Gail.

[TERRIER1]

If you take the deviation and fly Oceania air and something goes wrong (ie missed connection) do you call Oceania or do you call the airline?

[I&J Cruisers]

We had a simulate experience a few years ago when traveling to a Regent cruise. We arrived at the gate prior to the scheduled departure time for an Air France connection in Paris to Stockholm. The plane had left early without us. This was handled smoothly by Regent reps. When we arrived much later than expected they were there to meet us.

 

 

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[rallydave]

If you take the deviation and fly Oceania air and something goes wrong (ie missed connection) do you call Oceania or do you call the airline?

 

Assuming you are at the airport, first thing to do is to talk to the airline people at the customer service desk. If there is a line, get the airline on the phone while you wait and hopefully they can take care of you before the people in front of you are standing and waiting for the next agent.

 

Your partner at this point can also phone Oceania and perhaps they can work faster than the people at the airport or on the phone but, most likely the airline people will sort out a solution quicker. Remember, Oceania purchases airline tickets for you as a service and per the ticket contract, Oceania is NOT responsible for delays. You have an airline ticket no different than anybody else who is flying so it is the airline's responsibility to get you to where you are going.

 

That being said, there are some cases where Oceania may be able to help you if your airline doesn't have more flights that day and won't put you on a competitor airline and Oceania might be able to get you another ticket on another carrier and get you to your destination earlier but. Always best to do everything you can to get your flight changed and not stand around waiting for a phone call back. Person to person at the customer service desk works great but, having the airline on speed dial and waiting on the phone while in line often times puts you ahead of people standing in front of you waiting. Don't wait and phone/wait for anybody you can. Also have your partner in another line waiting and first one to the desk can take care of both of you. Sometimes lines get bogged down so two in different lines better than one.

 

Lets hope you don't need these ideas but, better to be prepared. Don't put all of your eggs in one basket as the airlines can change things real time while Oceania may have people ahead of you and need to phone you back once they solve the issue.

[TERRIER1]

Thanks RallyDave. We have been lucky so far but the law of statistics says that luck isn't going last forever. Better to be prepared.