Air Deviation or Book Our Own?

[iMarco46]

Hello --

 

DW and I are sailing Sirena from Lisbon to Le Havre 2016.

 

Currently not having much luck finding award space (Business or First) with American and/or Lufthansa. CLT-LIS and CDG-CLT; CLT is an Oceania gateway.

 

Oceania indicates that they can assist with using mileage programs:

Leave the Flying to Us

The Oceania Cruises FREE AIRFARE Program* is available in Coach Class from the 26 U.S. and Canadian gateways listed on this page. Air transportation from cities not listed on the chart can be arranged upon request at an additional charge. Business and First Class airfares are also available for purchase. On bookings that include air travel, the air arrangements, including routings and selection of air carrier, are at Oceania Cruises’ sole discretion and are based on flight availability and agreements among various airlines and Oceania Cruises. Should you encounter a flight delay or travel interruption, we will make arrangements to assist you or rebook you on another flight at no additional cost to get you to your destination. If you have a preferred air carrier, a mileage program or special scheduling requests, you may wish to make customized changes to the air arrangements provided by Oceania Cruises. For a modest fee, our custom air department is available to assist with specific flight requests.

 

How much assistance can we expect from the Oceania custom air department?

 

Any tips or suggestions for making flight arrangements would be greatly appreciated.

[LHT28]

You can ask for specific flights (look at the routes you want) submit the flight numbers/dates to Oceania (via your TA if you used one) to the air dept

They will tell you if they are available sometimes an upcharge will apply

You have 48 hr to approve them ...if you like the flights you pay the non refundable deviation fee if you do not like the offering ask again for different flights or ask what they can give you

 

The flights are in economy class ..if you want bus or EC then you pay more

 

Compare prices what you can get on your own & what Oceania will get you including the Deviation fee then make the choice that works best for you

 

The O air can work for some but not for everyone ..personal choice

[tropicalkerry2002]

Not sure if this is what you are asking, but

 

I don't believe Oceania will help you find an AWARD flight.

 

If you are a member of a frequent flier program on any airline, you can request your deviation flights to be on those airlines or their partners.

 

We have either always deviated on a Star Alliance partner, OR used a flight reward that we booked on our own.

[buggins0402]

Hello --

 

DW and I are sailing Sirena from Lisbon to Le Havre 2016.

 

Currently not having much luck finding award space (Business or First) with American and/or Lufthansa. CLT-LIS and CDG-CLT; CLT is an Oceania gateway.

 

Oceania indicates that they can assist with using mileage programs:

 

 

How much assistance can we expect from the Oceania custom air department?

 

Any tips or suggestions for making flight arrangements would be greatly appreciated.

 

For finding award travel, you might want to post your question on the CC cruise air board. It can be a tough group there, but if you are specific on what you are looking for, they are also a great resource.

Edited September 20, 2015 by buggins0402

[ORV]

If you are asking if they will help you book using your miles the answer is no.

 

What they are saying is that if you use an airline that you are wanting to earn miles on then you should pay the deviation where you can choose the airline you want to fly on. The cost is $175 per person. You can also pick your time and flights.

[Hawaiidan]

First....American is super tight with European awards and charges prem. miles

This Is why many folks who plan on awards use UA/Star alliance... way more options and way less miles... Lisbon to Laharve are 2 very poor variety flight choices... I suggest you try booking using Amsterdam, Frankfurt ( avoid anything in UK as they UK will tax your FF miles) as possible sources of arrival or departure. and train it or the like.

 

Here is how and what I was told on a recent inquiry . First they charge $175pp to look, then when they find a flight they will take the contract air price they would have paid for you in their route and apply it to the route you want. In every case I have seen it was an additional charge of sever hundred more dollars( on top of the deviation fee.. so about $800 to $1000 more than the included air.

 

I requested a quote for how much for business an Oceania said that would cost an additional $1700 pp bringing the total to about $2700.00 pp.....each way !!!

 

On some cruises they offer$800 pp Business up grades...for the non-domestic portion only. That means on flight Chicago to Lisbon that changes in Miami or NY enroute, only the over-water segment will be in business .

 

Playing the award game requires a long range plan and booking within 7-10 days of first release of seats.. Booking after that is not at the saver rates but the milage. I will say using my UAL miles I have never been denied a low-miles business seat anywhere.. for the past 15 years...

For now you ,in most cases do much better on your own and be spared the back and forth proposals. Look at hidden cities and major hubs like AMS/FRA/MUC not the off- hub places Recently I shopped an award Palm Springs to Malta... business best was 300,000 mi @ however I changed my departure LAX 100 miles away and it it was 164,000 mi@..... So think out of the box Forget CLT and start shopping MIA-NY-IAD for going and returning to because CLT is not a big variety place to shop....it commands a premium of miles . You can buy super cheap US domestic fare to a major-market hub and better your chances

For the future, this is why many of us do open-jaw type cruises that end up back in the US or a very Major overseas city withLOTS of flight

Edited September 20, 2015 by Hawaiidan

[ORV]

Not sure if this is what you are asking, but

 

I don't believe Oceania will help you find an AWARD flight.

 

If you are a member of a frequent flier program on any airline, you can request your deviation flights to be on those airlines or their partners.

 

We have either always deviated on a Star Alliance partner, OR used a flight reward that we booked on our own.

 

Sorry, I didn't see your reply when I posted. I guess I said basically the same thing.

[ronrick1943]

Check with the airlines, sometimes they have Business and First at a discount for advance buying. I don't think "O" can help on awards. I would just keep checking if you want awards. I've found they turn up at any time.

 

Rick

[iMarco46]

...I don't believe Oceania will help you find an AWARD flight...

We have either always deviated on a Star Alliance partner, OR used a flight reward that we booked on our own.

 

...Forget CLT and start shopping MIA-NY-IAD for going and returning to because CLT is not a big variety place to shop....it commands a premium of miles . You can buy super cheap US domestic fare to a major-market hub and better your chances

For the future, this is why many of us do open-jaw type cruises that end up back in the US or a very Major overseas city withLOTS of flight

 

Thanks to all who responded with policy clarifications and suggestions.

 

We won't attempt to fly to the USA from Le Havre -- planning to stay in Paris post-cruise and CDG will likely be the departure airport for the return.

 

Has anyone been successful upgrading to Business from the "inclusive" Economy reservations made by Oceania?

[LHT28]

Has anyone been successful upgrading to Business from the "inclusive" Economy reservations made by Oceania?

We did EC on BA via Oceania for a fee

we have also just booked at check in for BUS class for a fee of course;)

[Paulchili]

First....American is super tight with European awards and charges prem. miles

This Is why many folks who plan on awards use UA/Star alliance... way more options and way less miles...

 

(Bolding mine)

For the sake of accuracy, let's get it right with actual numbers.

Here are the facts:

Award miles needed for US to Europe flights in Business & First:

UA metal - 57.5K Business/ 80K First AA metal 50K Bus /62.5 First

When using partners:

*A partners 70K Bus /110K F OW partners same as AA metal 50K/62.5K

FWIW, these numbers are even more skewed towards AA/OW when using miles to Asia (i.e.Japan) - AA/OW 50/62.5 vs UA 65/80 vs *A 75/110.

I think these figures show very clearly which airline (and its partners) require fewer miles (hint - it ain't UA :))

As far as availability - actually they both suck lately (and are getting worse as we speak). That is why I accumulate miles in both programs as the availability varies from time to time and from destination to destination.

From my personal experience - of the last and future 17 international redemptions to Europe, Asia and Africa (all in premium class), 12 were with AA miles and 5 were with UA miles.

As always, YMMV :)

[Mura]

We usually book our own, especially if we want biz or better. (These days, usually we do.) We HAVE taken O's air when the itinerary was such that getting an open jaw was impossible. For example, a few years ago we had to fly to Miami from NYC, then back from Barcelona. There was no way I could find a reasonable flight. So we used O's.

 

If you ask for biz air on O it is usually extremely expensive (ignoring if you have miles or not, we haven't been able to make that work). Plus it's okay for us -- we did book their "restricted" biz air at a reasonable rate when we did a TA from NY to Dover, then flew back from Heathrow. But the problem with restricted biz air is that it's business over water ... but if you are flying over land once you hit the U.S. then you are in ECONOMY.

 

So be sure of the details.

 

When booking O's air we always take a deviation because we want to have a few days pre- and post-cruise.

 

It can take a fair amount of research to figure out what is best for you.

 

Mura

[iMarco46]

...As far as availability - actually they both suck lately (and are getting worse as we speak).

 

Same experience here -- even tried engaging an award booking service... no success.

...If you ask for biz air on O it is usually extremely expensive

 

The current O biz offer for our 2016 cruise is beyond expensive... it's higher than retail First/Business fares !! (F,D and I)

 

Oceania Business:

.........$3698 X 2 = $7396

Air Deviation:

............$175 X 2 = 350

 

Total:...............$7746

:eek::eek:

 

It can take a fair amount of research to figure out what is best for you.

Mura

 

You can say that again!

It can take a fair amount of research to figure out what is best for you.

 

:D

 

Thanks all for sharing experiences and suggestions.

 

Spent a great deal of time yesterday grinding through the air options and eventually found a decent value... subtraction of the $1200/person Air Credit from the cruise price made the DIY airfares even more palatable.

 

Cheers!

[Mura]

Regarding O's fees for business class, we got a reasonable deal once - one way from London to JFK. But every other time the price quote was stratospheric. Indeed, cheaper to go to the airline than through O.

 

Still, I haven't checked this out in quite a while so perhaps things have changed ... or might.

 

Mura

[StanandJim]

For flying round-trip to a given city, Oceania's Air will often be comparatively expensive, but on open jaw routes they can be a lifesaver.

 

It only takes a few minutes to price out both options, so why leave a potential bargain on the table?

[Hawaiidan]

As a longtime UA traveler who likes to fly first andBusiness I have a lot of experience for getting their seats for miles

In the past weeks, however UA has introduced a new computer format that now, appears to do away with the tradition of releasing the lowest miles seats at 330 days out.

With the new tactic, they now release the saver rewards 5 to 10 days prior to the actual flight date. They,I guess, figure most people are too nervous to wait for a flight to open up days before the needed departure date.

Some people I know are using the tactic of securing the wanted route with the full non saver points. Then in the last days paying the change fee of like $50 to re use the miles for the saver rate and pay the necessary deposit fee for the excess miles.

This appears to be a new trend and tactic evolving worth considering.

 

Also yes I have taken O's econ air, and made it known if they offered a business class up-grades I was interested. This was on a flight LAX to PPT that was a charter by the line. 30 days prior to the cruise I was offered a up-grade for $700.00pp But remember this was on a charter not a scheduled carrier.