"O" air - what's offered, what you picked if you deviated, and what it cost.

[golfguyhhi]

I guess I've been living in the dark for a while as I had no idea business class fares had gotten so high. I'm taking Marina's grand voyage from Rome to London next year and thought I would be able to deviate upwards to business class.

 

I think that may not be possible based on the $7000 +/- per person one way rate I found.

 

For any of you who may have flown from Atlanta to Rome and/or London to Atlanta in the last year, may I ask:

1. If you accepted "O" air as offered, was it coach class (I presume it was, but want to be sure)? Was it non-stop?

2. If you deviated by stepping up to Coach Economy, what was the up-charge (beyond the deviation cost)? And did you go nonstop?

3. If you deviated by stepping up to Business class, what was the up-charge (beyond the deviation fee)? And did you go nonstop?

 

Thanks in advance for helping me with this information.

[CB BOARDER]

I guess I've been living in the dark for a while as I had no idea business class fares had gotten so high. I'm taking Marina's grand voyage from Rome to London next year and thought I would be able to deviate upwards to business class.

 

I think that may not be possible based on the $7000 +/- per person one way rate I found.

 

For any of you who may have flown from Atlanta to Rome and/or London to Atlanta in the last year, may I ask:

1. If you accepted "O" air as offered, was it coach class (I presume it was, but want to be sure)? Was it non-stop?

2. If you deviated by stepping up to Coach Economy, what was the up-charge (beyond the deviation cost)? And did you go nonstop?

3. If you deviated by stepping up to Business class, what was the up-charge (beyond the deviation fee)? And did you go nonstop?

 

Thanks in advance for helping me with this information.

 

For any of you who may have flown from Atlanta to Rome and/or London to Atlanta in the last year, may I ask:

 

1. If you accepted "O" air as offered, was it coach class (I presume it was, but want to be sure)? Was it non-stop?

 

We accepted "O" air for a cruise this summer. The deviation was $175.00pp. There's only 1 direct flight to Rome from Atlanta and we were able to book it. FYI - that flight does book up quick as it is the only non-stop to Rome.

 

2. If you deviated by stepping up to Coach Economy, what was the up-charge (beyond the deviation cost)? And did you go nonstop?

 

"O" air doesn't offer premium economy on Delta. However you can book it directly with Delta.

 

3. If you deviated by stepping up to Business class, what was the up-charge (beyond the deviation fee)? And did you go nonstop?

 

 

If you want Business class you'll have to upgrade with "O" and it's quite expensive unless they're offering an incentive.

Edited April 10, 2016 by CB BOARDER

[rallydave]

I guess I've been living in the dark for a while as I had no idea business class fares had gotten so high. I'm taking Marina's grand voyage from Rome to London next year and thought I would be able to deviate upwards to business class.

 

I think that may not be possible based on the $7000 +/- per person one way rate I found.

 

For any of you who may have flown from Atlanta to Rome and/or London to Atlanta in the last year, may I ask:

1. If you accepted "O" air as offered, was it coach class (I presume it was, but want to be sure)? Was it non-stop?

2. If you deviated by stepping up to Coach Economy, what was the up-charge (beyond the deviation cost)? And did you go nonstop?

3. If you deviated by stepping up to Business class, what was the up-charge (beyond the deviation fee)? And did you go nonstop?

 

Thanks in advance for helping me with this information.

 

1. If you accepted "O" air as offered, was it coach class (I presume it was, but want to be sure)? Was it non-stop?

 

Only your first question above can be specifically answered. Yes, O air is coach. Non-stop may or may not occur depending on a lot of circumstances and you will only find out about 75 days before departure and most likely too late to make any changes.

 

2. If you deviated by stepping up to Coach Economy, what was the up-charge (beyond the deviation cost)? And did you go nonstop?

 

Assume you mean Premium Coach or what a particular airline offers and don't believe O will offer this option. In some circumstances you might be able to upgrade to Premium Coach depending on the airline and when your flights are ticketed. Again non-stop is hit or miss.

 

3. If you deviated by stepping up to Business class, what was the up-charge (beyond the deviation fee)? And did you go nonstop?

 

Using the word deviated to go Business can be confusing as you don't pay the deviation fee if only changing to Business. Paying the deviation fee gets you your choice of flights, if available and upcharges are very dependent on your flights so you have to ask as they range from zero to extremely high. And to change from coach to business is extremely expensive and depends on a lot of factors so ask your TA. Again, non-stop is also dependent on many factors and you may or may not go non-stop without deviating and possibly paying more. If you are going to deviate, the sooner the better starting 270 days before your cruise. The longer you wait from that point, the greater is the likelyhood of paying more for your flights and lower chances of non-stop flights.

 

Really, only the first question can be answered with confidence, O included air is coach. You are going to in most likelyhood get the most

[LHT28]

Just to add

Oceania included air is economy & only on the day the cruise begins & ends

(overseas you will leave the night before but arrive embarkation day)

Deviation applies to flying in early or leaving later than the cruise dates not to the seat status

 

options ...1)take the air credit & book your own flights

2)pay the deviation fee choose the flights you want & pray you can upgrade at check in

 

3) see the cost to upgrade with Oceania

There are some promos for upgrades for a fee

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/special-offers/premium-economy-air/

 

4) if you have FF miles use them & take the air credit (varies by sailing)

[Mura]

My experience has been that a business upgrade with O's flights costs more than booking on your own. As CB Boarder said, sometimes there is an incentive that makes it worth using O's air. But for all the times I have checked only once did we find an incentive that made it worth using O's air for business class.

 

Also, if you have one stop or more, O's business class fare becomes economy if you have a leg that is flying over land.

 

Mura

[Coco Putty]

My recollection i that my TA said that if we booked the O hotel offered for pre or post-cruise stay, then the $175 charge for deviation is waived on that leg of the flight for which you have booked your O hotel stay.

[rallydave]

My recollection i that my TA said that if we booked the O hotel offered for pre or post-cruise stay, then the $175 charge for deviation is waived on that leg of the flight for which you have booked your O hotel stay.

 

Yes, that is true but, not the entire story. Hotels are booked at a per person price and you might just pay more in the long run than paying the deviation and booking your own hotel. Cruise lines are notoriously extremely expensive when booking hotels thru them.

 

In all cases with air included, you need to compare prices of several scenarios including all costs to see where you get the best bang for your buck. One size does not fit all and comparing with other people may or may not be comparible to your specific situation.

[Flatbush Flyer]

My experience has been that a business upgrade with O's flights costs more than booking on your own. As CB Boarder said, sometimes there is an incentive that makes it worth using O's air. But for all the times I have checked only once did we find an incentive that made it worth using O's air for business class.

 

 

 

Also, if you have one stop or more, O's business class fare becomes economy if you have a leg that is flying over land.

 

 

 

Mura

 

 

Even when the air credit is low, we take it to offset the cost of making our own air arrangements, including upgrading purchased economy tickets to Business on Star Alliance flights with United FF points or even using a ton of points to get business tix on the most direct non-stop international flights.

[buggins0402]

I'm another DL hub cruiser. I just put in my flight info on the website for our one-way deviated tickets. Now that it is past the point where O has actually purchased the ticket, I have been given the choice for a premium economy upgrade at $99 pp for the one way. That is the same offer as I received for our FF return flights which I opted for a while ago. There were only center seats available for the O flights...mulling whether to bite on them. As you probably know, DL's premium economy isn't that "premium".

Edited April 11, 2016 by buggins0402

[sitraveler]

We are deviating on return from Lisbon. My flight, set by O, is TAP nonstop to EWR. When I looked at the reservation I found we were assigned a 2 across, fairly forward. It's even a mileage plus member. On many routes I have found we have a nonstop 1way, 1 stop the other.

We had O set flights many times and have been very pleased. For USA itineraries, the credit can cover, but with less than perfect hours.

It helps to get to gold status though.

[Acrusa]

I was under the impression when deviating you contact the airline to arrange your seat assignment not O.

[buggins0402]

Our deviations have come back with seat assignments. Once you put in the flight locator from the O invoice on the airline website it allows you to change if you want (at least on DL website). I should clarify my previous message that our assigned seats were a window and aisle. It was the available premium economy seats that DL offered as a $99 upgrade when I checked the status of the air reservation which were in the center.

 

I probably should have checked sooner. We're both short so the extra few inches DL gives for it's premium economy doesn't make a big difference for us.... so I'm debating whether to spend the extra $200.

 

Some airlines are charging extra for any seat assignments now, so I wonder how that works with the O deviations? My deviated flight also doesn't come up as a pending flight under my FF account - I have to track it separately.

[Bowie MeMe]

I suggest that you go to the Cruise Air forum here on Cruise Critic and read the "sticky" at the top on Cruise air and deviations. You need to know as the consumer what you are getting for cruise air. Some will have instances where it makes sense to buy cruise air but in my 30 years of arranging my own travel I have never personally found cruise air to be acceptable let alone better. My first rule is always arrive at the port city at least one day before embarkation -- thus cruise air does not work for me. Rule two is always work as close to the supplier of travel services as possible. I book hotels with the hotel itself or with their corporate booking office (ie Hilton, Marriott etc) and I book air with the airline itself -- not a 3rd party like the elf or the small boat or anything with cheap in its title. The cruise line in this instance (air and hotel) is a 3rd party supplier and they are charging you for the convenience. Some find value in having someone do these tasks for you but understand that you are then then the customer of the cruiseline 3rd party not the hotel or airline. I particularly do not like to pay deviation fees -- extra premiums for something I can do better and cheaper for myself and without paying for the right to make the arrangements suit my needs.

 

About one way tickets to Europe. I found the same problems in booking my air for HAL's Rotterdam to Boston voyage of the Vikings. The one way ticket to Europe was about double the cost of roundtrip ticket $3,000 + economy in July 2016). Supposedly there are serious problems with using only one part of a ticket and throwing the other. Never consider using only the 2nd half of a roundtrip ticket -- it will be cancelled if you don't fly the 1st half. Some say this is the time to use a 3rd party. I did a a variation. I used my credit card to buy frequent flyer miles (and got several bonus point options) then used the miles to get an award ticket one way (how awards are managed one way segments so no extra premium for one way ticket). These things are always changing and can vary widely from airline to airline but the folks on the cruise air forum are great to help you figure it out. Learn a bit about cruise air/other options and then choose what is best for your own situation (and each trip can have different reasoning). What I have learned about air/travel planning here has saved me thousands of dollars and met my needs. Your experience may be different and that's great too.

[rallydave]

I suggest that you go to the Cruise Air forum here on Cruise Critic and read the "sticky" at the top on Cruise air and deviations. You need to know as the consumer what you are getting for cruise air. Some will have instances where it makes sense to buy cruise air but in my 30 years of arranging my own travel I have never personally found cruise air to be acceptable let alone better. My first rule is always arrive at the port city at least one day before embarkation -- thus cruise air does not work for me. Rule two is always work as close to the supplier of travel services as possible. I book hotels with the hotel itself or with their corporate booking office (ie Hilton, Marriott etc) and I book air with the airline itself -- not a 3rd party like the elf or the small boat or anything with cheap in its title. The cruise line in this instance (air and hotel) is a 3rd party supplier and they are charging you for the convenience. Some find value in having someone do these tasks for you but understand that you are then then the customer of the cruiseline 3rd party not the hotel or airline. I particularly do not like to pay deviation fees -- extra premiums for something I can do better and cheaper for myself and without paying for the right to make the arrangements suit my needs.

 

About one way tickets to Europe. I found the same problems in booking my air for HAL's Rotterdam to Boston voyage of the Vikings. The one way ticket to Europe was about double the cost of roundtrip ticket $3,000 + economy in July 2016). Supposedly there are serious problems with using only one part of a ticket and throwing the other. Never consider using only the 2nd half of a roundtrip ticket -- it will be cancelled if you don't fly the 1st half. Some say this is the time to use a 3rd party. I did a a variation. I used my credit card to buy frequent flyer miles (and got several bonus point options) then used the miles to get an award ticket one way (how awards are managed one way segments so no extra premium for one way ticket). These things are always changing and can vary widely from airline to airline but the folks on the cruise air forum are great to help you figure it out. Learn a bit about cruise air/other options and then choose what is best for your own situation (and each trip can have different reasoning). What I have learned about air/travel planning here has saved me thousands of dollars and met my needs. Your experience may be different and that's great too.

 

+1, Excellent Post with one minor exception. You correctly state that if you don't take the first part of a round trip airline ticket, the return becomes unusable.

 

The solution to one way tickets to or from Europe is to make the flight you want to take the beginning of the round trip ticket and simply use the ticket for your flight to Rotterdam and throw away the return. As long as you don't make a habit of doing this with the same airline, there is no problem as this only taking the first part of a round trip happens for many reasons without repercussions.

 

For instance, if you have a cruise one way say Rome to Dubai, you buy a round trip ticket from your home airport Rome and a round ticket from Dubai to your home airport, use the first flight on each round trip and discard both returns. Works best with a TA as described but, sometimes it works for an Open Jaw like I described where the airline does not have an Open Jaw price.

[golfguyhhi]

Thank you all for such great information. Very, very helpful.

[Bowie MeMe]

+1, Excellent Post with one minor exception. You correctly state that if you don't take the first part of a round trip airline ticket, the return becomes unusable.

 

The solution to one way tickets to or from Europe is to make the flight you want to take the beginning of the round trip ticket and simply use the ticket for your flight to Rotterdam and throw away the return. As long as you don't make a habit of doing this with the same airline, there is no problem as this only taking the first part of a round trip happens for many reasons without repercussions.

 

For instance, if you have a cruise one way say Rome to Dubai, you buy a round trip ticket from your home airport Rome and a round ticket from Dubai to your home airport, use the first flight on each round trip and discard both returns. Works best with a TA as described but, sometimes it works for an Open Jaw like I described where the airline does not have an Open Jaw price.

This works. I don't TA often and usually I can get an open-jaw fairly easily when I need to come and go. For the Rotterdam to Boston I was lucky enough to buy United miles plus points at 1/2 price (United sale promotion)and turn those into one way tickets (economy x 2 people) and then those miles plus the upgrade to economy + gave me double reward miles on the CC and so the bottom line was 2 economy plus tickets Washington to Frankfurt Germany for about $500 each. Cheaper than roundtrip and throwing one half. AND I got to erase about $300 on the United points. That cruise has final payment today and I just rebooked for $1000 less plus all gratuities paid. I am feeling like the bargain QUEEN! I have learned so many ways to arrange travels that meet my needs/save me money/ or add value to my trip: Cruise Critic is a post graduate course in travel planning. Thanks for all the help.

Edited April 13, 2016 by Bowie MeMe

[pinotlover]

Just from a personal note, upgrading your seat once booked by Oceania can be difficult to change. We did a deviation through Oceania and paid the fee for a ticket we thought was booked through UA. What Oceania actually did was ticket the domestic leg via UA, but booked the long haul on SAS. We attempted to upgrade to SAS P.E.

 

First, SAS would not talk to us direct, only O that booked the flight.

Second, O Air would not talk to us direct.

Third, everything goes through the TA.

 

O had booked the flight at such a low fare code that upgrading to P.E. would have been as expensive as buying a new ticket. SAS, then decided that they would not entertain offers to upgrade until 24 hours before flight time. None of this happened straight line, but over multiple days because we had to make our request to our TA who would call O. O Air, on their schedule would then call SAS. Then the schedule would repeat it self coming back, typically 3-4 days. Then we would ask a question with a request and the process would start over again. Had O ticketed the flight with UA, we could have made changes direct with UA, with our status thereon. Booking the long haul leg through SAS, killed all of that. We ended up keeping the seats we were earlier assigneds because upgrading to mere PE was over $1K for one leg of the flight because of the low ticket code purchased by Oceania!