O purchased flights, Q for those currently finishing their Cruise:

[GICNJC]

With all the flight cancellations, due to airlines cutting flights for the summer, how has O being helping with cancelled flights?  Are they helping if you are advised prior to leaving the ship or are they taking the position that "now that you have disembarked, it is up to you to deal with the issue".  Details welcome.

[Linlizz]

Our flight home was cancelled after we had checked in on line the night before we flew. Oceania found us a new one and on the same day. I only found out it had been cancelled by checking the airline and airport websites.The airline ( KLM) did not inform us and even let us check in.

[Flatbush Flyer]

9 hours ago, GICNJC said:

With all the flight cancellations, due to airlines cutting flights for the summer, how has O being helping with cancelled flights?  Are they helping if you are advised prior to leaving the ship or are they taking the position that "now that you have disembarked, it is up to you to deal with the issue".  Details welcome.

FWIW: It’s important to remember that O’s air department acts primarily as a Travel Agent selling air tix. And once you book through O, it takes on responsible for necessary tix changes. What lot’s of folks don’t realize is that any fare differences/penalties for those changes depends on whose issue is the change required:

Disembarkation port change - O issue.

Airline cancel/bump/etc - airline issue.
Your change (e.g., late airport arrival) - your problem.

 

In all cases, O as your air TA will assist w/ re-ticketing. But, O will only pay for their own problems. Note, however, that this often also includes necessary tix change fee reimbursement for DIY O passengers when O changes start/stop ports.

 

We were on Nautica’s final pre-Covid cruise in early 2020 ending in Dubai instead of Singapore. For us DIY air folks, O provided no cost satellite phone service to make air changes and provided up to $250 pp for associated air tix changes.

In another different cruise situation, exec concierge assisted with language translation related to our DIY air concerns when Max 8 planes were grounded.

 

Nonetheless, we still always DIY air -particularly for Bizclass (which even O’s Air Dept will tell you not to use O air since you receive no credit for the economy tix paid for in the original cruise fare [still required to get the Bizclass quote from them])

[pinotlover]

Let’s keep things in perspective. Things are dynamic right now.
 

If you get to the airport at 06:00 in Rome to find your connecting flight has been cancelled, it’s midnight in Miami. There’s no one at O to help you until afternoon in Rome.
 

What we discovered was that some flights were being cancelled 24-48 hours in advance. Some, particularly those intra European flights, were being cancelled by the hour. 
 

If your response is “it’s Oceania’s responsibility to fix this “ and you wait for their actions, be prepared to not quickly return home. We had passengers bumped off our international flight home.  Most were refugees from other cancellations. There are no empty seats right now.

 

The SAS debacle has made things worse. An acquaintance that just got home had to take a train from Copenhagen to Frankfurt, to catch a flight on Lufthansa, and get the only two seats he could find home. Those seats were to DCA, not JFK near where he lives. Another train home. He got home three days late, but happy to be home.

 

Will Oceania help you? I believe absolutely. If one isn’t willing or capable to help themselves, how long do you believe you might be waiting right now to even talk to O Air? We had people show up 1-2 days late for our cruise due to enroute air issues, and that doesn’t include baggage issues. A rhetorical question: whose on top the O Air in basket priority list, those trying to make it to the cruise, or those trying to get home? I’m sure that basket is overrunning right now.

 

[Flatbush Flyer]

10 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

Let’s keep things in perspective. Things are dynamic right now.
 

If you get to the airport at 06:00 in Rome to find your connecting flight has been cancelled, it’s midnight in Miami. There’s no one at O to help you until afternoon in Rome.
 

What we discovered was that some flights were being cancelled 24-48 hours in advance. Some, particularly those intra European flights, were being cancelled by the hour. 
 

If your response is “it’s Oceania’s responsibility to fix this “ and you wait for their actions, be prepared to not quickly return home. We had passengers bumped off our international flight home.  Most were refugees from other cancellations. There are no empty seats right now.

 

The SAS debacle has made things worse. An acquaintance that just got home had to take a train from Copenhagen to Frankfurt, to catch a flight on Lufthansa, and get the only two seats he could find home. Those seats were to DCA, not JFK near where he lives. Another train home. He got home three days late, but happy to be home.

 

Will Oceania help you? I believe absolutely. If one isn’t willing or capable to help themselves, how long do you believe you might be waiting right now to even talk to O Air? We had people show up 1-2 days late for our cruise due to enroute air issues, and that doesn’t include baggage issues. A rhetorical question: whose on top the O Air in basket priority list, those trying to make it to the cruise, or those trying to get home? I’m sure that basket is overrunning right now.

 

O does have an emergency number. Of course, it is focused on embarkation. But, there’s also the cruise’s  port agent at the other end of the cruise and that’s always an option to explore for assistance that may surprise some cruisers. 
In any case, what is very clear (particularly due to the current issues) is that air arrangements are almost always best done DIY - especially if you have higher end FF status with a particular airline (and its consortium). Adding a TA (or cruise air dept) to the mix most often delays necessary reticketing. 

[pinotlover]

43 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

O does have an emergency number. Of course, it is focused on embarkation. But, there’s also the cruise’s  port agent at the other end of the cruise and that’s always an option to explore for assistance that may surprise some cruisers. 
In any case, what is very clear (particularly due to the current issues) is that air arrangements are almost always best done DIY - especially if you have higher end FF status with a particular airline (and its consortium). Adding a TA (or cruise air dept) to the mix most often delays necessary reticketing. 

I can’t speak for all airlines, but the lines for assistance we saw we lllooonnngg! The staff was making regular announcements saying “ if you booked through a Travel Agent or other ticket consolidater, you need to call that Agent for assistance “. Not only was those with tickets from Expedia, Cheap-O Air, etc, being caught up in this but also the Cruise Air people. That port Agent had all they could handle ( and more) with direct sales.