di T Posted November 1, 2022 #1 Share Posted November 1, 2022 Sorry if this has been asked,We took the onboard credit instead of the drink package. will we be able to pay our daily service charge with obc? Thanks,Dianne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted November 1, 2022 #2 Share Posted November 1, 2022 Yes You are just paying upfront for the Gratuities anyway by taking the OBC perk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Cruise Junky Posted November 2, 2022 #3 Share Posted November 2, 2022 There is no point taking OBC. The price increase you pay between cruise only and an OLife perk is exactly the same as the OBC you receive. Make sure you do the math with taking OLife. If the OBC is $600, will you get $600 worth of drinks at lunch and dinner out of that? Sometimes booking cruise only is your best bet. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EasyGoingGuy Posted November 2, 2022 #4 Share Posted November 2, 2022 I'm not sure I follow you. I think what you're referring to is the "With OLife Choice* package, enjoy 2 for 1 Cruise Fares, Roundtrip Airfare and Airport Transfers* plus choose one: ... ". As I understand it, this is the airfare included price. I always take 'cruise only' (no airfare) price and always choose the OBC. For non-airfare travelers I believe this (or shore excursions or beverage package depending on your preference) is the best value (coupled with some O 'kickbacks' from the TA). Anyone agree/disagree? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flatbush Flyer Posted November 2, 2022 #5 Share Posted November 2, 2022 7 hours ago, EasyGoingGuy said: I'm not sure I follow you. I think what you're referring to is the "With OLife Choice* package, enjoy 2 for 1 Cruise Fares, Roundtrip Airfare and Airport Transfers* plus choose one: ... ". As I understand it, this is the airfare included price. I always take 'cruise only' (no airfare) price and always choose the OBC. For non-airfare travelers I believe this (or shore excursions or beverage package depending on your preference) is the best value (coupled with some O 'kickbacks' from the TA). Anyone agree/disagree? You’re confusing your terms: The published “cruise only” fare includes no O Life perk options. The “O Life” fare includes the O Life perk option of your choice plus economy air tix OR a DIY air credit (which you can opt for when you book). That said, as has been pointed out: choosing the O Life SBC perk is a $ wash with the fare paid. In most cases, the best O Life perk remains the allowable excursions which can have a value that is double the SBC perk. Also, O Life tour picks count toward your cruise’s minimum tour buy requirement for the 25% YWYW discount on any paid ones. IMO, the booze choice is only worthwhile if you upgrade it to the “prestige package” with mostly unlimited spirits ($20 pp/per day additional charge). But, even that only gets you mediocre wines on the wine-by-the-glass list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
di T Posted November 2, 2022 Author #6 Share Posted November 2, 2022 Thanks for the reply’s,We book in the Uk and although we have cruised over 40 times with other cruise lines ( most with Celebrity) thought we would give Oceania a try! I booked without the airfare as I always like to tailor the trip with some stays in the area of the embarkation port. The excursions on the cruise from Barcelona are of no interest to us as we have traveled to all the areas many times.So I thought take the $600 obc and use it for the daily tips. Looking forward to see if Oceania food is as good as reported! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted November 2, 2022 #7 Share Posted November 2, 2022 8 hours ago, EasyGoingGuy said: I'm not sure I follow you. I think what you're referring to is the "With OLife Choice* package, enjoy 2 for 1 Cruise Fares, Roundtrip Airfare and Airport Transfers* plus choose one: ... ". As I understand it, this is the airfare included price. I always take 'cruise only' (no airfare) price and always choose the OBC. For non-airfare travelers I believe this (or shore excursions or beverage package depending on your preference) is the best value (coupled with some O 'kickbacks' from the TA). Anyone agree/disagree? If you take the "cruise only" fare not OBC or excursion/drinks are in that price so you must be paying for those Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeedToChill Posted November 2, 2022 #8 Share Posted November 2, 2022 Seems like a lot of people are used to being the smartest person in the room. 🤔 😉 To answer the original question directly, yes, you can use OBC for everything that is charged to your account, which includes gratuities. But I assume you gathered that. As for what's "best," your mileage may vary. In our case, the difference between the cruise only and Olife fare at the time of booking was barely more than the cost of airfare if we were to do it ourselves. Since Olife includes airfare, we took it, and OBC, because we don't drink and we're only interested in 2 or 3 excursions in 23 days. There's a reason it's called Olife *Choice*. Have a great time aboard! --Julian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shepherd really Posted November 2, 2022 #9 Share Posted November 2, 2022 3 minutes ago, NeedToChill said: Seems like a lot of people are used to being the smartest person in the room. 🤔 😉 To answer the original question directly, yes, you can use OBC for everything that is charged to your account, which includes gratuities. But I assume you gathered that. As for what's "best," your mileage may vary. In our case, the difference between the cruise only and Olife fare at the time of booking was barely more than the cost of airfare if we were to do it ourselves. Since Olife includes airfare, we took it, and OBC, because we don't drink and we're only interested in 2 or 3 excursions in 23 days. There's a reason it's called Olife *Choice*. Have a great time aboard! --Julian Olife and airfare are two separate things. You can choose either one without the other or neither one. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted November 2, 2022 #10 Share Posted November 2, 2022 10 minutes ago, NeedToChill said: Seems like a lot of people are used to being the smartest person in the room. 🤔 😉 No it is just some of us understand the O Life Choice benefit 🙄 But if it works for you then take the OBC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeedToChill Posted November 2, 2022 #11 Share Posted November 2, 2022 10 minutes ago, shepherd really said: Olife and airfare are two separate things. You can choose either one without the other or neither one. Interesting. Does that depend on your loyalty level? On the booking page they don't say they can be split: "With OLife Choice*, our limited-time inclusive package, enjoy 2 for 1 Cruise Fares, Roundtrip Airfare and Airport Transfers* plus choose one..." --Julian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted November 2, 2022 #12 Share Posted November 2, 2022 5 minutes ago, NeedToChill said: Interesting. Does that depend on your loyalty level? On the booking page they don't say they can be split: "With OLife Choice*, our limited-time inclusive package, enjoy 2 for 1 Cruise Fares, Roundtrip Airfare and Airport Transfers* plus choose one..." --Julian No anyone can book the cruise with air/olife Without air but with O Life without OLife with air Cruise only no air or O Life If you can find a TA that deals a lot with Oceania they can help with the booking process to get the best deal for you 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shepherd really Posted November 2, 2022 #13 Share Posted November 2, 2022 6 minutes ago, NeedToChill said: Interesting. Does that depend on your loyalty level? On the booking page they don't say they can be split: "With OLife Choice*, our limited-time inclusive package, enjoy 2 for 1 Cruise Fares, Roundtrip Airfare and Airport Transfers* plus choose one..." --Julian 2 minutes ago, LHT28 said: No anyone can book the cruise with air/olife Without air without OLife with air Cruise only no air or O Life If you can find a TA that deals a lot with Oceania they can help with the booking process to get the best deal for you What she said 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeedToChill Posted November 2, 2022 #14 Share Posted November 2, 2022 3 minutes ago, LHT28 said: If you can find a TA that deals a lot with Oceania they can help with the booking process to get the best deal for you Very good to know. I'll look into agents before we book again. --Julian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted November 2, 2022 #15 Share Posted November 2, 2022 8 minutes ago, NeedToChill said: Interesting. Does that depend on your loyalty level? On the booking page they don't say they can be split: "With OLife Choice*, our limited-time inclusive package, enjoy 2 for 1 Cruise Fares, Roundtrip Airfare and Airport Transfers* plus choose one..." --Julian It may also depend on the Country you are booking in what you can see on the website Since I am just stating what is offered in North America you can check the O website for the region you are in A good idea is to put your Country in your Profile so you will get information that is to do with that Country when booking O JMO 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted November 2, 2022 #16 Share Posted November 2, 2022 3 minutes ago, NeedToChill said: Very good to know. I'll look into agents before we book again. --Julian Ask your fellow shipmates for recommendations 😉 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppy99 Posted November 2, 2022 #17 Share Posted November 2, 2022 7 hours ago, NeedToChill said: Seems like a lot of people are used to being the smartest person in the room. 🤔 😉 To answer the original question directly, yes, you can use OBC for everything that is charged to your account, which includes gratuities. But I assume you gathered that. As for what's "best," your mileage may vary. In our case, the difference between the cruise only and Olife fare at the time of booking was barely more than the cost of airfare if we were to do it ourselves. Since Olife includes airfare, we took it, and OBC, because we don't drink and we're only interested in 2 or 3 excursions in 23 days. There's a reason it's called Olife *Choice*. Have a great time aboard! --Julian Exactly!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Psoque Posted November 3, 2022 #18 Share Posted November 3, 2022 The discussion here is another evidence that a simple sticky to explain how Oceania cruises are priced may be helpful to many new and experienced Oceania customers, since Oceania is doing an excellent job of making is really unclear. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Psoque Posted November 3, 2022 #19 Share Posted November 3, 2022 (edited) Just to make it simple and clear: I’m not completely comprehensive by any means, but I think this will answer a lot of questions, both new to and not so new to Oceania: This illustration is for double occupancy for passengers who need to fly to and fly home from the cruise, either on their own or buying that through Oceania: The total “retail price” of a cruise consists of three components: A-Cruise Only Fare-this varied depending on itinerary/cabin class/and possibly date of purchase B-OLife Add-on….this is an OPTIONAL ADD ON, not a free perk. C-Air Add on…this is an optioal fee to pay Oceania for them to buy you airfare in a particular manner they offer it. (more of that later). When you look at Oceania website, they list two different prices per itinerary, for each cabin category: “OLfie with air fare”. is A+B+C ”Cruise only fare” is A B is typically the same amount per person as the per-person dollar amount of O Life OBC….so basically if you decide to pay for OLife with an intention of just gettin OBC, you are permanently converting your liquid cash to cruise-only funny money that has to be used up during the cruise. So by using this information, you can calculate C, the cost of “free airfare. Some travel agencies can quote you online “Cruise with OLife add on only” which is A + B. You can use that to calculate B and C also. The true cost of airfare is a bit more complicated, since the airfare you get by paying C is arrival on embarkation day only, departure on disembarkation day only, from selected “gateway” airports only, most likely on consolidator fare classes. If you wan’t to have Oceania book you flights outside of these constraints (if they can do it, of course), the extra add ons include, but not limited to: -Flight from/to non-gateway airports….$99 per each way, per person (approx $200 per person for round trip/open jaw). -Arriving/departing date adjustments…$175 per person for the entire itinerary. Oceania also reserves rights to charge you other fees, especially if the desired flights are more expensive, in that case the difference in fare will also be levied to you. So the “true price” of “free airfare” could be as high as C + $198 + $175 per person. That, or the variation thereof that is based on your flight needs, is the price you should beat if you want to book your own flights. In case of an open-jaw flights for our Barcelona-Istanbul cruise in Nov. 2023, flights out of Indianapolis (non-gateway airport city) and arriving/leaving a few days before and after the cruise, our “true cost” of “free airfare” from Ocenia turns out to be something like’ C=$1,100 per person (this of course depends on the itinerary/and date of purchase) + $198 + $175 If we want to drive to Chicago, stay a night before and after the flights (which we don’t really want to do), the true cost would be: $1,100 +cost of parking at ORD minus cost of parking at IND or lack therof +cost of transport to ORD +cost of hotels near ORD either way, If we can get flights at around $1,473 per person or less, we break even. I hope this explains the whole mess enough for now. Edited November 3, 2022 by Psoque 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now