A gratuitous increase is coming.

[MEFIowa]

9 minutes ago, LGW59 said:

His "all in" pay in 2021 was $19+MILLION.  Good on him, capitalism at work....

All things are relative and in perspective. Maybe see "good on entitled public sector employees, monopoly power at work"?

 

Did public sector HR work with unionized and non-union State civil servants. Funny how the government negotiators (and I was on that side of the table for 3 negotiations) had an incentive to "give" away the store, since their benefits were tied to those the union received. The RICH health insurance plans! (And don't get me started on the incentives if one particular political party with close ties to that union was in power.) The union made sure there were almost no part-time employees. OT off the charts. And they could "milk" the now rare defined benefit pension plan formula to work heavy OT in their last 3 years to max out a permanent pension increase that could be transferred to their spouse upon death. When I left HS grads at paygrade 15 could earn MORE in retirement than Master Degree paygrade 32 salaried employees. Even the newspaper had to take notice of the pension skewing abuse. And if you added up the sick days, vacation days, compensatory time off, and holidays, many employees literally only worked about 9 months. So guess what, every 10 years or so we have a fiscal crisis. as costs balloon. And the pension fund had to nearly double its contribution rate, split just 50-50 by employee and employer, over a decade and still is only around 80% funded. Of course, the union made layoffs so difficult, that in one bargaining unit management had given away the store and the layoff unit was the entire state. So a work laid off in one corner of the State might bump another worker 300 miles away and it cascaded all over the state. All intended to ensure management could hardly manage any such layoff. And they didn't materialize. Just attrition. Always behind the cost control needs, so operations suffer.

[Robjame]

2 hours ago, LHT28 said:

If you do not like how the business is run   then do not give them your money

Find a cruise line that you like their business model & spend your money with them

I have an idea - all of us altruistic platinum Oceania club members - out of respect for inflation and the hard working employees …..let’s refuse the prepaid gratuities and insist on paying these gratuities ourselves! 
NIMBY

JMO

[Robjame]

3 hours ago, davencl said:

I've prepaid the gratuities so won't have to pay the increase for my January trip.  Will prepay for August trip to also avoid.

Dave I fail to see the advantage of this as opposed to just rolling back your prepaid gratuities? except Oceania has your money as float.

‘The crew would get no more money by me prepaying than me making a simple adjustment at reception

[LHT28]

15 minutes ago, Robjame said:

…..let’s refuse the prepaid gratuities and insist on paying these gratuities ourselves! 
NIMBY

JMO

This too may change  😉

 

Also refuse the "Free"  cruise  when you reach Platinum or higher

YMMV

[Robjame]

59 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

This too may change  😉

 

I should have put a 😉 in my reply.

 

I think that would be hard to change.

[LHT28]

3 minutes ago, Robjame said:

I should have put a 😉 in my reply.

 

I think that would be hard to change.

They have reduced Club benefits  before  so  anything is possible  😉

 

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, jonthomas said:

We have on some of our booked cruises gratuities included from our TA...with a dollar amount attached to it, based on the existing rate...wonder how it will be affected with the increase...

 

 

Gratuities are not mandatory

just go to reception & have them reduce  them to what your TA has given you

if you do not want to pay the extra amount

JMO

 

[jonthomas]

some say that is not possible....we will see if we need to ....

[LHT28]

5 minutes ago, jonthomas said:

some say that is not possible....we will see if we need to ....

Not possible  to do what?

 

[davencl]

53 minutes ago, Robjame said:

Dave I fail to see the advantage of this as opposed to just rolling back your prepaid gratuities? except Oceania has your money as float.

‘The crew would get no more money by me prepaying than me making a simple adjustment at reception

Yes for me it's just personal preference, having less to deal with when leaving the ship.  Assuming I don't have a reason to roll back.

Edited December 29, 2022 by davencl

[ORV]

Don't look now but La Reserve has increased to $180 per guest for 2 lower menus and to $474 for the Dom Perignon 

 

Glad I booked last week for the La Cuisine Bourgeoise at $114 each. 

 

Wonder what's next? I'm betting drink packages. Celebrity just has a huge increase on theirs. 

 

Pardon me if this has already been posted. Didn't see it elsewhere. 

[LHT28]

6 minutes ago, ORV said:

Wonder what's next? I'm betting drink packages. . 

 

I was thinking the same  thing

Some people make good use of the  Prestige package so  I can see them raising the prices

also not allowing pax to bring on Spirits/beer   as some are abusing the generous policy

JMO  of course

[jonthomas]

1 hour ago, LHT28 said:

Not possible  to do what?

 

 

some say it is not possible to adjust the gratuities to what  the TAs have given you...we may test that, if it is no longer covered....

[osandomir]

2 hours ago, Robjame said:

I have an idea - all of us altruistic platinum Oceania club members - out of respect for inflation and the hard working employees …..let’s refuse the prepaid gratuities and insist on paying these gratuities ourselves! 
NIMBY

JMO

We’ll do it after you reach that loyalty level and then we’ll follow your lead.

[PirateShark]

1 hour ago, ORV said:

Don't look now but La Reserve has increased to $180 per guest for 2 lower menus and to $474 for the Dom Perignon 

 

Glad I booked last week for the La Cuisine Bourgeoise at $114 each. 

 

Wonder what's next? I'm betting drink packages. Celebrity just has a huge increase on theirs. 

 

Pardon me if this has already been posted. Didn't see it elsewhere. 

 

I suspect you're right.  We bought our drink packages yesterday in anticipation of Oceania raising prices on that and other things.  Don't necessarily like to prepay that but with the way inflation is going, who knows where this all ends up in August 2023 for our cruise.  

[Redtravel]

Since everyone pays tips, they should include it in the basic fare.  Azamara does it.

[pinotlover]

Trying to get a verification, but just heard that those of us with O Club PPG benefits will no longer be eligible to additionally receive OCAPP PPG benefits. No more OBC in lieu of. Awaiting details.

[Redtravel]

loyalty programs often make guests feel bad

[PaulMCO]

So why did they not raise the PH and OC suites??

[ORV]

1 hour ago, pinotlover said:

Trying to get a verification, but just heard that those of us with O Club PPG benefits will no longer be eligible to additionally receive OCAPP PPG benefits. No more OBC in lieu of. Awaiting details.

That would not be good. 

[ORV]

I also saw someone post on the site every one seems to use that the price of the drink package costs them $30 per person to upgrade on board. But I think they're confused. The reason being is they thought the basic package is $29.95. I see so much misinformation and confusion on that site that it makes my head want to explode. 

 

FWIW, the FAQ's still show the daily grats as $16 per person per day. I'm sure they'll get it caught up. 

[victory2020]

Can you use non refundable OBC for gratuities?

[1985rz1]

4 minutes ago, victory2020 said:

Can you use non refundable OBC for gratuities?

yes.

[PhD-iva]

On 12/29/2022 at 9:29 AM, MEFIowa said:

The GRATUITIES go to the crew & staff, so no begrudging them for an increase to offset inflation. Why would anyone complain?

 

As for corporate issues, that's up to their board of directors, banks & others who do or might lend them money, bond markets, and stock markets. Not up to me to decide or know what salaries and benefits senior executives receive. But the markets will punish them if they don't have an efficient, effective operation that isn't bloated with expensive debt that has to be serviced.

 

You do realize that ALL expenses, including corporate taxes, are paid by customers? When expenses and taxes go up, so, too, usually do the prices paid by customers. TANSTAAFL.

Too true! Very true!

[Robjame]

9 hours ago, PhD-iva said:

Too true! Very true!

The sympathy and compassion of travellers has long been used as a very successful method of extorting money (or more money) from travellers. The generous nature of Americans and the accepted culture of tipping in the US makes it particularly easy.

 

Baksheesh!

 

There are simpler ways Oceania can get more money -fuel surcharge, cruise price increases - but few that would be accepted with less complaint and I note the number of Platinum+ Club members with prepaid gratuities who can get behind this increase. If you are Platinum+ don’t lecture the rest of us about begrudging “them” an increase to offset inflation.