Airfare included?

[terrydtx]

On 1/31/2023 at 10:09 AM, milleruszk said:

Exactly.  Not a card issue an Oceania issue.   No other cruise line or tour company operates this way.   They always use the card you supplied to charge the airfare.   Other lines do not use their own charge account.   I never had this problem with any other cruise or tour company.   This should be made clear on their website.  They will not honor your frequent flyer mileage account.

Holland America and Celebrity do the same as Oceania, I know from personal experience with both. They both pay for your flights after final payment from the cruise lines account not our CC.

 

I have found one way to get around this with United. After our flights are ticketed, we go on United website and pay with the airline CC for cabin upgraded seats like Unted Economy plus and then we get free checked bags from that use of the CC.  American Airlines unlike United will give us free checked bags because we have an upper level CC account regardless of whether the tickets are paid with the AA card.

Edited February 4, 2023 by terrydtx

[pinotlover]

22 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

Holland America and Celebrity do the same as Oceania, I know from personal experience with both. They both pay for your flights after final payment from the cruise lines account not our CC.

 

I have found one way to get around this with United. After our flights are ticketed, we go on United website and pay with the airline CC for cabin upgraded seats like Unted Economy plus and then we get free checked bags from that use of the CC.  American Airlines unlike United will give us free checked bags because we have an upper level CC account regardless of whether the tickets are paid with the AA card.

The above is accurate.

 

However, let me caution people about bulk rate discount tickets on airlines. They may be very difficult to upgrade, such as the example given here to PE, or that upgrade may be nearly as expensive as just buying a PE ticket originally. 
 

The confusion for many revolves around the fact that until people actually see their tickets, they don’t know ticket class and ticket rules. Is that ticket a bulk rate discount ticket from the airline pool? Was that ticket part of a negotiated block of tickets with its own set of rules? Different rules, different outcomes, cruisers just pay for the airfare blindly and work from there.

[Jmoondance]

On 1/31/2023 at 11:25 AM, Sthrngary said:

How CruiseCritic.com helps those who are member?  With threads like this one. At first I booked two suites on the Riviera for November 9, 2023.  I booked my own airfare for my wife and me.  However, my friends joining us fought me on booking their own airfare.  I read every post on Oceania Airfare which by the way was not that different from other cruise brands.  Most comments were complaints or nightmares. 

 

I then went on the Delta Airlines Website and booked my friends round trip airfare which is fully refundable and changeable.  It was basically the same price/fare as the $1,000.00 per guest Oceania will discount your full fare.  The Delta Tickets were $1,200.00 per round trip, one check bag of 50 lbs or less was complementary.  Our friends will be on the same flights as my wife and me.  Instead of traveling to Atlanta, GA for flights which is 2.5 hours away, we all go out of our home base airport.  That is a savings in parking, ground transportation and hassle.  We picked our seats months in advance. 

 

When you figure the Oceania Deviation fee, the hassles outlined in this stream by clients, picking your own seats months before flight and our friends get the airline miles and points, it was a no brainer. 

I have not told my friend because he would have said no.  Purchasing the tickets early would have had a charge on his credit card which he would not do. So I purchased it since it was fully refundable to the card used, mine.  

 

I will share what I did with him just before full payment is needed.  My point in writing this is that everyone should do their due diligence on airfare.  Sometimes it is a wash or you can even save some money by doing it yourself when you cruise is far enough in advance.  I hope my experience can be helpful to this stream.

 

Cruise well and enjoy every momi ent. 

Thank you ,I think I found my answers!