Airport transfer

[Matelot70]

Do Oceania provide a service to book your end of cruise airport transfer when you are on board during your cruise?

[basor]

1 hour ago, Matelot70 said:

Do Oceania provide a service to book your end of cruise airport transfer when you are on board during your cruise?

Yes

[honumaui]

You will get a questionnaire at the end of the cruise and a choice of buying a transfer to the airport usually on a bus.

[LHT28]

46 minutes ago, honumaui said:

You will get a questionnaire at the end of the cruise and a choice of buying a transfer to the airport usually on a bus.

Do you get  a free transfer if using O air ?

Or has that  disappeared now?

[Matelot70]

Thanks all for the information, glad to know I have the option of a simple way of getting an airport transfer at the end of the cruise.

 

LHT28 

I cancelled O air which did include transfers and made my own flight arrangements. They were offering an outgoing flight from a UK regional airport (via a connection in London) arriving in Athens at 5pm on the day of departure.

 

If there were no delays or missed connection I would have had 4 hours to exit Athens airport and make the 50 minute transfer to the ship before departure at 9pm. A wonderful first day/evening and an amount of stress not acceptable in my advanced years!  My TA could not get O air to give me an earlier flight even on the previous day. 

 

I have now arranged my own flights the day before departure on the same routes as O air. My return flight is exactly the same and is direct.

Edited April 29, 2023 by Matelot70

[Harters]

9 hours ago, Matelot70 said:

They were offering an outgoing flight from a UK regional airport (via a connection in London) arriving in Athens at 5pm on the day of departure.

We were originally offered similar flight times, also via London, on a very tight schedule. It was really difficult to get O to understand that this was not acceptable and what we needed was a Manchester to Heathrow flight the previous day (where we would stay overnight at our expense) and then the onward flight to Miami. Eventually, we got the arrangements we needed but it was very stressful, having to keep going back to O because elements of their revised proposals were still wrong for us. It was the biggest driver for us using a cruise specialist travel agent (ABTA bonded) this time and booking our flights direct from Manchester to Barcelona.

[Cruisingagain2022]

On 4/29/2023 at 5:54 AM, Matelot70 said:

Thanks all for the information, glad to know I have the option of a simple way of getting an airport transfer at the end of the cruise.

 

LHT28 

I cancelled O air which did include transfers and made my own flight arrangements. They were offering an outgoing flight from a UK regional airport (via a connection in London) arriving in Athens at 5pm on the day of departure.

 

If there were no delays or missed connection I would have had 4 hours to exit Athens airport and make the 50 minute transfer to the ship before departure at 9pm. A wonderful first day/evening and an amount of stress not acceptable in my advanced years!  My TA could not get O air to give me an earlier flight even on the previous day. 

 

I have now arranged my own flights the day before departure on the same routes as O air. My return flight is exactly the same and is direct.

Well done .

I am debating not doing my flight with O because they charge a deviation fee if you fly in the day before the cruise and use their transfer service.

I also want a direct flight from Man to Oslo unfortunately our cruise is not until July 2024 So I will have to wait a few months to research.

The  TA has including private transfer to LHR from Southampton so I will need to book our own flights back to Man anyway.

Word of warning 

If any one is considering Lufthansa

We had a bad experience with Lufthansa in Sept 2022  and I have a bad taste in mouth about Frankfurt airport and ground staff ….

A lot of people flying Lufthansa from the states and or connected with them in Germany ( on the same cruise ) did not receive  their luggage on landing in Malta they either received it at the next port and some never received it for the whole cruise.

Lufthansa lost ours on the way back … it arrived 9 days later.

Security lines were lengthy and their was no fast track.

Because the UK is no longer in the EU 

We had to run from one terminal ( non Schengen ) to another ( Schengen)

Their terminals are long and the walking escalators broken at the time we visited the connection time between flights was already tight  ( we had 1hr 20 mins  on the itinerary ) however the first flight took off 45 mins late so connection time became 35 mins.

I had read the Lufthansa reviews after the TA had booked the flights and could not change them. 
So I used luggage forward and sent our suitcases a week beforehand … they arrived in our cabin 5 mins after we boarded.

 

 

[jonthomas]

O no longer charges a deviation fee for going a day or two earlier, but will charge if you want a specific flight.

What I don't know is if you lose the included transfers. I also don't know if they will still provide the prem air if you paid for it. Need to call their air dept if there is such a thing. With 5 O cruises I am still a novice.

[Psoque]

6 hours ago, Cruisingagain2022 said:

Well done .

I am debating not doing my flight with O because they charge a deviation fee if you fly in the day before the cruise and use their transfer service.

I also want a direct flight from Man to Oslo unfortunately our cruise is not until July 2024 So I will have to wait a few months to research.

The  TA has including private transfer to LHR from Southampton so I will need to book our own flights back to Man anyway.

Word of warning 

If any one is considering Lufthansa

We had a bad experience with Lufthansa in Sept 2022  and I have a bad taste in mouth about Frankfurt airport and ground staff ….

A lot of people flying Lufthansa from the states and or connected with them in Germany ( on the same cruise ) did not receive  their luggage on landing in Malta they either received it at the next port and some never received it for the whole cruise.

Lufthansa lost ours on the way back … it arrived 9 days later.

Security lines were lengthy and their was no fast track.

Because the UK is no longer in the EU 

We had to run from one terminal ( non Schengen ) to another ( Schengen)

Their terminals are long and the walking escalators broken at the time we visited the connection time between flights was already tight  ( we had 1hr 20 mins  on the itinerary ) however the first flight took off 45 mins late so connection time became 35 mins.

I had read the Lufthansa reviews after the TA had booked the flights and could not change them. 
So I used luggage forward and sent our suitcases a week beforehand … they arrived in our cabin 5 mins after we boarded.

 

 

I’m sorry you had a bad experience last fall on your flights.  I’m not trying to defend any particular airlines, but from what I read/experienced, almost all airlines treated their customers poorly in the summer/fall of 2022, especially in regard to their luggage.  I’m not sure avoiding Lufthansa would have prevented your plight.  Here’s what we know:  KLM had a meltdown in Amsterdam.  British Airways had the same in Heathrow.  Similar issues in Atlanta with both Delta and Southwest.  I don’t think avoiding any particular airline would have be a helpful strategy, especially last year.

 

However, do agree with the fact that Frankfurt is not the easiest airports to transfer, especially if your itinerary is tight.  It takes forever to make some of the connections there, not only because it is a giant maze of an airport, because it appears it is in the constate state of flux in terms of construction.

 

When we fly through Europe, we try to avoid connecting in Frankfurt unless there is at least 2-3 hours connection time, assuming that it can be bad connecting there.  We have a few airports we prefer to connect:  We have had very good connection experience in Zurich and Amsterdam.

 

One of the reasons we almost always book our flights to/from the cruises on our own to have a better control over our itinerary.  Also, we have never found the airfare charged by any of the cruise lines we have used to be competitive.  It usually costs more, and typically a lot more, that what we can get ourselves.  There was one exception, though.  When we did a Panama Canal transit cruise, we had to fly to Costa Rica and back from Florida.  Airfare from the cruise line was much cheaper than what we could find, so we did buy airfare from them.  However, the cost savings may not have been worth the trouble when the cruise line refused to help us when our flight to Costa Rica was cancelled because of fog.  We had to buy our own airfare from an alternative airport, and the cruise line initially refused to reimburse us for it.  It took a few months of back and forth with the corporate office before getting that reimbursed.  And this was with a “luxury” cruise line (more “luxurious” in price than Oceania).

[Cruisingagain2022]

1 hour ago, Psoque said:

I’m sorry you had a bad experience last fall on your flights.  I’m not trying to defend any particular airlines, but from what I read/experienced, almost all airlines treated their customers poorly in the summer/fall of 2022, especially in regard to their luggage.  I’m not sure avoiding Lufthansa would have prevented your plight.  Here’s what we know:  KLM had a meltdown in Amsterdam.  British Airways had the same in Heathrow.  Similar issues in Atlanta with both Delta and Southwest.  I don’t think avoiding any particular airline would have be a helpful strategy, especially last year.

 

However, do agree with the fact that Frankfurt is not the easiest airports to transfer, especially if your itinerary is tight.  It takes forever to make some of the connections there, not only because it is a giant maze of an airport, because it appears it is in the constate state of flux in terms of construction.

 

When we fly through Europe, we try to avoid connecting in Frankfurt unless there is at least 2-3 hours connection time, assuming that it can be bad connecting there.  We have a few airports we prefer to connect:  We have had very good connection experience in Zurich and Amsterdam.

 

One of the reasons we almost always book our flights to/from the cruises on our own to have a better control over our itinerary.  Also, we have never found the airfare charged by any of the cruise lines we have used to be competitive.  It usually costs more, and typically a lot more, that what we can get ourselves.  There was one exception, though.  When we did a Panama Canal transit cruise, we had to fly to Costa Rica and back from Florida.  Airfare from the cruise line was much cheaper than what we could find, so we did buy airfare from them.  However, the cost savings may not have been worth the trouble when the cruise line refused to help us when our flight to Costa Rica was cancelled because of fog.  We had to buy our own airfare from an alternative airport, and the cruise line initially refused to reimburse us for it.  It took a few months of back and forth with the corporate office before getting that reimbursed.  And this was with a “luxury” cruise line (more “luxurious” in price than Oceania).

I agree in many of your comments however Lufthansa continues to have major issues and they did before COVID 

Many of the UK airlines also had melt downs post COVID however they recovered.

I have flown for many years on US airlines because I have dual nationality and I am a delta / virgin fan although must admit Singapore out of Houston to Manchester UK  beats both of them.

So I will clarify my post to Do not fly through Frankfurt.

 

On another note I have lots of Delta sky miles and could use sky mikes miles from the UK to Norway via KLM it requires a lay  over of 4 hours which is fine the additional taxes are £144 this is for business class ( not really in Europe just means empty middle seat) 

I could possibly use Scandinavian airlines non stop from Manchester through the cruise ship which is built into the cruise price but there is a deviation cost of £> 300 because we want to  fly in the night before , that cost includes transfers and it’s economy.

what would you do ? 
Can I take the airfare cost and use it as onboard ship credit ?

They are also offering 3 cruise excursions and a classic beverage package we are in a Vista suite so don’t need the beverage package also don’t want the excursions. 

I use other platforms for excursions that are have less cost and less people should I take the latter and request an onboard credit.

I have a TA so will continue to push for the best outcome but appreciate all feedback so we are not paying for the areas we will not appreciate..

Anyone going to Norway ( Norwegian fjords on Marina July 2023)  who can give feedback would be greatly appreciated. 

[SellaVee]

We fly from Manchester, but using O's air means getting to London which means an extra fight for us.  So, when I book cruises with O, I ask for the air credit, which is the money you save if you don’t take the O flight.  You get a deduction in sterling from the cruise price.  This can be more than you think if you have 2 Scandinavian flights.  It's obviously less if you're sailing from a UK port as it only covers the "continental" flight.

 

I much prefer direct flights and flying from London always means an extra leg.  I don't know what happens if you've already paid for the cruise, but you could try asking your TA, or contacting Oceania.  We're flying to Copenhagen on a budget airline (EJ) so there's no business class, and coming home from Tromsø on SAS changing in Oslo.  

 

We will have to organise our own transfers.
 

This is our fifth O cruise, and the 4th where I've organised our own air from Manchester, and transfers to and from the ship.  Most of the time I've added on hotel stays at either end.  I hope this helps.

[shepherd really]

On 5/7/2023 at 9:06 AM, jonthomas said:

O no longer charges a deviation fee for going a day or two earlier, but will charge if you want a specific flight.

What I don't know is if you lose the included transfers. I also don't know if they will still provide the prem air if you paid for it. Need to call their air dept if there is such a thing. With 5 O cruises I am still a novice.

Wondering about the transfers too but O certainly accepted my money for PE with the "Freeviation" of three days before and after.  Since this cruise won't be until 2025, I'm not sweating it just yet.

[jonthomas]

We have PE coming up for our November TA, if they don't honour it because we are coming in 2 days early, just to make sure we get to BCN, we will come in on the day of.

This November,  we missed the connection and would have missed the boat if we did not come in 2 days early. 

So hopefully, PE is OK. We are already losing the transfer by coming in 2 days early, will be taking the bus in BCN.

[Cruisingagain2022]

17 hours ago, SellaVee said:

We fly from Manchester, but using O's air means getting to London which means an extra fight for us.  So, when I book cruises with O, I ask for the air credit, which is the money you save if you don’t take the O flight.  You get a deduction in sterling from the cruise price.  This can be more than you think if you have 2 Scandinavian flights.  It's obviously less if you're sailing from a UK port as it only covers the "continental" flight.

 

I much prefer direct flights and flying from London always means an extra leg.  I don't know what happens if you've already paid for the cruise, but you could try asking your TA, or contacting Oceania.  We're flying to Copenhagen on a budget airline (EJ) so there's no business class, and coming home from Tromsø on SAS changing in Oslo.  

 

We will have to organise our own transfers.
 

This is our fifth O cruise, and the 4th where I've organised our own air from Manchester, and transfers to and from the ship.  Most of the time I've added on hotel stays at either end.  I hope this helps.

Thanks for the info. I have spoken to the TA and because the flight options are not available until August we can actual cancel the flights with O at that time (if not direct ) and I can book my own flights , transfers to Norway.

If I have a stop I will use KLM as I have lots of Delta sky miles I can use.

We disembark in Southampton , so I have a private transfer to LHR I just have to book the flight once they came into date.

I am now looking at insurance as the TA does not do ..it’s a mine field 🥴

[Cruisingagain2022]

8 hours ago, jonthomas said:

We have PE coming up for our November TA, if they don't honour it because we are coming in 2 days early, just to make sure we get to BCN, we will come in on the day of.

This November,  we missed the connection and would have missed the boat if we did not come in 2 days early. 

So hopefully, PE is OK. We are already losing the transfer by coming in 2 days early, will be taking the bus in BCN.

I always feel better traveling in the day before and most of the time the Hotels we have booked have arranged a Taxi to pick us up from the airport and take us to the ship

[ToxM]

We always sort our own airfare, due to my ample size I prefer to travel biz and the air “credit” we get will go some way, usually along with air miles to get us what we want. 

 

I quite enjoy hunting for the right deal anyway (maybe I am weird!). 

[SellaVee]

5 hours ago, Cruisingagain2022 said:

Thanks for the info. I have spoken to the TA and because the flight options are not available until August we can actual cancel the flights with O at that time (if not direct ) and I can book my own flights , transfers to Norway.

If I have a stop I will use KLM as I have lots of Delta sky miles I can use.

We disembark in Southampton , so I have a private transfer to LHR I just have to book the flight once they came into date.

I am now looking at insurance as the TA does not do ..it’s a mine field 🥴

I always take the air credit when I book so that I can get on with booking our flights and accommodation.  Am I right in thinking that your cruise is next year?

 

I added cruise cover onto our annual multi trip policy, for a very reasonable sum, when I was renewing it, so that I'm covered for the year.

[jonthomas]

The cruise with air for 800 and prem econ for 149 is a TA in November. We can't get prices like that in Canada if booking on our own.

[Cruisingagain2022]

8 hours ago, SellaVee said:

I always take the air credit when I book so that I can get on with booking our flights and accommodation.  Am I right in thinking that your cruise is next year?

 

I added cruise cover onto our annual multi trip policy, for a very reasonable sum, when I was renewing it, so that I'm covered for the year.

Yes the cruise is July 2024 we have normally booked through a USA TA but we are now in the UK and this particular group don’t offer travel insurance it’s been an eye opener

[Cruisingagain2022]

9 hours ago, ToxM said:

We always sort our own airfare, due to my ample size I prefer to travel biz and the air “credit” we get will go some way, usually along with air miles to get us what we want. 

 

I quite enjoy hunting for the right deal anyway (maybe I am weird!). 

Am with ya … I have Delta miles which I can use on KLM but it will require a stop over. My experience in the EU has been 👎as it relates to connection times and luggage making it on the next flight. Of course this is all post COVID. Also business class in EU just means an empty middle seat in economy it’s not like the domestic flights in the USA 

I will wait and see what happens in August and if O is willing to offer direct flights in business  ( it’s only 2 hours ) then I will just proceed.

Thanks for the feedback I always appreciate everyone’s input in this group, experiences in this industry helps so many.

I will be asking about the best platform to book shore excursions next. 
Stay tuned ..

[Cruisingagain2022]

5 hours ago, jonthomas said:

The cruise with air for 800 and prem econ for 149 is a TA in November. We can't get prices like that in Canada if booking on our own.

Understand 

[LHT28]

11 minutes ago, Cruisingagain2022 said:

I will wait and see what happens in August and if O is willing to offer direct flights in business  ( it’s only 2 hours ) then I will just proceed.

Thanks for the feedback I always appreciate everyone’s input in this group, experiences in this industry helps so many.

I will be asking about the best platform to book shore excursions next. 
Stay tuned ..

If you want BIZ  I would just take the air credit from   O  & DIY

 Usually a lot cheaper 

[Cruisingagain2022]

17 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

If you want BIZ  I would just take the air credit from   O  & DIY

 Usually a lot cheaper 

Appreciate the input airfares are not open until August so I have been researching 🤙

[chloemonkey]

Yes