Equal benefits for non-americans!!!!

[2kiwis]

As non- Americans (or Canadians) we are not entitled to "free-air" (even for part of our travel that involved travelling from an American airport) nor do we get the "free air rebate option". We can accept that the free air option is not available when travelling from outside the US to a cruise port, but why should we not get the "rebate" for not using the free air. :mad:

 

We have travelled twice on Oceania and have booked another (32 day) cruise, again without the above benefits - that's how highly we rate Ocenaia's service.:)

 

All of the non-America passengers we have met on board feel the same way and resent being treated differently. Most of the Americans we talked to, also thought it was not very fair. So come on all you Brits, Aussie, Kiwi's etc, protest for at least free air rebates!!!!:confused:

 

Other cruiselines offer it!

[lahore]

I have certainly protested, loud and long; on this board and most recently with a personal two page letter sent to Oceania USA via Nautica's Hotel Manager whilst onbard. He promised me a written response from head office - I have yet to receive that but, to be fair, I have only been back a few days so i wait in hope.

 

I am in a hurry at the moment (just got back, SO MANY emails) so I can't respost my letter here, but i will do so soon and will also keep you in touch via this thread as to any response i do get. One thing i can tell you that Oceania tried to tell my during my recent 28 day cruise (first I raised this via the concierge) that higher fares in Australia were only a perception and not a reality! That triggered my two page letter citing evidence to the contraray, as mentioned above.

 

What I think Oceania will tell you is that we are eligable for a discount for the free air, two for one etc..., and this may well be true, however in my experience those differences are more than swallowed up by (and this is a direct quote from the Australian wholesaler) ' advertising costs'; Australian government taxes, and prepaid gratuities. What I suspect they don't add is ' and a whopping great profit to us' :mad:

 

Moreover, I object strongly to being charged in advance (up to a year in advance) for gratuities on a service I am yet to receive; since when has paying extra taxes been an advantage, and why on earth would I want to subsidise the Australian wholesaler's advertising costs???

 

Agree that the whole situation sucks royally; and even more so because I am not bagging Oceania generally: I would like to remain a loyal Oceania customer. However I WILL NOT be price gouged based on my nationality. Other cruise lines do this, but not all.

[RickeyCruz5]

As a former Oceania Cruises' employee who worked in Revenue Management, I must dispute your claim that you are not receiving any air credit off of your cruise fare.

 

All "cruise only" (no air) guests regardless of their country of origin have air credits calculated into the prices they pay and reflected in the amount of the cruise fare. The amount of the air credit varies from sailing to sailing.

 

You may have been mis-informed by your travel agent. I would advise you to ask your agent to call Oceania Cruises and ask how air credits are calculated into the fares you are paying.

 

Rickey Cruz

*****

[RickeyCruz5]

Oceania Cruises is not responsible for whatever the Australian Government is charging you for taxes.

 

Gratuities are never charged by Oceania until you are onboard ship and are charged to your onboard account. You are not being charged in advance for these.

 

Rickey Cruz

*****

[2kiwis]

Sorry Rickey but you have that all wrong.

We have just come off a 26 day cruise where we paid the published fair PLUS the gratuities months in advance. We were not given any option (by the travel wholesaler) to pay the gratuities on board. Nor did we get any credit for any "air content". Then when we arrived on board we were immediately asked to sign a receipt for the gratuities.

We have just booked our next cruise on board through the Oceania website and will be paying the published web price but get no get credits for the free air fare available to all North American citizens. At the on board presentation of future cruises all of the slides included the comment "Free air is only available to citizens of US and Canada".

If you know where other than North American citizens can get the same benefits we would be very interested to know!

[LHT28]

Moreover, I object strongly to being charged in advance (up to a year in advance) for gratuities on a service I am yet to receive; since when has paying extra taxes been an advantage, and why on earth would I want to subsidise the Australian wholesaler's advertising costs???

 

Just curious ?

Do you have to pay in full at the time of booking?

Or do you pay a deposit plus the gratuities & taxes etc?

How does that work downunder?

 

I know some Countries do not tip so some cruise lines hide the tips in the cruise fare for bookings made in that Country. I don't know how O does it.

 

Lyn

[dbh62ark]

I don't know anything about how non-Americans are charged for free air or air credits, but it is hard to understand Oceania's pricing as compared to the other cruise lines that we have used. We chose to book our own air (frequent flyer miles) and received an air credit but had some taxes or port charges added by Oceania that have been included in our fare with other cruise lines. So I would ask for a detailed breakdown from the travel agent to be sure that I understood the charges.

 

Happy travels,

Donna

[2kiwis]

In NZ we pay a deposit and then when the balance is due (several months before the cruise) we have to pay everything upfront (includes fare, taxes, gratuities). I believe it is the same for Australia (any Aussie's out there correct me if I wrong). Last cruise we also had "fun??" with the wholesaler trying to gain extra on the $us/$nz exchange rate as well - that is something we have to watch! We love cruising with Oceania- think they are really great, just could do without some of the hassles when booking. This time we booked onboard so will be watching to see what happens next.

[LHT28]

In NZ we pay a deposit and then when the balance is due (several months before the cruise) we have to pay everything upfront (includes fare, taxes, gratuities).

Ok

Same for Canadians except for the gratuities..we pay them on board at the end of the cruise.

This is the 1st year we got a break on the exchange rates...our dollar is in a better position than it has been in 30 + yrs.

[wripro]

Gratuities charged before one boards the ships are no longer gratuities, they are an extra tax. What if one wants to delete them from his account and tip individually?

[Aussie Gal]

I know from booking not only Oceania but other cruise lines, that both in Australia and N.Z. our prices do not compare favourably with what U.S. citizens are charged. For a start, the exchange rate is usually worked out over a year and a half in advance and as our dollar has gone up against the U.S. we end up paying far more than what we should.

 

Over the years we have found that we have paid far too much for our cruises compared with U.S. citizens and we are definitely at a disadvantage down here.

 

Jennie

[LHT28]

Jennie

When you book do they charge you in USD or AUD?

 

Can you be billed in AUD?

We usually book in USD and just let the credit card company do the exchange.

 

The cruise lines do charge a higher exchange rate than VISA or MC.

We also have paid a lot more for our cruise because of the difference in the $$.

 

Lyn

[LHT28]

What I think Oceania will tell you is that we are eligable for a discount for the free air, two for one etc..., and this may well be true, however in my experience those differences are more than swallowed up by (and this is a direct quote from the Australian wholesaler) ' advertising costs'; Australian government taxes, and prepaid gratuities. What I suspect they don't add is ' and a whopping great profit to us' :mad:

 

 

When you book other cruise lines do you have the same fees or is it just when you book Oceania?

[lahore]

Rickey, sorry mate but you are wrong: your experience working for Oceania in Northern America does not give you any knowledge about what actually occurs here in the antipodes. We might get credit for the air deals, but - as I said in my post above - it is more than lost again in the other charges and gross profit of the middle-person.

 

I should point out that the reason I am cross is that I have a very reliable online wholesaler whom I have used for my past five cruises. He is Florida based. Booking through him I avoid the parochial Australian situation (the Australian cruise scene is NOT competitive - and I think there are enough well-informed Australian and New Zealand travellers on here saying the same thing to warrant us to being taken seriously) and in booking through my Florida TA I am able to engage in the global purchasing that lets the market set the rates. Now, with the new Oceania and Aust-wholesaler GSA agreement, he is not allowed to sell to me (which is odd, seems to fly in the face of contemporary practice in FTA's etc).

 

The tip thing is a sub-topic that I could rave on about, but will resist. No LH28 of course we don't pay the whole lot up front, but we would have to pay it when final payment is due. So Oceania is saying our service is great and you WILL tip for it: IMHO that is not a gratuity or an appreciation of service - that is a mandated fee. I didn't experience what 2kiwis did in relation to tipping because my last cruise was through the Florida guy, but i would be might p'd off if I was asked to sign for tips on my first day before I had even experienced the service based purely upon my nationality. I would have thought that sort of thing was racial discrimination actually, and I thought that was unlawful in the USA :confused: .

 

Wripro: that is one good point for not paying tips in advance. What if you get a dud cabin steward, or someone you really want to reward personally. Oh dear, didn't resist very well did I?

 

So, ostensibly, I have just taken my last cruise with Oceania and will have to cruise with those lines that allow me to exercise the choice that I believe a consumer should be able to exercise. That makes me REALLY annoyed - in effect I am barred from doing something I really like. I LOVE Oceania, but I can no longer travel with them if they want to charge me 3k more than someone in USA for exactly the same thing.

[lahore]

LH28 - it seems that we are both online at exactly the same time. I posted and then your question was there. I don't have the same charges because i buy online offshore - through a Florida based global online agency. I won't buy cruises in Australia because the prices are insulting. Oceania is not the only line that now has these arrangements barring Australians from buying in USA, but there are many who do allow it and they will be getting my custom, unfortunately.

[LHT28]

The tip thing is a sub-topic that I could rave on about, but will resist. No LH28 of course we don't pay the whole lot up front, but we would have to pay it when final payment is due. So Oceania is saying our service is great and you WILL tip for it: IMHO that is not a gratuity or an appreciation of service - that is a mandated fee. I didn't experience what 2kiwis did in relation to tipping because my last cruise was through the Florida guy, but i would be might p'd off if I was asked to sign for tips on my first day before I had even experienced the service based purely upon my nationality. I would have thought that sort of thing was racial discrimination actually, and I thought that was unlawful in the USA :confused: .

 

Lahore

I know you are cross but I was just trying to understand how it works "downunder"

I wonder if it is Oceania that requires the gratuities to be added upfront or the Australian government similar to the way the UK does. They also have to add travel insurance upfront.

 

I notice several US based cruise lines are not allowed to sell cruises to people from other countries so it is not just Oceania.

 

Maybe to do with the governments in those countries or the US government polices I have no idea.

[2kiwis]

RE GRATUITIES: As Oceania is an American company we accept that gratuities are a fact of life, and therefore expect that we will have to pay them. However, we resent having to pay them up-front instead of when we settle our account at the end of the cruise.

 

I do not understand why there should be different systems depending on your nationality. The only thing I can think of is that perhaps non-Americans refuse to pay the gratuites which then means that the crew and those who do pay up are penalised.

 

At a presentation given on board our last cruise it was made fairly clear that this money makes up a lot of the crew's (who are the ones who get all the gratuities - not the staff) income. This is a concept, as non-Americans we are not use to, as here in NZ (and Australia) we assume that a resaonable wage is paid and that gratuities are not compulsary, generally only given for outstanding service. Thus, if it was a NZ company, the costs would most probably be the same, as higher wages would be paid, with less expectation of gratuities.

 

Having said all of this I must say that the service provided by the Oceania crew is outstanding and therefore I do not resent paying the gratuity, just the timing of it.

[Aussie Gal]

Lahore,

 

Would you please email me at jennielynton@yahoo.com.au I would like to have a chat with you regarding the above.

 

Jennie

[lahore]

LHT28: I wasn't cross with you, so please excuse if it came across that way. I meant 'of course we don't, [as in] you are right'; NOT 'of course we don't, [as in] you are stupid' :)

 

I agree with 2kiwis entirely about the tipping thing. But let's not let this thread get hijacked into a discussion about tipping. That has happened before on this exact same topic. It's about much more than that. Tipping included or otherwise, we still get gouged.

[2kiwis]

You are right Lahore, it is not about tipping - it is about the inequities in the system.

 

Where the fault lays it not that clear as many "cruisers" I have talked to seem to have been given different stories from their wholesaler or travel agents. I guess we have to be more vigilant when booking.

 

Another problem for us is the exchange rate. Our wholesaler made a big deal of getting the deposit by a specific date to forward on to Oceania, and then tried to use the exchange rate at the time the deposit was made, as it was lower. This meant they would make an extra $2,000(NZ) over and above what they had already made! What's the bet if the exchange rate had been lower when we had to pay the balance, they wouldn’t have tried to insist on the deposit exchange rate, as they wouldn’t be too keen to lose money? Talk about being ripped off! We complained to Oceania about this and while we didn’t get a response from them, they did contact the wholesaler. Maybe Oceania needs to audit their wholesalers every now and then?

[RickeyCruz5]

I do stand corrected on my previous remarks about Australians and gratuities. As an American agent I am not permitted to book clients in Australia and New Zealand.

 

However, all guests who are not booking their air through Oceania Cruises and just buying pier to pier cruise do have an air credit factored into the pricing they receive.

 

I do not agree with this gratuities policy concerning Australians and New Zealanders.

 

Rickey Cruz

*****

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Sigh, you poor guys. Lucky I'm in Canada. But I suspect it's not just Oceania that has these restrictions. I believe there are at least some cruiselines where US-Canada is an exclusive market, and pax from the rest of the world have to play by different rules. It makes little sense in a global economy, but then again, perhaps countries are trying to protect their own travel businesses. And it's true that in some countries you get protection from your government in the case of bankruptcy or other default--we have that available here in Canada, but I still book with a US agent, and have for most of my cruises.

[Leonid]

Regarding the port and gov't taxes which appear on ones invoice, I have asked many times for a breakdown and have been told O will not provide the requested information. Has anyone had better luck?

[Sunny Sailing]

Hi Rickey

Does that mean that non-Americans should be able to expect to book a fare and get the brochure fare less the Free Air Rebate :confused:

[RickeyCruz5]

Yes. Since Oceania Cruises only books air from select U.S. and Canadian air gateways, fares given to guests from all other countries have already had the air credit factored in the pricing that is given to those guests.