How does Free Airfare Work?

[benchmarklearning]

Considering Oceania Asia cruise next March and am unclear on what happens if we choose the free airfare. If we want to arrive at the port of embarkation 3 or 4 days ahead will they do this? Same after disembarkation. In other words, can we set the dates for departure and return?

[hondorner]

Here's what I know about free airfare on Oceania.

 

1) It is, of course, not really free -- it's included in the price for the cruise, and you can get a reduction in the fare price if you book your own air.

 

2) It does not cover 100% of the air costs. The air fare is included in the cruise, while the air taxes and fees are added to the bottom line of your invoice as an additional charge. If you book your own air, that item is removed from your invoice.

 

3) If you choose to let Oceania book your flights, you will arrive at the embarkation point on the day of the cruise, and depart on the day of debarkation. Also, you will not learn your flights until shortly (6 weeks or so) before your cruise).

 

4) If you choose to fly in early and/or depart later, you can request a deviation from Oceania. They will research the flights and offer you a flight package that fits your needs. They usually produce very good connections. You can accept or refuse this offer.

 

If you accept it, you will be charged an administrative fee of $75 per person. These flights may also incur an cost in addition to the free air fare if they are more expensive than what Oceania would have purchased on the standard days. If there is an additional cost, this will be added to your costs.

 

Also, if you accept the deviation, you will learn your flights immediately and not have to wait until close to departure. You can choose your seats at this time, also. Because of schedule releases, Oceania cannot book a deviation until around 270 prior to the cruise.

 

5) The amount of credit depends on your cruise and other factors, and differs from cruise to cruise. Typically, it is in the range of $400 to $600 per person. Their air taxes and fees also vary; recenly I have seen charges in the $400 to $450 range, but that also depends on the flight.

 

6) If you accept Oceania's standard air plan, you will also have the opportunity to book Oceania's transfers from plane to ship and vice versa, at an additional cost. If you request a deviation, you will have to find your own transportation. This is not a burden, because Oceania's transfers are usually much more expensive than locally obtained transfers.

 

We have accepted Oceania's flights twice, both times with a deviation. Once there was no additional charge, and once there was an additional charge of $225 per person. In both cases, we could not duplicate the excellent flights for the same amount. This coming year, we are taking a transAtlantic from Miami, where we can drive to the seaport in less than 2 hours, so we will only have a flight home from Europe. We can easily find a flight for less than the combined credit ($600 pp) and air taxes ($424 pp), so we declined Oceania's air and will book our own.

[happy cruzer]

 

Is the credit you quoted above for the miami/rome or miami/barcelona?

 

I am planning to do the TA in Nov 2010 and I was wondering about the air credit for that cruise. Of course I will contact my Travel agent to get the exact amount but I plan to do that a little closer to my cruise date.

 

Just curious, Thanks

 

And your answer to the air question was very helpful.

[hondorner]

The credit I mentioned was for Miami/Barcelona. I never did learn the amount of the credit for the Barcelona/Rome cruise, because I simply told my travel agent to book it without air.

 

The back-to-back really made sense, because we drive to Miami and only need air one-way back to Miami. With the B-2-B, we get two cruises for the cost of one flight home from Europe. We're planning to hop back to Barcelona from Rome, using one of the low-cost local airlines like Vueling, and spend a couple of more days in Spain -- we want to go to Tarragona.

 

Hopefully, we'll be going back to Barcelona in December if we are able to book Marina's maiden voyage, so I'm looking into a round-trip from Barcelona to Miami and back to Barcelona. It may not save me any money over one-way flights, however, because it is over 7 months between the flights.

 

We did the Barcelona/Rio de Janeiro transAtlantic in 2007 and used Oceania's air. While we could get from Miami to Barcelona for one-half of the air amount, there was no way we could get from Rio to Miami for the other half.

[happy cruzer]

Thanks H for the info,

 

I laughed when I saw you mention Tarragona. I haven't been there yet but will hear about it the rest of my life.

 

when we were in Barcelona, I wanted to go to Tarragona. So DH and I go to the train station, and I take the lead with my college Espanol. We get our tickets and we have alot of trouble finding the platform to catch the train. One person finally looks at our tickets and puts on the proper platform. We catch the train. About 30 minutes later I see snow capped mountains. And notice the direction of the sunlight. duuuuhhh We are going North from Barcelona.

 

we sit and wonder what the heck. Then I see the sign for Girona and I think the man who sold us the tickets thought I asked "Para Girona" instead of "Taragona". We have no map, so I am pretty sure we are going the opposite way from what we wanted, but we really don't know what to do. So we stay on the train... We finally ended up in Figueres. We get off, and look at their map. Yup, 180 degrees wrong.

 

I'm feeling terrible, stupid, hungry, embarassed. DH insists lets see whats here. Of course, the area near the train is not too good looking. But he persists... We find the Salvidor Dali museum. Really a great site. A nice plaza. We eat in a lovely restaurant in a sidewalk table. Great steak and wine, probably the most enjoyable meal of our life, we both agree.

 

Then finally on the train ride back to Barcelona, we get our tickets checked by a conductor. And he is upset that we went too far we were only supposed to go as far as Girona. Then I explain the mistake and he stared at me dumbfounded and sinks into the seat next to my in sympathy and unbelief that this horror had occured on my nice vacation. He has pity and just punches the tickets and leaves us to ride to Barcelona.

 

I hear DH chuckle and I realize that for the rest of my life whenever I start acting the "travel authority" I will hear the word Tarragona.

 

Anyway, I think we will try the train again the next trip with a Sign hanging around my neck that says

"Tarragona" so we get the right tickets and platform.

[zoncom]

I would consider getting my own air. You will of course pay deviation fees. They may put you on United, god forbid. Used to live in Aspen. Ill always remember on moving day driving by Aspen airport saying to my friend- well never have to fly United again. A chance for you to fly some of the Asian lines, some of the best in World. Oceania used to deduct up to $800. I doubt its that high now.

[calvin81]

Our quote for the July 26 Baltic cruise, starting in Stockholm and ending in Copenhagen, included an air credit of $860, plus air taxes of $444. We are near Chicago and I can fly much cheaper than that -- I'm not sure of exact prices as we're too far out to book. But for random dates in June 2010 I can go non stop for about $1100 and with one stop each way for the high $800's I believe. Shop on your own before paying for their air of course. We'll go early and stay late I hope so I won't have to pay extra for that deviation either.

[Estelle]

Do you have to opt out of the air package at booking or can you make that change any time before final payment?

 

I am considering 2 Northern European cruises next summer but it's too early to get real flight info and would like to be able to wait and see what possible deals I can find.

 

Thanks!

[LHT28]

Do you have to opt out of the air package at booking or can you make that change any time before final payment?

 

 

 

Thanks!

You can wait

I would ask your TA what the air credit is for your cruises (not all are the same amount) then you can decide when the air routing come out.

 

We take the credit it works out about the same but we get to choose our flights & we can fly in early & stay longer if we choose.

 

Lyn

[Estelle]

Lyn,

 

Thanks for the reply. I think we would opt out mostly to be able to pick when we want to fly. We never fly in the same day as our cruise sails, especially if we were going to Europe.

 

One of the benefits of living in NJ (and yes there are some!) is access to multiple airports, which usually means deals can be found.

[geologygeek]

 

5) The amount of credit depends on your cruise and other factors, and differs from cruise to cruise. Typically, it is in the range of $400 to $600 per person. Their air taxes and fees also vary; recenly I have seen charges in the $400 to $450 range, but that also depends on the flight.

 

 

I'd say that that is an underestimation. To find out you can do a dummy booking on the Oceania website by unchecking the flights required box. For a European cruise the air credit typically varies between US$700 and US$900. I'd guess that it would probably be a bit more for Asia cruises. For our South America cruise in December the credit was US$1200 and we found flights for the two of us for under that amount - it pays to shop around.

[calvin81]

One more thing to consider is how it affects any travel insurance. We are opting out since I can get cheaper flights on our own, but then I have to think about if I want to include flights on our insurance. Last year I did frequent flier tickets, but if I spend $1175 on nonrefundable tickets ..... I may add the flights to our insurance even if we don't book through Oceania or our TA.

[suec12]

Very funny story happy cruzer! so you've never made it to Tarragona? but I bet you've seen a Roman ruin or two.

 

And the best way to figure out the "free airfare" is just to do the dummy internet booking and compare the prices - even looking at an emailed summary of a booking left me scratching my head for awhile as to what the cost really was.