No More Price Drops?

I noticed a thread on the Royal Caribbean board that they no longer are granting price drops 48 hours after a reservation is booked. I peeked at the Celebrity website to see if they have anything similar and they appear to reference a new Best Price Guarantee Program effective today (5/17/2010). I could not find a full description of it on their website, but fear that it is the same new policy that Royal Caribbean just announced. This is really bad news if true, and would certainly lead many people to not book cruises far out. Anybody have any information about this?

Wow if that's true, I fear there will be a lot of cancellations and rebooks when the change in fare shows up. That doesn't seem to me to be a smart move so I hope it doesn't turn out to be true.

Wow, this is bad news!!

Celebrity has instituted the exact same policy as RCCL did for Royal Caribbean. Time to stop booking cruises so far into the future, and look at other vacation options.

Hypo

I just looked at Celebrity's website and found this information: You have 48 hours after you book to find a lower price. If you do, you can receive 110% of the difference applied to your booking as an onboard credit. This lowest rate must be a rate publicly advertised by Celebrity. There is a form to complete in order to claim the difference. If you look on the Celebrity opening page, the button for additional information is located just above the Find a Cruise section.

So now I'm off to find out what the RCL site may be offering.

I just looked at Celebrity's website and found this information: You have 48 hours after you book to find a lower price. If you do, you can receive 110% of the difference applied to your booking as an onboard credit. This lowest rate must be a rate publicly advertised by Celebrity. There is a form to complete in order to claim the difference. If you look on the Celebrity opening page, the button for additional information is located just above the Find a Cruise section.

So now I'm off to find out what the RCL site may be offering.

Yes, that is the same exact policy Royal Caribbean just announced. Some people called Crown & Anchor (Royal's equivalent of Captain's Club) to ask if this was in addition to the price drop policy, but were informed that this is replacing the price drop policy - i.e. no price drops 48 hours after you book a cruise.

OK. I just checked Royal Caribbean's site and they are offering the same 110% refund that Celebrity is offering. Gee folks, this is GOOD news. They are NOT saying they will not lower the price if the rates decrease

I can't fine much info on the Celebrity site about this. What is it about?

I looked on both sites and this "Best Price Guarantee" policy is effective for any cruise initially booked on or after May 17, 2010. So if I booked before May 17 (say, on May 15), do you think that means I will be able to get the price drops?:confused:

It is not clear if that is in place of the old policy or in addition to it. It is exactly the same policy announced by Carnival.

Nothing on their site says they will not honor price drops after 48 hours. It would be a logistical nightmare for them if people cancelled only to rebook at the lower fare. Of course they could always monitor the cruises you book, drop, and rebook and deny the rate decrease; but please tell me how they are going to handle that for all passengers on all their cruise ships!

Someone would have had to put in place a pretty good computer program---and really, they have never been noted for the best IT work!!

( However, I reserve the right to be wrong.:rolleyes:)

I just got off the phone with Celebrity reservations. She said my future cruises are eligible for price drops as before (but I did book them before today and did not ask if that is why). Maybe they are looking for information on TA's or dot coms that might be discounting but shouldn't be. I could not find any info on Cruise Critics's news page but maybe they will have a news release on it soon!

I noticed a thread on the Royal Caribbean board that they no longer are granting price drops 48 hours after a reservation is booked. I peeked at the Celebrity website to see if they have anything similar and they appear to reference a new Best Price Guarantee Program effective today (5/17/2010). I could not find a full description of it on their website, but fear that it is the same new policy that Royal Caribbean just announced. This is really bad news if true, and would certainly lead many people to not book cruises far out. Anybody have any information about this?

On Celebrity website:

Which bookings are eligible for the Celebrity Best Price Guarantee Program?

Answer: New individual bookings made as of May 17, 2010.

i am probably going to get flamed but this is my opinion: you should book when the price offered is of your liking, if the price drops for some reason, it doesnt mean your original deal was bad, it means the cruiseline made the desicion of giving up some of their profit in order to sell more product. if it was your buisness and you had a weekend sale, what would you say if suddenly all your past customers wanted money back on their purchases? do airlines honor price reductions on paid tickets? or buses? sometimes hotels do but not always. two advantages of booking early that i have found are, first you get to choose which cabin you want and second, say you book a cruise that costs 1000pp and you book it a year and a half prior to saildate, after paying the deposit, yo can pay 100 per month total for the cabin and by the time final pay date comes along you owe nothing, to me that beats having to pay 1500 in one charge. but that is just my opinion.

look at what happened to the mariner in the west coast, they were lowering prices so much that the ship was no longer profitable and they are pulling it out of the west coast. now people who enjoyed cruising rccl without paying airfare will have to choose between flying to another port or cruising carnival. really tough decision if you are like me who wont go on carnival unless i am stranded in an island and rescued by them. not to insult them, just not my type of vacation.

ok i got my flame suit, fire away

Just came back over from reading the RCL boards. It may just be that there will be no more price drop-refunds. If so, I am sure a lot of loyal cruises are going to be even less loyal in the future.

I guess I just don't understand. If I can get my money back up to 70 days pre cruise, why wouldn't I do that and just rebook for the lower price? I guess I run the risk of losing my preferred cabin, but I would think the logistics of this on Celebrity's end would be a nightmare.

Exactly. Airlines can get away with not honoring sales/price drops because you (typically) can't get a refund once you've booked your flight.

Unless cruise lines are going to start making reservations non-refundable once booked they are going to have to honor price drops (either in the form of cash or OBC) up until final payment date or you'd simply cancel your cruise and immediately re-book it.

I guess I just don't understand. If I can get my money back up to 70 days pre cruise, why wouldn't I do that and just rebook for the lower price? I guess I run the risk of losing my preferred cabin, but I would think the logistics of this on Celebrity's end would be a nightmare.

Seems that all the info on this is very new but I suspect that the "price guarantee" thing is just marketing hype to meet similar hype by the competition. I doubt it would make any difference on their policy of making price adjustments before final payment date (at least for US/Canadian bookings) as you are correct you could just cancel and re-book. What is less clear is if this is signaling a change in policy for price changes after the final payment date.

Seems that all the info on this is very new but I suspect that the "price guarantee" thing is just marketing hype to meet similar hype by the competition. I doubt it would make any difference on their policy of making price adjustments before final payment date (at least for US/Canadian bookings) as you are correct you could just cancel and re-book. What is less clear is if this is signaling a change in policy for price changes after the final payment date.

Yes, sadly the new policy replaces the old policy and is not in addition to the old policy. It is clear there are no more price drops after final payment. What is murky is price drops before final payment. It is not yet known if people will have to cancel a booking (and risk losing their stateroom and have to go through the hassle of re-ordering shore excursions, restaurant reservations etc) to get a price drop before final payment. It also is not yet know if they will somehow "flag" cancelled reservations so they cannot be rebooked at the lower rate.

Wow, if this is true, I may just cancel my current reservation, & play the wait till the last minute game, I booked a Oct 2011 Med cruise because I love the itinerary & nabbed a great cabin (angled balcony c-2) but I did this knowing I'd probably end up with a nice OBC when they start dropping the price after final payment. I hate to give up our cabin, but I paid more than I'd like to... I booked back at the beginning of April. wonder if there is a "grandfather clause" for older bookings, I'd ask X, but we all know 5 calls or emails will get you 5 different answers.

I just Emailed the Captain's Club, I'll cut & paste the reply when I get it.

.... It also is not yet know if they will somehow "flag" cancelled reservations so they cannot be rebooked at the lower rate.

I would find it hard to believe that if someone canceled under terms that allowed a 100% refund that Celebrity would tell then they do not want their business if they attempted to re-book at the going rate. I can not recall any business I've ever seen that does this.

OTOH - The world is full of examples of non-refundable purchases, especially in travel, where price adjustments are not made. For example I don't think I've ever heard of an airline reducing someone's airfare if they lowered their rate unless someone had a refundable unrestricted full fare ticket.

Way to go Celebrity! This is so great. To us this means, no more price drops as had been the case before 2008. The reason for booking early to get not only the best stateroom but the best price is coming back!

No more hard work chasing price drops to make less money! Finally back to the days of those staterooms that are on sale at the last minute being the ones that no one wanted...for. a. reason!!!

Thank you Celebrity!!! THUMBS WAY UP!!!

Wow, if this is true, I may just cancel my current reservation, & play the wait till the last minute game, I booked a Oct 2011 Med cruise because I love the itinerary & nabbed a great cabin (angled balcony c-2) but I did this knowing I'd probably end up with a nice OBC when they start dropping the price after final payment. I hate to give up our cabin, but I paid more than I'd like to... I booked back at the beginning of April. wonder if there is a "grandfather clause" for older bookings, I'd ask X, but we all know 5 calls or emails will get you 5 different answers.

On the other hand our upcoming med cruise this next September has had most categories of cabins sold out for some time and if this remains true I'd think any cabins that might become available, if any, would be much higher in price. While we've seen a lot of cruises get heavy discounting in the tough economic climate of the past year or two that hasn't always been the case. A couple years back it was very common to see prices nearly double between the time we made our bookings, over a year in advance, and the prices offered within the last 3 or 4 months before the sail date on some cruises.

I've also always presumed that any price reductions at any time was always at Celebrity's discretion and there has never been a policy that obligated them to make such adjustments except for the new 48 hour policy noted above. So it doesn't surprise me at all that they are answering questions by saying that there will be no price other adjustments if they've never had a formal policy that granted that right to begin with. To say otherwise would be establishing an obligation they never had. I've always booked under the assumption that I could get a pre-final payment date change due to the ability to cancel and rebook but that once final payment date rolled around nothing was certain. I've seen occasional threads from people with TA's who wouldn't process price adjustments and the reason they could get away with it was that there was never a policy which promised this.

I would find it hard to believe that if someone canceled under terms that allowed a 100% refund that Celebrity would tell then they do not want their business if they attempted to re-book at the going rate. I can not recall any business I've ever seen that does this.

 

OTOH - The world is full of examples of non-refundable purchases, especially in travel, where price adjustments are not made. For example I don't think I've ever heard of an airline reducing someone's airfare if they lowered their rate unless someone had a refundable unrestricted full fare ticket.

I too would hope they would not "flag" reservations to block price drops before final payment. However Royal Caribbean (their sister line) has already been doing such a tactic to block people from getting price drops on sales that are specified "for new bookings only." So it would not be unheard of if Celebrity did something similar (again, I hope that they do not do this - I am just saying it is a possibility at this point until more information comes to light).

Southwest is the only airline I know of that does give price drops. There is no fee assoicated with it, but you receive it in the form of a credit towards a future flight. The credit is good for one year from the time you initially booked your flight.

Way to go Celebrity! This is so great. To us this means, no more price drops as had been the case before 2008. The reason for booking early to get not only the best stateroom but the best price is coming back!

 

No more hard work chasing price drops to make less money! Finally back to the days of those staterooms that are on sale at the last minute being the ones that no one wanted...for. a. reason!!!

 

Thank you Celebrity!!! THUMBS WAY UP!!!

read all your other posts, TA much???