Equally your booking time changes the price dramatically so customer A books cruise in height of pandemic 2 years out company is losing cash left and right and worried they are going to sink. They start offering deal busters at half normal cost, free air, discounted extensions, and a refund guarantee. On the side the company purchases risk insurance for fares sold from a business insurance company so if that fee is refunded they get reimbursed. So customer A hits all in for their cruise at 3500 per person waiting 2 years and Viking gets to use that money to recover from loses. Customer B wasn't booking at all until just recently because he finally feels ok about travel. Viking hits him with 5500 per person without discounted airfare, and no guarantee, so all in he is close to 7k per person. So who does the company want in that room? If company refunds customer A it gets the insurance to kick in which pays the customer refund and gets a much higher price for same room. So it gives customer A an offer they can't refuse and still ends up on top with an extra couple grand per person for that room and just pushes the already paid reservation back a bit. Actually quite smart business wise. They aren't losing anything with these deals they are increasing revenue and cash flow. Remember those flights are group purchased probably with a similar airline strategy that they sold those tickets when they were tanking in revenue so they likely paid less for those too which also gives them a boost though that one is temporary cause flight cost increases will eat that back up in rebooking.