Price reduction of cruise fare

There have been many discussions on this board of how Regent waits until after final payment is due to reduce the price so that there is no reduction in price for passengers who booked early in the process.

One of the cruise consultants made an interesting statement during her presentation - if there is a price reduction after final payment has been made, either the passenger or the TA should call Regent to see if they can offer some other benefit, whether is be additional ship board credit or a room upgrade. I had never heard of this before - had others?

Speaking of price reductions - the LA-Tahiti segment did not sell well, I believe there are only about 520 passengers on board. Apparently, residents of Europe, specifically the UK and Switzerland that we can tell, we offered an amazing deal on this cruise - much less expensive that what residents of the US paid. I ran into some people from the UK and they were not happy when they learned what their fellow citizens had paid for the same cruise. I have family in the UK and am amazed at some of the offers that a presented to them that never reach the shores of the U.S. and are not available to US residents.

gnomie :)

One of the cruise consultants made an interesting statement during her presentation - if there is a price reduction after final payment has been made, either the passenger or the TA should call Regent to see if they can offer some other benefit, whether is be additional ship board credit or a room upgrade. I had never heard of this before - had others?

That is pretty standard practice for many cruise lines. If the fares drop after final payment, and upper category cabins are available at similar rates that you paid (not major jump to premium suites, just standard cabins), you can request an upgrade. If no cabins that meet that criteria are available, you more than likely will be offered OBC as some compensation.

But you have to initiate...

We sail from Papeete this Sunday; the price of our cruise dropped 25% after the final payment and I asked our TA to see what Regent would do to address this. We heard today we had been upgraded from Category G to D. I think all this means is we get an in suite coffee-maker, but it's better than nothing. I doubt whether this would have happened had I not personally chased this up a couple of times.

We were on the Istanbul to Dubai cruise which also did not sell well. Price dropped $3000.

Regent offered us (through our great TA) an upgrade from G to B, which we declined in favor of $3000 OBC (used most of it for Regent Choice excursions which we loved. Regent also made "an unbelievably great offer" to those on the cruise following our cruise to come on for our leg. Regent also had a group of TAs from Central/South America and their families on board for 10 of the 21 days. Lots of Swedish couples that were happy with their "special" price. As our TA told me Regent finds novel ways to fill the cruises.