Price drop after booking

[Chelseagirls]

I booked a mid July cruise last December through an agent (Ive used them before) and now find the price for exacly the same cabin grade is £350 per person cheaper than when I booked. The only deal I got was free coach travel to Southampton which is not a lot of use to me as I was quoted London departure when in fact it is from Heathrow and I live in the centre of London. Anything I can do please?

[Scorpio41]

The prices can go up as well as down so as long as you were happy with the price you paid at the time it's best not to look again.

 

We have book cruises 18 months in advance just to get a specific cabin and I'm sure there were many sailing on that cruise paying a lot less than us for the same grade cabin.

 

I don't understand why you were offered free travel to Southampton when your cruise sounds like a fly cruise.

 

Where do you embark on your ship?

Which cruise is it?

 

You could also join the P&O community forum where you will get more answers. :)

[wales4ever]

Yes - enjoy your cruise as you were happy with the price when you booked it.

 

Plus, learn from this - and book as late as possible like I do and save far, far more than the price of free parking, coach travel ,or a few pounds on board credit.

 

I have had a weeks cruise in a decent cabin with P+O on the Ventura for as little as £399, whilst sitting at the same evening table all week with a couple who had paid more than twice this amount.

[C at Sea]

A similar thing happened to us except it was that they were offering free coach travel after we'd booked. We had been given free car parking but we don't go down to Southampton by car due to a neck problem my husband has. I emailed customer services and it was looked into but they decided the cruise was slightly cheaper when we booked - dont know why that would make a difference cos wasn't questioning anything to do with the price of the cruise! I can't understand why free parking couldn't have just been replaced by coach travel - must be similar cost or even less! We are very loyal Gold customers too.

Anyway - you could try customer services - hope you have more luck!

[kevinyork]

Little confused as there dont seem to be any fly cruises in July so cannot understand why there would be a Southampton CarParking offer.

 

In any case, the only thing to consider is whether it is better for you to cancel and book again, lose your deposit but save some money.

[Thejuggler]

The Eavesway bus must leave from Heathrow for London departures, but anyone who gets free coach travel has to get to the coach departure point. Friends in Huddersfield had to get, Bradford, Leeds or Barnsley.

 

OP nothing you can do apart from cancel and rebook if it works out cheaper to lose your deposit. When you booked you must have been happy with the offer.

[Scorpio41]

The Eavesway bus must leave from Heathrow for London departures, but anyone who gets free coach travel has to get to the coach departure point. Friends in Huddersfield had to get, Bradford, Leeds or Barnsley.

 

OP nothing you can do apart from cancel and rebook if it works out cheaper to lose your deposit. When you booked you must have been happy with the offer.

 

I would be concerned about rebooking if it means loosing your free transport from London to Southampton. :eek:

 

Please check where you sail from before you cancel!

[Chelseagirls]

Wouldnt normaly have checked on price after booking, it only came up as my sister and her husband booked at later date, lesson to be learnt here, shouldnt have checked price. As to the coach travel Im just being picky, I usually get a train to Southampton from Waterloo which is very easy for me. I thought when they said London it would be Victoria Coach station not Heathrow!

[daiB]

Wouldnt normaly have checked on price after booking, it only came up as my sister and her husband booked at later date, lesson to be learnt here, shouldnt have checked price. As to the coach travel Im just being picky, I usually get a train to Southampton from Waterloo which is very easy for me. I thought when they said London it would be Victoria Coach station not Heathrow!

 

Remember you booked at a very expensive time. You should book early, when booking opens in April or late, Not in the middle you will always pay more.

 

 

Gan Canny

 

 

Dai

[white duck]

I was very miffed to get a email (from another travel agent )for our cruise on Oriana offering the same cabin as ours for £3999,we pre registered last April and paid £5500.This was after the cancellation fee went up to 50%.Totally understand that they need to fill cabins, but in the current economic climate and the over capacity in the market they really need to re think this policy. As I see it (I m h o ) if less and less book early, due to the amount of discounting, you in the long time devalue your product as the discounted price becomes the accepted price in peoples mind. Perhaps a price in the middle and an accepted policy of upgrading? .I certainly will not be pre registering this April.

Really like to hear other peoples views.

[Bobbyjean]

I completely agree, white duck. I cannot see how people would not be bothered if they get a promotional email essentially saying "If you had booked a few months later, we would have charged you £1000 less!! Bad luck, valued customer."

 

Other cruise lines have price guarantees - although I think this is due to the law in the USA rather than any sense of fairness from the cruise companies. However, it does seem a bit fairer for people who like to book their cruise around a fairly reasonable 6 months beforehand, rather than 12 months or one month in advance.

[white duck]

Thanks,in fact for the two of us it was a £3000 price drop! .Perhaps we as customers need to lobby Trading Standards and A B T A. for the same T&C. As the Americans,ours seem awful one sided.

[daiB]

Thanks,in fact for the two of us it was a £3000 price drop! .Perhaps we as customers need to lobby Trading Standards and A B T A. for the same T&C. As the Americans,ours seem awful one sided.

 

How far away from your cruise were you when you saw this new price.

 

 

Gan Canny

Dai

[pompeynanny]

I was very miffed to get a email (from another travel agent )for our cruise on Oriana offering the same cabin as ours for £3999,we pre registered last April and paid £5500.This was after the cancellation fee went up to 50%.Totally understand that they need to fill cabins, but in the current economic climate and the over capacity in the market they really need to re think this policy. As I see it (I m h o ) if less and less book early, due to the amount of discounting, you in the long time devalue your product as the discounted price becomes the accepted price in peoples mind. Perhaps a price in the middle and an accepted policy of upgrading? .I certainly will not be pre registering this April.

Really like to hear other peoples views.

I agree that P&O should change their policy.

We booked a suite last August for a June cruise on Azura - total cost £10K. Just before final payment was due this month P&O were offering the same cruise for £6K.!!!!

I cancelled and rebooked and even after losing my deposit I was able to save £2000!

I think that to attract early bookings P&O should offer a guarantee that they will honour a minimum price reduction of (for example) 10%.

That would allow late bookers to get a cheaper price but not over penalise early bookers.

[white duck]

We go inApril, email last week. If we had cancelled and rebooked we would have lost 50%(

£5500)So really no way round this for us.

[kevinyork]

I agree with all said above, however P&O will not change policy unless enough people chose either to go elsewhere or book late.

[daiB]

We go inApril, email last week. If we had cancelled and rebooked we would have lost 50%(

£5500)So really no way round this for us.

 

Hi white duck,

 

It could be that P&O be been paid in full for this cabin and therefore with only a few weeks left to go what are the ethics of being paid twice for the same cabin.

 

Would you want to wait until 4 weeks before a cruise to book on the off chance this would happen.

 

Unless you do not mind which cruise you go on and when you go. These very late deals would not ne for you or me.

 

Remember prices rise and fall with just about every thing you buy, It is called supply and demand.

 

 

Gan Canny

 

 

Dai

[Thejuggler]

Completely agree with Dai. If you want to benefit from some very low prices you need to be very flexible - i.e. wait to the last minute, take what is offered and be prepared to be disappointed if nothing is available.

 

A friend does this, but they are now at the stage where they have done so many cruises the offers are often on the well covered routes to ports they have visited a few times.

 

A couple of years ago he managed a 17 night Oriana trip to the Eastern Med for £700 each, they had 48 hours to pack and get to Southampton, but it was a deal they couldn't refuse.

[SheShe90]

It's a fact of life that if you go to a holiday hotel for a weeks all-inclusive, some will have paid more, and some less.

 

If you were happy with the price when you booked, you're like the majority of other bookers. The recent sinking and engine fire on two cruise ships may have lead to cancellations which are being sold on.

[Thejuggler]

Example of a current deal. 17 nights on Queen Victoria, eastern Med, from £999, April departure. That would have started out at about £2,000.

[PRINCESSTHE BEST]

Never book early if you can be flexible on dates and cabin. In the current economic climate cruises are being cancelled if they don't sell well, so early bookers lose out and have to rebook different cruises at higher rates anyway. Leave it to the last minute and you will pick up a bargain. I have just received a flyer direct from Cunard offering a late deal of a 9 night cruise to New York with onboard credit ($25 pp) and free flight home for £549!

[jolly1]

I was very miffed to get a email (from another travel agent )for our cruise on Oriana offering the same cabin as ours for £3999,we pre registered last April and paid £5500.This was after the cancellation fee went up to 50%.Totally understand that they need to fill cabins, but in the current economic climate and the over capacity in the market they really need to re think this policy. As I see it (I m h o ) if less and less book early, due to the amount of discounting, you in the long time devalue your product as the discounted price becomes the accepted price in peoples mind. Perhaps a price in the middle and an accepted policy of upgrading? .I certainly will not be pre registering this April.

Really like to hear other peoples views.

 

 

The scenario that gets loyal P&O cruisers annoyed is when we find for instance, deluxe balcony cabins on sale for less than we have paid for a standard balcony.

This has happened to, many of us, many times and when we phone P&O to ask if we can take advantage of the offer we are told we will have to pay upwards of £300 per person for the higher grade!

The reason we are given for this is that we have to pay whatever price that particular cabin grade was when we made the original booking.

Apparently this is P&O policy.

I am told this also happens on Cunard cruises as they are owned by the same company.

I personally do not think this is the way loyal customers should be treated. I would think that taking into account the economic climate businesses would be falling over backwards to keep their regular clients happy!

[PRINCESSTHE BEST]

US passengers get a better deal because of their consumer laws which favour the customer. Even in the UK Princess will allow you to cancel free of charge with no loss of deposit up to 180 days before sailing. P&O allow nothing.

[riviera1]

P&O Marketing Dept. must be working overtime dreaming up ways to confuse us.

Having just received their flyer 'March Offers- free cabin upgrades', I was interested to enquire about one of the listed cruises.

Having spoken with my travel agent and P&O direct, I discovered that :-

The cruise I had selected was on a 'Getaway Offer' - this meant that I could choose the cabin grade but wouldn't know which deck or cabin No. until I boarded, also they wanted full payment at the time of booking, although the departure date was in the autumn.

This is not stated clearly in the offer flyer, which I find unacceptable.

Also my agent said that the price on his web page didn't mean much as P&O alter their prices each week.

I understand the concept of fluid pricing and supply and demand; but I and I suspect others will be more inclined to search for last minute deals.

[MattyBarlow]

It will be very interesting to see what their approach to prices/offers will be for the 2013/14 season.