Weird M424 Pricing

[BlueRiband]

The October QM2 New England/Canada voyage shows some weird pricing in the US site where a P1 costs only $1 more than a BA balcony.

 

Q2, 3, 4, and 7 available

P1 $4,199

 

P2 $3,899 Sold out

 

AA $3,599

 

AC $3,499

 

BA $4,198

 

BB $3,898

All lower categories sold out.

 

The voyage seems to have sold from the bottom up. The "balcony upgrade" promotion obviously worked. And Britannia Club usually sells out before other balcony categories. If this structure hold up it means that booking very late can actually cost a lot more.

[Lady Hudson]

The prices has been all over the place for this trip . . . especially if you looked at some of the online sites. I am happy with what we got ..lower than normal cruise fare with OBC and free gratuities. It really seems to be luck of the draw these days on all cruise lines. You may or may not get reasonable prices if you can't be flexible with travel time. I am glad that I am now in that category -- retired and continually looking for good fares.:)

[Scrapnana]

The October QM2 New England/Canada voyage shows some weird pricing in the US site where a P1 costs only $1 more than a BA balcony.

 

Q2, 3, 4, and 7 available

P1 $4,199

 

P2 $3,899 Sold out

 

AA $3,599

 

AC $3,499

 

BA $4,198

 

BB $3,898

All lower categories sold out.

 

The voyage seems to have sold from the bottom up. The "balcony upgrade" promotion obviously worked. And Britannia Club usually sells out before other balcony categories. If this structure hold up it means that booking very late can actually cost a lot more.

 

And what's with the BA and BB being more than the Britannia Club?

[fantasy51]

A few years ago I saw cruises from the UK site for the Med. where it was cheaper to book them with flights than to book them without flights. That was peculiar!

[zider]

I do believe that the weird pricing that is sometimes thrown up is all down to Cunard's live Fluid pricing , Which means that if a particular grade of cabin is in demand & selling well the price goes Up. But of course if one grade is selling well that means some other grades that are not selling as well, This means that those grades go Down result some times the higher grades can & do end up cheaper than the lower grades,

[Mudhen]

At this second in time, the Cunard web site shows this cruise as being sold out. It was supposedly sold out a few days ago and then it showed availability, now sold out again! Go figure!

[fantasy51]

Travel agents sometimes provisionally book a block of cabins, so the ship seems full. Then when the cabins are returned unsold, there is availability again.

[axelskater]

That is weird, as Q3 has shown sold out for over a month, and now they show available?...Those are always a popular category, even though they have no balcony.

[axelskater]

Okay, even weirder. The Transatlantic portions of this voyage, including the NE/Canada portion are NOT showing sold out; Only the middle, port-intensive portion on its own is showing sold out. So if you agree to tack on the TA, that Canada New England voyage is not sold out?

[WillH]

Axelskater. I think that for multi segment cruises like this or a world voyage, where the cruise can be sold in multiple ways a limit of the number of cabins is set for each of the voyages that can be booked. So this explains what you are seeing - ie. Cunard don't want to sell so many of the short sectors at the expense of selling the longer voyages. By using this approach all cabins can be made available for all the voyage combinations with the only limit being on the number that can be sold. Presumably Cunard might release additional cabins for a sector which is why cruises go from being sold out to available again.

 

I might be totally wrong as I have just deduced this from what I have seen when booking a World Cruise.

 

Will

[BlueRiband]

Okay, even weirder. The Transatlantic portions of this voyage, including the NE/Canada portion are NOT showing sold out; Only the middle, port-intensive portion on its own is showing sold out. So if you agree to tack on the TA, that Canada New England voyage is not sold out?

 

Yes, because somebody who is willing to tack on a TA would be less inclined to book if they had to change staterooms. As others have said, twice I noted the voyage was "sold out" and then it wasn't sold out. Perhaps at some point a real person intervenes and takes back some cabins originally allotted to travel agents.

 

What's really weird about this one is the lower categories all showing as sold out. Yet a major online site in the US had insides as low as $799pp.

[axelskater]

If the above is true, after the TA departs to come to New York, there will be a huge price drop then if there are any empty cabins for the 12 nights. I have noticed other lines doing this also.

[bob brown]

Another thing that happens when lower price cabins sell out, is that they will at some point try to upsell those booked to higher categories for a bargain rate, and then at some point will make complimentary upgrades....all to release some lower categories for new bookings....

[axelskater]

Another thing that happens when lower price cabins sell out, is that they will at some point try to upsell those booked to higher categories for a bargain rate, and then at some point will make complimentary upgrades....all to release some lower categories for new bookings....

 

This one happens to me frequently...it's how I have been upgraded the last 3 or 4 trips... a low cost upsell.

[Mudhen]

This one happens to me frequently...it's how I have been upgraded the last 3 or 4 trips... a low cost upsell.

 

Same here.......thanks to Axel! A reasonable upsell works for me!

[axelskater]

Same here.......thanks to Axel! A reasonable upsell works for me!

 

:D:D I hope they keep 'em coming!

[Happy_Girl]

I saw QM2 Princess Grill for the Jan 2015 24 day Soton to Dubai trip at £2.9k with flights and hotel on a TA site

 

Which seem to be £6.5k on Cunard

 

It's the first leg of the WC and clearly they're doing the same thing here.

 

Was very tempting but I'm holding out for the April QE

 

 

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[BlueRiband]

Another thing that happens when lower price cabins sell out, is that they will at some point try to upsell those booked to higher categories for a bargain rate, and then at some point will make complimentary upgrades....all to release some lower categories for new bookings....

 

Looks like your analysis was spot on. This voyage was listed as "sold out" on the US site while up-sells and upgrades were going on. Except for a Q3 there are now sheltered balconies starting at $1899. Obstructed view...$3398.:eek: Maybe first timers don't see the advantages of the sheltered balconies in rough autumn weather?

 

Unless one caught a flash sale very booking late is not always cheaper.