Late Saver v Select Prices on Transatlantic - What a difference.

[kevinyork]

The March Transatlantic on Azura has Balconies available.

 

The two prices are £960 late saver fare, £1584 select fare. That's over £600 difference.

 

We wont go on a saver fare as we want a choice over the dining time, cabin location is less important. However, we will not pay £600 more just to choose a dining time. There are 4 of us so that would be £2400 for our party to have a dining choice! End result.....P&O don't get our business again and cabins remain unsold. They could knock another 50% off the saver fare and we still would not book as we could not handle early dining or the risk of early dining.

 

Whilst I know P&O want to ensure there is a distinction between saver fares and full price select fares they clearly want to fill those remaining cabins hence the very low saver fares on this cruise. I know many are happy with the fare distinctions however there must be others like us who are put off booking altogether.

[Marmaduke]

I agree entirely, £600 difference equals £1200 per couple for the privilege of choosing a cabin and dining preference. I fully expect early bookers to have their choice of cabins and dining but why can't late bookers have a choice of what is left. We are also put off P & O for this reason and no longer consider them when choosing a cruise.

[jeanlyon]

You would be unlikely not to get second sitting. First is always more popular. And anyway, you could also get Freedom so you could eat when you like?

 

Have to admit though, I prefer Fred's way of doing it. a £2 pppn charge to choose your dining if you book a saver fare.

Edited January 12, 2015 by jeanlyon

[richleeds]

P&O prey on those who MUST have a certain sitting or MUST have a certain cabin and exploit them fully.

 

There's plenty of them on here.

 

 

Kerrr-ching!

[jeanlyon]

We always book early and have had some good deals. however, it does depend on the ship and the cruise. We are on Adonia in April and there is nothing available that is less than we paid. Overall, it is £300 pp more than we paid. Same on Oriana last October. Never went down to what we paid.

[kevinyork]

You would be unlikely not to get second sitting. First is always more popular. And anyway, you could also get Freedom so you could eat when you like?

 

.

 

Yes I know the chances of not getting late or Freedom are fairly slim, we wont take the risk as it would ruin our holiday.

[jeanlyon]

For £600 pp I wouldn't let it ruin mine!

[richleeds]

Yes I know the chances of not getting late or Freedom are fairly slim, we wont take the risk as it would ruin our holiday.

 

Surely for the saving and very small risk as you want the unpopular second sitting its worth a punt?

 

Worst case scenario you get early, then you spend a bit of the £2400 eating in the speciality restaurants.

[kevinyork]

Surely for the saving and very small risk as you want the unpopular second sitting its worth a punt?

 

Worst case scenario you get early, then you spend a bit of the £2400 eating in the speciality restaurants.

 

Unfortunately Mum has issues re when she can and cannot eat plus we enjoy leisurely days, pre-dinner drinks and then a later meal. Plus we would not want to eat in the Speciality restaurants every night.

 

In any case, my post was more about the disparity in pricing given the simple issue of dining choice. When the saver fares and select fares are closer in price I can see P&Os methodology but when they clearly have a need to fill that ship the removal of choice for saver fares will make their objective harder to achieve.

[amajaa]

I would think if you got first sitting you would be able to change it once onboard as most others would be wanting to change from second to first. Certainly when we were on the Queen Victoria in December that was the case.

[daiB]

The March Transatlantic on Azura has Balconies available.

 

 

 

The two prices are £960 late saver fare, £1584 select fare. That's over £600 difference.

 

 

 

We wont go on a saver fare as we want a choice over the dining time, cabin location is less important. However, we will not pay £600 more just to choose a dining time. There are 4 of us so that would be £2400 for our party to have a dining choice! End result.....P&O don't get our business again and cabins remain unsold. They could knock another 50% off the saver fare and we still would not book as we could not handle early dining or the risk of early dining.

 

 

 

Whilst I know P&O want to ensure there is a distinction between saver fares and full price select fares they clearly want to fill those remaining cabins hence the very low saver fares on this cruise. I know many are happy with the fare distinctions however there must be others like us who are put off booking altogether.

 

 

Kevin,

 

I have to say you would be very unlikely to get first sitting as the demand for first far outweighs second. You would also be in a very good position to swap. Now I know savers do not have any priority for swapping dining but you would be in a great position in that you have something that everyone else wants.

 

Anyway I see little advantage in booking select at this time as if the cruise is nearing being full as you would have little choice of cabin or dining as most of the spaces will have already gone.

 

Anyway good luck with whatever you go for.

 

 

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[Midsomer Madness]

You should also take into account flights on these cruises..if there are a few of you going and you book a saver fare you could end up on different flights..not important to some, but is to others..I think with that sort of saving we woild just eat in Sindhu and the glasshouse for 14 nights if we got a sitting we didn't like or couldn't change

[richleeds]

You should also take into account flights on these cruises..if there are a few of you going and you book a saver fare you could end up on different flights..not important to some, but is to others..I think with that sort of saving we woild just eat in Sindhu and the glasshouse for 14 nights if we got a sitting we didn't like or couldn't change

 

Thats the angle I was going for ESPECIALLY as they want late sitting, its worth a punt with a few premium dining options available if the very unlikely worst case scenario happened.

[mrbluesea]

Why not have the option to at least state your dinning preference when making a saver booking at least that would at least give an idea of what your preference was. I also would be loath to book anything longer than a few nights without knowing my dinning arrangements.

[davecttr]

All this makes me think what a disservice british consumer law gives us, and how the cruise lines exploit this to gouge our wallets.

 

Contrast this with the US where you can cancel and get your deposit back up until final payment day. Or if the price goes down and you notice it you can get a refund.

 

Look at Princess cruises, an american company which somehow manages to offer the same deal to british customers even if they could quote UK consumer law to get out of paying.

 

Why?

 

Could it be that Princess have realised that happy customers are good for business as they are more likely to book again and tell their friends what a good deal they had. The cost to the company could turn out to be marginal anyway. US consumer law must allow them to make sufficient profit so maybe the impossible to find out profit margins on P&O are larger. British cash cows anyone?

 

Hundreds of pounds to book a specific cabin, or a particular time for dining, that is just cynical exploitation and we let them get away with it.

 

now you might say why do i book early when i could wait for a late saver. i am beginning to wonder why too. OK, there is a set quota for solo occupancy cabins but i have talked to solo cruisers on recent cruises who booked a few weeks before departure and, although they had to pay double, still ended up in a better cabin for not much more fare.

[kevinyork]

You should also take into account flights on these cruises..if there are a few of you going and you book a saver fare you could end up on different flights..not important to some, but is to others..I think with that sort of saving we woild just eat in Sindhu and the glasshouse for 14 nights if we got a sitting we didn't like or couldn't change

 

 

Oh I didnt know that we could end up on seperate flights. That would be a non starter as Mum is in a wheelchair and needs assistance from one of us with one or two of the others carrying the wheelchair pushers' hand luggage. (she hates having to reply on airport/port disabled asssistance.

 

If there was just the two of us I think I would risk it but the uncertainty, however small the risk may be, of early dining and/or seperate flights just tugs at the cautious niggle in me. Mum also likes the main dining room so speciality restaurants for two weeks wouldnt work.

 

Thanks to all who have replied. Think I will sleep on it and see how my head is heading in the morning. However if P&O read this forum, all it would have taken to fill two more cabins at short notice would have been a dining choice, something that will cost nothing and far less than sailing with further reduced cabin fares being needed or indeed empty cabins.

 

 

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[richleeds]

tugs at the cautious niggle in me.

 

Thats exactly the reaction P&O want.

 

Throw a little bit of uncertainty into the pot and watch the money roll in.

 

Re the flights, Midsomer was right to highlight that to you as you go about your decision making, but it would be highly unlikely that you would be left with the last 2 seats on flight X and then have to get the last 2 seats on flight Y.

 

If anything your preferred airport, I'm guessing Manchester might sell out and you have to all go on the same flight from another airport. I'm not saying this is likely but its a more likely scenario than getting split up on different flights.

 

Happy cruising whichever path you go down.

[soobs]

Just ring P & O tell them your flight dilemma and see what they say they have always helped us solve a problem.

Meal times as Azura and Ventura dedicates 2 of their restaurants to freedom dining you are most likely to get that or as others have said late sitting because early is first choice for early bookers and often the reason they book early.

We were on Ventura before Xmas and got freedom just what we wanted but also spoke to at least 4 couples who changed from late sitting to freedom and the ship was showing full at reception. (not sure that is always the truth just stops you asking for a cabin move or free upgrade)

 

Hope this helps - go on book the TA prices they are offering are a good deal and one with taking if you are happy with all the sea days.

[bobstheboy]

Be very unlucky not to get Freedom dining, we did last year on two last minute Ventura cruises. I wouldn't fancy the west to east crossing, losing an hours sleep on most sea days. We went the other way in October and it was great, but a different route across and I would guess better weather.

[the english lady]

Be very unlucky not to get Freedom dining, we did last year on two last minute Ventura cruises. I wouldn't fancy the west to east crossing, losing an hours sleep on most sea days. We went the other way in October and it was great, but a different route across and I would guess better weather.

When we did our recent transatlantic, if you gained an hours sleep it happened at night. If you lost an hour that happened at midday, so 12miday became 1pm in the twinkling of an eye. So you didn't actually have to lose any sleep. Clever.

[the english lady]

Reading this thread and others in a similar vein , what I am beginning to realise is that the threads seem to have turned around.

It used to be everyone was complaining about paying higher prices and people paying less got more.

Now (and I grant not so many) we have people thinking of paying saver fares or paying saver fares complaining about what they are not getting.

We know due to current law P and O cannot offer the same as all the other American cruise lines (is Princess's T and C for them matching price drops totally the same as the other American lines, and can you book through UK TA or direct with Princess to get them?) ref matching price drops, so that appears to be a slight dead duck-ref the above though.

I thought P and O had got things right. The pricing is much clearer. I have my eye on a cruise. Full select fare is a little too much for me..early saver I don't think are worth it...so I will wait and see if my grade goes down to saver...quite likely wont, will sell out, so that will be my fault for waiting.

Also if you are adding flying into the bag, that will confuse things even more as there maybe space on the ship, but not on the planes you want getting there/back.

[davecttr]

Reading this thread and others in a similar vein , what I am beginning to realise is that the threads seem to have turned around.

It used to be everyone was complaining about paying higher prices and people paying less got more.

Now (and I grant not so many) we have people thinking of paying saver fares or paying saver fares complaining about what they are not getting.

We know due to current law P and O cannot offer the same as all the other American cruise lines (is Princess's T and C for them matching price drops totally the same as the other American lines, and can you book through UK TA or direct with Princess to get them?) ref matching price drops, so that appears to be a slight dead duck-ref the above though.

I thought P and O had got things right. The pricing is much clearer. I have my eye on a cruise. Full select fare is a little too much for me..early saver I don't think are worth it...so I will wait and see if my grade goes down to saver...quite likely wont, will sell out, so that will be my fault for waiting.

Also if you are adding flying into the bag, that will confuse things even more as there maybe space on the ship, but not on the planes you want getting there/back.

According to my reading on these forums british consumer law is no barrier to a company offering a better deal if they wanted to. i don't know if their T&C's are the same as other american lines except they would have to be in america!. apparently people have booked througha UK TA ond got a reduction.

 

My Princess cruise is in July and the final payment is late April. during March and april i will take a close interest in the price and if there is a drop i will try for a discount.

 

allegedly one disadvantage of american consumer law for the company is that cruisers can make multiple bookings and when they finally choose which cruise to go on, get refunds of the other deposits. They can get round this by offering special low non-refundable deposit deals. for example, my deposit was 3.3% of the fare :)

[richleeds]

Yeah I would agree I dont think there is any legal reason related to consumer law why they cannot offer refunds on price reductions, they simply choose not to.

[daiB]

Reading this thread and others in a similar vein , what I am beginning to realise is that the threads seem to have turned around.

 

It used to be everyone was complaining about paying higher prices and people paying less got more.

 

Now (and I grant not so many) we have people thinking of paying saver fares or paying saver fares complaining about what they are not getting.

 

We know due to current law P and O cannot offer the same as all the other American cruise lines (is Princess's T and C for them matching price drops totally the same as the other American lines, and can you book through UK TA or direct with Princess to get them?) ref matching price drops, so that appears to be a slight dead duck-ref the above though.

 

I thought P and O had got things right. The pricing is much clearer. I have my eye on a cruise. Full select fare is a little too much for me..early saver I don't think are worth it...so I will wait and see if my grade goes down to saver...quite likely wont, will sell out, so that will be my fault for waiting.

 

Also if you are adding flying into the bag, that will confuse things even more as there maybe space on the ship, but not on the planes you want getting there/back.

 

 

Well yes that was always going to happen. I have also read moans, on other forums about the cheap saver fares not being available on cruises they wanted to go on.

 

You cannot please all the people all the time.

 

 

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[silver wedding]

The March Transatlantic on Azura has Balconies available.

 

The two prices are £960 late saver fare, £1584 select fare. That's over £600 difference.

 

We wont go on a saver fare as we want a choice over the dining time, cabin location is less important. However, we will not pay £600 more just to choose a dining time. There are 4 of us so that would be £2400 for our party to have a dining choice! End result.....P&O don't get our business again and cabins remain unsold. They could knock another 50% off the saver fare and we still would not book as we could not handle early dining or the risk of early dining.

 

Whilst I know P&O want to ensure there is a distinction between saver fares and full price select fares they clearly want to fill those remaining cabins hence the very low saver fares on this cruise. I know many are happy with the fare distinctions however there must be others like us who are put off booking altogether.

 

We've booked transatlantic on Adonia for this March and booked early as it is to celebrate our ruby anniversary. At that time cruises were full fare but we booked because Adonia is a small ship and we thought it would get booked up quickly - how wrong can you be? Fares have plummeted but when we asked if we could change to a balcony at the new lower fare, we were told we could only do so if we paid the full brochure price.

 

I eventually complained to David Dingle who is the CEO and got a reply from one of his team who said that P&O was a commercial company and they needed to maximise profits so tough. (Still have the email if anyone wants to read it.)

 

We shall not be sailing with P&O again unless we take advantage of a bargain basement, late sailing fare. By contrast we cruised with Princess in October, they reduced our fares when they had a special offer and gave us 50 dollars OBC for the inconvenience.

 

P&O have become arrogant and feel that they have such loyal customers that they can treat us all with disdain.