What Chance of a Reduced Price Upgrade?

[tring]

We have been known to ring another cruise company and ask the cost of an upgrade  within 2-3 months of a cruise and be quoted a good price.  From what I remember, in the past P&O only quoted the price as it would have been when the cruise was first booked.  Is that still the case?  Alternatively, how might we be placed if we ask about an upgrade when on the ship?

 

We have an obstructed outside and would consider paying for a balcony, but not at silly money.  We asked for no automatic upgrade when we booked at select price as we would not want to moved to another cabin unless we are happy with the location. 

[Eglesbrech]

4 minutes ago, tring said:

We have been known to ring another cruise company and ask the cost of an upgrade  within 2-3 months of a cruise and be quoted a good price.  From what I remember, in the past P&O only quoted the price as it would have been when the cruise was first booked.  Is that still the case?  Alternatively, how might we be placed if we ask about an upgrade when on the ship?

 

We have an obstructed outside and would consider paying for a balcony, but not at silly money.  We asked for no automatic upgrade when we booked at select price as we would not want to moved to another cabin unless we are happy with the location. 

 

They generally still quote the price at the day you booked if you ask to upgrade. 

 

Odd times they will phone you and offer an paid upgrade but from what I understand that happens only very rarely.

[tring]

8 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

 

They generally still quote the price at the day you booked if you ask to upgrade. 

 

Odd times they will phone you and offer an paid upgrade but from what I understand that happens only very rarely.

 

Sad.

 

Have you ever asked for an upgrade when on the ship?  The cruise I am looking at has been reduced a fair bit, even at select price, so I assume there must be a fair bit of availability, but admittedly may not be at sailing.

Edited June 17, 2019 by tring

[Eglesbrech]

Just now, tring said:

 

Sad.

 

Have you ever asked for an upgrade when on the ship?  The cruise I am looking at has been reduced a fair bit, even at select price, so I assume there must be a fair bit of availability, but admittedly may not be at sailing.

 No not on P&O  as they do tend to sell out most cruises by the sail date (we have done so on Fred and moved from a junior to senior suite).

 

The problem is that they just keep reducing the prices to sell the cabins and tough luck to those that paid more at an earlier date. It only seems to be when they need to re-balance the grade of cabins that they then contact current passengers, it’s easier to sell cheap lower grades last minute for them.

 

All that said I would still try phoning them to see what they say, you may just be lucky.

[tring]

12 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

 No not on P&O  as they do tend to sell out most cruises by the sail date (we have done so on Fred and moved from a junior to senior suite).

 

The problem is that they just keep reducing the prices to sell the cabins and tough luck to those that paid more at an earlier date. It only seems to be when they need to re-balance the grade of cabins that they then contact current passengers, it’s easier to sell cheap lower grades last minute for them.

 

All that said I would still try phoning them to see what they say, you may just be lucky.

 

May try, but we booked through an agent, so will need to enquire through them, so will leave it until tomorrow.  Will let you know if we get anywhere.

[Eglesbrech]

Just now, tring said:

 

May try, but we booked through an agent, so will need to enquire through them, so will leave it until tomorrow.  Will let you know if we get anywhere.

 

It would be interesting if you did get something from it - hope springs eternal.😀

[daiB]

18 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

 No not on P&O  as they do tend to sell out most cruises by the sail date (we have done so on Fred and moved from a junior to senior suite).

 

The problem is that they just keep reducing the prices to sell the cabins and tough luck to those that paid more at an earlier date. It only seems to be when they need to re-balance the grade of cabins that they then contact current passengers, it’s easier to sell cheap lower grades last minute for them.

 

All that said I would still try phoning them to see what they say, you may just be lucky.

Reductions on any scale are a thing of the past I keep a close eye on prices and very often they hold up very well. You may get the odd reduction very late as people drop out. In the last 5 years I have not seen my cabin on sale for less than I paid and more often a great deal more. If available.

[tring]

13 minutes ago, daiB said:

Reductions on any scale are a thing of the past I keep a close eye on prices and very often they hold up very well. You may get the odd reduction very late as people drop out. In the last 5 years I have not seen my cabin on sale for less than I paid and more often a great deal more. If available.

 

We booked late last summer, just in time to change from an October cruise we would not have been able to go on because of family reasons.  Cheapest balconies (select price) are now a bit less than we paid for an obstructed view outside on Arcadia.  Probably would not have cost a lot more when we booked, but were feeling a bit tight fisted at the time.

 

The cheapest balconies seem to be at the back or front.  Do you get a lot of vibration at the back of Arcadia, not too keen on the front?

 

On the other hand, thinking we may be more likely to get a better deal if we go for something more expensive, which could be more difficult for them to sell.  May just ask what they could offer in the way of a balcony - nothing like optimism.  Thinking of Allan Sugar - always worth a try at bargaining 🙂

Edited June 17, 2019 by tring

[Eglesbrech]

5 minutes ago, daiB said:

Reductions on any scale are a thing of the past I keep a close eye on prices and very often they hold up very well. You may get the odd reduction very late as people drop out. In the last 5 years I have not seen my cabin on sale for less than I paid and more often a great deal more. If available.

 

Not always Dai. I also keep a close eye on prices and one we were thinking about in August (so high season) the price started at £2399 for a balcony and fell to £1699 two weeks ago. It has subsequently sold out at the grade. 

 

Ended up booking with another line line for a change but we would have taken that one at the reduced price (which would rightly annoy those who booked at the full rate).

 

You are also in the happy position of being able to book up on day one which many people can’t - work commitments, caring etc. There have been more price drops this year than I have seen in a while, last year early was defiantly best but I’m not so sure about it this year. 

 

 

[daiB]

3 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

 

Not always Dai. I also keep a close eye on prices and one we were thinking about in August (so high season) the price started at £2399 for a balcony and fell to £1699 two weeks ago. It has subsequently sold out at the grade. 

 

Ended up booking with another line line for a change but we would have taken that one at the reduced price (which would rightly annoy those who booked at the full rate).

 

You are also in the happy position of being able to book up on day one which many people can’t - work commitments, caring etc. There have been more price drops this year than I have seen in a while, last year early was defiantly best but I’m not so sure about it this year. 

 

 

But most people who complain about price drops have bought their cruise at the most expensive time say 9 to 15 month before the cruise. Now I am not saying there are not variations but they are certainly not in the same league as they used to be 10 to 15 years ago.

[Eglesbrech]

15 minutes ago, daiB said:

But most people who complain about price drops have bought their cruise at the most expensive time say 9 to 15 month before the cruise. Now I am not saying there are not variations but they are certainly not in the same league as they used to be 10 to 15 years ago.

No, defiantly not on the scale of years ago but it is beginning  to creep back in just a little bit.

 

Only time will tell once they have even more cabins to sell on Iona.

Edited June 17, 2019 by Eglesbrech
Typo

[tring]

Our booking was withing the 9-15 month range.  I am not complaining, at least we were able to keep our deposit for the previous booking and we are happy with the cabin we have booked anyway.

[Harry Peterson]

There are still last minute bargains to be had, if you’re flexible about your requirements.

 

Booking when prices are first announced is usually best if you want a particular cabin, especially a suite, but on some cruises there’s usually sufficient spare capacity to produce price drops towards the end. 

 

The very lowest prices are almost invariably at the end, not the beginning.

[AndyMichelle]

15 hours ago, Harry Peterson said:

There are still last minute bargains to be had, if you’re flexible about your requirements.

 

Booking when prices are first announced is usually best if you want a particular cabin, especially a suite, but on some cruises there’s usually sufficient spare capacity to produce price drops towards the end. 

 

The very lowest prices are almost invariably at the end, not the beginning.

Haven't seen that at all on any of our cruises. We try to book early and have not seen any reduced below what we paid and we do monitor them.

The cruise we are currently on, the price had risen by just under 50% just before sailing.

Perhaps it is the not so popular ones that drop and we have been lucky.

Andy

[Eglesbrech]

16 hours ago, tring said:

Our booking was withing the 9-15 month range.  I am not complaining, at least we were able to keep our deposit for the previous booking and we are happy with the cabin we have booked anyway.

That’s important, we never book a cabin we would not be perfectly happy to stay in.

[tring]

OK some facts on our August cruise.  I have translated prices into pppn, which is how we tend to think of cruise prices.  Also I am referring to select prices - we do not do savers.  As I said previously this is not a complaint, but an observation which others may find of interest. 

 

Our obstructed outside cost us £144 pppn and the current select price is £112pppn  (a 22.22% lower).

 

Current lowest grade balcony select price is £147pppn.  I we rang earlier and was offered a total cost of £181pppn (a £34pppn increase).  We had already decided we would easily go to £20pppn more (a total of £164pppn) and would consider upping that if we got a cabin in our preferred location, but still in the cheapest grade.  That was not forthcoming so we have stayed with our current booking.  There were a couple of other upgrade offers suggested at lower prices, but not ones that we had any interest in.  I was told they do sometimes contact people to make better offers if they have particular problems selling a cruise, but not very often, as a poster here has already suggested.

 

The really interesting piece of research I have done is that the same ship has two cruises of the same length to the same destination in both July and August next year and the select prices for those are akin to the select prices currently being offered for our August 2019 cruise (yet we booked our cruise at this time last year).  The ports visited are similar as well.

 

Hence there are clearly reductions to be had and with the ever increasing availability of cruises and the fact a lot of people are currently concerned about their employment or possibility of the £ falling.  Putting those fact together, I do not find the reductions surprising this year.  We have recently got a very good price for an Azamara cruise in October and are happy to accept you win some and you loose some.

 

TBH we only booked the P&O one for August as it was the best we could find which fitted into our availability and P&O's rules for allowing cruise transfers from a cruise.  We were not be able to take our originally booked cruise for family reasons, but had booked early for that.  We did pay more pppn than we normally would for a cruise, unless it want to a very unusual destination - which P&O do not offer.  Hence the most expensive P&O we have even done.  The one lesson we have learned is to not book a lot of stuff early, so it is difficult to find another cruise to transfer to if that is needed.

 

Cheers all and happy holiday hunting 🙂

 

Edited June 18, 2019 by tring

[my marina bay]

Thank you for the info Tring it's been interesting to read as the same happened to us the other year. Having booked around two years in advance a deluxe cabin on Azura and paying over £2k pp they reduced the select price to 1699pp nearer the time. We haven't booked in advance since (nor have the rest of the family) in fact we rarely book PO these days as other lines offer better quality and value for the price.

[wowzz]

Tring - an interesting comparison.  Can I ask if your calculations took into account the varying amounts of obc at each booking date?

[Eglesbrech]

Interesting Tring and you never know they may call you back (or you could try again nearer to the sail date if there is still availability, they may be more amenable).

 

Re Wozz,s point about OBC in the example I gave above the obc being offered with the lower price select was actually £40 more than that offered on the early booking. 

 

The OBC has reduced considerably compared to years gone by so it is not so much of a factor as it was but you still need to check it to make a like for like price comparison.

[tring]

18 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Tring - an interesting comparison.  Can I ask if your calculations took into account the varying amounts of obc at each booking date?

 

Good point, I had realised that was not a lot different, but for clarity there is still free parking available + £20 pp less than we got on booking last June.  So to complete my calculations we would have been £1.25 pppn worse off with OBC if we had booked now.  Norralot methinks - must admit I was surprised to see that.

 

We would have still had time to claim share benefit and got all the other freedom benefits if freedom dining is still available.  The dining is one thing we would have definitely preferred, but would have lived with any, given that there will be a self service available.  Freedom may indeed still be available - there are a number of cabins available in the grades I have looked at. 

Edited June 18, 2019 by tring

[tring]

23 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

Interesting Tring and you never know they may call you back (or you could try again nearer to the sail date if there is still availability, they may be more amenable).

 

We will be looking carefully for emails and answerphone messages - I had indicated the sort of price we had hoped for.  Email was mentioned so may be more likely than a phone call.  Will certainly check when we are on board as I suspect any price would be better then, but as you say they normally pretty much fill the ships pre sailing.

 

I look on it as their loss because I am sure they would have made more £'s by coming to an agreement with us, though suspect they would not want to set a precedent of giving better offers if someone books a high price with the hope of getting a reduced price upgrade.  Yet they still give free upgrades at times to people who are prepared to accept any cabin, which we are not.  I predict times will change - but we will see.  I will be doing a bit of research on the prices of the equivalent cruises next July and August to see what happens.  I worked in scientific research and have gone into work mode over this 🙂

 

Edited June 18, 2019 by tring

[wowzz]

24 minutes ago, tring said:

 

Good point, I had realised that was not a lot different, but for clarity there is still free parking available + £20 pp less than we got on booking last June.  So to complete my calculations we would have been £1.25 pppn worse off with OBC if we had booked now.  Norralot methinks - must admit I was surprised to see that.

 

We would have still had time to claim share benefit and got all the other freedom benefits if freedom dining is still available.  The dining is one thing we would have definitely preferred, but would have lived with any, given that there will be a self service available.  Freedom may indeed still be available - there are a number of cabins available in the grades I have looked at. 

As, you say, the obc is not really here or there.

Out of interest, we have a 35 day cruise booked in Ventura in January 2021. The price today,  compared to when we booked in January this year, has increased by over £46 pppn.  It will  be interesting to see if the price ever comes down to less than we paid . Having said that, for a 35 night cruise, I would always want to be sure of selecting my own cabin, and having freedom dining. Saving a few hundred pounds and ending up in an inferior cabin, with 6:30 dining for 35 nights,  is not a saving worth having, imho. 

[tring]

4 minutes ago, wowzz said:

As, you say, the obc is not really here or there.

Out of interest, we have a 35 day cruise booked in Ventura in January 2021. The price today,  compared to when we booked in January this year, has increased by over £46 pppn.  It will  be interesting to see if the price ever comes down to less than we paid . Having said that, for a 35 night cruise, I would always want to be sure of selecting my own cabin, and having freedom dining. Saving a few hundred pounds and ending up in an inferior cabin, with 6:30 dining for 35 nights,  is not a saving worth having, imho. 

 

Agreed about a long cruise, we hate having to rush to dinner, especially on hot weather when it is lovely on deck.  I would also want a decent cabin with a balcony for that, if on a ship of Ventura's size or bigger and just depends what grade of cabins get left at the end.  We are on a 'mid sized ship' as P&O call them in August, though it is pretty big compared to our normal fodor.  Do not mind an outside, or even an inside, if we can find space on deck, which I am crossing my fingers for this time, but at least there are a lot of ports.

[daiB]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

As, you say, the obc is not really here or there.

Out of interest, we have a 35 day cruise booked in Ventura in January 2021. The price today,  compared to when we booked in January this year, has increased by over £46 pppn.  It will  be interesting to see if the price ever comes down to less than we paid . Having said that, for a 35 night cruise, I would always want to be sure of selecting my own cabin, and having freedom dining. Saving a few hundred pounds and ending up in an inferior cabin, with 6:30 dining for 35 nights,  is not a saving worth having, imho. 

Jan 21 cruises went on sale in March this year not Jan. That s when we booked Iona for March 21.

 

I will agree that for a long cruise it is important to get things as you want them

[daiB]

2 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

Interesting Tring and you never know they may call you back (or you could try again nearer to the sail date if there is still availability, they may be more amenable).

 

Re Wozz,s point about OBC in the example I gave above the obc being offered with the lower price select was actually £40 more than that offered on the early booking. 

 

The OBC has reduced considerably compared to years gone by so it is not so much of a factor as it was but you still need to check it to make a like for like price comparison.

Not sure how you come to the conclusion about OBC reducing. The amounts we are getting compare very well with what we have had in the past. Eg on Iona in March 21 we have nearly £300 for the cabin. Then we add our shareholder amount to give us £450. This is for a 2 week cruise. We have the same for the second of the back to back cruises.

 

Only on a couple of occasions have we had a great deal more than this. As we have no tips to pay and don’t do many trips, we will not have much of a bill at the end of the cruise