Just randomly saved money

[fluffybunny22]

We have the Sky Princess booked for next June and there haven't been any price drops since we booked it. I added S&S a couple weeks ago with no price change. My husband must have been bored at worked because he called and said the price had dropped by $900. We have an aft balcony on Baja that is a bit bigger than the balcony on other decks and I was worried that we might have to switch to a smaller balcony but our TA confirmed the price drop and was able to keep the room the same and keep S&S. So everybody check your bookings because there might be some unannounced sale going on.

[JF - retired RRT]

Thanks for the heads up. Looks like we'll save about $200pp. 

Letting TA know ASAP.

 

I sure do miss being able to call Princess. Used to wait until the last minute to pass my bookings off the the TA. Oh well.😬

[voljeep]

2 minutes ago, JF - retired RRT said:

Thanks for the heads up. Looks like we'll save about $200pp. 

Letting TA know ASAP.

 

I sure do miss being able to call Princess. Used to wait until the last minute to pass my bookings off the the TA. Oh well.😬

and that's what caused Princess to change its' policy ... maybe ... paying their agents/service people to do all the bookings, changes, etc ... then having to pay a commission to TA's to do basically nothing unless a problem happened, and then Princess was still obliviously involved with the TA

 

win / win for Princess helping to keep the cruise costs down for all

[AF-1]

I guess I don't qualify for any discounts since there are only two window suites on Sky and both are sold out.

[Coral]

12 minutes ago, voljeep said:

and that's what caused Princess to change its' policy ... maybe ... paying their agents/service people to do all the bookings, changes, etc ... then having to pay a commission to TA's to do basically nothing unless a problem happened, and then Princess was still obliviously involved with the TA

 

win / win for Princess helping to keep the cruise costs down for all

This is exactly why they changed it.

 

If you have a good TA, they are pretty responsive to these things.

[Steelers36]

Always good idea to periodically check pricing.  Our next trip has had only increases of late - especially in conjunction with S&S.  They even jacked up the Inside pricing and you don't get S&S with that.  Pays to book early.  I don't even think 3FF is going to benefit us when that comes along as we already have free grats.

[Lido deck main]

3 hours ago, fluffybunny22 said:

We have the Sky Princess booked for next June and there haven't been any price drops since we booked it. I added S&S a couple weeks ago with no price change. My husband must have been bored at worked because he called and said the price had dropped by $900. We have an aft balcony on Baja that is a bit bigger than the balcony on other decks and I was worried that we might have to switch to a smaller balcony but our TA confirmed the price drop and was able to keep the room the same and keep S&S. So everybody check your bookings because there might be some unannounced sale going on.

I was checking price on our cruise online and noticed the price dropped by a modest $50.00 per person, so why not call and save the $100.00 total.  So I call and once I speak with customer service representative I was advised they had a residence promotion, we are from Vancouver and embarking in Vancouver, anyhow turns out I saved not $50.00 per person, but $100.00 per person and the promotion even included $50.00 OBC per person.  We are from Vancouver so the OBC of $100.00USD is really like $135.00CDN so my total saving or gain was $335.00 CDN. Sure was happy I checked pricing and made the call.  By the way none of this residence promotion shows up even if you do a mock booking, only when you speak with a Princess representative.  

[1965]

A few days ago our fare dropped $90 pp. I called & got the reduced fare. The next day the fare went back up $90. Go figure. 

[Coral]

1 hour ago, Lido deck main said:

By the way none of this residence promotion shows up even if you do a mock booking, only when you speak with a Princess representative.  

It should show if you are logged into Pricness's site. It will not if you are not.

[Oren]

Dynamic pricing in action! Want more evidence of this inventory pricing craziness:  Book a non-refundable airfare and try never to look at it again!

[pris993]

8 hours ago, Coral said:

This is exactly why they changed it.

 

If you have a good TA, they are pretty responsive to these things.

I have been cruising since early l980s, never had a ta seek a price drop that I did not tell them about.  Consequently I don't use a ta anymore... book myself, call Princess and get price drop myself... no middle man needed. 

[Coral]

8 minutes ago, pris993 said:

I have been cruising since early l980s, never had a ta seek a price drop that I did not tell them about.  Consequently I don't use a ta anymore... book myself, call Princess and get price drop myself... no middle man needed. 

I actually have had a TA alert me. Though what I meant was if your TA is responsive - they should get it re-fared right away when you let them know. A simple email is a whole lot easier than calling IMO.

 

I like to save money and I have a responsive agent so I have no complaints. 

Edited July 7, 2019 by Coral

[canadarocks]

36 minutes ago, pris993 said:

I have been cruising since early l980s, never had a ta seek a price drop that I did not tell them about.  Consequently I don't use a ta anymore... book myself, call Princess and get price drop myself... no middle man needed. 

I used to think the same. I still do all the "groundwork", but I found a wonderful T.A. who gives me a far better price than what I can get myself with Princess and another cruise line. 

Edited July 7, 2019 by canadarocks

[pris993]

Good for you... i live in SF area, very few ta here - non worth merit from my experience.  Last one I had would give us the same obc that Princess gave us and claim the credit was from the ta, we knew better, also the same price rate/cut I could get from Princess, ta did not even get seat assignments on return flights... give me a break.    I know some folks like to deal with big box stores travel dpts, I don't shop at big box stores .  Happy you found a ta you like.

[Colo Cruiser]

Nice!  

[1965]

10 hours ago, pris993 said:

I have been cruising since early l980s, never had a ta seek a price drop that I did not tell them about.  Consequently I don't use a ta anymore... book myself, call Princess and get price drop myself... no middle man needed. 

Same here.

[Coral]

8 hours ago, pris993 said:

Good for you... i live in SF area, very few ta here - non worth merit from my experience.  Last one I had would give us the same obc that Princess gave us and claim the credit was from the ta, we knew better, also the same price rate/cut I could get from Princess, ta did not even get seat assignments on return flights... give me a break.    I know some folks like to deal with big box stores travel dpts, I don't shop at big box stores .  Happy you found a ta you like.

I use a TA across the country. My local ones are like yours. I won't book with big box stores as they are order takers.

Edited July 7, 2019 by Coral

[canadarocks]

I use a TA who's not even IN my country and who's not associated with any Big BoX type store, and who discounts above and beyond whatever price cuts Princess offers. But everyone makes their own choices, so certainly "to each his (or her) own". 😉 

[fluffybunny22]

I use a big box store. They gave me a great OBC and they sell the jerky I use to coax my dog to eat his food so win-win.

[azbirdmom]

Way to go!  I check daily, sometimes twice.  A month ago we had over $1000 of price cuts each and refared twice in 8 days with our wonderful TA.  We also have a casino discount which isn't combinable with Sip & Sail so I don't think we will get any better offers for our cruises.  Prices can bounce around so it does pay to check pricing, sometimes it pays a great deal!

[EmilyColwell]

5 minutes ago, fluffybunny22 said:

they sell the jerky I use to coax my dog to eat his food

This made me laugh ridiculously hard.

[ErLee]

Lucky you! We booked on the Sky for January 2020 last October at a fantastic price. Since then the price has only gone up, and when I looked to see if we could add the sip & sail it would have increased our fair by $500pp. Now mind you, I do like to drink on a cruise, but even I can't drink that much in a week 😂

 

We kept our great fare and we'll carry on wine and pay the corkage to save a few dollars on the drinking at dinner!