Past Guest Rate

[vacationlover16]

Is Carnival no longer offering the past guest rate? I haven’t seen it in what seems like several months. TIA for any insight.

[shof515]

they do have it but it is very very rare to find it. I was very very lucky i found it for my Carnival Legend cruise in May.

[cmptrwiz]

I know we were offered it on our Panorama cruise.  We had to put a past cruiser in each cabin to get the best rate.

[cruisingguy007]

50 minutes ago, cmptrwiz said:

I know we were offered it on our Panorama cruise.  We had to put a past cruiser in each cabin to get the best rate.

Same here. The Carnival agent I spoke with did have to get an authorization because one of the adults in one cabin was a new cruiser (the child was not) but they extended the rate as a courtesy for immediately paying for the cruise upon booking. 

 

OP- When you are booking there is a box to check for VIFP, you can even look it up quickly with a blue link underneath that if you have forgotten it. Then you will see white stars on some cruise dates indicating special VIFP rates. It's not every cruise but a large majority of them. Hope that helps.  

[bakersdozen12]

1 hour ago, cmptrwiz said:

I know we were offered it on our Panorama cruise.  We had to put a past cruiser in each cabin to get the best rate.

 

But was it a Past Guest rate (with refundable deposit) or a Past Guest Early Saver rate?  The latter is all I have seen more recently, so I'm inclined to wonder the same as the OP, if Carnival is doing away with the rate.

[cmptrwiz]

You are correct!  It was early saver past guest!

[Organized Chaos]

Oddly enough, my wife and I tend to be shown different rates when we use one VIFP number or the other, even though we are the exact same VIFP levels. If we search using her VIFP, she'll usually get one extra (and cheaper) rate that I don't get using my number. I'd say on average, that one will be $20-$40 per person cheaper. The only thing I can think of is how we pay. Normally we use Carnival gift cards, but when we don't, she has a Carnival MasterCard that we'll use to get the points. I'm wondering if their system sees cruise balance payments (that aren't with gift cards) being made through a credit card in her name, so it markets an additional, cheaper rate to her. That's the only difference between us. Moral of my story: if you have another adult with their own VIFP, it doesn't hurt to try different ones when searching rates.

[vacationlover16]

32 minutes ago, bakersdozen12 said:

 

But was it a Past Guest rate (with refundable deposit) or a Past Guest Early Saver rate?  The latter is all I have seen more recently, so I'm inclined to wonder the same as the OP, if Carnival is doing away with the rate.

Yes, I’ve seen multiple variations of the early saver rates but haven’t seen any refundable deposit past guest rates in awhile. I hope they aren’t doing away with it!

Edited November 20, 2019 by vacationlover16

[vacationlover16]

39 minutes ago, cruisingguy007 said:

Same here. The Carnival agent I spoke with did have to get an authorization because one of the adults in one cabin was a new cruiser (the child was not) but they extended the rate as a courtesy for immediately paying for the cruise upon booking. 

 

OP- When you are booking there is a box to check for VIFP, you can even look it up quickly with a blue link underneath that if you have forgotten it. Then you will see white stars on some cruise dates indicating special VIFP rates. It's not every cruise but a large majority of them. Hope that helps.  

Thanks! I check regularly so my VIFP number is saved. Carnival is probably thinking, why won’t she book already! 🤣🤣

[vacationlover16]

13 minutes ago, Organized Chaos said:

Oddly enough, my wife and I tend to be shown different rates when we use one VIFP number or the other, even though we are the exact same VIFP levels. If we search using her VIFP, she'll usually get one extra (and cheaper) rate that I don't get using my number. I'd say on average, that one will be $20-$40 per person cheaper. The only thing I can think of is how we pay. Normally we use Carnival gift cards, but when we don't, she has a Carnival MasterCard that we'll use to get the points. I'm wondering if their system sees cruise balance payments (that aren't with gift cards) being made through a credit card in her name, so it markets an additional, cheaper rate to her. That's the only difference between us. Moral of my story: if you have another adult with their own VIFP, it doesn't hurt to try different ones when searching rates.

Thanks! I’ll try this using both mine & my husband’s!

[cruisingguy007]

1 minute ago, vacationlover16 said:

Thanks! I check regularly so my VIFP number is saved. Carnival is probably thinking, why won’t she book already! 🤣🤣

If it's a cruise that is not a long way off, you may want to call in and talk to a live person. Online I was getting rates all over the place on different days, cabins were showing available then unavailable in the next few min, balconies were showing cheaper than ocean view, Havana cabins even cheaper than ocean view. It was nuts. Calling in gave me a few extra options.   

[Illbcruzn4life]

1 hour ago, vacationlover16 said:

Yes, I’ve seen multiple variations of the early saver rates but haven’t seen any refundable deposit past guest rates in awhile. I hope they aren’t doing away with it!

 

If they do away with the PG rate and only let you book non refundable rates that will be it for us on CCL.

[Organized Chaos]

2 hours ago, cruisingguy007 said:

If it's a cruise that is not a long way off, you may want to call in and talk to a live person. Online I was getting rates all over the place on different days, cabins were showing available then unavailable in the next few min, balconies were showing cheaper than ocean view, Havana cabins even cheaper than ocean view. It was nuts. Calling in gave me a few extra options.   

 

Reading your list of things that seemed to be going haywire, this was the first thing that came to my mind...

 

[luv2trvlnow]

1 hour ago, Illbcruzn4life said:

 

If they do away with the PG rate and only let you book non refundable rates that will be it for us on CCL.

They aren't offering the PG rate currently but they are offering the Sailing To Savings Sale. It isn't quite as good at the Past Guest rate but it is a refundable deposit.  

[vacationlover16]

39 minutes ago, luv2trvlnow said:

They aren't offering the PG rate currently but they are offering the Sailing To Savings Sale. It isn't quite as good at the Past Guest rate but it is a refundable deposit.  

I noticed they always seem to have the fun select which is refundable but as stated not as good as past guest. I noticed the sailing to savings rate with the refundable deposit last night which is what really got me thinking about past guest.

[Illbcruzn4life]

2 hours ago, luv2trvlnow said:

They aren't offering the PG rate currently but they are offering the Sailing To Savings Sale. It isn't quite as good at the Past Guest rate but it is a refundable deposit.  

Ty i can live with $40 pp for flexibility

[ZoeyVictoria]

There is a Cyber Blowout early saver rate available until November 26.  Cancellation is $50 pp, up to $50 OBC.  This was my first early saver booking.  I chose it over the casino rate for the Mardi Gras booking.

[Garth2]

When they have offered past guest rates you didn't need to be logged in to see the rates.

[Djptcp]

A few weeks ago I had 18 VIFP offers and one was the past guest promotion. I hadn't seen it in awhile either. I never take it because I get so many good casino promotions with casino cash and free drinks.

[BananaAnna]

On 11/20/2019 at 12:18 PM, Organized Chaos said:

Oddly enough, my wife and I tend to be shown different rates when we use one VIFP number or the other, even though we are the exact same VIFP levels. If we search using her VIFP, she'll usually get one extra (and cheaper) rate that I don't get using my number. I'd say on average, that one will be $20-$40 per person cheaper. The only thing I can think of is how we pay. Normally we use Carnival gift cards, but when we don't, she has a Carnival MasterCard that we'll use to get the points. I'm wondering if their system sees cruise balance payments (that aren't with gift cards) being made through a credit card in her name, so it markets an additional, cheaper rate to her. That's the only difference between us. Moral of my story: if you have another adult with their own VIFP, it doesn't hurt to try different ones when searching rates.

I'm running into the same problem.

 

Hubby, daughter and I have a cruise booked for January. If I check the price with my VIFP # it shows as $210 total higher than if I use hubby's or daughter's VIFP.

 

I am platinum, they are both gold.

 

I always do our bookings using a credit card that is in my name.

 

I don't want to make a big deal about it with Carnival right now because I absolutely hate talking to them on the phone, and we're currently being charged the lesser amount so I don't want to risk jeopardizing that.

 

[shof515]

On 11/20/2019 at 12:18 PM, Organized Chaos said:

Oddly enough, my wife and I tend to be shown different rates when we use one VIFP number or the other, even though we are the exact same VIFP levels. If we search using her VIFP, she'll usually get one extra (and cheaper) rate that I don't get using my number. I'd say on average, that one will be $20-$40 per person cheaper. The only thing I can think of is how we pay. Normally we use Carnival gift cards, but when we don't, she has a Carnival MasterCard that we'll use to get the points. I'm wondering if their system sees cruise balance payments (that aren't with gift cards) being made through a credit card in her name, so it markets an additional, cheaper rate to her. That's the only difference between us. Moral of my story: if you have another adult with their own VIFP, it doesn't hurt to try different ones when searching rates.

 

i noticed the same thing for my cruise in May on the Legend. It took some time, but eventfully the Carnival rep i spoke too was able to change things on my booking to give me the VIFP rate of my travel partner since that was the cheaper rate.