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Price drop before final payment


comcox
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When cruising with U.S. cruise lines if there is a price drop before the final payment is due, you can request the new price.  Does that work with P & O as well?  My final payment is due at the end of the month and I noticed the price is now £85 cheaper.

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1 hour ago, comcox said:

When cruising with U.S. cruise lines if there is a price drop before the final payment is due, you can request the new price.  Does that work with P & O as well?  My final payment is due at the end of the month and I noticed the price is now £85 cheaper.

The difference is down to the difference between US and UK consumer law. In the US the cruise line has to refund by law, in the U.K. they don’t.

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P&O are not very good at this. I think you have to cancel and rebook. Be careful also if yo have a cheap deposit offer from a travel agent. I believe it is the full deposit amount that is lost but I could be wrong. I would definitely check. 
 

Some UK cruise lines can be reasonable. I got a fifty pound onboard credit from CMV for a three night trip on Astoria. They phoned me unsolicited, and said that they has a special promotion on.  They felt existing bookings should get the same benefit. I almost dropped the phone.  On another occasion I have had a free upgrade on CMV. I rang up and asked how much it would cost and was told they would do it for free. Unknown to me they had reduced the price of the cruise for new booking significantly so it did seem reasonable. 

 

I have with Cunard cancelled, lost my deposit, rebooked.  It allowed me to switch from a junior suite to a full suite for the same price. Cunard gave me a free upgrade to a Penthouse which made up for the loss of my deposit. 

I did not know about Saga. A line I would like to try.  Thank you. 

 

Best wishes, Stephen. 

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It's an interesting concept.   I have a cruise booked for October this year on Arcadia.  At present the price is £1100 pp  more than I paid.  Ours was £1349 pp, it is now £2499 pp.  So should someone booking now ask if they can have the price we paid on launch?

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This is not the first time this question has been asked and I know it is done by the American cruise lines but I do find it a strange concept. Where else would you demand a refund if the price changes, you certainly won't get a refund from a rail or airfare which both have fluctuating prices. If you've agreed a price and were happy with it then leave well alone.

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Well exactly!  although my fare is an unbelievable deal £1349 for 19 days per person, I am quite sure that about 3 weeks before, there may be some deals because others have cancelled for whatever reason.  That doesn't bother me.  I got a good deal when I booked.

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1 hour ago, Dorset cruise fan said:

This is not the first time this question has been asked and I know it is done by the American cruise lines but I do find it a strange concept. Where else would you demand a refund if the price changes, you certainly won't get a refund from a rail or airfare which both have fluctuating prices. If you've agreed a price and were happy with it then leave well alone.

It is an interesting observation, there are lots of examples one could give where price reductions would not be offered, but we seem to live in a compensation world nowadays where people seem to demand price parity.  And yet when this inevitably leads to a lowering of standards, the same people are the first to cry foul.

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We only demand price parity if the price goes down. We're not going to generously offer to match a higher price. I have visions of trying this (being re-fared down) with Ryanair and seeing what the reaction would be. I don't know why a cruise company which equally reacts to supply and demand would behave any differently.

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12 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

It is an interesting observation, there are lots of examples one could give where price reductions would not be offered, but we seem to live in a compensation world nowadays where people seem to demand price parity.  And yet when this inevitably leads to a lowering of standards, the same people are the first to cry foul.

I don’t think it’s so much price parity as a matter of equality. I don’t mind so much if we all just retain the price we paid at the time we booked, as you quite rightly say standards will fall when the prices do.

 

It is however a bit annoying being on the same ship where some passengers get the sometimes significant price drop and others don’t. We have been in this situation on RCI and Celebrity and you can’t avoid knowing about it as it is openly discussed.  It’s not so obvious on P&O as mainly British passengers.

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2 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

I don’t think it’s so much price parity as a matter of equality. I don’t mind so much if we all just retain the price we paid at the time we booked, as you quite rightly say standards will fall when the prices do.

 

It is however a bit annoying being on the same ship where some passengers get the sometimes significant price drop and others don’t. We have been in this situation on RCI and Celebrity and you can’t avoid knowing about it as it is openly discussed.  It’s not so obvious on P&O as mainly British passengers.

It may be annoying but unless cruise lines are free to use whatever marketing ploys are necessary to fill the ship, then their revenue will reduce and profits will drop, and services will likely be even further reduced.

We just have to accept these facts and hope the cruise gives us value for our money, even if someone else is getting a better deal.

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1 minute ago, terrierjohn said:

It may be annoying but unless cruise lines are free to use whatever marketing ploys are necessary to fill the ship, then their revenue will reduce and profits will drop, and services will likely be even further reduced.

We just have to accept these facts and hope the cruise gives us value for our money, even if someone else is getting a better deal.

True,  annoying but true.
 

Celebrity are now no longer dropping prices towards the sail date. They have a bidding system for upgrades rather than selling them off cheaply to new bookers which is at least a bit fairer.

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33 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

I don't care what anyone else pays, but if you think about it, as I booked at launch and got this cruise very cheaply,  someone who pays the current price would be cheesed off that I paid almost half as much.  It happens all the time.

I think that's why I am likely to stay with P&O, their launch prices over the last few years have been much more competitive than the other Southampton based cruise lines, and then they have the best launch discounts as well.

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When we started cruising with P&O 10 years ago the best deals alway seemed to come just after the full payments were due and that lasted for a while. Then it became a game of chance. After taking the advice of some posters on here I booked my 2020 and 2021 cruises at launch and what good advice that was. The prices are now rising and if I'd waited they would have been out of my price range. 

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47 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I think that's why I am likely to stay with P&O, their launch prices over the last few years have been much more competitive than the other Southampton based cruise lines, and then they have the best launch discounts as well.

I wonder if the fashion will change now they need to fill more spaces with the bigger ships? 

Surely if there is spaces, there should be late deals? 

Andy 

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21 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

I wonder if the fashion will change now they need to fill more spaces with the bigger ships? 

Surely if there is spaces, there should be late deals? 

Andy 

I think it might, at least for the big ships. It has swung back and forth over the decades from early booking being best as it is at present to massive last minute bargains that came up just after the payment date.
 

Try reading some of the really old threads on here on the subject. P&O used to have their own cruise forum which some of the older hands on here contributed to but they shut it down. My guess would be that the constant posting about a last minute suite for the price of a balcony or balcony for the advertised inside cabin price may have been a contributing factor, among other things.

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22 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

I think it might, at least for the big ships. It has swung back and forth over the decades from early booking being best as it is at present to massive last minute bargains that came up just after the payment date.
 

Try reading some of the really old threads on here on the subject. P&O used to have their own cruise forum which some of the older hands on here contributed to but they shut it down. My guess would be that the constant posting about a last minute suite for the price of a balcony or balcony for the advertised inside cabin price may have been a contributing factor, among other things.

It might be happening already... 

We have just called our ta and upgraded from a low grade inside to balcony unrestricted for £70 each for our April cruise on Britannia, 7 nights... 

I wondered if it was more to do with the current climate, but payment date was mid Jan, before the real panic started. 

Andy 

 

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1 minute ago, AndyMichelle said:

It might be happening already... 

We have just called our ta and upgraded from a low grade inside to balcony unrestricted for £70 each for our April cruise on Britannia, 7 nights... 

I wondered if it was more to do with the current climate, but payment date was mid Jan, before the real panic started. 

Andy 

 

Brilliant, glad you got the upgrade. The current health scare may have some influence on this but then again they may just have too many cabins to sell.

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