Promotions not applicable retroactively?

[Jchivers]

We booked Malta & Adriatic Jewels last week (after 2 previous Mediterranean cruises were cancelled this year).  A few days after booking, I noticed that all cruises on this itinerary now showed a promotion: FREE Silver Spirits Beverage Package.  Woohoo!  

 

Except...I was just informed by Viking that they can't retroactively add the package to my booking.

 

Presumably I could cancel and book a new cruise and get free drinks.  This makes no sense.

 

Is this standard practice?  I feel like we've been penalized for committing too early.

[TayanaLorna]

1 minute ago, Jchivers said:

We booked Malta & Adriatic Jewels last week (after 2 previous Mediterranean cruises were cancelled this year).  A few days after booking, I noticed that all cruises on this itinerary now showed a promotion: FREE Silver Spirits Beverage Package.  Woohoo!  

 

Except...I was just informed by Viking that they can't retroactively add the package to my booking.

 

Presumably I could cancel and book a new cruise and get free drinks.  This makes no sense.

 

Is this standard practice?  I feel like we've been penalized for committing too early.

Yes it has.  It's the same for free or discounted airfare and cruise fare going up or down.  We booked a cruise 14 months in advance and a couple months later the fare kept going down $100 a month.  When the fare difference became $500 pp, we canceled, took the penalty and rebooked at lower price. We got the same cabin too.

[zalusky]

We had a similar problem for our Midnight Sun cruise.  We were able to cancel and rebook but the problem we had was with Tripmate insurance.  They basically forced us to pick a different date a month later.  We got the shipboard credit but we were not able to get the silver spirits package.  The promotion had kicked in like 3 days or so after we booked.  Sigh!  At least we got the shipboard credit.

 

 

[Heidi13]

4 minutes ago, Jchivers said:

We booked Malta & Adriatic Jewels last week (after 2 previous Mediterranean cruises were cancelled this year).  A few days after booking, I noticed that all cruises on this itinerary now showed a promotion: FREE Silver Spirits Beverage Package.  Woohoo!  

 

Except...I was just informed by Viking that they can't retroactively add the package to my booking.

 

Presumably I could cancel and book a new cruise and get free drinks.  This makes no sense.

 

Is this standard practice?  I feel like we've been penalized for committing too early.

 

Viking are a private company and are not members of CLIA, so they do not follow some of the norms of the mega ship lines. PIF dates and not amending the perks or price drops once you pay the deposit are 2 differences from most mega ship lines.

 

You can always cancel, based on the cancellation policy/RFG, but if the ship is full you have no guarantee of a cabin.

 

We always book early to get a preferred cabin, accepting that if prices go down, or perks increase we are out of luck. However, with our next cruise, the cabin increased $5K and OBC reduced by another $5k, so at times you win and sometimes you lose.

[Squawkman]

This is why I stick with using the same Viking agent. We work out the math and I usually wind up ahead.