Cancellation query

[ozzysdad]

Good evening, can I ask for some advice please, I booked Caribbean for December some time ago on an early saver with a local travel agent, I've just looked and the price is around 600 cheaper, not only that I can get over 500 obc on top of that, problem i have is I've paid 2000 off the holiday already, balance is due 11 August, can I cancel still? I know I'll lose £70pp deposit but will still be considerably better off.

 

Will the travel agent transfer the 1840 to a new booking or refund me first?

Edited July 29, 2022 by ozzysdad

[Jennizor]

Not sure I can answer your question fully. What I do know is that after booking our upcoming September Eastern Med cruise I received a random email from P & O offering a discounted deal. I rang P & O and asked if I could cancel my original booking and rebook the new offer. They let me do that but I couldn’t have the same cabin as there was a wait list for that deck. I booked a similar cabin on a different deck and saved quite a bit of money. It’s worth a try.

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, ozzysdad said:

Good evening, can I ask for some advice please, I booked Caribbean for December some time ago on an early saver with a local travel agent, I've just looked and the price is around 600 cheaper, not only that I can get over 500 obc on top of that, problem i have is I've paid 2000 off the holiday already, balance is due 11 August, can I cancel still? I know I'll lose £70pp deposit but will still be considerably better off.

 

Will the travel agent transfer the 1840 to a new booking or refund me first?

They should do, because P&Os terms state that up until balance date you only lose the deposit. In fact we have a fully paid cruise on Iona in Feb, and if we dont like her when we sail on her in October then I would possibly cancel and expect to get the balance above the deposit returned to us, sometime!!

[devonuk]

11 hours ago, ozzysdad said:

Good evening, can I ask for some advice please, I booked Caribbean for December some time ago on an early saver with a local travel agent, I've just looked and the price is around 600 cheaper, not only that I can get over 500 obc on top of that, problem i have is I've paid 2000 off the holiday already, balance is due 11 August, can I cancel still? I know I'll lose £70pp deposit but will still be considerably better off.

 

Will the travel agent transfer the 1840 to a new booking or refund me first?

Could I ask why you’ve already paid off £2k before the due date? Certainly something I’d never recommend unless of course a T&C of the TA. 

Also, despite having used TA’s in the past I very rarely do now as it’s so much easier to make amendments direct and the savings by going with a TA are not necessarily as great as they once were.
With regard to your current dilemma you can definitely cancel and rebook something and be quids in but you might lose your current cabin. I’ve certainly done this a few times in the past but only ever with direct bookings and mostly with Princess.  

[davecttr]

I think there is an option to pay the balance in installments?

[Billish]

4 minutes ago, davecttr said:

I think there is an option to pay the balance in installments?

But why would you ? 

[Jazzytelly]

4 minutes ago, Billish said:

But why would you ? 

 

Exactly , stick it in an easy access savings account each month instead if you are worried about budgeting.

[Josy1953]

4 minutes ago, Billish said:

But why would you ? 

Personally I prefer to keep my money for as long as possible even though interest rates are rubbish at the moment but I can see why someone would pay in installments.  Some people budget a set amount of money each month for their holiday and if they pay it in installments they aren't tempted to dip into it.

 

[yorkshirephil]

3 hours ago, Josy1953 said:

Personally I prefer to keep my money for as long as possible even though interest rates are rubbish at the moment but I can see why someone would pay in installments.  Some people budget a set amount of money each month for their holiday and if they pay it in installments they aren't tempted to dip into it.

 

I think you hit the nail on the head Josy, I have known plenty of people who couldn't save money, (burning a hole in their pocket) we used to say, at least it is better installments before the holiday than after. However rates are edging up, considerably better now than the last 10 years, even high streets have fair rates (Leeds BS 2.7% over 30 months) still a long way behind inflation though.

[Billish]

2 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

I think you hit the nail on the head Josy, I have known plenty of people who couldn't save money, (burning a hole in their pocket) we used to say, at least it is better installments before the holiday than after. However rates are edging up, considerably better now than the last 10 years, even high streets have fair rates (Leeds BS 2.7% over 30 months) still a long way behind inflation though.

Charter Savings offer 2.83% on a one year bond. Given that rates are likely to increase over the coming months,  it would be unwise to tie up your savings for more than a year.

[ozzysdad]

On 7/30/2022 at 8:26 AM, devonuk said:

Could I ask why you’ve already paid off £2k before the due date? Certainly something I’d never recommend unless of course a T&C of the TA. 

Also, despite having used TA’s in the past I very rarely do now as it’s so much easier to make amendments direct and the savings by going with a TA are not necessarily as great as they once were.
With regard to your current dilemma you can definitely cancel and rebook something and be quids in but you might lose your current cabin. I’ve certainly done this a few times in the past but only ever with direct bookings and mostly with Princess.  

It was a silly move on my part really and a lesson learnt, I paid around 2000 off last month with a view to paying the same of this but there is absolutely nothing to be gained from doing that. I will pop in and speak to them in the morning and hopefully I'll be able to rebook minus my lost deposits.

 

At the moment I must admit with P&O or any cruise line for that matter as they are making it almost impossible for me to have any confidence in them, there is little benefit from booking early and commiting a deposit as all the bargains seem to be appearing much nearer to sail date, my dad is getting some incredibly good deals in the last month or two before departure date, MSC in particular are giving cruises away but he's also had some very decent deals with Marella and Royal Caribbean.