P and O latest offers

[Bin man]

See we are back to large amounts of OBC again I know its swings and roundabouts and fluid pricing but this must upset people who have just booked and then they throw you a wad of obc . We booked on the last obc offer and is about £100 better now then 6 weeks ago 

[yorkshirephil]

26 minutes ago, Bin man said:

See we are back to large amounts of OBC again I know its swings and roundabouts and fluid pricing but this must upset people who have just booked and then they throw you a wad of obc . We booked on the last obc offer and is about £100 better now then 6 weeks ago 

Luck of the draw, sometimes you come out ahead sometimes not. Lots of people are still wary about covid and are waiting or have changed their holiday habits. People are definitely moving back to cruising and the ships are filling up, but they are being tempted by cheap pricing. We have just booked a cruise with MSC for £50pp/day for Oct, we already have a 40 nighter booked in Nov but thought this was too good to miss at the price. 

[Megabear2]

1 hour ago, Bin man said:

See we are back to large amounts of OBC again I know its swings and roundabouts and fluid pricing but this must upset people who have just booked and then they throw you a wad of obc . We booked on the last obc offer and is about £100 better now then 6 weeks ago 

Some of the prices have risen quite a lot though.  I've been tracking Arvia 22 night repositioning cruise next March and the price has risen by £800 in this new offer.

[david63]

OBC can quite often be a red herring (after all it is mainly a marketing tool)

 

To make any valid comparison you need to look at the net cost - headline price - less any discount - less any OBC

[wowzz]

4 minutes ago, david63 said:

OBC can quite often be a red herring (after all it is mainly a marketing tool)

 

To make any valid comparison you need to look at the net cost - headline price - less any discount - less any OBC

Under the new offer,  our September 23 Britannia cruise is exactly the same price, but with £230 less obc.

[terrierjohn]

2 hours ago, david63 said:

OBC can quite often be a red herring (after all it is mainly a marketing tool)

 

To make any valid comparison you need to look at the net cost - headline price - less any discount - less any OBC

That's true when it comes to the cost to P&O, however we as passengers do enjoy the full value of the OBC  as long we end up with a positive charge on the on board account.

Edited September 6, 2022 by terrierjohn

[FamilyCruiserUK]

We booked a couple of months ago and got a large amount of OBC. I Also today got my armed forces OBC added to our cruise, now have £640 OBC for our cruise. Question is can you use it to book trips using the online booking, before the cruise?

[terrierjohn]

Just now, FamilyCruiserUK said:

We booked a couple of months ago and got a large amount of OBC. I Also today got my armed forces OBC added to our cruise, now have £640 OBC for our cruise. Question is can you use it to book trips using the online booking, before the cruise?

No unfortunately not, it can only be applied to on board spending.

[david63]

4 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

we as passengers do enjoy the full value of the OBC 

But, apart from a few exceptions, OBC is your money that P&O "bank" for you and then allow you to spend on their ships with no reimbursement if not spent.

 

I would much prefer a lower price, no OBC and then I will decide where, when and how, I spend my money

[david63]

3 minutes ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

Question is can you use it to book trips using the online booking, before the cruise?

No

[terrierjohn]

1 minute ago, david63 said:

But, apart from a few exceptions, OBC is your money that P&O "bank" for you and then allow you to spend on their ships with no reimbursement if not spent.

 

I would much prefer a lower price, no OBC and then I will decide where, when and how, I spend my money

Our upcoming cruise had only the standard £60pp applied to our 14 day balcony cruise, but with the extra £75pp given just prior to final payment and the shareholder benefit, we will have £420 to spend, and we are also enjoying the discounted launch offer price. 

So I doubt our price could have been much lower, but once fluid pricing kicks in, all cruise lines try to make their offers look "special", even if they are not really quite as good as they make them appear.

[lambinator1982]

We booked the K411 Meditterain cruise  on Arvia in May 2024 a couple of weeks ago during their sale. we got £460 OBC which went down after the sale finished.

 

Checking today and the price has gone down by £200 and the OBC has gone back up to £460, not happy  - similar issue happened to use on last years cruise to the caribbean on Britannia. Were we booked before covid and the price dropped. P&O let us rebook with the cheaper price thanks to the Covid flexible transfer policy.

 

This has now changed and does no longer apply - if we rebook we will lose our deposit. I have fired off an email to Guest suport, Paul Ludlow, Sture Myrell (although his email bounced back, has he left?) and Adbta, don't hold much hope but will see......

Edited September 6, 2022 by lambinator1982

[Megabear2]

45 minutes ago, FamilyCruiserUK said:

We booked a couple of months ago and got a large amount of OBC. I Also today got my armed forces OBC added to our cruise, now have £640 OBC for our cruise. Question is can you use it to book trips using the online booking, before the cruise?

No.

[wowzz]

5 minutes ago, lambinator1982 said:

don't hold much hope

You are correct about that! 

But many industries use fluid pricing - hotels, airlines,  package holidays etc. Is it really unreasonable for cruise lines to operate any differently,  when they are trying to maximise revenue from a finite number of cabins? 

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, lambinator1982 said:

We booked the K411 Meditterain cruise  on Arvia in May 2024 a couple of weeks ago during their sale. we got £460 OBC which went down after the sale finished.

 

Checking today and the price has gone down by £200 and the OBC has gone back up to £460, not happy  - similar issue happened to use on last years cruise to the caribbean on Britannia. Were we booked before covid and the price dropped. P&O let us rebook with the cheaper price thanks to the Covid flexible transfer policy.

 

This has now changed and does no longer apply - if we rebook we will lose our deposit. I have fired off an email to Guest suport, Paul Ludlow, Sture Myrell (although his email bounced back, has he left?) and Adbta, don't hold much hope but will see......

Would you be equally upset, for someone booking today, if the price had increased?

[lambinator1982]

2 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Would you be equally upset, for someone booking today, if the price had increased?

I get it if the cruise is next week and P&O need to fill the cabin and drop the price but its a year and a half away

[majortom10]

1 hour ago, lambinator1982 said:

We booked the K411 Meditterain cruise  on Arvia in May 2024 a couple of weeks ago during their sale. we got £460 OBC which went down after the sale finished.

 

Checking today and the price has gone down by £200 and the OBC has gone back up to £460, not happy  - similar issue happened to use on last years cruise to the caribbean on Britannia. Were we booked before covid and the price dropped. P&O let us rebook with the cheaper price thanks to the Covid flexible transfer policy.

 

This has now changed and does no longer apply - if we rebook we will lose our deposit. I have fired off an email to Guest suport, Paul Ludlow, Sture Myrell (although his email bounced back, has he left?) and Adbta, don't hold much hope but will see......

It is all smoke and mirrors. Even with current offers the price of the stateroom category we booked on K411 when first released with free parking is still cheaper then than it is now even with extra OBC so P&O are giving you nothing extra.

[terrierjohn]

43 minutes ago, lambinator1982 said:

I get it if the cruise is next week and P&O need to fill the cabin and drop the price but its a year and a half away

Fluid pricing is used for all sorts of reasons  one of which is to try and ensure a regular cash flow, as well as aiming to maximise the bookings across all scheduled cruises, and this is a continuous process once the cruises go on sale.

[Bazrat]

Just looking at the TA on Britannia for 2024, they now give you £960 obc and a extra night for £2500 pounds more than i am paying this year.

[wowzz]

3 hours ago, lambinator1982 said:

I get it if the cruise is next week and P&O need to fill the cabin and drop the price but its a year and a half away

Makes do difference. The algorithms kick in and look at the booking history and determine if the market will "stand" a higher price.

[Yorkypete]

7 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

No unfortunately not, it can only be applied to on board spending.

[Yorkypete]

2 minutes ago, Yorkypete said:

7 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

No unfortunately not, it can only be applied to on board spending.

Can OBC be used in the casino as on some other cruise lines?

[terrierjohn]

11 minutes ago, Yorkypete said:

Can OBC be used in the casino as on some other cruise lines?

I don't believe so, but have no first hand experience.

[davecttr]

7 hours ago, Yorkypete said:

Can OBC be used in the casino as on some other cruise lines?

No, casino is cash or cruise card with onboard account.

[Thejuggler]

Having not cruised for about 5 years and not really looked at prices since I don't know if the formula still works, but I always had a simple approach.

 

Taking into account price, OBC etc etc £700 per week per adult for an inside (£100 a night), £1,000 (150ish) for a balcony was the absolute maximum we would pay.

 

As a result of this approach we have never paid more than £700 a week per adult for a balcony.