Black Friday is more expensive than 2 days before!!

[yellow-submarine]

Here is a lesson if you are browsing this forum in 2023 and thinking to wait till Black Friday:

Many of us know that Black Friday is mostly marketing and apart of few retailers the prices stay the same. However this shocked me a little. Sea-Scanner (a German cruise TA operating in Europe) offered these prices 4 days before Black Friday (it was available till 2 days prior):

 

And this on Black Friday:

 

Would not expect price increase on Black Friday especially as it say 8 days left on the -15% offer. So potential Se@scanner customers keep this in mind. If any retailer says that an offer available far let's say 7 day period but in fact it is available only on a first day that is deception and a dishonest business practice. If an offer is advertised for a certain period and it is for a limited stock/seat/cabin etc. they have to mention that.

Followed most of the TA and price comparison websites I don't see any real difference in pricing and most of the offers are limited to non popular time periods and last minute offers or US residents only. MSC is a European company yet it only offers free WiFi and drinks to US residents only.

What is your experience?

 

Edited November 25, 2022 by yellow-submarine

[HipHipOnAShip]

Everything is supply and demand.  Airline pricing changes constantly, as do cruise fares.  

 

Not sure why you are saying that MSC doesn't offer drinks & wifi to UK guests; the offer is fully available on their UK website.

[Georgia_Peaches]

I actually priced a cruise that I have my eye on today and it’s the same price as last week. Was hoping for a little better price but at least it didn’t go up. Maybe yours will come down again. 

[LifeonMars]

4 hours ago, yellow-submarine said:

Here is a lesson if you are browsing this forum in 2023 and thinking to wait till Black Friday:

Many of us know that Black Friday is mostly marketing and apart of few retailers the prices stay the same. However this shocked me a little. Sea-Scanner (a German cruise TA operating in Europe) offered these prices 4 days before Black Friday (it was available till 2 days prior):

 

And this on Black Friday:

 

Would not expect price increase on Black Friday especially as it say 8 days left on the -15% offer. So potential Se@scanner customers keep this in mind. If any retailer says that an offer available far let's say 7 day period but in fact it is available only on a first day that is deception and a dishonest business practice. If an offer is advertised for a certain period and it is for a limited stock/seat/cabin etc. they have to mention that.

Followed most of the TA and price comparison websites I don't see any real difference in pricing and most of the offers are limited to non popular time periods and last minute offers or US residents only. MSC is a European company yet it only offers free WiFi and drinks to US residents only.

What is your experience?

 

I believe the TA you mentioned is UK owned

see

https://travelweekly.co.uk/articles/284729/cruise-co-uk-seals-e25-million-deal-for-german-cruise-ota

[yellow-submarine]

4 hours ago, HipHipOnAShip said:

Everything is supply and demand.  Airline pricing changes constantly, as do cruise fares.  

 

Not sure why you are saying that MSC doesn't offer drinks & wifi to UK guests; the offer is fully available on their UK website.

Yeah but airlines don't say that deal is available for 8 days and in this case the base price did not change only the discount.

I checked it again and it most definitely does not offer free drinks and WiFi. Maybe it comes up for you as you are visiting from the a US IP address. I tried to book it on the US website and at TAs but does not allow me to book unless I am US or Canadian resident. One TA allowed booking when I changed from US to "other countries" it removed the free drinks and WiFi offer.

[Heartgrove]

On the contrary, yesterday we rebooked a cruise on the US site and used a MSC representative. It is a cruise on the MSC Preziosa for September 2023 using the Black Friday Sale that had been extended over the weekend. It saved almost $1K plus added the Easy Plus Drink Package, WiFi, and OBC as well. This required cancelling our original booking and leaving our stateroom choices (we have two Fantastica connecting staterooms) in limbo for a few minutes. The MSC representative was just fantastic through all of this!

 

 

Edited November 27, 2022 by Heartgrove

[xcell]

sales are never sales -- just look weekly, daily, hourly, etc... and book whne you feel comfortable withthe price.