Offer from Princess to cancel a booking.

[Nightowl11]

How does it work when you receive an offer from Princess to cancel your cruise, receive a full refund and get a free cruise?  What are the parameters of a "free cruise"?  Does it have to be same category and same cost?  What if you can't find a same cost cruise?  What if there is not the same category available?

 

This was the message: 

Princess is extending a special FREE cruise offer to guests booked on the March 2nd ROYAL PRINCESS sailing. Move to an alternate 10 DAY Mexico sailing & receive: - 100% of cruise fare back (as refundable onboard credit) on your new cruise. any unspent amount will be sent home via check post cruise. - You have up to 2 years to re-book. - Princess EZ air will be fully protected. - Princess will protect your current cruise fare and any amenities & Packages o on your cruise. - Princess will protect up to $400 per person for private travel expenses. This offer is only available by emailing PrincessOffers@PrincessCruises.com Please act quickly as this offer has limited availability and will be accepted on a first come, first served basis. We will reply within 24 business hours.

 

[Guest ldtr]

by the time you get an answer the opportunity may be gone.

[VibeGuy]

They protect same or better cabin regardless of fare.  

[Nightowl11]

21 minutes ago, ldtr said:

by the time you get an answer the opportunity may be gone.

My neighbor already took the offer but I'm not sure it really was a good offer since it might be extremely limiting. 

[wallyj]

This is known as a ‘move over’ offer when Princess has ‘oversold’ the cruise and needs people to move over, like getting bumped on airline flights.

 

Princess will sweeten the deal, if necessary, till they get enough passengers to move.

[caribill]

4 hours ago, Nightowl11 said:

How does it work when you receive an offer from Princess to cancel your cruise, receive a full refund and get a free cruise?  What are the parameters of a "free cruise"?  Does it have to be same category and same cost?  What if you can't find a same cost cruise?  What if there is not the same category available?

 

 

You can book any 10 DAY Mexico sailing and it will be free for the same category. You will not have to pay extra if the cruise price is higher than what you paid originally. (You will get a refund as OBC for any difference if the new cruise is at a lower cost.) And the fare you paid originally will be refunded via refundable OBC.

 

I have seen some past "move over" offers posted that included an upgrade to a higher type cabin (example: from a balcony to a mini-suite) and/or an offer to allow booking any cruise anywhere in the world that was the same length (or less or sometimes more) than the original cruise.

 

Basically Princess has oversold the category you are in and needs your type cabin to fill GTY bookings. You do not have to take the offer and will be able to take the cruise you booked. Many do turn down a "move over" offer due to not able to change vacation time from work, traveling with friends or family, etc.

 

But by getting the rescheduled cruise for $0 and getting back 100% of the cruise fare you paid, many find that an offer too good to turn down.

[Caribensun]

What cabin type did you book?  Have a balcony and no offers.

 

[Nightowl11]

2 hours ago, Caribensun said:

What cabin type did you book?  Have a balcony and no offers.

 

It was 2 interior rooms on deck 8.  It was my neighbor that received the offer.  The rooms were handicap rooms.  I am just worried that they won't be able to get what cabins they need next time. 

[SargassoPirate]

I wonder how, with today's technology, Princess can oversell a category?  If a cabin is not available, how can it be booked?

[mustgo]

we got an offer for that cruise a couple of days ago.  We have a balcony now but they only offered us an inside on this cruise free and cruise credit for another cruise.  This was not a good deal for us as we had a Casino offer and paid very little for this cruise. Hope they keep sweetening it so others take it and we get a good cabin

[Honolulu Blue]

39 minutes ago, SargassoPirate said:

I wonder how, with today's technology, Princess can oversell a category?  If a cabin is not available, how can it be booked?

I assume they used category guarantees to go over capacity. They don't guarantee a specific cabin, only one in that class or better.

[PescadoAmarillo]

42 minutes ago, SargassoPirate said:

I wonder how, with today's technology, Princess can oversell a category?  If a cabin is not available, how can it be booked?

They overbook because they know there will be cancellations at the last minute. And then they start upgrading people for free or making move over offers to accommodate everyone. 

[JimmyVWine]

1 hour ago, SargassoPirate said:

I wonder how, with today's technology, Princess can oversell a category?  If a cabin is not available, how can it be booked?

 

23 minutes ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

They overbook because they know there will be cancellations at the last minute. And then they start upgrading people for free or making move over offers to accommodate everyone. 

 

I'm no expert in the ways and means of hospitality booking, but it seems to me that the cost to Princess for making these overbooking mistakes is actually higher than finding out that they have a few unsold cabins a week or two before sailing and selling those cabins at an absolute dirt-cheap price to Travel Agents, Drop and Go customers or friends and family.  Filling a few empty Balcony cabins from an "undersold cruise" for $300 each at the last minute seems way better than what the cost of these Move Over offers is for "oversold" cruises.  How is overselling more financially advantageous than underselling?   

[PescadoAmarillo]

I don’t know. It’s been going on for the entire time we’ve been cruising, so I assume that having the flexibility offsets the costs. When I used to travel a lot for business, I knew that a flight from RDU on American on a Friday afternoon would result in me being willingly bumped multiple times and collecting $800 to $1000 in travel vouchers for every bumped flight. It was so predictable that I counted on it funding lots of personal travel. I used to wonder about that too; since it was such a regular thing, surely American could have remedied that situation. But that went on for years. 

[Guest ldtr]

1 hour ago, SargassoPirate said:

I wonder how, with today's technology, Princess can oversell a category?  If a cabin is not available, how can it be booked?

Same as airlines they expect some cancellations, they expect some will upgrade, etc.  As a result they will usually slightly oversell a cruise depending upon what their system expects to happen with the bookings.

[Guest ldtr]

49 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

 

 

I'm no expert in the ways and means of hospitality booking, but it seems to me that the cost to Princess for making these overbooking mistakes is actually higher than finding out that they have a few unsold cabins a week or two before sailing and selling those cabins at an absolute dirt-cheap price to Travel Agents, Drop and Go customers or friends and family.  Filling a few empty Balcony cabins from an "undersold cruise" for $300 each at the last minute seems way better than what the cost of these Move Over offers is for "oversold" cruises.  How is overselling more financially advantageous than underselling?   

If the system is right most of the cruises and they end up paying on  a relatively small number, then they come out considerably money ahead.  Based upon how often we hear about these offers I suspect that the system works more than 90% of the time and they make out quite well.

[caribill]

37 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

  Filling a few empty Balcony cabins from an "undersold cruise" for $300 each at the last minute seems way better than what the cost of these Move Over offers is for "oversold" cruises.  How is overselling more financially advantageous than underselling?   

Doing that would encourage people (especially those who do not have to fly to a port) to not book until the last minute in hopes of getting a dirt cheap cruise.

 

Princess and other cruise lines have in recent (pre-pandemic) years tried to keep pricing constant and have sales that vary what amenities are included without changing the base price. There are savings to the customer that way, but the cruise line can maintain "price integrity."

 

Pre-pandemic, Princess had sales promotions that only differed in what was included. Example, in late spring they had a promotion where a beverage package was included while the fare stayed about the same. In the fall they had a "three for free" promotion with, for example, a cabin upgrade, a free specialty dinner, and some OBC while the fare stayed about the same.

 

Pre-pandemic, this strategy worked for multiple cruise lines with the booking curve skewed towards early bookings and cruise lines trying to adjust promotions so that as embarkation day approached, late bookings could be at a premium price (supply and demand) instead of at a deep discount.

 

Note that much of current Princess advertising is not about the basic cruise fare, but, for example, getting "over $950 value on a 7-day cruise when you buy Princess Plus." In other words, spend $420/person extra over the basic fare and you will save money over purchasing overpriced individual packages you might never have considered getting in the first place.

 

Yes, recently there have been some actual fare reductions on some Princess cruises, but, in my opinion, it is because demand is not back in all cases to what it was pre-pandemic.

[caribill]

5 minutes ago, ldtr said:

If the system is right most of the cruises and they end up paying on  a relatively small number, then they come out considerably money ahead.  Based upon how often we hear about these offers I suspect that the system works more than 90% of the time and they make out quite well.

 

I had a GTY for an oceanview cabin on one very sold-out cruise a few years ago that Princess went to unusual extremes to make space for those with GTY bookings.

 

In my case, we were on an airplane to the port a day before the cruise without a cabin assignment, knowing that somehow Princess would be able to find a cabin for us.

 

What Princess did was move two relatives who were solo in two oceanview cabins into a full suite that had originally been booked for the then president of Princess to be in for the cruise. We then received one of those two now available cabins and the president of Princess did not take the cruise.

[JimmyVWine]

2 hours ago, PescadoAmarillo said:

It’s been going on for the entire time we’ve been cruising

 

Date and metrics have gotten so much better over time that I would guess that they can predict full capacity very, very accurately.  But it would still be better to miss by 5 cabins "under'' than it would be to be 5 cabins "over." 

 

1 hour ago, ldtr said:

Based upon how often we hear about these offers I suspect that the system works more than 90% of the time and they make out quite well.

 

See above.  Their system works way, way more than 90%.  But financially, it still has to be cheaper to fill 5 empty cabins at a lower rate (or even a "bid on" rate given that they now have a third party running an upgrade bid system) than it is to give 5 people a free cruise.  

[JimmyVWine]

1 hour ago, caribill said:

Doing that would encourage people (especially those who do not have to fly to a port) to not book until the last minute in hopes of getting a dirt cheap cruise.

Doesn't work that way.  It's not a one to one ratio between the "hold out" and the cabin with that one person hoping and expecting to see the price driven down.  If 50 people are playing the game waiting for a dirt cheap cabin and there is only one cabin, the cruise line prices that last cabin at rack rate and drops the price $10 a day until it sells.  Someone is going to bite at a rate that is lower than rack, but not dirt cheap.  It's a reverse auction.  The only way to beat that system is if all 50 people are acting in concert and colluding to drive the price down.  That will never happen.  Also, with a third party running a bidding system now, they could add these cabins to the bid process and get close to rack rate for them. 

Edited February 28, 2023 by JimmyVWine

[voljeep]

Princess 'loses' a cruise fare in OBC - it may be OBC used on the moved over cruise (cheap) or worst case refunded as a check.

 

Our move over was from a 5 day western on Crown, and we chose a 7 day eastern on Regal - with the 5 day Crown fare as refundable OBC on Regal ... this was pre-PLUS - but we were still able to get a 'free' beverage package, and a soda package with enough OBC for 2 specialty dinners and a catamaran  cruise in St. Thomas

 

Our previously purchased beverage package was refunded to our method of payment.

 

It worked very well for us, and only delayed our cruise by 1 week ... our choice ... same cabin class as I recall.

[caribill]

39 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

Doesn't work that way.  It's not a one to one ratio between the "hold out" and the cabin with that one person hoping and expecting to see the price driven down.  If 50 people are playing the game waiting for a dirt cheap cabin and there is only one cabin, the cruise line prices that last cabin at rack rate and drops the price $10 a day until it sells.  Someone is going to bite at a rate that is lower than rack, but not dirt cheap.  It's a reverse auction.  The only way to beat that system is if all 50 people are acting in concert and colluding to drive the price down.  That will never happen.  Also, with a third party running a bidding system now, they could add these cabins to the bid process and get close to rack rate for them. 

 

The bidding does introduce a factor that never existed before, but it is more likely to get more $$$ from people who have already booked to be on the ship without influencing prices for the cabins yet to be sold. It will however mean that the empty cabins to be sold will be in lower priced categories.

 

And although 50 people will not get together to collude not to book at the last minute, many posts on Cruise Critic before "price integrity" was introduced told the story of people independently not booking early because they were waiting for list minute deep discounts. The posts said they did not always get the cruise at the top of their list, but did get one they wanted at a low price.

 

If you live, for example, within driving distance of Miami/Fort Lauderdale and want to take a Caribbean cruise for a week, you might not be choosy about which cruise line or ship you are on and there will be a number of ships doing basically the same itinerary. You would likely find an acceptable cruise every week if deep discounting to fill a ship continued.

[Gwendy]

6 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

 

 

I'm no expert in the ways and means of hospitality booking, but it seems to me that the cost to Princess for making these overbooking mistakes is actually higher than finding out that they have a few unsold cabins a week or two before sailing and selling those cabins at an absolute dirt-cheap price to Travel Agents, Drop and Go customers or friends and family.  Filling a few empty Balcony cabins from an "undersold cruise" for $300 each at the last minute seems way better than what the cost of these Move Over offers is for "oversold" cruises.  How is overselling more financially advantageous than underselling?   

Stop it.  You’re using common sense and that’s not allowed!

[Guest ldtr]

4 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

 

Date and metrics have gotten so much better over time that I would guess that they can predict full capacity very, very accurately.  But it would still be better to miss by 5 cabins "under'' than it would be to be 5 cabins "over." 

 

 

See above.  Their system works way, way more than 90%.  But financially, it still has to be cheaper to fill 5 empty cabins at a lower rate (or even a "bid on" rate given that they now have a third party running an upgrade bid system) than it is to give 5 people a free cruise.  

Except you are not talking about that you are talking about maybe 5 over on 1 cruise out of 10, compared with a much larger number of empty cabins if they booked to avoid the possibility of over booking.  So instead of your 5 to 5 comparison it would be more 5 over booked vs 50 or 100 empty over a set of cruises.

 

After all they would be sailing with some empty cabins every cruise to avoid the risk of over booking on a small number of cruises.

Edited February 28, 2023 by ldtr

[Cruise Raider]

On 2/27/2023 at 11:31 PM, caribill said:

 

You can book any 10 DAY Mexico sailing and it will be free for the same category. You will not have to pay extra if the cruise price is higher than what you paid originally. (You will get a refund as OBC for any difference if the new cruise is at a lower cost.) And the fare you paid originally will be refunded via refundable OBC.

 

I have seen some past "move over" offers posted that included an upgrade to a higher type cabin (example: from a balcony to a mini-suite) and/or an offer to allow booking any cruise anywhere in the world that was the same length (or less or sometimes more) than the original cruise.

 

Basically Princess has oversold the category you are in and needs your type cabin to fill GTY bookings. You do not have to take the offer and will be able to take the cruise you booked. Many do turn down a "move over" offer due to not able to change vacation time from work, traveling with friends or family, etc.

 

But by getting the rescheduled cruise for $0 and getting back 100% of the cruise fare you paid, many find that an offer too good to turn down.

We just accepted the move over offer for the March 2nd cruise on the Royal.  We are currently onboard and live locally, we are both retried and have a Hawaii trip planned for later this month anyway.  For us, it was a no brainer.