Sail Standby for $49 a day- new program

[PDsquare]

On 4/20/2024 at 9:29 AM, PDsquare said:

I am on Boston/Montreal on May 25 with my usual cruising roommate. We are booked on a Casino rate and upgraded from an inside to an OV obstructed for $50 each.
 

Another friend of mine has been watching the price so that she may join us. She will be traveling solo and it has been an expensive fare. We found out about this program from my PCC about three weeks ago and my solo friend booked. All in her fare was $611.  She lives in Pittsburgh and booked refundable air to Boston and returning from Montreal for about $600 as well. Now we wait. I checked HALs site this morning and there are still about 60-ish cabins left on the cruise. I, myself, have received three paid upgrade offers to go from an obstructed to an unobstructed OV for $149 pp. Not worth it to me. I’ve noticed that all suites and lanais are unavailable. 
 

I feel good about my friend’s chances at getting on board. If she does, this will be a tremendous value for a solo cabin. Her original quoted price was around $1500 all in. 

To be continued…

Update to this story:

 

My friend received an email this morning that her booking had gone from stand-by to booked. Today is the Tuesday before our Saturday departure. She currently has a cabin GUARANTEE. No cabin number yet. She was able to print her bag tags and her boarding pass. She had purchased refundable air for Friday so we are all GOING TO CANADA!! Very excited.

Interestingly, I, myself, have received 9 paid upgrade emails to upgrade from an obstructed view to unobstructed. The latest offer was $59 pp yesterday. When I called last Friday to check on this offer, there were still 11 cabins available in that category for me to choose from. 

[waiting2retire]

52 minutes ago, PDsquare said:

Update to this story:

 

My friend received an email this morning that her booking had gone from stand-by to booked. Today is the Tuesday before our Saturday departure. She currently has a cabin GUARANTEE. No cabin number yet. She was able to print her bag tags and her boarding pass. She had purchased refundable air for Friday so we are all GOING TO CANADA!! Very excited.

Interestingly, I, myself, have received 9 paid upgrade emails to upgrade from an obstructed view to unobstructed. The latest offer was $59 pp yesterday. When I called last Friday to check on this offer, there were still 11 cabins available in that category for me to choose from. 

Wonderful!  Enjoy your vacation and please let us know what category cabin your friend ended up with. 
 

[KAKcruiser]

Did you take the upgrade?

[PDsquare]

11 minutes ago, KAKcruiser said:

Did you take the upgrade?

All the upgrades were on deck 2 and we like our deck 7 location so, no, we did not. 

[PDsquare]

2 hours ago, waiting2retire said:

Wonderful!  Enjoy your vacation and please let us know what category cabin your friend ended up with. 
 

She just learned that she ended up with an inside, category J on deck 1. 

Edited May 21 by PDsquare

[KAKcruiser]

Did they offer her an upgrade?

[SilvertoGold]

2 hours ago, PDsquare said:

All the upgrades were on deck 2 and we like our deck 7 location so, no, we did not. 

 

Most interesting about your friend. The J is likely much better than what she would have received otherwise with the Stand-By. Thanks for all the interesting info!

Edited May 21 by SilvertoGold

[PDsquare]

54 minutes ago, KAKcruiser said:

Did they offer her an upgrade?

Not yet and I wouldn’t be surprised. 

[twilightrabbit]

I have a YouTube channel, and have done several videos on the HAL standby program.  To do background, I read the majority of the posts in this blog.  I think most everyone can agree on these basics:  the program has potential for a subset of HAL customers;  it had a very rocky rollout; and HAL seems to be committed to continuing it.

 

What people can't agree on is why HAL is doing this, and several people have actively berated the management of HAL and parent Carnival as being total business idiots.  I would submit that ANY executives that can see their company through an unexpected 18 months of world shaming, suddenly zero cashflow, stock prices cut 90%, and the loss of the vast majority of its workforce and emerge with stronger revenue than when it started is not stupid.

 

A recent business piece interviewed CEOs from the big 3 cruise corporations and asked them what their goal is with regard to cruise pricing.  Their answer was that they want an airline pricing model.  Prices don't go down as a plane flight nears, they go up.  Since people know to expect this, they book early and pay a premium fare if they want to be able to make changes.

 

Coming out of the pandemic, two of the lines cut prices to fill ships.  Norwegian did not.  They kept prices up, even if it meant sailing less than full.  They are building an expectation that prices won't be cut just before sailing.  It has worked, and others are following suit. 

 

Rather than cut fares, Princess has packages (basic, plus, premier).  Compare that to most airlines (economy, standard, and plus).  They are cutting fares less, managing packages more.

 

In my opinion, HAL is building on an expectation that in the future they will have full ships without having to do last minute discounting.  I think they are right.  Demand will increase, and supply will not.  Anchorage wants fewer cruisers, not less, same with Bar Harbor, Venice, and others.  So your choice will not be standby or "wait for a discount."  Your choice will be standby or pay full fare.

 

Just my opinion.

 

Ken Bryan

[Mary229]

3 minutes ago, twilightrabbit said:

I have a YouTube channel, and have done several videos on the HAL standby program.  To do background, I read the majority of the posts in this blog.  I think most everyone can agree on these basics:  the program has potential for a subset of HAL customers;  it had a very rocky rollout; and HAL seems to be committed to continuing it.

 

What people can't agree on is why HAL is doing this, and several people have actively berated the management of HAL and parent Carnival as being total business idiots.  I would submit that ANY executives that can see their company through an unexpected 18 months of world shaming, suddenly zero cashflow, stock prices cut 90%, and the loss of the vast majority of its workforce and emerge with stronger revenue than when it started is not stupid.

 

A recent business piece interviewed CEOs from the big 3 cruise corporations and asked them what their goal is with regard to cruise pricing.  Their answer was that they want an airline pricing model.  Prices don't go down as a plane flight nears, they go up.  Since people know to expect this, they book early and pay a premium fare if they want to be able to make changes.

 

Coming out of the pandemic, two of the lines cut prices to fill ships.  Norwegian did not.  They kept prices up, even if it meant sailing less than full.  They are building an expectation that prices won't be cut just before sailing.  It has worked, and others are following suit. 

 

Rather than cut fares, Princess has packages (basic, plus, premier).  Compare that to most airlines (economy, standard, and plus).  They are cutting fares less, managing packages more.

 

In my opinion, HAL is building on an expectation that in the future they will have full ships without having to do last minute discounting.  I think they are right.  Demand will increase, and supply will not.  Anchorage wants fewer cruisers, not less, same with Bar Harbor, Venice, and others.  So your choice will not be standby or "wait for a discount."  Your choice will be standby or pay full fare.

 

Just my opinion.

 

Ken Bryan

I recently read an astute observation that might explain a lot of the deals in this program.  Quite simply most cruise lines pulled ships out of much of the eastern med and repositioned them to a North America due to the hostilities in the Middle East.  There was an unexpected large increase of capacity. 

[BermudaBound2014]

14 hours ago, twilightrabbit said:

Coming out of the pandemic, two of the lines cut prices to fill ships.  Norwegian did not.  They kept prices up, even if it meant sailing less than full.  They are building an expectation that prices won't be cut just before sailing.  It has worked, and others are following suit. 

 

This is simply not true. NCL boasted at every single conference call I listened to that they would not lower prices, yet just after final payment NCL was offering some of the lowest in the industry. Just because the suits say it is so, doesn't make it reality.

[twilightrabbit]

58 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

This is simply not true. NCL boasted at every single conference call I listened to that they would not lower prices, yet just after final payment NCL was offering some of the lowest in the industry. Just because the suits say it is so, doesn't make it reality.

 

Very fair response.  And I totally agree with not trusting all that the suits say.

 

I think the reality is that there is a megatrend and a microtrend.  The megatrend is that all 3 cruise megacompanies are working toward the airline pricing model.  And supply/demand is currently helping them.  The microtrend is that they are still plugging financial holes in the pandemic dike while they are trying to build for the future.  It's kind of like a parent saying "this is our policy for how we discipline our children," then violating their own rules when they have to account for the fact they are in public when the kid acts up, so they don't follow their own rules.

 

My point is that what many cruisers are doing is comparing the standby model, which is built for current and possibly future cruise pricing models, to the "last minute deal" model, which was built for the previous pricing structure and will continue only as long as they have to keep it around.  Today, standby looks undesirable in the comparison.  But if there are very few last minute deals in the future, it will look entirely different.

 

 

[BermudaBound2014]

I understand what you are suggesting and agree that cruise companies are struggling to re-identify themselves after covid. I appreciate your well thought contributions to the conversation. 

 

IMO, cruise companies have been trying to work toward airline models for decades. They run into a unique problem in that a single passenger ships can carry thousands more people than a single plane, and, unlike airline models, cruise ships can't just cancel routes in order to fill others. Then, of course, airlines get Federal support which is a huge factor.

 

I do agree that if cruise lines could fill ships without offering 'last minute deals' or 'standby' models, they will. This model works when demand exceeds supply.

 

Sadly; I am not as optimistic about future demand in the cruise industry (or travel industry as a whole). While very strong at the moment, consumer debt is quickly reaching record levels when adjusted for inflation. In many homes, travel is discretionary.

[HUNKY]

Airfares fluctuate daily.  Track a flight over several months.  Yes, the last few days/weeks before departure they rise.

 

I know my future travel plans about a year in advance.  If I booked a flight to Orlando from NC 140 days ago the fare was $1,800, yesterday it was $1,416. Likewise my flight to Germany this summer has had a $1,500 price difference over the past five months. 

[sherry08]

I signed up for a spring break cruise out of San Diego on Koningsdam when they rolled the standby program out last year. Much to my surprise two days before they confirmed my booking, they offered me a paid upgrade which I declined, and I packed my bags. Had a great time in my sideways inside cabin. Including standby fare, excursions, gratuities, and on board spending I spent a week on vacation for under $1000. There is not a solo supplement for the standby cruises. 

[twilightrabbit]

We are 6 days out from the first of our 2 standby cruises.  The ship has been completely sold out for weeks, but we signed up the first day the cruise was posted on the standby website, so believe we are first in line.  In talking with a Holland America rep, the major reasons people cancel are health, work, and travel.  So "to sail or not to sail" depends on whether the occupants of any of the 1,000 cabins actually succumb to one of these issues.

 

We'll let everyone know what happens.