Fare Question.....

Hi folks! We are booked on Mariner, a 17 night TA from Rio to Barcelona early next year and I have a question regarding the rate. We are paying $8799.00 per person for a concierge E cabin which of course comes with business class air.

My semi confusion came when I checked the airline rates for the air, in case I wanted to book my own flights. The lowest fare for my exact dates of travel are $8200.00 per person for business class. I understand that RSSC will get a better rate than I can on my own but it just seems impossible that they can be making anything that looks like profit on this package.

Am I missing something?

Really interesting. I was curious and did some checking on Yapta.com. While I don't know your exact dates since you may be doing a pre-cruise safari and it usually takes two days to get there (due to time changes, etc.), I used February 22 as a departure date and March 14th as a return date. The lowest price was also surprising as it is on Qatar Air (reportedly one of the best airlines around but is obviously having some political issues). The lowest rate on Qatar was $4,346/person. Based on this, I would guess that Regent would get their contracted fares for less. Still, they are not making a lot of money for the cruise portion.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention and have a great cruise (we have done this itinerary twice -- Cape Town is one of our favorite cities in the world!)

I assume that this is the cruise just before Mariner goes into dry-dock for refurbishment.

I doubt that there will be a pre- cruise safari in Rio or that the cruise will go via Capetown. :rolleyes:

Fare on Regent U.K. Website for an E grade suite is £5099GBP including economy air

Hi folks! We are booked on Mariner, a 17 night TA from Rio to Barcelona early next year and I have a question regarding the rate. We are paying $8799.00 per person for a concierge E cabin which of course comes with business class air.

 

My semi confusion came when I checked the airline rates for the air, in case I wanted to book my own flights. The lowest fare for my exact dates of travel are $8200.00 per person for business class. I understand that RSSC will get a better rate than I can on my own but it just seems impossible that they can be making anything that looks like profit on this package.

 

Am I missing something?

Sorry that I looked up the wrong flights. The flights to Rio from Miami and back from Barcelona start at $3,400 (several flights, etc.)

Really interesting. I was curious and did some checking on Yapta.com. While I don't know your exact dates since you may be doing a pre-cruise safari and it usually takes two days to get there (due to time changes, etc.), I used February 22 as a departure date and March 14th as a return date. The lowest price was also surprising as it is on Qatar Air (reportedly one of the best airlines around but is obviously having some political issues). The lowest rate on Qatar was $4,346/person. Based on this, I would guess that Regent would get their contracted fares for less. Still, they are not making a lot of money for the cruise portion.

 

Thanks for bringing this to our attention and have a great cruise (we have done this itinerary twice -- Cape Town is one of our favorite cities in the world!)

Why would you go to Cape Town for a Rio to Barcelona cruise?

Sorry that I looked up the wrong flights. The flights to Rio from Miami and back from Barcelona start at $3,400 (several flights, etc.)

I just checked again, this time on Expedia and found a couple of flights for right around $7000 but most were close to 8K. Our times are late Feb to mid March.

Oh well, I guess we got a pretty good deal..... I'm good with that.

Yes you are missing something.

Regent books air through consolidators, who in turn have pre booked a certain number of seats at a guaranteed but non refundable price with the airlines. Any seats that might go unsold,near last minute, are turned over to online product like Priceline or Kayak etc.

Flights to both South America and Australia are usually much cheaper thru the cruise line than what I can find myself.

J

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