What can Celebrity be thinking?

[billie5]

I agree with you, Lsimon. It is amusing that someone thinks he knows the business model better than this large corporation, even more so that he is ticked off because his conjecture on pricing did not turn out to be the case. These computers do not have a guy sitting at a desk, thinking "Hmmm. I wonder if it is time to drop the price of a 1A cabin?" They use complex computer modeling to make those decisions. Perhaps the title of the thread would be better as "What can Starry Nights be thinking?"

 

Bill :)

[Starry Nights]

No offense to anyone but I find the subject of the post somewhat humorous - although I am sure it is nothing of the sort to Starry Nights.

 

There have been so many posts about people upset that they've reduced the price of their cruise after final payment (because they haven't been able to get an adjustment) and now here is a posting because someone is upset that Celebrity hasn't decreased the price after final payment.

 

The bottom line is that it is Celebrity's business and they can charge what they want and set whatever policies they want to, be it pricing or otherwise. And then it is up to us to decide if we want to buy on those prices and terms or not.

 

The cruise we're taking next spring is costing us almost 20% more per day than the cost of the cruise we took last spring on a similar ship to the same area of the Caribbean. I'd love to get a lower price but I'm not upset about it. I also booked the cruise 21 months in advance! I do that because I want to make sure I get the cabin I want on the cruise I want and in doing so I'm willing to accept the price they charge without any expectation of a reduction (although if anyone at Celebrity is reading this a reduction would be very nice and appreciated:D).

 

I'm sorry, but I think you are missing my point. This hasn't got anything to do with early pricing levels. When I book early, I also do it to get the itinerary/cabin I want and will live with whatever happens to the pricing. If it goes down, great. If not, I knew what the price was when I booked it.

 

This is a very different situation. With this cruise, I would be booking at a very late date. If I were to book it today, I know that within about two weeks or so, they will drop the rate, as they have so many cabins still available in a few classes. The sales since November 1st have been extremely slow. In the categories I am looking at, they have only sold the following in the last 5 weeks:

 

CC3...3

SV.....0

1A.....1

1B.....0

1C.....0

 

It's worth noting that they have 116 cabins available in those five categories.

 

Since it's after final payment and no refunds/OBC are available, I'm fairly sure that other people, like me, are waiting for a price drop before they purchase. Why would you pay $400-700 more per cabin than you have to? I have been watching the price drops on other similar cruises carefully, and those amounts have been the average differences in the categories I'm watching.

 

My point is, that if, 4 weeks after final payment, they still have a lot of inventory unsold, they should split the difference between what they are currently asking, and what they will finally sell for, and offer the cabins at a somewhat reduced price. I just want to get this cruise booked, and taken care of. But I don't want to be a chump and pay $400 extra in order to book it today. It would be a win-win situation...Celebrity could sell some of the remaining cabins at a better price than they are going to get three weeks out, and I get to have the issue resolved and get on with my planning, without paying an overly-inflated price.

 

FWIW, on the other leg of the back-to-back, I paid $899 for an AQ cabin back in July. Today they want $890 for the 15 "1Cs" on this cruise, and I know they are not going to get it. They haven't sold even one 1C cabin at that price in the last 5 weeks, even with the Thanksgiving sale. It's pretty clear that $50 per cabin OBC wasn't sufficient incentive.

 

So, yes, of course "it is Celebrity's business and they can charge what they want and set whatever policies they want". But I am allowed to have an opinion about the way they handle after-final-payment-pricing, and I can spend my money where I see fit, at a price point I am comfortable with.

 

So this morning, I booked a lovely all-inclusive that fits in with my fly dates, and at the pricing I was willing to pay for the second leg of the b2b. Now I can get on with my Christmas preparation, which is really what I want to do at this point in December.

[emileg]

Yes.

 

Yes, you do have to check every category.

I see. Thank you for answering the questions. Very useful information to have before a cruise at sea.