Celebrity's "flexible" approach to cabin pricing

[shooie]

Is anyone as fed up as I am with some cruise line's practice of selling off unsold cabins at up to half price when the departure date nears?. The latest offender is Celebrity. With 4 weeks to departure, they are offering suites (originally priced at £3800) for £1850. The cabin I booked 12 months ago is now being offered at almost half price.

We, as paying customers, could stop this practice "dead in the water" if we refused to book early with Cruise lines which indulge in this practice, or use Cruise lines which operate a pricing pledge.

In Celebrity's case, they also block all existing bookings from discounted upgrades, offering the deals to "new business only". So if you have already booked, then celebrity's response to any complaint that you can't avail of last minute upgrade reductions is "tough"

Celebrity, in keeping with other Cruise lines, strive to keep this practice quiet, as they of course fear the natural alienation of their core market, (that is,of course, most of us), and the realisation that we are being ripped off. WE HAVE THE POWER TO STOP THIS RIP OFF!

[mom says]

You really are new to cruising, aren't you? Do you feel the same way when your favorite store has a sale and that dress you bought 2 months ago is now half price? Do you get all irate and blame the airlines because they have a seat sale a month after you booked tickets?

 

If you feel that strongly about it, then there's a simple answer. Wait until after final payment to book uour cruises. Just don't come crying to CC if you find out there are only crappy cabins left, the cruise has sold out, or the price has actually gone up.

[CruisingChick]

We almost always book now AFTER final payment. Especially since they moved it to 90 days.

[justcrusn]

Mom summed it up really well.

If you want the “leftovers” you can get them cheaper after everything else gets picked through.

Sometimes they’re arent any.

If you want the best selection, security of being booked and ability to plan ahead for air travel and time off, well that’s going to cost a little extra.

It’s NOT new, nor a “rip-off”

[Marelaine]

I only book a cruise when I think the price is fair, usually early booking. I check the prices periodically to see if my category price has gone down or to see if I can jump a category. Once final payment has passed, I don't look.

 

It's no secret that Celebrity discounts leftover cabins after final payment. One day, we will be able to book less than 90 days out, but that's not possible now. Please point me in the direction of a cruise line that has that price pledge. I'd like to check that out.

[Sonoma fans]

Would like to have the option of booking after final payments, but requiring an accessible cabin almost forces booking 12-15 months ahead as there are so few of them. If I book the cruise, I feel it is worth what I am paying and can not have regrets...

[jelayne]

We book in the US and I believe we have more flexibility. We have had 3 of 7 cruises in the past 2 years where there was a big price drop after final payment. In one case we upgraded from Concierge cabin to a Suite for $60 more than we had paid. Another we moved from a SS to a CS for 0.

 

The other cruise the price drop was huge & we elected to cancel the cruise, forfeiting $900 deposit. We then immediately rebooked the same cabin for $2300 less than we had paid netting a refund if $1400. While we were out $900 it minimized the impact. We don’t have this flexibility with the airlines.

 

I understand the frustration, but there are times when our cabin has increased significantly in price after we booked and stayed high at sailing. These times, in our case, are more than make-up for the others.

[sanger727]

This pricing occurs over every industry. Agree, if you want the latest design at a clothing store you’ll pay full price when you can get it on the clearance rack for half off the next year, when they have mostly xtra small and xtra larges left. You can buy the latest and greatest iPhone for $800 or wait a year and get it for $600.

 

Celebrity, and other cruise lines, use dynamic pricing models to maximize their profits. When things aren’t selling the price goes down. When they are selling well, the price goes up. Let’s say that on average they get $2,000 per room per week. If they are selling well at $2,000; then final payment comes and 30% of the bookings cancel. Now they might be left with a ship half full. Only spite would say that they would have to continue selling the cabins at $2,000 or let them sail empty. Any business centered mindset would rather have anyone paying any amount sail in that cabin rather than it sail empty.

 

You are certainly free to exclusively book late if it helps you feel better, but that goes both ways. We had a hawaii cruise booked early and also booked our airfare early. Around final payment time someone added to our sailing. At that point the airfare and cruise price had both doubled. Post final payment the had a fire sale on the cruise price but airfare kept going up.

 

My biggest hurdle is work. We have to request our vacation weeks every year in Jan for the entire week. Can’t shift it a week at the last minute if that weeks cruise sells out but the next weeks cruise goes on sale. So we book early and don’t bedgrudge any discounts last minute bookings get.

 

 

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[stobe1]

Wow. 6 years later and the OP finally gets a response.

[mom says]

Oh, crap. I reanimated a zombie thread. Totally my mistake for not reading the date on the OP. My profuse apologies everyone. :o

[docmark]

Since we are talking prices ,I will introduce a new item :

 

WE were in Signature Suite on Reflection ,early Feb. (ultimate Caribbean cruise) for 11 nights and Price was $11,000 for my wife and I total. Was looking at a British Isle cruise Summer 2019 ,12 nights,and price on SAME SUITE is 14 K (plus) for EACH person ....cannot believe the contrast....I know, European cruises are higher than Caribbean, but THIS is a HUGE jump!!

[Denny01]

how do you even find a thread that is 6 years old?..

 

As to pricing, most of the cruises we’ve taken in the past few years have gone up in price with time and very

Imited SRs are available. Could be we’ve been going on more limited cruises that many are jumping on.

 

Realizing the Edge is new and people are going after it, our 24 Mar 2019 cruise has only 13 Balcony’s left and 12 are Aqua.

 

And the Panama Canal Cruise we took last year went up in price.

 

But to be fully truthful, I don’t look at prices after final payment. Why would I care since I’m tied in. And we usually plan vacations well ahead and don’t look for a cruise in a month or so. May start doing that since I’m retired now, may try this, but have 4 cruises set for the next 1 1/2 years. I’m a sick puppy.

 

And as to the comment about only booking at a fair price, I don’t think anybody would book a cruise they feel is unfairly priced.

 

Den

[villauk]

Since we are talking prices ,I will introduce a new item :

 

WE were in Signature Suite on Reflection ,early Feb. (ultimate Caribbean cruise) for 11 nights and Price was $11,000 for my wife and I total. Was looking at a British Isle cruise Summer 2019 ,12 nights,and price on SAME SUITE is 14 K (plus) for EACH person ....cannot believe the contrast....I know, European cruises are higher than Caribbean, but THIS is a HUGE jump!!

 

Look at the price of 7 nights in a regular balcony in Europe next summer on Edge ($3000 pp inc taxes) & Infinity isn’t that much less :o!

[Denny01]

it’s interesting that we see lots of posts about how Cruise Lines are jumping up prices and lowering quality, and here is a 6 year-old thread that complained about the same.

 

So I did a bit of research and found the following:

 

Thread dated Mar 12th 1912

Angus McCabe - I just checked the price of a Steerage SR on the RMS Titanic. It’s gone down 5 pounds! And I can’t get that price because I made my final payment.

 

Robert Roberts III - quit looking at prices after you booked and just enjoy the cruise! Feel lucky you got that, I can’t get a Suite (my wife refuses to take anything but a full Suite) so we have to wait for the next crossing. Bad show and all that. But the Titanic is the fastest way to cross so it should only be a few weeks wait!

 

Den

[cruisestitch]

Beware the zombies 🧟*♂️ 🧟*♀️

[lvz2cruz]

I only book a cruise when I think the price is fair, usually early booking. I check the prices periodically to see if my category price has gone down or to see if I can jump a category. Once final payment has passed, I don't look.

 

It's no secret that Celebrity discounts leftover cabins after final payment. One day, we will be able to book less than 90 days out, but that's not possible now. Please point me in the direction of a cruise line that has that price pledge. I'd like to check that out.

 

Holland Ameria lets you call and request a paid upgrade. For example, you book a cheap level verandah for $799. Two weeks before sailing, their is an aft verandah for $849. You can call and pay the difference to move .

I tried to do that on my cruise on Celebrity and was told the listed price was for new bookings only .

I am a happy customer with HAL policy. Not so much with Celebrity policy.

[PhD-iva]

.

 

 

 

So I did a bit of research and found the following:

 

 

 

Thread dated Mar 12th 1912

 

Angus McCabe - I just checked the price of a Steerage SR on the RMS Titanic. It’s gone down 5 pounds! And I can’t get that price because I made my final payment.

 

 

 

Robert Roberts III - quit looking at prices after you booked and just enjoy the cruise! Feel lucky you got that, I can’t get a Suite (my wife refuses to take anything but a full Suite) so we have to wait for the next crossing. Bad show and all that. But the Titanic is the fastest way to cross so it should only be a few weeks wait!

 

 

 

Den

 

 

 

Too funny!

 

 

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[Shadow9612]

Oh, crap. I reanimated a zombie thread. Totally my mistake for not reading the date on the OP. My profuse apologies everyone. :o

I don't mind (why do people care if an old post is brought back?)... Just curious though - how'd you come across this from 6 yrs ago? I use the android app, so it's all chronological...

[Toofarfromthesea]

Is anyone as fed up as I am with some cruise line's practice of selling off unsold cabins at up to half price when the departure date nears?. The latest offender is Celebrity. With 4 weeks to departure, they are offering suites (originally priced at £3800) for £1850. The cabin I booked 12 months ago is now being offered at almost half price.

We, as paying customers, could stop this practice "dead in the water" if we refused to book early with Cruise lines which indulge in this practice, or use Cruise lines which operate a pricing pledge.

In Celebrity's case, they also block all existing bookings from discounted upgrades, offering the deals to "new business only". So if you have already booked, then celebrity's response to any complaint that you can't avail of last minute upgrade reductions is "tough"

Celebrity, in keeping with other Cruise lines, strive to keep this practice quiet, as they of course fear the natural alienation of their core market, (that is,of course, most of us), and the realisation that we are being ripped off. WE HAVE THE POWER TO STOP THIS RIP OFF!

 

Given that this at least the third thread you have started on this site, each expressing deep unhappiness with things that are pretty much fundamental to cruising, I have to wonder if cruising really is for you.

[CaribbeanBound]

Yes, we all have the power to decide to wait until the last minute to book at a potentially deeply discounted price, or pay what we feel is a reasonable price earlier and assure ourselves of getting the cabin and sailing dates we want. A lot depends upon your flexibility and schedules.