"Oversold" Cruises

[harryw]

I recently read some posts regarding booked passengers who were offered by Oceania alternate dates to change their booking, with added perks. Posters claimed the reason was due to their cruise being "oversold".

 

How do cruises become oversold?

Does the cruise line sell too many "guaranty" cabins?

What happens if the line can't convince enough passengers to change their bookings?

 

Harry

[globevest]

Harry,

 

"How do cruises become oversold?"

 

I believe they do not get oversold. "Oversold" by posters is not strictly accurate. In some cases 'Wait List' is not a gurantee of a cabin. If a cruise line has more people on a wait list than can be accomodated they try and encourage some passengers to switch to 'undersold' cruises....hence benefitting the cruise line and accomodating passengers.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Yes, cruises get oversold from time to time. The problem goes away when the cruiseline offers incentives for people to switch. If people are stubborn, the offers just get better until somebody accepts.

[TKS]

I recently read some posts regarding booked passengers who were offered by Oceania alternate dates to change their booking, with added perks. Posters claimed the reason was due to their cruise being "oversold".

 

How do cruises become oversold?

Does the cruise line sell too many "guaranty" cabins?

What happens if the line can't convince enough passengers to change their bookings?

 

Harry

 

This questions comes up regularly.

 

O sells/guarantees as many cabins as their experience tells them they will fill for each cruise. Many reservations fall out over time, some very late in the game, so the guarantees move up, and if there is any room left in the inn some of the wait listed folks may get aboard too.

 

However, sometimes not as many people cancel as typical, leaving O to manage passengers. At that time they begin asking booked/guarantee passengers if they will change cruises, and the offers get sweeter and sweeter until they reach the needed number of cabins needed to accommodate the remaining passengers. See the post from the lady who just got upgraded from an inside cabin to a PH on a cruise 5 weeks later currently active in these threads. As you can see, sometimes the offers have to be really attractive, but it's part of the cost of doing business for a large company such as O, and it is typical of the hospitality industry, as a whole.

[JimandStan]

They oversell capacity in every aspect of the hospitality industry (hotels, airlines, cruises, theme parks, restaurants) because:

 

1) Clients who get upgraded or bought off onto another cruise are generally THRILLED

 

2) When a cabin change is termed an "upgrade" passengers become more amenable, and otherwise empty cabins can be filled more easily

 

3) It is a wonderful selling technique to allow clients to experience more expensive cabins than they might otherwise think to book.

 

If passengers choose not to take the offer to get "bought off" an oversold cruise; then the Cruise Line will continue to sweeten the pot until a sufficient number have done so.

The key here is to have firm resolve, but not so firm that your neighbors collect the swag. ;)

[MeMomandaMap]

A couple of thoughts on this...

 

As you may of read in my other post ..We were on the Jan 5th sailing for Miami to Lima, this sailing has been oversold by 15 cabins for quite sometime because it's basically 3 cruises in one. (Caribbean, Panama Canal, a dabble in South America with post cruise Machu Picchu) AND it continues around the horn for those who have the time and income to do it for a full South America cruise experience

 

We were in an inside cat. F 8015. In the last 6 months we have been offered approximately 9 move over offers...beginning with an outside and then balconies for cruises that were longer than our 18 days.

 

This past Friday about 2 weeks from sailing we were offered a Penthouse suite on the Marina with a 1,000 cash back refund off of our original fare.

Since we booked our air with Oceania that was covered too.

 

We accepted this offer for several reasons, mainly because Im sick.

If I had not gotten bronchitis, we would have turned down the offer.

 

After the 3rd move over offer we received. I called revenue management and told them where, what and why scenarios it would take for us to move over and I was told if that scenario occured we would be the 1st to know.

 

Our offer was one of the scenarios we suggested to Oceania (but I said a balcony and Oceania went one better with the Penthouse)

 

Cruises are oversold because of the downside of what is known as yield management.

 

There are all sorts of explainations to yield management when it comes to Hotel Revenue (which cruise cabins are). There are theories, algorithms and most of the time guesswork. I recommend that you google hotel yield management, I can't explain it all here as it is a subject that people will write a thesis on!!!! :)

 

As a former hotel manager I can tell you yield management is one of the biggest challenges you face. Because as much as you think there is reasoning behind it, there is not...Just as much as you can oversell your hotel, you can go down with no heads in the beds.

 

IMHO, Oceania has done a fantastic job of managing the oversold situations.

 

It becomes a real win for those passengers who are really willing to be flexible and eventually someone will be.

 

One lesson we have learned through all of this is that we will ALWAYS take Oceania's air (with an air deviation). If you have air with Oceania then taking a move over offer is a non issue. If we had an airline ticket that we purchased or used FF miles on, we would have lost money.

 

You asked what they would do if they couldnt convince someone to move.

 

This would be a very rare situation, but if it occured.

 

The next level would be to contact anyone who is booked on some sort of industry discount, then contact any crew members who might be staying in passenger cabins and move them to crew quarters.

 

but I dont really see it getting to that point.

 

There really is nothing for you to worry about, you will be accomadated.

 

PS sorry for the spelling, etc mistakes I'm really loopy on meds. :)

[Mura]

Jim&Stan are right about people often being delighted with the "move" offers. We were certainly very happy to give up a PH on Regatta (Alaska in August 2011) for a Med cruise on Marina the following October in a Vista. For one thing, the Med itinerary was pretty much new to us and places we wanted to see. We probably wouldn't have bitten, even for a Vista, if the itinerary hadn't been appealing.

 

There are other problems with these buyouts, of course. When we did the Auckland-Sydney cruise in January 2008, originally we'd booked a B2B going on to Bangkok ... but we chickened out and in the end only did the first leg. But it appeared that the second leg was seriously overbooked and people were getting great offers to switch. The problem with most of the people we talked to was that they'd booked their own flights and so they couldn't just switch to flying home from Sydney other than Bangkok. For people who were using O's air, it would be a much easier decision.

 

As it is, we'd already purchased our air for that cancelled Alaska cruise so we did lose some money in the switch but it wasn't a total waste. Instead of flying to Vancouver to catch the Alaska cruise, we flew to L.A. for what turned out to be my last visit with my mother ...

 

Mura

[Jancruz]

"You asked what they would do if they couldnt convince someone to move.

 

This would be a very rare situation, but if it occured.

 

The next level would be to contact anyone who is booked on some sort of industry discount, then contact any crew members who might be staying in passenger cabins and move them to crew quarters. "

 

Definitely not true!! Never would happen..

Jancvruz1

[MeMomandaMap]

Jancruz...

 

I stand corrected by you.

 

This is how it is handled in many of the hotels I've worked in.

 

Also, over the years I've had pursers desks tell me, that if a crisis situation occurs onboard with limited cabins available, they have taken the steps I've mentioned by moving contract workers down to crew quarters.

 

Apparently, Oceania has another system in place.

 

So.... since you know what they wouldn't do, maybe you can answer the question on what they would do.

[Jancruz]

Jancruz...

 

I stand corrected by you.

 

This is how it is handled in many of the hotels I've worked in.

 

Also, over the years I've had pursers desks tell me, that if a crisis situation occurs onboard with limited cabins available, they have taken the steps I've mentioned by moving contract workers down to crew quarters.

 

Apparently, Oceania has another system in place.

 

So.... since you know what they wouldn't do, maybe you can answer the question on what they would do.

 

You were exactly correct in all that you said except for the last.. Revenue sweetens the pot until they have all the cabins they need..Oceania's revenue department is fabulous at what they do!!

Jancruz1

[Leonid]

Very interesting posts. Learned a lot from those who are in the know.

[roothy123]

I have had a guaranty twice now on an inside cabin. Those are few and far between on O's ships, especially Marina. In August, for not much money, I was offered a concierge level veranda cabin. I jumped on it, and loved every minute. A similar situation happened a few years back on Regatta or Insignia. Yep, I have to say that I love the overbooking that cruise lines do! Don't worry, you won't be sleeping on a deck chair - although you may not know your actual cabin number until the day you board! You also won't usually have your choice of location (mid-ship, aft, port side, whatever).

[harryw]

We had an inside guaranty on the Marina last summer, and didn't know we were upgraded to a veranda until we boarded and opened the cabin door! We were thrilled.

 

Harry and Carol