Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Worst Move Over Offer EVER

CruisingObsessed

By CruisingObsessed,
in Princess Cruises

Recommended Posts

CruisingObsessed

CruisingObsessed

Posted
Posted

Set to leave tomorrow for a Greek Isles cruise and just now got the worst every move over offer. Not only do they want us to change itineraries, but go in late November when it's cold and rainy, but we only get $300 to change airfare (and it would cost over a thousand). AND only an interior to an obstructed view. AND they want us to take our cruise fare back as onboard credit (we'd never use that much) and pay the new cruise's fare, which costs more.

 

Wow:eek:

 

Anyone else every gotten a ridiculous offer? I thought move overs were usually pretty good!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
CI66774

CI66774

Posted
Posted
Set to leave tomorrow for a Greek Isles cruise and just now got the worst every move over offer. Not only do they want us to change itineraries, but go in late November when it's cold and rainy, but we only get $300 to change airfare (and it would cost over a thousand). AND only an interior to an obstructed view. AND they want us to take our cruise fare back as onboard credit (we'd never use that much) and pay the new cruise's fare, which costs more.

 

Wow:eek:

 

Anyone else every gotten a ridiculous offer? I thought move overs were usually pretty good!

 

It's like the airlines. They start out with sucky offers and when no one comes forward, they up it and up it until they get enough people.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ar1950

ar1950

Posted
Posted
It was an easy decision for sure! They can call tomorrow if they like, but we will be enroute to Venice to board the ship :D

 

I do feel for anyone who doesn't get on because it's oversold though. Hopefully they will offer something decent to someone who can/wants to take it.

 

Unbelievable that they made that offer to someone from the US. Oh well, have a great cruise and hopefully someone in Europe (which would make more sense because of the closer proximity to the embarkation port) will get a decent offer. :cool:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Deely

Deely

Posted
Posted

We are on that cruise, but am absolutely amazed that this can happen - how on earth do they oversell? Thankfully we chose our cabin at booking otherwise I would probably be having a major panic attack now in case we were the ones not allowed to sail.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
CCFC

CCFC

Posted
Posted

I think you will be surprised at the demographics when you get on board, we just got off the Ruby in Barcelona and out of 3,000 passengers over 2,000 were Australians/Kiwis. There would have been very few Europeans to offer a change to!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
truckmaker

truckmaker

Posted
Posted

Does it trouble anyone anywhere that somewhere in the Princess organization a person sits who decided that customers would actually accept such an offer? Leadership, or managership, or just proper direction in this sort of case appears to be the missing factor. IMHO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bruin Steve

Bruin Steve

Posted
Posted

First of all, I would NEVER accept that sort of offer...

By the time I'm within days or hours of a cruise, there's no way I could just suddenly say "hold everything"...Too much planning and expectation goes into it...and I plan my cruises for when my wife and I can both get away and those windows are not available often...

 

Even if I COULD make the change, they'd have to offer something in the line of moving me to a suite with full price refunded...

But, of course, there's also usually the question of airfare and other arrangements and expenses--which are usually booked and not necessarily refundable or transferable at that point.

 

As to the question of how a cruise line overbooks, it's quite simple:

Look at the Princess website (or any other cruise line for that matter)...They offer a lot of bookings with "cabin to be assigned prior to sailing" or "Guarantee rates"...

What they are doing is booking cruises where they don't necessarily have a cabin available to go with it...It's fairly simple...They don't want to turn away bookings when they know they SHOULD have plenty of cabins available. Bookings tend to drop away...especially true at "final payment date". People book and have the right to cancel for free. Every cruise, they lose a good number of bookings at that point. They even lose some afterwards. People drop off for a number of reasons: Health issues, family emergencies, economic hardship.

The cruise lines, with many years of experience, have ways of forecasting this...so they're usually not too far off...BUT, it happens...

They figure they'd rather deal with a few overbookings than deal with a slew of unsold cabins. What could happen is they turn away customers and those customers book on a competitor's cruise line and they lose the customer for good.

 

Okay, so we're close to the cruise...they have 1300 cabins...they have 1305 bookings...They don't necessarily even have them in the right cabin categories...so, they start surprising some folks with upgrades (They usually oversell the lower priced cabins and the vacancies are often in better categories)...BUT, at some point, they figured on another 5 dropping off...and they didn't...So, NOW, the wheeling and dealing begins...

 

The first folks they make offers to, those offers are pretty mild: Switch to a later sailing (where we are more sure we have space) and we'll upgrade you...Maybe someone who'd retired, lives close to port and doesn't care when they go says "yes, why not for an upgade"...and they're down to 4 to go...No other takers? Now they start offering an upgrade and a small onboard credit...

 

They keep increasing the bids until they've moved five bookings and are okay...

 

No reason to start big with the offers--they're not crazy...not going to give away suites and free cruises until they have to...

 

Eventually, if they have no takers on the lower offers, then they get desperate...

 

The advice is that, if the deal offered is acceptable to you, take it...If it's not, hold out...eventually, they may come around...OR let them know what it is you WOULD accept...If you would have taken that deal if the reimbursement was cash rather than an onboard credit and the upgrade was to a standard balcony not an obstructed view, let them know...They may just give you what you ask just to get the deal done...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Putterdude

Putterdude

Posted
Posted

I would agree that is a pretty poor offer, the good news is that you didn't have to take it. A year or so we got a pretty attractive move over offer but my wife got the call and wanted to check with me before accepting, by the time we got back to them, an hour or so, the offer was off the table.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Putterdude

Putterdude

Posted
Posted
I think you will be surprised at the demographics when you get on board, we just got off the Ruby in Barcelona and out of 3,000 passengers over 2,000 were Australians/Kiwis. There would have been very few Europeans to offer a change to!

 

This was our experience two cruises before yours....I was concerned that they had enough beer aboard.;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
RickEk

RickEk

Posted
Posted
Set to leave tomorrow for a Greek Isles cruise and just now got the worst every move over offer. Not only do they want us to change itineraries, but go in late November when it's cold and rainy, but we only get $300 to change airfare (and it would cost over a thousand). AND only an interior to an obstructed view. AND they want us to take our cruise fare back as onboard credit (we'd never use that much) and pay the new cruise's fare, which costs more.

 

Wow:eek:

 

Anyone else every gotten a ridiculous offer? I thought move overs were usually pretty good!

 

 

Hmmm... a friend on that cruise got the moveover offer too (they couldn't take it because of work obligations). This is the offer that Princess sent. Seems like something got lost in the OP's translation. :rolleyes:

 

Princess is extending a special offer to guests booked on the October 24 12-day

Ruby Princess sailing. Move your booking to an alternate cruise and receive:

 

* 100% of your cruise fare back (as refundable onboard credit)

* FREE UPGRADE to next cabin type (eg, oceanview to balcony - where available)

* Air change fees covered up to $300.00 per person (Princess Air protected)

 

Suggested Alternatives include:

* Ruby Princess November 17, 2013 (includes Kusadasi, Mykonos & Athens) or

* Pacific Princess November 23, 2013 (includes Venice Athens & Rome)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bruin Steve

Bruin Steve

Posted
Posted
Set to leave tomorrow for a Greek Isles cruise and just now got the worst every move over offer. Not only do they want us to change itineraries, but go in late November when it's cold and rainy, but we only get $300 to change airfare (and it would cost over a thousand). AND only an interior to an obstructed view. AND they want us to take our cruise fare back as onboard credit (we'd never use that much) and pay the new cruise's fare, which costs more.

 

Wow:eek:

 

Anyone else every gotten a ridiculous offer? I thought move overs were usually pretty good!

 

Hmmm... a friend on that cruise got the moveover offer too (they couldn't take it because of work obligations). This is the offer that Princess sent. Seems like something got lost in the OP's translation. :rolleyes:

Princess is extending a special offer to guests booked on the October 24 12-day

Ruby Princess sailing. Move your booking to an alternate cruise and receive:

 

* 100% of your cruise fare back (as refundable onboard credit)

* FREE UPGRADE to next cabin type (eg, oceanview to balcony - where available)

* Air change fees covered up to $300.00 per person (Princess Air protected)

 

Suggested Alternatives include:

* Ruby Princess November 17, 2013 (includes Kusadasi, Mykonos & Athens) or

* Pacific Princess November 23, 2013 (includes Venice Athens & Rome)

 

Actually, I think you are saying the SAME thing (except maybe the "pay the new cruise's fare" part?)...just that the OP phrased it as "look how bad this is" and you are saying "look how good this is"...

 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
JimmyVWine Great Review Rare

JimmyVWine

Posted
Posted
Actually, I think you are saying the SAME thing (except maybe the "pay the new cruise's fare" part?)...just that the OP phrased it as "look how bad this is" and you are saying "look how good this is"...

 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...

 

I think that the biggest difference is the inclusion of the "refundable OBC". The OP said that they could "never use that much" implying that if it wasn't used, it would be lost. But if the OBC is refundable, then if you don't spend a dime of it, your credit card gets that amoung charged back to it.

 

So what, exactly, is the deal with paying for the new cruise? I thought that with a Move Over offer, you typically did not pay anything out of pocket. If that is the case here, then the offer isn't bad at all, provided that one can make the finances and logistics of the airfare work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
RickEk

RickEk

Posted
Posted
Actually, I think you are saying the SAME thing (except maybe the "pay the new cruise's fare" part?)...just that the OP phrased it as "look how bad this is" and you are saying "look how good this is"...

 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...

 

I'm not sayin' nothin'... (and yeah, I know that's a double negative) :) just reporting the facts.

 

I think that the biggest difference is the inclusion of the "refundable OBC". The OP said that they could "never use that much" implying that if it wasn't used, it would be lost. But if the OBC is refundable, then if you don't spend a dime of it, your credit card gets that amoung charged back to it.

 

So what, exactly, is the deal with paying for the new cruise? I thought that with a Move Over offer, you typically did not pay anything out of pocket. If that is the case here, then the offer isn't bad at all, provided that one can make the finances and logistics of the airfare work.

 

Well, my friend did call and Princess confirmed that the new cruise would be FREE with a cabin type upgrade.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
JimmyVWine Great Review Rare

JimmyVWine

Posted
Posted
I'm not sayin' nothin'... (and yeah, I know that's a double negative) :) just reporting the facts.

 

 

 

Well, my friend did call and Princess confirmed that the new cruise would be FREE with a cabin type upgrade.

 

Thanks. I've never been offered one of these, but it is good to have this info in the back pocket.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • Hurricane Zone 2024
      • Cruise Insurance Q&A w/ Steve Dasseos of Tripinsurancestore.com June 2024
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...