Price Drop?

[starprincess]

If you booked with a TA and the price of the cruise drops, do you get the lower price? Before or after final payment? Anybody know?

[Coral]

If it is before final payment - contact your TA. If there is a price drop that applies to you, they should be able to reduce the price.

[starprincess]

I have to police the prices, they will not do it automatically?

[Coral]

I have to police the prices, they will not do it automatically?

 

Some will do it automatically - but truthfully, the good agents out there have thousands of bookings they are working with at any given time. There is no way they can check each booking weekly for a price reduction.

 

I consider this a joint effort - sometimes my TA will find the reduction, other times I will. If I find it - I just email her and let her know and she checks on it and adjusts it accordingly.

[starprincess]

Thanks Coral. I guess I should start checking. Final payment due in October.

[sunluva7]

I agree - don't rely on your TA to monitor prices. I monitored the prices weekly and watched our cruise price drop a couple of times. So it really pays to check.

[CGTNORMANDIE]

My TA is a Great TA...he will always scan the prices before final payment and he monitors price changes carefully. He keeps a stack of faxes that are for price changes only. His initial prices always beat the online prices and certainly beat the Princess direct prices. After 20 years...my TA is one of my best friends!!!

 

ROSS

[Coral]

My TA is a Great TA...he will always scan the prices before final payment and he monitors price changes carefully. ROSS

 

Most TAs will check the price right before they make final payment. The problem is that the prices can fluxiate quite a bit (or may stay stable) in the weeks/months before final payment - so I always check also.

[beachlovergirl]

Coral is correct the prices may fluctuate. For our upcoming Oct cruise on the Coral Princess, I had been checking the prices at least once a week and they weren't dropping. Final payment was due August 10th. Well, mid-July the price dropped on our AC mini-suite a total of $256.00. I contacted my TA who dropped the price. :D Even after that I continued to check but the prices actually went up before final payment! So even if you have a great TA you should also be checking.

[tommy]

Prices should be checked more often than just before final payment.Can change from 1` day to the next and often do.They should be checked daily.Very few if any TAs have the time or are willing to do this.We have done 16 cruises and have either been upgraded or had the price lowered on 12 of them.Everytime we checked ,Not on any of these cruises has the Ta done it for us. And we have used 3 or 4 different TAs.We put the cruise line web site on our favorites and check at least once a day.And Princess will honor a price reduction up till the day of sailing,so keep checking even after final payment. Good Luck TOM

[Arlened236]

I have a question...where is the best site to check on the cruise prices? I was not aware that they would drop the price if you found a lower price...thanks for the information...

arlene

[tommy]

Any of the internet agencys,We now only book direct with cruise lines.And check them.You can call thier 800#,and just act like a new booking get a price. TOM

[Richard Stein]

Good luck. This is when you find out if you have a good TA. If the TA goes to Princess for you, you get the lower price. My last TA was more interested in her commission than helping me. I have a new TA now and I asked her if she would go to bat for me. She said yes and I booked two more cruises through her. If you go directly to Princess you may get a small bump in your onboard credit and a flowerly letter. They are getting good at the flowerly letters.

[tommy]

Wrong,We called Princess and if the price was lower we got the lower price without any problems,and Princess is one of the few lines that still honor price reductions up till day of sailing. TOM

[bushwhacker]

Is there a place on the Princess website where you can find prices? I don't want to be phoning every day!

Do you have any other suggestions for finding price drops?

 

Thanks in advance!

B

[Knuklehead]

The site I use will say what actual cabin #s are still left . We are not supposed to be posting other sites here . But , if you use the word direct , in combo with a very common word here and add a .com , I think you can get the job done . I saw a reduction of $1000 on an inside cabin we booked . The TA called and bitched at Princess . I got a $200 shipboard crediit but that's it . TA then told me to call Princess myself ( :mad: and bitch :mad: ) as sometimes that could make a difference . Well , the Princess rep said that the reduction on this particular cruise was a "flash rate " . This was only three weeks from the sail date and they were trying to fill the ship . This was not a rate available to me as it only applied to " new " bookings . She did say that there was a chance of a comp upgrade and seeing that there are a good # of higher class cabins still sitting I think I may just get one . :confused:

[Babr]

We've been upgraded from AD to AA before final payment. As the payment date approaches, the price for AD is $300pp less than what we paid, but the price of the AA is more. I'm trying to weigh the risk/reward of going back to AD. The extra money could go toward other expenses of the trip, but the better location could be more important since I'm talking about a transatlantic crossing.

 

Experienced cruisers - what do you think? Is there less chance of getting upgraded a second time from AD? Is there any chance of being upgraded from AA? Is it worth the extra money to be in AA for a crossing because of extended exposure to unkown sea conditions? It seems that the ship is fairly open at this time. My guess is that there will be another push to sell cabins. If we stay where we are and the price drops, we can get the new price even after final payment, right?

[moonmom]

Hi maybe you can clarify something for me....when i booked for my upcoming carnival cruise i was able to track current pricing thru their website and then notify my TA when i saw reductions...that worked out great as i was able to get about $300 off the final payment.

 

i am booked on 2 princess cruises at the moment- i booked through my TA. Can you usually only get a reduction in price if Princess is quoting a lower price?? If so, i guess the only way to keep track of pricing is by calling them directly?? I wouldn't think that one TA would honor another TA's price...

 

Can anyone tell me if that is accurate? Thanks a lot for your help!

 

Jane

[cherylandtk]

Moommom, I think you have it. Some of the major online TA's quote prices the same as Princess, you do have to call Princess and get a quote on the same cabin a couple of times to verify which ones, but if you are using any of the Big three travel sites, you are usually getting the current Princess quote.

 

That said, if your price from your TA is higher than the quoted price by Princess, you should definitely get the lower price. Your TA would rather lower the price than lose your booking to Princess or another TA.

 

Some of the posters above may not use a TA that discounts, or book directly with Princess, so they are more likely to see price reductions. The discount TA's give a lower price up front, and you are less likely to see Princess prices drop below your price, but it does happen enough that you still chould check. Once final payment is due, the rules change, and most of the heavily discounted prices are flash sales, and they can only be applied to new bookings.

 

Did this help, I hope I have not made it more confusing!

[Northender]

The site I use will say what actual cabin #s are still left . We are not supposed to be posting other sites here . But , if you use the word direct , in combo with a very common word here and add a .com , I think you can get the job done . I saw a reduction of $1000 on an inside cabin we booked . The TA called and bitched at Princess . I got a $200 shipboard crediit but that's it . TA then told me to call Princess myself ( :mad: and bitch :mad: ) as sometimes that could make a difference . Well , the Princess rep said that the reduction on this particular cruise was a "flash rate " . This was only three weeks from the sail date and they were trying to fill the ship . This was not a rate available to me as it only applied to " new " bookings . She did say that there was a chance of a comp upgrade and seeing that there are a good # of higher class cabins still sitting I think I may just get one . :confused:

 

Thanks for the info. There are still quite a few balconies left on my sailing on Caribe. Will watch to see if price drop in my category. The price is within a few dollars of what we are paying. Will keep my eye on it. Thanks again.:)

[Knuklehead]

" We are not supposed to be posting other sites here . But , if you use the word direct , in combo with a very common word here and add a .com , I think you can get the job done . " Your welcome............ I just saw that the site I was talking about has an ad here on the home page . ******direct.com

[Tania]

Babr. If the ship is wide open, there will indeed be another push to fill the cabins. Have your TA check.

 

Personally I would keep the AD if you're on a Sun-class ship because it has the covered balcony while the AA is fully open. Save money to boot.

 

As for upgrading to a full suite, again, are any available? IF there are many available and I was one the first people to bok on this cruise, I"d be sorely tempted to try and wait for the upgrade. Are you a gambler?

[Tania]

I meant "I'd keep the AD on a GRAND-class ship as it's fully covered."

[donna5]

Wrong,We called Princess and if the price was lower we got the lower price without any problems,and Princess is one of the few lines that still honor price reductions up till day of sailing. TOM

 

Has anyone else found this to be true? We have never been able to get a reduction after final payment on princess and we are elite.I have never known Princess to do this.