penalized for booking early

[Host Jazzbeau]

Only those living in North America can do upgrades like this. The rest of the world is 'stuck' when the prices drop.

 

OP didn't give a hint where they live, so no one knows whether to commiserate or offer suggestions.

Edited February 25, 2016 by Host Jazzbeau

[ehfl]

It seems like we are penalized every time we book early...

 

And yet, you keep doing it. :confused:

[SetU2]

OP didn't give a hint where they live, so no one knows whether to commiserate or offer suggestions.

 

 

They also gave no definition as to what "early" meant to them. For me it is shortly after a cruise is made available.

 

 

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[Cuizer2]

Only those living in North America can do upgrades like this. The rest of the world is 'stuck' when the prices drop.

 

Is the rest of the world "stuck" when the cost of the cruise goes up? Most of the cruises I book go up in price. Some very significantly.

 

Perhaps the cruise lines should do what the airlines do, offer two different prices. One is non-refundable, but is less than the other which is refundable. If you are worried about price drops, buy the refundable fare.

 

After I book my airfare I stop checking the price. If one is "stuck" then I suggest they stop looking at the price after they make their purchase.

 

Remember, there is no guarantee that the price will go down as the departure date gets closer. Often times prices go up. However, for some reason, people don't come here to complain that the price when up after they purchased the cruise.

Edited February 25, 2016 by Cuizer2

[Cuizer2]

They also gave no definition as to what "early" meant to them. For me it is shortly after a cruise is made available.

 

 

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I though early meant before 6am.

[grandgeezer]

It seems like we are penalized every time we book early to get a good choice of cabin. There is always a special that gives more Perks than when I booked. How do you handle this?:confused:

 

You'll take the benefits for booking early, but not the penalties? You can't have it both ways.

[t00thpix]

As the OP I am booking from the usa. My complaint is not as much as price drops but the booking incentives. As an example I book 12-18 months out and for my next cruise I received one pick -your -perk and $100 on board credit. . The offer now is two perks and $300 OBC

[villauk]

As the OP I am booking from the usa. My complaint is not as much as price drops but the booking incentives. As an example I book 12-18 months out and for my next cruise I received one pick -your -perk and $100 on board credit. . The offer now is two perks and $300 OBC

 

Well if you're not past final payment, just have your booking repriced. Ring your TA and they will sort with X for you to obtain the new perks ;). However, you need to check if the actual price of the cruise has risen. Those perks are only good if they outweigh any additional price increases.

[Melissa at Mohair Meadows]

Of course, being able to communicate with fellow cruisers via Cruisecritic as soon as possible is a big plus.

 

Other than that, when I booked my April 2016 cruise (in June 2014) there was a terrific perk - 25 bonus points. So after this cruise we will be Elite with those points. I was tempted over the past months to take the price cut that came through, but it was never enough to upgrade to get the extra points and by just rebooking at the lower rate, we would lose those extra points.

Happy cruising.

 

:D

 

Melissa

[SetU2]

As the OP I am booking from the usa. My complaint is not as much as price drops but the booking incentives. As an example I book 12-18 months out and for my next cruise I received one pick -your -perk and $100 on board credit. . The offer now is two perks and $300 OBC

 

 

By the same token I booked in Dec of 2014 for a May 2016 Alaskan. This was during the 123 Go promotion so we got 300 OBC, Classic Drinks and Prepaid gratuities. I checked for price drops and by May of 2015 the cost was over 50% higher and 123 Go was replaced with Go BBB with the offer being select two. Now it is only about 25-30% higher (normalized for comparable perk so)

 

I do not think of one year in advance as being early. A cruise is offered at least 18 months in advance. If initial response is good, the laws of supply and demand say raise prices. If they are able to continue selling, why would they lower?

 

If I had the freedom to go on a whim, I might consider booking late but since I do not, early has always been better for me.

 

 

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Edited February 25, 2016 by SetU2

[janetz]

And yet, you keep doing it. :confused:

 

:p Its called Cruise Addiction

[Host Jazzbeau]

I don't know what OP's experience was exactly, but in my experience with a dozen cruises on a variety of cruise lines: I have never been penalized for booking early. If the price went down I have always gotten the reduction; if the price went up: nobody asked me to pay more! And I kept the cabin I had so carefully chosen at launch fare. I'm sorry that our friends in the UK can't do this (but glad to learn that there is some way for them to book through US travel agents) -- it makes booking a cruise so much less stressful than booking airfare!

[varoo]

There are tradeoffs, whichever way you do it.

 

Some people mentioned that they call and ask for a price reduction, keeping the same cabin, but that option is not available after the final payment date, which is typically more than 2 months before the cruise even begins.

(No, it is not even available to those of us in North America.)

 

Yet after the final payment date is the time frame where the best price drops usually occur, so those of us in North America are penalized for booking early too. ;)

 

If we book early, it will cost us a steep penalty to cancel and re-book after the final payment date in order to take advantage of a big price reduction.

 

 

So for a rare, one of a kind cruise that is likely to sell out, we would probably book early, especially if it is one we really want.

 

But when we have flexibility, we find it is usually to our advantage to wait, especially for a cruise where there is lots of competition and lots of availability.

 

[Cruise Junky]

We decided today to hold off on booking anything for Spring 2017. There are three Celebrity Transatlantics leaving within three days of each other in April 2017. We'll book the two weeks off work and just wait. If they don't go low enough we'll head to Hawaii on a land trip.

[Jade13]

As the OP I am booking from the usa. My complaint is not as much as price drops but the booking incentives. As an example I book 12-18 months out and for my next cruise I received one pick -your -perk and $100 on board credit. . The offer now is two perks and $300 OBC

 

 

Check the price. We booked last year with one perk. We can change to two perks but the price is up more than the cost of a second perk.

[iandjm]

I have also noticed that the booking on board offer that gave you one of the 123 offers no longer exists.

I was on eclipse in November and wanted to book summer 2017 from the UK. I was told the booking on board perk of being able to have a free drinks package no longer existed. As a result I have nothing booked for 2017 and will be looking at both Celebrity and the opposition for the best offers. Seems silly that Celebrity have lost out to guaranteed future bookings by doing this.

[masspector]

Is the rest of the world "stuck" when the cost of the cruise goes up? Most of the cruises I book go up in price. Some very significantly.

 

Perhaps the cruise lines should do what the airlines do, offer two different prices. One is non-refundable, but is less than the other which is refundable. If you are worried about price drops, buy the refundable fare.

 

After I book my airfare I stop checking the price. If one is "stuck" then I suggest they stop looking at the price after they make their purchase.

 

Remember, there is no guarantee that the price will go down as the departure date gets closer. Often times prices go up. However, for some reason, people don't come here to complain that the price when up after they purchased the cruise.

 

Bad idea. Doesn't usually happen with an airline but imagine this. You pay $1500 for a ticket and then it drops to $1200 and the change fee is $150. You are $150 to the good.

 

A real world example that I can site happened to me, with a hotel. I never book prepay or deposit with a hotel, only reservations, even if it costs more. I had booked hotel in London. Checked price each week, it dropped. Booked the new price and then cancelled the first reservation. Saving =$50 and didn't cost me anything.

 

I do the same thing with rental cars. Have had some nice savings over the years. Everything with travel is supply and demand. If demand is low closer to the date, the price will drop. Never hurts to check and fairly easy now a days with the internet.

[Jetswdo]

When I booked a cabin on the Reflection, a year out, the price dropped $200 per person just a few weeks later: Celebrity refused to change the fare and said that if I cancel and rebook, they still would not give me the lower fare.

That said, I was furious-- It didn't occur to me to cancel and then re book with someone else under my husband's name! Lesson learned. The wierd thing is that I haven't heard of any thing like that since, on Celebrity-- I was very careful when booking the Summit---I booked it at what I thought was a fare price--- then in future months Celebrity did honor price drops, did that twice- and had the included drink package. Go figure....

[Fouremco]

Bad idea. Doesn't usually happen with an airline but imagine this. You pay $1500 for a ticket and then it drops to $1200 and the change fee is $150. You are $150 to the good.

Although it dropped this part of its rewards program earlier this month, WestJet had for a number of years a low price guarantee. If you purchased a ticket and the price dropped for the identical flight, class, etc., they would refund you the difference in price. We've taken advantage of this several times, including our upcoming flight to FLL next month. There was a two-day sale recently and we saved $400.

 

Even with the cancellation of the program, we could have bought new tickets and paid a change fare to use our existing tickets for another flight within the coming year. So, yes, keeping an eye on flight prices after booking does work! As WestJet always emails us about their sales, it makes the whole process very quick and easy.