Heads up for Canadians

[ehogan]

Just a heads up for Canadian cruisers:

 

I have (up until now anyway) always preferred to book with Princess directly. Lately I have noticed that while Princess will quote a rate for Canadians using a fair exchange rate (1.29% above US rates) for inside cabins there appears to be a premium rate for outside cabins. The rate is up to an additional 20% over the exchanged rate.

 

I have checked with some other very large booking companies and they convert to Canadian dollars at the 1.29% rate over all cabin categories.

 

I don't understand why Princess would do this and run the risk of alienating Canadian customers but I am planning on asking their customer service department for an explanation.

[Thrak]

Weird. Very weird...

[RDC1]

Just a heads up for Canadian cruisers:

 

I have (up until now anyway) always preferred to book with Princess directly. Lately I have noticed that while Princess will quote a rate for Canadians using a fair exchange rate (1.29% above US rates) for inside cabins there appears to be a premium rate for outside cabins. The rate is up to an additional 20% over the exchanged rate.

 

I have checked with some other very large booking companies and they convert to Canadian dollars at the 1.29% rate over all cabin categories.

 

I don't understand why Princess would do this and run the risk of alienating Canadian customers but I am planning on asking their customer service department for an explanation.

 

There are always some variations in pricing models with exchange rates. Take any of the cruise lines and compare US rates offered to Americans, British rates in pounds offered in the UK, and rates in Canadian dollars offered in Canada. Once you normalize for currency exchange rates there will always be some variations between the fares offered. Comes from the algorithms used in the pricing models taking into account supply, demand, currency risk, market comparisons, competition, etc.

 

The good thing is you can always convert your currency yourself and book using a US rate in US dollars.

Edited April 8, 2016 by RDC1

[Valiamo]

Which cruise date are you looking at, and are you saying that the CDN to US price is 1.49 vs a more current exchange rate?

 

Most cruises I have seen late follow closely to the current exchange rate of 1.32-1.34. I do find that princess does not frequently update the cruise prices to reflect current exchange rates.

[D&N LUV 2 TRAVEL]

I have priced a cruise for 2017 and Princess was initially using a 1.35 factor to convert US to Cdn $'s back on March 24th and just this week I noticed they reduced that factor to 1.30 while leaving the US price the same. This was for a balcony cabin.

[ehogan]

The cruise I was looking at was OCT 22 Grand Pacific Coastal.

 

Princess quoted $908 CDN for an outside and the large booking agency I tried quoted $778 CDN for an outside. US rate for an outside is $599

 

Rates for an inside were $726 CDN on both Princess and other booking sites.

 

I guess my point is that "shop around" always applies!

[likeadisguise]

Princess sets an exchange rate for CDN$ for the entire voyage, so it's the same regardless of category if booking direct with Princess.

 

If you're looking at agencies, that's different. They may have group space or other promotions available, but it has nothing to do with the exchange rate Princess set for bookings made in Canadian dollars.

 

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