What is the advantage of a PCC over TA?

[bUU]

I fully agree with your point on capacity, but I recently did an experiment with two other CC posters with identical Mariner status where we both went down the booking path simultaneously for the same cruise and cabin. The result? Significant price differences.

You perhaps don't realize that the design of your test explicitly may have caused the variance you encountered. It is the exact scenario I outlined in the message you replied to. One of you may have taken the very last slot in a capacity controlled offer.

 

The only conclusion I could reach was price targeting based on HAL's knowledge of the website visitor, assuming, of course, that they logged in, which they did in both cases.

That goes without saying (which is why I didn't even mention that before). A more valid test would involve the same person logging in and getting different pricing (however, again, one session could have taken the last slot in a capacity controlled offer, so it is still not a valid test. Pricing isn't "arbitrary" when it factors in the demographics of the buyer, where they're from, what affiliations they have, what websites they may have recently visited, their past purchases, etc. All that's Marketing 101, Chapter 3: Market Segmentation.

 

Offering special prices to specific customers is nothing new in the era of ecommerce on many other sophisticated websites in and outside the travel industry, but may answer the question posed in the original posting.

Without a doubt.

[chrisbu315]

You perhaps don't realize that the design of your test explicitly may have caused the variance you encountered. It is the exact scenario I outlined in the message you replied to. One of you may have taken the very last slot in a capacity controlled offer.

 

That goes without saying (which is why I didn't even mention that before). A more valid test would involve the same person logging in and getting different pricing (however, again, one session could have taken the last slot in a capacity controlled offer, so it is still not a valid test. Pricing isn't "arbitrary" when it factors in the demographics of the buyer, where they're from, what affiliations they have, what websites they may have recently visited, their past purchases, etc. All that's Marketing 101, Chapter 3: Market Segmentation.

 

Without a doubt.

You are 100% correct but it appears arbitrary to those who aren't aware of these practices.