2 1/2 hour price drop

[deus]

This is my situation:

 

At 8:30 am today, I noticed that two of my cruises, one from San Antonio, Chile to Papeete Marina January 3, 2019 and Papeete to Papeete Marina January 21, 2019 the price dropped by $3800 Canadian. I contacted my agent and she could not see these drops but my husband on his different device could see it. I sent the agent seven emails and now the prices have returned to our original prices. My question is there anything we can do to get the lower price? I am quite choked about this. Any advice?

[Paulchili]

My thought is that if you ever see this again go ahead and make the booking as a new booking and then either use that info to change the existing booking or cancel the “old” booking.

Caveat - if it was a “glitch” and it was a “phantom” price, the booking may not have gone through. This sometimes happens with airlines when a phantom award is shown but cannot be booked.

[cruisingxpert]

This is my situation:

 

At 8:30 am today, I noticed that two of my cruises, one from San Antonio, Chile to Papeete Marina January 3, 2019 and Papeete to Papeete Marina January 21, 2019 the price dropped by $3800 Canadian. I contacted my agent and she could not see these drops but my husband on his different device could see it. I sent the agent seven emails and now the prices have returned to our original prices. My question is there anything we can do to get the lower price? I am quite choked about this. Any advice?

Did either of you take a screen shot? It might not work but it shows proof that it was on the website.

 

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[deus]

Paulchili - Yes I wish I would have done that. I had contacted my travel agent and she couldn't see what we saw on two different devices.

 

Cruisingxpert - My husband said that after the fact!

 

I am very annoyed with our agent. I had to tell her to go to the website and not the agent website and look for herself! OMG!!

[jgiblin]

My thought is that if you ever see this again go ahead and make the booking as a new booking and then either use that info to change the existing booking or cancel the “old” booking.

Caveat - if it was a “glitch” and it was a “phantom” price, the booking may not have gone through. This sometimes happens with airlines when a phantom award is shown but cannot be booked.

Be careful with this. My understanding is a few years ago O was being played by an Individual who understood their dynamic pricing algarym. He would make multiple bookings, which would drive prices up, then cancel them which would drive prices down. Apparently, the bounce caused some very advantageous prices in the short term. O responded by limiting(?) how refunds were returned.

 

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[Paulchili]

Be careful with this. My understanding is a few years ago O was being played by an Individual who understood their dynamic pricing algarym. He would make multiple bookings, which would drive prices up, then cancel them which would drive prices down. Apparently, the bounce caused some very advantageous prices in the short term. O responded by limiting(?) how refunds were returned.

 

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I vaguely remember something like that but no specifics.

However, in this case I don’t see why OP should not have been able to take advantage of a better price that was being offered. I know I have been able to take advantage of lower prices when they were offered, though they were not “temporary” like in this case. I don’t think OP was “gaming” the system - just trying to take advantage of a better offer.

[deus]

jgiblin - I am pretty much computer illiterate so I would not know anything about "gaming the system". I can barely copy and paste as you can see from my second post!

 

I look at cruises every day to see what we want to take and if prices ever go down on the cruises we have booked.

 

My travel agent said that it was a glitch and that Oceania is having a problem with their website.

[palakika]

I've been watching the Rio to Papeete, Dec. 2018 departure on Marina. The A1 dropped $800 per person yesterday and it still shows on my tablet right now. I'll contact my TA and book It!

[cruisingxpert]

Be careful with this. My understanding is a few years ago O was being played by an Individual who understood their dynamic pricing algarym. He would make multiple bookings, which would drive prices up, then cancel them which would drive prices down. Apparently, the bounce caused some very advantageous prices in the short term. O responded by limiting(?) how refunds were returned.

 

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I remember that thread. This problem isn't anything like that other one. That person was making numerous bookings with no intention of taking that many trips - just holding all the bookings waiting to see which ones were the best deal and canceling the rest. He got banned from Oceania and I seem to recall he came on the Board to explain what he had been doing and that he didn't think what he done should have been so harshly punished.

[jgiblin]

jgiblin - I am pretty much computer illiterate so I would not know anything about "gaming the system". I can barely copy and paste as you can see from my second post!

 

I look at cruises every day to see what we want to take and if prices ever go down on the cruises we have booked.

 

My travel agent said that it was a glitch and that Oceania is having a problem with their website.

I'm not suggesting anyone in this thread of gaming. My only point is having multiple O reservations on the same cruise may cause problems. I know from experience.

 

A few years ago, I quite innocently (long story not worth going into) wound up with two reservations on the same cruise. This was when, unbeknowst to me, the gaming drama mentioned in my previous post was going on. In response to the apparent gaming, O implemented a policy of returning duplicate reservation deposits as future cruise credits only rather than cash. My duplicate deposit situation was resolved easily but it did take a couple of phone calls.

 

I don't know if this O policy still exists. Bottom line, multiple reservation may have issues.

 

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[Lucy Jane]

Some cruise lines, and probably all in future, are requiring non-refundable deposits to keep customers from booking cruises they don't intend on going.

 

 

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[AMTDGT]

Some cruise lines, and probably all in future, are requiring non-refundable deposits to keep customers from booking cruises they don't intend on going.

 

 

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We also noticed the online O price drop today (it would have saved us more than $5000 cdn micro dollars). Our TA confirmed a computer glitch after she talked to O. She confirmed she saw the pricing as well, so it wasn't just us

 

X has recently introduced a discount?????? to book a cruise with a non refundable deposit. I suspect the non refundable price is actually the old price and the refundable one is a price increase, but still the intent is there. Our river cruise in April required a hefty non refundable deposit as well.

[jgiblin]

Some cruise lines, and probably all in future, are requiring non-refundable deposits to keep customers from booking cruises they don't intend on going.

 

 

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I understand no-refund deposits are the norm in Europe and is being introduced into the US.

 

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[tropicalkerry2002]

My 2019 cruises down $3000CAD, this AM. I was elated!

Thought I wouldn't bug my TA today, thinking it was her first day back to work.

 

DARN!!! was sorry to see this thread!

[palakika]

Just booked the Rio to Papeete cruise Dec 2018. My TA got the stated lower price which showed up yesterday. We'll save $800 per person. Worked out well for us!

[YoHoHo]

dueas I feel your frustration.

 

palakika I'm glad you were able to get the lower price. However I agree with and recommend Paulchili's advice and post number #2. Just book it and work out details later.

 

Best case it sticks, worst case it wont go through or O cancels. If it goes through you still have the option to cancel. You can always bring your TA into it later.

 

If the system will accept it then you are mostly there. The low price could've been a 'glitch' and be later cancelled once manually reviewed but at least you've got it booked as it might be upheld. You can then transfer it to your TA and have them complete the work, etc.

 

This same thing as happened to deus happen to me a few years ago with a top producing O TA. I saw a promo somewhere on a too good to believe price. It was unclear though if it included airfare. This was when O always priced with "free air" (now of course they lowball with cruise only pricing). Even allowing an estimate for a "free air credit" the price was sharp. And the cruise was an itinerary I was interested in. My only hesitation was it was a little longer than my employer allowed so I would've had to fight for it.

 

Like you I tried contacting my TA who was normally incredibly fast on replying. Nothing. Follow-up email. Nothing. I then got an email saying she was away on a cruise and so-and-so was covering for her would contact me. Further delay, further delay. Finally I got the same response you got "we don't see that" and "O does not see that". I *HAD* taken a screen shot but stupidly had not saved it to file and had a computer moment and lost it. I tried recovering web pages etc but no luck.

 

In any case my TA said it was likely a glitch and that if I had tried to book it myself it would not have gone through. I kick myself for not trying that simple thing but lesson learned.

[Paulchili]

YoHoHo,

I have not seen this type of “error” with cruise lines but have seen similar things with airlines.

There are 2 different types:

1 airline erroneously releases hard to get First class awards and some people jump on it and share the news. Others take advantage before the airline realized the error and closes the “loophole”. Those that got the awards get to keep them

2 the airline booking tool shows award availability but it cannot be booked. It’s called “phantom availability” and calling the airline does not help because the award does not actually exist.

Don’t know which of these two scenarios was in effect with Oceania

[Acrusa]

Happened twice in one month last year for our cruise on Natica this year. O told me and my TA it was a glitch and it would not let you book that price.

 

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[deus]

YoHoHo - Thanks for your understanding of my frustration! Yes I wish I had "screened saved" that page - I will next time. It wouldn't have helped though. I think Oceania needs to overall their computer system - they seem to have quite a few "glitches" with it lately.

 

I am still looking forward to my cruise in April aboard Nautica - Mumbai to Rome and then on the Marina in January 2019!! It would have been great to get that discount but oh well life goes on!

 

I just wanted to thank everyone who responded so quickly to my question! This is such a great forum!!

 

Lauren

[zoncom]

Change cruise agents!

[Cruise Junky]

As both parties that saw price drops are from Canada, are you sure your device just didn't switch to showing US prices when you thought you were looking at Canadian?

[tropicalkerry2002]

no, I double checked that!

[deus]

Cruise Junky - it said CA meaning Canadian. I was looking on my Mac and my husband was looking at his iPhone. There was no mistake on our part. My agent phoned me today and said that Oceania had received quite a few calls from agents. I guess a lot of other people saw what my husband and I saw.

[Sea42]

Cruise Junky - it said CA meaning Canadian. I was looking on my Mac and my husband was looking at his iPhone. There was no mistake on our part. My agent phoned me today and said that Oceania had received quite a few calls from agents. I guess a lot of other people saw what my husband and I saw.

It would have been great! I could have talked my husband into booking the following 10 day cruise if we would get a price drop like that!

[AMTDGT]

As both parties that saw price drops are from Canada, are you sure your device just didn't switch to showing US prices when you thought you were looking at Canadian?

 

We saw it in BC and our TA in Ontario saw it as well. It was the Canadian Price and noted as such. The TA tried to book the link but it came up with the old price. They then called O direct who said it was a computer glitch and they were working on fixing it