Pricing discrepancy question

[SandJCruiser]

     I was just randomly browsing around Regent's website and came up with what I find to be an interesting discrepancy.  Maybe someone in the CC community can un-confuse me as to what I found.

 

     I'm a US citizen who happens to live in Costa Rica.  When I was looking at the pricing for Regent cruises, I saw no mention of air being included.  Then I figured out that the website was probably reading my IP address as being outside the US, and therefore was directing me to a cruise-only price page, since flights are only from US gateway cities.  So, just for giggles, I fired up my VPN software and made it look like I was accessing the site from the US (Dallas, TX to be specific).  I picked a cruise more or less at random, the Explorer from Santiago Chile to Los Angeles, 20 nights, February 17, 2019.  Lowest category cabin, Veranda H.  The price was $13,899 pp.  At the bottom of the fare listings was a statement that without air, one could receive a credit of "up to $1800 per person".  That would make the cruise only fare $12,099 pp.

 

     Here's the interesting part:  When I turn my VPN off and once again access the site from Costa Rica, and get the no air mentioned page, the same cruise, same cabin, is listed at $8399 pp., a whopping $5500 less that the air included price and $3700 less than the price with the air credit.  If I actually lived in Dallas, business air to Santiago and a coach return from LA would run about  $2300, so even if I paid a $175 deviation, the Regent air looks pretty good.  But if I could get the cruise only for $8399, I could do my own air, and fly First Class on the return leg for about $2600 and still be way ahead.  So, what does this mean?  Are US residents being gouged for $3700, even when taking the air credit?  Is there a special price for non-US residents?  I can't be the first one to have noticed this.  Anyone know what the story is here?

[Jymi-B]

The same thing happened to us when staying at our Mexican time share.  Fortunately my wife saved the offer on her iPad and when we booked back home in the US we were able to get Regent to, reluctantly, honor the offer.  We saved $4500.00 which more than covered our $300.00 flight to Miami.

[mrlevin]

Regent often "dumps" unsold inventory overseas.  Since it is not available to those of us in USA it means that Regent doesn't have to honor their "lowest price guarantee."  We had one cruise where they dumped in Hong Kong and there were over 100 Cantonese speakers on the cruise; sure changed the demographic and enjoyment on the cruise (holiday cruise).

 

Marc

[Travelcat2]

Regent only provides air in a few places in the world.  And, the air that is included is different, for instance, in the U.S. and Canada vs. the United Kingdom.  Regent adjusts their prices accordingly.

 

We (people that live in the U.S. and/or Canada) pay more but can take an air credit if we chose to.

[purpleally]

3 hours ago, Travelcat2 said:

Regent only provides air in a few places in the world.  And, the air that is included is different, for instance, in the U.S. and Canada vs. the United Kingdom.  Regent adjusts their prices accordingly.

 

We (people that live in the U.S. and/or Canada) pay more but can take an air credit if we chose to.

 

However, according to the OP, the math doesn't add up

Even taking air credit, in this particular case, non US and/or Canada came out WAY, WAY ahead

[Travelcat2]

Making price comparisons inside Canada/U.S. vs. other countries is very difficult to calculate.  Things may not be what they appear on the surface.  When you are making that comparison it is not comparing apples to apples.  If you need to understand the differences, suggest talking to your TA (assuming that they regularly book Regent and would understand the complexity of air/air deviation/air credit, etc.). If you have no TA (not a good idea) call Regent Air directly.

 

In terms of the TS (Thread Starter), it is not unusual that an air credit does not come close to the price of a flight.  It seems that most people take air credits when they are using points to book their flights.  On the other hand, we received an air credit last year that exceeded the amount we paid for making our own flight reservations (great airline and routing - business class).  So, we pocketed the extra money.  This is not a typical case.

 

We have not experienced a situation where it appeared that Regent was trying to rip us off.  Generally, when I see advertisements for Regent that seem better than what we have, my TA shows us that there were items that we had included that people taking the "special" did not have.  

[BBWC]

I was looking at exactly the same cruise from our hotel in Barcelona. Here it prices at €7,199, or a little less than $8,200 for a Cat H, so again several thousand dollars cheaper. No wonder there are so many Europeans on Regent nowadays.

[SandJCruiser]

It appears  Marq is correct.  Being only about 3 months out, the cruise I was looking at probably needs filling, and they are "dumping" at a lower price point in non-US/Canada regions.  I looked at a similar cruise in 2021, and the US price minus air credit and the foreign price (no air mentioned) are exactly the same.  Question answered, but it brings up an interesting possible strategy for obtaining good pricing on near term sailings as Jymi-B was able to do.  Thanks, everybody.

[cruiseluv]

Very interesting.... I'm currently at my parents house in Puerto Rico, and I'm getting the same $8,399 cruise only fare for the voyage quoted by the OP. That's insane! So, what precludes me from booking a cruise under that pricing? 

Edited November 10, 2018 by cruiseluv

[Travelcat2]

I just reread the TS's post and realized that this is the cruise that we are on.  We noticed when booking it that the prices were, in our opinion, out of line ....... way too expensive for the itinerary.  Now they are doing "specials" (like in California where there is a 25% discount on the cruise) because it simply isn't selling well.  This is an "Artful Traveler" (PBS) cruise which is typically very popular.

 

cruiseluv - that price is indeed ridiculous.  Enjoy your time with your parents!