Landmark Sale coming July 18

[fluffybunny22]

2 minutes ago, idahospud said:

Really? I checked one of the Sky Princess sailings for next summer and there is a difference. What is the sail date?

June 8, 2020. Deluxe balcony.

[idahospud]

3 minutes ago, fluffybunny22 said:

June 8, 2020. Deluxe balcony.

Deluxe Balcony DA cabin is $100 more with the refundable deposit. ($2963 nonrefundable v $3063 refundable)

[fluffybunny22]

1 minute ago, idahospud said:

Deluxe Balcony DA cabin is $100 more with the refundable deposit. ($2963 nonrefundable v $3063 refundable)

My TA checked with 2 agents and they checked with a supervisor and they all said the price was the same.

[fluffybunny22]

Just now, idahospud said:

 

Hmm...I see the price differences right here on my screen. 

Didn't make sense either to me or the TA and I wasn't able to make any changes because my husband needs to talk to his parents. My in laws are definitely going on the cruise and aren't unhappy with the price so if it ends up we have to do non refundable deposits we probably will. I'm not even sure who's paying for this cruise but the TA has my credit card number.

[rocklinmom]

43 minutes ago, idahospud said:

 

Email your travel agent instead?

I am my own travel agent. Been booking family cruises (and several neighbors) for years. I like to do it myself and control the booking (and watch for fare drops/better promos to refare along the way). 

[idahospud]

Just now, rocklinmom said:

I am my own travel agent. Been booking family cruises (and several neighbors) for years. I like to do it myself and control the booking (and watch for fare drops/better promos to refare along the way). 

Same here.

[rocklinmom]

Yes so that's why I would like to know the actual fare, whether the promo is refundable deposit or not, etc. when I go online. I don't like this new multi-fares, optional refundable deposits, and especially having to call in just to see what the refundable deposit option fare would be.  

[rocklinmom]

Just now, voljeep said:

so, you have travel agent creds, and can see all the 4 different pricing options for the Landmark sale??

 

how long has this been going on ?????

No I can't see the different pricing options, hence my last post. 

[Colo Cruiser]

4 hours ago, cruzrbachoua said:

update...now the banner is showing up at the top of the cruises...

I often see many cruises that have the promo missing the banner.

[voljeep]

1 minute ago, rocklinmom said:

No I can't see the different pricing options, hence my last post. 

our postings crossed paths

 

I'm getting ready to contact my "crack PCP" and get a quote on all 4 options for an upcoming cruise covered by Landmark ...

[Colo Cruiser]

11 minutes ago, idahospud said:

 

I'm seeing it from my TA page. I know not every TA is a Princess expert, just trying to help out. Yes, Landmark sale. There are other options that are not tied to the extra OBC. This four level secretive pricing isn't quite fair to people trying to get the best deal.

You have access to your Travel Agents system?   🤔

[rocklinmom]

IMHO this new "secret" different fares/optional nonrefundable deposit thing is frustrating for loyal Princess cruisers who book their own cruises online. What I see today when I look at my currently booked cruise is a fare, slightly less than when I booked it, and a Landmark Sale promo that says in its T & C's that the deposit is nonrefundable (in bold letters). So that is what I perceive it to be, based on many years of doing this. Apparently now there are, according to a popup box when doing a mock booking, "more fare options" but only if I call Princess.  And according to several on this thread, there are "secret" different fares now if you want a refundable deposit instead. This makes no sense to me. I get that Princess is a business and wants to do marketing strategies, but at least keep the old way of the promo is what it says on the website!  

[medsed]

My upcoming cruise was on the original list but was not coming up for my TA under this promotion.  She called Princess and they said it was no longer included...big bummer.  My 2021 on the Emerald is on the list and was around the same price so we switched that one.  I was really disappointed that the other one was no longer included

[phabric]

For my Royal Caribbean 2020 booking, I see a cheaper fare than what I have so I call my TA and she comes back to say the price on Royal Caribbean’s site is non refundable.  To find a refundable price, you have to go all the way to the deposit section.  I have a refundable deposit, it I switch to non refundable I would save $350 but the cruise is over a year away so I will stay with refundable.

 

Royal Caribbean site does not indicate that the deposit is non refundable.

 

It looks like cruise lines are following each other with having non refundable deposit.

[cruzrbachoua]

9 minutes ago, medsed said:

My upcoming cruise was on the original list but was not coming up for my TA under this promotion.  She called Princess and they said it was no longer included...big bummer.  My 2021 on the Emerald is on the list and was around the same price so we switched that one.  I was really disappointed that the other one was no longer included

We are on the emerald in 2021 as well in April...when is yours?

[DeeTO]

2 hours ago, rocklinmom said:

IMHO this new "secret" different fares/optional nonrefundable deposit thing is frustrating for loyal Princess cruisers who book their own cruises online. What I see today when I look at my currently booked cruise is a fare, slightly less than when I booked it, and a Landmark Sale promo that says in its T & C's that the deposit is nonrefundable (in bold letters). So that is what I perceive it to be, based on many years of doing this. Apparently now there are, according to a popup box when doing a mock booking, "more fare options" but only if I call Princess.  And according to several on this thread, there are "secret" different fares now if you want a refundable deposit instead. This makes no sense to me. I get that Princess is a business and wants to do marketing strategies, but at least keep the old way of the promo is what it says on the website!  

I called random Princess person to change from S&S to landmark sale for June 19 Baltic BE balcony and asked for refundable price. Extra $30CAD pp but $1000 OBC better for us than Bev. Package so changed. When confirmation email came, I notice deposit NON Refundable- not as requested or quoted. I called back now, 8hrs later and told, the price is the same for both NON refundable and refundable! Go figure. Now Have new email stating deposit is refundable. Took 2 phone calls  with not much wait time but you need to be very careful with fine print when doing your own bookings. 

[SteelMagnolia9]

3 hours ago, rocklinmom said:

Yes so that's why I would like to know the actual fare, whether the promo is refundable deposit or not, etc. when I go online. I don't like this new multi-fares, optional refundable deposits, and especially having to call in just to see what the refundable deposit option fare would be.  

I agree. Currently, my May 2020 Mexican Riviera cruise does not appear to be a part of the Landmark sale. When I did a mock booking earlier this evening, it comes up with a warning page that states it is a Princess Saver Fare and the deposit is non-refundable. No mention of other fares being available or to call. I have not seen this previously (Princess Saver Fare) in booking online. It seems as if Princess is going to mostly non-refundable deposits. 

 

[riffatsea]

OK-Finally found the "sale" by signing into my account and clicking on deals.

There is no change in price so all we'd get is $1,000 OBC which still makes the price higher by more than $3,000 I got off the price by changing my booking to a cruise compete agent.

[Steelers36]

9 hours ago, rocklinmom said:

I am my own travel agent. Been booking family cruises (and several neighbors) for years. I like to do it myself and control the booking (and watch for fare drops/better promos to refare along the way). 

 

9 hours ago, idahospud said:

Same here.

 

9 hours ago, rocklinmom said:

No I can't see the different pricing options, hence my last post. 

Yes, here one one big negative aspect to the pricing issue where Princess is showing only one fare plan online.  A customer cannot be totally self-service if you want to know about other pricing plans and compare.  I think the inmates have taken over the asylum in Santa Clara.  This together with the terrible design of new booking interface makes things very difficult for customers and Princess should be striving for the opposite - making it easy (think Staples button) to shop and book a cruise.  Folks not on here or not using an experienced expert Princess TA, will be "sucked into" booking under the price plan presented.  I wonder how many Princess sales reps even mention other options when people call in and don't ask? 

 

I ask how can one be self-service with Princess anymore as you have to call in?  And how can you watch for price drops when you cannot see all the pricing plans in effect?

 

I have access to my TA's booking engine/webpages, and they did a recent upgrade, so I can see all the pricing plans.  I will write more about that in another post.

 

[Steelers36]

9 hours ago, fluffybunny22 said:

Called my TA to check on my in laws booking for next June on the Sky Princess. According to Princess the refundable and non refundable price is the same. TA talked to 2 different agents. The in laws would drop the drink package but pick up $1000 OBC. MIL doesn't drink much so they might come out better with the OBC.

I get that the calls were made, but logically, this doesn't make sense.  Why would a company have two pricing plans with the same price points for both RD and NRD?  Makes no sense.  And if they did, why would a customer make a NRD booking over a RD booking -  unless they were uninformed and got "fooled". 

 

I wonder if Princess is already making moves to change Landmark to RD and that is why pricing reported the same now???  On my TA's website, there is different pricing for RD and NRD earlier Thursday afternoon.  I am going to re-check that and post a report on it.

 

[Steelers36]

 

11 hours ago, rocklinmom said:

Oh man that will suck if they do this "have to call in for refundable deposit options" garbage with the 3 For Free!!

 

10 hours ago, crystalspin said:

It is not new with this promo (it was true of SnS). It's true on HAL, only they put the "restricted" (nonrefundable and maybe without some bennies) fare on the booking form... where it looks real great to someone not reading the small print. So that's almost worse!

 

Well, I would say this is new because we have had a booking under Landmark sale before and it was refundable deposit.  We later changed it to 3FF and same thing.  I have had bookings under 3FF sale in two different years and both time was refundable.  I cannot recall when we last might have made a NRD booking - probably a booking after final payment???  Anyway, with what has been going on lately, I am expecting 3FF to come alive in September with NRD's.  And Princess' website was default showing RD pricing.

 

[Steelers36]

10 hours ago, voljeep said:

yep, TA's with savvy Princess cruisers will have to become much more than just order takers ...

 

wonder how many TA's will offer the different combination of rates on the promotions without their clients specifically asking about them ... or just offer the fare listed on the website

 

of course everyone that posts on CC has the best TA and they will always offer all the combinations and of course

 

 

8% - 12% discount directly off the cruise price without fooling the clients with OBC

Actually, a TA with lots of Princess experience should have less to do with a savvy Princess customer as they tend to know what they want, know the system, etc.  I believe most TA's have been offering different price points for years as they use POLAR and have access to all of the Princess current promo's and terms.  They don't use Princess website. 

 

Now, whether some of the lesser used fare plans come into play or not is another question.  As an example, my agency's website used to reflect the current Princess list pricing per Princess website, along with their discounted pricing.  They recently completed a website redesign (which still needs some tweaking), but one of the major changes is that ALL available Princess price plans are shown for each cruise.  I was vaguely aware that Princess has a "Saver Fare" or basically, a non-refundable pricing plan with no goodies at all that one can book under.  If don't mind the NRD feature, it can be an option for someone who would rather pay a lot less fare than have the S&S drink package they won't get value from. 

 

I don't know if I have the best TA in the USA, but I have not found or heard of a higher discount (not as OBC) than my agency gives (and it applies on all price plans I have looked into) and I get along well with the agent I use.  So I am quite happy.

 

[Steelers36]

9 hours ago, Colo Cruiser said:

You have access to your Travel Agents system?   🤔

Yes, albeit not the same interface the TA's use.  And they have been working on a new version for some time and recently went live with it.  One of the major changes and a new feature is that all available Princess (and I suppose other lines as well) pricing plans are shown, including T&C's.  I presume the data is coming directly from POLAR.  Before this upgrade, I would generally see just the current Princess "list" prices corresponding to their website, along side my agency's discount rate.  

 

I do my own bookings on their website so I don't need to transfer from Princess to my TA.  All I do is send my TA the Princess booking ref of a res I make and ask her to put her name on it and apply FCD's.

 

She does have to do things like setup a cross-ref with friends' file if sailing with them and also coordinate dining table.

 

Edited July 19, 2019 by steelers36

[Steelers36]

In post #120 above, I was responding to post(s) about cabin pricing being the same for Landmark Sale with RD and NRD. 

 

I did some checking on Landmark pricing Thursday afternoon (18th) on Princess and my TA website in order to see if there was anything good for us in regards to a cruise in fall 2020.  There isn't - and not only that, but a shorter version of the cruise costs more than our locked-in price point for the longer version, so it makes no sense to switch.

 

Anyway, all I can do is provide what I found in checking price plans for our Regal cruise.  This is to say that other ships/voyages could be different, but it would seem odd for Princess to be inconsistent in that.  Well, perhaps not as this community is often posting about inconsistencies of one sort or another.  I do submit, however, that it seems totally illogical to setup a NRD pricing plan and have it cost more to book the same cabin than under a RD plan.

 

But lo and behold, the pricing plan according my TA website indicates that booking an Inside cabin under Landmark Sale with a RD is $120 LESS than booking under NRD.  Go figure.

 

And this is not something my agency is doing on their own.  Their pricing shown to me on their website is the discounted fare (which I can reverse engineer to a Princess "list" price) based on Princess.  They should not be doing anything different.

 

If you look at the details of the Landmark sale on Princess, you will see fare code "K7-" (the - being a "wild card" for other sub-codes such as A, B).  The RD fare scheme is under fare code "NL-" and it is the "Nxx" codes I am used to seeing on previous promos as they have generally been refundable.  The "Sun Drenched" is a "KG-" code for example.  I believe with Princess, all the "K" codes are NRD and the "N" codes are RD.

 

So, that is what I found just looking at one cruise - one we have booked.  Well, not quite, as I also looked at a couple of other segment options for this overall voyage  and the situation was the same - Landmark pricing with a RD was LESS than with a NRD. 

 

Who knows what is going on in the Ivory Tower in Santa Clara, but why "hide" pricing and T&C's from the public that are favorable to them?  Yes, they always mention other options are available (one could always book a plain cruise fare with no "goodies"), but the favorable current pricing plan is not the one shown on the public website.  And I'd sure like to understand why a NRD fare costs more than a RD fare. 

 

Well, I have gone on enough here and certainly do not plan to analyze every cruise voyage out there.  Caveat Emptor!!! 

 

 

Edited July 19, 2019 by steelers36

[lstone19]

3 hours ago, steelers36 said:

Who knows what is going on in the Ivory Tower in Santa Clara, ...

 

Santa Clarita, not Santa Clara. Twice you've said Santa Clara. I'm a former resident of Santa Clara, which is in the SF Bay Area right next to San Jose. Santa Clarita is about 35 miles northwest of Los Angeles.