Cruise price Drop with Viking Anniversary Sale

[lmstic]

We are booked (and paid in full) on the Viking Trade Route 4/16/2020 sailing.  I saw today that there is an anniversary sale going on where the price has dropped.   I was told when I booked that I should not wait because The Ocean cruises to not have sales and book quickly.  Viking also makes you pay in full so much earlier than other cruise lines.  Now I know why.   I got in touch with Viking and was told that they did not honor the lower price.  This surprised me.  Anyone have this issue before?   

[Clay Clayton]

Have you looked at canceling, loosing a little and then rebooking?  That’s what we threatened and suddenly we had an obc that almost made us whole vs. what new folks were paying. 

Edited August 17, 2019 by Clay Clayton

[CCWineLover]

16 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

Have you looked at canceling, loosing a little and then rebooking?  That’s what we threatened and suddenly we had an obc that almost made us whole vs. what new folks were paying. 

 

We did a cancel and rebook - but Viking never offered anything and in fact, we lost the OBC we had.  Thankfully our TA made that whole with a VISA Gift Card.   Never underestimate anything.  With Viking it seems that there is one thing certain - there is no set of procedures that are followed.  Every situation in unique.

[Clay Clayton]

9 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

 

We did a cancel and rebook - but Viking never offered anything and in fact, we lost the OBC we had.  Thankfully our TA made that whole with a VISA Gift Card.   Never underestimate anything.  With Viking it seems that there is one thing certain - there is no set of procedures that are followed.  Every situation in unique.

We didn’t actually cancel...when we threatened, our TA asked us to wait a bit and a day or two later informed us to expect a call with an OBC offer -we had just asked to be upgrade to a PV since what we paid for our V was the current price of the PV but they said no, but we’ll give you OBC. 

[Steve Q]

We just finished The Midnight Sun cruise in July. We had booked it while on our Trade Routes cruise in June 2018. Several weeks before our most recent cruise, our travel agent sent their customers a Viking email flyer offering our sailing for considerably less than we paid. The difference was really surprising. They were also offering a greatly reduced airfare. It has become apparent that many Viking cruises are no longer sold out far in advance as they once were. 

[lmstic]

Thx for the replies. It was just very surprising that a big company is not into customer service. And that their reply was that they do not go up on the price either once your booked, like that is ok.  

[Squawkman]

This is a 2 way street. We booked a V1 for 11/21/19 Iconic Western Mediterranean on ship last November. Taking any additional discounts & OBC out of the equation, if we were to book the same cabin today (if it were available), the fare is $200 more PP and air is $300 more PP. On top of that, we added the Madrid pre-cruise extension in January for $599 PP - it's now $699 PP.  So we saved a total of $1,200 by booking in advance. 

 

We also had a situation where there was an airfare reduction, and we did receive most back in OBC. I should mention that since we only cruise Viking now, we have been using the same Viking agent and get great service.

[broker1217]

We are booked on a cruise in April 2020 that is not selling particularly well. We booked while on board and got a nice discount plus the $200 previous cruiser discount, plus $200 pp OBC for transferring to TA. The price is dropping and we have already once inquired about cancelling and rebooking into better cabin.

We do not have VO insurance so cancellation is $100 pp.

This experience has reinforced to us that we do not want to purchase VO insurance, or pay for their pre and post excursions, or deviated air.

We are watching and will potentially cancel the cruise and book something different, possibly higher cabin. Possibly a different cruise line or different vacation. We booked our air using miles and can re-book on American for no fee. 

I understand VO policy and we knowingly took this risk. But thankfully we have the option of cancelling for only $100 pp. 

[mhb1757]

This really isn’t anything unique to Viking.... we have been booked with HAL, Oceania and RCCL when prices went down after final payment and HAL has been pretty good about offering an upgrade to help compensate (although it wasn’t  as much as the price drop would have allowed). O gave us a small amount of OBC (kind of a token gesture) and RCCL said tough luck. They really aren’t obligated to do anything after final payment. And since Viking is still riding the wave of great demand they probably aren’t really motivated to do much. 

[Vineyard View]

I think that the big difference when comparing other lines willing to work with you after paying in full, is that you aren’t required to pay so far in advance as you do with Viking. With other lines you have an opportunity to approach them about price drops on slower selling itineraries much closer to your sail date. 

[Squawkman]

2 minutes ago, Vineyard View said:

I think that the big difference when comparing other lines willing to work with you after paying in full, is that you aren’t required to pay so far in advance as you do with Viking. With other lines you have an opportunity to approach them about price drops on slower selling itineraries much closer to your sail date. 

This shouldn’t  prevent you from asking for OBC if the cruise is fully paid for.

[Vineyard View]

I Did try that when the air dropped. Viking said they would not offer anything. There was no room to dialogue further with them.  The difference wasn’t huge, but a token OBC would have been nice. 

[Clay Clayton]

1 hour ago, Squawkman said:

This shouldn’t  prevent you from asking for OBC if the cruise is fully paid for.

My experience has been that asking does nothing. Only when we threatened to cancel did I get any response. 

[Squawkman]

4 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

My experience has been that asking does nothing. Only when we threatened to cancel did I get any response. 

I work with the same Viking agent and didn't need to threaten. I was on hold for 5 minutes but did get OBC. I do all my cruising with Viking (ocean and riverO these days which I know was a factor.

[Clay Clayton]

46 minutes ago, Squawkman said:

I work with the same Viking agent and didn't need to threaten. I was on hold for 5 minutes but did get OBC. I do all my cruising with Viking (ocean and riverO these days which I know was a factor.

Glad to hear!  Maybe they are changing their policies. 

[Frenchberet]

I called Viking yesterday to inquire about the sale.  They offered $500 off per person for an 18 day cruise (DV).  We book our own air so I didn't look at that.  Was hoping for an included silver spirits package or OBC.  

[CCWineLover]

44 minutes ago, Frenchberet said:

I called Viking yesterday to inquire about the sale.  They offered $500 off per person for an 18 day cruise (DV).  We book our own air so I didn't look at that.  Was hoping for an included silver spirits package or OBC.  

 

Was it $500 off the price shown on their website?  When is the cruise?  Soon? Years away?  What DV category?  Which itinerary?  Asking only since these factors may play into what they offer.

did you ask for SSP?  Or ask for OBC?  Or request full payment for later?   Seems Viking is getting more like airlines as technology allows for more demand style pricing and offers.

Edited August 20, 2019 by CCWineLover

[Nashna]

We just cancelled our Viking Homelands August 2020 cruise.  I've been watching the pricing and I didn't want to get locked into that rate one year out.  Had Viking offered a reasonable final payment date, I would have kept the booking.  If we do go into a recession, the pricing for 2020 cruises will go down quickly.  

[broker1217]

I was told the Anniversary Sale was $250/pp--we are on an 11 night cruise.

I have been less than impressed with the transparency.

The Anniversary sale keeps getting extended and with all the VO issues in the last year, I am leaning towards cancellation. I can always re-book later as our travel plans and schedule are pretty flexible.

I tried going through my TA to simply pay for an upgrade at the new lower prices but was not happy with the offer (based on current pricing).

Love the ships and experience, but their policies regarding price drops and payment terms are a bit of a detriment. 

So perhaps we will cancel and try Oceania or do a land based vacation.

It's a shame because we really do like Viking.

I get that they can't do a price drop guarantee but perhaps a discounted upgrade would appease some of us when there are price drops/promos.

[Homerody]

12 hours ago, broker1217 said:

I get that they can't do a price drop guarantee but perhaps a discounted upgrade would appease some of us when there are price drops/promos.

Amen!

 

But it seems that one has to find the "right" TA or Viking rep and play the customer service roulette to get a scrap (mind you - not even the whole bone) to customers who pre paid a year ahead of time.  Ugggg....

[Clay Clayton]

Just an FYI, for the March 6 transatlantic the Anniversary Sale promo amounted to $200 off the V2 fare, an upgrade to a DV2 and $200 off the advertised air price.  😢

 

We have elected to wait until closer to sailing in the hopes they have a better promo. 

[Squawkman]

13 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

Just an FYI, for the March 6 transatlantic the Anniversary Sale promo amounted to $200 off the V2 fare, an upgrade to a DV2 and $200 off the advertised air price.  😢

 

We have elected to wait until closer to sailing in the hopes they have a better promo. 

Doing the math from Viking's "dates and pricing" web page, does this mean you get a DV2 for $2,799 with $699 air?

[Clay Clayton]

Yes.  Actually I guess I misspoke about the air. It’s $799. 

 

“

Last spring, this cruise was offered late in the year for $2499 and “free” (Econ) Air. 

[Squawkman]

13 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

Yes.  Actually I guess I misspoke about the air. It’s $799. 

 

“

Last spring, this cruise was offered late in the year for $2499 and “free” (Econ) Air. 

I agree with you - the air should be free or much less as it's only one-way transatlantic. I think the odds are good there will be a drop in air. 

[Clay Clayton]

2 minutes ago, Squawkman said:

I agree with you - the air should be free or much less as it's only one-way transatlantic. I think the odds are good there will be a drop in air. 

Stay tuned. When I emailed back to ask about the past guest discount was told that it was included which meant I couldn’t make sense of how she got to the price. I was informed the anniversary promo is $750 for this sailing. So waiting now to hear if the same $750 applies to a V2, if so we may reconsider as their air won’t do us much good as we want to stay in Europe until June and you can only deviate a maximum of 30 days.