Disregard - Offer from O for an oversold cruise

[jjeffjb]

No idea why this posted twice.  I cannot figure out how to delete it.

 

We were booked on a November Caribbean cruise on Sirena, cruise only, that Oceania oversold.  O offered us the same cruise on Riviera for either Jan, Feb or March with all 3 O Life perks (OBC, included excursions, and bev package).  We accepted the offer as we prefer the O class ships and have flexibility with our schedules.  We were surprised that Sirena was oversold as many recent voyages have been sailing under capacity.  Good news for Oceania and for us!

Edited October 13, 2022 by jjeffjb

[LHT28]

Maybe all those FCC 's  to use up by the end of the year  Plus  they are now  opening the ships up to more than the old capacity controlled  numbers

 Enjoy the  cruise

[ORV]

This is not something you see much anymore. 

[mauibabes]

Should overselling become more of an issue as cruises continue to sell out, make sure you work with your TA to take advantage of this kind of OPPORTUNITY.  😁

Back a few years before Covid, it happened to us occasionally and we and friends reaped some amazing amenities and even cash benefits.  For the DIYers who poo poo using TA’s, this is a situation where relationships with a well connected, Connoisseur Club member TA pay SIGNIFICANT BENEFITS. JMHO and my experience.

Ciao, Mauibabes

[kibutzer]

It's how we got to New Zealand and Capetown cruises at TA pricing. 

[MEFIowa]

Not sure if this is "oversold" or "crew related". This is reportedly also for an upcoming Insignia cruise.

 

The complaints about crew issues for the summer seemed pretty serious. Lots of scathing reviews for Sirena this summer! And crews can only stay on so long. IIRC Sirena was the last O ship to restart. And she'll have to make a transatlantic to get over here. With so many new crew? I wonder if O might be thinking better to have 500 or 550 on this R-class ship than 650 if there are crew issues?

 

Final payment for the Sirena 11/18/22 cruise was due August 20th, 2022. So, they've known about any "overselling" since that day. When everyone fully paid. Odd they'd wait till suddenly in October and are reportedly only making the offer to some, not all.

 

AND we got the offer, too, without any TA involved. Booked the Sirena cruise while on Riviera 12/21. But had to decline due to non-refundable airfare.

[MEFIowa]

This was from yesterday on one of the unofficial "O" FB groups for a specific cruise involving Insignia:

 

"Just got an email from Oceania offering me perks such as OBC and excursions if I switch from Insignia 12/10/22 to one of 3 other cruises on Sirena later in January February or March. Never saw anything like that!!"

[MEFIowa]

For anyone thinking "overbooked", O had final payment from everyone on August 20, 2022. Then 7 weeks later, AFTER I've already recently received my official "Cruise Vacation Guide" WITH LUGGAGE TAGS, O is now trying to get me to change cruises. Yet O already has told everyone their rooms and given us all our luggage tags.

 

IF this is normal, usual and customary "oversold" behavior by O, then they are utter incompetent corporate fools. Which I seriously doubt.

 

Seems more likely last-minute crew or other issues (e.g., supply, being prepared for quarantine, etc.).

[ORV]

You've made an assumption, convinced yourself that it's right, and seem to keep arguing the point. Not sure what you're trying to prove. 

 

Are you aware of how they handled this in the past when this would come up frequently? 

 

This is probably the first time it's come up in 3 or 4 years. I don't know if it's oversold or understaffed. Doesn't matter to me either way. Historically this has occurred when the cruise was oversold. 

 

FYI, when this used to happen on a regular basis, I think some people either lost their jobs or were reassigned, so yes, at one point their procedure on this was fairly incompetent, and they gave away literally thousands in upgrades, move-overs and refunds. 

[MEFIowa]

7 minutes ago, ORV said:

You've made an assumption, convinced yourself that it's right, and seem to keep arguing the point. Not sure what you're trying to prove.

I'm essentially responding to your rather dismissive and smarmy initial comments over on the "Disregard" thread... "The why is pretty simple, they sold more rooms than the ship has. It's pretty common in the travel industry...." Could it be crew related? Supply related? COVID quarantine preparation related? Who knows?

 

Something is off about this one. And someone else reporting something similar for an Insignia cruise in early December, too. "Overbooking" seems to be an inadequate assertion when one looks at the facts, the dates and what O has done in regard to them.

[ORV]

Historically it's due to overbooking. May not be the case here. But the OP in the other thread said oversold, maybe they can tell us where they got that phrase, or perhaps they also were making an assumption. 

 

 

[BarbaraM]

Could it be the other cruises are undersold— and your cruise might have a wait list ?  

[MEFIowa]

1 hour ago, BarbaraM said:

Could it be the other cruises are undersold— and your cruise might have a wait list?  

Yes, "anything" could be possible.

 

But you might read the many rather scathing reviews of Sirena here on CC from May-June-July. I don't seem to find any formal published reviews there specifically for Sirena from Aug-Oct. Read the complaints about staff, food, etc. That's staff and supplies. One easy way to help a customer service problem is reduce the number of passengers and move them to a later voyage and another, possibly "better", ship to give the Sirena more time to work out issues, esp. if crew are changing dramatically as the ship comes back to Miami from Europe, as Sirena will be doing.

[Redtravel]

. We booked a January 2023 cruise.  B2b on Riviera. Our TA was told that we couldn’t use the fcc on that booking.  Fcc had to be used by end of 2022.  Since it was a sizable amount, we canceled that booking and are booked on a December 2022 cruise.  While December isn’t our preferred time to travel, it was either use fcc or lose it.  

[susiesan]

10 hours ago, Redtravel said:

. We booked a January 2023 cruise.  B2b on Riviera. Our TA was told that we couldn’t use the fcc on that booking.  Fcc had to be used by end of 2022.  Since it was a sizable amount, we canceled that booking and are booked on a December 2022 cruise.  While December isn’t our preferred time to travel, it was either use fcc or lose it.  

Same with me. I had $500 use it or lose it credit. I wanted to book a Sept. 2023 Europe cruises but couldn't use the credit on that. So I booked Dec. 4 Marina Caribbean cruise. Not my first choice but I was not about to let O keep $500 of my money.

[mauibabes]

You did exactly what they wanted you to do, you took a $5k to $10k cruise to save $500 on a cruise you did not want to take.  I know, it is the principal of the thing.  I hate giving away money too.
Have a great time and enjoy the cruise. 
Mauibabes. 

[osandomir]

We did exactly the same even though we already had two more O cruises booked beyond 2022. But to be honest we really don’t mind the short Caribbean break in November - December.