Oversold Cruises Getting Bumped

[horseymike]

Has anyone ever been bumped from an oversold cruise ?
If so please share your experience.

Thanks

[boulders]

I was bumped from an oceanview down to an inside once. They gave me half off the fare. I've heard of people who were completely bumped getting a free cruise, but that was a few years ago. 

[horseymike]

Thanks 

[navybankerteacher]

1 hour ago, boulders said:

I was bumped from an oceanview down to an inside once. They gave me half off the fare. I've heard of people who were completely bumped getting a free cruise, but that was a few years ago. 

Someone getting a free cruise is the sort of situation where bumping might occur - a lot of travel agents are given free rides --- if there are unsold cabins - so a contemplated free ride could be withdrawan if sales picked up.  

 

Were you contacted before being "bumped"?   If there was a financial incentive offered which you accepted that is one thing , but being arbitrarily downgraded is definitely something else.

[GeezerCouple]

1 hour ago, navybankerteacher said:

Someone getting a free cruise is the sort of situation where bumping might occur - a lot of travel agents are given free rides --- if there are unsold cabins - so a contemplated free ride could be withdrawan if sales picked up.  

 

Were you contacted before being "bumped"?   If there was a financial incentive offered which you accepted that is one thing , but being arbitrarily downgraded is definitely something else.

 

We would *NOT* be pleased to be downgraded.  We select the cabin/suite type (and usually the specific location) that we prefer.  If what we want isn't available and we don't care for what *is* available, we won't book... or we'll keep an eye out for something to open up that we DO want.

 

We have gotten an incredibly generous offer from a cruise line if we would give up our reservation and switch to an entirely different cruise.  Unfortunately, it was at a time when we could not go, or we would have considered it.  I think that is the way to handle overbooking!

 

GC

[LHT28]

some lines will make offers  to  move over to another sailing or downgrade the cabin category  usually with a financial incentive

They usually do not just bump you from the cruise

[boulders]

7 hours ago, navybankerteacher said:

 

 

Were you contacted before being "bumped"?   If there was a financial incentive offered which you accepted that is one thing , but being arbitrarily downgraded is definitely something else.

Yes, I was contacted before being bumped. I had the option to accept the downgrade or not. 

[wcook]

That’s one of the great things about sailing an inside cabin. You can’t be downgraded. 

[Honolulu Blue]

11 hours ago, horseymike said:

Has anyone ever been bumped from an oversold cruise ?
If so please share your experience.

Thanks

I haven't.  It's been informative to read about others' experiences.  Thank you for asking about this.

 

I thought there was a chance during the pandemic that, with hard ship capacity limits and the need for quarantine cabins, there would be a lot of involuntary bumping.  But the cruise lines generally canceled all their old sailings and made up new ones, eliminating the need to bump anyone.

7 hours ago, GeezerCouple said:

We have gotten an incredibly generous offer from a cruise line if we would give up our reservation and switch to an entirely different cruise.  Unfortunately, it was at a time when we could not go, or we would have considered it.  I think that is the way to handle overbooking!

Me too!  👍

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, wcook said:

That’s one of the great things about sailing an inside cabin. You can’t be downgraded. 

Unless they want to put you in the crews' quarters. 😉

[Joebucks]

Of course no one WANTS to be bumped. This is all a pretty typical practice of any travel service; plane, hotel, etc. If you're going to statistically have 20 people not show up every time, wouldn't it make sense to book maybe 15-20 more people? For the every off chance you have too many people, you throw some money at a person or two. You still win in the end, because you got a lot more revenue than you would have had.

[horseymike]

10 hours ago, Cruise till you drop said:

So is  CruiseCare sufficient for medical coverage ?

 

1 hour ago, wcook said:

That’s one of the great things about sailing an inside cabin. You can’t be downgraded. 

The only other choice is to walk the plank 🤣

[MBP&O2/O]

When I worked for P&O we got massive discounts fot cruise fares, but if a full fare passenger came along then .......😏

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SmoothFlying]

4 hours ago, MBP&O2/O said:

hen I worked for P&O we got massive discounts fot cruise fares, but if a full fare passenger came along then .......😏

 

As any active/retired airline employee can attest to with great vigor, the company perk (commonly known as 'flying for free') AND getting bumped, can go hand in hand. Said employee HAD to do his flying home work. My friends would playfully sneer 'Oh but YOU get to fly for FREE anywhere the airline flies!'. To which I'd reply, 'But I NEER know (for sure) if I"m going to have a seat home, you never know that when to go back to said airport if you might be stranded there, due to oversold flights, weather, Which is why my wife and I do NOT use my pass benefit for flying for a cruise. That is the flight I defitinly want to make going and coming back.

 

Mac  

 

[MCC retired]

In my 17+ years as a TA booking only cruises, Princess was big on overbooking.

They would offer incentives to "Move Over" to another sailing  and increase the offer until they got enough volunteers to take the offer.

They always got enough volunteers.

 

[ldubs]

6 hours ago, wcook said:

That’s one of the great things about sailing an inside cabin. You can’t be downgraded. 

 

I was downgraded from an inside to the lifeboats, but they were already fully occupied.  

[horseymike]

Thank you all for your responses. They are very informative and interesting.

[Honolulu Blue]

22 minutes ago, MCC retired said:

In my 17+ years as a TA booking only cruises, Princess was big on overbooking.

They would offer incentives to "Move Over" to another sailing  and increase the offer until they got enough volunteers to take the offer.

They always got enough volunteers.

Thanks for sharing.  I'm curious about what they offered - cash?  OBC?  FCC?  Free drink package/specialty dining?

[Essiesmom]

You would need to ask on the Princess board, but it seems to start with a favorable rate to move to the other cruise, plus refund of the current fare as refundable OBC.  But it may be more than that.  Depends on how desperate they are.  EM

[Toofarfromthesea]

2 hours ago, MCC retired said:

In my 17+ years as a TA booking only cruises, Princess was big on overbooking.

They would offer incentives to "Move Over" to another sailing  and increase the offer until they got enough volunteers to take the offer.

They always got enough volunteers.

 

Proving that everything has a price,

[nolatravelgirl]

I have never heard of anyone being turned away at the pier due to overbooking. As others have said, they will assess loads and start calling people making them offers to move. They just make the offers more and more attractive to get enough volunteers.

[navybankerteacher]

17 minutes ago, nolatravelgirl said:

…They just make the offers more and more attractive to get enough volunteers.

Which really isn’t “getting bumped”.

[horseymike]

7 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

Which really isn’t “getting bumped”.

Voluntary rescheduling.

[MCC retired]

4 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

Thanks for sharing.  I'm curious about what they offered - cash?  OBC?  FCC?  Free drink package/specialty dining?

It was always an Upgrade and OBC if you volunteered and they always got enough volunteers when they upped the offer enough. 

 

[sanger727]

I don’t think that getting ‘bumped’ off cruises is anywhere near as common as flights. There are very few reports of it on here.