Availability Observation

[GSPG]

I’ve been observing a two week Britannia sailing on 7th July to Norway and Scandinavia since the start of the year.

 

Right up until a few days ago there were countless cabins apparently available for inside, balcony and suites.

 

Whole areas on midship, mid/aft/fwd for balcony’s and inside were apparently free, with about ten suites still available.

 

So what has happened over the space of a few days?

 

Has there been a block booking sale ‘behind the scenes’ for company’s to purchase and offer themselves?

 

Just seems really strange how such high level of availability has gone to a near sell out in a few days without any additional offers to entice?

[Son of Bare]

It could be PO have allocated cabins to all passengers on saver/early saver fares?

[Selbourne]

24 minutes ago, Son of Bare said:

It could be PO have allocated cabins to all passengers on saver/early saver fares?

Yes, I should think it’s that, plus maybe the fact that cabins have been blocked out for the new chargeable upgrade scheme? 

[molecrochip]

7 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Yes, I should think it’s that, plus maybe the fact that cabins have been blocked out for the new chargeable upgrade scheme? 

This seems likely.

 

Although you may have seen, say, 200 cabins available for choice, it’s possible that there was only, say, five available snd once these were sold, it would have locked out the rest.

It’s exactly how the system works. It knows how many it can sell but shows all unallocated/blocked cabins.

[Pink-belle]

We booked early saver a number of months ago, and had our cabin allocated a few days ago.  So imagine that is why the available cabins have reduced.

[GSPG]

3 hours ago, Pink-belle said:

We booked early saver a number of months ago, and had our cabin allocated a few days ago.  So imagine that is why the available cabins have reduced.

Thanks for your replies.

Yes this does make sense as to where the savers fares and allocation fitted in.

[GSPG]

14 hours ago, Pink-belle said:

We booked early saver a number of months ago, and had our cabin allocated a few days ago.  So imagine that is why the available cabins have reduced.

A lesson learned by us anyway.

Going on this trip was a ‘nice to do’, but as we are currently away in the UK there was no rush as we thought there were loads of cabins still on sale and thought we could sort out as soon as we got back.

How wrong, but it’s not the end of the world.

[Pink-belle]

35 minutes ago, GSPG said:

A lesson learned by us anyway.

Going on this trip was a ‘nice to do’, but as we are currently away in the UK there was no rush as we thought there were loads of cabins still on sale and thought we could sort out as soon as we got back.

How wrong, but it’s not the end of the world.

I did similar back in 2019, I was watching an end of August Med cruise on Britannia. (Back early September so not school holidays) Balconies starting at £1049.  So much availability was sure there would be another price drop.  Nope turned to Sold Out overnight.  Of course by then I had convinced myself I needed to be on that cruise, kept checking for cancellations, one popped up about 10 days before sailing,  In short, we ended up paying £1400 each for an Inside 🤣 Had a fab cruise though.
 

we usually book Select, but booked the 7th July as a little extra, our preferred rooms already gone, so opted to try the saver fare.  Got exactly what we paid for, grade wise, 3 cabins away from where we would have chosen on Select but around a corner, so No Aft view for us.  

Edited June 12, 2023 by Pink-belle

[Selbourne]

45 minutes ago, GSPG said:

A lesson learned by us anyway.

Going on this trip was a ‘nice to do’, but as we are currently away in the UK there was no rush as we thought there were loads of cabins still on sale and thought we could sort out as soon as we got back.

How wrong, but it’s not the end of the world.

We had tried a couple of times to get on this cruise at the start of the year (as we liked the unusual itinerary), but as we need an accessible balcony cabin they were unsurprisingly sold out. I noticed after the balance due date that prices had dropped, so when calling our TA about a Cunard booking I mentioned this in passing and said that whilst I knew what the answer would be, could they just have a quick look for me? Much to my surprise, there was a choice of two accessible balcony cabins and one of them would have been one of our top choices, so we booked it on a Select basis as we wanted to secure that cabin. Also, the additional OBC and free parking made the price premium over a Saver virtually nothing. 
 

Others have reported a similar experience with other cruises, where prices have dropped after balance due date (when it’s too late for those already on the cruise to cancel and re-book at the lower price) so the window of opportunity may be the period between balance due date and when all the Saver cabins are allocated, which seems to be a month out. 
 

 

[GSPG]

On 6/12/2023 at 9:56 AM, Selbourne said:

We had tried a couple of times to get on this cruise at the start of the year (as we liked the unusual itinerary), but as we need an accessible balcony cabin they were unsurprisingly sold out. I noticed after the balance due date that prices had dropped, so when calling our TA about a Cunard booking I mentioned this in passing and said that whilst I knew what the answer would be, could they just have a quick look for me? Much to my surprise, there was a choice of two accessible balcony cabins and one of them would have been one of our top choices, so we booked it on a Select basis as we wanted to secure that cabin. Also, the additional OBC and free parking made the price premium over a Saver virtually nothing. 
 

Others have reported a similar experience with other cruises, where prices have dropped after balance due date (when it’s too late for those already on the cruise to cancel and re-book at the lower price) so the window of opportunity may be the period between balance due date and when all the Saver cabins are allocated, which seems to be a month out. 
 

 

Yes I wondered if there maybe a small window of opportunity between the time periods you mention.

 

I wrongly assumed the ship could be leaving with many cabins unoccupied!

How wrong I was, but I’ve taken a lesson from what actually happens with Saver fares being allocated is a small crumb.