Is this another website glitch?

[Megabear2]

I have just carried out a mock booking on the 3 September Aurora Canada/US cruise.  I didn't realise I was logged in and as I have a FCC on my account was a little surprised at the costings that came up.

 

Inside saver starts from £2299 but comes up as £2069 then minus my FCC if I was booking

Outside saver starts  from £2849 but comes up as £2564 then minus my FCC if I was booking

Balcony saver starts from £3749 but comes up £3374 then minus my FCC if I was booking

 

I was actually checking prices to see if there had been any change as my friend is about to book (just waiting on her ESTA approval on her new passport).  

 

If I choose select the advertised fare comes up.

 

Anyone else seen anything like this? If we booked do you think P&O would honour these prices - obviously its full payment on booking.

Edited August 2, 2023 by Megabear2

[Selbourne]

I just had a look and solo prices are coming up as 50% of the double price. The double prices don’t seem that cheap, so maybe as it’s now only weeks away they are doing some deals to tempt solos to fill the cabins. Maybe cruises of that length tend not to be booked at the very last minute by as many couples as say shorter cruises? Complete guess work of course but as any booking would require full payment I’d be tempted just to book and pay. They can’t come after you for more money after!

[Cathygh]

These are the prices from elsewhere.

  Inside from £2,253pp,Outside from £2,792pp,Balcony from £3,674pp. 

Not the price for singles , you have to call them to get that

[Windsurfboy]

Once you've paid you money , it should be fixed

[Son of Anarchy]

Sounds like a good deal on for a solo fare.  

 

We're on this one.  Out of interest yesterday morning, I did a dummy booking to see how many cabins were showing as still available on Select fare:

 

Inside: 110

Outside Obs: 1

Outside: 79

Balcony Std: 31 (Saver showing sold out)

Balcony Deluxe: 0

Mini-Suite: 6 (Select only)

Suite: 1 (Select only) 

Total 228 

 

Works out about 76% of capacity.

 

Since then, we've had our cabin allocated (we'd booked Early Saver).  I don't know whether it was in the 31 balconies I that morning.

 

Interesting that Saver fares have re-opened for balconies.

Edited August 2, 2023 by Son of Anarchy

[Selbourne]

5 minutes ago, Son of Anarchy said:

Sounds like a good deal on for a solo fare.  

 

We're on this one.  Out of interest yesterday morning, I did a dummy booking to see how many cabins were showing as still available on Select fare:

 

Inside: 110

Outside Obs: 1

Outside: 79

Balcony Std: 31 (Saver showing sold out)

Balcony Deluxe: 0

Mini-Suite: 6 (Select only)

Suite: 1 (Select only) 

Total 228 

 

Works out about 76% of capacity.

 

Since then, we've had our cabin allocated (we'd booked Early Saver).  I don't know whether it was in the 31 balconies I that morning.

 

Interesting that Saver fares have re-opened for balconies.

Interesting. That strikes me as a lot of unsold cabins for a cruise that is now just 4/5 weeks away, especially as it’s a long cruise that requires a completely clear month in people’s diaries, which a lot of people wouldn’t have at that sort of notice. I suspect that’s why the solo prices are so keen. 

[Snibs]

1 hour ago, Son of Anarchy said:

Sounds like a good deal on for a solo fare.  

 

We're on this one.  Out of interest yesterday morning, I did a dummy booking to see how many cabins were showing as still available on Select fare:

 

Inside: 110

Outside Obs: 1

Outside: 79

Balcony Std: 31 (Saver showing sold out)

Balcony Deluxe: 0

Mini-Suite: 6 (Select only)

Suite: 1 (Select only) 

Total 228 

 

Works out about 76% of capacity.

 

Since then, we've had our cabin allocated (we'd booked Early Saver).  I don't know whether it was in the 31 balconies I that morning.

 

Interesting that Saver fares have re-opened for balconies.

Would guess your cabin would have been included in the 31 if hadn’t been allocated to you at the time of looking, so as to give maximum choice to someone paying select fare.

[Cathygh]

I wonder if the cabin availability is due to the fact that a lot of them were designated isolation cabins for a year or more, so there has been a shorter selling period?

There is also competition as a similar cruse on Princess leaves on 15th September with slightly lower prices. 

The 65 night cruise on Aurora to South America sailed at 60% capacity, I am going on J310 (Norway and Iceland) next week and that has lots of cabins available. Before covid a cruise like J310 would be sold out months in advance. 

If P&O can't fill these ships it will make their future uncertain. Having said that I don't know if the other ships are full or almost full either.

 

Edited August 3, 2023 by Cathygh

[CaptainPedantic]

10% discount across the board is great! I just tried the same for the same cruise, I don't have an FCC but got the same prices as you. Not seen this before either.

[Selbourne]

10 minutes ago, Cathygh said:

The 65 night cruise on Aurora to South America sailed at 60% capacity, I am going on J310 (Norway and Iceland) next week and that has lots of cabins available. Before covid a cruise like J310 would be sold out months in advance. 

 

That’s very interesting. We have done 8 cruises on Aurora, more than any other P&O ship, as we find the itineraries to be far more interesting but, as a result of re-evaluating how much we are prepared to pay per night for a cruise with P&O, we have no future cruises booked on her.
 

We will very happily cruise on her again, but prices would have to drop, as we can book Cunard for the same price or less. Seems like we aren’t alone. I wonder how long P&O can get away with the adult only ships carrying a price premium?

[Wonky]

We’ve noticed this recently that some of the fares my MIL was prepared to pay were the same as Cunard. Certain cruises were the same as grills!!

[Son of Anarchy]

18 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Interesting. That strikes me as a lot of unsold cabins for a cruise that is now just 4/5 weeks away, especially as it’s a long cruise that requires a completely clear month in people’s diaries, which a lot of people wouldn’t have at that sort of notice. I suspect that’s why the solo prices are so keen. 

We originally booked this cruise soon after launch.  As we booked on board, only £50pp deposit plus £100 pp extra OBC.  Select fare, inside cabin. 

 

Then in February noticed thanks to a TA email that the price had been significantly lowered (along with Arcadia's Canadian cruise for this year). 

 

Did the maths, cancelled the original booking and re-booked as Early Saver but for a standard balcony.  Even taking into account the loss of the booking on board incentives, our new booking came in pretty much what we were paying for the inside cabin.  Re-booking our original cabin would have been a saving of almost £1k pp if memory serves me right.

 

Looks like this cruise, along with others, didn't sell well from the outset.   Still quite surprised by this this bearing in mind that the itinery is pretty much a once a year one for P&O.

 

 

[Megabear2]

28 minutes ago, Son of Anarchy said:

We originally booked this cruise soon after launch.  As we booked on board, only £50pp deposit plus £100 pp extra OBC.  Select fare, inside cabin. 

 

Then in February noticed thanks to a TA email that the price had been significantly lowered (along with Arcadia's Canadian cruise for this year). 

 

Did the maths, cancelled the original booking and re-booked as Early Saver but for a standard balcony.  Even taking into account the loss of the booking on board incentives, our new booking came in pretty much what we were paying for the inside cabin.  Re-booking our original cabin would have been a saving of almost £1k pp if memory serves me right.

 

Looks like this cruise, along with others, didn't sell well from the outset.   Still quite surprised by this this bearing in mind that the itinery is pretty much a once a year one for P&O.

 

 

The competition for these cruises this year is high. Princess had an excellent one, QM2 has one and Ambassador all sailing within a 13 day period.  The Princess one was slashed in price and is sold out I believe, the Ambassador one has also been cut in price recently with only the Cunard one maintaining its price.

 

 

[Valfan]

On 8/2/2023 at 7:30 PM, Megabear2 said:

I have just carried out a mock booking on the 3 September Aurora Canada/US cruise. 

 

Inside saver starts from £2299 but comes up as £2069

 

Anyone else seen anything like this? If we booked do you think P&O would honour these prices - obviously its full payment on booking.

I saw the July 12th thread "Aurora - Good Solo Deal" about this cruise, which I'd been keeping an eye on for months.  It was too late to do anything that night, but I looked up prices.  It was still from £2299, same as it had been for a long time.  But now it was 0% Single supplement instead of 60%. Price on TA website was from £2254. 

I called TA next morning (the one a lot of us use), and was very pleasantly surprised to be charged £2047, with the P&O price being £2069, same as you saw.  The plot thickened later that morning when I looked at P&O and TA websites again and they were back to quoting £2299 and £2254.

All I'd done was danced around the room all excited and phoned a couple of people to tell them of my good fortune. Maybe had a coffee.  But it would be barely an hour after booking.

So I never actually saw the £2069 or £2047 prices on screen at all. I was just quoted them by the girl on phone, then saw them on my booking confirmation paperwork, which came by post less than 24 hours later. And the £2047 price is correct on my Visa account. So I'm well chuffed!

[Megabear2]

4 minutes ago, Valfan said:

I saw the July 12th thread "Aurora - Good Solo Deal" about this cruise, which I'd been keeping an eye on for months.  It was too late to do anything that night, but I looked up prices.  It was still from £2299, same as it had been for a long time.  But now it was 0% Single supplement instead of 60%. Price on TA website was from £2254. 

I called TA next morning (the one a lot of us use), and was very pleasantly surprised to be charged £2047, with the P&O price being £2069, same as you saw.  The plot thickened later that morning when I looked at P&O and TA websites again and they were back to quoting £2299 and £2254.

All I'd done was danced around the room all excited and phoned a couple of people to tell them of my good fortune. Maybe had a coffee.  But it would be barely an hour after booking.

So I never actually saw the £2069 or £2047 prices on screen at all. I was just quoted them by the girl on phone, then saw them on my booking confirmation paperwork, which came by post less than 24 hours later. And the £2047 price is correct on my Visa account. So I'm well chuffed!

Yes, it all went through here as well.  I had some FCC sitting in my account that the t/a couldn't/wouldn’t apply so I did the direct with P&O route.