Last Minute Deals?

[-The-True-North-]

Hey All,

 

So now that the first interview with Virgin's new CEO, Nirmal Saverimuttu is complete, it seems like the fun is over and prices will be raised.

 

Does that mean that Virgin will also have to move towards offering Last minute deals to fill ships in the future?

 

Right now, the price always fluctuates but always stays relatively the same. (These promos make it seem like a "sale", but then they increase the base fare.)

 

So, if prices do raise, will they also do last minute deals like other companies?

 

Thoughts?

[cantgetin]

I think the answer is "no one knows," but they are certainly trying to get every dollar out of booked. customers thru their bidding for upgrades program.  I don't know if they will move to a last 30 days "fire sale" as some other lines do.  Of course doing that strongly favors FL residents, who already get a 15% discount....as air fares increase as the flights near.

[Chrish2]

I kept an eye on some prices for MNVV in the past for sea terrace. I look at the final price on the summary page just under “Voyage total” and in big red text. This to be is the “true selling price”, it includes all “auto” promotional available to everyone, is inclusive of taxes, and frankly is what mr public currently pays. 

What I spotted was this voyage total slowly increase (might jump a bit more if the sea terrace sells out and you have to take central or xl). Then once high enough they bring in the lock it in rate. This returns the price back to earlier times but with slightly different conditions. Of course on earlier dates can get the pay in full discount. Once the lock it in rates appear there usually is a $300 premium negating the $300 discount MNVV gives.
 

Interestingly when working out prices after the “voyage total” (e.g. 10% sailing club, 10%pay in full, $300 MNVV) I’ve always been charged less than I worked out. I always phone to book as usually doing back to back needing cabin selection or have multiple cabins and wanting them be next to each other. 

 

They have also been maintaining fare price per night relatively steady. What has changed is how they dish out free promo money. Most of this was originally sailor  loot. At some point they started to make it quasi all inclusive with the free bar tab on every booking. This seems to have stopped the “but no drinks package” feedback and worked well for booking. At the same time they have dialled back sailor loot ($100 Jlo, $50/$50 sail with friends, $200 during red hot booking month etc). The only big sailor loot for new bookings is the MNVV and that’s been boosted to $600 sailor loot. I can’t see that returning back to $300, it doesn’t explain well, and customers are not dumb, they know $300 spent onboard only costs VV cost price of goods.

 

They cracked something interesting in 2022 with a true no solo supplement but I think it interacted with other offers too well. Subsequent solo offers haven’t been that good but I can see this might be an area they may continue to experiment with. This might well be where they target offers.

[MeganGC1983]

On a call today, “they” said they aren’t interested in last minute deals. They don’t want to diminish the value. 

[Back to school]

3 minutes ago, MeganGC1983 said:

On a call today, “they” said they aren’t interested in last minute deals. They don’t want to diminish the value. 

Good!

[CruisingWalter]

On 9/29/2023 at 7:47 PM, -The-True-North- said:

So, if prices do raise, will they also do last minute deals like other companies?

 

Highly doubtful since currently the prices of the cruise fares close to sailing can be 1.5 - 3x what they were when the cruises first go on sale. Our thanksgiving cruise on Valiant was more than 2.5x the original cruise fare when it sold out. 

[cantgetin]

11 hours ago, CruisingWalter said:

 

Highly doubtful since currently the prices of the cruise fares close to sailing can be 1.5 - 3x what they were when the cruises first go on sale. Our thanksgiving cruise on Valiant was more than 2.5x the original cruise fare when it sold out. 

Each of our upcoming cruises has doubled in price since we booked them, and neither is full at this point.

My impression is that rather than worry about filling every cabin, VV is perfectly happy to provide an excellent product for 2000 sailors. 

[Morecruisesplz]

On 10/4/2023 at 8:05 AM, cantgetin said:

Each of our upcoming cruises has doubled in price since we booked them, and neither is full at this point.

My impression is that rather than worry about filling every cabin, VV is perfectly happy to provide an excellent product for 2000 sailors. 

That can not make them money long term. If that were the case they would build ships with fewer cabins. Sailing with empty cabins is no way to build a railroad.

[-The-True-North-]

1 minute ago, fredmdcruisers said:

That can not make them money long term. If that were the case they would build ships with fewer cabins. Sailing with empty cabins is no way to build a railroad.

I have to agree with this. In an industry where rev par is everything... Long term Shareholders will not be ok with ships being not filled.

[cantgetin]

Long term, they'd obviously like to fill almost every cabin, and indeed, SOME cruises are full.  Overall, they are moving in the right direction, but most are not full yet.  But they've come a long way from cruises with 600-800 sailors on board.  They are at or near 2000 on most sailings.  They do somewhat reduce prices on some sailings as the cruise date nears.  For instance, the October 29 sailing has decreased in price by about $1000, but that still puts it at double what it sold for a year ago.

[-The-True-North-]

So the best deal still seems to be on the day the sailings are announced.

[cantgetin]

50 minutes ago, -The-True-North- said:

So the best deal still seems to be on the day the sailings are announced.

That has been our experience, or shortly thereafter.  A good TA will reprice your booking each time a "deal" comes out and can cancel and rebook if that is to your good.  All of my upcoming cruises were booked a year ago,  In one instance, I was able to cancel and rebook a few months later, resulting in a saving of almost $400 as well as adding a $600 bar tab. Two are now selling for nearly double what I paid.  My suggestion would be to book as early as possible, and then track prices.  

[jon81uk]

6 hours ago, fredmdcruisers said:

That can not make them money long term. If that were the case they would build ships with fewer cabins. Sailing with empty cabins is no way to build a railroad.

Although ensuring you offer a good quality product will get people to return in the long-term. If they know that they can’t offer the level of service they wish when occupancy is above a certain level it makes sense to cap it slightly until they get the right number of staff. Also for costs it doesn’t make sense to have enough staff to serve 2700 people when most sailings have around 2000 on them, better to save staff costs slightly and aim to get 2200 on every sailing than some with 2700.

 

 

[Morecruisesplz]

9 hours ago, jon81uk said:

Although ensuring you offer a good quality product will get people to return in the long-term. If they know that they can’t offer the level of service they wish when occupancy is above a certain level it makes sense to cap it slightly until they get the right number of staff. Also for costs it doesn’t make sense to have enough staff to serve 2700 people when most sailings have around 2000 on them, better to save staff costs slightly and aim to get 2200 on every sailing than some with 2700.

 

 

So they should work to get sales down to a level they can handle. In which business management class did they teach that nonsense?

[jon81uk]

9 minutes ago, fredmdcruisers said:

So they should work to get sales down to a level they can handle. In which business management class did they teach that nonsense?

It’s common sense and it’s done by restaurants across the world. If you don’t have enough waitstaff then you don’t take the reservations. I’ve sat in many restaurants that were half empty because although they had enough chairs and table to accommodate more diners they didn’t have enough staff to serve any extra tables. But once word gets out the place is good they then have enough seating and can start hiring more staff and filling all the tables.

[-The-True-North-]

Comparing a ma and pa restaurant to a entire cruiseline?!

 

I'm sure even the owner would rather a full restaurant, than one at at best 70% sold.

[Morecruisesplz]

13 minutes ago, -The-True-North- said:

Comparing a ma and pa restaurant to a entire cruiseline?!

 

I'm sure even the owner would rather a full restaurant, than one at at best 70% sold.

This! 

[jon81uk]

18 minutes ago, -The-True-North- said:

Comparing a ma and pa restaurant to a entire cruiseline?!

 

I'm sure even the owner would rather a full restaurant, than one at at best 70% sold.

But if you are staffed for 70% then service will suffer if you get 100% of guests turn up. Not comparing a ma and pa restaurant, but other big operators like Disney who are very fixated on their margin and not over staffing. 
 

Also it’s said that if you get a bad experience you will tell 15 people but get a good experience and you only tell one or two. Therefore it is good business sense to focus on giving a great experience to a small number of people who will come back and bring friends with them, instead of a crappy experience which will then be shared and put people off.

 

If my first cruise was terrible I wouldn’t have booked again, but I’ve now done six. So great service to smaller numbers is a great way to start a business and then once the good reviews start flowing (which they are judging by the number of awards VV have) you can then focus on getting more and more customers coming in and ensuring existing ones return.

[babycatsy]

I haven’t seen many last minute deals, I do track any cruises I book to see if the prices drop and reprice, so far it’s only happened once and it was $100 🤣

 

ine good thing about booking early is the pay in full discount 

[cantgetin]

1 hour ago, babycatsy said:

I haven’t seen many last minute deals, I do track any cruises I book to see if the prices drop and reprice, so far it’s only happened once and it was $100 🤣

 

ine good thing about booking early is the pay in full discount 

I've had 2 cruises  with price drops such that I chose to "cancel and rebook" to get the drop.  One was not much: I traded a $135 discount for the loss of a bottle of bubbly.  The second time, I saved almost $400 AND added the $600 bar tab.  That was a "no brainer,"  In each case, these were well before PIF date.  Recently the cost of my upcoming cruise dropped.....I paid a total of $2400; the price rose to over $4K, and is now booking for $3400....so a discount from the high price, but still well above the early booking,

[babycatsy]

Agreed - but if the ship is selling well they won’t throw discounts at us! I def check cruise prices everytime there is a new promotion. 

[-The-True-North-]

Hey All,

 

Just to double check and ensure I have the process down correctly.

 

Day 1: on the day you make the booking, record the Big Red amount owning, or record the amount paid in full (keeping in mind all discounts)

 

Day 2 all the way through until 46 days before embarking: Watch the price of the cruise and compare the Big Red amount owning, or compare to what you paid in full (again, keeping in mind all discounts)

 

If the price is ever lower then what you paid, do we just need to contact Sailor Services and ask for a re-price?

 

Questions:

Is this a cancellation, and an instant rebook?

If we used a MNVV, does that get voided?

Is the difference a credit or refund?

If we have additional loot, does that get lost?

[cantgetin]

3 hours ago, -The-True-North- said:

Hey All,

 

Just to double check and ensure I have the process down correctly.

 

Day 1: on the day you make the booking, record the Big Red amount owning, or record the amount paid in full (keeping in mind all discounts)

 

Day 2 all the way through until 46 days before embarking: Watch the price of the cruise and compare the Big Red amount owning, or compare to what you paid in full (again, keeping in mind all discounts)

 

If the price is ever lower then what you paid, do we just need to contact Sailor Services and ask for a re-price?

 

Questions:

Is this a cancellation, and an instant rebook?

If we used a MNVV, does that get voided?

Is the difference a credit or refund?

If we have additional loot, does that get lost?

Well, I have it easier....I use a "first mate" (VV speak for travel agent) who evaluates the bookings of all her clients each time a VV price change comes out.  VV does make it easier than other lines in that their prices don't change daily.  If she sees a better deal, she will contact the client and deal with it.  but...

 

In most cases, it is a cancel and rebook.  It is not instant, and you do risk losing your cabin during the few minutes that the transition is in progress
An MNVV can be transferred twice, so yes, a cancel and rebook does count as one of the transfers.  This is not a problem provided you don't exceed the limit of 2 transfers.
The difference is a refund to the pay source you used (if you have only made a down payment on the first booking, that down payment will be applied to the new booking in full and the balance due will reflect the lower price

Any additional loot will depend on the current booking.  Yes, you will lose all perks associated with the original booking and pick up any new ones associated with the new booking.  For example.  I had a booking made about a year ago.  It later came up with a lower price.  We had MNVV and a bottle of bubbly.  My agent did the "cancel and rebook" as this was the only option to get the new deal.  We were able to re-use the MNVV, so kept that $600 in loot and the $300 discount from the certificate.  We got an additional $396 off the cruise price AND added a $600 bar tab.  We did lose our bottle of bubbly.  We later had a $100 loot credit added because our TA got 10 cabins booked on that cruise, qualifying each of us for a "circle" credit.  We also kept our deep blue extras, and we did not lose our cabin (which we had selected specifically).

VV does not do "re-faring" like some lines do.  They require a cancel and rebook. 

You don't need to price check every day or week, but VV does post when their current "special" is ending.  That means new pricing will appear sometime in the few days after that date.  That's the time to look.  When a special ends, you never know what will come next or what cruises will be exempt from any new deal.  It is rare to see as much of a discount as we picked up, but stuff happens.  Other things that come and go have been stuff like 10% for loyalty people (this came out after we'd already saved our $396 and the price has again increased--the deal we now have is better than another rebooking).  THe 10% off for paying in full more than 180 days in advance is always out there.  FL resident discounts appear on some cruises if you qualify.....

Edited October 20, 2023 by cantgetin

[jon81uk]

Next Aprils Miami to Med transatlantic is up to £7500 now from around £2000 when it first went on sale! So prices are definitely going up.

[cantgetin]

1 hour ago, jon81uk said:

Next Aprils Miami to Med transatlantic is up to £7500 now from around £2000 when it first went on sale! So prices are definitely going up.

I didn't realize it was THAT high now....but we got it for $2100 USD.  I just looked--the same category (Sea Terrace) that we booked is now over $9K.  Could shave off a bit with the MNVV and PIF TODAY (that PIF discount goes away tomorrow!), but still, YIKES!