No PIF discount... and now No DBE discount?

[-The-True-North-]

I knew the PIF discount has been gone for about a year now. However, when did they drop the DBE 10%?

 

That was my only saving face for these new itineraries. Went to talk to the sales team onboard, and was advised there saw no DBE 10% anymore.

 

Damn, guess our next cruise is our last.

[Freelancer3]

Pay in full discount is back. I got it today.

[-The-True-North-]

20 minutes ago, Freelancer3 said:

Pay in full discount is back. I got it today.

Huh?

 

I'm on a ship right now and asked while looking to book a future cruise. The sales manager said no, and confirmed it's been gone for awhile.

 

The DBE 10% being gone was a shock though.

[Sherry84]

I booked a cruise a month ago and got the 10% PIF discount. 

[FFMilesJunkie]

If you are converting old Placeholders, you can pay in full if the placeholder was purchased before pay in full ended.  Pay In Full is not available to any booking created after PIF ended around the beginning of December. 

 

The Loyalty 10% discount ended quite a while ago.  It was a promo last summer. 

[jon81uk]

The loyalty 10% was a time limited offer, the email stated the validity period, it was only for about six months. 

[-The-True-North-]

Thank you all 

[Giraffes]

I just booked February 2025 and there was no option for PIF discount. Agent said there is not talk of bringing it back. 🤬

[-The-True-North-]

No reason to anymore.

 

PIF discount is only needed when a company needs access to cash ASAP.

 

Since virgin voyages is now established... There cash cycle is now more established, thus no need for quick cash injections. As a result, there would be no need for a PIF discount to ever be needed again probably.  If anything, they can now do an IPO for cash funding.

 

The DBE discount being lost definitely sucks and as a result, we will now go to Celebrity.

Edited March 2 by -The-True-North-

[jon81uk]

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

The DBE discount being lost definitely sucks and as a result, we will now go to Celebrity.

That isn’t “lost” it was only for a set period to get more bookings at a certain time. I’ve checked the email and it was sent in May 2023 and stated “Book your next voyage between now and October 31, 2023 (to sail between now and May 30, 2024), and take an additional 10% off the fare.”

[Travel-and-See]

18 hours ago, jon81uk said:

That isn’t “lost” it was only for a set period to get more bookings at a certain time.

A Virgin rep did present it to me as though it were a park of the DBE’s 

[CruisingWalter]

On 2/29/2024 at 6:07 PM, Freelancer3 said:

Pay in full discount is back. I got it today.

 

No, the Pay In Full Discount is not back. It's been a topic of discussion between some TAs and VV for a while now to bring it back in a different way. But as of today, there is no Pay In Full discount being offered by VV. 

Edited March 6 by CruisingWalter

[CruisingWalter]

On 3/1/2024 at 8:02 PM, Giraffes said:

just booked February 2025 and there was no option for PIF discount. Agent said there is not talk of bringing it back. 🤬

 

Actually I will say there is 'talk' because TAs I know have had chats with North American execs about bringing the PIF discount back. Uniworld River Cruises has a Pay In Full discount that has been shown to the VV team as a model for how it can work in the future. With Uniworld if you pay in full at the time of booking, it's 10% off the cruise. But that's your only option for the discount, pay in full when you book, otherwise you pay the deposit up front and the full fare. 

 

The headache VV created for themselves was the loophole to book today with a 20% deposit but still be able to apply the PIF discount all the way up to final payment. That created an accounting nightmare. 

 

We'll have to wait to see if VV brings the offer back, but there is at least 'talk' happening behind the scenes. 

[cantgetin]

And some days it seems like a miracle if VV can get their accounting right.  At least they finally decided that I really am PIF for my next cruise.  I went thru several cycles of my on line account saying I owed $2 or 51 cents after I was PIF and had documentation to prove it.

[RNPJN]

On 3/2/2024 at 5:46 PM, Travel-and-See said:

A Virgin rep did present it to me as though it were a park of the DBE’s 

But the DBE perks description on the website has never listed that as a perk

[RNPJN]

 Have fun

[Travel-and-See]

20 minutes ago, RNPJN said:

But the DBE perks description on the website has never listed that as a perk

I never said that it did.