Questions on 5% Non-Refundable Deposit Discount

[mrlevin]

I haven't made any new bookings in a while so this new option snuck in on me.  I checked today and it "seemed" to apply to all bookings and said all other discounts applied;  so my questions:

 

Is this in fact on all bookings?

 

Even onboard bookings where the deposit is just $500 per person per segment?

 

Can this be added retroactively to existing bookings?

 

New Grand Voyages and segments of WC should be available soon; has Regent announced an end date for this promotion?

 

thanks,

 

Marc

[GMIAC]

There are some sailings that require a truly non-refundable deposit (i.e., the recently published 2027 World Cruise), as opposed to the refund which keeps some money earmarked towards a future cruise. For the World Cruise, that amount is $500 for A-H cabins, 10% of the fare (which is, coincidentally, the initial deposit) for the named suites, and 25% for the Regent Suite. It's my understanding, reading the fine print, that this discount promo only applies to itineraries of 60 days or fewer. Which sucks, because even 5% of a $350,000 cabin is still some serious coin.

[Carol From California]

I had my TA reprice my booked cruises and in every case my price was lower than the price I would have to pay for this promotion. If you are booking something new it may be worth it. If you have travel insurance and you had a non-refundable deposit I suppose you would collect on that, so it may be worth it for some to do this. I always book when the itineraries first come out, and I've found that has usually been the best price. However, when they had the 2-category upgrade on all cruises, I was able to reprice one of my already booked cruises and it turned out to be a little less, so I did do that. 

[mrlevin]

Carol, thanks.  When I learned of the fine print that said applicable to cruises of less than 60 nights I knew this wouldn't help me as I have three GV booked.  There is also something in terms and conditions that says this doesn't apply with reduced deposits which I would think refers to the onboard booking reduced deposits.

 

[SusieQft]

10 hours ago, mrlevin said:

Carol, thanks.  When I learned of the fine print that said applicable to cruises of less than 60 nights I knew this wouldn't help me as I have three GV booked.  There is also something in terms and conditions that says this doesn't apply with reduced deposits which I would think refers to the onboard booking reduced deposits.

That is pretty sneaky, IMO, since they promote the onboard bookings to have a lowest price guarantee.

[mrlevin]

7 minutes ago, SusieQft said:

That is pretty sneaky, IMO, since they promote the onboard bookings to have a lowest price guarantee.

Onboard booking lowest price guarantee has never been worth the paper it is printed on given they regularly dump inventory overseas. 

[PhD-iva]

On 3/28/2024 at 12:47 PM, mrlevin said:

Onboard booking lowest price guarantee has never been worth the paper it is printed on given they regularly dump inventory overseas. 

Interesting! Please explain/describe this in more detail. Thx!