Dynamic Pricing

[buchanan101]

Looking at the cruise on QA to fjords that I booked the day it was announced; cost me £5,052 in PG1 (including 5% Cunard and 5% TA discount)... it now costs virtually double in the same class (£9,558).  BC is almost as much (£8,598) - who would pay that?

 

Question - currently are almost all prices trending upwards towards departure, or are there occasions where they drop? I like to book early (I book my Avios flights for skiing 355 days in advance...), so quite pleased if booking early is usually the best thing to do (this will be only my second cruise/crossing, previously a QM2 WB TA)

 

Maybe it's because it's a new ship...but demand all round is up I believe

 

 

[Wonky]

Dynamic pricing is just that. I’ve been tracking a “cheapy” obstructed balcony add on cruise to one we already have booked and it has ranged from £494pp to £625pp not trending in any particular direction, up and down like a yo-yo! 

[Isr45]

1 hour ago, buchanan101 said:

Looking at the cruise on QA to fjords that I booked the day it was announced; cost me £5,052 in PG1 (including 5% Cunard and 5% TA discount)... it now costs virtually double in the same class (£9,558).  BC is almost as much (£8,598) - who would pay that?

 

Question - currently are almost all prices trending upwards towards departure, or are there occasions where they drop? I like to book early (I book my Avios flights for skiing 355 days in advance...), so quite pleased if booking early is usually the best thing to do (this will be only my second cruise/crossing, previously a QM2 WB TA)

 

Maybe it's because it's a new ship...but demand all round is up I believe

 

 

What TA gives a 5% discount on Cunard?

Thanks

[buchanan101]

2 minutes ago, Isr45 said:

What TA gives a 5% discount on Cunard?

Thanks

Many do - at least for early bookings. I can't name names - not allowed on these boards. Ask them...there will always be some wiggle room

[Isr45]

Asked 3 main UK cruise agents - all say £200 - that is why I was asking 😀

[Isr45]

I get 10-11 % on Seabourn - shock when told £200

[Pushpit]

Prices do drop, sometimes quite significantly. It's a logic known as "degree days", which is also used by airlines, car ferries and home fuel companies. So balancing supply and demand is the two dimension version, but the time dimension works along side this as the third dimension. So when buying airline tickets, some people feel that buying at the first opportunity is best value - sometimes it is, but usually not, and in reality the best time to buy, overall and in very general terms, is 6 weeks to departure. Now with Cunard I haven't got that granularity of data points to give a similar timeframe, but we know about how fares can drop a few days after deposits are due in (90 days) and how some major cruise resellers release their inventory at 60 days and even 30 days.  So if you are a genuinely price sensitive customer you would be monitoring this daily until your price point is reached, sometimes it will, sometimes it won't. 

[buchanan101]

3 minutes ago, Pushpit said:

Prices do drop, sometimes quite significantly. It's a logic known as "degree days", which is also used by airlines, car ferries and home fuel companies. So balancing supply and demand is the two dimension version, but the time dimension works along side this as the third dimension. So when buying airline tickets, some people feel that buying at the first opportunity is best value - sometimes it is, but usually not, and in reality the best time to buy, overall and in very general terms, is 6 weeks to departure. Now with Cunard I haven't got that granularity of data points to give a similar timeframe, but we know about how fares can drop a few days after deposits are due in (90 days) and how some major cruise resellers release their inventory at 60 days and even 30 days.  So if you are a genuinely price sensitive customer you would be monitoring this daily until your price point is reached, sometimes it will, sometimes it won't. 

Ah - the deposit thing. I didn't realise that US deposits are returnable* - which seems a bit strange as a deposit in the UK is a commitment to the deal. I guess US heavy bookings are more likely to get the 90 day dip than UK heavy ones?

 

(*I believe some people in the US book more than one cruise to decide later; actually I do do the same thing with hotels on Booking.com or Hotels.com; book more than one until I've made my mind up. But deposits aren't payable on hotels, and cancellation can be up until the day before the stay)

[david,Mississauga]

My experience is the same as "pushpit": prices do drop, sometimes quite significantly. We usually book long in advance and have never booked the Sailing Soon Savings rates that appear after final payment due date.  Of course, fares can go up a lot just as often.

 

The fares on the Alaska cruises seem to drop significantly, and frequently even before the payment due dates. For medical reasons we have not yet booked an Alaska cruise for this summer, but hope to be able to do so in a fortnight.  Most of the cruises are now within the payment due period so the fares are Sailing Soon.  But on the four cruises we are planning to choose from, the regular fares - including the perks usually associated with the Grills - had already dropped in price. Of course, there are no perks on the sailing soon savings.

 

Perhaps Alaska is an unusual situation in that there is ample accommodation available in all categories on almost every Cunard voyage.  We noticed that for our Alaska cruise last year Cunard was almost giving away the lower category cabins a month before the date and even the Grills were a lot cheaper than what we paid a year in advance. 

 

It is not just Cunard. Almost every day I get an e-mail from Holland America offering low rates on Alaska cruises. Princess sends us an e-mail about once a week, even though we have never cruised with them. Possibly there are too many ships going to Alaska from Vancouver. Maybe Cunard is moving the home-port to Seattle for this reason. 

[newbie202020]

I'm also from Canada and have noticed in months of price comparison that Cunard Alaska cruises, to my delight, are quite a bit cheaper than Celebrity, Princess etc for mid balcony. Not sure why this would be the case?

 

If the Grills are lot cheaper about a month prior to embarkation like David said, can I call in then to try and upgrade my current balcony booking? Thanks

[foodsvcmgr]

It’s not just Alaska but frequently Europe as well.

If you watch the fares closely it’s possible to get a comparable cabin on Cunard for considerably less than Princess, Celebrity, and Holland America.

To me that’s an opportunity not to be missed.

[BEAV]

12 hours ago, buchanan101 said:

Ah - the deposit thing. I didn't realise that US deposits are returnable* - which seems a bit strange as a deposit in the UK is a commitment to the deal. I guess US heavy bookings are more likely to get the 90 day dip than UK heavy ones?

 

(*I believe some people in the US book more than one cruise to decide later; actually I do do the same thing with hotels on Booking.com or Hotels.com; book more than one until I've made my mind up. But deposits aren't payable on hotels, and cancellation can be up until the day before the stay)

I’m in the US and recently booked a fare of US $4100 that came with a non-refundable deposit. The fare would’ve been $6300 had I wanted a refundable deposit. 

[LittleFish1976]

9 hours ago, david,Mississauga said:

Perhaps Alaska is an unusual situation in that there is ample accommodation available in all categories on almost every Cunard voyage.  We noticed that for our Alaska cruise last year Cunard was almost giving away the lower category cabins a month before the date and even the Grills were a lot cheaper than what we paid a year in advance. 

 

It is not just Cunard. Almost every day I get an e-mail from Holland America offering low rates on Alaska cruises.

 

I had assumed this to be the case; there seem to be so many lines, so many ships going to Alaska that it makes sense there is an over-supply of cabins and regular discounting of fares across all categories.

 

This makes it even more curious for Cunard to have made the decision to base Queen Elizabeth in Alaska for a full season each year. Anyone suggest the reasoning behind this?

 

[*Miss G*]

6 minutes ago, LittleFish1976 said:

 

This makes it even more curious for Cunard to have made the decision to base Queen Elizabeth in Alaska for a full season each year. Anyone suggest the reasoning behind this?

 

 

Perhaps because an agreement was reached last year to limit the number of ships to Juneau in 2024.  I’m thinking this is the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, and we can expect to see even tighter restrictions on numbers and sizes, etc, (akin to Venice and Norway).  Maintaining a presence to keep your foot in the door is probably easier than trying to break back into a popular market.

[NE John]

10 hours ago, david,Mississauga said:

The fares on the Alaska cruises seem to drop significantly, and frequently even before the payment due dates.

Yes, I’ve been able to refinance my Alaska cruise 2x before final payment due and knocked off a nice chunk of fare. I ended up paying $6k in PG (before taxes/port fees) for a 10 nighter. I thought that was an extraordinary deal.
 

@newbie202020However, in terms of bidding up to QG, the bidding seems to be skyrocketing upwards. Maybe because pax got great deals in the first place, they’ll bid up and up. We are very content where we are for this voyage. 

[LittleFish1976]

7 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

 

Perhaps because an agreement was reached last year to limit the number of ships to Juneau in 2024.  I’m thinking this is the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, and we can expect to see even tighter restrictions on numbers and sizes, etc, (akin to Venice and Norway).  Maintaining a presence to keep your foot in the door is probably easier than trying to break back into a popular market.

 

Seems logical. Good argument.

[NE John]

35 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

 

Perhaps because an agreement was reached last year to limit the number of ships to Juneau in 2024.  I’m thinking this is the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, and we can expect to see even tighter restrictions on numbers and sizes, etc, (akin to Venice and Norway).  Maintaining a presence to keep your foot in the door is probably easier than trying to break back into a popular market.

Ketchikan and Juneau are still going to be quite busy during our port calls. We’ll be joining some big 3-5k pax ships from Princess, Carnival, and RCCL Quantum class. I wonder how much Alaskan authorities really worked on docking limits? I estimate 12k+ passengers could be in Ketchikan in day we visit. 

[*Miss G*]

8 hours ago, NE John said:

I estimate 12k+ passengers could be in Ketchikan in day we visit. 

 

That sounds like a fun time.  😂  Any wonder they’re working on limits.

[buchanan101]

Just had the upgrade bid offers for QA fjords. For QG that are supposedly sold out. 
 

P1 to Q5, Q6, £640pp. P1 to Q3, Q4 £880. Tempting as overall price would be less than original prices (if won) Q1 and Q2 also bidable. 

 

Q5, Q6 are nice interesting locations but at ends of ship (more movement but North Sea in June…). Sort of tempted though only at just above minimum bid. Twice as many PG on QA than QG so I suspect there will be significant competition as QGs are more of a step up from PGs in quality than on QM2 

[LittleFish1976]

6 hours ago, buchanan101 said:

Just had the upgrade bid offers for QA fjords. For QG that are supposedly sold out. 
 

P1 to Q5, Q6, £640pp. P1 to Q3, Q4 £880. Tempting as overall price would be less than original prices (if won) Q1 and Q2 also bidable. 

 

Q5, Q6 are nice interesting locations but at ends of ship (more movement but North Sea in June…). Sort of tempted though only at just above minimum bid. Twice as many PG on QA than QG so I suspect there will be significant competition as QGs are more of a step up from PGs in quality than on QM2 

 

But remember they are not offerring you a cabin. They are offerring you the opportunity to pay for one should one become available. They are happy to have your/our bids up their sleeve just in case. They have nothing to lose by doing so. It's a shame if people feel the cabins are available and it's just a matter of bidding the right price to obtain one. It's a commercial insurance policy for Cunard to maximise income.

 

[buchanan101]

@LittleFish1976 no I fully understand that. It might only be because they know what the wastage is in the last 80 days (illness or worse)… they even have Q1 and Q2 biddable. The cynic in me says they have a couple spare Qs, so they can create a chain of upgrades beneficial to them, but they probably don’t need to do that. 

 

still I am a shareholder so I applaud their money making methods…

[LittleFish1976]

They may have some spare Q which they can sell and shuffle around on the cruise you're interested in or have booked. Quite possible.

 

The one I'm booked on which they were inviting bids on in the many thousands of dollars has no available cabins at all and is now 21 days out from sailing. As of yesterday, I could have put in a bid for any grade of cabin from P2 to Q3. It will be a rather interesting cruise - I don't think I've ever been on a truly 'full' Cunard ship.

 

[buchanan101]

Q shows full, supposedly.  Some room lower down but at ridiculous prices (almost double what i paid for for PG). I suspect it will be full - new ship and all that. And with 3000 passengers in a ship 2/3rds the size of the QM2 it will be reasonably crowded I think. The only time on QM2 I noticed lots of people in Oct 22 was in the Carinthia lounge when the outside decks were closed.

 

Hopefully the Grills terrace will be relatively uncrowded (a better grills offering than the QM2 in that respect, which aside from cabins and restaurants was near enough non existent. OK embarkation/disembarkation - esp in NYC - was good, but the Grills lounge on QM2 is "meh" and I preferred afternoon tea in the Queens Room, by a window, watching the sea and people...)

 

I assume bids are closed - i.e. you can't see what the minimum offering is as it is updated. And if you bid and win i assume they take your offer, not the next lowest +£1

[exlondoner]

2 hours ago, LittleFish1976 said:

They may have some spare Q which they can sell and shuffle around on the cruise you're interested in or have booked. Quite possible.

 

The one I'm booked on which they were inviting bids on in the many thousands of dollars has no available cabins at all and is now 21 days out from sailing. As of yesterday, I could have put in a bid for any grade of cabin from P2 to Q3. It will be a rather interesting cruise - I don't think I've ever been on a truly 'full' Cunard ship.

 

Surely you mean 28 days? Or is there a voyage before the start of May?

[buchanan101]

7 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

Surely you mean 28 days? Or is there a voyage before the start of May?

Might not be QA - LittleFish didn't specifically say QA, though I was talking about QA