Question About Re-faring

[STREETKING]

I have re-fared our January 3, Hawaii cruise 3 times now. Twice I had to cancel and rebook, the third time, last week, they refared at the lower price.  Not sure why, but for the cost savings I would have canceled and re-booked if I had to. It's so much less hassle for both parties it seems.

[JimmyVWine]

31 minutes ago, SCX22 said:

The CVP I work with has been able to refare without cancelling and rebooking.

I asked about this and he said sometimes they can re-fare and other times, the promotion really is for new bookings and they have to go through this exercise.  But they have now made it easier for CVPs to do this.  It didn't take him long to get this done and at the speed with which the prior payments were applied, it was almost the same as a re-fare.  The only difference is that I now have a new Booking Number.  

[Wishing on a star]

Glad you were able to get your new rate and booking!

I see a price drop, but it is less than $100pp....

We will contact our TA, but probably not jump thru too many hoops if it isn't easy.

We booked during a great Promo...  And if it means losing that...  We'll sit where we are at.

[JStar]

I have always been able to refare through my CVP. The last time was a 33 day Hawaii South Pacific cruise this fall. The new fare was $2100 lower.

 

[ccheng6401]

I am always curious about when do most people book their cruises. Do you wait for the big holiday promotions like Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Black Friday and etc to book your cruise?  It seems Princess always has better deals during the major holidays. 

[AZaTaz]

24 minutes ago, ccheng6401 said:

I am always curious about when do most people book their cruises. Do you wait for the big holiday promotions like Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Black Friday and etc to book your cruise?  It seems Princess always has better deals during the major holidays. 

I book when the cruises are released. I then watch prices and refare if they com down. Most time I just watch prices go up. 

[remydiva]

On 7/1/2024 at 12:58 PM, JimmyVWine said:

I sent an email with a screenshot of the new fare to my Princess Planner and will report back.  It will be interesting to see how the Best Price Guarantee works in my situation, as I booked a cabin for 3 people.  The "new" price is actually MORE for Guests 1 and 2 (by a little) but the price for Guest 3 went from $999 to $0 so the net savings to me would be $901.  Guests 1 and 2 DID get a better price at the time of the original booking.  The savings all flow from the "3 and 4 Sail Free" promo.  I pleaded with my Planner that it would be really complicated to cancel, put a couple thousand back onto Gift Cards, and then re-book.  We will see what happens.  And this is NOT after the final payment date.  Final Payment is over a year and a half away!

Just went through this … sale with OBC happened a week after we booked but way before final payment. 

3 phone calls to CSA, 3 emails to PVP and 3 more emails to customer relations at 

customerrelations@princesscruises.com

With the last email, I  asked to have my request escalated to higher management. 
 

I have a tracker on my emails so I know if and when and how often it is read.

I got a reply the next day with a compromise remedy where they met me in the middle. 
Not a 100% win for me but better than a total loss. 

Like you, cancelling and starting over ( cruise, dining, flights, excursions) would have been a pain… for them and me. 
 

Email them and persevere. 

[paddingtonbear]

1 hour ago, ccheng6401 said:

I am always curious about when do most people book their cruises. Do you wait for the big holiday promotions like Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Black Friday and etc to book your cruise?  It seems Princess always has better deals during the major holidays. 

I booked a September 2025 Canada New England cruise in May this year and there were very few cabins left.  None that I really wanted - mid-ship with no connecting doors.  If I'd known it was a popular one I would have booked earlier but I just didn't think about booking the cruise as I was just working out an itinerary for the trip. 

 

Next time I will find out when the cruise is released and will book straight away. 

Edited Wednesday at 02:00 AM by paddingtonbear

[JimmyVWine]

2 hours ago, Wishing on a star said:

I see a price drop, but it is less than $100pp...

The only reason I made out better is because I originally booked a cruise that did not qualify for the “3 and 4 Sail Free” but now that cruise does qualify. Funny because the 3 and 4 Sail Free is so ubiquitous. I was amazed when I couldn’t get that deal originally. Honestly, I haven’t paid a penny for my daughter to join us on a cruise in almost a decade. (Except for port fees and Plus/Premium Packages). This particular cruise isn’t until 2026 so suppose I could have waited, figuring that the deal would come around. But I was sucked in by the promise of “Early Booking Best Price”. And our absolute favorite cabin was available and I didn’t want to miss out. As it turns out, the “Early Booking Best Price promise has turned out to be true insofar as Guests 1and 2 are concerned. But Guest 3 went from $999 to $0. 

[ccheng6401]

1 hour ago, paddingtonbear said:

I booked a September 2025 Canada New England cruise in May this year and there were very few cabins left.  None that I really wanted - mid-ship with no connecting doors.  If I'd known it was a popular one I would have booked earlier but I just didn't think about booking the cruise as I was just working out an itinerary for the trip. 

 

Next time I will find out when the cruise is released and will book straight away. 

I booked a 2025 Oct Canada/New England cruise about a month ago too.  I was just thinking maybe I booked too early. My TA convinced me to do that. I am hoping the price will come down but didn't see a significant price drop in this current promotion. LIke $10pp only.

[julia]

Ok, this thread had me check our fare for Nov '24 cruise, and sure enough, it was $400 less.  Took a screen shot, sent it to my TA (big box, no hot dogs), and requested the lower fare OR Obc.  Surprisingly, Princess wanted more deposit (original booking was $99 p/p, and the new deposit is $500 p/p). Final payment is in three weeks, so... no big deal.  My TA had to struggle a bit with the Princess rep (who wasn't quite grasping the re-fare), and it took longer than it should, but I have my confirmation.  Worth it to me, but YMMV.

[paddingtonbear]

7 hours ago, ccheng6401 said:

I booked a 2025 Oct Canada/New England cruise about a month ago too.  I was just thinking maybe I booked too early. My TA convinced me to do that. I am hoping the price will come down but didn't see a significant price drop in this current promotion. LIke $10pp only.

Our cruise is at the end of September and the prices actually went up on the BB cabin we had but they did come down for the DB when I looked last week so we upgraded for a minimal cost. Weird! 

[Aggie83]

Anyone able to refare and keep their same flights/price on EZAir? I've got fantastic airfare via EZAir that I don't want to lose. Savings to refare the cruise nowhere near what the flight cost difference would be.

[LACruiser88]

21 minutes ago, Aggie83 said:

Anyone able to refare and keep their same flights/price on EZAir? I've got fantastic airfare via EZAir that I don't want to lose. Savings to refare the cruise nowhere near what the flight cost difference would be.

If you are just refaring an existing booking it does not affect your EZair flights. 

 

However, if you have to re-book a cruise that is a different story.  You usually will lose your EZair booking.  We have been able to keep an EZair booking when re-booking a cruise but it's not the norm.

[JimmyVWine]

23 minutes ago, LACruiser88 said:

However, if you have to re-book a cruise that is a different story.

The whole "Cancel and Re-Book" thing is a bit of a pain.  As you noted, it can affect EZ Air.  And it can affect travel insurance bought through a third party as they need to know the date of booking (which is now new) as well as your booking confirmation code (which is now new.)  

[LACruiser88]

1 minute ago, JimmyVWine said:

The whole "Cancel and Re-Book" thing is a bit of a pain.  As you noted, it can affect EZ Air.  And it can affect travel insurance bought through a third party as they need to know the date of booking (which is now new) as well as your booking confirmation code (which is now new.)  

Totally agree!  We will only re-book a cruise that has an EZair flight if there is a significant drop in fare.  If not, it's not worth the hassle IMHO.

[JimmyVWine]

1 minute ago, LACruiser88 said:

Totally agree!  We will only re-book a cruise that has an EZair flight if there is a significant drop in fare.  If not, it's not worth the hassle IMHO.

And now that Princess is really pushing the ability (need??) to make dining reservations in advance on the app, if you rebook, all of your reservations get wiped out, and after re-booking, you may not get anything close to what you had before.  Makes one wonder of all of the "inconveniences" are a way of dissuading people from re-faring if they have to re-book.  The cruise that I booked that started all of this is over 600 days away, so I was willing to deal with the inconveniences.  But if the cruise was 100 or even 200 days away, I might not have done it.   

[startedwithamouse]

Just now, JimmyVWine said:

And now that Princess is really pushing the ability (need??) to make dining reservations in advance on the app, if you rebook, all of your reservations get wiped out, and after re-booking, you may not get anything close to what you had before.  Makes one wonder of all of the "inconveniences" are a way of dissuading people from re-faring if they have to re-book.  The cruise that I booked that started all of this is over 600 days away, so I was willing to deal with the inconveniences.  But if the cruise was 100 or even 200 days away, I might not have done it.   

Sounds like they know you have to get at the "back of the line" for dining reservations after any re-bookings, and they know that will discourage seasoned cruisers. 

[Aggie83]

25 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

The whole "Cancel and Re-Book" thing is a bit of a pain.  As you noted, it can affect EZ Air.  And it can affect travel insurance bought through a third party as they need to know the date of booking (which is now new) as well as your booking confirmation code (which is now new.)  

Good point about the insurance. Wonder if/how a rebook would affect a 60 day look back period for pre-existing conditions. 

[remydiva]

19 minutes ago, Aggie83 said:

Good point about the insurance. Wonder if/how a rebook would affect a 60 day look back period for pre-existing conditions. 

Excellent point… but our AAA insurance is 6 MONTHS pre existing not 60 days so even worse .

[geoherb]

A Princess rep canceled one of my bookings and rebooked me without explaining the consequences (future cruise credit and a partial refund to my credit card). I ended up with a new booking number. I still have not heard back from Princess regarding that booking fiasco. I was on the phone with Princess for more than nine hours, talking to nine different reps that day. The second rep was able to modify the existing booking under the original booking number, but Plus did not show up. I was switching from an inside cabin to a balcony to take advantage of a price drop that made them cost the same.