Business class, No More?

[Pcardad]

7 hours ago, mrlevin said:

I just priced onboard Splendor 19 September 25 NYC-Montreal-Boston-Montreal 33 nights Cat G2 no air.  Ship availability seems to be pretty open.  Fare after discounts is $70,694.  Can’t blame air for this one.  This is revenue department run amok. We are just 99 nights away from Diamond and this morning I am wondering if we will ever get there. 

$71K for 2 people for 33 nights without air in a G2?

[Ladys Mom]

Try doing the new fares as a solo traveler.  Rapidly it may be up to $2,000 per night.  I stilll don't know if I will get one night or two for each night I sale.  

[mrlevin]

10 minutes ago, Pcardad said:

$71K for 2 people for 33 nights without air in a G2?

Yes, even with SSS, onboard, and combination discounts.  Our Grand Voyage next year is $79,000 for 71 nights in Voyager Cat G. 

[Pcardad]

13 minutes ago, mrlevin said:

Yes, even with SSS, onboard, and combination discounts.  Our Grand Voyage next year is $79,000 for 71 nights in Voyager Cat G. 

And that one is per person or for both?

[mrlevin]

25 minutes ago, Pcardad said:

And that one is per person or for both?

Both 

[rcandkc]

Just now, mrlevin said:

Both 

For over 70 nights that seems normal. 

[CJANDH]

New wording? Web page now states the following:

 

Airfare listed is based on Economy Class from select main gateways. Airfares may vary for other gateways and classes.

 

The JFK pricing seems to have gone away.

[Dolebludger]

37 minutes ago, rcandkc said:

For over 70 nights that seems normal. 

Yes, that is $564 per night pp, which is a price that is actually low for Regent and other lux lines. If that were the pp price of all Regent cruises, I’d have no complaints about the cruise price.

[jeb_bud]

2 hours ago, mrlevin said:

Yes, even with SSS, onboard, and combination discounts.  Our Grand Voyage next year is $79,000 for 71 nights in Voyager Cat G. 

Have you priced your cruise next year using the new pricing model?  How about a grand cruise in 2026?  Historically longer cruises are cheaper per night than B2B2B so that might be a more useful comparison. 

[kirtihk]

4 hours ago, Dolebludger said:

Yes, that is $564 per night pp, which is a price that is actually low for Regent and other lux lines. If that were the pp price of all Regent cruises, I’d have no complaints about the cruise price.

Our cruise is $379 per person per night.

[papaflamingo]

On 7/11/2024 at 5:19 PM, CJANDH said:

INTERESTING. Things seem to be changing as we post. I have just done a gateway comparison for a 7 night cruise on Splendor in a G1 Veranda from Barcelona to Lisbon leaving June 7, 2025.

 

The webpage quote for cruise only is $6,299 with +$1,770 for econ and +$6,580 pp for BC

 

I checked switching out ATL, DFW, SFO and SAV. The same BC upcharge for each.

 

Interesting that the BC upcharge is high, but now consistent across the country. This is not what I found a few days ago. If it holds up on other cruises, then Regent is basically going back to their old system of equal pricing across the gateways, but just at a higher price.

 

Any thoughts?

Most likely what is happening is that Regent has contract rates on some routes that allows them to book at a discounted price from any of the listed gateways, so same cost no matter if LAX or JFK.  But on other routes they don't so it will cost more or less depending on where you leave from.  Bottom line is easiest...if you can book Business Class cheaper on Regent than on your own, book it.  If not...book on your own.  

[kirtihk]

1 hour ago, papaflamingo said:

Most likely what is happening is that Regent has contract rates on some routes that allows them to book at a discounted price from any of the listed gateways, so same cost no matter if LAX or JFK.  But on other routes they don't so it will cost more or less depending on where you leave from.  Bottom line is easiest...if you can book Business Class cheaper on Regent than on your own, book it.  If not...book on your own.  

The last statement was logical prior to Regent latest changes, too.

[Dolebludger]

For the past year, Regent has apparently had problems securing air, hotel, and ground transfers for its guests. Cruises embarking in Iceland and Barbados are examples wherein Regent cancelled these features for all guests otherwise eligible for them, and issued credits of questionable adequacy. The post-pandemic situation with the travel and hospitality industries has been a general mess in all areas.

[2SailingNomads]

On 7/10/2024 at 3:55 AM, pingpong1 said:

Also remember..."We're not supposed to even care about how much Regent raises its prices because our stock portfolios have gone up over the past year or two."  😵

Agree 100 percent with you..  Will Regent lower their prices the next time the DOW drops 1000 points??

[ChucktownSteve]

2 hours ago, 2SailingNomads said:

Agree 100 percent with you..  Will Regent lower their prices the next time the DOW drops 1000 points??

If that happens, I'm buying more stocks not a cruise! 😁

 

However the general population will pucker their discretionary spending which should result in lower cruise pricing.

Edited July 14 by ChucktownSteve

[papaflamingo]

3 hours ago, 2SailingNomads said:

Will Regent lower their prices the next time the DOW drops 1000 points??

Regent will lower their prices when people stop buying cruises.  Just like any other business.  It's their "job" to make as high a profit as possible, and so they'll increase costs to a price point that a maximum profit is achieved.  Just like whatever business you or me or anyone else is (or was) in did.  

[ChucktownSteve]

11 hours ago, papaflamingo said:

Regent will lower their prices when people stop buying cruises.  Just like any other business.  It's their "job" to make as high a profit as possible, and so they'll increase costs to a price point that a maximum profit is achieved.  Just like whatever business you or me or anyone else is (or was) in did.  

Exactly.  Businesses usually understand and calculate how many customers they'll lose by raising prices. However the bottom line is they can make more money with fewer customers. Kinda like the old 80/20 rule.  The problem develops when the business gets too greedy and chase off too many customers. However if the pipeline is full, it takes a while for the long term effects to take hold.  The thing many businesses don't realize is that if you kick your customers on the way up, they'll kick you harder on the way down.

 

I don't see Regent in that category, however I suspect Celebrity may be going through some of that now. Perhaps that's why they did the status match across the three cruise lines.Keep the pipeline flowing from RCL to X to SS.

[Dolebludger]

Actually, most of the total price increase seems to be the increase in air fare. In any event, we are priced out

[Pcardad]

On 7/14/2024 at 2:33 AM, 2SailingNomads said:

Agree 100 percent with you..  Will Regent lower their prices the next time the DOW drops 1000 points??

They will if the same economic factors collapse the economy. This is exactly what happened when COVID collapsed the stock market. The cruises lines couldn't sail - then they could sail at greatly reduced fares...then the market came roaring back and fares increased.

[UUNetBill]

Well, I'm not sure if we fall into the 'typical Regent customer', or if there even is such a thing...but we usually book D-G cabins depending on the ship and availability for cruises from 10-19 nights.  Once Regent started including BC air in their published fares, we generally figured about a thousand bucks (US) per person, per night for most of our cruises.  Of course, longer itineraries had a lower per diem and longer flights had a higher cost - but we were generally in the 'grand a day' mindset.

 

But our next cruise that we're booked on is now showing an F2 for 12 nights from AMS to Le Havre and an F2 is showing $14,299 Cruise Only +$5,110 for BC air.  My math shows that coming up to $19,409 per person for an average of over $1,600 a day.

 

Regardless of one's financial standing that looks like a pretty substantial increase to me.  Substantial enough to get me seriously looking at other vacation options.

 

 

[Dolebludger]

Bill, I am in total agreement. Those who don’t have this kind of money to spend on vacation can’t book those cruises. And those who do remember how they got their money! But again, it looks like that most of the increase is the fault of the airlines.

Edited July 16 by Dolebludger

[ChucktownSteve]

1 hour ago, UUNetBill said:

Well, I'm not sure if we fall into the 'typical Regent customer', or if there even is such a thing...but we usually book D-G cabins depending on the ship and availability for cruises from 10-19 nights.  Once Regent started including BC air in their published fares, we generally figured about a thousand bucks (US) per person, per night for most of our cruises.  Of course, longer itineraries had a lower per diem and longer flights had a higher cost - but we were generally in the 'grand a day' mindset.

 

But our next cruise that we're booked on is now showing an F2 for 12 nights from AMS to Le Havre and an F2 is showing $14,299 Cruise Only +$5,110 for BC air.  My math shows that coming up to $19,409 per person for an average of over $1,600 a day.

 

Regardless of one's financial standing that looks like a pretty substantial increase to me.  Substantial enough to get me seriously looking at other vacation options.

 

 

 

How long ago did you book that cruise and how close is it now to the sailing date? 

 

I usually book a cruise as soon as the itinerary is first released...about two years out.  I also book during their two suite upgrade promotion. Then I don't care how much the cruise increases before sailing. 😁

 

We currently have a C penthouse February 2026 for $782pp/pn cruise only; which I felt was a fair price. Today it's $926pp/pn.

Edited July 16 by ChucktownSteve

[carolina cruisin]

FWIW - I just took a look at the 4 cruises we have currently booked - 1 in '24, 2 in '25, 1 in '26.  One of the '25 cruises was booked on short notice and after they changed the pricing format (breaking out the air) - I found that all 4 are within $50-60 of each other for the daily pp charge.

[Dolebludger]

4 hours ago, carolina cruisin said:

FWIW - I just took a look at the 4 cruises we have currently booked - 1 in '24, 2 in '25, 1 in '26.  One of the '25 cruises was booked on short notice and after they changed the pricing format (breaking out the air) - I found that all 4 are within $50-60 of each other for the daily pp charge.

 Just a question about this, to ensure we are talking “apples to apples” Did the ‘25 cruise booked after the air became separate have BC air added on to get your pp/pd cost on it?

[carolina cruisin]

Yes, in each case - I included the cost of air as well as the cruise itself