P&O sale???

Good afternoon fellow cruisers

Quick question do P&O have special months/dates they reduce prices for cruises??? If I remember rightly they had a promotion in Jan/Feb were they introduced double on board spend money, is this a promotion they have every year? Looking at next August 17days quite expensive at the moment wondered if it was worth waiting until 2016??? Any feedback appreciated thanks :)

Good afternoon fellow cruisers

Quick question do P&O have special months/dates they reduce prices for cruises??? If I remember rightly they had a promotion in Jan/Feb were they introduced double on board spend money, is this a promotion they have every year? Looking at next August 17days quite expensive at the moment wondered if it was worth waiting until 2016??? Any feedback appreciated thanks :)

yYur best bet is just look at the cruise you are interested in every so often ,and book when you are happy with the price.

They have various promotions throughout the year, depends on how a cruise is selling.

Then you will have early saver fares , which are slightly cheaper than select , but have different terms and conditions.

Finally you have saver fares which are/could be a lot less than the select fare, but again different terms and conditions..ie no choice of cabin-just type-inside,outside,balcony.

Depends how each cruise is selling as to when the cheaper fares for it are brought in. If it is selling very well on select (can happen with one offs) then the early saver/saver fares may be brought in later or not at all.

You only get OBS with the select fares, and its up to the whims of Pando as to when they bring them in.

If only it was that simple. We booked 21 nights in an inside on Oriana leaving 10 Sept, when bookings opened last year. I have been forced to swap cruises due to a delayed surgery, so have switched to a very similar cruise leaving 10 days later - 17 nights in an outside on Arcadia for £3pp more BUT for some reason now have a huge amount of OBC. It is all very random.

thanks for that info...........guess I'm going to drive my self mad checking the status of the prices now lol :)

This year and last year I've found that January is a good time if wanting select fare promotions, we booked in January 2014 & 2015 and were very happy with the deals, particularly this year when I was watching a cruise with good obc .....then they had the double obc promo towards the end of jan, so we ended up with £580 for an inside, and free coach or parking & transfers too. Taking my obc into account, the current saver price for this cruise is still £150 more with none of the free extras.

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I've noticed November cruises seem to drop in price quite considerably near to the time. Maybe because of the weather and the run up to Christmas.

I've been closely watching the price of 3 P&O Autumn cruises for several weeks now. Two on Aurora, one on Arcadia.

There was a 7 day 'Sale' last week - and guess what? The price of two of the cruises dropped AFTER the Sale had finished! The other one was showing sold out in the balcony grades, but some mysteriously appeared after the sale.

Of course, you should do what others have advised. Book at a price you're happy with. :)

On the other hand ......we booked a cruise for September in March as an 'early saver' for 2349 and it is now 1499 as a 'saver'.....we will never book early again!!

The balconies are now cheaper than the inside we booked ! :mad:

The pricing strategy can be infuriating and I feel your pain Jenny [emoji22] have you tried calling them on the off chance they will do something for you? Sometimes I book early and sometimes I book late and it evens out. I've got a bit of a sixth sense now about whether a cruise will hold it's price and whether balconies are likely to sell out - I consider duration, school holiday dates, whether there are special views, whether it's a particularly rare or popular destination etc. and decide whether it's worth booking early to get the cabin I want. I don't think I would ever book early if I am booking an inside - I would always gamble that the price will drop approx 8 weeks prior to sailing. There are no right and wrong ways, I try not to look at what's happened to the price after I book [emoji58]

Just had a look at the Aug 16 cruises - personally I would hold off booking yet, and track the price. Please don't blame me if it goes wrong though [emoji26]

We have emailed customer services Florry...in a polite and friendly manner! To see if perhaps any obc would be forthcoming or perhaps an upgrade....the reply was basically that you know when you book that prices may go down....definitely no obc but MAY have a higher grade cabin when allocated.....no sympathy at all.

We are caribbean tier so are regular p and o cruisers but loyalty does not seem to count these days.

I think there are more deals to be had with Britannia, Ventura and Azura who have so many cabins to sell. The smaller vessels seem to sell out - especially in peak seasons. Another risk factor with waiting is for fly cruises when your prefered flights may sell out.

Hi Jenny, I wouldn't be at all surprised if you get an upgrade, I would imagine when they allocate the saver cabins once the final payment date has passed they do that on a price paid basis and early saver would be prioritised over late saver. I think they would try to do this to avoid very unhappy people who might take their business elsewhere, maybe your email will have helped your case, remember they will issue a standard response but that doesn't mean they won't do something if they can. Maybe I'm being too positive, only time will tell. I know they are quite strategic when they look at allocation and price reduction so 'lady luck' may be on your side. Please let us know whether they take such an approach or if they go for the 'money grabbing' option - we all await the result of your experience with interest. Florry x

Just had a look at the Aug 16 cruises - personally I would hold off booking yet, and track the price. Please don't blame me if it goes wrong though [emoji26]

I am driving myself mad keep checking I can feel an obsession coming lol I wont blame you Florry lol

Why don't you look at similar cruises this year and see what happens to their prices and availability? Quite often you get a big drop less than 12 weeks before the cruise. This is when people have all paid in full and P&O can evaluate what they have left and what they want to sell, at what rate, that's when you have to be quick off the mark. When they do drop the prices they very often advertise the lowest grade of inside - but when you look at the brochure there are relatively few of these. What they are doing is making it easy for themselves and advertising a flat rate for the lowest grade cabin but in reality the law of averages would say you are likely to get a higher grade than that. Does that make sense?

If I had the energy I'd set up a spreadsheet and evaluate the pricing strategy to help us, but sadly I have a day job lol [emoji23]

We have emailed customer services Florry...in a polite and friendly manner! To see if perhaps any obc would be forthcoming or perhaps an upgrade....the reply was basically that you know when you book that prices may go down....definitely no obc but MAY have a higher grade cabin when allocated.....no sympathy at all.

We are caribbean tier so are regular p and o cruisers but loyalty does not seem to count these days.

That's been my experience too! Only ever cruised with P&o. I'm also caribbean tier. That's why next year I'll be looking elsewhere.....in fact already started. :)

That's been my experience too! Only ever cruised with P&o. I'm also caribbean tier. That's why next year I'll be looking elsewhere.....in fact already started. :)

Good luck they are all the same....infact most are worse.

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We have to book early so we can get a accessible cabin, sometimes we win sometimes we lose out.

Booked the Arcadia back 2 back Iceland and Baltics for next August got the early discount but now they are doing extra OBC,.!! but at least we have the same cabin for both cruises and at a price we were happy with. :)

And remember if you book the select price and you see a better deal you can move your booking for £100 as long as the price is equal or more to what you paid.

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The thing is the current pricing strategy is so complex even the call handlers at P&O can't figure out what you have booked, due to the myriad of offers all applicable at different times during the time each cruise is on sale. Then we have to pay £100 to change to a different deal. It's not really very fair and equitable as a customer, but I guess it's the same situation as when you buy something in a shop and the next week it's in a sale. P&O introduced the price promise but then got rid of it quite quickly so I assume it was too difficult to administer.

Maybe P&O could offer the select guests one price match or move for free instead of the upgrade offer, that way booking the select for us would have some benefit other than dining and port transfers, we will never get a upgrade cause all the accessible cabins always sell out and very rarely get to book on the saver rates.

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I suppose they calculate their offers based on the existing sales, so if they were to offer that it would change the basis of the offer if you see what I mean.

P&O must have so much statistical pricing data that they could figure out a reasonable price for those

who book in the first month of the brochure release, perhaps to qualify for this pax could pay full price in advance - I would rather pay in full early to get the satisfaction of a square deal.

Good luck they are all the same....infact most th

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There's only on way to find out!

We're thinking of Cunard ..any advice out there?

P&O don't seem to change prices that much to be honest.

Nothing like as much as Royal Caribbean whose prices change virtually hourly with a number of confusing and mind numbing alleged offers running at the same time, amazing if anyone can follow their prices !!!!!!