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Booked a 7 night cruise with 3 nights post cruise hotel stay back in september 2017 and was given what i was told was a very good extra discount on the total price.we are now in january 2018 and same cruise ,hotel flights etc etc is over £220 cheaper on the TUI website with no (supposedly SPECIAL deal given) i phoned customer services and got a total lack of interest from them ,as far as i am aware in the usa if this happens there is usually some olive branch handed out in the way of OBC or a refund why in the UK is it differant !

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Booked a 7 night cruise with 3 nights post cruise hotel stay back in september 2017 and was given what i was told was a very good extra discount on the total price.we are now in january 2018 and same cruise ,hotel flights etc etc is over £220 cheaper on the TUI website with no (supposedly SPECIAL deal given) i phoned customer services and got a total lack of interest from them ,as far as i am aware in the usa if this happens there is usually some olive branch handed out in the way of OBC or a refund why in the UK is it differant !

 

If the price had gone up would you be happy for TUI to send you a bill for the extra cost so nobody paid more than you.

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Sadly this is the way with all cruises sold in the UK. It is best to decide if you are happy with the price and then not look at any future offers. It is not just cruises either let's face it. You can buy a sofa or TV and two weeks later find it considerably cheaper...

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Whether it is a cruise, a holiday in Spain or a tv in an electrical retailer, the price you see is only there for the consumer to make an offer to buy. The company with the goods for sale, sadly, can put the price up, or down, whenever they wish.

Edited by Tizzy-Jo
needed to add extra words
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I only book early on cruises so I can get the cabin I want and the AI included and usually on the Dream Celebration or Spirit if the price has gone down later they charge you for the AI

On the Discoveries of course the AI is included anyway so it can be annoying if the price has reduced but if you do a dummy booking you may find the cabin type you want have all sold out as in some if Asian cruises next winter

As TUI use their own airlines if the planes are almost full they usually stop reducing the prices so it's not the same as other cruise lines which have to charter planes from airlines

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We usually book late to get those late bargains.

True the AI isn't included, but we chose to payg rather than take the offered discounted package because that package is so limited, and we spent about the same - that included our favourite cocktails (a price supplement for those with the package) and a shared bottle of drinkable house red wine each evening rather than the awful stuff that's in the package.

There's usually a good choice of cabins even with a late booking, because a fair proportion of folk don't stump up the extra £40 to select a cabin.

 

The downsides to a late booking?

Some cruise prices actually go up, or may sell-out early.

So if you're red-hot keen on a particular cruise, or work or other commitments mean you're stuck with a particular date, you're taking a risk by booking late. We're retired (you ought to try it :)) so we're flexible on dates. We booked one Thomson Caribbean quite early because it was an itinerary we were particularly keen on - but since it ran on several dates we could hold out a while until one sailing booked-out.

 

Bookings in the US are completely different, its a UK/US thing, not a Thomson/US cruise lines thing.. Americans can cancel before final-payment-date (?90 days out?) and get their full deposit back. So they can cancel & re-book at the lower price.

 

JB :)

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I think consumer law in the UK says that the deal is struck when you pay the deposit so the retailer has no contractual obligation to subsequently reduce the price.
I do agree with all your coments above but 2 points do rile me somewhat .A/ the fact i was told the deal i was getting was a one off special deal for me personally. It clearly wasnt!. B/ as far as i am told if one is unhappy with a product/deal one has ordered in the USA the full deposit is refunded if you cancel giving you the option to make a choice. Anyway ive had my little gripe and feel all the better for it haha ! Im now going to move on and have a brilliant cruise and with luck clean out the casino [emoji1]

 

Sent from my SM-G935F using Forums mobile app

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Totally understand where the OP is coming from though.

A couple of years ago I had booked a cruise with Princess on the Royal, when it came to settling the final bill, I mentioned to the Customer Service that the price had gone down and was there anything that they could do?

She cancelled my original booking and re-booked it (same cabin etc) and I paid approx. £300 less.

I lost my onboard credit of $100, so all in saving was £200 plus.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Discovery out of Newcastle doesn't seem to be booking very well - there are great savings at the moment. We booked early so that we could choose the cabin we wanted but since the beginning of January the price has been going down and down. This weekend there are free upgrades on cabins plus £100 discount. Our cruise is now £900 less than originally booked so we have cancelled. Lost the deposit (will have to take that one on the chin) but still £500 in our pocket rather than theirs. We even re-booked the cabin that we had cancelled

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Discovery out of Newcastle doesn't seem to be booking very well - there are great savings at the moment. We booked early so that we could choose the cabin we wanted but since the beginning of January the price has been going down and down. This weekend there are free upgrades on cabins plus £100 discount. Our cruise is now £900 less than originally booked so we have cancelled. Lost the deposit (will have to take that one on the chin) but still £500 in our pocket rather than theirs. We even re-booked the cabin that we had cancelled

 

Have just done the same. We booked 48 weeks in advance for our Discovery cruise. Yesterday I saw the price had dropped 637 Pounds so we too cancelled/rebooked (like you, we have re-booked the same cabin). Even with the loss of deposit, and although the 100 Pound discount and cabin upgrade are not valid on 'Cruise Only' bookings grrrrrrrrr, we are still paying over 300 Pounds less than if we had left the booking as it was originally.

Edited by campolady
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No loyalty at all - we did ask if they were prepared to drop the price at all but no deal. One point to remember, if i'd cancelled on line they were going to charge me for the pre-booked cabin but as I cancelled by phone I managed to bypass that one!

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We booked early on a price we thought was good and were willing to pay. But......i just couldn't help myself by keep going back to website to check prices. It was to convince myself we had a good deal and i was pleased with myself when initially the price went up. However, the cruise was advertised a few days ago with a deluxe cabin being just £50 more than what id paid for an inside plus! Playing all ignorant I phoned the TA and asked how much it would cost to upgrade from inside plus to a deluxe. Naively i was thinking maybe not much considering what id seen on webite- not likely- i was quoted over £600 !!!! So im sticking with my original cabin which im happy with and sure will be absolutely fine - just thought if i could bag a bargin i would go for it.

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Thomson/TUI will they ever learn, who is going to book early when prices drop - this happens year after year - so much for customer loyalty.

 

There are compelling reasons why some punters book early - they may want a specific cabin, or are tied to immovable dates off work etc.

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Always book early on a price that we are happy with why worry if the price goes up or down. We go in three weeks and the cabin and flight we prefer have not been available for over nine months we may in the future try for late availability and it would be different to try a basic cabin but at the moment I must admit we enjoy how we do things at the moment.

 

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