Early Saver Pricing

[Charleyann]

So far and in the last two months, I have saved $350. So far Early Saver has worked for me. Infact today I sent in a claim form for a $60 drop in price. Three hours later, I recieve an email from Carnival saying it had been approved, followed by confirmation with new pricing detail...

 

Charleyann

[firefly333]

So far and in the last two months, I have saved $350. So far Early Saver has worked for me. Infact today I sent in a claim form for a $60 drop in price. Three hours later, I recieve an email from Carnival saying it had been approved, followed by confirmation with new pricing detail...

 

Charleyann

 

Since you are before final payment, no matter which rate you had booked, you would have gotten the price drops ... so its nothing to do with ES having worked for you. ES just isnt all that ... and I watch a lot of rates too.

[chazzeek]

If i was to get a 9C (wrap around balcony) would the price for that category move with the prices for all the other balcony rooms? for example, are they always $300 more than the base balcony rate, so if the base balcony goes down $50 then all the balconies go down $50. its something i would like to try if it fits into our budget. but since there are only 6 per ship i could understand if they didn't adjust the prices.

[blindrid]

Seems they use any excuse to try and keep their money. Also, the policy about the "no name changes" is also bad. My TA booked one guest under TBA as I did not have the correct spelling of her last name. He was charged $50 which he covered as he was not 100% familiar with Carnival's policy.

 

Travel Insurance is one way to protect yourself, but they only cover so many reasons for not being able to make the cruise, and financial reasons or just changing you mind, is not a good reason.

 

Actually you can buy "cancel for any reason" insurance that does cover "just changed your mind". I agree the name change for $50 is pretty lame. My PVP tried to charge me as she booked my name, the informal one that I used to sail years ago and is on the website. I immediately noticed and I called to get the name to mirror my formal name on my PP. She mentioned the $50 and I told her she better rethink it and she took care of the name change from Randy to Randall.

 

You are also a bit confused on when a ES rate applies when it comes to a refund. I have yet to get a refund/OBC but that's OK as the price I paid for the cruise was a fair price. If I get one, great. But if not, that's OK too.

[Ken076]

My advice, do not count on being able to cash in on the Price Protection Policy. I have been denied twice now, and the reasons I have been given was one legitimate (our 8b cabin was not the cheaper price) and the second reason was that the promotion was not compatible with the Early Saver, which to me is BS as the Price Protection says any rate for the same ship, sail date and cabin type - The Terms and conditions clearly state same stateroom category (not cabin type) - Guarantee Categories IS, OV, BL and ST are NOT the same booking categories as the assigned Cabin Categories 4A, 4B, 6A, 6C etc. .

 

Seems they use any excuse to try and keep their money. Also, the policy about the "no name changes" is also bad. They are restrictions that you must accept to book Early Saver. My TA booked one guest under TBA as I did not have the correct spelling of her last name. He was charged $50 which he covered as he was not 100% familiar with Carnival's policy. The strict Policy is "No TBA bookings with Early Saver" - the TA was unknowledgeable and hopefuully "ate" the $50 charge has being his/her fault.

 

Travel Insurance is one way to protect yourself, but they only cover so many reasons for not being able to make the cruise, and financial reasons or just changing you mind, is not a good reason. There is the option of "Cancel for Any Reason" but it's costly (50% of premium) and often only covers 75% or 80%.

 

ken

[Billy101]

Carinval offered to allow us to go to the IS and BL cabin types, but after speaking with my TA, we opted not to. Better to keep the devil we know at the price we paid, rather than end up in a bunk bed 1a cabin type.

 

Ken 067

 

You are correct regarding insurance, but you must read your travel insurance policy. Some do not allow a "cancel for any reason" and those that do, a premium is usually charged.

 

As for the TBA naming issue, my beef with Carnival is the vague policy wording. I work in policy and contracting for a living, and they have left the policy up for interpretation which is never a good thing. As for the system Carnival uses to take bookings, a simple recognition program to recognize things like, TBD and TBA, etc... would be nice to implement and thus, not allow you to complete a booking using those as filler or to provide a pop-up warning which you must then click on to by-pass, which would remind you to provide full names. Carnival is the only company my TA knows about, who has this policy. All other companies allow you to book with a TBD and provides 7 business days to provide the full names. At least the companies he deals with on a regular basis, to which, Carnival is not one of them.