End of Princess allowing discount pricing

[Aussie TJE]

I just received the following e-mail from a US cruise outlet ... I hope it is not true. Has anyone else heard about this happening???

 

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:

 

Princess Cruise Lines has announced that effective January 1, 2012,

that they will NO LONGER allow DISCOUNTING of any cruises.

All cruises MUST be sold at the current Princess market price.

All promo codes are included. (including Captain's Circle rates).

Non cash-based value adds will be allowed, but will be limited.

 

What does this mean for you???

 

It means you have until December 31, 2011 to book your new 2012 or 2013 Princess cruise with CruCon while we can still offer a 10% discount off the

lowest qualifying Princess cruise fare. To help you out, we have also included

a few special sale incentives for a limited sale period!

[bobhsv]

We got that too. I am hoping it simply means that they are not giving TA's larger discounts, and that perhaps Princess will still have their own 'sales'. I doubt any cruise line would cease sales/discounts, same as a department store. I cannot see it on the Princess board as yet, which is mainly US orientated.

[Kinkacruiser]

I noticed this same post on the Princess board has been 'moved'. I've heard it's unique to that agency...a US one if I recall. I suspect it's a sales pitch.

[Aus Traveller]

There has been discussion on this topic on the Princess Board for quite some time.

 

I am wondering how much difference it will really make. When the US economy in particular is suffering, it would be strange for a company to make their product less attractive in the marketplace by ending discounting. Apparently TAs can still offer on board credits, and we might see this happening more often and also much larger OBCs to compensate for the amount they are not supposed to discount the fares.:)

[Rassa]

I noticed this same post on the Princess board has been 'moved'. I've heard it's unique to that agency...a US one if I recall. I suspect it's a sales pitch.

 

The thread has been merged with the 'Oh No, the Discount .....' on the Princess Page and that has the Americans all debating the question. Our input is there also.

Rosie

[rugbypopsie]

I just received the following e-mail from a US cruise outlet ... I hope it is not true. Has anyone else heard about this happening???

 

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:

 

Princess Cruise Lines has announced that effective January 1, 2012,

that they will NO LONGER allow DISCOUNTING of any cruises.

All cruises MUST be sold at the current Princess market price.

All promo codes are included. (including Captain's Circle rates).

Non cash-based value adds will be allowed, but will be limited.

 

What does this mean for you???

 

It means you have until December 31, 2011 to book your new 2012 or 2013 Princess cruise with CruCon while we can still offer a 10% discount off the

lowest qualifying Princess cruise fare. To help you out, we have also included

a few special sale incentives for a limited sale period!

 

This is for real I queried it with another US agent (not the one mentioned above). Is Princess insane....I would have thought this is price fixing and anti competition..it will drive their customers to join other lines. Dont understand the thinking behind it...unless they want everyone to book directly with them and avoid paying agents commission but that would just lead to agents promoting other lines, I think.

[Aus Traveller]

This is for real I queried it with another US agent (not the one mentioned above). Is Princess insane....I would have thought this is price fixing and anti competition..it will drive their customers to join other lines. Dont understand the thinking behind it...unless they want everyone to book directly with them and avoid paying agents commission but that would just lead to agents promoting other lines, I think.

It think it would only be 'price fixing' and 'anti competition' if they conspired to fix prices with another cruise line. I am doubtful that there would be legislation that would stop them fixing the retail prices of their own products.

 

I agree with you that it seems an insane move in the current economic climate.:)

[Kinkacruiser]

So Princess will be able to discount prices (re fares on the personalisers) to fill cruises, but TA's won't be able to? Won't that squeeze TA's out of the picture and encourage us to book online?

[kuldalai]

Under Australian law it is illegal for any Company to dictate to any retail or wholesale seller what price they must sell a product at . An organization may suggest a RRP (Recommended Retail Price) but they cannot require it . Sellers may sell any product at what they like - it's called COMPETITION .

 

So Princess will be in deep trouble in Australia if they try and enforce fixed pricing , just like they got into trouble selling cruises at x price and then pax finding out they were compulsorily charged $ 11 - 12 charge per day for gratuity. Here Australian law requires the quoted price must include all extras and hidden charges . Therefore Princess "spin" of no gratuities on Australian cruises as of May 2011 .

[Aus Traveller]

Under Australian law it is illegal for any Company to dictate to any retail or wholesale seller what price they must sell a product at . An organization may suggest a RRP (Recommended Retail Price) but they cannot require it . Sellers may sell any product at what they like - it's called COMPETITION .

 

So Princess will be in deep trouble in Australia if they try and enforce fixed pricing , just like they got into trouble selling cruises at x price and then pax finding out they were compulsorily charged $ 11 - 12 charge per day for gratuity. Here Australian law requires the quoted price must include all extras and hidden charges . Therefore Princess "spin" of no gratuities on Australian cruises as of May 2011 .

You are correct on the RRP issue. Does this apply to overseas travel? GST doesn't apply to cruises because they are international.

 

I agree that cruiselines operating out of Australia can't charge extra for port charges etc, but I am doubtful that the tips were removed because the cruiseline got into deep trouble (as you say). Surely, if that happened, the other cruiselines (HAL and RCL) would also be in trouble and would also have dropped tipping. With P&O and Princess passengers were able to remove the tips, but I understand that not all cruiselines give passengers that ability.

[resordanis]

Hi all,

We were on the Diamond Princess recently and I asked the future cruise consultant about price reductions and she said that Princess will now match any price reductions up until final payment:confused:. I took this to reading that if we booked a cruise any lower price would be passed on to us. Hope this assists.

[Aus Traveller]

Hi all,

We were on the Diamond Princess recently and I asked the future cruise consultant about price reductions and she said that Princess will now match any price reductions up until final payment:confused:. I took this to reading that if we booked a cruise any lower price would be passed on to us. Hope this assists.

Not really. If Princess hold their prices firm, we won't find a lower price anywhere.:)

[rugbypopsie]

Like I said "price fixing"...:mad:

[lizzy77]

So---- they won't let Aussies book Princess cruises with a US TA( unless you booked before 2011) And now they won't let agents discount their cruises???

Seems to me that more and more folks will be looking at other cruise lines other than Princess more often.:(

I know that as much as I like the perks we get from Princess for being frequent cruisers, we are looking at other cruise lines for the "deals"

[Aussie TJE]

So---- they won't let Aussies book Princess cruises with a US TA( unless you booked before 2011) And now they won't let agents discount their cruises???

Seems to me that more and more folks will be looking at other cruise lines other than Princess more often.:(

I know that as much as I like the perks we get from Princess for being frequent cruisers, we are looking at other cruise lines for the "deals"

 

I totally agree Lizzy ... it's all very odd.

[cjm66]

Another oddity - a series of Promo ads for Princess cruises in 2013 included the rider that the OBC, which was significant and other "perks" were subject to Princess agreement and therefore change.

 

Colleen

[lizzy77]

Another oddity - a series of Promo ads for Princess cruises in 2013 included the rider that the OBC, which was significant and other "perks" were subject to Princess agreement and therefore change.

 

Colleen

 

We met some people on our last cruise who had so much OBC that they couldn't spend it.( I know we would have!!!) Future cruise letter credit, military credit, shareholders credit, TA credit. Whatever they didn't spend she would then go to the casino use the credit, play the pokies and then withdraw some cash from the credit:rolleyes:

So perhaps they are going to try to control how much OBC some passengers can get so that this can't be done.

[tallie29]

The way I see it is that when cruise companies are not getting bookings rolling in they pull stunts like this to panic the travelling public. If they did then it wouldn't make a scrap of difference to me as there are plenty of others to choose from. So if you fall for this one remember the old saying: There's a fool born every minute and you'll be the man of the hour.

[happycruiser3]

The truth about the pricing on Princess has just been posted on the main Princess site.

 

Interesting reading.

[Royalty X]

The truth about the pricing on Princess has just been posted on the main Princess site.

 

Interesting reading.

Hmmm, maybe I'm looking at the wrong thing but I couldn't find anything about it happycruiser3. What does it say exactly? :confused:

[happycruiser3]

Below is the answer posted by Pam in CA on the question she posed to Cruise News Daily about no more discounting, it appears that it is business as usual.

 

 

 

 

OK, the Cruise News Daily article has been sent to subscribers. Here's the scoop, which has been verified with the policy makers at Princess, not just someone who knows someone or is "in the know."

 

The new policy going into effect is an ADVERTISING policy, not a pricing policy.

 

-- TAs cannot advertise discounts and there's a limit on what value-added incentives they can advertise.

 

-- TAs can continue to discount and add incentives directly with their clients. Business as usual.

 

-- The TAs sending scare emails that they won't be able to discount Princess cruises as of January are 100% wrong.

 

Again, I recommend Cruise News Daily. :)

__________________

-- Pam

[Royalty X]

Below is the answer posted by Pam in CA on the question she posed to Cruise News Daily about no more discounting, it appears that it is business as usual.

 

OK, the Cruise News Daily article has been sent to subscribers. Here's the scoop, which has been verified with the policy makers at Princess, not just someone who knows someone or is "in the know."

 

The new policy going into effect is an ADVERTISING policy, not a pricing policy.

 

-- TAs cannot advertise discounts and there's a limit on what value-added incentives they can advertise.

 

-- TAs can continue to discount and add incentives directly with their clients. Business as usual.

 

-- The TAs sending scare emails that they won't be able to discount Princess cruises as of January are 100% wrong.

 

Again, I recommend Cruise News Daily. :)

__________________

-- Pam

Ahhhh, delightful! Thanks for that happycruiser3. :)

 

I knew there was something about this whole topic that didn't sound right (and kinda sounded like corporate suicide if it turned out to be true). Nothing to worry about then. :cool:

[Aus Traveller]

It might stop one particular TA advertising 'come on' prices that are not really available.