Price drops- Can you get them in Australia

[nenasmum]

Hi

I just got an $800 price drop on my Celebrity cruise on the Med in September. I booked through a US agent, used a price drop alert website and was promptly given the reduction as soon as I requested it. I was wondering if I would have been as lucky if I had booked with an Australian agent. It sure feels good for me just now- especially as there are 2 of us going so we have saved over $1700 between us!!! Jennie

[BrusselsGirl07]

Jenni, we book with Celebrity and RCI directly through the Sydney office and have had price drops given to us with no questions asked. Not sure about booking through agents though as they often purchase blocks of cabins and then resell them I think.

[MMDown Under]

Hi

I just got an $800 price drop on my Celebrity cruise on the Med in September. I booked through a US agent, used a price drop alert website and was promptly given the reduction as soon as I requested it. I was wondering if I would have been as lucky if I had booked with an Australian agent. It sure feels good for me just now- especially as there are 2 of us going so we have saved over $1700 between us!!! Jennie

 

Wow that will a nice kitty for your excursions.

 

Is there a charge for the price drop alert website?

 

I think a lot more people would be happy to book ahead, if they knew they would get price drops prior to final payment.

[nenasmum]

Hi

Yes. I checked the website before I contacted my agent and it had indeed changed. Jennie

[K-Roo-Zers]

Hi

Yes. I checked the website before I contacted my agent and it had indeed changed. Jennie

 

Hi Jennie,

 

Good luck to you! We booked Celebrity for March 2013, to NZ, via an Aussie agent because at the time, their prices were better than the US prices.

 

We were given a $150 OBC. Recently, Celebrity had an offer of an OBC of $350 so I rang our agent and told her. I got the response I expected - this offer is for new bookings only. She rang Celebrity and was told the same thing.

 

It really stinks. You are penalised for booking early. Our TA was going to cancel our booking, then re-book to try and secure the OBC, but we had the last cabin in the category we specially wanted for DH's big birthday, we decided we had no choice.

 

It happens - we are so glad to be trying Solstice, so I got over it!! It took a lot of chocolate, but it worked!!

 

Nicki

[The_Big_M]

I don't see any penalty for booking early. The cruiselines would prefer ships sell out progressively and when that happens, then prices will progressively rise.

 

However, if ships don't sell out to plan they need to reduce prices. Nobody can predict the future, but I'm sure the line is at least as unhappy as you that they need to reduce prices (or in this case add an incentive)!

[nenasmum]

Wow that will a nice kitty for your excursions.

 

Is there a charge for the price drop alert website?

 

There is a small charge- the best $5 I have ever spent- and I still have 4 more cruises I can get price alerts for!! Jennie

[Kiwi Kruzer]

I don't see any penalty for booking early. The cruiselines would prefer ships sell out progressively and when that happens, then prices will progressively rise.

However, if ships don't sell out to plan they need to reduce prices. Nobody can predict the future, but I'm sure the line is at least as unhappy as you that they need to reduce prices (or in this case add an incentive)!

 

 

That is quite true. We booked a repositioning cruise with HAL once. We booked as soon as it was announced, almost 18 months ahead,:eek:.as we thought the price was so good.

However over that time we watched the ship slowly fill up and the price they were quoting towards sailing date was double what we had paid.

 

[MrYellowDuck]

That's a good tip re: website to track cruises. This saves me keep checking if Princess has released New England for 2013.

[Brossy]

My Australian agent has agreed to honour any price drops for my Voyager cruise although with the way it is selling at the moment I doubt it's going to drop in price now :rolleyes:.