Early Saver question - category is sold out and higher category is cheaper

[Jenbo57]

We're in an aft wrap (9C) on the Liberty next month, booked using Early Saver. The 9Cs are all gone. The price for an OS just dropped to below what we paid for our aft wrap. We don't want an upgrade (we've had an OS; nice, but I want that big balcony on the wrap), but some OBC would be nice. Are we eligible? Some folks have said yes, some have said no, and the rules on Carnival's website don't really address this.

 

Has anyone been in the same situation and been successful in getting some OBC?

 

Thanks!

[firefly333]

The last time I read this they moved to the suite to get the OBC. You are not elgible for a price drop matching another category.

 

• What is the price protection assurance feature?

If, after booking, you find a lower Carnival advertised fare, Carnival will honor it, issuing the difference in the form of a non-refundable onboard credit. The lower fare must be: i) for the same ship, sailing, stateroom category and number of guests; ii) available for booking at the time you submit your request for the lower rate; and iii) a rate you are eligible to receive, if special restrictions apply. Price protection will be subject to the prevailing fees and/or fuel supplement if applicable.

 

I dont know how you can possibly say the rules dont address it.. they seem clear to me.

 

I was in a 1A, and the IS, a higher category was cheaper .. I said I preferred not to be upgraded .. they upgraded me .. I would rather have the OBC than keep my cabin, though I preferred the lower category.

 

Some have gotten lucky .. said they are in a 8A and the gty is lower.. as its the lowest in the category they were able to argue their way into keeping it. There are a few cases where they were able to keep it.. though none I remember in your exact situation, they had to upgrade like I did.

 

But the rules are clear to me. Must be for the same category.. clear to me.

[prattmom]

you can try, but it may mean givinig up your cabin. not worth the risk to me...

[Jenbo57]

 

I dont know how you can possibly say the rules dont address it.. they seem clear to me.

 

But the rules are clear to me. Must be for the same category.. clear to me.

 

 

Ahhhhh Firefly...*polite* and to the point as ever! :D

 

But I'm still saying that they don't address the "what if" in this situation...

 

No worries; I have my aft wrap and I got it for a good price.

[firefly333]

Ahhhhh Firefly...*polite* and to the point as ever! :D

 

But I'm still saying that they don't address the "what if" in this situation...

 

No worries; I have my aft wrap and I got it for a good price.

 

Are you saying I was not polite?? I tried to say it politely, sorry if you object to me saying that where it says it must be for the same catgory seems clear to me.

 

I also gave you a example where I wanted to price match to a higher category, and they moved me (without asking) and gave me the OBC. I put in the comments of the price match form, that I preferred to keep my cabin in the lower category and like you just price match to the higher category.

 

If they meant its ok to price match to your category or a higher category, then to me the rules would say "must be your category or a higher category", but no, it says the price match must be to your category.

 

Here is a link to the rules, maybe you can find a loop hole. I didnt see one .. or I would not have let them move me to the higher category.

 

http://www.carnival.com/cms/faq/default.aspx?faq=earlysaver

[CarribeanDiva]

OP, You can only price match to the same category. If you want the OBC you will have to bump to the less expensive category. Your choice. This is what I was told when the same situation happened to me.

[k2excursion]

I have gotten torn to shreds on these boards for saying that you cannot keep your cabin and receive OBC for a lower-priced, higher category. But the rules do say that it must be for your exact category, which means that you would need to upgrade to get that lower price. And with firefly's example of getting moved even when she asked not to be, I wouldn't even send in the form unless you were okay with getting moved. Some people will insist that you can still get the OBC and keep your room, and you may be able to, if Carnival decides to bend/break their rules (not unusual). But it is a risk, even if it's a slight one.

[Susiecruisey]

We're in an aft wrap (9C) on the Liberty next month, booked using Early Saver. The 9Cs are all gone. The price for an OS just dropped to below what we paid for our aft wrap. We don't want an upgrade (we've had an OS; nice, but I want that big balcony on the wrap), but some OBC would be nice. Are we eligible? Some folks have said yes, some have said no, and the rules on Carnival's website don't really address this.

 

Has anyone been in the same situation and been successful in getting some OBC?

 

Thanks!

 

I would think yes. We had the same thing happen on our upcomming Breeze cruise but we took the upgrade AND the OBC....So we now have a nicer cabin and $192 OBC.

[ready2cruzagain]

I am having issues right now with Carnival because my category is sold out and a category higher than mine is cheaper. They will not even upgrade because they said my category is sold out and must be same category. I am having TA to fight it but not heard anything back from the end of last week. This is twice they have denied upgrade. I told them I would take upgrade and forget obc. We will see what their answer is this 3rd time. Never again will I book ES with a TA. I prefer to fight my own battle.

[Ken076]

I am having issues right now with Carnival because my category is sold out and a category higher than mine is cheaper. They will not even upgrade because they said my category is sold out and must be same category. I am having TA to fight it but not heard anything back from the end of last week. This is twice they have denied upgrade. I told them I would take upgrade and forget obc. We will see what their answer is this 3rd time. Never again will I book ES with a TA. I prefer to fight my own battle.

 

This is interesting (I think you had another thread on this?). I wouldn't expect them to give you the OBC for this scenario, but Normally there's no problem upgrading to a higher assigned cabin Category if it drops below your current Early Saver Rate --- but I never thought of the case where your Category is sold out -- I'd think it wouldn't matter in this specific scenario.

 

What specific Category are you in? What specific Category dropped below your ES rate? Is there any issue of you having received cashback or equivalent that needs to be factored into the fare calculation? This isn't a situation of a Guarantee Category (IS, OV, BL, ST) dropping below your assigned cabin Category (e.g., Cat 4C, Cat 6A, Cat 8B.....) , is it - if so the situation is more complicated?

 

I always interpreted that the higher fare had to drop below the fare that you paid for your current assigned Cabin, not what your current assigned cabin is selling for - which seems to be the distinction they're making. This is difficult as this scenario is one of the "unwritten" scenarios for price-matching.

 

I'm thinking your only recourse is to get TA, Carnival Guest Solutions and yourself on a conference call. Make sure you have printouts and/or screenshots of the price drop.

 

Maybe Fire will comment.

 

ken

[ibcnusoon]

I have an 8A booked for my DD's and the 8M's had a price drop to $10 lower than what I paid for the 8A. We booked ES. I could not price match. stay where they were and get OBC but I could move them up to an 8M. HTH!

 

The junior suite prices, briefly dropped to below what I paid for my 9C. I called Carnival because I didn't want to move up, I wanted the OBC. They said I couldn't get OBC but I could move to a suite. I don't want a suite, so I kept where I was in the 9C.

[gelboydad]

We had a similar situation from our last cruise. Our balcony class was sold out for an higher (extended) priced cabin became less than ours a few weeks before the cruise. Our carnival rep said we couldn't get OBC since our catagoy was sold out. I sent in the ES adjustment request anyway. We got a 100 OBC. So send in the ES adjustmet request. It can't hurt.

[firefly333]

Maybe Fire will comment.

 

ken

 

My first thought would be is the TA being completely honest, which the 3 way phone call suggestion would settle.

 

the other thing is this is a group booking which will affect the ES price drops.

 

Groups do have higher prices. This poster said she is not getting perks so she should not have a higher ES price to match .. but Im thinking it has something to do with being a group booking that she cannot upgrade her cabin. Maybe the TA doesnt have the other cabin in allotment and doesnt know how to get it?

[ready2cruzagain]

double post

[ready2cruzagain]

This is interesting (I think you had another thread on this?). I wouldn't expect them to give you the OBC for this scenario, but Normally there's no problem upgrading to a higher assigned cabin Category if it drops below your current Early Saver Rate --- but I never thought of the case where your Category is sold out -- I'd think it wouldn't matter in this specific scenario.

 

What specific Category are you in? What specific Category dropped below your ES rate? Is there any issue of you having received cashback or equivalent that needs to be factored into the fare calculation? This isn't a situation of a Guarantee Category (IS, OV, BL, ST) dropping below your assigned cabin Category (e.g., Cat 4C, Cat 6A, Cat 8B.....) , is it - if so the situation is more complicated?

 

I always interpreted that the higher fare had to drop below the fare that you paid for your current assigned Cabin, not what your current assigned cabin is selling for - which seems to be the distinction they're making. This is difficult as this scenario is one of the "unwritten" scenarios for price-matching.

 

I'm thinking your only recourse is to get TA, Carnival Guest Solutions and yourself on a conference call. Make sure you have printouts and/or screenshots of the price drop.

 

Maybe Fire will comment.

 

ken

Yes I did have a thread about this. I am waiting to hear back from TA and Carnival about this. I am in a 4A but a 4B is $10pp less than what my current rate is after already receiving obc of $130. My problems started when the 4A's sold out. Carnival insists that if your category is sold out then you cannot price match since your category no longer exists. Therefore, I since 4A's are sold out I am out of luck according to 2 different ES people.

 

I will definitely ask for a 3 way call if this is not resolved soon.

 

I am booked with a group but I am not getting any perks. I am booked ES but not a group rate ES. The original TA is no longer with the company so now I am dealing with Customer Service.

 

Thanks Ken for your answers

[Surfwench]

We're in an aft wrap (9C) on the Liberty next month, booked using Early Saver. The 9Cs are all gone. The price for an OS just dropped to below what we paid for our aft wrap. We don't want an upgrade (we've had an OS; nice, but I want that big balcony on the wrap), but some OBC would be nice. Are we eligible? Some folks have said yes, some have said no, and the rules on Carnival's website don't really address this.

 

Has anyone been in the same situation and been successful in getting some OBC?

 

Thanks!

 

I booked a cove balcony on the Breeze for this spring... knowing full well there would probably be no OBC for me as I won't give up my cove. The cove's sell out quickly as there are so few of them. I might qualify for an upgrade... but again, I don't want to give up the cove. Oh, well.... :rolleyes:

[Ken076]

Yes I did have a thread about this. I am waiting to hear back from TA and Carnival about this. I am in a 4A but a 4B is $10pp less than what my current rate is after already receiving obc of $130. My problems started when the 4A's sold out. Carnival insists that if your category is sold out then you cannot price match since your category no longer exists. Therefore, I since 4A's are sold out I am out of luck according to 2 different ES people.

 

I will definitely ask for a 3 way call if this is not resolved soon.

 

I am booked with a group but I am not getting any perks. I am booked ES but not a group rate ES. The original TA is no longer with the company so now I am dealing with Customer Service.

 

Thanks Ken for your answers

 

 

The only thing that Carnival is required to do wrt ES Price Protection is allow price-matching for the exact same Category cabin - anything else, they really don't HAVE to address.

 

Unwritten policy has evolved allowing us to upgrade to a higher category if the fare for that Category drops below our current Early Saver fare. If a fare (that you're eligible to book) for Cat 4B drops below your current ES Fare (adjusted for the $130 OBC you received) for Cat 4A, then normally you would not get OBC for the difference and keep your assigned Cabin, but normally you'd be allowed to upgrade to that CAT 4B - to my knowledge the unavailability of your booked Category hasn't previously been an issue wrt upgrading.

 

Your TA should be able to go on Carnival's TA/Agent website and see if there's any added info on this scenario.

 

IMO the issue to be discussed in that Conference call is "why is the unavailability of my Category 4A suddenly an issue when trying to upgrade to a higher Category that's dropped below my ES fare?" ..

 

This may not be worth your aggravation/sanity for $10 OBC or upgrade from Category 4A to 4b??

 

Post your eventual results?

 

Enjoy those Breeze Cruises and maybe post a Review (including the new, abbreviated shows!) - we'll be on the Breeze in January.

 

ken

[vacationmom0103]

This past August I sailed in a cove balcony on the Dream. About 2 months before the cruise I saw prices for SPA balcony that were $280 less ( total) than what I paid. I kept my cove and received $280 in OBC.

[kicia]

You will have to forfeit your cabin and move to the new category in order to receive the OBC. Last summer we had an aft wrap on the Magic and that category sold out quickly. After final payment, the price for the ocean suite dropped $650 per person less than the aft wrap. I wanted to receive the OBC and remain in the aft and could not. So we moved to the suite because the $1300 was too much to pass up.