When does Regent put poor cruises on sale?

[Travelcat2]

Gnomie1 was clear about not being able to book the discount deals available because, passport aside, her/their primary residency is U.S. Uncertain and skeptical as to what you could not understand.

 

Try rereading the post. You cannot put a "passport aside" when the issue I addressed was that you can change passports without changing residences -- even if you used your U.S. passport with Regent in the past. Is this an issue you are dealing with as well? When I have advised posters about being able to change passports in the past, I have been thanked for the information.

[OctoberKat]

Your post speaks distinctly, TravelCat, no messing with you, to be sure.

 

Meanwhile I continue to be interested in the notion that Regent could be reducing fares. I am booked ahead on Silversea to the Amazon (November) and Seaborn twice (Panama Canal transit LA-Ft. Lauderdale March 2016 and Norwegian Fjords June 2016). Could fit another cruise in if Regent rates become reasonable.

Edited March 5, 2015 by OctoberKat

[liptastic]

Hi, the UK website is showing the title reduced prices on quite a few Mediterranean and Baltic cruises over spring and summer. I don't know how much the reductions are though. Some cruises also have the Regent seven seas society savings listed. Hope you can find something of interest.

Jean.

[msafiri]

Your post speaks distinctly, TravelCat, no messing with you, to be sure.

 

OctoberKat, I am sorry you are subjected to these put-downs. As a never-ever cruiser & someone reluctant to take the plunge (so to speak,) I found your insights particularly interesting – more helpful than those from some self-declared, experienced cruisers. And, as another poster has noted, I found your writing style refreshing for this forum. I look forward to reading about your experiences on Silversea & Seabourn, both of which I am considering for my first plunge.

[gnomie1]

Gnomie1 was clear about not being able to book the discount deals available because, passport aside, her/their primary residency is U.S. Uncertain and skeptical as to what you could not understand.

 

Thank you!

 

gnomie :)

[gnomie1]

There are a few cruises that we may be interested in for Summer 2015 and our TA was able to offer us attractive pricing on one cruise in particular. However, upon speaking to relatives in the UK this morning, they were offered the exact same cruise for approximately 50% of the price we are being offered. Now, I understand the difference in flying business class over the pond as opposed to flying coach within Europe, but even taking that into consideration, it seems to me that the Americans "bear the brunt" of cost when it comes to Regent cruises. My relatives forwarded me an email that they had received from their TA for Summer 2015 specials and the prices are significantly lower than anything being offered right now in the States.

 

The air credit being offered is not that substantial so one cannot really claim that is the reason. The prices quoted in the UK include everything that is included with the US prices.

 

I know that Regent is a business and can do whatever they want, but I would love to know how they justify charging Americans so much more than other passengers.

 

gnomie :)

[Travelcat2]

OctoberKat, I am sorry you are subjected to these put-downs. As a never-ever cruiser & someone reluctant to take the plunge (so to speak,) .

 

Definitely not a put-down - just a clarification. I read a post and it wasn't clear. Plus I had information that could be helpful. It was quite strange being challenged as to why I did not understand the post -- especially by a third poster. I, too, enjoy reading cruising insights by someone relatively new to cruising -- just not a fan of personal attacks that happen too frequently on CC.

 

Back to the topic -- just wanted to comment that people in the U.K. (in particular) have long made the same complaint that we are making on this thread (but in reverse). While I do not doubt that their fares may be lower on some itineraries, IMO, it would require further investigation as to how much lower. There were many times in the past when I saw a special Regent "sale" and would call my TA because the price looked less than we were paying. Once they investigated further, in every case there was something different in the "sale" fare that in what we were paying.

[mariners]

gnomie1, Have you thought about having your relatives in the UK book your cruise? I thought that it was possible to use any cruise agent except for perhaps Australia where they have different laws.

 

I am a Canadian who now usually books through a US agency because the agent I found responds very quickly to my requests, provides excellent service, and follows up when there is any type of discrepancy. I have also used a Canadian agency. Previously, I had been in contact with an agency in the UK, and, at that time, it was not an issue for me to book Regent through the agency. (I would have had a British passport, but my DH would not.)

The reason I did not book through the agency was because the cancellation laws were different.

 

We know quite a few people from the USA who book through one of the largest Canadian cruise agencies. It does not appear to be a problem for them. I suggest that anyone who is interested in going that route, check with a few, well known travel/cruise agencies. Regent might have changed the rules since I last booked a Regent cruise.

[tallship]

Cruise prices in the UK can easily be 50% lower than US prices depending on the sailing with exactly the same benefits/offers

[liptastic]

We are due to pay our June cruise next weekend, this being our 6th Regent cruise. The price in the book and online is the price you pay, so I must be missing out somewhere along the line with this half price 50% cruise you are mentioning. We have an excellent TA who gives us a very good discount but since we don't pay by Amex we have never yet had on board credits.

There are specified reduced fares currently on certain cruises but they are most likely the same price in US.

Slow to sell cruises for any company usually get reduced nearer the cruis date. We have to plan and book at least 6 or 9 months in advance due to work commitments therefore don't qualify for any of the reduced prices.

Jean.

[flossie009]

I suspect that the reason more discounts are offered in the UK when a cruise is not selling fast is because of the different booking conditions that prevail.

Unlike US customers, UK customers cannot cancel or change their booking without loss of the substantial deposit (unless they booked on-board). Therefore when offering a discount in the UK Regent know that this will only attract new bookings rather than having a flood of existing booked customers seeking the new lower price.

In our experience, existing UK booked customers who complain about having booked at an earlier higher price are placated with a suite upgrade, OBC and/or a future cruise credit.

 

US customers appear to be offered good upgrade and back-to-back opportunities which are seldom offered in the UK.

[gnomie1]

While I do not doubt that their fares may be lower on some itineraries, IMO, it would require further investigation as to how much lower. There were many times in the past when I saw a special Regent "sale" and would call my TA because the price looked less than we were paying. Once they investigated further, in every case there was something different in the "sale" fare that in what we were paying.

 

People have already posted here that there are cruises that are being offered to UK residents at less than 50% of the price being charged to Americans. Exactly what type of investigation is necessary? It is not comparing apples to oranges, - the EXACT same cruise with the same benefits and inclusions is being offered to the UK market at a substantial discount. Most of us who are regular readers and posters understand that you do not like to read these things because anything negative written against Regent causes you to immediately respond with some type of excuse, most of the time indicating that the OP or others must be wrong.

 

No further investigation is necessary.

 

gnomie :)

Edited March 6, 2015 by gnomie1

[Travelcat2]

I suggested an investigation because Regent advertising is not always what it seems. As mentioned, it took my TA to know what was missing when several U.S. ads appeared better than they really were. If I planned on doing this, I would investigate further. I doubt if most people on this board could or would go through the difficulty of trying to book through a U.K. travel agent. Am still curious (question to Tina) if a U.K. travel agent could use a U.S. home address. I suspect (but do not know) that dealing with the U.K. is more difficult than Canada as the laws are substantially different (according to our many U.K. posters).

 

I would be very interested in learning if a U.S. citizen (not dual unless this is a requirement) can successfully accomplish what is suggested. If one person goes through the trouble of doing it and is successful, there would likely be a stream of people trying to do the same thing. Regent would likely put a stop to it. And, since they read CC, it would be interesting.

 

Gnomie1 - not sure what your antagonism is all about. We are here to question and question again if something does not make sense, agree or disagree all we want about Regent and/or cruising. People can attack or defend Regent. It is attacking people that makes no sense.

Edited March 6, 2015 by Travelcat2

[fizzy]

 

I would be very interested in learning if a U.S. citizen (not dual unless this is a requirement) can successfully accomplish what is suggested. If one person goes through the trouble of doing it and is successful, there would likely be a stream of people trying to do the same thing. Regent would likely put a stop to it. And, since they read CC, it would be interesting.

 

.

 

Would this not be the perfect opportunity for Regent to provide some transparency and explain to all of the customers who read Cruise Critic----just like "they" do.....what their pricing policies are and how it works? Please, please do not instruct us to contact our travel agents. I invite them to participate and not just to read.I am sure that travel agents would appreciate the clarity also unless there is some reason for non disclosure.

[OctoberKat]

Would this not be the perfect opportunity for Regent to provide some transparency and explain to all of the customers who read Cruise Critic----just like "they" do.....what their pricing policies are and how it works? Please, please do not instruct us to contact our travel agents. I invite them to participate and not just to read.I am sure that travel agents would appreciate the clarity also unless there is some reason for non disclosure.

 

Good thinking, fizzy, yet in this case transparency is the last thing Regent wants. It works maximally to their benefit to keep mum about pricing practices international or domestic. The more impenetrable the pricing, the better from their perspective. I should add this is not unique to Regent as it is standard corporate practice for many firms. However having just researched and booked on Seabourn twice and Silversea once, I would allow that Regent pursues pricing complexities with fervor.

[Travelcat2]

I would love for all companies to divulge their pricing practices (especially cars dealers and jewelers). I cannot imagine any company putting their policies in writing to anyone outside of their organization although I'm sure that Silversea, Seabourn and Crystal would love to know as much as possible about Regent and how they run things since they are quite successful.

 

It seems (again, I have no idea - just guessing) that the reason that cruise lines read Cruise Critic is get an idea of what their customers like or dislike. While onboard the Voyager once, the G.M. told me that when someone posts from a cruise about a certain issue, they try to address it. This was just the response of one G.M. during one conversation (side note: the same G.M. that I'll be addressing the issue of coffee with next month).

 

In terms of posting on CC, while I did like Kunal Kamlani's occasional posts, IMO, he was leaving himself open to setting a precedence. While it was generous to put flowers in OctoberKat's suite, for instance, this is not something they can do for everyone. For that reason, I would have preferred to see this taken care of off of Cruise Critic. When FDR used to frequently post on the Oceania board, he would occasionally give his email address and ask the poster to contact him. This gave him the opportunity to deal one on one with his customer. Other times he would post a brief answer to a general question. It would be nice if general questions could be answered by Regent -- perhaps by the new president.

 

These are just my opinions. My experiences and opinions may be different than others. I am a long time Regent customer who sticks up for them most of the time (when it does not have to do with excursions or the concierge program:-) While I do find the pricing issue in Europe disturbing (or perhaps I'm jealous), we really know little about it. On the surface, it seems that they get specials that we do not get and visa versa. Plus, there is the marketing campaign that has been going on in the U.K. for a while.

 

Again, hoping that someone with more interest than I have in trying to book through a U.K. agent will give it a try.

Edited March 6, 2015 by Travelcat2

[Robroy]

....I was very impressed with how we have been treated as Canadian residents. We made final payment on the April 4th "Bermuda & Southern Colonies" sailing back in early January. About four weeks ago, our T/A called to let us know we had received a "Canadian Resident" refund on our fare - which amounted to about 13% of the fare. This came from out of the blue, with no explanation whatsoever and was credited to our Amex card. Since the CDN dollar has been tanking since last fall when we originally booked, the credit gave us a better rebate than it would have when we made final payment.

 

Yesterday we received a brochure announcing special rates on selected sailings for CDN residents. The fine print indicated that these fares were for"......residents of Canada - payable in U.S. dollars...." with no indication of citizenship at all. It went on to say that ".....the 13% savings off U.S. fares was to align fares with the Canadian dollar."

 

With the current exchange rate at roughly 27%, it doesn't quite align things but it still offers a substantial savings. We were pleasantly surprised at the rebate we received - not frequent Regent clients as we've only been on one other Regent cruise back in 2007. The fine print also indicated the fares were for "new bookings only" - which we weren't. Our T/A isn't a Regent specialist, so no special treatment there.

 

In view of a lot of the negativity I've been reading on these Boards about Regent over the past few weeks - on various subjects - just thought I'd mention what we felt was excellent customer relations and totally unexpected. Now we're just waiting for April 4th....!

[Travelcat2]

Robroy -- thank you for sharing that information. The decline in the Canadian dollar has been difficult for both Canadians and people that live in the U.S. The economy in the city where we live has been affected by fewer Canadians shopping and flying out of our city (22 miles from the Canadian border).

 

Enjoy your refund:)

[fizzy]

Back on point.... I don't care what other cruise lines do or do not do re: Cruise Critic. I don't care what GMs said or supposedly said onboard elsewhere. You and others specifically expressed an interest in a topic that Regent has the opportunity to explain because they supposedly monitor this board. I would certainly be satisfied, I guess, if someone from Regent acknowledged that there are questions but they have no intention of answering them. They could certainly explain why things are done the way they are. This other round and round stuff becomes very frustrating and annoying.

[juli2020]

People have already posted here that there are cruises that are being offered to UK residents at less than 50% of the price being charged to Americans. Exactly what type of investigation is necessary? It is not comparing apples to oranges, - the EXACT same cruise with the same benefits and inclusions is being offered to the UK market at a substantial discount. Most of us who are regular readers and posters understand that you do not like to read these things because anything negative written against Regent causes you to immediately respond with some type of excuse, most of the time indicating that the OP or others must be wrong.

 

No further investigation is necessary.

 

gnomie :)

 

Gnomie,

Last Sept.(2014) my husband and I and some friends were on a very popular Amsterdam-Barcelona cruise on the Marina. We both had suites....our friends took one of the owner's suite.

 

I was able to get on the Oceania European website while in Amsterdam and saw the fares that were offered to the European market was half to what was offered to the American market minus the airfare. We never use the included (not free) airfare as we have lots of miles. So I was comparing apples to apples.

 

All the perks were the same except for the included airfare.

 

All the suites/cabins were half price. We were not pleased at paying double compared to what the passengers in Europe were paying.

 

We always take our laptop with us so I had the U.S. fares for my cruise on my computer.

 

This had nothing to do with the cruise not selling well.

 

I also compared some other future cruises and the fares were half also. I had copied a couple of future cruises while I was in Europe and was able to compare those same cruises when I got back to the U.S.

 

This has nothing to do with the different sales/perks that are offered to the U.S. market if the cruise is not selling well.

 

Regent seems to be doing the same thing as Oceania offering fares that are a lot less to the European market.

Edited March 6, 2015 by juli2020

[Gilly]

The surefire way to spoil a holiday is to ask the person next to you how much they paid. (Especially if they are British :-)

 

We spent some time with a US based travel agent a couple of years ago and explored the possibility of booking our next Regent cruise with her, not especially to save money, but to put a little extra business her way. We soon learned that it couldn't be done and so we've continued to book directly with Regent UK (from whom we get excellent service, btw)).

 

From time to time, companies will extend special offers to particular groups with the hope of building a client base. With a new ship in the Mediterranean next year and four ships to fill, it doesn't seem unreasonable that Regent may want to build a more extensive European clientele and as Flossie and Jean have said in earlier messages, Regent isn't heavily promoted by travel agents on this side of the Atlantic. One way of attracting some attention and getting noticed is to discount cruises which don't appear to be as attractive to their American clients this year - I've noticed several messages observing that the Baltic itineraries aren't proving popular, in particular - and as a result, I don't think it's at all surprising that tempting offers are being made.

 

I'm just disappointed that we've already planned our travel for this year and can't take advantage of them ;-)

[Travelcat2]

Gilly, thank you so much for posting -- you answered a lot of questions and may have put this issue to bed in terms of people in the U.S. wanting to use TA's in Britain.

 

When you commented on asking someone what they paid for their cruise, it made me think of airfares. The person sitting next to you on an airplane may have paid nothing (frequent flyer points), top dollar or a bargain fare. The way I see it, it is none of my business.

[OctoberKat]

The original post sparked a good discussion even if there is no one-size-fits-all resolution and we acknowledge that pricing will continue opaque for most. Expect there's not much to be done about that but it surely is cause for discussion.

Edited March 7, 2015 by OctoberKat

[georg0]

we have loved our Regent cruises and are taking another one from Rio soon. On our last cruise from Istanbul to Dubai, we learned a number of people from England had great buys. We learned Regent is trying to expand its market. What was more concerning however, was when we learned that travel agents are not simply advisors and our agent, they are flow throughs for rebates, from 5-10% of a defined commission base, plus on board credits. I had learned that i can usually do better at planning a trip, but I had not realized until learning from others, that i have given up substantial rebates. For doing a better job, I have lost money because travel agents get such big commissions. I suggest Regent simply give half the travel agent discount to those that book directly.

[Travelcat2]

we have loved our Regent cruises and are taking another one from Rio soon. On our last cruise from Istanbul to Dubai, we learned a number of people from England had great buys. We learned Regent is trying to expand its market. What was more concerning however, was when we learned that travel agents are not simply advisors and our agent, they are flow throughs for rebates, from 5-10% of a defined commission base, plus on board credits. I had learned that i can usually do better at planning a trip, but I had not realized until learning from others, that i have given up substantial rebates. For doing a better job, I have lost money because travel agents get such big commissions. I suggest Regent simply give half the travel agent discount to those that book directly.

 

Happy to see you on the Regent board. Please check Roll Call for our cruise -- we are setting up a small Meet and Greet on our first sea day!

 

I am sorry to hear that you were not aware of the rebates from TA's. Let's talk about it onboard :) We also did Istanbul to Dubai -- wondering if we were on the same cruise.

Edited March 7, 2015 by Travelcat2