Weird Pricing

[pompeii]

I just clicked through on a couple of different cruises and the price dropped considerably at the end. For example, on a $1799 balcony cabin the new price was $1519, and on a $1599 OV the new price was $1279! The message says: Notice: the fares on your booking have changed. Your fare may have changed based on your cruise history. Verified past Guests may qualify for lower fares.

 

So even though I was logged in when I started my search, the website didn't show the lower fares until I put in my passenger information (name and address). And the fares changed on both a sailing that was already on the Memorial Day sale in red and one that was not, so if you have your eye on something it's worth doing a mock booking to see if the price is actually lower.

 

I'm not sure why Princess is doing it this way instead of just having the lower fares come up when you search, but it's a nice surprise at the end.

[Musky Ike]

It is a strange marketing strategy. Usually the cost surprises you get near the completion of a booking are in the other direction.

[Sue Do-Over]

If you see a great offer, do a print-screen. Note the date and time you saw it.

 

For Carnival, at least, having proof of an offer made it really easy to submit the price guarantee forms, and we could email or fax it to an associate when on the phone. The easier it is for an associate to see just exactly what you saw... the better.

 

If it was legit for even a minute, and you have this objective proof, you are much more likely to have it honored. Also lets you go back to review the fine print -- new bookings only, obstructed view, etc. that you might have missed in your initial excitement.

[azbirdmom]

This pricing is appearing for every cruise now for me and I've figured out what it is doing.

 

For suites, the booking price is 85% of the summary price so the discount is 15 %.

 

For mini suites & ocean view, the discount is 20%.

 

For balcony & insides, the discount is 25%.

 

I looked at a couple random cruises and all were the same. Hope more people see this too and are able to take advantage of these great deals.

[JF - retired RRT]

How many days?

17 days:D

[deb54knight]

This pricing is appearing for every cruise now for me and I've figured out what it is doing.

 

For suites, the booking price is 85% of the summary price so the discount is 15 %.

 

For mini suites & ocean view, the discount is 20%.

 

For balcony & insides, the discount is 25%.

 

I looked at a couple random cruises and all were the same. Hope more people see this too and are able to take advantage of these great deals.

 

 

These discounts look like the "Select Casino Players : Extra Savings" promotion that Princess just sent emails out for. If the offer was made to you, you would see the discounts after you choose a cabin in an online booking. You can go into your Personalizer and click on "Deals" to see if you got this offer.

[azbirdmom]

These discounts look like the "Select Casino Players : Extra Savings" promotion that Princess just sent emails out for. If the offer was made to you, you would see the discounts after you choose a cabin in an online booking. You can go into your Personalizer and click on "Deals" to see if you got this offer.

 

Well that's interesting! I do spend time in the casino but I got neither the email nor do I see anything about this in the CP. How long did the email say that the deals will last?

[deb54knight]

Well that's interesting! I do spend time in the casino but I got neither the email nor do I see anything about this in the CP. How long did the email say that the deals will last?

 

There seems to be no expiration. I got the email and have the deal noted in my CP and have been rebooking and booking all day with the discounts. The discounts will combine with sale prices, pretty much what you see when you select a cabin is the price you will pay. The most I do is play a few slot machines, never really winning or losing. I can't imagine why they sent this to me, but I have certainly put it to good use.

[coops]

I checked yesterday and the price is over 300.00 off my cruise for next year. It is from casino , checked email and found it.

 

TA also said it is a non refundable deposit. No where does it say on email that it is non refundable deposit. Can anyone

confirm this who has seen the email. Thanks to op for this as they saved my some money.

Dawn

Edited May 21, 2015 by coops

[margeg]

This pricing is appearing for every cruise now for me and I've figured out what it is doing.

 

For suites, the booking price is 85% of the summary price so the discount is 15 %.

 

For mini suites & ocean view, the discount is 20%.

 

For balcony & insides, the discount is 25%.

 

I looked at a couple random cruises and all were the same. Hope more people see this too and are able to take advantage of these great deals.

 

We are booked in a penthouse suite royal nov 20'. I checked all the suite prices and they are the same as when we booked last month. Maybe because of less availability. I checked logged on and logged off. We also got 400.00 OBC when we booked and don't see it now.

 

It's too bad we have to be detectives to get best price! I will keep checking till final payment.

Marge

[azbirdmom]

Well I still haven't gotten the email but definitely have the pricing so I called Princess. The rep said it's been chaos as people got different offers, some got free transfers, some free gratuities, some just the % off. I did make a second booking for our October trip as the savings is now more than $400 on the price alone and I'm going to transfer it to my TA. After booking I saw on the confirmation from Princess that it includes free gratuities, so that exceeds the OBC we had on our initial offer. There's no expiration date listed apparently but I was told that it was capacity controlled, so some of the available cruises may not be there if we wait.

[cruisequeen4ever]

I'm so so so so excited!!!! We, along with my in-laws, got this pricing, too, for 2 upcoming cruises!! Kudos to Princess!! How do we know if ours came with free gratuities or anything else?

[TessM]

I booked a 7-day Eastern Caribbean today on the Emerald and also only saw the low (LOW) price when I did an initial dummy booking. I booked immediately and then transferred the booking to my Travel Agent and she said it was a casino credit. I don't know if the deposit is non-refundable or not. I've seen some sales advertised with a non-refundable $100 deposit but my deposit was $139. Also kind of odd.

 

I don't remember getting anything from Princess telling me about the discount, I just sort of fell into it. It's all very odd but I'm very happy with the price of the cruise.

 

I checked and I received a 35% discount (inside cabin) and the price was already so low I didn't expect my travel agent to be able to discount it any further. And, I was right, she couldn't discount it further but she did give me $50 obc.

Edited May 22, 2015 by TessM

[deb54knight]

Well I still haven't gotten the email but definitely have the pricing so I called Princess. The rep said it's been chaos as people got different offers, some got free transfers, some free gratuities, some just the % off. I did make a second booking for our October trip as the savings is now more than $400 on the price alone and I'm going to transfer it to my TA. After booking I saw on the confirmation from Princess that it includes free gratuities, so that exceeds the OBC we had on our initial offer. There's no expiration date listed apparently but I was told that it was capacity controlled, so some of the available cruises may not be there if we wait.

 

"Capacity controlled" is the term that the princess rep used when I asked about an expiration date for this promotion. She said that the promotion should be usable for us for almost all cruises until the end of 2016. We are getting a 25% discount plus complimentary gratuities on top of existing sale prices for a balcony room. We have cancelled, booked and rebooked cruises under this promotion until we reached a point where we will be on a ship in the Caribbean for 30 days over this Holiday season with a 5 day break in Ft. Lauderdale between 2 of the cruises. These are by far the best prices we have seen from Princess.

[azbirdmom]

I'm so so so so excited!!!! We, along with my in-laws, got this pricing, too, for 2 upcoming cruises!! Kudos to Princess!! How do we know if ours came with free gratuities or anything else?

 

I didn't see it until I looked at the confirmation from Princess. The PDF file that they sent us said "Complementary Grat" in the comments.

[deb54knight]

Same here............"Complimentary Grat." in the Comment section on the confirmation, a surprise after booking.

[cruisequeen4ever]

Thank you guys for answering! I don't think we got them, but I'll look and verify.

[azbirdmom]

Thank you guys for answering! I don't think we got them, but I'll look and verify.

 

Good luck!

 

And I'm hoping that someone here can post the rest of the email with the terms and conditions. It would be helpful. I wasn't able to get anything when I called Princess yesterday as it came from the casino department but I just might shoot them an email today to find out if they can send me a second one. Since the offers were so varied and some did have expiration dates (according to the rep) it sure would be nice to find out what offer I got.

[Pmorton3360]

Looking at Regal in Feb. Sailing alone for first time and given a price of $699 for one in room. Looks good to me since it is usually double. Some perks with it also. What do you think.Am platinum on Princess

[azbirdmom]

Looking at Regal in Feb. Sailing alone for first time and given a price of $699 for one in room. Looks good to me since it is usually double. Some perks with it also. What do you think.Am platinum on Princess

 

If it looks good to you, grab it. On another thread on this topic someone mentioned that a Princess rep said that they are discontinuing this offer. I validated that it's no longer showing up for Alaska but is still there for Caribbean. I don't know if this same thing will happen for everyone, but if you want to do it, book it quickly so you don't lose it. You can actually hold a cabin without a deposit for up to 72 hours - you'll see the timing when you book.

[margeg]

Looking at Regal in Feb. Sailing alone for first time and given a price of $699 for one in room. Looks good to me since it is usually double. Some perks with it also. What do you think.Am platinum on Princess

 

This sounds excellent to me. Especially in feb. I would grab it.

[mrsgthatsme]

Those of you receiving these amazing deal emails from

Princess, is there a trick to getting these? I have never cruised Princess before and do get some email promos but none have applied to my sailing or been anything great at all. How do you get yourself included in these deals? :)

[cruisequeen4ever]

I don't even see a "Comments" section on our booking confirmations, only a "Notices", and that just lists fine print type things.

[bulldog on water]

i saw these fares late at night and noticed that the listed price was reduced when you clicked on the actual cabin you wanted, and it reduced by the tax and port charges. it was late at night so I went to bed and planned on calling my TA in the morning only to see that the offer had changed. I guess the term "you snooze you lose" applies to me!!!!!!

[azbirdmom]

i saw these fares late at night and noticed that the listed price was reduced when you clicked on the actual cabin you wanted, and it reduced by the tax and port charges. it was late at night so I went to bed and planned on calling my TA in the morning only to see that the offer had changed. I guess the term "you snooze you lose" applies to me!!!!!!

 

Sorry to hear that. If you find a great fare like this again for a cruise, you can always book the cabin on Princess.com without putting a deposit down and then transfer it to your travel agent during normal business hours. Keep checking, fares change all the time!