Price Drop Denied

[leawilhelm]

I made a "mock" booking and the price was $29.75 less expensive (it was the cabin right next door). I called to see if I could get a price adjustment. The agent told me that because I had already booked and had a $125 OBC it would make the fare the cheaper price but it would adjust my OBC to only $50. Does this sound normal?

[evandbob]

Yep... same with those cool aft balconies

 

 

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And spa balconies as well, with their limited #.

 

Our Horizon spa balcony this May dropped from $1644 to $1320 over a series of reductions before they sold out. A $648 savings for the 2 of us.

[Pyrate13]

I made a "mock" booking and the price was $29.75 less expensive (it was the cabin right next door). I called to see if I could get a price adjustment. The agent told me that because I had already booked and had a $125 OBC it would make the fare the cheaper price but it would adjust my OBC to only $50. Does this sound normal?

 

Yes, the price drop must match the previous offer. If the new offer/price has only a $50 OBC that is all you would get, you lose the $125 offer. In your case, appears best to keep what you have.

[leawilhelm]

Yes, the price drop must match the previous offer. If the new offer/price has only a $50 OBC that is all you would get, you lose the $125 offer. In your case, appears best to keep what you have.

 

Thank you for clarifying. I definitely kept what I had :)

[Retired_to_Cruise]

No. You can get price drops on all fare types prior to the final payment date. After the final payment date, you can only get price drops on ES rates (up to 2 days prior to sailing).

 

This is direct quotation from the Carnival website: "Price Protection applies to Early Saver only. Please review your booking confirmation email to ensure the promotion you booked is eligible for price protection. To submit a Price Protection request, please complete the claim form below. We'll review your claim within two business days and if it meets the Price Protection requirements, you will have the choice of requesting an upgrade commensurate to the price differential (subject to availability), or we will process a non-refundable onboard credit for the fare difference. If a promotional onboard credit was included as part of your current fare please keep in mind that by adjusting to the lower fare the onboard credit will be forfeited. An email confirming the outcome of your request will be sent to you. Please indicate your preference below. If you booked your cruise with a travel agent and need to make a Price Protection claim, simply contact your travel agent and they will submit it for you. *Only 1 form per booking is required. Please do not submit multiple forms for one cabin."

[gerelmx]

I filled out the form for a price drop, ship mate alerted me that there was a drop and Carnival denied me. How do you get a price drop?

 

 

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Monitor the prices in Carnival web site if you look a better cabin at less price you book, ask for a upgrade or if you want to stay in the same cabin ask for the new rate, we have done this several times before final payment.

[Nic6318]

The price drop policy of Carnival is a bit of a "scam." I have a Havana Cabana room on the Horizon for later this year. I called for a price drop and was denied even though there were rooms still available in that group. Why? I was told I can only price match Havana Cabana rooms that hold 3 people since that's the one I booked. There are only 4 Havana Cabana rooms ON THE ENTIRE SHIP. I wouldn't have bothered to book under the Early Saver if I had known this. The policy does not explicitly include this level of discrimination of room categories, but I was denied nonetheless.

 

 

Hi

 

Using the term "scam" isn't quite fair. Imagine there was only "one" cabin of this type on the ship, no matter what prices did you would never get a price drop. Is that a scam if you didn't understand it?

 

I don't know the details of your specific booking but you likely did get a reduced price by booking "early saver". So in that case your decision would have been, is the reduced price worth the restrictions that come with booking "early saver rate". So if you did not know and got caught up in the effects of some of those restrictions, is that a scan as well? We have seen posts often enough from people who didn't understand things like non-refundable deposits etc... I would imagine very many other people who do not contribute to Cruise Critic end up losing money because they weren't aware, are they all being scammed?

[fuddrules]

Schoifmom is correct and what you posted is correct.

If you're not ES yet before final payment, you can cancel the cruise and rebook at the new price. Why do that? Just request a price drop.

 

This is direct quotation from the Carnival website: "Price Protection applies to Early Saver only. Please review your booking confirmation email to ensure the promotion you booked is eligible for price protection. To submit a Price Protection request, please complete the claim form below. We'll review your claim within two business days and if it meets the Price Protection requirements, you will have the choice of requesting an upgrade commensurate to the price differential (subject to availability), or we will process a non-refundable onboard credit for the fare difference. If a promotional onboard credit was included as part of your current fare please keep in mind that by adjusting to the lower fare the onboard credit will be forfeited. An email confirming the outcome of your request will be sent to you. Please indicate your preference below. If you booked your cruise with a travel agent and need to make a Price Protection claim, simply contact your travel agent and they will submit it for you. *Only 1 form per booking is required. Please do not submit multiple forms for one cabin."

[Tyhunt]

Also if you booked through an agent, even an online agent the agent usually has to fill the form out. Other pit falls, if your booking came with a discount, on board credit, reduced deposit, or others perks make sure the price drop covers losing those perks because the new lower price offer may not include those perks. especially the very low deposit one, when tou rebook you may have to pay full regular deposit or lose the booking.

 

So call and be sure how the price drop affects your overall situation because if you take the reduction it could cost you more in the end. Know from life lessons :)

[fligster]

Just called and saved $525 on my suite for August Vista Cruise. I didn’t have an early saver rate.

 

 

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[crooooze]

Forget these lame ES price drops. I just saved 15% on my car insurance by switching to Geico.

 

 

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[Retired_to_Cruise]

Schoifmom is correct and what you posted is correct.

If you're not ES yet before final payment, you can cancel the cruise and rebook at the new price. Why do that? Just request a price drop.

 

I do not care how you slice it. Canceling a cruise and rebooking it at a lower price is not taking advantage of the Price Protection statutes. It is a remedy for not being able to take advantage of Price Protection because the rate you booked does not allow it. If you can find someone at Carnival to do repricing for you, enjoy it. They probably will not work for Carnival the next time you call them.

[Free2bMeForever]

One thing to be aware of: a lot of the promotions specify “new bookings only”. If that is the case, Carnival will usually deny the request because you already have a booking and don’t meet the eligibility requirements.

 

 

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[meLOONia.]

I’ve gotten many price drops on my sunshine cruise booked for 8/18/18. Saved $400+. As someone said above, do a mock booking online to confirm price drop. Call carnival directly with the information. You will need to know how much the total is (without gratuity and insurance) and the name of the sale/promotion “early saver” “carnivalidays” etc. BUT as you come closer to your cruise date and your cabin category is all booked, you can no longer get reductions because they have nothing to compare it to.

 

 

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[meLOONia.]

I’ve gotten many price drops on my sunshine cruise booked for 8/18/18. Saved $400+. As someone said above, do a mock booking online to confirm price drop. Call carnival directly with the information. You will need to know how much the total is (without gratuity and insurance) and the name of the sale/promotion “early saver” “carnivalidays” etc. BUT as you come closer to your cruise date and your cabin category is all booked, you can no longer get reductions because they have nothing to compare it to.

 

 

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Also- if you paid it off and there is a reduction. You will get on board credit. I’ve saved $400+ and now have $90 on board credit. There’s about 7-8 cabins left in my category so hoping for a few more bucks.

 

 

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[fligster]

I’ve gotten many price drops on my sunshine cruise booked for 8/18/18. Saved $400+. As someone said above, do a mock booking online to confirm price drop. Call carnival directly with the information. You will need to know how much the total is (without gratuity and insurance) and the name of the sale/promotion “early saver” “carnivalidays” etc. BUT as you come closer to your cruise date and your cabin category is all booked, you can no longer get reductions because they have nothing to compare it to.

 

 

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I didn’t have any of this info. I did a mock booking, saw it was less and called. I gave my booking number and said I think the price is less and wanted to see about a reduction. The carnival person figured out it was cheaper and then gave me the new price.

 

 

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[meLOONia.]

I didn’t have any of this info. I did a mock booking, saw it was less and called. I gave my booking number and said I think the price is less and wanted to see about a reduction. The carnival person figured out it was cheaper and then gave me the new price.

 

 

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Awesome. Yeah now that I deal with the same person that’s all I do too. I email her and she changes it within an hour or two. One weekend she was away so I had to call carnival direct and for some reason the rep I got asked me all those questions. I guess it depends if you get someone with a brain or not [emoji51]

 

 

 

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[Doggielover68]

Be sure that you're looking at the full total including taxes and fees. Sometimes the base rate changes but the taxes increase.

 

 

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[TwizzlersAddict]

I do not care how you slice it. Canceling a cruise and rebooking it at a lower price is not taking advantage of the Price Protection statutes. It is a remedy for not being able to take advantage of Price Protection because the rate you booked does not allow it. If you can find someone at Carnival to do repricing for you, enjoy it. They probably will not work for Carnival the next time you call them.

The point he was making is rather than requiring a passenger to cancel and rebook,they just adjust the price, if its before final payment. Just about every cruise line does that.