Compensation for price drop right after final payment?

[RocketMan275]

19 minutes ago, iancal said:

Why only compensation for a price drop after final payment?  What about people who buy inside the final payment window and the price subsequently drops or they discover the price was lower two months go.  No different that someone who makes payment at final payment time in the knowledge that it is non refundable.

 

Is the suggestion that the cruise line should give everyone who asks either the lowest price right, upgrades or some other sort of  compensation  until sailing time no matter when they booked?

 

Does this sound like a reasonable business model?

And, then, there's this situation:  price of cruise in April is $1000 PP.   Cruise price increases to $1500 in October.  Wouldn't it be fair to let someone who books in October get the April price?

[RoyalVisit]

34 minutes ago, iancal said:

Why only compensation for a price drop after final payment?  What about people who buy inside the final payment window and the price subsequently drops or they discover the price was lower two months go.  No different that someone who makes payment at final payment time in the knowledge that it is non refundable.

 

Is the suggestion that the cruise line should give everyone who asks either the lowest price right, upgrades or some other sort of  compensation  until sailing time no matter when they booked?

 

Does this sound like a reasonable business model?

Depends on what you feel is a good business model.  Even Walmart refunds their customers if the price drops within 30 days of purchasing the product (except clearance goods).  Many retail businesses like BestBuy, Canadian Tire, Old Navy etc., all have policies in effect for this kind of scenario.   Sunwing Vacations in Canada also has a price drop guarantee - whereby a for a small fee you can buy the guarantee and if the price drops after you book, you'll receive a refund for the difference.  I don't care when people actually make a purchase, if the same company offers the same product within a short time span at a lower price, it's only goodwill on the company's behalf to make their customer happy with a price adjustment/refund.

[Hawaiidan]

5 hours ago, RocketMan275 said:

I've simply not experienced that.  I always book 12 or more months out.  I've always been able to get price drops.  Are you complaining about losing perks when you rebook?

It's been very clear what is refundable and what isn't.  

not loosing perks...I have none.   But HAl requiring you to cancel and loose the deposit.    1/2 year out  they  stuck it too me   The terms for my cruise said  no penalty before 120 days...        The cruise was selling or is selling poorly  so they want to stick it to you   Too, I am sailing solo 2x the fare and  naturally they made me pay 2x the deposit.....      Even though it was withing terms...that I reviewed  the  still screwed me.     This is a first in 30 years of sailing many lines... Only HAL    And on the same cruise  there are 2 other solos  they screwed too....  I guess if your dumb enough to pay double  HAL  figured They could rip me off....

[kazu]

1 minute ago, RoyalVisit said:

Depends on what you feel is a good business model.  Even Walmart refunds their customers if the price drops within 30 days of purchasing the product (except clearance goods).  Many retail businesses like BestBuy, Canadian Tire, Old Navy etc., all have policies in effect for this kind of scenario.   Sunwing Vacations in Canada also has a price drop guarantee - whereby a for a small fee you can buy the guarantee and if the price drops after you book, you'll receive a refund for the difference.  I don't care when people actually make a purchase, if the same company offers the same product within a short time span at a lower price, it's only goodwill on the company's behalf to make their customer happy with a price adjustment/refund.

 

The only problem with this is that usually the cruises are “clearance goods” when people have difficulty getting the price drop.  If it’s after final payment and the ship needs to fill cabins, they go on sale or “clearance”.

 

As long as you have a refundable booking you can take advantage of the lower prices until the cancellation period clicks in. 😉 

[RocketMan275]

4 minutes ago, Hawaiidan said:

not loosing perks...I have none.   But HAl requiring you to cancel and loose the deposit.    1/2 year out  they  stuck it too me   The terms for my cruise said  no penalty before 120 days...        The cruise was selling or is selling poorly  so they want to stick it to you   Too, I am sailing solo 2x the fare and  naturally they made me pay 2x the deposit.....      Even though it was withing terms...that I reviewed  the  still screwed me.     This is a first in 30 years of sailing many lines... Only HAL    And on the same cruise  there are 2 other solos  they screwed too....  I guess if your dumb enough to pay double  HAL  figured They could rip me off....

I've had four cruises on Holland.  All booked over a year out.  And, at least one, sometimes two price drops on each cruise.  Each time I called my TA, she applied the new fare, and I did not lose the deposit.  Nor, did I have to pay any kind of fee.  You need a new TA.

[RoyalVisit]

8 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

The only problem with this is that usually the cruises are “clearance goods” when people have difficulty getting the price drop.  If it’s after final payment and the ship needs to fill cabins, they go on sale or “clearance”.

 

As long as you have a refundable booking you can take advantage of the lower prices until the cancellation period clicks in. 😉 

Every company makes their own policies and those that offer flexibility often have a more loyal customer base. I disagree with the idea that travel can/should be seen as "clearance".   Customers travel when they can - they book in advance or book last minute but it's for their personal reasons - the travel product they buy essentially remains the same unless they are swapping out high thread-count sheets for low-thread count sheets and changing your lobster to a hamburger. 😉  If the travel provider can't sell their product perhaps the starting price was unreasonable or they are not offering a competitive product.  

Edited March 27, 2019 by RoyalVisit

[kazu]

7 minutes ago, RoyalVisit said:

Every company makes their own policies and those that offer flexibility often have a more loyal customer base. I disagree with the idea that travel can/should be seen as "clearance".   Customers travel when they can - they book in advance or book last minute but it's for their personal reasons - the travel product they buy essentially remains the same unless they are swapping out high thread-count sheets for low-thread count sheets and changing your lobster to a hamburger. 😉  If the travel provider can't sell their product perhaps the starting price was unreasonable or they are not offering a competitive product.  

 

So tell me, if the price goes up (which I have seen a number of times) should the person who has the lower price have to pay the higher one?

 

You can’t have it both ways.  

 

FWIW, price has dropped on my upcoming cruise.  I took advantage as did a few others to upgrade to a higher category.  No problem at all 😉 

 

I don’t expect a discount since I did agree to a contract when I booked.  If I had gotten one, fine, but the upgrade/upsell worked fine for me 😉 

[Hawaiidan]

6 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

I've had four cruises on Holland.  All booked over a year out.  And, at least one, sometimes two price drops on each cruise.  Each time I called my TA, she applied the new fare, and I did not lose the deposit.  Nor, did I have to pay any kind of fee.  You need a new TA.

No...He is the sharpest I have found  and had him for 15 years..  he has done  miracles for me again and again... 

 

I need  to steer clear of HAl  is what I need to do.     I used to sail HAL all the time  but left for better things.  I got seduced in a 29 day cruise  rarely ever done... and booked because I wont have another chance ever.... last time they ran this cruise  was 11 or 12 years ago.   

 After this cruise  I wont make the same mistake of booking a pig with lipstick.....   

[RoyalVisit]

9 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

So tell me, if the price goes up (which I have seen a number of times) should the person who has the lower price have to pay the higher one?

 

You can’t have it both ways.  

 

FWIW, price has dropped on my upcoming cruise.  I took advantage as did a few others to upgrade to a higher category.  No problem at all 😉 

 

I don’t expect a discount since I did agree to a contract when I booked.  If I had gotten one, fine, but the upgrade/upsell worked fine for me 😉 

Who says you can't have it both ways? 🤣

 

I did the same - the price dropped on our cruise within 10 days of applying final payment as I stated earlier in the thread. I called, and they swapped us from a VE guarantee to a V assigned.  They didn't offer a refund, but they did please this customer - flexibility was appreciated....we didn't pay anything additional.

 

The only time I've ever personally heard of any company telling a customer who already purchased a product that they now had to pay more is in relation to new fuel surcharges. 

 

Upsells are a different discussion topic.  

Edited March 27, 2019 by RoyalVisit

[Lido deck main]

I totally agree that we should book a cruise with a price that we can live with, regardless if the price goes down.  We do have to acknowledge though that it hurts us mentally at least, if the price goes down significantly after final payment.  We got stung for our cruise last fall 2018 where the price went down $1,200.00 per person so was $2,400 for the two of us.  I had even paid the higher refundable fare.  I had booked the cruise 9 months before and was emotionally invested as I had done a lot of tour port investigations and was looking forward to the cruise.  Anyhow what that experience taught me was to book only after final payment from now on.  I will always have backup cruises in mind in case they sell out.  So for the cruise we are on in two weeks (I had actually booked in the fall 2018 for spring 2019, but had to cancel as my husband got called for jury duty).  He subsequently got out of jury duty,  So we decided to wait until after final payment, and we saved over $1,300 per person, than the price I had originally booked at in the fall 2018.  So in this case it worked for us.  What I am also thinking is I know some people do not prefer the larger ships, but wow, I am waiting for HAL and all the other lines to fill these big ships, what I think might happen there will be a saturation point, and the market prices for cruises will be on a downtrend.  The Koningsdam is due to do the Alaska run, next summer 2020, we already get deals in May for Alaska with the smaller ships, the pinnacles I believe are close to 2,900 passengers.  What deals could we get then as they try to fill larger ships.  Also, I think the cruise lines lose if people do wait for final payment as we will not be locked in with the HAL or whatever other  brand.  We don’t get emotionally invested and can jump ship to any other brand.   I do like HAL,  most of our cruise days are on HAL, but we have been also on Princess quite a bit and less on NCL  I am just saying it will be harder for people  to be loyal to any brand, if they are booking last minute, past final payment

[iancal]

We are absolutely not emotionally attached to any cruise line. We have a few preferred cruise lines plus a few that we want to try.

 

We typically book inside the final payment window and only when our target price hits and when we can easily reach the port or get reasonable air.  We often follow air and cruise pricing at the same time.  We always have a backup plan.  If our balcony price does not hit we just go to plan B.  We do exactly the same for AI's.

 

If we do purchase prior to final payment we do not expect to get a reduction in price after we are in the final payment window.  On one occasion we could see that bookings were light.  We cancelled a few days before final payment and rebooked a few weeks later at a significant discount to our original fare...and in a slightly higher cabin category.  Regardless of when we book, we clearly understand that the price is the price once we have crossed the final payment window.  The cruise lines make that abundantly clear.  No different than when we purchase non refundable air or pre pay hotel stays in order to take advantage of a discount.   And yes, there have been several times when we have booked inside the final payment window and then seen the prices go even lower.  Not great, but we did hit our target price and were happy with it at the time of booking.

Edited March 27, 2019 by iancal

[Lido deck main]

6 minutes ago, iancal said:

We are absolutely not emotionally attached to any cruise line. We have a few preferred cruise lines plus a few that we want to try.

 

We typically book inside the final payment window and only when our target price hits and when we can easily reach the port or get reasonable air.  We often follow air and cruise pricing at the same time.  We always have a backup plan.  If our balcony price does not hit we just go to plan B.  We do exactly the same for AI's.

 

If we do purchase prior to final payment we do not expect to get a reduction in price after we are in the final payment window.  On one occasion we could see that bookings were light.  We cancelled a few days before final payment and rebooked a few weeks later at a significant discount to our original fare...and in a slightly higher cabin category.  Regardless of when we book, we clearly understand that the price is the price once we have crossed the final payment window.  The cruise lines make that abundantly clear.

Yep, this is the direction I am heading to.  Have options, be flexible and have a set price in mind.

[Caymus88]

1 hour ago, RoyalVisit said:

Depends on what you feel is a good business model.  Even Walmart refunds their customers if the price drops within 30 days of purchasing the product (except clearance goods).  Many retail businesses like BestBuy, Canadian Tire, Old Navy etc., all have policies in effect for this kind of scenario.   Sunwing Vacations in Canada also has a price drop guarantee - whereby a for a small fee you can buy the guarantee and if the price drops after you book, you'll receive a refund for the difference.  I don't care when people actually make a purchase, if the same company offers the same product within a short time span at a lower price, it's only goodwill on the company's behalf to make their customer happy with a price adjustment/refund.

Costco will honor any lower price they advertise on products

[RocketMan275]

30 minutes ago, Caymus88 said:

Costco will honor any lower price they advertise on products

So will HAL.  Up and until final payment.

HAL also has non-refundable deposits.  Book one of those and you receive a lower fare.  In effect, you've already received your price drop.

[iancal]

I do not understand the confusion.  This is about risk and reward.  If you book prior to final payment you pay a price and get the ship/cabin/ and category of your choice.   If the fare goes down prior to final payment you can get re-fared.  The onus is on you or your TA to keep a sharp lookout for pricing changes.

 

 If  you accept risk book after final payment.   Take a chance on the fares actually increasing, not being able to get your choice of ship/cabin/category, or indeed of not getting a cruise at all.   That is risk we typically assume and we generally get rewarded for it.  But we clearly understand that it might be a bust for us and we revert to plan B as has happened on numerous occasions.

 

These two offerings are very different from each other.  Pick one and move forward.

Edited March 27, 2019 by iancal

[RoyalVisit]

2 hours ago, iancal said:

I do not understand the confusion.  This is about risk and reward.  If you book prior to final payment you pay a price and get the ship/cabin/ and category of your choice.   If the fare goes down prior to final payment you can get re-fared.  The onus is on you or your TA to keep a sharp lookout for pricing changes.

 

 If  you accept risk book after final payment.   Take a chance on the fares actually increasing, not being able to get your choice of ship/cabin/category, or indeed of not getting a cruise at all.   That is risk we typically assume and we generally get rewarded for it.  But we clearly understand that it might be a bust for us and we revert to plan B as has happened on numerous occasions.

 

These two offerings are very different from each other.  Pick one and move forward.

Who said we were confused? We were discussing a topic with different points of view.