Koningsdam 01/04/2019 giving up my cabin for an over sold cruise

[richwmn]

2 hours ago, MikeD4134 said:

They do not oversell cruises.  Read the article, please.

 

They do overbook cruises. Even the article you copied to this thread admits it.

 

While the quoted article says that overbooking is rare, we have no way of knowing. The article quotes the head of a group that owns 750 travel agencies, but does that make him an authority. According to a google search, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that there are over 130,000 travel agents in the US.

 

The cruise lines are not going to advertise how much overbooking occurs, so all that is available is anecdotal evidence. Just as we have no way of knowing how full any cruise is, we can't know how much overbooking occurs. Every now and then someone posts on CC that a cruise is overbooked.

 

My own experience is 10 years old. I was part of a small group that ended up with 2 people solo about 2 weeks before the cruise. I read on CC that people were getting move over offers, so I called and got the two singles combined. The cabin that had a passenger cancel received a refund of the second passenger, and I was refared to the double occupancy rate, saving quite a bit.

 

[kazu]

14 hours ago, kazu said:

 

.  My TA said they were definitely overbooked and had a huge waiting list.

 

 

 

14 hours ago, MikeD4134 said:

Kazu, .....  Pretty sure what you folks are talking about is the occasional cruise that has very high demand and the cruise line can sell the cabins for a lot more than folks have paid.  

 

What part of my TA said they were overbooked did you not comprehend?

[grsnovi]

My "over sold" experience: We had booked a round trip out of Seattle Alaska cruise during the first 2 weeks of the season. We live in Portland and would drive up to Seattle and park. The early weeks of the Alaska season often have "spotty" weather and are usually somewhat less expensive. HAL makes money from airfare - which we wouldn't use. They had east coast (or foreign) passengers who also booked that cruise who also booked airfare with HAL. HAL asked us if we would sail 2 weeks later and offered us an upgrade to a suite as well as $1000.00. As it turned out the later sailing worked for both of us (we both were still working at the time) and we accepted.

[Andi Land]

My very first cruise booking was for a 3 day round trip Seattle. It had a stop in Victoria and another in Vancouver before heading back to Seattle. I booked this cruise to test if we’d like cruising. Well, about a month before departure I received an email that the cruise was overbooked. The perks to give up my cabin were great. I received a 7 day cruise of my choosing to anywhere HAL cruised. Since I live close to Seattle it was an quick yes to change to a different cruise. So, I’m another example of the fact that cruise lines do indeed over book cruises. 

[igraf]

On 12/27/2018 at 2:42 AM, Krazy Kruizers said:

If the cruise is over sold, you can bet there is a waiting list.

 

HAL will decide who they will call and make offers to those people if the cruise is over sold.  And those people will get their money back and some compensation.

 

 

 

 

 

We were wait-listed recently, but did not book & pay until a cabin was available (4 days before sailing!). 

 

Overselling a cruise could only be voluntary as many customers would end up with unusable nonrefundable airline tickets.

 

igraf

 

 

Edited December 28, 2018 by igraf

[iancal]

We had a mover over offer from Princess a few years ago on a balcony cabin.  The offer came in late Dec. for a Feb. 15 two week cruise  that we had booked.   Our on line TA passed the offer along to us and subsequently arranged a con call with Princess to get/agree to the details.  Then Princess sent us a memo confirming the discussion/agreement.

 

The offer (which we accepted in a heartbeat):  Full refund of our fare.   A free 14 day cruise anywhere with an upgrade from balcony to mini suite.  Refund of up to $300. to offset any airline expenses (they only had to reimburse us $275).   Fortunately we had reward air tickets so the change the change free was low.

 

We chose a replacement cruise for the following year.  Interestingly enough, we dined at a table with another couple who took advantage of the same offer but on a different original sailing than ours. 

 

Edited December 29, 2018 by iancal

[cruzingnut]

And yet another example of an oversold cruise.  Years ago (20+) we were offered one of the 2 largest suites on the Sky Princess (Malaga Suite) if we would go on a cruise 2 weeks later than we had planned.  We had paid for an ocean view.  We were planning on bumming around Florida for a couple weeks anyway, so we said yes please and just did our planned "bumming" before the cruise rather than after. 

 

Linda R.

[Pokeymon]

Holland America does overbook. I have been bumped.