Air Credit during Signature Savings Event

[wesport]

I am looking at the Cuba cruise out of Miami in November.  Fare includes $500 credit towards roundtrip airfare. Being that we live in Fort Lauderdale,and don't need the airfare,  would there be a credit towards the cruise fare, or is the $500 only available if you book air through Seabourn? Not a big deal, but just curious. 

[BasandSyb]

Hi, I don't know if things have changed of recent times, but for us (based in Australia) we have never been able to access the air credit, nor have we received anything additional for not being able to access it - and that's booking through Seabourn both air and cruise. It seems to be be a more common marketing tool for US customers. These days we stick with our TA who can do better deals. Good luck. Hope it works out for you.

[SKP946]

BagandSyb. We had the option of an Air Credit with our Seabourn Australia booking for Sojourn Asia last March, but didn’t even try to book our air through Seabourn as we used miles to fly to Singapore.

To the best of my knowledge the Air Credit is only if you book your flights through Seabourn.

[BasandSyb]

Hi SKP946 - We've tried probably 2 or 3 times acting on "deals" emailed to us by Seabourn. While we booked the cruise with them and asked about the air,  the credit wasn't able to be accessed by non-US customers, nor was there any offer adjustment (obc increase etc). So we tend to ignore this type of marketing now. Anyway, our experience has been we can do cheaper and better connected flights than those Seabourn Sydney quote -  even better on points 😉

 

Will be interesting to hear if any other Australians have been successful in accessing the air credit and if they did, if it worked out as any cheaper than booking yourself.

[markham]

wesport,

 

I imagine that the airfare benefit applies for a short time, for your market and depends on the package you pay for.

 

Does your TA not know how to interpret what Seabourn is offering? If not, then get a competent TA.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

[zelker]

23 hours ago, wesport said:

I am looking at the Cuba cruise out of Miami in November.  Fare includes $500 credit towards roundtrip airfare. Being that we live in Fort Lauderdale,and don't need the airfare,  would there be a credit towards the cruise fare, or is the $500 only available if you book air through Seabourn? Not a big deal, but just curious. 

 

Unlike some of the other higher end cruise lines (Oceania comes to mind) who give you some amount of credit should you opt not to take the "free" included airfare, Seabourn only deducts that $500 from air you book with them ($250 if one-way fare) but if you book independent air or no air at all (as in your case), there is no credit applied to the price of the cruise itself.  Hope that answers your question. 

 

Edited to say that I have no idea how it works outside of the US but since I live here and so does the OP, then what I wrote above is currently correct for those of us who live in the States.

 

Edited January 21, 2019 by zelker

[wesport]

1 hour ago, zelker said:

 

Unlike some of the other higher end cruise lines (Oceania comes to mind) who give you some amount of credit should you opt not to take the "free" included airfare, Seabourn only deducts that $500 from air you book with them ($250 if one-way fare) but if you book independent air or no air at all (as in your case), there is no credit applied to the price of the cruise itself.  Hope that answers your question. 

 

Edited to say that I have no idea how it works outside of the US but since I live here and so does the OP, then what I wrote above is currently correct for those of us who live in the States.

 

When I went back and read it word for word, it does say air credit when you book with Seabourn air. Just thought I would ask to see if anyone got credit. I am happier to take Uber from Fort Lauderdale to port of Miami instead of flying. Cuba itinerary looks interesting.  11/28 seems to be the only one that is not selling well. 

[fudgbug]

We received a brochure this past weekend from Seabourn that had an offer for "Holiday Cuban & Caribbean Stars" departing San Juan December 21.  That offer was good through February 19, 2019.  When we went to book it, Seabrourn wanted $400 more and said that the offer was no longer available!  

 

Has anyone else run in to this?

[naata]

We booked a supposed air credit through our agent with Seabourn Australia.  

The flights were with Air New Zealand, which we booked as part of the cruise ...I was not much of a bonus, around $250aud for our two tickets, still a better price than with Air NZ direct.   We suspect it was a trade/wholesale fare.

 

The rub was, when a substantial drop in our cruise cost was available to all, we applied for the new discount on the cruise, we had these in the past!.    The problem was, Seabourn would give us the "New" price on the cruise, but we would not be able to have ANY refund on our airfares, despite no actual change in the flights, all unchanged.

 

So lesson learned, the bonus flights lock you in, and any cancel and rebook at the lower cruise price will in effect have you lose the whole airfare!.

Not exactly sure IF this is the situation in the USA, but it is in Australia, and I suspect in the UK/Europe.

[SKP946]

8 hours ago, fudgbug said:

We received a brochure this past weekend from Seabourn that had an offer for "Holiday Cuban & Caribbean Stars" departing San Juan December 21.  That offer was good through February 19, 2019.  When we went to book it, Seabrourn wanted $400 more and said that the offer was no longer available!  

 

Has anyone else run in to this?

 

 Fudgbug if you read the fine print at the end of the brochure it states :-

  “All offers are capacity controlled and may be modified or withdrawn at any time without prior notice” 

Standard industry practice.

[zelker]

20 hours ago, naata said:

We booked a supposed air credit through our agent with Seabourn Australia.  

The flights were with Air New Zealand, which we booked as part of the cruise ...I was not much of a bonus, around $250aud for our two tickets, still a better price than with Air NZ direct.   We suspect it was a trade/wholesale fare.

 

The rub was, when a substantial drop in our cruise cost was available to all, we applied for the new discount on the cruise, we had these in the past!.    The problem was, Seabourn would give us the "New" price on the cruise, but we would not be able to have ANY refund on our airfares, despite no actual change in the flights, all unchanged.

 

So lesson learned, the bonus flights lock you in, and any cancel and rebook at the lower cruise price will in effect have you lose the whole airfare!.

Not exactly sure IF this is the situation in the USA, but it is in Australia, and I suspect in the UK/Europe.

 

The key to not losing your airfare, at least here in the US, is to book FlexFare, which can be changed or cancelled any time up until final payment of the cruise.  However, I "think" that if you rebook the cruise at a new fare and the air credit promo is no longer in effect, you will lose that credit AND you will lose any other perks from Seabourn that may no longer be in effect either.  Bottom line - you have to weigh the lower cruise fare against what you might lose in benefits, if anything, to see if it's worth it to rebook.  YMMV. 

[naata]

3 hours ago, zelker said:

 

The key to not losing your airfare, at least here in the US, is to book FlexFare, which can be changed or cancelled any time up until final payment of the cruise.  However, I "think" that if you rebook the cruise at a new fare and the air credit promo is no longer in effect, you will lose that credit AND you will lose any other perks from Seabourn that may no longer be in effect either.  Bottom line - you have to weigh the lower cruise fare against what you might lose in benefits, if anything, to see if it's worth it to rebook.  YMMV. 

Greetings Zelker,

                               The airfares booked through Seabourn were pre-Christmas ones (but made 3 months before), and any sort of Flex type fare was not available as far as I can recall.     With the Seabourn stance on cruise price drops and Seabourn booked flights we will not take that gamble again ever.

There was no changes required to the flights, they were just playing hardball.    If we had taken the cruise price drop and forfeited the flights who knows IF we could have made the Air NZ bookings again or at what cost?!.  The effective flight bonus was small and not worth the "locked in"  nature of them.     

[raphael360]

On 1/20/2019 at 4:51 PM, wesport said:

I am looking at the Cuba cruise out of Miami in November.  Fare includes $500 credit towards roundtrip airfare. Being that we live in Fort Lauderdale,and don't need the airfare,  would there be a credit towards the cruise fare, or is the $500 only available if you book air through Seabourn? Not a big deal, but just curious. 

The $500 credit is towards your airfare via Flightease as others have mentioned.  Also as mentioned, other high end lines offer "free" airfare or you can get a big discount for cruise only. 

 

You're going to love Cuba.  I've been their twice on cruises.

 

[fudgbug]

On 1/28/2019 at 11:33 PM, SKP946 said:

 

 Fudgbug if you read the fine print at the end of the brochure it states :-

  “All offers are capacity controlled and may be modified or withdrawn at any time without prior notice” 

Standard industry practice.

Thanks.  I didn't read the small print and even if I had, would have felt that it was a "bait and switch" since we had just received the brochure.  Now the cost of the same category is up $2,000.

[naata]

8 hours ago, fudgbug said:

Thanks.  I didn't read the small print and even if I had, would have felt that it was a "bait and switch" since we had just received the brochure.  Now the cost of the same category is up $2,000.

Hmm - "Bait & Switch"   that seems to be evident on all these offers that appear via the post.

Have had cruises in the past that have had two reductions prior to departure ..... some we have been granted others not.    

I understand Seabourn now has a system that manages the bookings like the airlines which is in effect a demand management process.   This is ok, but I suspect this creates the environment that is conducive to the yoyo of pricing and the infernal "conditions" that are areas of confusion or non-availability.