Price drop after final payment?

[quandrea]

We sail to Alaska in August. There has been a significant price drop on both our VF and Neptune Suite. Called HAL. They offered about $1275 CAD in future cruise credit. Said I’d think about it. Truthfully, I’d prefer OBC for this cruise. The future cruise credit is not necessarily useful to me. How can I negotiate this to my benefit?

[twentyknots]

I'm surprised they offered anything.  I've always assumed it was just a matter of math.  If the cancellation fee in effect at the time of the price change is less than the price reduction, then  it might pay to cancel and rebook if a specific cabin assignment is not important.  Our recent Oosterdam Alaska cruise was not sold out either and we too had a Neptune suite booked.  Three weeks before the cruise the price dropped $1300.  Nothing we could do.  We had the cabin we wanted and lots of perks and promotions.

[RocketMan275]

1 hour ago, quandrea said:

We sail to Alaska in August. There has been a significant price drop on both our VF and Neptune Suite. Called HAL. They offered about $1275 CAD in future cruise credit. Said I’d think about it. Truthfully, I’d prefer OBC for this cruise. The future cruise credit is not necessarily useful to me. How can I negotiate this to my benefit?

Make an offer.  I would suspect that anything acceptable to HAL will be a fraction of the future cruise credit.  Frankly, the FCC seems generous considering HAL has no obligation to provide any relief.  As is often pointed out on this board, would you feel an obligation to pay an increased fare had the price gone up?

[Lady Arwen]

Wow!  I think $1275.00 future cruise credit is exceptionally generous, since HAL does not have to give you any discount/OBC, etc.  I guess you could call them and try to negotiate something more to your liking, but I think they really gave you a fair offer.

[kimlew]

Wow you were lucky to get a credit.  That just happed to us in June ‘19, but we could not get credit or adjustment, but we were able to upgrade to a Veranda Suite, nice to have 2 sinks.

[quandrea]

I turned down the future cruise credit and managed to negotiate $1400 in onboard credit. It pays to try. 

[Hawaiidan]

Moral...  dealing with HAL  wait  do not book earily unless you  want to over pay....   Its how the company works....learn from the experience

[oakridger]

Wow! That's a great deal!   I don't wait too long to book once I decide to go a cruise.  I am particular where my cabin is located so want to secure it early.

 

~Nancy

Edited June 27, 2019 by oakridger
Added info

[quandrea]

34 minutes ago, Hawaiidan said:

Moral...  dealing with HAL  wait  do not book earily unless you  want to over pay....   Its how the company works....learn from the experience

Doesn’t work for everyone. We wanted connecting staterooms—in particular the Neptune suite connecting to a VF. There are only two such configurations on the ship. Booking early was the only option. I agree though—if you can wait and be flexible with a stateroom and know you can secure good air, waiting can be a good move. 

[kazu]

58 minutes ago, Hawaiidan said:

Moral...  dealing with HAL  wait  do not book earily unless you  want to over pay....   Its how the company works....learn from the experience

 

I have to disagree.  Yes, you can win by booking late and you can also lose.

 

I’ve seen prices go up on our sailings (we don’t do the standard 7 day Caribbean’s) and come out way ahead.  I’ve also seen the ships sold out long before final payment.

 

I’ve booked for next year and just scored a huge drop in price, refaced with no issue.  I highly doubt I would get a decent offer on an upsell close to what I have this cabin for.

 

There are pros and cons to both.  But never say never to either 😉 

[quandrea]

31 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

I have to disagree.  Yes, you can win by booking late and you can also lose.

 

I’ve seen prices go up on our sailings (we don’t do the standard 7 day Caribbean’s) and come out way ahead.  I’ve also seen the ships sold out long before final payment.

 

I’ve booked for next year and just scored a huge drop in price, refaced with no issue.  I highly doubt I would get a decent offer on an upsell close to what I have this cabin for.

 

There are pros and cons to both.  But never say never to either 😉 

Agreed. Watching the fare is essential. We had three price drops between booking and final payment. Price came down about $3000 Canadian with added incentives—air credit, gratuities, etc. I expect the price to drop after final payment much of the time and am happy if I can negotiate OBC. 

[terrydtx]

Our SS cabin on the Noordam next month actually went up in price by $400pp after final payment. However,  we did rebook a week before final payment when the price dropped $725pp. I am very pleased with what we ended up at, after the price had dropped by over $1000pp from what we originally booked last September.

[suralottie]

Nice Terry!

[Tapi]

When we sailed on the Westerdam to Alaska, there was a significant price drop for our sailing just a few days prior to sailing. So I called my TA to see if there was something that she could do for us, fully expecting that the answer would be NO. Well, she called me back a few minutes later after calling HAL. We got upgraded from our oceanview stateroom to a balcony, plus they gave us OBC for the difference in price between what we'd  originally paid and the current balcony price. I was pleasantly surprised. 

 

We are now booked on Niew Statendam for February and we've already had our fare repriced twice. So far,  our fare is $800 less than the day we booked the cruise a few months ago, plus our TA added OBC and gratuities to our booking.