Cancellation and Rebooking

[Ilovemygarden]

Has anyone successfully cancelled (before full payment made) and rebooked the same cruise because of a big price difference?

I have booked select and would like to rebook saver.

[terrierjohn]

22 minutes ago, Ilovemygarden said:

Has anyone successfully cancelled (before full payment made) and rebooked the same cruise because of a big price difference?

I have booked select and would like to rebook saver.

Several years ago we did the same and, despite forfeiting the deposit, we made a saving of £1000 on a balcony cabin. However since we started booking on launch day, we have never seen any of these prices bettered.

[Gazza64]

Royal Caribbean had a policy where they would change a booking if the price dropped, they didn't do it automatically - you had to call. Not sure if P and O do the same but may be worth calling them, they were very helpful when we had to change the dates of our cruise twice. The second time we changed to a suite as it was actually cheaper than the original balcony we had booked. Nothing to lose by talking to them

[Ranchi]

Yes, we did this year. We used our usual travel agent and she was very good (despite losing a bit of commission). We didn’t want to move cabins. Our agent was able to cancel but hold the cabin and then re-book it. We lost our deposit but did save quite a bit. We wouldn’t have bothered for a few £ but our TA was very understanding. 

[Harry Peterson]

8 hours ago, Ilovemygarden said:

Has anyone successfully cancelled (before full payment made) and rebooked the same cruise because of a big price difference?

I have booked select and would like to rebook saver.

No reason why you shouldn't, and if the deposit's small you could make a big saving, depending obviously on when you booked and what's happened to prices since then.

 

Take great care, though, as to what you'll not be getting if you go Saver - sometimes the price difference is small and more than covered by OBC, port shuttle bus charges etc..

[Selbourne]

3 hours ago, Gazza64 said:

Royal Caribbean had a policy where they would change a booking if the price dropped, they didn't do it automatically - you had to call. Not sure if P and O do the same but may be worth calling them, they were very helpful when we had to change the dates of our cruise twice. The second time we changed to a suite as it was actually cheaper than the original balcony we had booked. Nothing to lose by talking to them

 

Sadly, P&O definitely doesn’t do that. You have to cancel and re-book. 

 

We’ve never done it for three reasons. Firstly, like TerrierJohn we book and launch and the prices aren’t bettered between then and sail date (I don’t say that to be smug as it irritates me having to book so far in advance). Secondly, we book Select because we want our first choice of cabin and dining, not what is leftover, as we never want to be above or below public areas (noise disturbance) and we would only want freedom dining (which often ‘sells out’). Finally, as HP has said, you can often find that the ‘saving’ of a saver fare is severely eroded when you net out the loss of OBC / free parking / shuttles etc etc and is often negligible. If the net saving (after these factors are all taken into account) is significant and you are prepared to risk a noisy cabin then the option to cancel and rebook is perfectly possible. Worth noting that this may be an increasingly desirable option on new ships as they are introduced as they are likely to be 100% Freedom Dining (as Iona will be), so one of the ‘risks’ of booking a saver is eliminated. 

Edited July 15, 2019 by Selbourne

[Son of Anarchy]

I think it was about 6 or 7 years ago, we ca celled a select fare and re-booked the early saver.  Even taking OBC into account we saved about £800 on an inside cabin.  The TA was very helpful and saw exactly where we were coming from.  At that time the T & Cs for early savers allowed you to choose dining rather than the current system and shuttles were included so it was only cabin location that was left to chance and we felt the saving outweighed the location.

[dgs1956]

We did it just a couple of months ago with a cruise to Caribbean on Britannia. We had booked through a Travel Agent and Had noticed a significant price drop. The TA could do nothing and P&O wouldn't even discuss it with us saying we had to deal through our TA. I cancelled it and rebooked through P&O online and saved about £400 even though I forfeited the deposit.

[Ilovemygarden]

Result! Thanks to all of you who replied. I have now re-booked to an inside saver instead of select outside with a saving (after losing deposit which was only £25 and obc) of £400 on a single cabin.  

[Kaylacool]

10 minutes ago, Ilovemygarden said:

Result! Thanks to all of you who replied. I have now re-booked to an inside saver instead of select outside with a saving (after losing deposit which was only £25 and obc) of £400 on a single cabin.  

nice work.  more money for your next cruise 🙂