Booking early vs last minute deals?

[MicCanberra]

On 8/9/2019 at 1:57 AM, tkline said:

So it seems like if you book a cruise soon after it is announced you have a better chance of finding the cabin you want, on the deck you want, and can book dining options and other things before they sell out.

 

But, there’s also lots of good last minute deals out there, but there are usually just a handful of “good” rooms left on those.

 

Just curious, what is your preference? Do you book a cruise far in advance, or do you prefer to do last minute deals?

We do both if we can.

[Robinsoncruiseso]

On 8/10/2019 at 9:47 PM, geoherb said:

 

This is wrong. I have booked plenty of last-minute cruises after the final payment date. I booked back-to-back 7-day cruises this summer on a Princess ship. The price for the same itinerary, same general dates next summer is four times more than I paid.

 

Back when DH taught at a community college, we could take cruises only during his school breaks. I'd frequently watch prices of cruises and even kept spreadsheets of how the prices changed. Most years I could find us a last-minute bargain because I wasn't picky about cabin location. One spring break, though, the prices all went up, and we ended up not going that year.

The “lead in” fare is the fare the day the cruise is released for sale. It is often the least expensive fare you will see. Beginning on day two, the fare will go up and down, adjusting for different promotions. If a sailing is popular or selling well, there will most likely be no downward price adjustment. If the opposite is true, you will find bargains as you have. I look at probably 200 cruises a day and pay particular attention to newly released sail dates.  Also know, many have access to prices before they are released on “websites”. When comparing prices, be careful to compare apples to apples and not compare a last minute guarantee cabin with a specific category previously listed for sale.

[Hlitner]

There is no magic formula for the early booking vs last minute booking.  We routinely do both (multiple times every year) depending on the specific cruise.  Supply/demand seems to be the major factor (with most lines) so a cruise that has a lot of unsold berths will often have some excellent to amazing last minute (inside the final payment period) deals that will blow away any earlier offerings.  On other cruises that are near-full the last minute prices might actually increase!  For those of us who are very flexible (in terms or using multiple cruise lines, itineraries, vessels, and timing) the last minute deals can be truly amazing.  But the reality is that most folks who work for a living or who have other at-home obligations (like pets) cannot often take advantage of most last minutes deals.   But for those of us who are retired and are able to get away with little notice or advance planning, the last minute deals can offer spectacular savings.  We have taken some last minute cruises where our real cost for a balcony cabin where under $60 per passenger day while most on that same cruise were paying 2, 3 or even 4 times that same price!

 

I should add that last minute bookers should be flexible in terms or cabin assignments, locations, and even categories.  You are going to get what is left which can be excellent or not so great.

 

Hank

[chipmaster]

Book early versus last depends on how you plan and manage total cost and plan for your vacation

 

Book early means you look in and can well plan and build anticipation for a vacation, be it cruise or anything else.

 

Going last minute can also be exciting but sometimes things like hotel, cabin, location, airfare and other things can bust the total budget or throw a wrench in it.

 

For us we think about cruising for each vacation almost a year out, and sometimes we do pencil in a cruise, but almost NEVER book it later than 3 months out for places we fly, and 30 days for places we can drive or fly to that are easy to do ( west coast USA ).

 

 

[iancal]

Our most attractive last minute balcony deals, from a cabin location and a price perspective were either in Europe or in Australia whilst we were in the middle of an independent land trip.  In one instance we had no return air from Europe.   The last minute cruise price was amazing and the cruise air pricing was the excellent...the best that we could find. 

 

Edited August 12, 2019 by iancal

[SRF]

On 8/9/2019 at 5:53 PM, crystalspin said:

In the past we have had to book all vacations pretty far out to make sure Dr'Spin could get the time off. When he retires at the end of this year, we will have more freedom to think about last-minute cruises from LA/San Pedro or San Diego... as far as last minute flights, I haven't seen the low prices @iancal mentioned! But maybe I wasn't looking in the right place.

 

You can get low cost, last minute fares.  But probably not the right ones for a cruise. 😄

 

Better chance if you live near a major hub.

[tkline]

Does anyone know of any good sites for finding cheap flights? Or is it just luck? I've tried Expedia or Cheapo Air or just going direct to an airline's site and it's always hit or miss

[Hlitner]

1 hour ago, tkline said:

Does anyone know of any good sites for finding cheap flights? Or is it just luck? I've tried Expedia or Cheapo Air or just going direct to an airline's site and it's always hit or miss

It depends on whether you are talking domestic or International.  For the best International fares (especially Business Class) we often look to the cruise lines who have their own discount programs.  Some cruise lines can get "P" Business Class fares which are generally about half the price of booking normal fares.  We particularly like dealing with HAL and Princess (both use the same air booking company) since you can bring up their fares online and look for the best deals.   As to Domestic the cruise fares are often not that great.  We do pretty well by snagging Southwest fares as soon as they open up even though we have to drive 1 1/2 - 2 hours to get to a Southwest airport.  JetBlue also has some decent fares on certain flights.  

 

Another word about Southwest!  They are a fierce competitor and create problems for other airlines.  Accordingly, you can often find decent fares on the other airlines if you use airports that are part of the Southwest system.  The other airlines will often offer prices that are lower then in markets where they do not have as much competition.

 

Hank

[tkline]

thanks, i always figured it's just best to book a flight as soon as it's available (11 months out?). We did that for our upcoming Celebrity cruise to Ireland & Iceland next june. We got main cabin economy so we could pick our own seats, flying from Philadelphia nonstop to Dublin for around $1100 pp... Well the fare was $675 or so, then the taxes they hit you with were over $400. Not sure if that's a good price or not. We did biz class for our last cruise where we flew to Seattle but it was way too expensive to do for this flight.

[SRF]

19 hours ago, tkline said:

Does anyone know of any good sites for finding cheap flights? Or is it just luck? I've tried Expedia or Cheapo Air or just going direct to an airline's site and it's always hit or miss

 

I have found many good deals using Kayak.

 

Mainly for international, but also some domestic.

 

They check the airlines, Expedia, Cheapo, Orbitz, and others.

 

And they have the option to check up to 3 days before/after your date.

 

Many times, leaving a day earlier or later can save more than the cost of hotel and meals.

Edited August 15, 2019 by SRF

[iancal]

all those plus skyscanner, matrixit, google flight.  Skyscanner is particularly good for the discount airlines in Europe.  We have used them quite a bit over the last few weeks to shop for air travel.

Edited August 15, 2019 by iancal