Pricing Question?

[Minnie29]

When are we likely to see price reductions if a cruise isn’t selling well?

is it generally after the final balance payment date?

Thank you

[PORT ROYAL]

47 minutes ago, Minnie29 said:

When are we likely to see price reductions if a cruise isn’t selling well?

is it generally after the final balance payment date?

Thank you

From personal experience.  Booked BC for M329H paying under £5600 pp.  Today, being well after final payment date, there is not a BC on offer and Sheltered is over £5400 pp.  Therefore, although there are staterooms available, don’t think prices have reduced post payment date.

Best to book your required stateroom early to avoid disappointment.

 

 

 

 

[Mr&MrsHendricks]

Hello Minnie,

Cunardival have some pretty clever people and some very smart computer algorithms things to look at sales etc in order to keep prices as high as possible.  
I have no doubt at all that cabins are held back to keep demand high, as I’ve noted some grades as sold out, then a week later some are available.  
If you think about it, it’s only Cunardival who know how cabins are selling.  
 

Best advice is book your cruise at the time it’s at a price you’re happy with. 
 

And after that DON’T check prices! 

[carlmm]

IME many more interesting cruises do not get cheaper close to sailing date, they just sell out.

For more standard type cruises one might try to check sales around special events like labour day, yet again no guarantee. 

[LB_NJ]

1 hour ago, carlmm said:

IME many more interesting cruises do not get cheaper close to sailing date, they just sell out.

For more standard type cruises one might try to check sales around special events like labour day, yet again no guarantee. 

However, those sales aren't drastic cuts.  Maybe free gratuities, or specialty meals or a few hundred in OBC.

 

[Underwatr]

4 hours ago, Mr&MrsHendricks said:

I have no doubt at all that cabins are held back to keep demand high, as I’ve noted some grades as sold out, then a week later some are available

Cabin availability is very much a fluid thing.

 

Consider the itinerary where QM2 departs New York for the following ports: Southampton, Hamburg, and back to Southampton before returning to New York. This itinerary can be booked in any of the following ways:

• New York to Southampton
• New York to Hamburg
• Southampton to Hamburg
• Southampton to Hamburg and return
• Hamburg to Southampton
• Hamburg to New York
• New York to Hamburg and return
  
  Where these itineraries overlap, Cunard maintains separate inventories - a cabin that is available to book New York to Hamburg is not available to book New York to Southampton, or Southampton to Hamburg.  This ensures that Cunard will be able to accommodate passengers on any published itinerary. If New York to Southampton is selling very well and New York to Hamburg is not selling as well, Cunard may reallocate cabins to increase availability on the shorter segments. Obviously reallocating from shorter segments to a longer itinerary is complicated somewhat since that cabin may have been booked on one or more of the segments, making it unavailable to someone wishing to book the longer itinerary.

 

I've seen this myself. I wanted a particular cabin on QM2's 12-night December New York trip to the Caribbean. The cabin was available but it was allocated for passengers booking the 26-day itinerary out of Southampton. The onboard booking office held the cabin and called someone in corporate (I don't know whether it was in UK or California) to break that cabin's availability into the segments so it could be booked for just the NYC-NYC segment (and presumably it also became bookable at this point for each of the adjoining transatlantics, where it previously could not have been booked for just those segments).

 

I don't know whether Cunard ever holds back availability of a cabin completely, but cabins becoming available may be due to these shifts among bookable segments.

[shippmates]

I know cruise lines like to keep certain cabins for the longer cruises or combinable segments.  The reason for this is the passenger doing the longer sailings do not want to have to change cabins after a segment.

[Victoria2]

5 hours ago, Underwatr said:

Cabin availability is very much a fluid thing...

 

 

I don't know whether Cunard ever holds back availability of a cabin completely, but cabins becoming available may be due to these shifts among bookable segments.

We have come across this when trying to book world cruise segments.

 

'Sold Out' on cruises where the itinerary can contain segments, is often Cunard's term for 'unavailable [at the moment]'. 

The way to check if 'your' grade is available is to do a dummy booking on a longer itinerary which contains the grade in question, eg, on world cruises, dummy book the whole lot.

[majortom10]

We came across this couple of years ago on roundtrip TA on QM2. On day of release we tried to book a particular cabin for a designated roundtrip from Southampton to NY and return. Was told it was not available only ones available were in poor positions of the ship. If we had booked independently Southampton to NY and then NY to Southampton the cabin we wanted was available but at a lot higher price. We told our TA we were not interested in booking the poorer and left it that. 2 hrs later TA rang back and said Cunard had agreed to release the cabin we wanted so we booked. This proves that Cunard do hold cabins back in the hope you will book one that suits them and not one you want even when available.