Dynamic Pricing or Pricing Error?

[cbr663]

Happened to be looking at some soon to sail cruises and came across the 14-Day British Isles leaving Aug 9th on the Nieuw Statendam.  An unobstructed balcony cabin is listed as $2,209 CAD cruise only and cruise with HIA at a whopping $6,239.  What the heck?  That's $288 pp/pd for HIA.

 

 

[oakridger]

If that's not an error than HAL thinks we are all pretty dense!!! 

 

Good catch!

 

~Nancy

[lissie]

Worth saving and putting on the next thread when someone else says HIA is so worth it becasuse they don't have to worry about the cost of their drinks! 

[Mary229]

I  bought an error in my favor once and they honored it.  We got HIA for $200 each on a 35 day cruise.  I now watch for errors. Of course the one you found is not in your favor😂

[VMax1700]

@cbr663

 

Here is the pricing in Euro (which includes taxes and port fees)

It is still possible to purchase HIA separately for 45 euro per day.

 

[puppycanducruise]

Wow!

[DaveOKC]

Could this be due to the first one being a casino offer?

[Florida_gal_50]

I’ve seen some pretty sizeable differences but nothing that big. 

[Florida_gal_50]

8 minutes ago, DaveOKC said:

Could this be due to the first one being a casino offer?

Nope.  I see the same difference.

 

You should really book that hia price because the cruise lines are having financial problems and it’s your duty to pay as much as possible to help them out 😛😉😂.

Edited July 15, 2023 by Florida_gal_50

[sue1898]

Out of curiosity I tried in dollars and got similar results. I didn’t sign in so this is not a special fare

[mwj]

10 hours ago, cbr663 said:

Happened to be looking at some soon to sail cruises and came across the 14-Day British Isles leaving Aug 9th on the Nieuw Statendam.  An unobstructed balcony cabin is listed as $2,209 CAD cruise only and cruise with HIA at a whopping $6,239.  What the heck?  That's $288 pp/pd for HIA.

 

 

Notice the 'limited time fare' on the cruise only. This happens frequently on cruises where bookings are slow. It is intentional by HAL and often results in significant savings. The lowest rate will likely only be for a guarantee and has a non-refundable deposit.

[Florida_gal_50]

52 minutes ago, mwj said:

Notice the 'limited time fare' on the cruise only. This happens frequently on cruises where bookings are slow. It is intentional by HAL and often results in significant savings. The lowest rate will likely only be for a guarantee and has a non-refundable deposit.

It's past final.  It doesn't really matter a whole lot at this point whether it's refundable or not.  If you can get the hia for $50 a day separately who would pay that rate? 

[Mary229]

24 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

not.  If you can get the hia for $50 a day separately who would pay that rate? 

Someone one not paying attention or with an unscrupulous TA

[POA1]

5 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

@cbr663

 

Here is the pricing in Euro (which includes taxes and port fees)

It is still possible to purchase HIA separately for 45 euro per day.

 

I'd book the left side fare and add HIA. Under no circumstances would I try to get someone to fix it. The "fix" will likely drive up the left side while keeping the right side steady.

[Mary229]

58 minutes ago, POA1 said:

I'd book the left side fare and add HIA. Under no circumstances would I try to get someone to fix it. The "fix" will likely drive up the left side while keeping the right side steady.

Totally agree.  We are all responding as if the high quote is wrong, maybe it is the low quote

[Hlitner]

Very likely both fares are correct.  That is the world of HAL and last minute deals (we have done a few).   Many last minute deals are hard to find unless you use one of the decent high volume discount cruise agencies,  Some of these agencies routinely send out e-mails listing some last minute deals (on multiple cruise lines).   Looking at the OP's posted cruise, we could now book an obstructed balcony for $1274 + $350 taxes/fees (US Dollars) for that 14 day cruise.  A regular veranda would be $1444 (US) plus the taxes/fees.  And our favorite agency would kick in $125 OBC plus our usual shareholder credit of another $250.  If you want to get ambitious you could book a 28 day cruise (beginning the same date) for about $3500 (including taxes) in a regular balcony cabin.

 

There has long been this wonderful world of last minute bargains (especially on HAL) because of lousy bookings.  Unsold inventory is opportunity lost revenue and some cruise lines are willing to deal to get folks into those berths.  While we do book a majority of our cruises, we still love to also do the last minute bookings,  For those of us who are able to get away on short notice and are not very picky about our cabin location there are a carnival of bargains.

 

We think that HAL has regressed into a terrific budget cruise line (for those that like budget cruise lines).  Not only can you find plenty of these last minute bargains but there have also been a lot of casino specials (for those that qualify) as ridiculously low prices (close to zero plus taxes).  I would point out to the HAL fans that a cruise lines only does this stuff when it MUST.  

 

That is why I posted that HAL's new $1 deposit sale will ultimately result in many last minute bargains.  Why?  Because folks book lots of cruises they never intend to take and then cancel around the final payment period.  This leaves HAL scrambling to unload those berths, at the last minute, and that usually means bargains galore.

 

Our record low price once happened on a Princess repo cruise when we paid just under $50 per person/day for a very nice balcony cabin.  I recall it was a transatlantic plus following cruise around the UK.  Because of the perks we got from Princess (such as the Elite cocktail parties) we joked that they paid us to take that cruise.  

 

Hank

 

 

[Florida_gal_50]

3 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

Very likely both fares are correct.  That is the world of HAL and last minute deals (we have done a few).   Many last minute deals are hard to find unless you use one of the decent high volume discount cruise agencies,  Some of these agencies routinely send out e-mails listing some last minute deals (on multiple cruise lines).   Looking at the OP's posted cruise, we could now book an obstructed balcony for $1274 + $350 taxes/fees (US Dollars) for that 14 day cruise.  A regular veranda would be $1444 (US) plus the taxes/fees.  And our favorite agency would kick in $125 OBC plus our usual shareholder credit of another $250.  If you want to get ambitious you could book a 28 day cruise (beginning the same date) for about $3500 (including taxes) in a regular balcony cabin.

 

There has long been this wonderful world of last minute bargains (especially on HAL) because of lousy bookings.  Unsold inventory is opportunity lost revenue and some cruise lines are willing to deal to get folks into those berths.  While we do book a majority of our cruises, we still love to also do the last minute bookings,  For those of us who are able to get away on short notice and are not very picky about our cabin location there are a carnival of bargains.

 

Hank

They aren’t hard to find though.  I don’t understand why people have such a hard time finding low fares.  I go to a large online cruise retailer.  Put in the month, area cruise line etc and in about 5 seconds you have a list with prices for the insides right on the first page.  What could possibly be easier?

[Hlitner]

5 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

They aren’t hard to find though.  I don’t understand why people have such a hard time finding low fares.  I go to a large online cruise retailer.  Put in the month, area cruise line etc and in about 5 seconds you have a list with prices for the insides right on the first page.  What could possibly be easier?

Ahhh, we think we learned the answer from some fellow cruisers.  Lots of folks are wedded to a single cruise line (limits their options) while others swear by their PCC and want nothing to do with the decent high volume discount cruise agencies.  These folks seldom look anywhere but on the HAL web site and are like the three monkeys (hands over eyes, ears, and mouth) when folks try to tell them there are better ways to book HAL (and other lines) than dealing direct with a cruise line. 

 

So while you and I may use multiple online cruise data bases (all owned by cruise/travel agencies) there are plenty of folks who have no clue!  

 

Hank

[VMax1700]

2 hours ago, POA1 said:

I'd book the left side fare

I did!

 

2 hours ago, POA1 said:

and add HIA

I did!