Pricing policy when prices reduce

[NicNata]

We are thinking about taking our first Princess cruise. I have been looking over the past couple of months at cruises to/from Sydney across the Pacific. I notice the prices seem to fluctuate a lot and vary enormously between the ships that ply the route. My understanding is Majestic Princess would be better than say the Grand Princess and thus more expensive. My question is what has been people's experience with Princess if there is a price drop after you have booked a cruise? Do they honour the price drop? It is very hard to know when to book given the big changes in price. I don't need advice on cabin choice, just on the price policy.

[d9704011]

2 minutes ago, NicNata said:

My understanding is Majestic Princess would be better than say the Grand Princess and thus more expensiv

That's a matter of opinion.  Majestic Princess is much newer than Grand Princess and definitely has some different features.  Personally, I prefer the older ships but that's entirely up to you.

 

As for price adjustments before final payment date, I have seldom had any problem.  Trick is, you may have to switch cabins (somewhat unlikely) and any promotions that came with your original fare (such as OBC) may be forfeited.  

[dreaminofcruisin]

 

b

1 minute ago, NicNata said:

We are thinking about taking our first Princess cruise. I have been looking over the past couple of months at cruises to/from Sydney across the Pacific. I notice the prices seem to fluctuate a lot and vary enormously between the ships that ply the route. My understanding is Majestic Princess would be better than say the Grand Princess and thus more expensive. My question is what has been people's experience with Princess if there is a price drop after you have booked a cruise? Do they honour the price drop? It is very hard to know when to book given the big changes in price. I don't need advice on cabin choice, just on the price policy.

 

Book now. If the price drops, you can call and request a re-fare. You have to watch for it and request it. It won't happen automatically. The only thing that could happen is that if you book with some perks like onboard credit, you might lose them if that isn't included in the offer with the price drop. So, just keep that in mind when you are deciding to request a re-fare.

 

All this would be as long as you aren't past the final payment date. Once you do final payment, you are for the most part locked in.....That being said, there are rare situations where some have managed to get perks after final payment, but I wouldn't count on it.

 

Having said all that, I see that you are from Portugal.....the rules I outlined are from the U.S. I have no idea what rules are booking from your country..... 

[philv]

I called regarding a price drop on my March Caribbean cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale and they refused to give me new price. I’ve done this numerous times in the past with no problem. I don’t want to cancel and re-book as I want to keep current cabin. Co-travelers are booked across the hall and location is the issue. I’m going to try again. Maybe the magic word is re-fare. I’ll try asking for that and see if I can keep my cabin location. 

[cr8tiv1]

Re-faring before final payment = cabins in your category are still available.

 

Re-faring after final payment = at the sole discretion of who is at the other end of the call.

[EllieinNJ]

I booked a cabin on Enchantment last month with their early booking 40% off promotion.  Last week it changed to 50% off and my cabin came down $100pp.  Called my TA and asked to get it re-fared.  She called me back and said that we would have to cancel and rebook and I would lose all my OBC.  What????  I have $200 OBC from the FCD I used for deposit and another $200 OBC from an incident on my prior cruise that couldn't be corrected.  Why should I lose it?  In addition, I had a good cabin that I didn't want changed.

 

She called them again and after several hours got back to me and said she was able to get the lower price and keep all my OBC and cabin but they made a new booking number and cancelled the old one.

 

This was the second time I tried to re-fare and they wouldn't do it.  Back in 2018 when I had the 3 for free promotion the price of the cruise came down quite a bit but they said I would lose it so didn't bother.

[Steelers36]

15 minutes ago, EllieinNJ said:

I booked a cabin on Enchantment last month with their early booking 40% off promotion.  Last week it changed to 50% off and my cabin came down $100pp.  Called my TA and asked to get it re-fared.  She called me back and said that we would have to cancel and rebook and I would lose all my OBC.  What????  I have $200 OBC from the FCD I used for deposit and another $200 OBC from an incident on my prior cruise that couldn't be corrected.  Why should I lose it?  In addition, I had a good cabin that I didn't want changed.

 

She called them again and after several hours got back to me and said she was able to get the lower price and keep all my OBC and cabin but they made a new booking number and cancelled the old one.

 

This was the second time I tried to re-fare and they wouldn't do it.  Back in 2018 when I had the 3 for free promotion the price of the cruise came down quite a bit but they said I would lose it so didn't bother.

Sounds like the TA wanted you to think she was doing you a big favor.

 

The FCD from the cancelled booking is re-used for the new booking, so you earn the same OBC.  What you need to be aware of is if your FCD has expired at the time you cancel and re-book.  If so, the date needs to be extended first.

 

The other OBC is FCC and upon cancelling, it would go back to your CC Member account.  UNLESS... it too had expired by the time you were looking to re-book.  In that case it would require an intervention by someone at PCL in order to not lose it.

 

As for the remark about the old 3FF promotion, the same thing applies today.  If guest books a cruise using a certain sales promotion and then wants to re-fare, if that Promo Fare Code is no longer valid, then any perks that came with that fare are lost upon cancel and when re-booking you are subject to the current offers.  So, a guest needs to be aware of the NET different in fares when seeking to re-book and take into consideration the value of the perks.

[villauk]

2 hours ago, NicNata said:

We are thinking about taking our first Princess cruise. I have been looking over the past couple of months at cruises to/from Sydney across the Pacific. I notice the prices seem to fluctuate a lot and vary enormously between the ships that ply the route. My understanding is Majestic Princess would be better than say the Grand Princess and thus more expensive. My question is what has been people's experience with Princess if there is a price drop after you have booked a cruise? Do they honour the price drop? It is very hard to know when to book given the big changes in price. I don't need advice on cabin choice, just on the price policy.

 

Different areas of the world have different T&Cs. No price drops honoured over here usually, so it does depend on which country you are booking from.

[Steelers36]

3 minutes ago, villauk said:

 

Different areas of the world have different T&Cs. No price drops honoured over here usually, so it does depend on which country you are booking from.

The poster is American.  UK rules do not apply.

[villauk]

Just now, Steelers36 said:

The poster is American.  UK rules do not apply.

No, just pointing it out in case anyone else, from other nations, reads the post and expects a price drop.

[EllieinNJ]

20 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Sounds like the TA wanted you to think she was doing you a big favor.

 

The FCD from the cancelled booking is re-used for the new booking, so you earn the same OBC.  What you need to be aware of is if your FCD has expired at the time you cancel and re-book.  If so, the date needs to be extended first.

 

The other OBC is FCC and upon cancelling, it would go back to your CC Member account.  UNLESS... it too had expired by the time you were looking to re-book.  In that case it would require an intervention by someone at PCL in order to not lose it.

 

As for the remark about the old 3FF promotion, the same thing applies today.  If guest books a cruise using a certain sales promotion and then wants to re-fare, if that Promo Fare Code is no longer valid, then any perks that came with that fare are lost upon cancel and when re-booking you are subject to the current offers.  So, a guest needs to be aware of the NET different in fares when seeking to re-book and take into consideration the value of the perks.

Yeah, I know.  It just makes me a little upset when I read here that people were able to get their reduced prices re-fared without having to cancel or losing any perks on their original bookings but my TA doesn't seem to be able to do it. 

[hobo1937]

We booked thru the big box agency and recently tried to refare a 2024 cruise that had a price drop and obc. The new fare said new bookings only, which just about every fare that comes on Princess has that statement these days. They called Princess and were told if it says new bookings you can only cancel and rebook no refares. In the past we never had a problem getting a cruise refared. 

[NicNata]

34 minutes ago, hobo1937 said:

We booked thru the big box agency and recently tried to refare a 2024 cruise that had a price drop and obc. The new fare said new bookings only, which just about every fare that comes on Princess has that statement these days. They called Princess and were told if it says new bookings you can only cancel and rebook no refares. In the past we never had a problem getting a cruise refared. 

Did you lose your deposit when you cancelled and rebooked?

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

5 hours ago, NicNata said:

We are thinking about taking our first Princess cruise. I have been looking over the past couple of months at cruises to/from Sydney across the Pacific. I notice the prices seem to fluctuate a lot and vary enormously between the ships that ply the route. My understanding is Majestic Princess would be better than say the Grand Princess and thus more expensive. My question is what has been people's experience with Princess if there is a price drop after you have booked a cruise? Do they honour the price drop? It is very hard to know when to book given the big changes in price. I don't need advice on cabin choice, just on the price policy.

I don’t think re-faring is possible in the UK, so, just incase you are in Europe- Portugal, I’d check to see if it’s possible at all where you are 😊
 

 

[hobo1937]

1 hour ago, NicNata said:

Did you lose your deposit when you cancelled and rebooked?

We decided not to rebook as we are in a window suite on the Grand and there are only a few of them. Afraid we would lose the cabin category which we had booked with a FCC. They told us it would take up to 72 hours to get the FCC's back into our account so we could rebook. Not sure this is even correct but at this point I don't believe anything the people at princess say. 

[startedwithamouse]

4 hours ago, EllieinNJ said:

Yeah, I know.  It just makes me a little upset when I read here that people were able to get their reduced prices re-fared without having to cancel or losing any perks on their original bookings but my TA doesn't seem to be able to do it. 

Don't believe everything you read on the internet.

[cruzsnooze]

13 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

The poster is American.  UK rules do not apply.

The OP is from Portugal not American so their rules may be more like the UK then ours.

[Steelers36]

5 minutes ago, cruzsnooze said:

The OP is from Portugal not American so their rules may be more like the UK then ours.

That is true and I was thinking of my reply to Ellie who is in NJ when I responded, but the poster has done a reply to the OP, so I did make a confusion there in my post.  Thanks.

[devonuk]

When I booked a future cruise on board recently the ‘agent’ made a big play on the ability to be able to claim a refund if the price went down and that our price was fixed if Princess increased their prices. 

[SCX22]

I'm in the minority here, but price reductions are all the more reason to book guarantee rooms.

 

I always book guarantee and usually shortly after final payment has passed.  Since the restart, I've noticed that when you book a guarantee cabin and the cruise fare drops between final payment and embarkation, the algorithm automatically upgrades you and will assign you a cabin in a higher category if one is available.

 

An example is when I went to Hawaii this January.  I booked a BF in at the end of October after final payment for the sailing.  I monitored the price of the cruise and after Thanksgiving, there was another price drop and mini suites became the same price of the fare that I paid.  At the end of December I got my cabin assignment and I was upgraded to a mini suite with no effort on my part.  This has happened two other times.  To the Caribbean, I went from a IF to BW.  To the Mexican Riviera, I went from BW to DC.  

[Steelers36]

16 hours ago, devonuk said:

When I booked a future cruise on board recently the ‘agent’ made a big play on the ability to be able to claim a refund if the price went down and that our price was fixed if Princess increased their prices. 

Maybe they thought you were American/Canadian.

[PurpleTraveller]

It is dependent on where you are, the terms of your existing booking and the terms of the new price. Many times the new price or promotion will be for new bookings only so Princess will not re-fare and require you to cancel your existing booking and then rebook to get the new price or promotion. Any existing reservations such as excursions will be cancelled and you will need to rebook them. The excursion price may have gone up since you booked originally, there may be currency conversion loss or gain (it often seems to be a loss and rarely a gain) or they could be sold out. Sometimes you can not rebook the same cabin (this happened to me when the cabin category was changed to guarantee bookings only between my original booking and rebooking). Always check all the different components of your existing booking including promotional OBC which you may lose, any cancellation costs, current price of any excursions you have booked and whether you can rebook the same cabin before you cancel an existing booking.