P&O reduce prices/refunds

[Cathygh]

Just read elsewhere some passengers on Arcadia and Aurora have had refunds as the price of their cruise has dropped.  The refund was for the difference between the old and new fare. Has anyone else had this? 

[Winifred 22]

Were they non UK bookings ? 

[FangedRose]

I had that email this morning. It is for a 2025 Round Britain on Arcadia, which I booked on day of release to use up Covid Credit.

 

New Booking Confirmation with new price being issued tomorrow.

 

Edit: just noticed the email says "issued tomorrow 24th September"!

Edited August 23, 2023 by FangedRose

[sogne]

had email as well

[Bill Y]

48 minutes ago, Cathygh said:

Just read elsewhere some passengers on Arcadia and Aurora have had refunds as the price of their cruise has dropped.  The refund was for the difference between the old and new fare. Has anyone else had this? 

Received this a couple of hours ago

 

"We hope that you're looking forward to your holiday on our ship Arcadia. As we eagerly anticipate your holiday with us, we have some exciting news to share!
 
We’re delighted to announce that you’ll now be paying less for your holiday with our newly released pricing. And what’s more… you don’t need to do a single thing. The price you paid for your holiday will automatically be altered to a new lower amount. There’s no need to worry if you’ve already paid for your holiday in full, as we’ll simply amend the cost to your new price and refund you the difference.

You'll receive an updated booking confirmation by tomorrow, 24 September 2023, informing you of your new holiday price. If you've booked through a travel agent, your confirmation will be sent via them.

In the meantime, we can’t wait to welcome you on board Arcadia."

 

Await more details, note this is for a 2025 cruise no mention of a 2024 Aurora cruise. or what this new pricing is or when its applied from

[sogne]

Spoke to TA who are working on new pricing

[jeanlyon]

Why on earth have they donen that I wonder?

[Otter18]

41 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

Why on earth have they donen that I wonder?

We had this on our Arvia cruise. Refund of over £1000 about a month before sailing. Two weeks later the cruise was cancelled and we were offered a future cruise credit plus 20% of the cost of our cruise. By reducing the original fare they saved a lot of money.

[Selbourne]

Interesting that the email mentions “even if you have paid for your cruise in full”. I wonder if it’s other cruises as well, including some that are past balance due date? 
 

There has been recent commentary on here about one or more 2023 Arcadia or Aurora cruises having some quite reasonable late prices. Although we love Aurora and have done more cruises on her than any other ship, we have almost discounted her lately as the cruises have been far more expensive than we are now prepared to pay per night for a cruise with P&O, especially given how dated the cabins are and the lack of things that we particularly enjoy, such as Epicurean. 
 

Pure speculation of course, but if many others are starting to think the same as us, let’s hope that P&O are responding by adjusting the prices? I suspect that’s wishful thinking on my part 😂 I haven’t seen the future cruise desk on Iona yet and I know they tend to only open short hours and usually have a queue, but if I happen across it and someone is free I will ask what they know (if anything) and report back. 

[terrierjohn]

49 minutes ago, Otter18 said:

We had this on our Arvia cruise. Refund of over £1000 about a month before sailing. Two weeks later the cruise was cancelled and we were offered a future cruise credit plus 20% of the cost of our cruise. By reducing the original fare they saved a lot of money.

No they increased their costs by having to make 2 refunds instead of one.

[yorkshirephil]

21 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

No they increased their costs by having to make 2 refunds instead of one.

They may be a cost implement for transactions carried out etc but they saved £200 by reducing the initial cost by £1000, depending how many refunds they made could have been a substantial saving.

[paulatsea]

Are these significant price changes does anyone know ? Are they for 2024/5 or for year as well ?

 

I’m amazed they are doing this ! What’s going on ?

[Bill Y]

2 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

Why on earth have they donen that I wonder?

One suspects that there will shortly be a high profile announcement over their “newly released pricing” whatever that entails and P&O are trying to defuse a revolt from early bookers. It’s not just P&O who are experiencing a backlash, just returned from a river cruise where people were vowing not to book for future years just wait to see what bargains are available at short notice. I appreciate that this does not work for those that have specific requirements but this must dent the industries cash flow if a significant number hold back.

[yorkshirephil]

Just now, paulatsea said:

Are these significant price changes does anyone know ? Are they for 2024/5 or for year as well ?

 

I’m amazed they are doing this ! What’s going on ?

Hard to say at the moment but maybe they have realised that they have pushed up future prices to a level where people aren't booking or waiting for cheaper prices nearer cruise date? 

[yorkshirephil]

6 minutes ago, Bill Y said:

One suspects that there will shortly be a high profile announcement over their “newly released pricing” whatever that entails and P&O are trying to defuse a revolt from early bookers. It’s not just P&O who are experiencing a backlash, just returned from a river cruise where people were vowing not to book for future years just wait to see what bargains are available at short notice. I appreciate that this does not work for those that have specific requirements but this must dent the industries cash flow if a significant number hold back.

This is my take on it too, we are considering the Aurora 65 night cruise to Caribbean; £4199 for 2024, £5599 for 2025, that is the basic inside price for saver so an even bigger difference for higher grade with select booking.

[terrierjohn]

2 hours ago, yorkshirephil said:

They may be a cost implement for transactions carried out etc but they saved £200 by reducing the initial cost by £1000, depending how many refunds they made could have been a substantial saving.

But surely the refund to the passengers who booked early would have been the same in total if they had never reduced the price.

Edited August 23, 2023 by terrierjohn

[yorkshirephil]

22 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

But surely the refund to the passengers who booked early would have been the same in total if they had never reduced the price.

The return to the passengers who took the money back would have been the same but those who took FCC + 20% would not have got the 20% on the initial return.

[bobstheboy]

It would be a good sales ploy if P&O gave a price promise to customers who book on new season release, say within 45 or 60 days, and guarantee that if the price dropped for like for like cabins, a refund will be given. It would give early bookers confidence and almost certainly increase early sales. 

[terrierjohn]

35 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

The return to the passengers who took the money back would have been the same but those who took FCC + 20% would not have got the 20% on the initial return.

Sorry I had not realised there were 2 initial classes of refund.

[terrierjohn]

28 minutes ago, bobstheboy said:

It would be a good sales ploy if P&O gave a price promise to customers who book on new season release, say within 45 or 60 days, and guarantee that if the price dropped for like for like cabins, a refund will be given. It would give early bookers confidence and almost certainly increase early sales. 

It would certainly increase customer satisfaction, but probably at the expense of reduced revenue to P&O, which I doubt would be acceptable to them, or Carnival.

[zap99]

3 hours ago, yorkshirephil said:

Hard to say at the moment but maybe they have realised that they have pushed up future prices to a level where people aren't booking or waiting for cheaper prices nearer cruise date? 

We cancelled our Britannia Caribbean cruise. The price dropped by £800 after we booked. Perhaps we will rebook, perhaps not. We won't be booking early in the future. If nothing appears at a reasonable price, plenty of other companies around.

[Presto2]

5 minutes ago, zap99 said:

We cancelled our Britannia Caribbean cruise. The price dropped by £800 after we booked. Perhaps we will rebook, perhaps not. We won't be booking early in the future. If nothing appears at a reasonable price, plenty of other companies around.

Same here. Ours is still about £700 more but we don't want to change incase we lose the premium flights or cabin. We booked 2 weeks before it all dropped.

I think PO dropping prices in line with lrice changes sets a strange presidence for them .. very odd. 

[Cathygh]

The Loyalty Manager on our current cruise told one of our dining companions that he receives more complaints about passengers paying different prices for the cruise than anything else. 

I was very pleased that my TA  called me and gave me the opportunity to cancel and rebook this cruise at a much lower price with lots of obc. This was just after final payment. It is one of the few cruises I booked on launch day because before covid I tracked the prices and they always rose and the cruise always sold out. However it is clear now that the cruise had lots of empty cabins. There was also a late deal offered to single travellers. I was told there are 400 singles on board.

Anyway P&,O don't have to offer refunds when prices drop but they must think that by doing so they are looking after their customers. 

 

[pete14]

11 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

Same here. Ours is still about £700 more but we don't want to change incase we lose the premium flights or cabin. We booked 2 weeks before it all dropped.

I think PO dropping prices in line with lrice changes sets a strange presidence for them .. very odd. 

The cost of our Aurora cruise in November is still showing much more than we paid for an early booking. No refunds for us I guess. ☹️

[paulatsea]

15 minutes ago, pete14 said:

The cost of our Aurora cruise in November is still showing much more than we paid for an early booking. No refunds for us I guess. ☹️

Same for me - December this year and November next year on Aurora to the Canaries  is nearly  £1000 more pp than we paid on our early booking.(select  + balcony + parking + obc)

Edited August 23, 2023 by paulatsea