2025

[Kohima]

You make good points Nosapphire. The system is no longer fit for purpose. Unless people make multiple registrations for several years ahead, the chances of getting a 35% discount on the cheaper cabins are slim on the more popular cruises.

However, setting that aside, my comment was equally focussed on the shambolic IT launch of the new season. There is no excuse for that.

[Windsurfboy]

They should stop preregistering,  the £90 is trivial, and offset by cost of staff for long phone calls. 

 

Release all details and prices on line, you can look at every thing and make decision , how much you are willing to pay.

 

Adopt system others use. Open up bookings  using online normal online system or you phone saga  but in stages according to Brittania club status. Say each level 2 days apart.  

[Bloodaxe]

37 minutes ago, Windsurfboy said:

They should stop preregistering,  the £90 is trivial, and offset by cost of staff for long phone calls. 

 

Release all details and prices on line, you can look at every thing and make decision , how much you are willing to pay.

 

Adopt system others use. Open up bookings  using online normal online system or you phone saga  but in stages according to Brittania club status. Say each level 2 days apart.  

 

They would be more likely to gain new customers like myself if good prices and full details were available to everyone from the release.

They could still offer loyalty discounts and other benefits to regular repeat clients.

[Windsurfboy]

20 minutes ago, Bloodaxe said:

 

They would be more likely to gain new customers like myself if good prices and full details were available to everyone from the release.

They could still offer loyalty discounts and other benefits to regular repeat clients.

 

Think you're right , maybe just simply say like shops sales for next few days , these prices are guaranteed for X days after launch.

 

The key thing is to guarantee that if you book early they will not be cheaper later. 

 

 

 

 

[nosapphire]

Saga used to (in the days of proper mailed brochures) send them out about a week in advance to Britannia Club members so we could get first dibs with the best discounts. That always worked pretty well, as bookings then were made over the 'phone so the telephone operator could immediately see whether you were indeed a club member.

Now so much is online, the same system would simply not work - does anyone really think that

Saga would manage to get a website that could cope with allowing club members to book ahead of the mainstream?

I agree that scrapping all advance registration, opening up full bookings to everybody at the same time, but keeping the discount system (to encourage people to book early) would be the logical thing to do.

I doubt that this will happen, as pretty sure that all those advance registration payments are included by the bean counters when saying how well a particular season is selling.

(I add, as a Gold Britannia Club member, I see no need for any routine booking discounts for Club members)

[Denarius]

On 3/5/2024 at 5:05 PM, Denarius said:

They certainly appear to have. I am looking at one of those cruises as well, as a single passenger. As a rough estimate of 50% effective single supplement that works out at about £5700 for a 14 night cruise even after a 35% discount. This summer I am going on a similar cruise to the Baltic - different ports - on SofA which cost me £4700 after a 35% discount. Thats works out at about a 20% increase.

Got the call this morning and booked. Price with 35% discount £5221 which is considerably lower than estimated above, compared with £4636 this year. That works out at a 12.6% increase year on year, which is not unreasonable.

[Denarius]

Just for information and further to the above, I was in the shower when they rang and did not hear the phone ring. I would not have been able to answer it anyway! But I had missed calls on both my landline and my mobile, with an answering machine message on the former and a voicemail on the latter. I also received an email. All explained the reason for the call and gave me a number to ring back asap, which I did. Hopefully this will reassure others who may be concerned that they may not be in a position to receive the call when it comes.

[Windsurfboy]

1 hour ago, Denarius said:

Got the call this morning and booked. Price with 35% discount £5221 which is considerably lower than estimated above, compared with £4636 this year. That works out at a 12.6% increase year on year, which is not unreasonable.

 

Agree 12.6% is not as bad as above. But it's more than the increase in most of their customers income. Continuing increases that outstrip customers income will not be sustainable. 

[FatBoy20]

Got the call yesterday having pre-registered in Feb 23. Booked 2 Cruises both @ 35% discount.

[FatBoy20]

2 minutes ago, Windsurfboy said:

 

Agree 12.6% is not as bad as above. But it's more than the increase in most of their customers income. Continuing increases that outstrip customers income will not be sustainable. 

Booked a Canaries Cruise with an increase of £200 over 2024 price (approx 7% increase)

[Windsurfboy]

15 minutes ago, FatBoy20 said:

Booked a Canaries Cruise with an increase of £200 over 2024 price (approx 7% increase)

 That is very reasonable 

[Denarius]

1 hour ago, FatBoy20 said:

Booked a Canaries Cruise with an increase of £200 over 2024 price (approx 7% increase)

Reason for bigger % increase in my case is possibly that next year's cruise has greater distance sailed and thus fuel consumption. Month of year and cabin grade are same. Or it may be a commercial decision to increase the prices of some cruises more than others reflecting relative popularity.

[Medeba]

Booked two cruises today, one at 30% (Christmas Canaries) and (Italy and West Med) at 35%.  My advance registration was paid early March 2023. Now the hard part - saving up!🤣

[arlowood]

Just got the call. Again Murphy's Law kicked in and, as with last year, the call came to my mobile while we're on holiday in Cyprus. Was better prepared this year and had all relevant information to hand.

 

Got our preferred cruise and cabin selection with 35% discount. FYI we pre-registered on 17th March 2023

Edited March 8 by arlowood

[janecambridge]

Glad you got what you want everyone. We pre registered on 21st March so getting close! 
We want  an aft suite and only a couple are good enough for us. Have to be careful of smoking (deck 11), under the decks. It was very unpleasant inhaling smoke whilst having lunch out the back on a warm day on deck 12 . 

[Cruise-Cat]

18 minutes ago, janecambridge said:

Glad you got what you want everyone. We pre registered on 21st March so getting close! 
We want  an aft suite and only a couple are good enough for us. Have to be careful of smoking (deck 11), under the decks. It was very unpleasant inhaling smoke whilst having lunch out the back on a warm day on deck 12 . 

Two of the aft cabins on Deck A are not so close to the smoking area as they are a few cabins forward of the very back - probably less affected

[JMMKUK]

24 minutes ago, janecambridge said:

Glad you got what you want everyone. We pre registered on 21st March so getting close! 
We want  an aft suite and only a couple are good enough for us. Have to be careful of smoking (deck 11), under the decks. It was very unpleasant inhaling smoke whilst having lunch out the back on a warm day on deck 12 . 

Been there twice. First time on Adventure's inaugral cruise they moved smoking to Deck 11 & got us. Second time we booked and hoped they'd moved it again but they hadn't. Only reallu a problem when not moving or when Captain Kim decides to reverse down the side of the Isle of Man.

[janecambridge]

7.15pm. Call came in. Got aft suite at 35% off. Exact suite that we wanted. 

[JMMKUK]

Well done. That means no 35% for us off that cruise.

[mazj]

I pre registered in May 2023 and have just had my phone call from Saga.

I have booked the 2 week Iceland cruise and got 30% discount.  I gulped at the price😱 but can only spend it once!!

[Windsurfboy]

Sad to hear that even with preregistering the 35% discount disappears on some cabins.

 

I still have to wonder has anyone ever paid full price  , zero % discount.

 

The consumer protection act states that a substantial proportion  (undefined) must be sold at full price for it to be used as comparison. I  wonder if this holds true for Saga.

[janecambridge]

Some cabins are very popular on certain decks so I guess they sell at 35%. Quite quick . The big 4 aft suites have one only at 35% I believe then the discount drops. 

[Kohima]

Windsurfboy, yes many cabins are often for sale at full price, but that is not to say that they are eventually sold at that price. By using the ‘cabin guarantee’ wording these cabins can be subsequently sold at a very substantial discount. In the case of the highest deck cabins this can be even greater than 35%.

[Windsurfboy]

10 minutes ago, Kohima said:

Windsurfboy, yes many cabins are often for sale at full price, but that is not to say that they are eventually sold at that price. By using the ‘cabin guarantee’ wording these cabins can be subsequently sold at a very substantial discount. In the case of the highest deck cabins this can be even greater than 35%.

 

I think as substantial property has to be actually SOLD at full price , for it to be used as a basis for comparison 

[mazj]

As there is only one cruise to Iceland next year I guess it must be very popular.