Pricing

[17pandd]

Thank you Shadowlover, that is good advice.

[Breckski]

13 minutes ago, shadowlover said:

most recently they have not really allowed this.  You can cancel but you can not immediately book the same cruise and same cabin.  there seems to be some sort of waiting period.  If you want to move your money to a different sailing then fine but I am usually too invested in the dates of sailing and cabin choice etc.

Also NEVER insure the entire cost of your trip until you have to do it (based on the rules of the insurance company).  Just insure the least amount- or the deposit.  Then you will have pre existing conditions covered.

Gotcha.  Haven't done this recently on Viking, but no issues just this week on Seabourn.

 

And I never insure anything travel related (I guess I self-insure it 😉), but that's a completely different discussion.

[CCWineLover]

5 hours ago, shadowlover said:

most recently they have not really allowed this.  You can cancel but you can not immediately book the same cruise and same cabin.  there seems to be some sort of waiting period.  If you want to move your money to a different sailing then fine but I am usually too invested in the dates of sailing and cabin choice etc.

Also NEVER insure the entire cost of your trip until you have to do it (based on the rules of the insurance company).  Just insure the least amount- or the deposit.  Then you will have pre existing conditions covered.

The waiting period for us was 24 hours ( for the room to back in inventory they said).  Have done this twice.  TA took care of it for us. No issues.  Got same room back at big discount and only gave up $200 penalty.  It was a risk someone would take that room but we told ourselves we weren’t wedded to the specific room.

[Baron Barracuda]

21 hours ago, shadowlover said:

most recently they have not really allowed this.  You can cancel but you can not immediately book the same cruise and same cabin.  there seems to be some sort of waiting period.  If you want to move your money to a different sailing then fine but I am usually too invested in the dates of sailing and cabin choice etc.

Also NEVER insure the entire cost of your trip until you have to do it (based on the rules of the insurance company).  Just insure the least amount- or the deposit.  Then you will have pre existing conditions covered.

Three months ago we were able to cancel and immediately re-book same sailing / same cabin.  Paid the $100pp penalty and replaced forfeited Tripmate policy with outside coverage.

[CCWineLover]

4 hours ago, Baron Barracuda said:

Three months ago we were able to cancel and immediately re-book same sailing / same cabin.  Paid the $100pp penalty and replaced forfeited Tripmate policy with outside coverage.

Kudos !!  Job well done.

[CDNPolar]

15 hours ago, Baron Barracuda said:

Three months ago we were able to cancel and immediately re-book same sailing / same cabin.  Paid the $100pp penalty and replaced forfeited Tripmate policy with outside coverage.

 

Interesting that you could do that.  We cancelled because the cruise all of a sudden had free air which in the end saved us over $3,000.00 for both of us, but Viking would not rebook the same dates - we had to change dates and that ended up giving us a departure date about 3 weeks earlier.  They absolutely would not give us the same dates.

[duquephart]

I wonder why. Certainly no skin off them. My head position comment may apply here.

[CDNPolar]

23 hours ago, duquephart said:

I wonder why. Certainly no skin off them. My head position comment may apply here.

 

This was an escalation to Supervisor to make this happen and as much as we begged (unfortunate overplay of the situation) for the same dates, we were told it was not possible.

 

We could not have the free air automatically because the promo stated that it was for bookings between a set of dates and our original booking was not in that set of dates.

 

It also apparently would need to be for a new booking - which we were willing to cancel and rebook - but again without any solid reason why, we could not have the same cabin on the same booking even after a complete cancel and new booking.

 

Just another example however of how there is often a different story, information, or explanation for something Viking does or does not do depending on who you talk to.  

 

We enjoyed our cruise anyway...

[biggerbearmom]

6 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

 

This was an escalation to Supervisor to make this happen and as much as we begged (unfortunate overplay of the situation) for the same dates, we were told it was not possible.

 

We could not have the free air automatically because the promo stated that it was for bookings between a set of dates and our original booking was not in that set of dates.

 

It also apparently would need to be for a new booking - which we were willing to cancel and rebook - but again without any solid reason why, we could not have the same cabin on the same booking even after a complete cancel and new booking.

 

Just another example however of how there is often a different story, information, or explanation for something Viking does or does not do depending on who you talk to.  

 

We enjoyed our cruise anyway...

I realize many disagree on the use of a Travel Advisor, but I believe this is a situation where the value of a good Travel Advisor comes in to play, one who has a good relationship with Viking. Just last week we shifted gears between two river cruises for next year. I had assumed I would lose my deposit, but my TA called her contact at Viking and transferred the booking. No loss of deposit as it was transferred to the new cruise and we received the lower price. 

[CDNPolar]

4 hours ago, biggerbearmom said:

I realize many disagree on the use of a Travel Advisor, but I believe this is a situation where the value of a good Travel Advisor comes in to play, one who has a good relationship with Viking. Just last week we shifted gears between two river cruises for next year. I had assumed I would lose my deposit, but my TA called her contact at Viking and transferred the booking. No loss of deposit as it was transferred to the new cruise and we received the lower price. 

 

No need for a TA for that.  We have done that before a couple of times.  It is easy to move a deposit from one itinerary to another.    This was about getting a price deal.  Not the same thing.

[biggerbearmom]

1 hour ago, CDNPolar said:

 

No need for a TA for that.  We have done that before a couple of times.  It is easy to move a deposit from one itinerary to another.    This was about getting a price deal.  Not the same thing.

A TA is not necessarily needed at all, but in certain situations and especially in a time of need they do come in handy. When my father was admitted to a hospital in Germany last summer, and it delayed our trip home, one call to our travel agent, and she took care of everything with Viking and the airline. I didn’t have to deal with the added stress of figuring out the details.

[shadowlover]

I wonder if you can cancel and then just rebook online for the promotion.  Seems like it really depends on who answers the phone these days but I have seen 99% of people on various viking groups confirm that viking is being firm about the cancel and rebook and not allowing it.

[CDNPolar]

7 hours ago, shadowlover said:

I wonder if you can cancel and then just rebook online for the promotion.  Seems like it really depends on who answers the phone these days but I have seen 99% of people on various viking groups confirm that viking is being firm about the cancel and rebook and not allowing it.

 

If someone is willing to try, please let us know how it goes.  

I would try it if I was not concerned about losing the cabin or the dates that I had already.

 

I would first research available dates and cabins available on other sailings to ensure that after cancelling I could book something that I wanted for the new price.  

 

There would definitely be a time frame for your deposit paid to be returned back to your CC and so you would have to pay an additional deposit.

 

Additionally, cabin inventory may not be returned to the ship as available immediately after cancelling.  It may sit in limbo for a while making it not necessarily immediately available to book again.  Also, if that cabin does return to inventory immediately, someone else could be snagging it away from you.