UK Black Friday offer (or not)

[mat5664]

Cunard generally don’t do Black Friday offers in the U.K., only in US.  I called U.K. customer service last Friday when the US offers were announced just to check there was nothing coming in the U.K. and was told no.  So yesterday I booked a cruise for my mother and paid £120 more than todays price as they did launch a Black Friday offer this morning.

 

so I called customer services and was basically told ‘hard luck’.  She said she had consulted with a manager and they are not allowed to discuss sales before they start so they were right to tell me there would not be a U.K. Black Friday offer and that’s that.  Not great really (we don’t have the thing here where if you’ve not paid in full and the price comes down they will match it.)

[MylesS]

Apologies if you've asked this already, but perhaps you could ask if they're willing to give you the difference in onboard credit? I've heard that's been successful for some people.

[mat5664]

Nope I did ask, they refused even that.  A bit mean I think especially given they specifically told me there was not going to be any Black Friday offer.

[exlondoner]

5 minutes ago, mat5664 said:

Nope I did ask, they refused even that.  A bit mean I think especially given they specifically told me there was not going to be any Black Friday offer.

Very bad. If they had just said they couldn’t discuss it, fair enough, but they deliberately lied and mislead you. 

[mat5664]

Yes they did but they told me that offers were embargoed and staff could not tell me one was about to drop.  I did say they could have just said ‘we don’t know’ rather than a flat no but they were not having it. 

[david63]

Unfortunately this is the way with Carnival these days.

[Victoria2]

To be fair though, embargoed does mean a ban has been imposed. To say it can't be discussed could imply there is something to be discussed.

Can't win.

[Pushpit]

I think this is pretty standard in the travel industry. At this time of year it's best to hold on a bit for things like Black Friday and New Year sales, and indeed it's not reasonable to expect phone agents to be candid about future plans. The point of these sales is to boost cash at certain periods.

 

However you may find that upgrading the stateroom may now be quite affordable, it's worth going through the details of the booking to see whether you can get a slightly better stateroom for a small amount of extra money.

[mat5664]

50 minutes ago, Pushpit said:

I think this is pretty standard in the travel industry. At this time of year it's best to hold on a bit for things like Black Friday and New Year sales, and indeed it's not reasonable to expect phone agents to be candid about future plans. The point of these sales is to boost cash at certain periods.

 

However you may find that upgrading the stateroom may now be quite affordable, it's worth going through the details of the booking to see whether you can get a slightly better stateroom for a small amount of extra money.

good point except if I want to upgrade I have to pay the price the upgraded cabin was at the time of the original booking, not the new offer fare.  Lose/lose.

[Pushpit]

4 minutes ago, mat5664 said:

good point except if I want to upgrade I have to pay the price the upgraded cabin was at the time of the original booking, not the new offer fare.  Lose/lose.

No, normally there is a dynamic adjustment on every cabin fare, and so the base cost should narrow the gap between the price now compared to the price you originally paid. I watch this area like a hawk and have frequently taken advantage of falling prices. Sometimes it takes a few day, and sometimes you need the agent to ping their supervisor to extract a good price. But so long as you keep your agent "on side" you should be able to leverage a better deal.

[Victoria2]

2 minutes ago, Pushpit said:

No, normally there is a dynamic adjustment on every cabin fare, and so the base cost should narrow the gap between the price now compared to the price you originally paid. I watch this area like a hawk and have frequently taken advantage of falling prices. Sometimes it takes a few day, and sometimes you need the agent to ping their supervisor to extract a good price. But so long as you keep your agent "on side" you should be able to leverage a better deal.

Dynamic adjustment works both ways and It depends if the price of the cabin has gone up.

 

[mat5664]

I've literally just called and ask them - they price upgrades (at least in the UK) based on the price of cabins when you book.  Never seen this before.  As it happens, an Ocean View Single has become available today (wasn't available yesterday) which would be ideal for my mother who is currently in an Atrium View inside.  However, the upgrade price is the difference between what I paid yesterday and what the price would have been yesterday if it was available.  The agent told me the Black Friday offer was only for new bookings and when she asked a manager if she could use the new price, she was told 'no'.  I'm done with this now.  Back to Celebrity after this cruise.

[Pushpit]

1 minute ago, Victoria2 said:

Dynamic adjustment works both ways and It depends if the price of the cabin has gone up.

 

Absolutely. But the Original Poster was writing in the context of the recent UK Black Friday Sale. Usually this reduces cabin rates across the board.

[Victoria2]

1 minute ago, mat5664 said:

I've literally just called and ask them - they price upgrades (at least in the UK) based on the price of cabins when you book.  Never seen this before.  As it happens, an Ocean View Single has become available today (wasn't available yesterday) which would be ideal for my mother who is currently in an Atrium View inside.  However, the upgrade price is the difference between what I paid yesterday and what the price would have been yesterday if it was available.  The agent told me the Black Friday offer was only for new bookings and when she asked a manager if she could use the new price, she was told 'no'.  I'm done with this now.  Back to Celebrity after this cruise.

You might be able to take advantage of the cabin bidding system nearer the time if you booked direct with Cunard.

[Pushpit]

2 minutes ago, mat5664 said:

The agent told me the Black Friday offer was only for new bookings and when she asked a manager if she could use the new price, she was told 'no'.  I'm done with this now.  Back to Celebrity after this cruise.

Try again next week. Normally they just want your money by hook or by crook.

[mat5664]

it actually would now be cheaper if I wanted to book the Single Ocean view cabin to cancel the booking I made yesterday, lose the £215 deposit and rebook.

[Winifred 22]

I have just priced a Black Friday event cruise. It comes up at about £50 less  than I am paying but with no onboard credit so not a win for me. Seems that the best prices are on the early savers and I wouldn’t want one of those. So no Black Friday deal for me.