P&O New Pricing

[sweep2907]

Not sure about anyone else but it appears the company are finally not lowering their prices last minute to ridiculously cheap prices. I've had a look through last minute deals over next few weeks and hardly anything under £100pppn.

 

It would be nice to return to the old days where you had confidence booking early,knowing prices wouldn't drop way below what you paid. In return it would be lovely just to see standards right slightly towards what they were even 4 or 5 years ago. Anyone else noticed this?

[Harry Peterson]

We’ve been here before, haven’t we. All the bargains are with the late bookings, nobody wants to book at the opening prices, and suddenly the rules of the game change back.

 

Again.

[sweep2907]

4 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

We’ve been here before, haven’t we. All the bargains are with the late bookings, nobody wants to book at the opening prices, and suddenly the rules of the game change back.

 

Again.

Nothing worse though is there when you show your loyalty to a company on opening day. Then 12 months later see your balcony is £1000 cheaper. Personally I prefer the way Princess now operate where it will not be cheaper than at opening day price. 

[Harry Peterson]

Just now, sweep2907 said:

Nothing worse though is there when you show your loyalty to a company on opening day. Then 12 months later see your balcony is £1000 cheaper. Personally I prefer the way Princess now operate where it will not be cheaper than at opening day price. 

I do agree with you. Just remembering the arguments that used to rage on here some years back about whether it was cheaper to book on the first day or much later on. 
 

Plus ça change…….

 

[molecrochip]

Paul Ludlow has publicly said this was going to happen. Prices would go back to a buy at launch mentality/don’t expect late mega-deals and this board rubbished the suggestion as trying to drum up business.

 

Additionally Carnival said that across the Corporation, 75% of all inventory for 2024 was already sold by mid-December 2023, and at average higher prices than for 2023.

 

Also we’ve had two and a half years of pushing the big ships to a new audience.

 

The three together removes the need for slashing prices just to fill ships.

[Selbourne]

Just now, molecrochip said:

Paul Ludlow has publicly said this was going to happen. Prices would go back to a buy at launch mentality/don’t expect late mega-deals and this board rubbished the suggestion as trying to drum up business.

 

Additionally Carnival said that across the Corporation, 75% of all inventory for 2024 was already sold by mid-December 2023, and at average higher prices than for 2023.

 

Also we’ve had two and a half years of pushing the big ships to a new audience.

 

The three together removes the need for slashing prices just to fill ships.

Does that only apply to Select fares though? Whilst it may be the case that the Select fare won’t be bettered after launch, are you saying that P&O will no longer try to fill the last available cabins with bargain Late Saver fares? Many of us have now got wise to not booking at launch (as we always used to do) but booking within a couple of months of the cruise for substantially less than the Select fare has ever been. Would P&O prefer to ditch this approach and sail with empty cabins?

Edited January 14 by Selbourne

[molecrochip]

8 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Does that only apply to Select fares though? Whilst it may be the case that the Select fare won’t be bettered after launch, are you saying that P&O will no longer try to fill the last available cabins with bargain Late Saver fares? Many of us have now got wise to not booking at launch (as we always used to do) but booking within a couple of months of the cruise for substantially less than the Select fare has ever been. Would P&O prefer to ditch this approach and sail with empty cabins?

If not saying it won’t every happen if a ship has loads of cabins left, but it won’t happen as often.

 

What’s more important, 100% capacity at lower prices or 95% capacity at higher prices. The answer is whatever draws the most money (including on board purchases) and it’s usually the later.

 

This is a pivot on the strategy of trying to expand the pool of passengers who travel with P&O at any cost!

[sweep2907]

Yes I'm aware this had been Ludlow's strategy, recover from Covid and introduce massive new audience to P&O and then put prices back to where they were 2020. For new P&O passengers it looks like massive price hike but for regulars it is no more than we paid pre covid.

 

As earlier poster said, we will see the end of last minute deals where prices of under £50pppn have been seen. As indicated future sales have been really strong for 2024 and ahead other than Caribbean where there is hesitancy to book until flight situation sorted.

 

They'd definitely rather fill 90% at higher prices and sail just under capacity. Don't forget friends and family get offered late deals at reduced prices on those cruises which have struggled to sell cabins.

[sweep2907]

Found the article which interestingly was Jan last year.

 

https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/travel-agents/po-cruises-president-confirms-intention-to-hike-prices

[zap99]

46 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Does that only apply to Select fares though? Whilst it may be the case that the Select fare won’t be bettered after launch, are you saying that P&O will no longer try to fill the last available cabins with bargain Late Saver fares? Many of us have now got wise to not booking at launch (as we always used to do) but booking within a couple of months of the cruise for substantially less than the Select fare has ever been. Would P&O prefer to ditch this approach and sail with empty cabins?

I believe Lord Ludlow. Listen colleagues, we have sold 90% at good prices, so we don't need to flog the other 10%. Just leave them empty....yeah...right.

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, sweep2907 said:

Nothing worse though is there when you show your loyalty to a company on opening day. Then 12 months later see your balcony is £1000 cheaper. Personally I prefer the way Princess now operate where it will not be cheaper than at opening day price. 

If you believe that I assume you still send a present list to Santa.😊

Edited January 14 by terrierjohn

[BouncingWheel]

Will the new audience care about the line? They can just do last minute at MSC undoing the work P&O did introducing new people to cruising. Many probably tried cruising because of low prices and generally loyalty is not strong nowadays.

[jeanlyon]

Not sure I understand.  March 2025, Arvia to the Caribbean is £899 for 14 nights, that's a lot less than £100 per night?  And Mediterranean Arvia £799 for 14 nights.  seems to be lots of far less than £100 per night.

[Dobbers]

Going back a few years now but didn’t P&O used to compensate if they reduced the price of your cruise ??
Im going back to Ruby tier days 😳

 

[Barbadossunshine]

Booked for the Caribbean last March 2023 on an early saver fare on Britannia for 7th February 2025 room to be allocated for balcony cabin and now paying £1,000.00 more compared to a saver fare with OBC pick your own standard balcony cabin. 

 

Ouch…lesson learned.

Only reason we did this early was so we could fly direct from Glasgow.
 

We know we can do the same cruise if we hold off but would have to fly from Manchester as Glasgow flight goes fast and we have now decided no longer going to go from Manchester to the Caribbean as just too long a journey home.

Did it last year and it was 24 hours from leaving ship on Saturday and Arriving home on the Sunday afternoon. 

 

[terrierjohn]

3 hours ago, Dobbers said:

Going back a few years now but didn’t P&O used to compensate if they reduced the price of your cruise ??
Im going back to Ruby tier days 😳

 

Must have been the 19th century clipper ships the last time that happened.

[silkworms]

2 hours ago, Barbadossunshine said:

Booked for the Caribbean last March 2023 on an early saver fare on Britannia for 7th February 2025 room to be allocated for balcony cabin and now paying £1,000.00 more compared to a saver fare with OBC pick your own standard balcony cabin. 

 

Ouch…lesson learned.

Only reason we did this early was so we could fly direct from Glasgow.
 

We know we can do the same cruise if we hold off but would have to fly from Manchester as Glasgow flight goes fast and we have now decided no longer going to go from Manchester to the Caribbean as just too long a journey home.

Did it last year and it was 24 hours from leaving ship on Saturday and Arriving home on the Sunday afternoon. 

 

Hi there Barbadossunshine, we are on this cruise also. Have just started a roll call for this

cruise. Don’t blame you not flying from Manchester, much easier for you if you live nearer

Glasgow. We won’t fly from Manchester anymore either, think it’s a horrible airport now

T2 is so huge, we love flying from Birmingham (it’s an airport like Manchester used to be).

Looking forward to sailing on Britannia again.

[Guest]

The “cut prices post Covid and hike them up once we hook newbies in” strategy has been going on across the industry. We got some great deals with Celebrity but now the prices have gone back to pre covid levels. Same with Virgin- new cruise line, drawing people in (including myself) and now they have slashed the OBC and increased prices. 
 

I wonder if P&Os decision- aside from finances- is to do with the bad behaviour that has been rife across some ships over the past couple of years. Reports of multiple people being kicked off ships for fights and drunken behaviour, abuse to guest performers (Gareth Gates) and a general “lowering of the tone”. I’m not saying it’s everyone, and it’s great that cruising has become more accessible for the masses, but “all inclusive Benidorm” behaviour has started to creep onboard. 
 

Passengers who can’t behave or abide by rules ruin it for the rest of the guests (and crew)

[cruising.mark.uk]

16 minutes ago, Glitterati said:

 

I wonder if P&Os decision- aside from finances- is to do with the bad behaviour that has been rife across some ships over the past couple of years. Reports of multiple people being kicked off ships for fights and drunken behaviour, abuse to guest performers (Gareth Gates) and a general “lowering of the tone”. I’m not saying it’s everyone, and it’s great that cruising has become more accessible for the masses, but “all inclusive Benidorm” behaviour has started to creep onboard. 

The implication of this is that you believe that low prices = bad behaviour.  What evidence do you have to support that view?  I guess, if it was true, that - in Europe - the worst behaviour would happen on Costa and MSC cruises.  We've done 10 cruises across those 2 lines and never seen any of this sort of bad behaviour.  There again, we've also never seen anything above what I would term 'high spirits' on the higher number than that of P&O cruises we've done. 

 

I'm not for one minute suggesting bad behaviour doesn't occur, although I do take many of the tales of it on here with a very large dose of salt.  I'm sure many posters have heard stories of punch-ups in launderettes, bad behaviour in bars and people being excluded (on P&O and other lines), but it seems to me that many of those stories are apocryphal and that the number of people who have witnessed it for themselves is a small fraction of those who assert that it has happened.  Unless there is definitive evidence to suggest otherwise, I think it is fair to assume that behaviour like this happens occasionally across all cruise ships and all of the popular / mainstream lines and is pretty much unrelated to the price paid.   Rather, it's a factor of mixing 2, 3, 4, 5 thousand members of the general public together in a relatively confined space and adding alcohol.  

[Interestedcruisefan]

31 minutes ago, Glitterati said:

The “cut prices post Covid and hike them up once we hook newbies in” strategy has been going on across the industry. We got some great deals with Celebrity but now the prices have gone back to pre covid levels. Same with Virgin- new cruise line, drawing people in (including myself) and now they have slashed the OBC and increased prices. 
 

I wonder if P&Os decision- aside from finances- is to do with the bad behaviour that has been rife across some ships over the past couple of years. Reports of multiple people being kicked off ships for fights and drunken behaviour, abuse to guest performers (Gareth Gates) and a general “lowering of the tone”. I’m not saying it’s everyone, and it’s great that cruising has become more accessible for the masses, but “all inclusive Benidorm” behaviour has started to creep onboard. 
 

Passengers who can’t behave or abide by rules ruin it for the rest of the guests (and crew)

You honestly think price changes of a few hundred pounds either way would make any difference to type of guests or behavior on board?

 

Funny enough - having a business heavily involved  in the hospitality industry I've noticed it's almost always the guests paying for the most expensive tables that tend to be the most obnoxious and rude to my staff and/or other guests or venue staff around them (and even then it's a tiny minority)

 

Thinking they are above them or entitled etc. Celebrities the worst for it. (Again some not all!)

 

 

Edited January 15 by Interestedcruisefan

[Interestedcruisefan]

6 minutes ago, cruising.mark.uk said:

The implication of this is that you believe that low prices = bad behaviour.  What evidence do you have to support that view?  I guess, if it was true, that - in Europe - the worst behaviour would happen on Costa and MSC cruises.  We've done 10 cruises across those 2 lines and never seen any of this sort of bad behaviour.  There again, we've also never seen anything above what I would term 'high spirits' on the higher number than that of P&O cruises we've done. 

 

I'm not for one minute suggesting bad behaviour doesn't occur, although I do take many of the tales of it on here with a very large dose of salt.  I'm sure many posters have heard stories of punch-ups in launderettes, bad behaviour in bars and people being excluded (on P&O and other lines), but it seems to me that many of those stories are apocryphal and that the number of people who have witnessed it for themselves is a small fraction of those who assert that it has happened.  Unless there is definitive evidence to suggest otherwise, I think it is fair to assume that behaviour like this happens occasionally across all cruise ships and all of the popular / mainstream lines and is pretty much unrelated to the price paid.   Rather, it's a factor of mixing 2, 3, 4, 5 thousand members of the general public together in a relatively confined space and adding alcohol.  

Spot on

[Interestedcruisefan]

56 minutes ago, Glitterati said:

The “cut prices post Covid and hike them up once we hook newbies in” strategy has been going on across the industry. We got some great deals with Celebrity but now the prices have gone back to pre covid levels. Same with Virgin- new cruise line, drawing people in (including myself) and now they have slashed the OBC and increased prices. 
 

I wonder if P&Os decision- aside from finances- is to do with the bad behaviour that has been rife across some ships over the past couple of years. Reports of multiple people being kicked off ships for fights and drunken behaviour, abuse to guest performers (Gareth Gates) and a general “lowering of the tone”. I’m not saying it’s everyone, and it’s great that cruising has become more accessible for the masses, but “all inclusive Benidorm” behaviour has started to creep onboard. 
 

Passengers who can’t behave or abide by rules ruin it for the rest of the guests (and crew)

I've also seen complaints about passenger behaviour on some of the older P and O ships recently. These aren't the ones you go to for the cheapest prices with P and O? So what's the explanation for those incidents?

 

I honestly don't think pricing strategy will  have been influenced in any way whatsoever by the very very rare "poor incidents" reported on board all the ships at various times 

 

 

 

Edited January 15 by Interestedcruisefan

[zap99]

30 minutes ago, cruising.mark.uk said:

The implication of this is that you believe that low prices = bad behaviour.  What evidence do you have to support that view?  I guess, if it was true, that - in Europe - the worst behaviour would happen on Costa and MSC cruises.  We've done 10 cruises across those 2 lines and never seen any of this sort of bad behaviour.  There again, we've also never seen anything above what I would term 'high spirits' on the higher number than that of P&O cruises we've done. 

 

I'm not for one minute suggesting bad behaviour doesn't occur, although I do take many of the tales of it on here with a very large dose of salt.  I'm sure many posters have heard stories of punch-ups in launderettes, bad behaviour in bars and people being excluded (on P&O and other lines), but it seems to me that many of those stories are apocryphal and that the number of people who have witnessed it for themselves is a small fraction of those who assert that it has happened.  Unless there is definitive evidence to suggest otherwise, I think it is fair to assume that behaviour like this happens occasionally across all cruise ships and all of the popular / mainstream lines and is pretty much unrelated to the price paid.   Rather, it's a factor of mixing 2, 3, 4, 5 thousand members of the general public together in a relatively confined space and adding alcohol.  

We haven't seen any bad behaviour on cruises, or hotels. We are off to Warners on Wednesday, so may change my view. I believed lots of bandwagoning.

[Interestedcruisefan]

5 minutes ago, zap99 said:

We haven't seen any bad behaviour on cruises, or hotels. We are off to Warners on Wednesday, so may change my view. I believed lots of bandwagoning.

Think  in the last 40 years of going on holiday I've seen one bad experience on a 5 star all inclusive holiday in Turkey (involving millionaire Russian guests). I've fallen out with a German guest (pushing in front of a restaurant queue in the Canaries).

 

And I've overhead some rows on a couple of flights that could have got out of hand

 

Cant remember anything bad on a cruise other than on our first gulet cruise to Turkey when one of the married ladies on the cruise left her husband halfway through the cruise to move in with the captain!!

 

Lol

 

That really happened.

 

Wasn't any violence etc. Just the weirdest thing to see happen. There were only about 16 of us on the cruise. The husband stayed on board and finished the cruise. Just without his wife! Who swapped cabins to be with the captain after 3 nights. The husband took it quite well to be honest!!

 

 

[Fionboard]

37 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

I've also seen complaints about passenger behaviour on some of the older P and O ships recently. These aren't the ones you go to for the cheapest prices with P and O? So what's the explanation for those incidents?

 

I honestly don't think pricing strategy will  have been influenced in any way whatsoever by the very very rare "poor incidents" reported on board all the ships at various times 

 

 

 

Worst behaviour I have witnessed has been on Arcadia (including this Xmas cruise where a few were turfed off) and she is not cheap!