Has anyone been called by a cruiseline with a request to change ships due to overbooking? (or heard of this)

[KKB]

A few years ago we had a couple tell us about their offer from Princess asking them to change to another ship as ours was overbooked. 

It was quite impressive--the other cruise was 10 days as opposed to 7, they would move them to a suite as opposed to a balcony & give them $1K OBC.

 

There is discussion on another thread here & skeptism that it occurs.

My nephew in analytics in another industry says it nearly certainly does--it's how industries maximize profits.

 

I was looking to see if anyone had personally experienced this or hears someone's story who had.

[Host Kat]

8 minutes ago, KKB said:

... There is discussion on another thread here & skeptism that it occurs...

 

Cruise Critic has had the solution for Roll Calls since 2021. Click here: Roll Call Info for Swapped Ships

 

[GeezerCouple]

1 minute ago, KKB said:

A few years ago we had a couple tell us about their offer from Princess asking them to change to another ship as ours was overbooked. 

It was quite impressive--the other cruise was 10 days as opposed to 7, they would move them to a suite as opposed to a balcony & give them $1K OBC.

 

There is discussion on another thread here & skeptism that it occurs.

My nephew in analytics in another industry says it nearly certainly does--it's how industries maximize profits.

 

I was looking to see if anyone had personally experienced this or hears someone's story who had.

 

This absolutely happens, but I've only heard of it in writing, not by phone... but that certainly doesn't mean it couldn't happen by phone, especially if timing is tight.

 

We had a *wonderful* offer once.  We were offered a cruise in a different location (that alone wasn't a deal-breaker), a longer cruise, and a huge refund.  It wasn't enough to make it "free", but my goodness, was it ever a bargain.

Unfortunately, that was back when DH was more constrained by work about dates, and we couldn't make the switch.  It was especially unfortunate, as it turned out that we needed to cancel anyway.  How nice it would have been to get that other cruise instead!

 

The cruise lines do this when they have been oversold, and the cancellations weren't what their algorithms had predicted.  They usually do NOT want to cancel passengers who have paid in full, etc., for obvious reasons.  So they'll start making offers to see if they can find some passengers who will, literally, "jump ship". 🙂 

This is why they can offer "guaranteed" reservations when a cruise may appear to be sold out.  It may indeed be sold out at that time, but they know from their history that some passenger DO cancel, and some quite late.

(We were among those who had to cancel at very last minute, due to MIL's sudden hospitalization.  OTOH, we stumbled across a last minute availabililty that must have been from someone else who had a late cancellation:  We got an Owners Suite for a pittance, at a time when we had just cancelled a land trip so we were "ready to go!!".)

 

As for the "offers to switch", they cruise line will keep upping the offer as they make it to others until they get someone to bite.  In many cases, these offers may be made to more than one person and it would be "first come", etc.

 

Keep in mind that cruise lines do NOT want to have ships sail with empty cabins.  They are "perishable" (much like fruits!).  Once that "sell/sail by" date is past, there's no possible revenue...

Hotels have similar situations.  We've occasionally "bargained" for a nice upgrade by offering something towards a luxury suite, which in our case then not only got the hotel "more money from us", but it allowed them to re-sell "our" room to someone wanting it but not wanting to spend more, etc.

 

GC

[Essiesmom]

This absolutely happens on Princess.  It’s called a Move Over Offer.  Switch to other dates without further payment, and the amount of fare refunded as refundable OBC.  Ask on the Princess board.  EM

[CruiserBruce]

As mentioned,  this is called a " move over" rate or fare. It happened on our March/April Eclipse cruise. People on HAL's Zaandam were offered move over rates to HAL's Koningsdam,  as Zaandam was over sold, and Koningsdam wasn't sold out. The two cruises were dramatically different...Zaandam  14 day Mexican Rivera departing on March 30, as opposed to Koningsdam's 22 day Mexico/Hawaii  cruise departing April 5th. 

 

It very definitely happens. Occasionally. 

[KreinKrunker]

The offers we've received have been made through our travel agent. Never have been able to accept one, either due to time constraints or we were already on the road.

[Donald]

Most travelers are generally very predictable. Airlines and Cruise Lines use very similar Yield Management Programs to maximize occupancy, revenues, and profits. These programs are surprisingly good at filling airplanes and ships. But very rarely, something unpredictable happens. Then the Airline finds itself with too many pax for a particular flight, and the Cruise Line finds itself with too many passengers for a particular cruise. Both groups operate in the same basic manner. They offer financial incentives for some pax to take a different flight or cruise. If they do not get enough takers, they sweeten the offer until the right numbers of people accept it. 

[Mary229]

I was asked last weekend if I would move to next year’s sailing of a special cruise.  I instead asked to be moved to an equivalent cruise this summer, that is from Alaska to Iceland.  The bonus was that I was given nicely upgraded room. I created the counter proposal myself and had my agent deliver it to Holland,  they were happy to accept my offer.  Without the upgrade I calculate the price as as close to even as any two cruises could be. It took less than 2 hours to work out all of the details including the transfer of all of my perks 

[ShipsandDipper]

Many years ago we got numerous e-mails from Oceania asking us to switch our July Baltic cruise to September.  We finally caved and switched when we got an upgrade plus a partial refund. We ended up getting a PH for the price of an interior on a slightly longer itinerary plus had most of our flights covered by the refund.  They really needed the space on the July cruise—we ignored many, many offers until we couldn’t resist. 

[Suzanne123]

About seven years ago, we had an offer to move from a seven day Regal ( or maybe Royal ) Princess 7 day R/T NYC New England cruise with inside cabin to a 10 day Quebec to NYC in a balcony, and Princess was willing to refund our cruise and throw in the difference in airfare.  Couldn’t take advantage because of work schedule, but it was a very nice offer. I always wondered what someone was willing to pay for an inside cabin that Princess would make money on the swap.

[GeezerCouple]

1 hour ago, Suzanne123 said:

About seven years ago, we had an offer to move from a seven day Regal ( or maybe Royal ) Princess 7 day R/T NYC New England cruise with inside cabin to a 10 day Quebec to NYC in a balcony, and Princess was willing to refund our cruise and throw in the difference in airfare.  Couldn’t take advantage because of work schedule, but it was a very nice offer. I always wondered what someone was willing to pay for an inside cabin that Princess would make money on the swap.

 

It may not be a matter of "how much someone wanted to pay."   Chances are the cost to them was "regular", but the cruise had fewer cancellations than expected, so they didn't have space for all of the "Guaranteed" cabins that they had sold.

 

Rather than getting a [deservedly!] bad reputation for cancelling on "guaranteed" passengers, they do what is necessary to free up the needed accommodations.

That's most likely what has happened.

 

RM

[Mary229]

41 minutes ago, GeezerCouple said:

 

It may not be a matter of "how much someone wanted to pay."   Chances are the cost to them was "regular", but the cruise had fewer cancellations than expected, so they didn't have space for all of the "Guaranteed" cabins that they had sold.

 

Rather than getting a [deservedly!] bad reputation for cancelling on "guaranteed" passengers, they do what is necessary to free up the needed accommodations.

That's most likely what has happened.

 

RM

I am firmly convinced that my switch last week was because I had bought the cruise early and cheap.  It proved more popular than they assumed and can now sell my room for a lot more.  I had personal issues that would not have prevented me from going but would be a concern during the cruise.  Win - win 

[GeezerCouple]

6 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

I am firmly convinced that my switch last week was because I had bought the cruise early and cheap.  It proved more popular than they assumed and can now sell my room for a lot more.  I had personal issues that would not have prevented me from going but would be a concern during the cruise.  Win - win 

 

Interesting.

I'm not sure it's worth the staff time and potential for problems, but... I don't work for the cruise line! 😉

When does your cruise start?

And can you tell if your category of cabin, or similar categories, are still well available?

 

GC

[Mary229]

3 hours ago, GeezerCouple said:

 

Interesting.

I'm not sure it's worth the staff time and potential for problems, but... I don't work for the cruise line! 😉

When does your cruise start?

And can you tell if your category of cabin, or similar categories, are still well available?

 

GC

To my knowledge nothing is available and nothing has been available for quite some time.  Of course there are always drop outs at final payment date and usually a few insured risk cancellations. This is a unique itinerary first offered.  It starts in 10 days.  I paid at least 30% less than the current asking price.  It is a prime located inside cabin - that “special one”.  

[capriccio]

On 5/25/2024 at 5:37 PM, Essiesmom said:

This absolutely happens on Princess.  It’s called a Move Over Offer.  Switch to other dates without further payment, and the amount of fare refunded as refundable OBC.  Ask on the Princess board.  EM

@KKB or see this current thread about Princess move over offers for detailed information:

 

 

[Charles4515]

I have been asked 3 times over the years all on Princess to move with great offers but unfortunately it was I was working and it was not possible to swap my weeks off. Seems to be a Princess thing. 

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

It is happing more and more .

[Ashland]

Never been called but have received an email from RCI.