It's worth keeping an eye on pricing...

[LuvCruzn4Evr]

On 6/3/2024 at 3:31 PM, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Before as long you paying a $1 more to upgrade a cabin it was allowed up to 2 days before sailing but always make sure you keeping any OBC or perks that you original had

this might of change ,since the last time we upgraded 

Upgrades are now priced with the prevailing/current promotion so whatever perks/amenities you had before upgrading will be lost if not part of the current promo. I remember and miss the 'old way' upgrades were handled 😔 

[rcrabb1513]

On 6/3/2024 at 2:48 PM, Stockjock said:

We have an upcoming cruise on an Edge-class ship and we're roughly 60 days out.  I had booked a panoramic oceanview because the infinite veranda was about $1,000 more and I have mixed feelings about the IV anyway.  It wasn't worth a grand to me.

This morning, I noticed a price drop, so I called the travel agent who called Celebrity.  They moved me into an Infinite Veranda for $30 per passenger ($60).  While I still have mixed feelings about IV, it's worth $60 to me to be able to get some fresh air.

Just an FYI to keep an eye on pricing, and they may be able to do something for you even when you are inside of the final payment period.

And for those flying check the airlines too.  I have re booked our flight, Chicago to Boston 2 times after price drops.

[Veinless]

2 hours ago, rcrabb1513 said:

And for those flying check the airlines too.  I have re booked our flight, Chicago to Boston 2 times after price drops.

I’ve never had an airline grant a price reduction. 

[Mr. Click]

51 minutes ago, Veinless said:

I’ve never had an airline grant a price reduction. 

It all depends on the airline, ticket class, fare code etc.  I have seen it. It can also matter i fyouo are doing money or miles.  Our upcoming cruise in august I have re-booked with United 4 times using miles.  Two price drops, then we had to change the date when we changed the cruise and finally a 30,000 mile per seat drop had me rebooking yet again.  

[rcrabb1513]

2 minutes ago, Mr. Click said:

It all depends on the airline, ticket class, fare code etc.  I have seen it. It can also matter i fyouo are doing money or miles.  Our upcoming cruise in august I have re-booked with United 4 times using miles.  Two price drops, then we had to change the date when we changed the cruise and finally a 30,000 mile per seat drop had me rebooking yet again.  

We always book a refundable fare category after we lost big bucks during the pandemic.  Maybe that has helped.

[Mr. Click]

3 minutes ago, rcrabb1513 said:

We always book a refundable fare category after we lost big bucks during the pandemic.  Maybe that has helped.

Maybe.  We had two TA  RTs go bad during the pandemic. The first one I jumped when they offered future flight credit on United. I should have waited because two weeks later they were offering refunds when THEY canceled.  The other one I was checking for schedule changes on an AA trip and noticed both TA segments were not there.  I called and they refunded when I refused FF credits.

Edited June 6 by Mr. Click

[Stockjock]

1 hour ago, Veinless said:

I’ve never had an airline grant a price reduction. 

There *may* be 2 ways to do it on airlines with "non-refundable" tickets.

The first way, as he mentioned, involves frequent flyer miles.  They can usually be recredited back to your account for no penalty and then you simply use fewer miles to rebook, if available.  I usually book the new flight first (same flight, fewer miles) and only cancel the original once everything looks good.  Did this recently on a SAN to DFW flight after it dropped from 12,500 miles per person to 7,500 miles per person.

For those buying tickets outright, many airlines will allow you to cancel your flight and save it as a flight credit for a year.  Usually Main cabin and up.  Basic Economy may have different rules or have a small fee to do this.  So you can kill the flights, take the flight credit and then use the flight credit to book new cheaper/different flights.  Obviously, understand the cancellation rules (usually flight credit only), different airlines may have different rules, and hope that the pricing doesn't change while you're doing all of this.  And also, as mentioned, any remaining flight credit will typically expire in a year, if not used.

Edited June 7 by Stockjock

[blue_water]

On 6/6/2024 at 3:00 PM, LuvCruzn4Evr said:

Upgrades are now priced with the prevailing/current promotion so whatever perks/amenities you had before upgrading will be lost if not part of the current promo. I remember and miss the 'old way' upgrades were handled 😔 

That was a question we had. We booked the 75% 2nd passenger fare, free classic drink pkg, basic WiFi. So the current promo would prevail…

 

We’ve since upgraded to the premium drink package during the mid-year sale. Would that be affected?

 

[Arzeena]

On 6/6/2024 at 10:56 AM, Stockjock said:

One more point to add to this thread is that they now show that I have booked an E2 veranda, which means that I get more captains club points. Pretty close to elite, so that in and of itself is worth $30 per person. If I did the move up program, of course it’s more expensive and I don’t think I get the additional points for the higher category of cabin.

 

This will give me three points per night instead of two, so instead of 14 points. I will get 21, and I think I also get an extra three points for doing that Go Green thing where they make up your room less, so that will put me at 24 points, if my math is right. I wonder how much more it would be to upgrade to concierge class and pick up another couple of points per night? 

Move Up does not give the additional points for the higher category, but upgrading to concierge or aqua (5 points per night) directly will give you the extra points plus the one day (5 points) of extra for Go Green. So do your math and watch prices. Good Luck!

[NutsAboutGolf]

Disclaimer, your airline is very YMMV

 

To expand on pricing related to airlines, when you use miles it is possible to get some fantastic redemptions with a lot of effort looking for partner award space.  However, you can usually get solid value without much work hunting for SAVER award space for international long-haul travel in business.  This means you should avoid booking domestic flights with miles

 

For example, one way in lie-flat business class, LAX to Bangkok, is 110K miles.  Mile evaluation websites vary but the highest rates have United miles worth 1.3 cents so 110K miles = $1430 + around $20 for taxes

 

Compare that to the cash price, of at least $3721 so almost in $2300 savings.  That's a solid savings just looking at United's calendar.  You obviously want to open the 110K option to know exactly how many layovers, if all segments are in business and the total travel duration.   In this case, there's one layover and you're in business in all segments

 

 

[Stockjock]

1 hour ago, blue_water said:

That was a question we had. We booked the 75% 2nd passenger fare, free classic drink pkg, basic WiFi. So the current promo would prevail…

 

We’ve since upgraded to the premium drink package during the mid-year sale. Would that be affected?

 

To the best of my knowledge, it would not impact any add-ons that you have purchased at a discount. We purchased Wi-Fi, a drink package, and tours at a discounted price and nothing has changed in that regard. It is possible that it impacts the promotion that you booked with, and it is possible that it does not impact that, so you would just have to ask.
 

In my case, this was not a cancellation and rebook. Rather, they allowed me to upgrade it as an accommodation due to the price reduction, so it didn’t seem to affect anything other than pricing and cabin category.  
 

For us, the booking number remained the same, and I think that if they did a cancellation and rebook, it would be under a new booking number and that would definitely impact some of the things that you talked about, because effectively, you have canceled your old reservation and booked an entirely new one. But that’s not what we did.
 

But once again, if you are unsure, I would double check on that.

Edited June 12 by Stockjock

[LuvCruzn4Evr]

S

1 hour ago, blue_water said:

That was a question we had. We booked the 75% 2nd passenger fare, free classic drink pkg, basic WiFi. So the current promo would prevail…

 

We’ve since upgraded to the premium drink package during the mid-year sale. Would that be affected?

 

I don't know if you'd have to pay the new rate to upgrade to the premium beverage package, or if they'd honor the beverage upgrade you had. We've never experienced this situation. 

 

 

[Stockjock]

8 minutes ago, LuvCruzn4Evr said:

S

I don't know if you'd have to pay the new rate to upgrade to the premium beverage package, or if they'd honor the beverage upgrade you had. We've never experienced this situation. 

 

 

As I mentioned above, I think that if they canceled the old reservation and rebooked it under a new reservation number, then most of the time the perks could potentially change. If it is an accommodation or adjustment under the same booking number, I suspect that it usually does not change.  
 

We had a travel agent specific promotion, and that did not change. Nothing that we bought changed.  On board Credit situation did not change either.  If they killed the old booking number, they probably would have changed.  In fact, I specifically told them that I did not want to cancel the old booking or rebook under a new number, but rather, potentially do an adjustment/modification on the current booking.

 

But again, when in doubt, ask.

Edited June 12 by Stockjock

[LuvCruzn4Evr]

Just now, Stockjock said:

As I mentioned above, I think that if they canceled the old reservation and rebook it under a new reservation, then most of the time the perks would potentially change. If it is an accommodation under the same booking number, I suspect that it usually does not change.

 

But again, when in doubt ask.

Our reservation number has never changed on our 'upgrades' yet we've lost perks, particularly OBC. The OBC was 'extra' for Memorial Day, 4th of July, etc. and was taken away when we later upgraded under a different promo.  

[Stockjock]

59 minutes ago, LuvCruzn4Evr said:

Our reservation number has never changed on our 'upgrades' yet we've lost perks, particularly OBC. The OBC was 'extra' for Memorial Day, 4th of July, etc. and was taken away when we later upgraded under a different promo.  

Interesting.  Well, the bottom line is when in doubt, ask.

[wrk2cruise]

1 hour ago, LuvCruzn4Evr said:

Our reservation number has never changed on our 'upgrades' yet we've lost perks, particularly OBC. The OBC was 'extra' for Memorial Day, 4th of July, etc. and was taken away when we later upgraded under a different promo.  

 

Right this is normal.  The OBC for Memorial Day was the price/promo combination when you booked.   If you reprice it is at the current price/promo combination at the time.   The only Celebrity "extras" that I know of that shouldn't change if you upgrade or change the ship/sail date on a reservation would be Onboard Booking OBC (If your invoice is marked as an Onboard Booking) and Shareholder credit.  Although many times the Shareholder credit will be dropped off and you have to re-submit to get it added back.

[critic2023]

Agreed. I have a Med/Israel/Egypt cruise booked for September 2025. I usually check the pricing on my booked cruises once a month or so and call to reprice if there's a significant price drop. Unsurprisingly due to recent events, this cruise came down a whopping $4000 and I was able to get my final balance changed.

 

Now, given those same recent events, I'm not confident the cruise will happen as scheduled (or at all). I'm even less confident that I will even decide to go if Celebrity doesn't cancel and things continue the way they are. But I'm glad I was able to secure a lower price just in case!

[drakes2]

50 minutes ago, critic2023 said:

. I usually check the pricing on my booked cruises once a month or so and call to reprice if there's a significant price drop.

I call even for insignificant price drops. I booked a transatlantic a month ago for April of 2025. In one week the price dropped 3 times and I saved over $300. This is for  solo occupancy. 

[Stockjock]

4 hours ago, drakes2 said:

I call even for insignificant price drops. I booked a transatlantic a month ago for April of 2025. In one week the price dropped 3 times and I saved over $300. This is for  solo occupancy. 

Is this before or after final payment?

[d9704011]

10 minutes ago, Stockjock said:

Is this before or after final payment?

It's for a cruise 10 months from now.

[drakes2]

6 hours ago, Stockjock said:

Is this before or after final payment?

Well before. Booked a 15 night TA on the Ascent on May 24th. One price drop was just over 20 bucks but I still called and got it repriced. 

[Stockjock]

7 hours ago, drakes2 said:

Well before. Booked a 15 night TA on the Ascent on May 24th. One price drop was just over 20 bucks but I still called and got it repriced. 

I think they are a little more flexible before final payment than after. In my case, it was after final payment. That doesn’t mean they won’t do anything after final payment, it just means that I think there is less flexibility since they know they’ve got you where they want you.

[drakes2]

4 minutes ago, Stockjock said:

I think they are a little more flexible before final payment than after. In my case, it was after final payment. That doesn’t mean they won’t do anything after final payment, it just means that I think there is less flexibility since they know they’ve got you where they want you.

I've always had cruises repriced prior to final payment. After that I've been able to move up to another category depending on pricing. Couple years ago I moved to an SV concierge cabin from an obstructed verandah for less than  $100 for a 10 night cruise.

[Stockjock]

As an update, I'm glad I called when I did.  Only 1 week later, prices have gone way up.  Inside now shows as sold out.  Oceanview is sold out.  Veranda has not quite tripled.  Concierge and Aqua Class have roughly doubled.

I guess the moral is that when you see that pricing change, jump on it.

[563toM]

Does anyone track how often the price of a cruise can change ?  I thought it was only once a day as we are booked for a 10 day cruise on Constellation for January 2025. I was able to get a lower price yesterday of just under a  $100 savings.  I repriced it this morning and it had gone up in price. 

 

A couple of hours ago I repriced the same cruise and it dropped in price again.  In just two days I have saved $166 and now I am becoming obsessed with repricing so I can see how low this cruise will be by final payment.