Is it just me? Princess early booking/Captain's Circle pricing?

[blindrid]

I always contend that it's better to book throug a TA and not through the line. The pricing by a line is rarely cheaper regardless of the "frequent flier" benefits. I do check with them but have never booked through a PVP.

 

With the minimal value of being a member, I have never built a loyalty like I have with airlines and let pricing and destinations dicatate who I use as I am not line specific.

[MichCook]

I noticed that the discount used to show up on the Princess website when pricing a future cruise. Now, even when signed in, no discount showing on cruises far in the future.

And checking both before signing in and after, the most saved with my captain's circle number was $100, where it used to be a heck of a lot more.

 

Is everyone getting the same type of pricing, or is it something attached to my captain's circle number that is stopping those discounts we used to see?

Just curious! :o

 

Next cruise we book will be with a TA. The early booking discount fare in their brochure and the website fare was the same (when logged in as past cruiser or not).

[jerryr]

We have had our TA working for several days on med cruises for 2009, and she has been told that at the moment the only discounts available are the early booking discounts in the brochures (the same prices available on the website). They told her that no other discounts or past guest benefits were available at this time.

 

Apparently this is not just Princess because she got basically the same answers from RCI also

 

bob

 

We booked our May 09 Med Cruise while on Emerald the first of April. Before we left home we had recieved a flyer offering $100pp discount for CC members for all Med Cruise booked before the end of June.

 

When we got on the ship I checked the Princess Web site at the Future Cruise Center and it did not show the discount with my log-in. When it came time to talk to the Cruise Consultant we told her what we wanted to book. I knew what the price would be WITH the discount and sure enough that is what she quoted, I didn't have to say a thing to her about the flyer. I don't think we would have recieved the proper pricing if we had just booked on-line at the Princess site.

 

This has taught me you should book through your TA or at least call Princess to get the correct pricing if you go direct. I had checked with my TA before we left and she said her booking engine did show the discount available for us even though the Princess Web Site did not.

 

Everything turned out well, we did the FCC thing, bought one extra FCC, got the booking put in our agents name and when we got home the agent threw in some more OBC since she had some group space booked on the ship.

 

With the new 1/3 down policy the FCC is the only way to go these days, especially on the more expensive cruises.

 

Jerry

[Toto2Kansas]

Oh, I did book our cruise through a TA, so that wasn't the problem. And yes, I saved over $500 by doing it this way.

I just wondered where the past passenger discount/early booking discounts went on the Princess site. They have always been there in the past when booking this far out, but now nadda, nothing, all gone.

[Simru12]

The only thing I've found that's anything of a discount is when I booked our Caribbean cruise for next March. After siging in I saw all Balcony cabins were the same price (Although not the Min-Suites, dang it) My fuzzy math says that I was able to book a BA at the BE rate and saved $160 per person. Not a GREAT discount, but money in my pocket is better than in theirs.

[Coral]

When we got on the ship I checked the Princess Web site at the Future Cruise Center and it did not show the discount with my log-in. When it came time to talk to the Cruise Consultant we told her what we wanted to book. I knew what the price would be WITH the discount and sure enough that is what she quoted, I didn't have to say a thing to her about the flyer. I don't think we would have recieved the proper pricing if we had just booked on-line at the Princess site.

 

On the other hand - I was watching a cruise for this fall. One day when I logged into Princess to look at prices - I saw a $100 discount then the previous day. I thought the prices had gone down and said something to a friend. She could not get that rate. I called Princess and held it while I was deciding and they quoted me the same discounted rate I saw online. I ended up transferring this to my agent. A few days later, I received a flyer in the mail with Captain Circle discounts for this sailing and it quoted the same price that Princess employees and the website quoted me. Again, I spoke to a friend who could not get that rate and this rate is significantly lower then discount websites list.

 

So for me - logging into Princess's website did list my pricing correctly.