Question for TA's/Other Cruise Insiders

[RLM77]

We are booked on the 2/28 Oosterdam Panama Canal cruise and we have been checking pricing 3-4 times per week in hopes of one more price cut before final payment is due (nine days from now). Up through yesterday there was plentiful veranda inventory. Today, only category VH shows as available and the price is up several hundred dollars. Outside and suite prices do not seem to have changed. Same story on many Web travel sites, not just the TA with which we booked.

Does anyone have a thought on what might have happened? Glitch in HAL's system? Huge group that bought out the balconies? HAL pulling cabins temporarily to create perceived scarcity?

Never seen anything quite like this before, and this will be our 11th cruise. If you're close to the cruise business I'd appreciate your thoughts on what might be going on.

Rich

[kryos]

Could be a lot of things. Could be a "glitch" as you suggest, or it could be a group that was moved from another sailing onto yours.

 

Cruiselines do what is called "inventory management" on a constant basis. If a sailing is not selling well enough, they will try to do something about that. Maybe there's another sailing on another ship going at about the same time. Maybe that ship is heavily booked. In such a case, HAL will offer some incentives to people to move over to the slow-selling sailing, and thus have two ships sail full.

 

This happened on one of my Panama Canal cruises. Another sailing had heavy bookings while ours still had a lot of empty staterooms. HAL made offers ... some really nice upgrades, OBC, etc. ... to some of those passengers to move over to our sailing.

 

If the sailing is one originating in Florida, HAL has even more options. There are a lot of seniors who are on HAL's "last minute" list for great deals on last minute sailings. On the same cruise I mentioned above, HAL apparently worked with a travel agent at one of the "Leisure Town" type properties, who put together a nice last minute travel group at some really good pricing. HAL threw in luxury motor coach transportation to get them from their community to the pier in Fort Lauderdale, and was able to fill a bunch of cabins that way.

 

So it could be that HAL sold off their remaining inventory that way. True, they took a hit on the normal price, but at least those cabins are full now. And a full cabin means lots of opportunities for HAL to make up the loss they took on the price with increased onboard revenue.

 

It's a win-win situation for everybody.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[Two@Sea]

...There are a lot of seniors who are on HAL's "last minute" list for great deals on last minute sailings.

 

Who has this list, and how do we get on it... ??? :)

[Flindy&Doc]

Rich, I don't have an answer for your question, but we will be on the same cruise and there is an active roll call. Check it out and join us if you are interested. Might this mean the upgrade fairy will smile on some of us or is that just wishful thinking? -Linda

[jtl513]

I've always thought that when the lowest step of a category (e.g. VH, HH, M) suddenly jumps in price to an amount larger than other steps, it was a sign that HAL had sold as many guarantees for that step as they want to.