They've oversold our cruise! And we got the offer!

[Gold Member]

From my experience this doesn't happen. They simply keep increasing their offer until enough numbers accept. But it can be stressful if you are booked guarantee and they don't allocate a cabin to the last minute.

I find it amazing that most (?) Cruise lines treat their customers like real customers and seemingly go out of their way to ensure that they are appropriately reimbursed and looked after in an oversold scenario. In complete contrast and as mentioned upthread, our National Carrier goes out of their way to ensure you adopt the Tax Payer position and cop it hard.

How do the airlines and hotel chains get away with this type of behaviour but the cruise lines don’t/can’t? Sure, there are comparable earlier/later flights, alternate hotels etc (but that doesn’t justify their actions or reimbursement policies), whereas it’s pretty difficult to swap out to a similar cruise on another line on the same day at short notice. Perhaps it’s also due to the disproportionately strong relationships with and reliance on Travel Agencies which have a much greater influence on repeat customer patronage.

I’m not a fan of how Cruise lines nickel and dime you onboard either, but that’s a small price to pay given the generous treatment under IRROPS compared to the Airlines.

 

[jase05]

If it was me I’d stick with my balcony cabin and the better dining and position. You got a really good deal and were happy with that before the offer came through.

This would be my thoughts too.
Whilst the other deals sound ok I’m one of those that would be happy to stick to what I’ve got plus Mrs Jase would kill me if I ever booked another cruise with no balcony

 

[love_the_life]

The downsides as I see it are you give up an AQ cabin with Blu which is so much better than the MDR in my opinion. MrLtL hated the MDR “barn”. Also the access to the Persian Garden which is pleasant and I did use it last time on X. Also smaller cabin and no balcony and little control maybe on location.
Upsides? The $.

 

[Cruise Luxury]

I find it amazing that most (?) Cruise lines treat their customers like real customers and seemingly go out of their way to ensure that they are appropriately reimbursed and looked after in an oversold scenario. In complete contrast and as mentioned upthread, our National Carrier goes out of their way to ensure you adopt the Tax Payer position and cop it hard.

How do the airlines and hotel chains get away with this type of behaviour but the cruise lines don’t/can’t? Sure, there are comparable earlier/later flights, alternate hotels etc (but that doesn’t justify their actions or reimbursement policies), whereas it’s pretty difficult to swap out to a similar cruise on another line on the same day at short notice. Perhaps it’s also due to the disproportionately strong relationships with and reliance on Travel Agencies which have a much greater influence on repeat customer patronage.

I’m not a fan of how Cruise lines nickel and dime you onboard either, but that’s a small price to pay given the generous treatment under IRROPS compared to the Airlines.

Yeah, totally different mindset for cruise lines versus airlines. For the most part cruise lines try to treat passengers well with retention in mind.

 

[Pushka]

For the cruise dummies, what is the attraction of this cruise. How does Sakura make this THE cruise to be on?

Well, it's cherry blossom time. But it's also spring. Weather is much nicer than June - August due to high heat and humidity. Most cruise lines only travel to Japan from March through to Sept Oct? Then they are off elsewhere.

Post automatically merged: Sunday at 4:38 PM

This would be my thoughts too.
Whilst the other deals sound ok I’m one of those that would be happy to stick to what I’ve got plus Mrs Jase would kill me if I ever booked another cruise with no balcony

ANOTHER? Oh. That's good intel then.

 

[jase05]

ANOTHER? Oh. That's good intel then.

Our first and only cruise to date there were no balcony rooms left so we settled for an oceanview room and Mrs Ja$e felt so claustrophobic and said NEVER again.
Few have an Alaskan cruise in July and balcony room was non negotiable but dependant on how that goes will determine if that’s the end of our cruising life or not

 

[Pushka]

Our first and only cruise to date there were no balcony rooms left so we settled for an oceanview room and Mrs Ja$e felt so claustrophobic and said NEVER again.
Few have an Alaskan cruise in July and balcony room was non negotiable but dependant on how that goes will determine if that’s the end of our cruising life or not

Alaska cruises are fabulous.

 

[drron]

The other thing about cruising Japan in sakura time is that you have your accommodation and meals already paid for. And traveling on land is the most expensive and crowded time for traveling around Japan.

 

[RooFlyer]

The other thing about cruising Japan in sakura time is that you have your accommodation and meals already paid for. And traveling on land is the most expensive and crowded time for traveling around Japan.

And, I'm guessing, that if the season is earlier or later than expected, you are moving right along the length of the country so guaranteed to see the best at some spot.

 

[Quickstatus]

you are moving right along the length of the country so guaranteed to see the best at some spot.

See the Sakura from ship or need to do a shore excursion?

 

[RooFlyer]

See the Sakura from ship or need to do a shore excursion?

Dunno, never done it but I imagine they don't just sail around the islands.

BTW Osaka Castle by a friend of mine in Japan right now

 

[Pushka]

See the Sakura from ship or need to do a shore excursion?

You can see Fuji from the ship. The rest? Take a hike.

 

[DC3]

And all that you can eat.

 

[love_the_life]

From my experience this doesn't happen. They simply keep increasing their offer until enough numbers accept. But it can be stressful if you are booked guarantee and they don't allocate a cabin to the last minute.

Interesting as I read about a number of pax who were bumped on a cruise out of Australia - could have been domestic. Maybe Carnival - was in the media from memory and maybe last season?

 

[Pushka]

And all that you can eat.

And drink. Anyways I'm calling them tomorrow. To ask questions only. It's an online thing.

 

[Cruise Luxury]

Interesting as I read about a number of pax who were bumped on a cruise out of Australia - could have been domestic. Maybe Carnival - was in the media from memory and maybe last season?

Yeah, there was one significant one with Royal Caribbean out of Brisbane a little while back, but is overall very rare.

It might be slightly more prevalent on bigger ships, but on anything mid-sized or lower any last minute bumping is more likely due to significant plumbing or electrical issues, rather than overbooking.

The other form of bumping that does occur is when a cruise line decides to charter a sailing to a third party after it has already sold some space. This usually occurs a fair way out (12 months or more) but is still annoying, as it is forced (you can't just stay with your booking).

 

[bPeteb]

bAlt and my first cruise was on Infinity. It was a seven night Alaska cruise from Vancouver then transPacific across to Hawaii where we circled the islands. We were in an outside for Alaska. It was actually pretty cool as we were close to the water and the window was big enough to sit on the ledge and look out at the scenery, and dolphins.

We became friends with some couples who were in a forward balcony and suite. The suite people were only doing seven days, the guys, the whole trip. They upgraded to the suite and negotiated for us to move to the balcony at an excellent rate.

Sure the outside was bigger inside, but the balcony was amazing in Hawaii so we didn't even think about the loss of interior space. We took two cruises not long after that, both in an outside. I wouldn't do it again.

I wouldn't change Pushka.

 

[Scash]

Was speaking with our TA yesterday and she said she has an 88 yo client with cancer who had booked his last hoorah on a cruise from BNE to Perth via cairns, top end etc, only to have been told the cruise is overbooked and he has ben cancelled! He was offered a refund plus full travel credit but chances are he wouldn't be around to use it.

She then spent enormous amounts of time on the phone to the cruise company and finally got him a room on the cruise, however he had to downgrade from a balcony. Apparently this particular cruise was overbooked by 23%!

We had a similar situation with a Croatian small ship coastal cruise a few years ago about 2 weeks before we were supposed to sail. We then had to madly scramble to arrange alternatives.

Something really needs to be done about airlines, cruise companies etc overbooking.

 

[Aeryn]

I hope you get the outcome you want Pushka.

I notice a few comments on this thread comparing to airline IRROPS, but i don't think this is the same thing at all.

If the cruise company had to cancel a sailing due to weather or ship being unseaworthy, or reduce passenger loads because some rooms were uninhabitable that is a case of IRROPS and similar to when flights get cancelled de to weather o r there are broken seats on a plane.

But failure to adequately control inventory and allowing more bookings then there are rooms is IMO just criminal. It may be common on Cruise ships and on US airlines but I believe it falls foul of Australian consumer law. In Australia it is illegal to advertise a product/service that you do not reasonably expect to be able to deliver at the time of sale.

Once all cabins in a class have been sold, the cruise company should not allow anymore cabins to be sold in that class. If they guaranteed certain agencies an allocation, that allocation should have been removed from other booking engines.

If they typically get a high number of cancellations then sell standby, so customers knows they have a risk of not boarding. They could also make offers to free up space by allowing some people to choose to move to a different cabin type but this should occur before they oversell.

These sorts of shenanigans cause unnecessary stress for those who have to plan well ahead and cant just change travel plans on a whim. It assumes incorrectly that the cruise is the soul purpose of a trip and really turns me off the idea of taking a cruise anywhere unless like Antarctica it is the only real way to visit a place.

 

[Pushka]

I hope you get the outcome you want Pushka.

I notice a few comments on this thread comparing to airline IRROPS, but i don't think this is the same thing at all.

If the cruise company had to cancel a sailing due to weather or ship being unseaworthy, or reduce passenger loads because some rooms were uninhabitable that is a case of IRROPS and similar to when flights get cancelled de to weather o r there are broken seats on a plane.

But failure to adequately control inventory and allowing more bookings then there are rooms is IMO just criminal. It may be common on Cruise ships and on US airlines but I believe it falls foul of Australian consumer law. In Australia it is illegal to advertise a product/service that you do not reasonably expect to be able to deliver at the time of sale.

Once all cabins in a class have been sold, the cruise company should not allow anymore cabins to be sold in that class. If they guaranteed certain agencies an allocation, that allocation should have been removed from other booking engines.

If they typically get a high number of cancellations then sell standby, so customers knows they have a risk of not boarding. They could also make offers to free up space by allowing some people to choose to move to a different cabin type but this should occur before they oversell.

These sorts of shenanigans cause unnecessary stress for those who have to plan well ahead and cant just change travel plans on a whim. It assumes incorrectly that the cruise is the soul purpose of a trip and really turns me off the idea of taking a cruise anywhere unless like Antarctica it is the only real way to visit a place.

Except for the awful example posted above, if you book an actual cabin and have a cabin number then you will be able to cruise. It's the Travel Agents who book a block of 'guarantee' cabins, which are considerably cheaper, that are at risk. They don't get a room until it is allocated. And if it's a full ship and no cancels - the emails like I got. We are safe to travel.

So bets on what I did? We travel next Tuesday so made a decision yesterday. Yay or nay? I need a poll

I’ll keep a tally and let you know on the 10th when final date was to apply.