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

[RooFlyer]

No change.

 

[Quickstatus]

They can Keep the cash

 

[Cruise Luxury]

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.

Inventory on a ship is hard to control, and for the most part the cruise lines handle it very well. It's not like a plane with 3 or 4 classes. Some ships have up to 25 cabin grades. Sometimes they sell top down. Sometimes bottom up. Sometimes the sell more in the middle with space above and below. They sell guarantee to help fill the space, and then manage guests like they have with @Pushka, with solid offers (free cruise to move to a window? Not a bad deal for right traveler).

Also with guarantee status you are more likely to get a complimentary upgrade, especially if you have decent past passenger status. It's somewhat like gambling (ship location may suck, or be good) but you know that going into it.

 

[Scash]

Take the money and run

 

[drron]

No change. And don't back down.

 

[Quickstatus]

complimentary upgrade

One thing I've learnt in these parts is that a complimentary upgrade while complimentary may not actually be an upgrade. Additionally after you accept the upgrade, you can't turn the clock back and return to your previous cabin as it's long gone. So need to choose wisely.

 

[Pushka]

No change. And don't back down.

It's entirely voluntary. If we don't do it then the cabin is still ours so there's no coercion involved. Yet, anyway.

 

[VPS]

Have you made up your mind or are you still thinking about it

 

[Quickstatus]

Have you made up your mind

Post #60 suggests yes

 

[cjd600]

coughtails on the balcony

 

[Pushka]

coughtails on the balcony

coughtails anywhere!

Someone (another Aussie) on the FB page for this cruise decided to cancel for option 3 and was notified of cancellation today. Earlier than expected. We are in the same category as they were.

 

[Tiki]

I'd take the $12,000 refund, get the ocean view cabin and have coughtails by the pool.

 

[Seat0B]

So bets on what I did?

Keep your room as you booked it.

 

[Seat0B]

One thing I've learnt in these parts is that a complimentary upgrade while complimentary may not actually be an upgrade. Additionally after you accept the upgrade, you can't turn the clock back and return to your previous cabin as it's long gone. So need to choose wisely.

IME many complimentary upgrades are not actually upgrades - eg when they upgrade you to an unnecessarily large gas guzzling car that's hard to park, or when my room with a view of active volcano Sakurajima was involuntarily upgraded to a bigger room with a view of ... Kagoshima JR station. Not happy Jan.

 

[randompunter]

No change. Keep balcony.

 

[ellen10]

No change , keep the balcony

 

[Rich]

We've always (4 cruises) paid more for a balcony, but never $12000 more. I like option 1.

 

[Pushka]

We've always (4 cruises) paid more for a balcony, but never $12000 more. I like option 1.

There isn’t a $12000 difference between balcony and oceanview. That’s just a refund value for us in either 1 2 or 3. Actually because the cruise was selling so well very early the basic balconies became more expensive than ours and oceanview cabins were selling close to what we paid.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

It's all very dependent on one's financial position I suppose. For me I'd take the refund and the oceanview room. Balcony's are nice to have but not everything to me.

 

[Tiki]

We only had a balcony on one cruise and we didn't pay for it. The cruise was about 65% capacity and I had platinum on Princess and we got upgraded for free. It was a Panama Canal cruise departing Acapulco which at the time had some scary crime stats that put the potential market off the cruise. It was awesome because a balcony gave you a birds eye view of going through the locks but otherwise when we were at open sea it was no big deal that we would have paid a premium for. Japan cruises seem to be very port intensive so if it was me, I don't think I would get enough use from the balcony. And my budget is considerably less than the average AFFer.