Vantage and Getaway fares are going

[RB1961]

I'm with DK on this. Our last 4 cruises have been 2 of each. Book what suits. The 2 Vantage had to be that time of year and a specific cabin and we also told P&O that we didn't want upgrades. We could have saved money by waiting but chose not to.

RB

[Meg 50]

this morning's announcement on FB:
Existing bookings will have their terms and conditions honoured. This includes honouring any Vantage Price Promise for those who made a booking prior to 4th November. We will very shortly be writing to you, and all customers who hold an existing booking to advise them of the changes and how they are effected. Feel free to get in touch with us by email or private message with any specific enquries. Thank you.

I wonder if they mean effected? Or affected? Big difference

[hopefultraveller]

From a totally personal point of view, I feel early bookers should get some perks. We have to book early to get an accessible cabin so no late bargains for us.
Val

[emjay45]

this morning's announcement on FB:
Existing bookings will have their terms and conditions honoured. This includes honouring any Vantage Price Promise for those who made a booking prior to 4th November. We will very shortly be writing to you, and all customers who hold an existing booking to advise them of the changes and how they are effected. Feel free to get in touch with us by email or private message with any specific enquries. Thank you.

I wonder if they mean effected? Or affected? Big difference

I had an email about this today. Apparently 'In the future, if we lower this price, we will write to you and offer a benefit equal to the price reduction' Have we heard that before somwhere.

[Gill W]

Last night I checked the price for our Arcadia Christmas 2014 cabin.

It was £40pp more than we paid for it when booking opened.

This morning, the 'select' fare kicked in, and the price had dropped by £70pp overnight, or £30 less than we paid for it.

This morning I got an email confirming that £60 OBC had been added to our booking.

We got an additional £600 OBC due to Vantage for our recent Azura cruise, so Vantage did actually work, from time to time



Anyway, we now have a situation where early bookers who want to make sure of a cabin number etc will have a price similar to what they've always paid.

The real question is what will the Early Saver fares look like and will they be tempting enough to entice people who don't mind about specifying a cabin or dining option. Or will they still hang on for the 'last minute bargains', less than 90 days before departure. The P&O website reckons there'll be fewer last minute bargains due to Early Savers.

Also, will the people who've booked an Early Saver moan when a last minute bargain comes up for their cruise, which is cheaper than their early saver?

It'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

[Jan Rosser]

I've had two emails today from P&O re cruises - one for next May - no changes in price or benefits and the other for my cruise in February 2014 which is before the new system comes in. The cruise in February is on Ventura but they have informed me that I am travelling on Azura in March the booking reference is correct and cruise personaliser shows the right cruise but someone needs to check before they press the button to send

[Boris+]

I've had an email from Cunard today about our current reservations through until 2014 - but all our plans are now 'subject to change' for the time being anyway, so I'm not taking too much interest.

I hope it will all come out in the wash, and that everyone will still continue to book and enjoy wonderful outings.

Em

[Jan Rosser]

Update - P&O just sent me another email headed "Errata" - ignore all previous emails

I wait with baited breath

[Silver_Shiney]

I've just had one saying the price of our cruise next October is being reduced and we're getting extra OBC - but it's not clear if this is "instead of" or "as well as" a reduction in the fare.

[Meg 50]

I've heard nowt. We cruise in May

just checked - our grade is sold out - but the price quoted is £900 pp more than we are paying!

[whycantibecruising]

I've just had one saying the price of our cruise next October is being reduced and we're getting extra OBC - but it's not clear if this is "instead of" or "as well as" a reduction in the fare.

your fare will not be reduced. you just get the extra OBC

[Silver_Shiney]

I've just had one saying the price of our cruise next October is being reduced and we're getting extra OBC - but it's not clear if this is "instead of" or "as well as" a reduction in the fare.

your fare will not be reduced. you just get the extra OBC

Thank you!

[sunsetsail2night]

I have four cruises booked and received four e-mails today - two of them had me on the wrong ship and another to apologise they had made a mistake and the fourth was correct but only referred to my cruise in January. There will be no change for this cruise although when they first lowered the vantage fares on this cruise I received extra OBC. I now have almost £700 including shares benefit. Now waiting to see what extras they will give me for the other cruises.

Although they only set out the two levels of future bookings, I'm sure there will always be last minute reductions.

Brenda

[Dancing Queen]

Is anyone else thinking the same as me that this is Vantage/Getaway all over again, didn't the same thing happen when Vantage was introduced, lots of extra OBC given to those already booked ..that didn't last long

The only difference I can see is that some cruises are only available as select while others have both select and saver fares available ( or at least that is how Cunard appear to be ) the few I looked at ( saver fare ) were showing many grades 'sold out' but were still showing all grades at select prices ..

I await with baited breath to see what happens if/when cabins are not selling at the select fare will they just reduce and sell it as a 'special offer' basically no different to Getaway !!

I could of course have it all wrong as I haven't compared prices to those in the current brochure and there may well be savings to be made now but I'll take my chances and wait and see what next year has to offer, I certainly don't think the market is going to change drastically over the next 12 months

[hackett]

Hi. Does anybody know if P and O are opening up the offers for single or family cabins? I have attempted to get prices for 6 cruises with the early saver discount for a four berth and all that comes up is 'This voyage is now full for the requested number of people in this grade. Please close this window and chose another voyage.' I have also tried 3 berth cabins and cruises both in and out of term time. It seems as though P and O are not offering the discounts for families again. I think it is time to look elsewhere...

[Manoverboard]

Pure marketing hype regarding the re-branding of fare structures leaves me cold so we will, for the foreseeable, continue to only eye up their last minute bargains in the absence of something more tangible like a ' Charter of Fare-ness '.

Interestingly, or not, we have looked through their 2014/15 brochures several times but for some reason we have been holding back even though we did manage to find a couple of cruises that suited our tastes. The reason for not booking has nothing to do with money but everything to do with trust or in this case a lack of it.

So, if we a-spy a non Worldie cruise with a few new Ports we would at one time have booked it without hesitation but not any more, we are starting to question if the time spent in the Port(s) will be further reduced to save more money or even if it/they will be missed out altogether. We have over the past two or three years missed out on a number of ' must do ' Ports.

Why, I am presently asking myself, should I stump up £1,000s and take a risk ... if I only pay £100s then we will accept that risk.

Perhaps the Vantage vs Getaway warts have destroyed some of the warm glow regarding P&O .... or is it just Mobietta and me ?

[hopefultraveller]

Nice start to the day -an extra £446 OBC for our cruise next May!

BTW is this for the cabin or do we both have to spend £223 each or lose it. I seem to remember a change of some kind.
Val

[Silver_Shiney]

I can't answer your question, Hackett, but welcome to the forum!

[hackett]

Thank you for the welcome. I used to put the occasional post on the old forum. This one is much better but less people on it

[Ray Scully]

Why, I am presently asking myself, should I stump up £1,000s and take a risk ... if I only pay £100s then we will accept that risk.

Perhaps the Vantage vs Getaway warts have destroyed some of the warm glow regarding P&O .... or is it just Mobietta and me ?

Not on this occasion


Ray

[david63]

Nice start to the day -an extra £446 OBC for our cruise next May!

BTW is this for the cabin or do we both have to spend £223 each or lose it. I seem to remember a change of some kind.
Val

To be honest I don't know either as they seem to move the "goalposts" every other week. The last that I heard was that basically it is all "pooled" as long as the on board account is paid by one credit card. As I never trust the accounting systems though I always make sure that we both sign for items to the value of our own OBC (one possible way is with excursions)

[Holiday Planner]

In summer 2012 we had 2 cabins' expenditure on one credit card. We got very confused trying to track expenditure via the in cabin TV as they combined both accounts, but only showed our cabin's expenditure, so suddenly it was showing that we had spent all our OBC, even though 'we' hadn't! Our son, meanwhile had racked up a nice little bar bill (to be fair, he didn't have as much OBC as the rest of us, as it was his first time with P&O)

[towny44]

Nice start to the day -an extra £446 OBC for our cruise next May!

BTW is this for the cabin or do we both have to spend £223 each or lose it. I seem to remember a change of some kind.
Val

If you combine both accounts on one credit card number then P&O will combine your OBC and spend together, but you won't see this on the in room TV until you have spent all the OBC, then you also begin to see the Peninsular discount applying to each individual spend.

[emjay45]

Our cabin on our next cruise has been increased in price by £1000 in spite of already being sold out. If when the balance is due and someone is unable to go on the cruise, do I think they will sell the cabin at the higher price or reduce it by more than £1000 and give us more OBC? No I think they will upgrade someone.
So what incentive is there for someone to book early and spend a lot of money on an expensive cabin. Oh yes ! we get free shuttle buses, wait a minute they always used to be free. Oh that’s right of course we get the cabin of choice etc.etc. but didn't we always get that. Only now of course we get that WITHOUT an early booking discount.

[sunsetsail2night]

I received notification today that my OBC now stands at £805 for my cruise in January - just wish I could set this against a future cruise. There is a limit to how many margaritas (Magnums make the best ever) or champagne I can drink. As I travel alone I don't buy drink for the cabin - no fun drinking alone. No doubt I will hit the shops - at least being in the Caribbean means goods will be tax free.

Am interested to see what benefits I will receive for the other three cruises I have booked.

Brenda