Even travelers who haven’t taken advantage of the offers have heard the spiel at the airport “If you are willing to take a later flight we will offer you a confirmed seat and a voucher for a future discount or free trip within the United States.”
Over the years I have received a few offers for clients on cruises, usually a month or two in advance, asking them to consider switching to another date for a discount and an upgraded cabin.
But this year Holland America’s Oosterdam December 26 San Diego to Mexico 7-day sailing is taking things to a new level. And it’s now less than a week away.
It started a couple weeks when I received a fax for three bookings on that sailing. The fax said that “due to the popularity” of the sailing, they were offering clients an alternate departure date, along with a 75 percent refund. The dates were a December 16 Panama Canal Cruise, a January Mexico cruise, and a Christmas week Caribbean cruise from Florida.
Given the fact that the week after Christmas is ridiculously popular for any warm weather vacation, this seemed like a tough sell. And sure enough, the offers just keep on coming.
Last week the offer added another Mexico sailing, and a two week Hawaii cruise leaving December 22. With an added note that there were possible discounts on Alaska cruises.
Today, the cruise line is still offering the 75 percent refund, but a choice of four Mexico sailings between January and March. And the added note says “Please call to inquire about possible offers to move to other 2010 or 2011 cruises if none of the above dates work.”
The tag line on the fax “Don’t let your clients be left out on this Special Offer.” Although clearly the phones are not ringing off the hook.
In general, cruise lines do a certain amount of overbooking, but clearly something went wrong here with this holiday sailing. I regularly book clients in “guarantee” cabins, translation, the cruise line guarantees a certain type of cabin at least, and then assigns a cabin number later.
Whether Holland America oversold their “guarantees” or whether they had some other bad luck, clearly they have more passengers than cabins at this point. I do have some sympathy for them because it’s been a tough year for cruise lines, and holiday sailings are the most profitable.
But I have to wonder, when they realized the problem why didn’t they raise the ante sooner? I’m not changing my bookings, but we are all expecting another fax tomorrow.
Would love to hear in comments from Consumertraveler.com readers. Has this happened to you, as a travel agent or a passenger? And has a cruise line ever actually bumped someone at the last minute due to overbooking?
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