cruise reduction pricing

[thorpemarlene]

I do not know how many of you know this but... if you book a cruise on Norwegian (i am pretty sure other lines do this as well) but if you also take them up on their free airfare for one person while the 1st pays full price it sounds great but consider:  1. The cruise company get special pricing, as an example my wife and i booked a early fall cruise from Boston to Quebec with free air for the 2nd person. It cost us 444.00 from Orlando to Boston and return from Quebec City to Orlando. Thats a pretty great deal. The flights were good hours etc. When i saw the tickets later on, it cost Norwegian approx. 39.00 for the Boston leg and 110.00 for the Quebec return.  They made a pretty good profit.  I had no real problem with that. I received a credit back on my credit card for about 190.00, great.    Now the kicker.... the price of the cruise went down by quite a bit but they will not give a credit of any kind when this happens if the airfare had gone down. I realize when you book a cruise you never know if the cruise cost will go down or not, but in this case, i would have been better off booking my own airfare and then receiving a markdown on the cruise.  This is just something people should be aware of that could happen, maybe.  They are not going to point this out when you originally book it. Bottom line, the airfare for me was super cheap, i paid the price for the cruise originally pretty happy.  I also have a cruise to California Coast with them next fall, i booked my own flights 🙂

[3Sisters]

@thorpemarlene Thanks for sharing this info! I always thought the NCL airfare price was the most affordable way to book. That's how the line hooks you anyways. I'm thinking that NCL pricing was strategic. I don't like when cruise lines make these strategic price changes because it seems scam like. I know cruise lines have to make money, but this isn't a nice way to do it. I will always book my airfare separately. I appreciate the heads up.

[thorpemarlene]

This is what i think happens with Norwegian. I think they are brilliant in how they advertise their cruises. If you notice they always advertise a LOT of FREE stuff, i.e. free specialty dining (2) free internet (150 min) free air for the (second person) sometimes free drink pkg  and so forth.  I do not think any of this is free. I think they build the pricing of this into their cruise cabin per person pricing.  If you go online and compare apples to apples the similar lines, they usually are 400-600 more per cruise, but people like the "free" stuff.  If you look for example at MSC they are usually a lot cheaper but do not include all of this "free stuff".  Now i know you don't have to take the free air on NCL , so i am wondering if you said to the agent when booking, what if i do not want the 150 internet.  Do i get a credit??  Same with the dining pkg. ?  I have never done that, but i am going to ask the next time.  I have checked out HAL,Princess, and Celebrity pricing recently and all are either identical or slightly more than NCL, but not by a lot and these are rated "higher quality" lines and they also give away some free stuff, but not as much, it just makes you think.

[3Sisters]

@thorpemarlene Clearly you have outsmarted NCL's marketing strategy. I always wondered why it all seems free, but when I got to the actual purchase pricing it's really high. We all know a store or two that does the same. I prefer a more straightforward pricing structure. It seems more honest and it's easier to follow. I don't like the beat around the bush mentality. Give it to me straight. It's like a waste of time to do all the work to find out that the marketed price doesn't reflect the final price. You definitely would get a credit if you denied an included service. I agree that the included things aren't always things you will use or necessarily want. I prefer a basic base price and then I can add whatever else I want from there.