How many of you have been bumped off a flight due to overbooking? Lately, several cruise lines have had to offer cruisers an opportunity to change their cruise dates (or cruises themselves) due to a cruise line overselling cabins on their ships. Yes, aggressive "airline style" revenue management has come to cruise lines, and we're seeing it in the offers for voluntary bumping.
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Other cruise lines have been in the news over the past year for overselling cabins on their ships, RCCL being the most notable of these lines. But I had never been given one of these offers. If I were working a typical 9-to-5 job and had no flexibility to change my vacation time, I could not have taken advantage of the offer made by Princess Cruises. Instead, after reading the offer, I was very happy and asked my travel partner whether we should accept this offer - and she said YES! Within 4 hours of receiving this offer, we were booked on a similar cruise taking place later in the year, and making plans to spend a few days away from home in a different way than originally planned.
When I first heard about such a problem, several Cruise Vloggers reported this happening on Royal Caribbean (RCCL) bookings out of Florida. Cruisers were given several options which included similar cruises on other ships sailing at the same time, later cruises on the same ship sailing the same itinerary, and complete refunds. A recent RCCL overbooking in Europe was just too good for many people not to accept - all options offered a free cruise and a full refund for the cruise not taken. It appears that cruise lines are using a cabin/revenue management system similar to that bring used by airlines for seat/revenue management. Cruise lines, unlike their airline counterparts, seem to be more generous with their offers, possibly because there is more competition for a cruiser's dollar. The last thing a cruise line wants is for a person having a ticket for a cruise not to be able to board that cruise and give the cruise line (and the industry) bad press.
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What seems to be the common elements to a cruise line's voluntary bump offer when the cruise has been oversold?
- Full fare refund for the cruise.
- Free cruise on the same ship, or a different ship as compensation.
- Some financial compensation for travel expenses not supplied through the cruise line.
- Booking new Hotel and Air for travel arranged through the cruise line.
When planning an overseas cruise, one often has a choice of arranging airfare and pre/post cruise hotel stays through the cruise line. Princess has been reported by one cruise vlogger (Don Terres - "Just Don" and "Don's Family Vacations" YouTube channels) as doing a very good job at handling unexpected problems related to travel arranged through the cruise line. On the other hand, I've heard complaints about how NCL deals with similar issues. Given my experiences, I feel that booking both air and hotel through the cruise line may be the best option for those wanting a single point of responsibility to deal with the risk of being bumped from a cruise. One need not worry about whether there is a change fee for the flight, nor does one need to remember to cancel a hotel reservation. Yet, based on the cruise line, the old phrase still applies: "Your Mileage May Vary."
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Assuming that one takes the cruise line's offer, one has to check the rebooking very carefully to make sure that everything about a rebooked cruise is correct. In our case, Princess Cruises moved both of us over to the later cruise date, but got my partner's loyalty member and email address fouled up in the rebooking. After a little bit of confusion (and some emails both to Princess and our Travel Agent), we were able to reach someone at Princess who could fix the problem - and did. Based on our experience, I wonder if any of the cruise lines have come up with a "Cut and Paste" way of making this process a seamless and painless process.
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How often are we seeing cruise lines oversell their cabins? It might be more often than one thinks. There is a pecking order to who gets bumped, and this video clip illustrates the process of selecting bumps. The important question ends up being - how often are people sold cruises, and not being able to take them due to involuntary bumping? That's not an easy question to answer. From what I've read, it is an uncommon occurrence. From my experience, it is something that has been happening much more often these days, as cruising has become much more popular than in the past.
The question comes up: How do I avoid being bumped from a cruise? The best answer that I've found in my research is to book a specific cabin in as high a category as you can afford. So, if you want to save money on a cruise and risk being bumped, get a "Guaranteed" cabin. If not, get a cabin assignment when purchasing your cruise tickets.
PS: The rebooked ("Moved Over") cruise took place in better weather than the original cruise. This helped us enjoy this cruise even more than we likely would have enjoyed being on the original cruise. Again, many thanks to Princess Cruises for the move over offer.
