Last week we received a letter from Mark Conroy offering cruise only fares called "Conde Nast Traveller Subscriber-Only Savings" on 6 Mariner cruises from July through October 2012. We booked two of these cruises more than a year in advance, with cruise only fares and with multiple discounts (SSS, early booking etc) and yet these new offerings from Regent are lower than what we have paid. In the case of Cossacks, the new offering is $1300.00pp lower that our fares. Regent declined Ngaire's request to adjust her clients fares. This is an upsetting new situation and we wrote Mark our concerns.
Jim & Pat

This does not bode well since most of us are used to planning way ahead -- especially for the escorted cruises -- knowing that if for some reason fares are reduced, we have always been able to receive the adjustment. What happens if you are still outside the final payment window -- can you cancel and rebook? IMO $1300 on a 10-day cruise is a significant amount of money.

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Eugene

Jim & Pat, I certainly understand your feelings. It sounds like those of up who have been with Regent for many, many years don't mean much to the line anymore. Please let us know what you hear back from Mark.

This is the first time that RSSC has not adjusted to a lower price when we have requested the new price be honored. I know all the other cruise lines do the same thing but I always respected Regent for their ethicial stand on this situation.

Yes, Eugene if you are not in penalty we can always cancel and rebook and move the administrative fee over as a discount to the cruise fare. It is a lot of trouble for everyone and sometimes you might lose your cabin so it has been much easier when Regent simply adjusted the pricing.

Lower fares do not happen very often in most instances the fares go UP and booking early does pay.

So if this is a new policy it is a decision everyone has to make when to book. If you look at Gran Prix it has gone up considerably.
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Early booking guarantees you a certain category and pricing. If it goes down before 120 days you can always cancel and rebook. So the risk is the last 120 days if pricing decreases.

I dont like it either I think last minute fares are not good business.

I never understood the marketing thought behind giving new customers or bookings a better rate than someone already booked..

This was one of the reasons we liked Regent because we felt we were protected on price. If this happens rarely than it should be no big deal for them. Not everyone will have a TA that follows up on this or clients who are vigilant. Regent needs to rethink this new policy. They are constantly chipping away on our reasons to be loyal. They seem to be spending a lot of time and money upgrading Oceania and Regent and her customers are playing second fiddle. We can't even get a steak sandwich at the pool and they are being offered lobster and steak sandwiches. This is not a smart thing to do. I'll eat the free laundry and internet and start looking for other alternatives especially if we are traveling on our own.

We're on the same cruise and got the same offer--didn't even contact Ngaire because I knew she'd take care of it. Looks like she tried with no luck. Do you suppose they aren't reducing the price for those of us already booked because we'd already made the final payment?? Whatever the reason, it kind of makes me feel like I've been cheated somehow. The least they can do now is give us a complementary upgrade to a Penthouse -- that would make me feel a lot better

Wow...that is terrible, this sure is a bad decision with so many of us so loyal to Regent.

Very disturbing. Especially given the lack of notice or heads up to B&K that this was happening. I have recently seen some print that quotes Regent as being very pleased with the forward bookings that they have. This type of policy change may impact that. My experience with a resort property in Maui indicates that the vacationing public is moving to making bookings much closer to the vacation date. This policy change would tend to encourage that trend. Would not seem to be in the interest of Regent. One could easily see that the capture of a few bookings at the reduced rate would not offset the loss of several bookings at the higher rate and the possible loss of a client to another cruise line. Perhaps it is another one of those policy decisions made too quickly and without all the thought needed. " hint to Regent" . Hopefully there is more to this story that Ngaire can share with us that can take some of the sting away.

When I talked about Regent I often used the phrase " a class act."

I haven't used that phrase the last few years - and now I know why.

Discouraging!

One thing I want to reiterate is the other cruise lines do this ALL THE TIME. Up to this situation ONLY Regent always honored a request for repricing. So changing to another cruise line we will not escape this issue.

Regent did tell me about the pricing change just as I left on this trip and before it was announced and I have been voicing my displeasure but it appears on this sailing there is a line drawn in the sand.

I do not know if this is a "special situation" or if this is a policy change. Only time will tell and as always I will request pricing changes should a fare reduce and I hope these requests will be honored in the future.

I imagine most have received the email about the recent price reductions. We have a 30 day B2B cruise booked next year, and the new fares are $1,000 less for our cabin category. Let's hope Regent has reconsidered their new policy. Lisa is checking on it for me.

Cindy, thanks for the heads-up! We had not received any emails about reductions. I just checked one of our upcoming cruises and sure enough, one went down $500pp in our category. Hopefully our invoice can be adjusted.

This is really a bad sign; also confusing.

If Ngaire can get "original" pricing on escorted cruises long after the price rises, then only danger of waiting is that the lower categories may become "waitlisted." On the other hand, it means that you will always get the lowest price by waiting if the prices actually drop instead of increasing.

Its surprising that Regent would not honor the lower price.. but it is done in other industries as well. I understand if if ships are NOT full the need to fill them up but do NOT upset your loyal patrons who do plan ahead and pay in advance, or at least do something in a FC credit for them or something. Loyalty only goes so far and then people will vote with there feet...

I just had an email from Clay that said B&K got us a $400.00 reduction on our Venice to Monte Carlo cruise in Oct, just prior to Grand Prix. That was due to Regent lowering the price after we had paid, so it looks like Regent is taking care of us again.

We check any sailing that reduces and then determine what can be done.

One thing for sure if they wont adjust the price Regent will allow a booking to be cancelled and rebooked. (some lines will not allow that) So as long as the cruise pricing is changed 120 days before sailing any lower fare can be secured.

The time frame that is in question is once the 15% penalty kicks in at 120 days.
We are doing what we can for everyone. This is a moving target depending on the cruise involved there is no clear cut directive.

At the same time some cruises are reducing others saillings are getting some great "bump" offers as they are oversold. I think this is a blimp in a lack luster European season that is not going to be the norm.

Lisa got us the reduction for our cruise for next spring - saved us a boatload of bucks (pun intended!). Of course, as Ngaire said, in our case, we are still prior to final payment.

We were thrilled! B&K is the greatest! Thanks!

"At the same time some cruises are reducing others saillings are getting some great "bump" offers as they are oversold. I think this is a blimp in a lack luster European season that is not going to be the norm."

We've received three incredible bump offers for our June 26 cruise--unfortunately we're doing a back-to-back with the Black Sea cruise which follows, and we did our own airfare with miles, so we really couldn't take advantage of it. If we'd done Regent Air we'd probably have jumped on it because they also included whatever changes were needed for airfare. The first offer was to substitute a longer cruise plus an upgrade to a Mariner, Voyager or Master Suite. The next offer was a substitute longer cruise with a cash sweetener. Today we got an offer for a full refund if we cancel plus a really generous cash payment or even more generous future cruise credit. One more reason to do Regent Air.