Mistake Fares Happen With Cruise Lines – Be Careful

For those who have been in the miles and points space for any period of time are almost certainly familiar with Mistake Fares.  These are fares that are mis-entered into the pricing models, websites, booking platforms, etc. of airlines and hotels.  Often times it’s as simple as a mis-placed decimal point and a $4,500 trans-Atlantic business class flight can become $450 or even $45.  Sometimes an algorithm goes wrong with a schedule change or a new flight added to the schedule and with zero seats booked the software tells it that it needs to drop price to sell seats.  So do mistake fares happen with cruise lines?  The answer is yes, but not often.

In this article we’ll take a look at a real-life example with a Viking Ocean Cruise, the benefits of booking mistake fares, the downsides of booking mistake fares, and the ways to mitigate the risks associated with booking mistake cruise fares.

Viking Re-Prices a Cruise AFTER Confirming a Booking

Viking is currently getting some bad press from a retired school teacher from Orlando – Elizabeth Gehron who thought she was booking a cruise and a discounted land tour of Australia at a great price.  What seems to be different in Ms. Gehron’s case than in a “traditional mistake fare” is that she may not have known that she was in fact booking a mistake fare.

Ms. Gehron booked a trip of a lifetime to visit Australia and New Zealand for $6,100 per passenger and then added an advertised land program at the beginning of the cruise for an additional $899 per passenger.  Gehron told WFTV9 News that the pre-cruise land program was the big draw for her and her travelling companion.  “That allowed us to go into Australia, because the cruise just you see Melbourne and Sydney, we wanted to go into Australia and see more of it.”

After a quick search on Vikingcruises.com it looks like The Best of Australia land tour is typically 6 nights.  Needless to say $150 per night ($899 per person) is an amazing deal.

Well it turns out it was far too good of a deal as Viking sent a revised statement to Ms. Gehron’s travel agent with a new price point of $5,299 per passenger, an increase of $4,400 per passenger.  To be honest, $5,299 makes a lot more sense. I wouldn’t call it price gouging by any means, but a $4,400 increase or 489% price hike is eye-popping.  This is especially true when added to the $12,200 total cruise fare the two travelers were now looking at a vacation of at least $22,800.

Gehron’s position is that Viking should honor the original pricing.  Viking’s Booking Conditions say otherwise giving broad rights to the company to make changes, cancellations, substitutions, corrections in pricing, and more with little recourse to customers.

You can read about Oceania Cruises massive changes where they didn’t offer to compensate passengers here.

Viking seems to have reacted to the WFTV9 inquiry as they’re reporting on their website that “After Action 9 reached out, Gehron said Viking contacted her and offered to only charge each of them $2,200 extra instead of $4,400. The two women are now trying to decide what to do. They have until the end of the month to cancel or pay the higher fare.” (bolding by author)

Companies sticking to their terms and conditions is not unusual in the travel industry. However, companies often opt to honor mistake fares as a good will gesture and to prevent the kind of bad press Ms. Gehron’s story is generating.

The Benefits of Booking Mistake Fares

This one is pretty obvious – AMAZING DEALS can be had when mistake fares happen with cruise lines.  If you can book something for a small fraction of what it normally costs that’s a great opportunity.  This can make a trip that was otherwise out of reach a slam dunk.  In the airline and hotel spaces there are sites dedicated to finding these opportunities, though they have become less and less common, potentially because AI is catching the errors before they go live.

The Downsides of Booking Mistake Fares

These can range from:

• Best Case – Absolutely no downside, the company will honor the price
• Middle Case – Some version of what Ms. Gehron experienced.  The company corrects the price and offers some concession or sticks with the correct price.  In this case the individual has the choice to proceed with the new price or cancel without penalty
• Worst Case – The company cancels the travel and offers nothing.  This is particularly problematic if the individual has independently booked other things around the mistake fare booking

Ways to Mitigate the Risks Associated with Booking Mistake Fares

This all starts with knowing it’s a mistake fare.  If you know you can plan accordingly.  For Ms. Gheron it’s not clear whether she knew this was a mistake or simply thought it was an amazing promotion.

If you book a mistake fare cruise my suggestions would be:

• Book and simply wait to see if you receive any communication in the coming days and weeks.  Generally these mistakes are more likely to happen on travel well out on the calendar, so this generally isn’t a problem.
• Don’t book any flights or hotels unless they’re refundable.  Points bookings can generally help with this as in many cases they have favorable cancellation policies compared to cash bookings.
• Wait until after final payment is made and accepted before making any non-refundable payments for ancillary travel.
• If you’re the kind of person that books cruises as soon as they’re added to the schedule, you wake up at midnight to book dining reservations and excursions the moment they open up, and you show up at embarkation two hours ahead of your scheduled time you may simply want to avoid mistake fares altogether.

Conclusion

Mistake fares happen with cruise lines just like they happen with airlines and hotels.  These mistake fares can present amazing opportunities but can also be pulled back without compensation.  For some passengers they see these as a bit of a gamble and are willing to take a chance.  For others the disappointment and chaos of having your dream vacation cancelled just isn’t going to be worth it.  Ultimately the choice, when you see a mistake fare, is up to you. – Michael