Question on early booking discount

[Eastridge]

So I was on hold for two hours on opening day. But I did get the early booking discount for my trip.

Looking at the ABD site the day after, it seems the vast majority of dates still have an early booking discount available. I don’t mean for Egypt, but for the older, existing trips.

But apparently there are typically only 4 early booking spots available per trip?

Question: So what happens if, say, two people grab the first two spots, then I come in and have a party of 4? Does my entire party still get the early booking discount, or is it only for 2 people and the rest pay the higher rate?

I ask because I’m trying to judge how necessary it is to phone in at 8am on opening day if you aren’t going for the current hot trip (which was Egypt this year). Would be nice to call in later in the afternoon and not stay on hold the entire morning.

 

[sayhello]

My understanding is that if anyone in your party gets the EBD, then your entire party gets the EBD.

Sayhello

 

[CaliKris]

From what I have read, it seems there are four spots only. So you would get the EBD for half your party (2 of you).

 

[Happy99]

We were a party of six, and got the EB for Egypt for all of us. I wonder if it is four rooms and not four guests.

 

[kaseyC]

My understanding is that if anyone in your party gets the EBD, then your entire party gets the EBD.

Sayhello

This was exactly how our TA explained it to us.

 

[Rapunzellover]

Fyi, any solo folks booking the EBD. The final price is based on the original double occupancy price plus 40% single supplement, minus whatever EBD ammount. Final price is not, as I mistakenly thought, the original single supplement minus EBD, plus 40% discount. My trip was 200$ more as a result.

Sigh, ABD with more nickel and diming.

 

[Sakura1017]

I think it has to be more than 4 spots available? Apparently the first group could start booking tours on Tuesday. So Egypt was already sold out on that day. So if early bookings from the first group go through, they should leave some spots for general opening day. They said the website is not updated every day but a few days apart. So the price that you see slashed for some bookings, could mean EBD is gone, but you could still go for those dates but at the higher cost.

 

[Eastridge]

Thanks for all the replies. I talked to a Vacationista today about other matters and then asked her about the early booking discount policy.

She gave a different answer than what I’ve heard. She said that the first few groups get the EBD. She couldn’t say how many groups, but apparently it is now based on numbers of groups rather than individual people. So if you get the EBD, then everyone in your group also receives it.

If you come in with a group that has to be split into two booking groups (e.g. you have a party of six that gets purchased as a group of 3 and another group of 3) then you might have a situation where one group gets the EBD but the other doesn’t.

I don’t know if this represents a change in policy.

 

[crtsjffrsn]

The mysteries of the EBD. We were waitlisted on an adventure (which would make me assume that the adventure had filled up and would therefore mean all of the EBD spots were gone). When our TA learned we were cleared from the waitlist (almost two weeks after we were waitlisted), they quoted her the full price without the EBD. But then when she went to deposit for us the next day, she let us know that they did apply EBD to our booking. Which, I will take it, but it was completely unexpected at this point...