daesal wrote: » Hello . Just wondering if any updated stena codes are around? Thanks
Limbo123 wrote: » Not sure about Stena but 20ISAG still working this afternoon on Irish Ferries Dub- Holyhead rtn the week before Christmas
daesal wrote: » Great. Thanks for quick reply. I find Irish Ferries very very difficult to deal with since March,and very tricky to get a refund on cancellations due to covid. If possible I would prefer to use Stena. It's a shame, I have used IF for years but their customer service is terrible these days...and it used to be great!
Limbo123 wrote: » Just off Facebook chat with Stena. No discounts/offers. You would think being a far larger company and with the current pandemic, they would offer some sort of incentive to poach customers from IF. The price difference would more than cover my fuel costs from Ireland to East London and back.
The Continental Op wrote: » There are no customers to poach. I travel every couple of months from Rosslare and 20 cars would be a busy overnight crossing returning during the daytime not seen more that 40 in recent months. At the beginning of the pandemic halve or even quarter those numbers. The money has to be in the freight which seems to have increased over the years at least on the Rosslare crossing where the car deck is now normally half full of lorries.
Limbo123 wrote: » There are Irish Ferries customers to poach. Both Irish Ferry and Stena ferries tend to leave 5 or 10 mins apart from Dublin and Holyhead. Stena is the much larger of the two companies yet Irish Ferries have an active promotional code and the fares are slightly cheaper too (even without the promo code) on the dates I have looked at. The crossings I have made during the pandemic were busy enough. I can imagine it will be even busier in the run up to Christmas as people will probably feel safer having a bit of space on a ferry than being cooped up on a plane.
The Continental Op wrote: » Nah noting I've seen and I tend to keep an eye out. I've found with the prices going up and Irish Ferries being so keen to keep your money that I now just book on the day of travel. Last week came over to the UK 7 cars on the ferry. More uniform staff in the passenger areas of the ship than actual passengers. For my next "trick" I'll try and get back to Ireland
And this part is non refundable
Since covid I don't book in advance anymore but the problem is you loose out on that early booking discount (if it still exists). I won't pay the extra to allow for cancellation etc and instead book on the day just before travelling.
The problem with that is I'm paying more than double what I used to. Two years ago I could get over an back for €170 booking in advance when there was a discount offer. Same trips (same days and sailings) cost €400 booked on the day.
We're looking at travelling to the UK in August. In past years IF / Stena have had sales discounting fares by up to 30% from January
With such a short lead in time to this summer, I can't believe the boats are anywhere near full, yet there are no sales or coupon codes to be found anywhere.
At some point, one of them will buckle and discount their fares to fill their ships - but how far into August is this going to be?
We're looking at €550 return for a car +3 at the moment. I've never paid anything like that before.
There have been no codes since Covid started not seem one in 18 months. I'm signed up for both companies to get any codes but all I get is advertising.
I'd guess prices have gone up by at least 25 %.
Cheapest fares tend to be the overnight ones on Tuesday and Wednesdays.
What route you sailing on?
It didn't surprise me that there were no discounts to be had during Covid - they didn't want to be seen to encourage travel against government advice not to do so.
We're travelling Dublin to Holyhead. Out and back at family friendly (daytime) sailings at weekends. Travelling overnight midweek is not an option.
Flying is still reasonably priced, but car rentals aren't great if you need one.
If IF's Swift does restart as scheduled in early August, this should add significant capacity and increase the likelihood of a sale in the next few days.
Ferries a couple of weeks earlier on the same days / at the same times as the ones we are looking at are only about another €20 more whereas a 20%-30% potential sale reduction would cut the price substantially. The upside risk of not booking until closer and being able to take advantage of a sale, is, I think much better than the downside risk of there being no sale and having to pay slightly more. The passing of time also allows other options to come to light (eg flying / car rental) that you can't take advantage of if you book too soon.
I don't know what its like on that route but Rosslare Pembroke has been almost empty in 5 trips during covid haven't seen more than 24 cars on the ferry. Last trip was a getting near a month back and I noticed something like 16 going to the UK and nearly 200 cars for the other ferry going to France.
I think if there is to be a ferry sale, it will happen in the next couple of days, ie by cob Friday.
This will be just in time for the Bank Holiday weekend and stimulate demand for the last full month of the summer for those who haven't already made plans.
At the end of the day, it's about the ferry companies maximising revenue over the last few weeks of the high season, and whether that's having fewer passengers paying more or more passengers paying less and using both recent and historical booking data, they'll have a pretty good idea which is likely to work out best for them.
I doubt there will be any discounts this year. With the general covid hassles over travel only people that need to travel will be going to the UK on the ferries. The ferries to France are a different matter, that is nearly all tourist holiday money so maybe something to fight over but even then I doubt it.
I called the Irish Ferries office earlier today as I was trying to do a mock booking to see the final price of a return trip, but I was getting stuck when trying to enter the car make and model. I was waiting on the phone for about 15-20 mins. Not as bad as Eir last year, but not great.
I was told that the car issue had existed "for weeks" and to enter "TBA" in both to progress to the next screen (and to phone them up and advise at a later stage). This worked.
I asked what the level of bookings were like and was told that were quite a few bookings but also quite a lot of cancellations too.
IF, you might want to fix the car issue to reduce call waiting times.
I had a look the other day and it looks like they are cancelling the fast ferry and Epsilon and running just Ulysses some days.
No current offers on foot passengers it seems. €40 each way from IF/SL, more expensive than flying I think 😑
Just returned from a car trip to the UK. Travelled on daytime weekend sailings and loadings were light, maybe 25-30% capacity, and this was described as busier than most sailings by duty free shop staff. Virtually no HGVs on the ferry - not sure if this was because it was the weekend or Brexit related.
Expensive trip and administratively cumbersome to return with all the Passenger Locator forms and PCR tests to complete for unvaccinated passengers, so can't see a return trip on the cards until both of these issues are ironed out.
Hi,
I was supposed to travel to the UK with Irish Ferries in 2020 but my plans got disrupted due to Covid. Irish Ferries did not give me a refund but gave me a credit voucher instead. However, they said that the voucher has to be used by 31 Dec 2021.
I'm not planning to travel to the Uk this year. Therefore, would anyone be willing to purchase the voucher from me? The credit is €470.
