Ferry Bookings - Why so much "Sold out" on DFDS?

[StuartO]

I first noticed that the DFDS website shows far more "Sold Out" ferry crossings when you try to book a MH crossing some weeks ago, when I was doing a bit of shopping around.  Today I found out why. 

 

It's specific to motorhome bookings and maybe to larger MHs or those with trailers; DFDS allocates limited space for these and then shows "sold out" to a greater extent than in the past.   On weekdays "sold out" appears for most of the daytime crossings.  Maybe they are keeping space back for lorries because it isn't really credible that lots of large vehicles will have actually made bookings for these dates so far ahead.  (I was looking at late April, well after Easter.)  In effect DFDS seems to be turning away lots of potential bookings from motorhomers for no good reason by rationing each ship to a few motorhome spaces on weekdays.

 

And when I eventually made a booking today, I ended up getting a marginally cheaper crossing with P&O than DFDS early Sunday afternoon, which hasn't happened for a while.  I don't mind an outbound crossing via Calais because there will be little risk of any sort of disruption from migrants getting on to the A16 and away.

 

I'm a member of CSMA/Boundless and this is supposed to get me a discount, 5% with P&O but that got lost in the system - but I did get £1 off!