All Australians overcharged by HAL

[AmandasPanda]

Amandaspanda,

 

From your post I am understanding that Holland America will only book Australians on cruises who will pay in Australian Dollars.

This seems quite strange.

Why would the Future cruise consultant on the Volendam not allow you to book the second leg of the proposed cruise through your local Travel Agent.?

Have you contacted the Australian agent for Holland America?

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

 

Erewhon

 

The consultant gave us the option to book the first cruise in either US or Aus dollars... if we choose US dollars then to book our second leg and arrange to have the same room we would need to do this through the Hal US office as we were booking in US dollars.

 

If we booked in Aus dollars - then we could deal with the Hal Aus office.

As the cruise was significantly cheaper in US dollars and because the Aus dollar is so strong we choose to book in US dollars.

 

The point here is more that the Hal rep gave us the option and then Hal turned around and said no and cancelled our booking without our permission.

I had done nothing wrong - simply followed the advice and took the option of booking in US dollars and yet feel like i have been punished by Hal.

 

If Hal don't allow this then they shouldn't allow their onboard future cruise consultants to offer this and make these bookings.

[erewhon]

AmandasPanda,

Thank you for your explanation.

We have always chosen to pay in US$ when offered the choice.

[Bellair]

We were prior customers of a popular Florida cruise web site and had booked 3 cruises with them since 2006, but when the regulation changes over 12 months ago re needing to be a US or Canadian citizen & you must tick the box to agree to progress, we were not allowed to book.

I contacted the agent who told us, sorry, we can no longer accept your booking due to HAL's new rules.

 

And the US agent still sends us regular specials.....So back to paying higher rates.

 

If a US citizen books say Qantas on their website for a return to Australia, I have often seen the fare almost half that to which we pay on the Australian site goping from AU to US return.

 

I am sooo glad we can still book cars & hotels on US sites to achieve a much lower rate.

I did this today on a rental site to check the auto rates with "are you a usa citizen' the rate was xx amount, when I clicked another country ie Australia as that country, the rate more than doubled.

 

Re booking on board using cruise consultant, we have booked 2 cruises and have always had the consultant ask if we wanted to pay in US or AU$!

 

HAL will not allow an American agent to book for us, unless we are prior customers

[Bellair]

We have done this for many years including Air NZ flights on their specials/site.

 

Just a few months ago we had booked again with a Perth based cruise agent who would now not budge on the cruise price & charged us an extra $440 for a cabin upgrade from outside guarantee to a cabin number even when overseas agents are selling the same cabin type for much much less & with bonuses.

 

Needless to say, this agent will not receive another booking from us.

 

The internet allows you to book flights in overseas countries, at local prices.

 

I have booked, in Australia, flights from UK to Europe, from Canada to Australia and from Honolulu to Kona, Hawaii.

 

In addition, I have booked, in Australia, overseas train travel, ferry travel, bus travel, theatre, etc., all at local prices.

 

In travel, it is only the cruise line industry, which wants you to book overseas cruises, in Australia, at inflated prices.

[happyglobetrotter]

S7S, I fully understand. You are

As I have said, Canadians can book through US travel agents, but that puts Canadian travel agents at a disadvantage.

 

The stakes are pretty high.

 

Smooth sailing...

 

Hello Jim,

 

l hope you are doing well since we last met! I just wanted to let you know that my husband and I book all our cruises with a Canadian travel agency in US $$$.

 

No need to deal with a US agency. Just indicate at the time of booking that you want the quote and the booking in done US$. I hope the Canadian travel agents are happy :D

[BruceMuzz]

Many cruise lines - like most businesses around the world - offer their best and lowest rates to the customer base that is most desirable to them. This is perfectly legal and they have no need to explain why or how.

 

For whatever reasons, the mass market cruise lines in

North America have decided to offer their lowest rates to North Americans.

At the same time they have decided to offer higher fares to people from the UK, China, India, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. It's their business, and they can operate this way if they choose.

If you happen to come from one of those countries (as I do), you have a few choices:

1. Suck it in and pay the higher fare.

2. Continuously whine about it.

3. Choose to give your vacation money to another company that does not operate in this manner.

 

Star Cruises in Malaysia offers lower fares to Malaysians, Indians, Chinese, and Australians.

Star Cruises charges higher fares to Europeans and North Americans.

I don't hear anyone complaining...............

[GCHAN]

Many cruise lines - like most businesses around the world - offer their best and lowest rates to the customer base that is most desirable to them. This is perfectly legal and they have no need to explain why or how.

 

For whatever reasons, the mass market cruise lines in

North America have decided to offer their lowest rates to North Americans.

At the same time they have decided to offer higher fares to people from the UK, China, India, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. It's their business, and they can operate this way if they choose.

If you happen to come from one of those countries (as I do), you have a few choices:

1. Suck it in and pay the higher fare.

2. Continuously whine about it.

3. Choose to give your vacation money to another company that does not operate in this manner.

 

Star Cruises in Malaysia offers lower fares to Malaysians, Indians, Chinese, and Australians.

Star Cruises charges higher fares to Europeans and North Americans.

I don't hear anyone complaining...............

 

I guess unless people know about it they can't really complain.

 

 

I am doing exactly what you suggest. I will in future avoid the companies who are involved in this price gouging.

[erewhon]

We have cruised with HAL, knowing that we are paying much more for our cabin than others in the same cabin category.

We just accept that if we want to sail on HAL we pay more to do so.

[soldham]

If you use IP hiding software the booking engine does not know your location so you can see the pricing offered. We do this often to discover the best currency to book - inevitably it is USD.

[DoverHeights]

I'm still fuming at having to pay 20% more than someone with a US/Canadian address. We have all sorts of Consumer Protection, Restrictive Trade Practices, Anti-Monopoly legislation in Australia which adds up to a big nothing for the ordinary consumer.

 

HAL and its stable mates channel all Oz bookings - internet included through one wholesaler with which they have a buddy-buddy relationship.

 

A local TA can offer only "peanuts" inducements.

 

This is not an issue of market size or cost of operation ("the internet is here"). It is straight out price gouging 101. And if you have followed similar (Ozzie moan) threads, you will see that it applies from downloadables such as itunes to the very clothes on our backs.

 

NB I have paid up - though stuck with a guarantee - from last November for cruise starting on July 28th - and no opportunity to make use of "upsells" etc - another Australian freeze out. Grrrrr!

[Globaliser]

Differences in travel prices because of national residence is not unusual.

 

For example I, being a US resident, cannot book an Air New Zealand flight on the domestic Air New Zealand web site, even though those fares a much cheaper than those that are available on their US published rates for the same flights.

The answer was that those fares were only for New Zealand Residents.

This is totally incorrect. It's nothing to do with residence. If your travel agent told you that, they were either uninformed about this; or they were spinning you a yarn to try to get you to buy the more expensive tickets through them so that they could make some money.

 

The cheapest fares shown on Air New Zealand's New Zealand website are only available for tickets sold in New Zealand (or, often, Australia or the South Pacific as well). However, they are available to anyone of any nationality or residence buying tickets sold in New Zealand.

 

In addition, anyone physically located anywhere buying the tickets on the New Zealand website is treated as buying a ticket sold in New Zealand (because that's where the website is located) and gets those rates.

 

I buy lots of these, and even more domestic tickets within Australia, even though I'm in the UK where, if I bought through a UK website, I would have to pay the higher fares.

 

This is exactly the model that I would like to see these cruise lines adopt. The fact that they refuse to - and are deliberately moving further away from it - shows that this is just gouging.

 

I entirely understand that if I choose to buy in the UK, I may have to pay a higher price to get my higher levels of consumer protection etc. But - just as for the air tickets - I should be able to choose between doing that, and buying in another country at a lower price and at the consumer protection standards etc of that other country. What the cruise lines are doing is artificially prohibiting me from doing the latter, for no good reason.

[Globaliser]

Star Cruises in Malaysia offers lower fares to Malaysians, Indians, Chinese, and Australians.

Star Cruises charges higher fares to Europeans and North Americans.

On the basis of nationality or residence alone?

 

I'd bet that if I called my parents' travel agent in the Far East and said I want to book a Star Cruises cruise, I'd get the same rate that a Malaysian, Indian, Chinese or Australian national would get booking through the same agent.

 

So that's not the same as what a cruise line like HAL is doing.