Price Drop - need advice.

[chita]

We are booked on a Med. cruise on the Nieuw Amsterdam next year.Noticed that HAL are currently having a sale and that our cabin would be over 300 Pounds less.

Phoned Hal UK office and was told that they couldn't discount my booking but could probably offer an upgrade.She could not give details but said that her supervisor, who was currently in a meeting, would phone me back and advise me what could be done.

Don't really want an upgrade as it would be VA to VQ on Deck 11 with the narrow balconies.

Any chance of OBC's in a case like this? As this is my first cruise with HAL I would appreciate advice from old hands on how to handle this one?

Two hours later and still waiting for the phone call !

[cruisinggranmama]

I'm sure you will get a lot of advice on this board.

 

I can only tell you my experience. We have a cruise booked for 2/2012. The price has gone down twice and twice I have called my TA and they have called HAL and my cabin price has been reduced to the advertised price.

[VMax1700]

I noticed that the price of our cruise for next March had dropped so I emailed HAL head office (not uk) and they reduced the price to me as, and I quote, "we are outside penalty phase at this time" !!

Just to clarify, I had booked the March 2012 cruise while on Eurodam in March 2011 through the Future Cruise Desk. When I sign into the HAL website I get the UK phone and contact details.

 

Ignore the UK and email Seattle. There is a link within the website.

[chelseababy]

Our verandah suite fell by $250 for our cruise last August. We hadn't paid our full price but we were offered a very good upgrade but no refund or on board credit. Perhaps we weren't pushy enough but our TA said we were lucky to get anything at all. Be interested to know how OP gets on

[Softtop67]

Our cruise had two price drops before final payment and we were able to get them both working through our TA

[ansjefitnes]

Our cruise price dropped more than 600 euro's last August and within 24 hours we had a new invoice. No problem at all.

 

Now i am checking the price once a week, you never know:o

[chita]

HAL have now phoned back and said all they can offer is 'upgrade' to a VQ cabin.This is no upgrade from a VA as the balcony is half the depth and the cabin no bigger.Also the extra cost of a VQ still does not compensate for the drop in price for a VA cabin.

They insist this is all they are able to offer - no on board credits and no refund of the price difference!

Am I stuck here?

After hearing from all you lucky CC's in the States getting price drop after price drop credited to you I'm less than pleased - and $500 dollars bites the dust.:mad::mad:

[dot73]

HAL seems to have different rules for different parts of the world, which, from reading these posts, seem to be very unfair to Brits and Australians. For Canadians and Americans, the price is re-adjusted if the price of the cruise goes down before final payment. Even after final payment, HAL will sometimes give OBCs if the price goes down. I know that there are different consumer laws in UK and Australia, but HAL should give some leeway when the prices go down that much.

[Meanmama]

Try to email them instead of talking to them. We have a cruise booked for December on HAL. Even though we have already made the final payment, my DH saw that the price had dropped twice. Both times he email HAL and they refunded the difference both times. :o So we have ended up saving $800.00 dollars. Of course HAL will probably get most of that back from us by the end of the cruise.

 

Donna

[chita]

I've now done an email from the form provided on the HAL website asking for compensation for the price drop.I anxiously await their answer.Hope it doesn't go through to directly to the tight fisted UK office because I'm emailing on the European Website:rolleyes:

[Globaliser]

Just to clarify, I had booked the March 2012 cruise while on Eurodam in March 2011 through the Future Cruise Desk.

I believe, from conversations on board and with my TA in the UK, that book-on-board reservations for UK passengers are on different T&C from those done cold from a UK brochure (which has the usual non-refundable deposit at time of booking etc stuff in).

 

Whether you can get the benefit of those more flexible T&C, or get it easily, is another question. It looks like you might have found a way.

[Mairnealach]

I've now done an email from the form provided on the HAL website asking for compensation for the price drop.I anxiously await their answer.Hope it doesn't go through to directly to the tight fisted UK office because I'm emailing on the European Website:rolleyes:

 

The price of my cruise has come down twice since I booked it. In both cases I sent an e-mail through the form on the HAL website, also like you on the European version. The price was 're-fared' down in both instances by HAL's head office. The first time it took a few days for it to be done, whereas on the second occasion it only took two hours.

 

Good luck,

 

Dermot

[tangerinebunny]

HAL have now phoned back and said all they can offer is 'upgrade' to a VQ cabin.This is no upgrade from a VA as the balcony is half the depth and the cabin no bigger.Also the extra cost of a VQ still does not compensate for the drop in price for a VA cabin.

They insist this is all they are able to offer - no on board credits and no refund of the price difference!

Am I stuck here?

After hearing from all you lucky CC's in the States getting price drop after price drop credited to you I'm less than pleased - and $500 dollars bites the dust.:mad::mad:

 

So how long is it going to take HAL to admit that putting a positive spin on those VQ's isn't working?

[Hobbsey]

We are booked on a Med. cruise on the Nieuw Amsterdam next year.Noticed that HAL are currently having a sale and that our cabin would be over 300 Pounds less.

Phoned Hal UK office and was told that they couldn't discount my booking but could probably offer an upgrade.She could not give details but said that her supervisor, who was currently in a meeting, would phone me back and advise me what could be done.

Don't really want an upgrade as it would be VA to VQ on Deck 11 with the narrow balconies.

Any chance of OBC's in a case like this? As this is my first cruise with HAL I would appreciate advice from old hands on how to handle this one?

Two hours later and still waiting for the phone call !

 

It may seem silly, but why not offer to cancel for a refund of your deposit? You can then rebook.

[Megsie1000]

I would threaten to cancel and re-book and then watch them scramble to try and re-fare it for you instead. This is if final payment hasn't been made, which I assume it hasn't.

 

The only thing you need to watch with this is your insurance. Make sure you're still covered and you won't lose the insurance if you cancel

[Globaliser]

It may seem silly, but why not offer to cancel for a refund of your deposit? You can then rebook.

I would threaten to cancel and re-book and then watch them scramble to try and re-fare it for you instead. This is if final payment hasn't been made, which I assume it hasn't.

If the booking is on standard UK terms, cancel = loss of deposit (as a minimum), at any time.

[chita]

Thanks for all your support and suggestions.

As for cancelling and rebooking as some of you folks from the US have sensibily suggested - that's another way they've got you if you book in the UK. I mentioned it to them that I might do this and they told me I would LOSE ALL OF MY DEPOSIT if I cancelled even though my cruise is not until next July.

This is surely extremely bad practice to have vastly different terms and conditions for people in a different part of the world buying the same product.

But what, if anything, can be done?:confused:

[Globaliser]

This is surely extremely bad practice to have vastly different terms and conditions for people in a different part of the world buying the same product.

But what, if anything, can be done?

IMHO, it is more than bad practice; it is deliberate gouging by restrictive trade practices.

 

It's possible that if those of the Carnival lines which prevent most UK passengers from choosing to book in the US if they wish are contravening the UK's discrimination laws. So legal action might be one way of getting them to sit up and take notice.

 

Another is a media campaign to apply pressure. But it would involve getting enough journalists with clout interested in this.

 

There's no reason why the lines could not continue to charge more if you book in the UK. It costs more to do business here, for a variety of reasons. Most of the UK market would still book in the UK. But, for goodness sake, at least give us the choice.

[VMax1700]

I've now done an email from the form provided on the HAL website asking for compensation for the price drop.I anxiously await their answer.Hope it doesn't go through to directly to the tight fisted UK office because I'm emailing on the European Website:rolleyes:

 

You should receive an automated email acknowledgement. The reply takes a few days. I hope it's a positive outcome!

[chita]

Thanks Globaliser .Sure, legal action might be the answer,but who's going to go to all the expense.Meanwhile,as you say, we in the UK have to suffer.

Yes Vmax I've had the automated response.Now the wait for the outcome:(

[Megsie1000]

If the booking is on standard UK terms, cancel = loss of deposit (as a minimum), at any time.

 

I didn't realize that. :mad:

 

I am married to a Brit. We live in the US, but we might want to take a cruise with members of his family soon (probably summer 2013). It would certainly make me think twice about HAL if they are given higher prices and different terms re the deposit than we are. Do all the cruise lines do this??

 

I have to admit I am surprised because usually his family has gotten better deals than we have on travel. For instance, they are consistently offered *much* better deals for travel to Disney World, for instance.

[Globaliser]

Do all the cruise lines do this?

Not a scientific survey, but I've come across this on many different lines, and it is pretty standard for UK tour operator bookings. So I think it would be unusual to find a cruise line that does not do this for UK bookings.

I have to admit I am surprised because usually his family has gotten better deals than we have on travel. For instance, they are consistently offered *much* better deals for travel to Disney World, for instance.

It's a market thing. Different market, different commercial dynamics, different deals. But you'll probably find that packages to Disney World booked here are also on cancel = loss of deposit terms.

[Megsie1000]

I am sure it depends on the tour operator, but we had a friend (Brit) just cancel a Disney trip and they didn't lose their deposit. They had to cancel for personal family reasons, but they got a great deal. It was 40% off rack rate on their Disney resort + free dining + a special 14-day Orlando ticket (includes Disney + others) all for a price we could never get close to.

 

I am sure this matters not for those uninterested in Disney, but I just wanted to point out that Brits don't always get the fuzzy end of the lollipop on travel deals.

[chita]

Well,my email to HAL from the website went to the London office not Seattle.They confirmed they were definitely unable to adjust the price of my cruise to compensate for the price drop. They said they had made the price drops on some Mediterranean sailings to tempt the US market where the cost of airfares were high.

So, they are admitting that US customers are being tempted by lower fares whilst I as a UK customer must suffer the loss after a price drop.I also made the point to them that UK customers were also being penalised by not being able to cancel at any time without losing their full deposit .

These points were not directly addressed by them, they only reiterated their offer of an 'upgrade' from VA to VQ.As I have said before, the prospect of an upgrade to the smaller balcony of a VQ did not appeal,also it did not cover the cost of the price drop.

I therefore told them we would reject the offer of a VQ and stay where we were.They then came back and said they had added $50 per person OBC's as a gesture of their goodwill.

That's something I guess, but the overall injustice as I see it is still ongoing.:(

[HamburgAvonLady]

For future reference --- are there no travel agencies in the US you could do business with ??? for better pricing and protection of your deposits if you needed to cancel ???

If an address in the US is a requirement for your booking --- do you have family/friends here you could talk to about this ?