Rip off Britain!

[Clio1610]

Prices for Adventure of the Seas 21st April 2013 Transatlantic crossing:

 

Book inside in the UK for a solo passenger £1023 including taxes.

Book inside in the US for a solo passenger £402 including taxes.

 

Book promenade in the UK for a solo passenger £1083 including taxes.

Book promenade in the US for a solo passenger £460 including taxes.

 

Good job I have an excellent US travel agent!

 

 

Oh I would sooooooooooo love to have an excellent US Travel Agent !!!

[icsys]

Prices for Adventure of the Seas 21st April 2013 Transatlantic crossing:

 

Book inside in the UK for a solo passenger £1023 including taxes.

Book inside in the US for a solo passenger £402 including taxes.

 

Book promenade in the UK for a solo passenger £1083 including taxes.

Book promenade in the US for a solo passenger £460 including taxes.

 

Good job I have an excellent US travel agent!

 

Am I missing something here?

 

Booked this cruise - £489 pp inside cabin last October.

Flights to Puerto Rico -£600 pp

UK agent deal - flights, 2 nights in Sheraton San Juan and cruise - £1129 pp

 

It's the flights that generally bump up the prices from the UK.

I'm guessing that the US price does not include a returning flight from the UK back to the US?

(if it does then you have a valid point)

 

I've spoken to US travellers on the last caribbean cruise who say they would love to cruise Europe but the cost (of flights) is prohibitive so I guess it works both ways.

[trojan3000]

Someone put the link of RCI USA on a thread once. Does anyone have it where it can by-pass the UK site?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Ned2 you need to sign up to a free VPN launch it and it will most likely take you to a US server. hey presto you are a US citizen.

[Paulxyz2004]

Oh I would sooooooooooo love to have an excellent US Travel Agent !!!

 

There are enough out there, just start your homework and get one.

 

I don´t get why people keep complaining about this but don´t get themselves in action and book in the US.

[Albert Ross]

Why is everyone acting as if this is something new?

Why can I buy a pair of Levis in Macys for $30 where as here the same pair is over £60?

If I want jeans I now fly to the USA once a year and stock up.

If I want to buy a cruise I check out prices both sides of the pond and book with the best deal. It isn't difficult with the internet these days.

[HaraldOslo]

I was just checking the April Brilliance transatlantic for a friend and am shocked at the price difference if we book in the UK or use a US booking route.

 

Booked in the UK - £499 ($750) per person

Bokked in the US - £239 ($358) per person

 

Shocking !!!!!!!

 

Are you sure you are not mistaking?

 

The price of $358 per person is $299 cruise fare and $59 taxes, but does not include gratuities. Does the UK price include gratuities?

 

I couldn't see the detailed prices on the UK site, but if that is the actual difference then yes I agree, it's shocking! The prices should be identical.

[SadmanCruiser]

UK price of £499 pp does not include tips.

[ticktoneer]

Are you sure you are not mistaking?

 

The price of $358 per person is $299 cruise fare and $59 taxes, but does not include gratuities. Does the UK price include gratuities?

 

I couldn't see the detailed prices on the UK site, but if that is the actual difference then yes I agree, it's shocking! The prices should be identical.

No, the UK price I quoted was just cruise and taxes/fees as well

[travelplus]

Its almost worth the extra effort to open up a bank account in the USA with a credit card linked to it. You could use a relative's address or a friend's address as the billing address and pay the fees with your American Cash from the bank account.

 

Wouldn't this prevent you doing an exchange and charge everything into dollars? Then all you do when you go home is log into the bank's online payment system and pay it from the checking account.

 

I was so close to opening a bank account in France and open a credit card so when I'm in Europe I'm not paying any exchange fees.

[Sparkle 123]

No need to go to the trouble of opening a US bank account just use a UK credit card that doesn't charge currency conversion fees. Halifax Clarity and the Post Office are 2 that come to mind.

Martin Lewis's money saving expert website has lots of info about the best credit cards for overseas spending:)

[Delhaven]

Well I think that with the use of the internet as well as credit cards, the traveler has the option to go the US method or pay for the safety / security of booking in your home town.

 

I am my own agent so I have the freedom to go either way. On my last TA, I was shocked and able to get a cheaper air fare in the UK than here in the US.

 

Seems it all comes down to shop---shop---shop!

 

Joe

[dwjoe]

I phoned RCI about this and couldn't get a straight forward answer.

I was advised to write to paxamin and they kept trying to tell me I was wrong about the pricing.I also told them the price in € was a couple of hundred pounds cheaper and they kept trying to fob me off about gratuities an taxes I sent them a sreenshot of the page with the prices on it in both £ and € I didn't even get a reply.

I phoned crown and anchor and they weren't any help and was told to write saying I wanted the managing director to explain to me why there was a difference and I got a call from someone telling that the pricing was different everywhere depending on supply and demand but I thought if we were all booking the same cruise there should be the same supply and demand and then about special offers that are on I told him this was not a special offer as the price had been the same for a couple of months and not showing as a price drop.

In the end I didn't think it was explained very well so I'm no further forward.

I just said so it's rip off Britain again and that was it.

That's what I suspected. Increased Euro consumer protections may explain part of these differences but not all. Supply and demand is another way of saying they charge what they think the market will bear.

 

Prices for land based travel are higher in Europe than in the US, so IMO they charge Europeans higher rates that reflect that marketplace. But US pax have lower priced alternatives readily available, plus they have longer and more expensive flights to be able to cruise in Europe, so if they want to attract US pax they have to charge less.

 

All logical I suppose but pax get annoyed when they find out someone paid $$$ less for the same cruise. And in the Internet age it's easy to find out.

[Bobbye]

But even here we have resident rates -- someone from one state may pay less than someone from another. Same with senior rates, etc.