Price drop....after Final Payment date...

[YankeesFan4Life]

Final payment date was last week, 4/13.  I originally paid $1279 pp for a B3 cat, and $1249 for a B2 (connecting).  Price just came down to $1199 pp for both categories.  

 

Emailed my TA over the weekend about the price, she calls me this morning and said she was on the phone with NCL and all they would do was give me $25 OBC for the B2 and $40 for the B3 cabin.  With the price drop, same perks (including free air), I could have saved $260, instead I end up with $65 OBC.... Does that seem fair?  Not sure how I feel about it.  Other people experience similar outcomes?

[JamieLogical]

25% of the difference in OBC is the standard consolation offered by NCL. Think about it from their perspective. If they RAISED the price after final payment, should they be able to call you and ask YOU to pay the difference? Another option you could look into if you are unhappy with the offered credit is to see if categories above your own have also gone down in price and they might let you pay the difference between what you originally paid and the new price for the higher category to directly upgrade?

[YankeesFan4Life]

1 minute ago, JamieLogical said:

25% of the difference in OBC is the standard consolation offered by NCL. 

 

Thanks, that makes me feel better about it

[NYcruzzer]

13 minutes ago, YankeesFan4Life said:

 

Thanks, that makes me feel better about it

 

Did they tell you that you are only entitled to one OBC adjustment ? If so I would definitely refrain from monitoring these fares in the future as there will most likely be further drops as you get closer to sailing.

[YankeesFan4Life]

4 minutes ago, NYcruzzer said:

 

Did they tell you that you are only entitled to one OBC adjustment ? If so I would definitely refrain from monitoring these fares in the future as there will most likely be further drops as you get closer to sailing.

Nope, nobody told me anything.....Wonderful

[spanishguy1970]

all you can do is ask, we have a travel agent that monitors price changes even after final payment. We have always been compensated with OBC and on our coming cruise this Saturday we were even upgraded to a higher category cabin for free, ask nicely and don't feel entitled to anything. Have a fun cruise

[NYcruzzer]

1 minute ago, YankeesFan4Life said:

Nope, nobody told me anything.....Wonderful

 

On my upcoming cruise on Dawn I was able to get a free "upgrade" from inside to OV due to price drop after final payment. i was told by rep that this was a one time allowance and that no further upgrades will be issued.  Going forward unless I'm sailing on a high demand holiday cruise such as NYE I'm going to book 30-45 days out.. Lower fares and still decent midship locations. No more booking 1+ years in advance. !!

[Hockeydad1972]

If you call your TA they can contact NCL and you will be allowed to upgrade to a room that’s the same price you paid...

 

You may want to wait to do this until you see a room you want for the same price as they only let you did this one time.. We have a family cruise in June and upgrade our kids inside rooms to Fwd Facing OV for no charge...

 

I think they are very fair...

[YankeesFan4Life]

27 minutes ago, Hockeydad1972 said:

If you call your TA they can contact NCL and you will be allowed to upgrade to a room that’s the same price you paid...

 

You may want to wait to do this until you see a room you want for the same price as they only let you did this one time.. We have a family cruise in June and upgrade our kids inside rooms to Fwd Facing OV for no charge...

 

I think they are very fair...

 

I wish it was that easy, my wife wants to stay with connecting rooms, so we're sort of stuck with these category rooms.  I tried to get a Mini-Suite and a B2 together, but nothing available.  Mini-suite is the next higher priced room, so I'll just stay where I am and take the $65 and maybe buy myself a great bottle of Bourbon in duty free!

[tallnthensome]

NCL knows final payment dates for every cruise and they know when they can drop the price and not have to give adjustments. Can you imagine if every single passenger wanted and received a refund? They'd lose millions ...... You can bet on many cruises dropping the price before sailing to fill unsold cabins ......

[tomk3212]

We worked through our NCL PCC when this happened to us (difference was QUITE a bit!) and he got us bumped up to a balcony.  I wrote a nice letter to Mr. DelRio about our PCC's  exemplary service.

[Laszlo]

3 hours ago, YankeesFan4Life said:

Final payment date was last week, 4/13.  I originally paid $1279 pp for a B3 cat, and $1249 for a B2 (connecting).  Price just came down to $1199 pp for both categories.  

 

Emailed my TA over the weekend about the price, she calls me this morning and said she was on the phone with NCL and all they would do was give me $25 OBC for the B2 and $40 for the B3 cabin.  With the price drop, same perks (including free air), I could have saved $260, instead I end up with $65 OBC.... Does that seem fair?  Not sure how I feel about it.  Other people experience similar outcomes?

 

I guess its better than the price going on and them sending you a bill for the difference Lol

[pbenjamin]

We have 3 mini-suites that dropped about $500 each after final payment. Our useless travel agent refused to even call NCL about it. That’s the last I’ll use a travel agent. 

[NYcruzzer]

2 hours ago, tallnthensome said:

NCL knows final payment dates for every cruise and they know when they can drop the price and not have to give adjustments. Can you imagine if every single passenger wanted and received a refund? They'd lose millions ...... You can bet on many cruises dropping the price before sailing to fill unsold cabins ......

 

Over the years I have noticed Carnival and Royals pricing strategy is a little different.  They both offer their lowest fares further out, then slowly increase them as inventory decreases. Additionally their lowest fairs have non-refundable deposits. NCL's strategy is quite the opposite. In most cases NCL's fares drop the most after final payment..With upgrades moving many up the category ladder to free up insides at last minute deep discounted sail away rates.

[Budget Queen]

1 hour ago, pbenjamin said:

We have 3 mini-suites that dropped about $500 each after final payment. Our useless travel agent refused to even call NCL about it. That’s the last I’ll use a travel agent. 

 

You do realize you are not entitled to anything?   

 

[gotscrapz]

So strange. I am new to NCL but not to cruising. I have always received 100% of the price drop as OBC on 2 of  the other big name cruise lines- no limit to the amount of adjustments. Bummer that NCL doesn't do this. I do understand the point that they don't ask me to pay the higher price if the price increases, but just not what has been my previous experience. Oh well. Hope NCL is worth it :) Looking forward to my 1st NCL cruise :)

[pbenjamin]

50 minutes ago, Budget Queen said:

 

You do realize you are not entitled to anything?   

 

 

Sort of, yes, but this forum is full of people saying that they did get something.  I guess that they could be making it up.

[Outerdog]

18 minutes ago, pbenjamin said:

 

Sort of, yes, but this forum is full of people saying that they did get something.  I guess that they could be making it up.

 

There are an equal number of people who were told to pound sand.

 

Besides, other people getting something is not equal to "entitlement".

[pbenjamin]

My problem was that I had no opportunity to ask. Let NCL tell me no, not the person that is supposedly working for me. 

[lanceholt]

9 hours ago, YankeesFan4Life said:

Final payment date was last week, 4/13.  I originally paid $1279 pp for a B3 cat, and $1249 for a B2 (connecting).  Price just came down to $1199 pp for both categories.  

 

Emailed my TA over the weekend about the price, she calls me this morning and said she was on the phone with NCL and all they would do was give me $25 OBC for the B2 and $40 for the B3 cabin.  With the price drop, same perks (including free air), I could have saved $260, instead I end up with $65 OBC.... Does that seem fair?  Not sure how I feel about it.  Other people experience similar outcomes?

If you can speak with someone in charge on the ship they may do more for you regarding yoursituation...usually we can get 25% cruise credit towards the diff in price.

 

[fondtravel]

Customers booking later than the final payment date may get a better price because of the late booking, but they probably also have more limited choice of cabins within their cabin tier because of preexisting reservations, etc.

 

From that perspective, the extra money you pay by booking earlier ensures that you get the cabins you really want —including connecting cabins, which may get booked up earlier.

[newmexicoNita]

16 hours ago, YankeesFan4Life said:

Final payment date was last week, 4/13.  I originally paid $1279 pp for a B3 cat, and $1249 for a B2 (connecting).  Price just came down to $1199 pp for both categories.  

 

Emailed my TA over the weekend about the price, she calls me this morning and said she was on the phone with NCL and all they would do was give me $25 OBC for the B2 and $40 for the B3 cabin.  With the price drop, same perks (including free air), I could have saved $260, instead I end up with $65 OBC.... Does that seem fair?  Not sure how I feel about it.  Other people experience similar outcomes?

This is pretty standard: either you get an OBC or you get upgraded one cat. I think the only thing that is important is they do something. Actually there was a time, way back when cruise lines did nothing. Think about it this way, if the rate went up after final payment or at anytime after booking you wouldn't be very happy if they raised the price to you. This is one reason I rarely check prices after final payment. I don't want to even know. 

[YankeesFan4Life]

4 hours ago, fondtravel said:

Customers booking later than the final payment date may get a better price because of the late booking, but they probably also have more limited choice of cabins within their cabin tier because of preexisting reservations, etc.

 

 

 

Not only that, but the closer you get, the less "free at sea" is offered.  My wife is going on the Sky to Cuba next month, and I was looking all the time for a price drop.  Luckily the day we booked it was the last day they offered free air!  Cruise fare stayed the same and more cabin categories got sold out.  Its a coin toss....

[HappyGlampers]

12 hours ago, pbenjamin said:

We have 3 mini-suites that dropped about $500 each after final payment. Our useless travel agent refused to even call NCL about it. That’s the last I’ll use a travel agent. 

Wow, ouch! Us too. Our ta is never in the office and completely clueless. Of course you can't deal direct with NCL once the booking is handled by a ta. I learned the hard way.  The puny bonuses the agency threw in were so not worth the hassle. Never again. The direct booking experiences have absolutely been more pleasant and productive.

 

Yar, better days ahead mateys ☠

[tallnthensome]

We used a travel agent ...... once. She printed our luggage tags for us and did nothing else. Never again .......