Upgrades

[Canadianweaselette]

We booked our cruise to Alaska on the Nieuw Amsterdam about 18 months ago. I just happened to pop on the other day to check out prices since our final payment date is Monday. Turns out our aft balcony was now priced $300 pp less than we paid. I contacted our TA and asked about a possible price adjustment. When she spoke with HA they told her that unfortunately when we booked 18 months ago it was a non-refundable deposit so they wouldn't adjust the price. However they offered us two options:

1) upgrade from the balcony room to a Neptune Suite at no charge, or

2) $100 beverage card, $100 shore excursion credit and dinner in the Pinnacle Grill

 

So, of course we jumped on the upgrade to a Suite. Now I have to figure out all the wonderful perks we will be enjoying as we sail through Alaska.

[DaveOKC]

56 minutes ago, Canadianweaselette said:

We booked our cruise to Alaska on the Nieuw Amsterdam about 18 months ago. I just happened to pop on the other day to check out prices since our final payment date is Monday. Turns out our aft balcony was now priced $300 pp less than we paid. I contacted our TA and asked about a possible price adjustment. When she spoke with HA they told her that unfortunately when we booked 18 months ago it was a non-refundable deposit so they wouldn't adjust the price. However they offered us two options:

1) upgrade from the balcony room to a Neptune Suite at no charge, or

2) $100 beverage card, $100 shore excursion credit and dinner in the Pinnacle Grill

 

So, of course we jumped on the upgrade to a Suite. Now I have to figure out all the wonderful perks we will be enjoying as we sail through Alaska.

WOW - that is very nice of HAL to offer you that, especially since you had a non-refundable deposit.  $300 to upgrade from an aft balcony to a Neptune is a great deal IMO, especially since you are still over 2 months out from sailing.

[Canadianweaselette]

2 hours ago, DaveOKC said:

WOW - that is very nice of HAL to offer you that, especially since you had a non-refundable deposit.  $300 to upgrade from an aft balcony to a Neptune is a great deal IMO, especially since you are still over 2 months out from sailing.

 

Yes, we are very thankful for their offer.

[bennybear]

Wow!  I am surprised,  we paid way more than that to upgrade to a signature suite.  Very lucky! 

[kazu]

EXCELLENT offer IMO.

 

Especially with you having a non refundable fare.  

[Krazy Kruizers]

Your TA did well for you!!

 

Congratulations on the upgrade.

[puppycanducruise]

That's wonderful.

Enjoy your upgrade and your cruise.

[Canadianweaselette]

1 hour ago, kazu said:

EXCELLENT offer IMO.

 

Especially with you having a non refundable fare.  

This is where I got confused... it was just the deposit that was non-refundable. It wasn't the cost of the whole cruise. This is only our 3rd cruise so I mistakenly thought it was totally different. I have learned for future that it is not different and will never book another non-refundable deposit in the future (despite the fact that we got lucky this time).

[ger_77]

Well done!  You're going to love the suite life!

 

Smooth Sailing!  🙂🙂🙂

[richwmn]

2 hours ago, Canadianweaselette said:

This is where I got confused... it was just the deposit that was non-refundable. It wasn't the cost of the whole cruise. This is only our 3rd cruise so I mistakenly thought it was totally different. I have learned for future that it is not different and will never book another non-refundable deposit in the future (despite the fact that we got lucky this time).

HAL does use a fare class that has only the deposit as non-refundable. They also have several that everything is fully refundable, and others that nothing is refundable. Everyone just needs to be very careful of the "fine print".

 

[Canadianweaselette]

Update - our final payment was processed to our CC today so I popped online to make sure the room was now listed as SC guarantee. I was shocked to find that we have been assigned a room already and it's an SB 🙂 This anniversary trip just keeps getting better.

 

Out of curiosity, if they assign a room on a guarantee, what are the chances of it being changed again closer to sailing? Or will that be our room for sure?

[oceanmom]

We have been upgraded 10 days before a cruise from Neptune guarantee to an SA and then three days before the cruise to an SQ.