Deceptive Pricing on Viking River Cruise Website

[TravelingT]

I just called for a quote on a May 12, 2021 cruise Pharaohs & Pyramids.  The price advertised for a standard cabin was $2,899 per person with the Explorer's sale discount.  I got a quote for 4,499 per person.  The Viking representative told me that the 2,899 price did not include the hotel stay included in the advertised itinerary.  She told me that the 2,899 was just for the seven night cruise portion and didn't include the hotel stay at the beginning of the cruise.  Search as I may, I have not been able to find anything on the website that makes this distinction.  On the website, they advertise the itinerary, including the hotel stay, and then show cabin availability for the various dates at various prices.  I feel that this is very deceptive or a 'bait and switch' tactic.  I could understand if it was additional nights before or after the cruise that I was adding on intentionally, but that was not what I was doing.  Is this the way Viking does business?

[Shmoo here]

19 minutes ago, TravelingT said:

I just called for a quote on a May 12, 2021 cruise Pharaohs & Pyramids.  The price advertised for a standard cabin was $2,899 per person with the Explorer's sale discount.  I got a quote for 4,499 per person.  The Viking representative told me that the 2,899 price did not include the hotel stay included in the advertised itinerary.  She told me that the 2,899 was just for the seven night cruise portion and didn't include the hotel stay at the beginning of the cruise.  Search as I may, I have not been able to find anything on the website that makes this distinction.  On the website, they advertise the itinerary, including the hotel stay, and then show cabin availability for the various dates at various prices.  I feel that this is very deceptive or a 'bait and switch' tactic.  I could understand if it was additional nights before or after the cruise that I was adding on intentionally, but that was not what I was doing.  Is this the way Viking does business?

I'm not seeing a hotel stay on the website.  Are you talking about the Jordan extension at the end of the cruise?

[TravelingT]

Just now, Shmoo here said:

I'm not seeing a hotel stay on the website.  Are you talking about the Jordan extension at the end of the cruise?

The cruisetour is 12 days (including the day you arrive and depart) and 10 nights.  Seven nights of cruise.  There are both pre and post extensions that you can book.  I did not add any pre or post stays.  The website advertises this as a 12 day trip but obviously they do not include the price of the hotel for the first three nights in the advertised price.  I just don't understand why they would do that unless they are deliberately trying to post a lower price (just the cruise portion) and then have the agent tack on an additional 1700 per person for the first three nights of the advertised trip, as they did in my quote. 

 

The description of the trip on the website includes three days in Cairo before traveling to Luxor to board the ship for seven nights cruise.  Viking deliberately doesn't describe where you will be staying those three nights or activities for those three nights.  They are cleverly advertising this trip as 12 days but the prices on the website are for the seven day cruise only portion.  That is why I am calling it deceptive pricing.  It is obviously being done on purpose.  They are so proud to call themselves "all inclusive value" and then are so sneaky to advertise in such a way that intentionally is meant to deceive.

 

The worst part of this is that I took the Viking Amsterdam to Budapest river cruise and absolutely loved it!!  I was so excited to book both Egypt and China in the next couple of years.  Now I am wondering if I want to travel on a cruiseline that would stoop to these tricks to get bookings.

 

As an accountant by trade, I immediately noticed that something was wrong with the prices when I was on the phone with the Viking agent.  But I know people who would call based on the advertised price and then be a bit confused and just accept the quote from the agent without questioning it.  This happens all the time at car dealerships.  

 

I can afford the cruise either way and I may still go, but probably not on Viking.  I just need to look at other cruiselines that are honest in their pricing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TravelerThom]

47 minutes ago, TravelingT said:

Is this the way Viking does business?

Short answer: YES. All travel companies are very “creative” in their descriptions and pricing; Viking is among the leaders in creativity. We haven’t even gotten to the part where they demand your full payment 20+ months in advance. 

 

They do say: “Arrive in Cairo, Egypt’s exhilarating capital. This pulsating, historic city was made prosperous over millennia as a stopover for Sahara caravans on trade routes to Byzantium. Transfer to the First-Class Ritz Carlton Nile (or similar) for a 3-night stay.”

 

i hope you are aware that the average high temperature in Aswan in May is 103 degrees, while Luxor is a cooler 102 degrees. 

[TravelingT]

3 minutes ago, TravelerThom said:

Short answer: YES. All travel companies are very “creative” in their descriptions and pricing; Viking is among the leaders in creativity. We haven’t even gotten to the part where they demand your full payment 20+ months in advance. 

 

They do say: “Arrive in Cairo, Egypt’s exhilarating capital. This pulsating, historic city was made prosperous over millennia as a stopover for Sahara caravans on trade routes to Byzantium. Transfer to the First-Class Ritz Carlton Nile (or similar) for a 3-night stay.”

 

i hope you are aware that the average high temperature in Aswan in May is 103 degrees, while Luxor is a cooler 102 degrees. 

I didn't see that reference about the transfer to the hotel.  You have a good eye.

[Viking Cruises]

Dear @TravelingT

 

Thank you for bringing this to our attention, though we wish you hadn’t experienced such disappointment at the planning stages of your journey!

 

We wanted to take this opportunity to clarify that it seems there may have been a misunderstanding as to which departure date you desired to book for this cruisetour; as you have noted, there is indeed an included hotel stay at the beginning of the Pharaoh’s & Pyramids itinerary, which means you would be boarding Viking Osiris on May 15, 2021 though the overall tour begins on May 12. According to our resources, we suspect this may have caused confusion and subsequently an inaccurate quoted price.

 

Although we regret the inconvenience this has caused, @TravelingT, we are grateful to have collected this feedback about your experience calling in for internal review. We hope this helps and restores your faith in Viking, nevertheless we would welcome additional comments at TellUs@vikingcruises.com should you wish to share more.

 

Warmest,
Viking Cruises
 

1 hour ago, TravelingT said:

I just called for a quote on a May 12, 2021 cruise Pharaohs & Pyramids.  The price advertised for a standard cabin was $2,899 per person with the Explorer's sale discount.  I got a quote for 4,499 per person.  The Viking representative told me that the 2,899 price did not include the hotel stay included in the advertised itinerary.  She told me that the 2,899 was just for the seven night cruise portion and didn't include the hotel stay at the beginning of the cruise.  Search as I may, I have not been able to find anything on the website that makes this distinction.  On the website, they advertise the itinerary, including the hotel stay, and then show cabin availability for the various dates at various prices.  I feel that this is very deceptive or a 'bait and switch' tactic.  I could understand if it was additional nights before or after the cruise that I was adding on intentionally, but that was not what I was doing.  Is this the way Viking does business?

[TravelingT]

26 minutes ago, Viking Cruises said:

Dear @TravelingT

 

Thank you for bringing this to our attention, though we wish you hadn’t experienced such disappointment at the planning stages of your journey!

 

We wanted to take this opportunity to clarify that it seems there may have been a misunderstanding as to which departure date you desired to book for this cruisetour; as you have noted, there is indeed an included hotel stay at the beginning of the Pharaoh’s & Pyramids itinerary, which means you would be boarding Viking Osiris on May 15, 2021 though the overall tour begins on May 12. According to our resources, we suspect this may have caused confusion and subsequently an inaccurate quoted price.

 

Although we regret the inconvenience this has caused, @TravelingT, we are grateful to have collected this feedback about your experience calling in for internal review. We hope this helps and restores your faith in Viking, nevertheless we would welcome additional comments at TellUs@vikingcruises.com should you wish to share more.

 

Warmest,
Viking Cruises
 

Your agent told me specifically that the advertised price did not include the hotel stay.  Your website prices this cruisetour in a standard cabin for the May 12 departure date at $2,899.  The quote she emailed me is 4,499 per person.   Is there a person I can contact directly to discuss this?

 

(P.S. I just emailed a copy of the quote I received to the email address above.)

Edited July 27, 2019 by TravelingT

[TravelerThom]

36 minutes ago, Viking Cruises said:

Dear @TravelingT

 

Thank you for bringing this to our attention, though we wish you hadn’t experienced such disappointment at the planning stages of your journey!

 

We wanted to take this opportunity to clarify that it seems there may have been a misunderstanding as to which departure date you desired to book for this cruisetour; as you have noted, there is indeed an included hotel stay at the beginning of the Pharaoh’s & Pyramids itinerary, which means you would be boarding Viking Osiris on May 15, 2021 though the overall tour begins on May 12. According to our resources, we suspect this may have caused confusion and subsequently an inaccurate quoted price.

 

Although we regret the inconvenience this has caused, @TravelingT, we are grateful to have collected this feedback about your experience calling in for internal review. We hope this helps and restores your faith in Viking, nevertheless we would welcome additional comments at TellUs@vikingcruises.com should you wish to share more.

 

Warmest,
Viking Cruises

TravelingT referenced only one date - May 12, 2021 which was the tour start date listed on the Viking website an hour ago. 

Now Viking is attempting to confuse things by throwing in the date of May 15, a date that was not mentioned by OP or the Viking website. 

And miraculously in the hour this has been discussed here the date of May 12 has been pulled from the Viking website. 

I can spell both “Three Card Monte” and “bait and switch”

 

I think the OP should have received an answer to his question of “Is this the way Viking does business?”

[Shmoo here]

39 minutes ago, TravelerThom said:

And miraculously in the hour this has been discussed here the date of May 12 has been pulled from the Viking website. 

I can see May 12 on the website

[TravelingT]

6 minutes ago, Shmoo here said:

I can see May 12 on the website

And it is still $2,899 per person.

[TravelingT]

52 minutes ago, TravelerThom said:

TravelingT referenced only one date - May 12, 2021 which was the tour start date listed on the Viking website an hour ago. 

Now Viking is attempting to confuse things by throwing in the date of May 15, a date that was not mentioned by OP or the Viking website. 

And miraculously in the hour this has been discussed here the date of May 12 has been pulled from the Viking website. 

I can spell both “Three Card Monte” and “bait and switch”

 

I think the OP should have received an answer to his question of “Is this the way Viking does business?”

I agree.

[TravelerThom]

16 minutes ago, Shmoo here said:

I can see May 12 on the website

May 12, 2021 wasn’t on my screen 15 minutes ago, but it is back now. But note that so far none of us have seen May 15 as a start date,  which Viking threw into the discussion as a distraction. 

[Daisi]

Going by the interary, you check into the Ritz Carleton Nile on the 12th for a 3 night stay, then you transfer to Luxor to board the boat on day 4 to start the cruise.  Could that be the confusion?   You would start your cruise on Day 4, May 15.  

 

 

More curious as to which price is inaccurate...the one on the website, or the one the OP received when they contacted Viking.  I notice Viking River didn't say...:)

 

Edited July 27, 2019 by Daisi

[Shmoo here]

3 minutes ago, Daisi said:

Going by the interary, you check into the Ritz Carleton Nile on the 12th for a 3 night stay, then you transfer to Luxor to board the boat on day 4 to start the cruise.  Could that be the confusion?   You would start your cruise on Day 4, May 15.  

 

 

More curious as to which price is inaccurate...the one on the website, or the one the OP received when they contacted Viking.  I notice Viking River didn't say...:)

 

The cruise starts on the 15th.  That's, apparently, what the $2899 price applies to.  It sounds like they added a 3 day stay before the cruise that's apparently being touted as part of the Pharaohs & Pyramids trip (with an additional cost).  I don't know if you can just purchase the cruise only portion of the trip.

 

The river cruise company I use, they advertise cruise only price, and additional cost extensions pre and post cruise.  

[kentchris]

2 hours ago, TravelingT said:

Your agent told me specifically that the advertised price did not include the hotel stay.  Your website prices this cruisetour in a standard cabin for the May 12 departure date at $2,899.  The quote she emailed me is 4,499 per person.   Is there a person I can contact directly to discuss this?

 

The simplest explanation is that for some reason you were quoted for a Verandah cabin rather than the Standard which you were expecting, and the confusion snowballed from there: the prices match up as a Verandah is $4599 before the Explorer discount. 

Edited July 27, 2019 by kentchris

[Daisi]

13 minutes ago, Shmoo here said:

The cruise starts on the 15th.  That's, apparently, what the $2899 price applies to.  It sounds like they added a 3 day stay before the cruise that's apparently being touted as part of the Pharaohs & Pyramids trip (with an additional cost).  I don't know if you can just purchase the cruise only portion of the trip.

 

The river cruise company I use, they advertise cruise only price, and additional cost extensions pre and post cruise.  

 

I'm not a Viking expert, but I know that Avalon has cruises that start with a 2 day stay in a  hotel (with another 2 nights after the cruise) and the price quoted on the website is what you pay for all, including the hotel.  I was reading the Viking one the same.  I know that some of the lines have extensions you can add on (Avalon included), but that's not counted in the interary.  If this is the way Viking works... not counting days included in the interary in the pricing...another reason I will stay away.

[lackcreativity]

1 hour ago, kentchris said:

The simplest explanation is that for some reason you were quoted for a Verandah cabin rather than the Standard which you were expecting, and the confusion snowballed from there: the prices match up as a Verandah is $4599 before the Explorer discount. 

I do expect that this error on the part of the customer service rep at Viking is based on the Veranda cabin and that is the explanation for the difference in the price quoted. Does the quote you received show a booking for a Standard cabin, or a Veranda cabin?

 

 I also am quite certain  that the claim that the hotel stay at the start of the trip was an additional charge was totally in error. We are on the Paris to the Swiss Alps river cruise next year, and both the two night hotel stay in Paris and the hotel stay in Zurich at the end are included in the quoted price of the trip, as they are part of the itinerary, not extensions. 

 

Unfortunately, the customer service rep at Viking has created quite a mess of this. Traveling T, I do hope that someone at Viking can resolve this for you, and at the least convince you that there was no "bait and switch" involved, only basic incompetence. At least you had a very positive prior sailing experience with Viking, and if you can get beyond this you may choose to sail with them again. 

 

[Peregrina651]

 

6 hours ago, TravelingT said:

The price advertised for a standard cabin was $2,899 per person with the Explorer's sale discount.

 

Well I can see why you are upset. Are you sure that there wasn't a from in front of the $2899 that you saw?

 

That is how they usually list prices in their advertising. That means that the starting price for a cabin is $2899 but it does not mean that all of the cabins are that price and it does not mean that that price is available on sailings. They can't list all of the prices in the small amount of space they, so they list the least expensive.  Then they expect us to go to the website where we can see the full story. Prices go up and down by the season and sometimes depend on which ship you will be sailing on--and all of this is shown on the website.

 

There are cabins available for $2899 but not on the date that you have have chosen --and it will include the hotel stay.  The price for sailing on May 12 starts at $4899pp but if you can sail on May 5, the price will be $2899pp plus airfare.

 

 

 

This is a popular cruise and it sells out quickly.

 

 

[Peregrina651]

2 hours ago, lackcreativity said:

I do expect that this error on the part of the customer service rep at Viking is based on the Veranda cabin and that is the explanation for the difference in the price quoted. Does the quote you received show a booking for a Standard cabin, or a Veranda cabin?

 

I think that the problem is that the cabins at $2899 are only available on one or two sailings and May 12 is not one of those dates.

 

The prices that the agent gave are correct for May 12:

 

Because it is a cruisetour, the agent may see the prices broken down by cruise and hotel but the final total will equal what we see on the screen for the price of the package. It may be that the cruise portion for May 12 is $2899 but Viking does not advertise by just the price of the cruise; they advertise the whole package.

 

The answer the agent needed to give was that if they were interested the $2899 price that they would have to sail on a different date. I think that the agent was confused by what they were seeing on their screen and by what the customer was saying --and really I do hope that was all that was happening.

 

But we weren't on the call and we don't know what was said or how it was phrased and hopefully cooler heads will prevail when OP finally talks with the folks at TellUs.

[pully8]

It sounds a disappointing start.

Would a travel agent be able to assist clarification?

Fortunately you have many choices to visit the area.

[lackcreativity]

17 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

I think that the problem is that the cabins at $2899 are only available on one or two sailings and May 12 is not one of those dates.

 

The prices that the agent gave are correct for May 12:

 

Because it is a cruisetour, the agent may see the prices broken down by cruise and hotel but the final total will equal what we see on the screen for the price of the package. It may be that the cruise portion for May 12 is $2899 but Viking does not advertise by just the price of the cruise; they advertise the whole package.

 

The answer the agent needed to give was that if they were interested the $2899 price that they would have to sail on a different date. I think that the agent was confused by what they were seeing on their screen and by what the customer was saying --and really I do hope that was all that was happening.

 

But we weren't on the call and we don't know what was said or how it was phrased and hopefully cooler heads will prevail when OP finally talks with the folks at TellUs.

Peregrina,

What is really odd with this situation is that the prices on this cruise for May 12 have changed during the course of today on the website. I did check the website earlier today before I posted several hours ago, and there were available Standard cabins shown for that cruise on the Osiris at $2899, and the Veranda cabins were $4599. I did not take a screen shot, but I did see those prices for the May 12, 2021 Pharaohs & Pyramids trip after the start of this thread. Now, however, the prices you saw appear. A week before this one (May 5) and a week after this trip (May 19) there are Standard cabins on the same ship, the Osoris, listed at $2899. I know the Viking prices vary by sailing dates, but this doesn't make sense to me.

[lackcreativity]

35 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

I think that the problem is that the cabins at $2899 are only available on one or two sailings and May 12 is not one of those dates.

 

The prices that the agent gave are correct for May 12:

 

Because it is a cruisetour, the agent may see the prices broken down by cruise and hotel but the final total will equal what we see on the screen for the price of the package. It may be that the cruise portion for May 12 is $2899 but Viking does not advertise by just the price of the cruise; they advertise the whole package.

 

The answer the agent needed to give was that if they were interested the $2899 price that they would have to sail on a different date. I think that the agent was confused by what they were seeing on their screen and by what the customer was saying --and really I do hope that was all that was happening.

 

But we weren't on the call and we don't know what was said or how it was phrased and hopefully cooler heads will prevail when OP finally talks with the folks at TellUs.

Peregrina,

What is really odd with this situation is that the prices on this cruise for May 12 have changed during the course of today on the website. I did check the website earlier today before I posted several hours ago, and there were available Standard cabins shown for that cruise on the Osiris at $2899, and the Veranda cabins were $4599. I did not take a screen shot, but others did.  I did see those prices for the May 12, 2021 Pharaohs & Pyramids trip after the start of this thread. Now, however, the prices you saw appear. A week before this one (May 5) and a week after this trip (May 19) there are Standard cabins on the same ship, the Osoris, listed at $2899. I know the Viking prices vary by sailing dates, but this doesn't make sense to me.

[Shmoo here]

41 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

I think that the problem is that the cabins at $2899 are only available on one or two sailings and May 12 is not one of those dates.

5 hours ago it was..... see my screen shot.

 

 

[Got2Cruise]

Viking has been using the 2 for 1 Sale gimmick forever, that’s deceptive also. At no time has anyone paid the full price on Viking. 

[Peregrina651]

13 minutes ago, Got2Cruise said:

Viking has been using the 2 for 1 Sale gimmick forever, that’s deceptive also. At no time has anyone paid the full price on Viking. 

 

They don't use the 2 for 1 wording anymore; haven't seen in a few months.  I think that they finally got our message that it was less of a positive and more of a negative than they thought.