Adding 4th Guest - No Charge?

[MacanAle]

Hi All,

 

Odd scenario here, GF invited me to go on a cruise with her where I would be the 4th guest, 2nd adult.  She called in and got me added, I asked how much my portion is... she tells me the lady on the phone mentioned it would probably be like 1k.. but by the end of the call there were somehow no additional charges, GF figured the extra charge may have gone directly to my Royal Caribbean account.  When I sign in, I see the cruise reservation in all it's glory, but it shows that there is no balance due.  GF confirms she wasn't charged anything more.

 

I asked her to send me the most recent invoice, which shows guest 4 being just under 4k (much different than the 1k the rep mentioned), but still no apparent charge for it.  I called Royal Caribbean, they were of no help, after checking and checking they are just stuck on the fact that there is no balance due, while I ask them how the 4k was paid for.  I'm concerned that the 4k may have somehow been stolen away from a credit that GF may have had, but no one at RCCL seems to know or care.

 

GF did mention that this cruise had been booked so many times as a result of COVID, with FCC's continuing to be applied and kicked down the road, but there is no line item for guest #4 showing that an FCC credit covered it.  My paying 4k isn't a problem... but the troubleshooter in me wants to know how the 4k was already funded somehow, since we can find no evidence of it being paid for.

 

Any ideas? or thoughts on who else I might be able to contact?  The rep on the phone escalated to a supervisor.. but they don't seem to care or want to dig since it just says the balance is paid.

 

 

[tennislvr8]

Ask your GF to call her CC company and see if there is a charge for the $4000 or even the $1000 on or around the time you were added. 

[ticketsunlimited]

What ship, and date are you cruising?  Must be a suite for that price correct?

[MacanAle]

GF has checked her CC's and no additional charge shows.  It is indeed a Loft Suite.  I also asked GF to send me her most recent invoice before adding me in order to compare the two invoices.  The invoice after adding me shows a 3-4k difference (increase) over the previous invoice. 

[Hutcha]

No way it's $4k extra. Guest 3 to whatever should be the same price. Could be free if booked under a kids (or guest 3&4) sail free promotion. 

[MacanAle]

What's odd, is that there doesn't seem to be a promotion showing here that would clear out guest 4.  But the FCC below isn't listed in the line items that total to 13065.  The FCC also doesn't represent the value of what was paid in the previous booking.  🤨

 

 

 

 

Edited March 9, 2022 by MacanAle

[topnole]

They may have repriced it all when you were added.  This could explain the seemingly 4k ish more.  On an original booking, adding a 4th to a suite is usually about 1k extra.    
 

Is it even possible either of you have 4k more fcc?   Something is definitely off here.  Royal math at its finest.  

Edited March 9, 2022 by topnole

[firefly333]

Just now, topnole said:

They may have repriced it all when you were added.  This could explain the seemingly 4k ish more.  Is it even possible either of you have 4k more fcc?   Something is definitely off here.  Royal math at its finest.  

That was my guess.

 

@Ourusualbeachany guess? 

[MacanAle]

The rep she spoke to mentioned it being about 1k as well.  Though if that's the case over the 4k, we still don't see who or how the 1k was paid for.  Here is the previous invoice...  though I'm wondering if there was an invoice in between this one pasted below... and the final one based on the reschedulings and cancellations... I think in all there were 2.

 

[MacanAle]

8 minutes ago, topnole said:

They may have repriced it all when you were added.  This could explain the seemingly 4k ish more.  On an original booking, adding a 4th to a suite is usually about 1k extra.    
 

Is it even possible either of you have 4k more fcc?   Something is definitely off here.  Royal math at its finest.  

I don't have any FCC, would her FCC balance be visible to her anywhere?  I don't think she sees anything when logging in to rccl.

[topnole]

4 minutes ago, MacanAle said:

I don't have any FCC, would her FCC balance be visible to her anywhere?  I don't think she sees anything when logging in to rccl.

I don’t know the answer to that.  Others will probably chime in.  

[Ourusualbeach]

It sounds like when tje FCC was applied originally it was special fared off the cruise fare.  This can drop off when changes are made, such as adding tje 4th guest.  Should just be a matter of having the FCC re applied. 

 

 

[Starry Eyes]

I am not a travel agent or expert in any way;  I’m just a frequent cruiser who struggles with Royal math now and then.  That said here is my guess (worth what you are paying for it😊):on the earlier(three guest) invoice I do not see evidence that their FCC’s had been applied.   It looks like your friend just paid for the cruise.  Then, the cruise was repriced to add the fourth guest.  At the same time, your friend’s FCCs were applied to the reservation….those FCC covered the significant additional cost of the repriced reservation.

Edited March 9, 2022 by Starry Eyes

[S.A.M.J.R.]

 

I think I might have figured out the $1k v $4k difference...

According to the first invoice (three pax):

30 minutes ago, MacanAle said:

 

Guest 1 & Guest 2 were the same base cost (what I'd expect) with Guest 3 being a lower base cost.  Guest 2 then got 60% off for the BOGO60 deal.

 

But in the new invoice, Guest 1 & Guest 4 are the same base price.  So either Guest 2 or Guest 3 is the "Added" guest, either of which is under $1k.  But the cabin itself was repriced (base fare originally $5429, new base fare $8291).   I think the next step is to find out how much GF actually paid to Royal, and how much FCC she should have had/used. 

43 minutes ago, MacanAle said:

 

 

[MacanAle]

I've asked her if she has any other invoices to help put the pieces together.  She's mentioned that she tried to reconcile her fcc balance with what she paid while talking to RC months back, and felt that they owed her about 8k but couldn't make sense of the numbers.  I'm hoping we can get clarity on all that.

[BazingAu]

Oh no! It looks like they repriced the fare when they added you. Why would that happen versus just getting added on as a 4th guest? I was told that as long as you don't touch the 1st and 2nd guests, adding a 3rd or 4th guest would only be the "add on" price. Once you start messing with the original double occupancy, it can cause a repricing.

[MacanAle]

31 minutes ago, BazingAu said:

Oh no! It looks like they repriced the fare when they added you. Why would that happen versus just getting added on as a 4th guest? I was told that as long as you don't touch the 1st and 2nd guests, adding a 3rd or 4th guest would only be the "add on" price. Once you start messing with the original double occupancy, it can cause a repricing.

would it matter if the original 2nd and 3rd guests were children, and then I was added as an adult, though in the #4 slot?

[topnole]

55 minutes ago, MacanAle said:

would it matter if the original 2nd and 3rd guests were children, and then I was added as an adult, though in the #4 slot?

It shouldn’t.  There are no promotions I’m aware of (ex kids sail free) that don’t require two full fares before they kick in.  So one of the children must have been at full fare originally.  

[MacanAle]

It's a bit of a mess, 3 different reservation id's, and changes from Aquatheater to Loft.  I'm trying to get everything in a spreadsheet so I can make sense of it all.

[MacanAle]

A bit of an update, I found a more recent invoice from March 3rd, which was before I was added.  The total was 13,065.29.  After I was added on the 8th the total was actually 13058.52 while showing 13065.29 as being paid... so there would seemingly be a 6.77 credit back which isn't shown anywhere.

 

After reconciling those two invoices I found that they apparently removed her travel insurance when adding me which is why the total didn't seem to increase when adding me.

 

She did not ask them to remove the insurance, so she called back to try and fix that, and while they see evidence of the insurance on the invoice, they don't actually see in the system that she had insurance.  So odd, and definitely not confidence inspiring.  A "supervisor" is reviewing everything and is supposed to call her back tomorrow.

[firefly333]

34 minutes ago, MacanAle said:

A bit of an update, I found a more recent invoice from March 3rd, which was before I was added.  The total was 13,065.29.  After I was added on the 8th the total was actually 13058.52 while showing 13065.29 as being paid... so there would seemingly be a 6.77 credit back which isn't shown anywhere.

 

After reconciling those two invoices I found that they apparently removed her travel insurance when adding me which is why the total didn't seem to increase when adding me.

 

She did not ask them to remove the insurance, so she called back to try and fix that, and while they see evidence of the insurance on the invoice, they don't actually see in the system that she had insurance.  So odd, and definitely not confidence inspiring.  A "supervisor" is reviewing everything and is supposed to call her back tomorrow.

The mystery continues. Lol keep us updated out of curiosity.

[smplybcause]

So they added you AND moved cabin types? Moving cabin types would cause a reprice which would explain the higher price in the invoice. 

 

No idea how they went from 9k to 13k and say you don't owe anything though. 

[Starry Eyes]

So, did they upgrade the suite before the March 3 invoice, increasing the price to $13k.  Then they added you as fourth guest a few days later (somehow dropping insurance while they were at it) with little price change?

[MacanAle]

3 hours ago, Starry Eyes said:

So, did they upgrade the suite before the March 3 invoice, increasing the price to $13k.  Then they added you as fourth guest a few days later (somehow dropping insurance while they were at it) with little price change?

That appears to be the case from what I know so far.

[Starry Eyes]

1 minute ago, MacanAle said:

That appears to be the case from what I know so far.

I hope the insurance situation gets sorted out and that the trip goes well.