Pricing online has me confused

[rcandkc]

I’m used to seeing one all inclusive price.  Looking at some of my future cruises, I now see 2 columns of all inclusive price. I’m sure it is obvious but I’m confused. 

[jhenry1]

I believe one is if you use Regents air and the other is if you do not use the air and take the air credit. I was also told that this price also includes the hotel credit.

[Mike Moore]

13 minutes ago, rcandkc said:

I’m used to seeing one all inclusive price.  Looking at some of my future cruises, I now see 2 columns of all inclusive price. I’m sure it is obvious but I’m confused. 

We used to show the amount of the credit if guests elected to arrange all of their own flights, hotels and transfers. We recently decided to do the math for visitors to the website, so the right-most column is now all-inclusive pricing for the cruise portion only, with the flight/hotel/transfer credits already removed, for the convenience of those guests.

[rcandkc]

Thanks..makes total sense now. 

[mrlevin]

18 minutes ago, Mike Moore said:

We used to show the amount of the credit if guests elected to arrange all of their own flights, hotels and transfers. We recently decided to do the math for visitors to the website, so the right-most column is now all-inclusive pricing for the cruise portion only, with the flight/hotel/transfer credits already removed, for the convenience of those guests.

This is interesting as the difference is truly different for categories that come with hotel versus those that do not include hotel.  For first time I can learn what the hotel credit is for Grand Voyages (all categories).

 

thanks,

[nagelbett]

22 hours ago, Mike Moore said:

We used to show the amount of the credit if guests elected to arrange all of their own flights, hotels and transfers. We recently decided to do the math for visitors to the website, so the right-most column is now all-inclusive pricing for the cruise portion only, with the flight/hotel/transfer credits already removed, for the convenience of those guests.

 

Can't the Iconic Explorations also be declined for a cruise credit, and if so, maybe the right-most fare should also exclude that? 

 

[Mike Moore]

7 minutes ago, nagelbett said:

 

Can't the Iconic Explorations also be declined for a cruise credit, and if so, maybe the right-most fare should also exclude that? 

 

That would I believe cause a bit of confusion, as if we sent an email promoting the offer, but then had prices on the page you landed on after clicking on a link in that email that didn't include the offer, I would be afraid someone would not understand that the right column prices do not include the land program.

Edited July 24, 2023 by Mike Moore

[pappy1022]

Mike, not sure what is meant by iconic explorations but are the shore excursions still included in the cruise only price? Those are off the ship services.

[Mike Moore]

1 minute ago, pappy1022 said:

Mike, not sure what is meant by iconic explorations but are the shore excursions still included in the cruise only price? Those are off the ship services.

They are - the only thing not included in the right column is flights, hotel and transfers.

[pappy1022]

So that begs another question ……. Do concierge and above suites still get an included 1 night pre cruise hotel with the cruise only price? Do you see how specific and clear information on the website would help the potential customer to understand what they are getting under each option? A vast majority of the people cruising with Regent are not on these boards and they don’t get this type of clarification dialog. And, Regent is still advertising all inclusive so that in itself can be confusing. 

[Gcto]

2 minutes ago, pappy1022 said:

So that begs another question ……. Do concierge and above suites still get an included 1 night pre cruise hotel with the cruise only price? Do you see how specific and clear information on the website would help the potential customer to understand what they are getting under each option? A vast majority of the people cruising with Regent are not on these boards and they don’t get this type of clarification dialog. And, Regent is still advertising all inclusive so that in itself can be confusing. 

my points exactly!! I find this either confusing or... not clear. We have lately booked our own flights in the US, but always chose the hotel options due to travel needs etc. You got flight credit and hotel and transfer to ship was included.  Will this now be (as Mike stated), "Cruise only" or "cruise and flight and hotel" option ? And should I decide to get the Regent included Hotel, would that be an extra much higher charge than before ?  So it's confusing. And hopefully not some other reason for this. I was perfectly fine to see the prices listed and then at the bottom...air credit. 

If Regent continues to claim that they are an all inclusive cruise line, this will take the "all inclusive" away imho.  

[flossie009]

21 minutes ago, pappy1022 said:

Do you see how specific and clear information on the website would help the potential customer to understand what they are getting under each option?

 

14 minutes ago, Gcto said:

I find this either confusing or... not clear.

 

Not sure what the problem is.

I have just looked up a cruise and there is a clear explanatory note in the Ts&Cs at the bottom of the page explaining the difference between the two pricing columns:

"Advertised fare includes air-related government taxes, surcharges and fees. Standard and Featured Offer Fares include flights, hotel and transfers, where applicable. Standard Cruise Fares and Featured Offer Cruise Fares include applicable credits for guests arranging their own pre- and post-cruise flights, hotels and transfers"

 

21 minutes ago, pappy1022 said:

A vast majority of the people cruising with Regent are not on these boards and they don’t get this type of clarification dialog.

Presumably most customers would simply ask Regent or their TA for clarification if they had any confusion over what the pricing included or excluded.

 

............. but I am sure @Mike Moore will take on board any constructive comments as to how to make the Regent website as clear as possible without a plethora of footnotes, additions & subtractions.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 24, 2023 by flossie009

[Mike Moore]

25 minutes ago, pappy1022 said:

So that begs another question ……. Do concierge and above suites still get an included 1 night pre cruise hotel with the cruise only price? 

It does not, as @flossie009 refers to in the terms the price is for guests who make their own flight, hotel and transfer arrangements. We could bring that statement up to above the fares grid to make it more vsible? 

[Mike Moore]

21 minutes ago, Gcto said:

And should I decide to get the Regent included Hotel, would that be an extra much higher charge than before ?  If Regent continues to claim that they are an all inclusive cruise line, this will take the "all inclusive" away imho.  

No change in the cost of that, but there was no reference to the cost the way pricing was displayed previously, so this change had no impact to that. And there is also no change to our all-inclusive offerings. Everything is the same as it was before, we are just doing the math now.

[jeb_bud]

10 minutes ago, Mike Moore said:

It does not, as @flossie009 refers to in the terms the price is for guests who make their own flight, hotel and transfer arrangements. We could bring that statement up to above the fares grid to make it more vsible? 

I like the change.  I often take the hotel and/or air credit so it’s nice that you’ve done the math for me. I think if I had started researching a cruise before reading this thread I would probably be confused about what the two columns mean.
 

I had to read the terms three times to be able to parse the paragraph and glean the meaning. I tend to skim through the Ts&Cs and burying the new info in the middle of a paragraph didn’t help. It would have helped me if the explanation was just above the fares grid. 

[Gcto]

2 minutes ago, Mike Moore said:

No change in the cost of that, but there was no reference to the cost the way pricing was displayed previously, so this change had no impact to that. And there is also no change to our all-inclusive offerings. Everything is the same as it was before, we are just doing the math now.

Mike, my question was targeting a slightly different scenario. So let me try to clarify what I meant and how I interpret the offering and your reply. 

 

1. Option Cruise only is Cruise only and does NOT include Flight, Transfer and Hotel. 

2. Option "All inclusive" includes everything from Cruise, Hotel, Regent Flight and transfer. 

 

So I can no longer choose the all inclusive option, but do my own flight. I will either have the full package or, be totally on my own. I see the "math", but it's all or nothing as it seems. And if I want to have a hotel, I can book it as part of a "pre-cruise" option for an upcharge.

[Mike Moore]

2 minutes ago, Gcto said:

So I can no longer choose the all inclusive option, but do my own flight. I will either have the full package or, be totally on my own. I see the "math", but it's all or nothing as it seems. And if I want to have a hotel, I can book it as part of a "pre-cruise" option for an upcharge.

You can continue to do that option, it's just that the price for that specific scenario is not listed on the site. But it wasn't before, either.

 

Prior to this change, we showed the full all-inclusive price and then an amount that you could deduct from that price if you were doing your own flights, hotel and transfer. If you wanted to know the cost just doing your own flights, but keeping the hotel and transfer, you would have had to call us or a travel agent for that price. 

 

So hypothetically speaking, if a particular sailing before showed a price of $12,500 with a credit of $2,500 for arranging your own flights, hotel and transfers - we are now showing $12,500 and $10,000. If the hotel protion of the $2,500 was $500 - you would need to add that to the $10,000, same as before.

 

Seems like pulling the sentence from the T&Cs and displaying it above the Fares grid may be the way to go, assuming the above makes sense?

[DaveFr]

3 hours ago, Mike Moore said:

You can continue to do that option, it's just that the price for that specific scenario is not listed on the site. But it wasn't before, either.

 

Prior to this change, we showed the full all-inclusive price and then an amount that you could deduct from that price if you were doing your own flights, hotel and transfer. If you wanted to know the cost just doing your own flights, but keeping the hotel and transfer, you would have had to call us or a travel agent for that price. 

 

So hypothetically speaking, if a particular sailing before showed a price of $12,500 with a credit of $2,500 for arranging your own flights, hotel and transfers - we are now showing $12,500 and $10,000. If the hotel protion of the $2,500 was $500 - you would need to add that to the $10,000, same as before.

 

Seems like pulling the sentence from the T&Cs and displaying it above the Fares grid may be the way to go, assuming the above makes sense?

Mike, thanks for your explanations. I see one technical error though. Previously, the amount shown on the website as an allowance only included the credit for not taking Regent Air. If someone also opted to forgo the included hotel night an additional credit for that amount would be added to their invoice. So, using the figures in your example above, a person not taking Regent Air or the included pre-cruise hotel night, would get an air credit of $2500 and a hotel credit of $500 for a total credit of $3000.

 

Based on this entire thread, I guess you would have to have four price columns to satisfy some people. You would need the all inclusive and cruise only columns you have now plus a cruise plus flight column and a cruise plus hotel column. 

 

Dave

[Mike Moore]

32 minutes ago, DaveFr said:

Based on this entire thread, I guess you would have to have four price columns to satisfy some people.

Correct, and those would make for some very long column names!

[pappy1022]

It’s simple. Just list what’s included in the all inclusive option and then specifically list what’s excluded from this list in the cruise only option. Any other combination, talk to your TA or Regent to get your bottom line price.

[papaflamingo]

14 hours ago, Mike Moore said:

Correct, and those would make for some very long column names!

So in the past you could select to use Regent Air only one way and arrange your own air the other way.  I assume this is still possible?  And can you still arrange your own air but take advantage of the hotel room?  Or is it "all or nothing?"

[pappy1022]

Mike, I think all of these follow up questions from different people, indicate that there does need to be a better way of communicating the differences. I know Regent wants to keep the message simple but in this case in needs some depth in the details. I think I understand it now but it took some clarifications from you to get to that point.

[Mike Moore]

1 hour ago, papaflamingo said:

So in the past you could select to use Regent Air only one way and arrange your own air the other way.  I assume this is still possible?  And can you still arrange your own air but take advantage of the hotel room?  Or is it "all or nothing?"

All of that is still the same - changing the display hasn't change anything about what you could or could not do before, any of the inclusions, etc.

[Mike Moore]

1 minute ago, pappy1022 said:

Mike, I think all of these follow up questions from different people, indicate that there does need to be a better way of communicating the differences. I know Regent wants to keep the message simple but in this case in needs some depth in the details. I think I understand it now but it took some clarifications from you to get to that point.

Above the fares there used to be a sentence that read "An additional savings of X is available for guests arranging their own flights, hotels and transfers." We're going to keep the new pricing as is and put that sentence back but have it read "The All-Inclusive Cruise Fare below includes credits for guests arranging their own flights, hotels and transfers."

[pappy1022]

That sounds better. Somehow you need to make sure people understand that they don’t get the included 1 night hotel stay if the book a concierge or higher class cabin and opt for the cruise only fare. I think that is vague and I would have assumed it was included when I chose the concierge suite.