How stupid on NCLs part

[steveaaaa]

My final payment was almost due and I saw a promo for a $25 room credit.I checked the rates and they were the same as mine.I called NCL,who I booked thru and asked for the credit.Long story short.They said no.So I gave my reservation to a TA, who gave me the $25 onboard credit.

Ncl ended up speaking to me to inquire why I gave it to a TA.:rolleyes:

Steve

[shoreguy]

Pretty stupid - I had a similar problem last year when prices fell and I asked to get the new price and keep my obc. The original answer was no. I did take the time to go escalate and let them know that I could move the booking to a TA and get as good a net price and it would cost them more. Answer changed to yes. ;)

[browniegirl]

That is very interesting! We are still waiting to hear back from our TA regarding our lost OBC's because we upgraded to an AF from an EE and apparently we lost our OBC by doing so. Neither have we heard back from NCL on our cruise issue regarding the ship being booked up by a large group, the wheel turns very slowly when you want something from them.... Any advice regarding the OBC's?

 

Leah

[BethP781]

Was this $25 OBC the one that says "for first time bookings only", or something like that? I asked my TA about that, and she said "No" because we had booked on a Tuesday and the OBC was only valid for first time bookings on a Wednesday. :(

[uneamie]

Long story short.They said no.

 

 

Does NCL ever say yes???? :confused: :rolleyes: ;)

[Leona1]

I noticed that my cabin price dropped for the Dec. 7 Dawn so I upgraded to a higher category with not to much additional charge. I was able to keep my $300 OBC. I went from a AC to an AB.

 

Leona

[browniegirl]

I noticed that my cabin price dropped for the Dec. 7 Dawn so I upgraded to a higher category with not to much additional charge. I was able to keep my $300 OBC. I went from a AC to an AB.

 

Leona

 

Leona - Were you going thru NCL or thru a TA? I am hopeful my TA can do the same as you did, but as it stands we lost our OBC when we upgraded, which is crappy!

 

Leah

[BruceMuzz]

Was it really so stupid?

A $25 OBC really costs them about $10, but changing your booking costs them far more in labor and other related costs.

So the travel agent gets the booking and the 10% commission instead. Does that hurt NCL? Not really. They gladly pay the commission to keep TA loyalty, they still get you in a cabin, and they still get your onboard revenues, which are getting more and more inportant these days.

 

In the grand scheme of things, in a multi-billion dollar business, the consequences of your business with NCL are inconsequential.

We are talking mass-market, where only the big numbers get any notice.

[newmexicoNita]

Was it really so stupid?

A $25 OBC really costs them about $10, but changing your booking costs them far more in labor and other related costs.

So the travel agent gets the booking and the 10% commission instead. Does that hurt NCL? Not really. They gladly pay the commission to keep TA loyalty, they still get you in a cabin, and they still get your onboard revenues, which are getting more and more inportant these days.

 

In the grand scheme of things, in a multi-billion dollar business, the consequences of your business with NCL are inconsequential.

We are talking mass-market, where only the big numbers get any notice.

Very good points. We all miss the bottom line sometimes. NMnita

[shoreguy]

Was it really so stupid?

A $25 OBC really costs them about $10, but changing your booking costs them far more in labor and other related costs.

So the travel agent gets the booking and the 10% commission instead. Does that hurt NCL? Not really. They gladly pay the commission to keep TA loyalty, they still get you in a cabin, and they still get your onboard revenues, which are getting more and more inportant these days.

 

In the grand scheme of things, in a multi-billion dollar business, the consequences of your business with NCL are inconsequential.

We are talking mass-market, where only the big numbers get any notice.

 

Makes sense except in the case where they have already expended the labor to do the booking in the first place, tried to get the credit applied, and then lost the booking to a TA and 10% of the revenue. Those events go into the the average cost per booking in the big picture.

[jerseyjk]

we had booked on a Tuesday and the OBC was only valid for first time bookings on a Wednesday. :(

 

I had the same thing told to me. I called my TA and got a price for two cabins on a Tuesday (I already had an online price, but wanted to be sure her number was the same) and then booked it on a Wed. Asked for the OBC and was told that since the hold was placed on a Tue that I'd get no OBC. Told her to tell NCL to forget the cruise, I didn't want it. 30 minutes later I got the confirmation with the OBC for both cabins. It's just a bit annoying to even have to go through that. What's the big deal about a Wed anyway?

[ontario]

Wow! You got lucky. I didn't try the "forget your cruise". They said agent held it on Tuesday. Sorry! I talked to supervisor and got a personal call from another supervisor and told I couldn't have a price drop and an OBC credit anyway. Fine. The kicker. My agent is ticked at me now and won't answer my emails. I sure hope the cruise is better than the customer service of NCL and my agent. Congratulations!

[sandyneck]

From my dealings with NCL, I think they would rather you book with a travel agent. That is why they don't care if you change to one. I had booked with a TA and NCL had a better price. I went to switch and my TA got NCL on the phone and NCL said the TA could honor the lower price and I should stay with the TA because the cruise line prefers to work thru TA. NCL wins however you book the cruise.

[steveaaaa]

Makes sense except in the case where they have already expended the labor to do the booking in the first place, tried to get the credit applied, and then lost the booking to a TA and 10% of the revenue. Those events go into the the average cost per booking in the big picture.

 

Well said.

Heres the math....

$2500 for cruise minus the $25 credit

or

$2500 for cruise,minus the $25,minus another $200 for TA commision.

 

So in the latter they net $2275 instead of $2475.

 

Well since this started,there has been a change in my plans.

We were a quad, now we have 2 rooms and the cost was about $300 more thru the TA.

 

If they would have just given me the $25 they would have a cabin they could have sold for $1400 instead of $300. (based on my total rates and revenue)

Also to top it off, I got to keep my quad room which they could have sold as a quad.

I am waiting for the phone call.:D

Don't change my room wothout my knowledge because my children are in the adjacent room.

Steve

[mush71]

I booked through an online TA and saw they had $25 OBC for inside and more as you went up in categories. When we got our first look at our bill I questioned the OBC. They said they would check with our TA and let us know. We received a letter in our room explaining that we were not eligible for the OBC. I didn't argue with the ship, I figured I would call the TA when we got home. When I called the TA they said that we weren't eligible because we were in an inside cabin. I told them that I double checked in March and was told we would get this credit. They said no it was only for a certain catagory or higher. No one would budge on this so we didn't get our OBC.

 

We have an OBC for or next cruise and it is written on the confirmation letter so I have that to show if it becomes a problem again.

[Theresa522]

I noticed that my cabin price dropped for the Dec. 7 Dawn so I upgraded to a higher category with not to much additional charge. I was able to keep my $300 OBC. I went from a AC to an AB.

 

Leona

 

Leona, I don't know if you ever stayed in the AB but OH MY it is gorgeous!! You will so love it.. 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, The master bathroom is to die for. Huge windows with gorgeous views of the ocean.. Plus SO many extras.. Have a wonderful time!!!

[Leona1]

Leona - Were you going thru NCL or thru a TA? I am hopeful my TA can do the same as you did, but as it stands we lost our OBC when we upgraded, which is crappy!

 

Leah

 

Leah- I went thru NCL.

 

Theresa- I know the cabin is gorgous and I am ver excited.

We were in an AC on the Spirit last year the bathroom on th Spirit AC is very similar to the AB on the Dawn and I LOVED itl

Showering while looking out at the Ocean is a very unusual feeling.

 

I can't wait.

 

Leona

[BruceMuzz]

friends,

 

You thinking is logical, but you are thinking on too small a level.

 

How many NCL cruisers have this problem of being shuttled off to a TA by NCL? A few hundred every week maximum? So you are looking at a few thousand dollars transferred from NCL to their TAs. Not necessarily a bad thing in NCL's way of thinking anyway.

 

But the management at NCL looks at the world in terms of BILLIONS of dollars.

Thousands of dollars isn't even chump change for them. It doesn't even count.

[KeystoneCruiser]

Typical operation for NCL Customer Service. Refuse someone something that will cost them money and in the end, they lose more money!

 

In my case, they had to upgrade some other passengers to get us our conecting rooms back, when they could of just given us a price for us to upgrade (at our expense) to a higher catagory. We ended up paying the same and they ended up giving free upgrades.

 

No sense at all!

[A Sixth?]

I booked thru a TA and two days after, and before I actually made my deposit, NCL had a cabin credit for NEW Bookings (100.00 in my case for our balcony Sun March cruise)

 

Anyway, even though my TA asked and begged for the credit; they said no. I let the deposit go thru but I am a tad cheesed.

 

I am still keeping my eye's peeled for a bargain on the same date, then I'll cancel my NCL cruise, get my refundable deposit back and feel de-cheesed.

 

If I'd booked and deposited days/weeks before the offer sure.... but I hadn't even made the deposit.:mad:

[BruceMuzz]

Friends,

 

We still are thinking and discussing this subject at the sub-atomic level. A few hundred - or a few thousand dollars really fly under the radar of a big Mass Market Cruise line. It just doesn't matter to them, and they really don't have the time or the inclination to worry about it.

Remember the old Beverly Hillbillys pilot program when Granny said," They have a new kind of money in California, called Million Dollars."

Well the Mass Market Lines went a step further. They have Billion Dollars.

They also know that if you decide to cancel your cabin booking - for any reason, there are 7 other people (on average) who are waiting to buy that cabin from them. It's a sellers market, plain and simiple. You have very little leverage in negotiating a deal with them.

When you talk about taking your $599 and walking over to a competing cruise line, the people at the cruise line office are busy looking at ships that cost ONE BILLION DOLLARS. That's a Thousand Million Dollars. $1,000,000,000.00

They really don't need to care.

Nearly every Mass Market cruise ship sails fully occupied every week - one way or another. They play the numbers and the averages, much like a casino. They might lose with you - but then they win big with somebody else.

 

There are two major schools of thought about Cruise Line Executives:

 

1. They are complete idiots who have no clue what they are doing. They come up with insane ideas that will drive away customers, surely bankrupt their companies, destroy their careers, and put thousands of employees out of work.

 

2. They are really, really smart guys who are way ahead of the rest of us. They get paid millions of dollars to steer multi-billion dollar companies into the future with increased revenues and profits. They enable their companies to build massive billion dollar floating cities and pay for those cities in a very short period of time, with incredibly low operating costs and nearly zero taxes getting paid.

 

I usually vote for concept #2. As soon as I start getting paid millions of dollars for what I do for a living, then I am going to go after those "idiots".

[newlywedcruisers]

2. They are really, really smart guys who are way ahead of the rest of us. They get paid millions of dollars to steer multi-billion dollar companies into the future with increased revenues and profits. They enable their companies to build massive billion dollar floating cities and pay for those cities in a very short period of time, with incredibly low operating costs and nearly zero taxes getting paid.

 

Not saying I disagree with you (I don't, at all) but where are you getting numbers from, mainly the average of 7 people waiting if one cancells?

[BruceMuzz]

Newlywedcruisers,

 

Great question.

 

In the Cruise Industry, we pay many millions of dollars to specialized companies that do all sorts of sophisticated market research for us. They give us thousands of reports every year that hopefully allow us to run our business more efficiently and more profitably.

One of those reports told us that the average cruise ship cabin is sold 7 times (every cruise) before the 8th buyer actually occupies it for that particular cruise. (Now you know why cabin availibility is so confusing when you go to the cruise line websites. First the cabins are all sold, then they are not, then they are again.)

Cruise ships measure occupancy of their ships based on an average of 2 guests per cabin. Ships in the NCL fleet typically enjoy an average occupancy between 120% and 130%. This varies by season. The numbers above 100% usually tell us how many children are onboard in 3rd and 4th beds.

Nearly EVERY mass market cruise ship sails Fully Booked EVERY cruise. Even if there are a few open cabins, they were paid for, but the occupants did not show up for any number of reasons.

Profitibility of crusie lines is changing very rapidly these days. The tickets you purchase for passage pay mainly for the fuel and the food. The money you spend onboard (with all of the new options to spend) accounts for over 30% of the cruise line's revenue - and makes up all the profits. In this modern era of cruising, the cruise lines care less and less about how you got onboard - and look more and more at how much you spend once you are there. We have sophisticated computer programs that predict and track every penny you spend. My computer can tell me IN ADVANCE - nearly to the penny - how much money the couple in stateroom 8102 will spend every day when they cruise with me out of Ft. Lauderdale on 10 October.

 

This helps to explain why NCL may not care very much about who sold you a cruise ticket, or who received the commission for the sale. If they had to sell all the tickets themselves, they would have to invest millions in new buildings and infrastructure; hire, train, and pay hundreds or thousands of new employees to answer those 100's of thousands of telephone calls and take all those bookings. It makes better economic sense for them to support and encourage the independent travel agents to sell the cruises for them - not only saving the cruise line a lot of money, but sharing the responsibility of ensuring that all goes well with the travel plans of millions of passengers.

 

Remember that number. Every cabin sold eight times for every ship on every cruise. A typical lcruise ship these days has at least 1,000 cabins. That means selling 8,000 cabins every week for every ship. A fleet of 12 ships makes nearly 100,000 sales a week, or 5.2 million sales a year.

[newlywedcruisers]

Very interesting. From your post its safe to assume you are either a TA or work for a cruise line?

[steveaaaa]

They also know that if you decide to cancel your cabin booking - for any reason, there are 7 other people (on average) who are waiting to buy that cabin from them. It's a sellers market, plain and simiple. You have very little leverage in negotiating a deal with them.

".

 

If that is true then why sell me a cabin for $300 (net) when there are 7 people who were willing to pay much more?

 

I understand your theory but putting people who are POED on a ship does not help the customer or the crew who interacts with them.

I gather your trying to say that "They don't care about the customers because they are lined up to purchase the product"

I would buy that.

Steve