Raising Our Fare (four threads combined into one)

[arabrab]

$3800 for three people in an inside and 2 in an outside? $3800 for 5 people for an 11-day cruise? $760 per person for an 11-day cruise on a Holland-America ship???? Less than $70/day????

 

In the past 10 years, the best price I've ever seen on a HAL cruise was $90/day for the lowest category inside on a 7-day out of FLL and that was at the end of 2001 when other lines were trying to give away passage.

It's September 2006 and I just received a postcard from HAL offering a 10 day Panama Canal Cruise for $899 inside and $999 outside, and that seems like a substantially more desirable itinerary than the winter NY departure cruises, so the poster's price quote doesn't seem ridiculous to me.

[serendipity1499]

It's September 2006 and I just received a postcard from HAL offering a 10 day Panama Canal Cruise for $899 inside and $999 outside, and that seems like a substantially more desirable itinerary than the winter NY departure cruises, so the poster's price quote doesn't seem ridiculous to me.

 

Your Panama Canal cruise at $899 for an inside is $82.00 per day & $999 for an outside is $99.00 per day ..I would bet dollars to donuts that it does not include Port charges & Taxes..Our Outside F class cabin for our Nov. Southeren Caribbean cruise, which we booked through an on-line agent at a deep group discount, is only $91.00 per day base price...Port charges & Taxes bring it up to $114. per day...

 

I tend to agree with dakrewser who is quoting an OP who states $3800 for

5 people for 11 days? That's $69.00 per night (3 in inside & 2 in outside):rolleyes: I'm sorry but I don't believe it either unless it is off season to the Caribbean in the Summer or possibly a re-positioning cruise...And that too would not include Port Charges & Taxes...Yes, there are some good deals out there but not for $69.00 a day..And I don't believe you would you find that rate from November through April on HAL...

 

Happy planning everyone..Betty

[jvermonttravel]

I too was caught in this pricing error by HAL. I do have a booking number and Holland America did take my money but 8 days later I was informed by my TA that Holland America had made a mistake (combined two promotions that should not have been combined, causing the pricing error) and they are not honoring this fare. Holland America will not talk with me as it was booked through a TA. The TA says it's not their fault or problem. I go back and forth between the two of them and cannot get out of this loop.

 

I have the District Attorneys Office phone numbers and the Better Business Bureau phone numbers and am about to contact them. Maybe they need to hear from all of us.

 

My fare increased $450 per person.

 

Turia: I would be interested in hearing who your TA is. Your TA seems to be the only one making this happen.

[BillandJen]

I have the District Attorneys Office phone numbers and the Better Business Bureau phone numbers and am about to contact them. Maybe they need to hear from all of us.

 

 

Please post them.

[jvermonttravel]

My TA is in Houston, Texas - so covering that area the Attorney General's Office number is (512) 463-2100 and the Better Business Bureau is (713) 868-9500.

 

Covering the Seattle, Washington area (Holland America's corporate offices) - the Attorney General's Office number is (206) 464-7744 and the Better Business Bureau is (206) 431-2222.

[BillandJen]

My TA is in NJ. He has a huge operation. Today...although I have nothing in writing...I spoke with owner. He states he is going to do the honorable thing and honor the initial quoted and booked rate. He says HAL won't budge but he continues to fight with them. At present he says he isn't sure if I will pay the higher rate and they will give me a check....or how the "deal" will be structured. But, he told me to call him or the VP of sales tomorrow and they will but something in writing. He assured me that I will not pay a penny more than the rate I booked at. It sounds good. But waiting to see. I will feel most comfortable once I have something in writing that acknowledges a pricing error has occured by the rate I booked at will be honored. I am sooo done with HAL. I have faxed/emailed/and left voicmails very calmly...to the executives and PR folks and nobody has had the courtesy to even call me. If this agent does right by me....he will have a client for life.

[RuthC]

I spoke with owner. He states he is going to do the honorable thing and honor the initial quoted and booked rate.

Wow! That is some TA you have there! I hope you use him for years and years---even if/when you can find a better price elsewhere, and refer everyone you know to him, too.

 

This TA is more than taking the high road. Even if the agency has insurance that will cover the increased costs it is remarkable that he's willing to accept responsibility for what was not his mistake just to have a happy client.

 

I'm impressed.

[turia]

I too was caught in this pricing error by HAL. I do have a booking number and Holland America did take my money but 8 days later I was informed by my TA that Holland America had made a mistake (combined two promotions that should not have been combined, causing the pricing error) and they are not honoring this fare. Holland America will not talk with me as it was booked through a TA. The TA says it's not their fault or problem. I go back and forth between the two of them and cannot get out of this loop.

 

I have the District Attorneys Office phone numbers and the Better Business Bureau phone numbers and am about to contact them. Maybe they need to hear from all of us.

 

My fare increased $450 per person.

 

My TA is not making anything happen I think it's just a matter of time before they find mine or I have big horse shoes somewhere. I believe I used the same one as bankerbabe due to the mention of the bottle of champagne that is offered but if you want to submit your email address in a thread I would be happy to send you a link to mine but we are unable to put the name here.

[turia]

My TA is in NJ. He has a huge operation. Today...although I have nothing in writing...I spoke with owner. He states he is going to do the honorable thing and honor the initial quoted and booked rate. He says HAL won't budge but he continues to fight with them. At present he says he isn't sure if I will pay the higher rate and they will give me a check....or how the "deal" will be structured. But, he told me to call him or the VP of sales tomorrow and they will but something in writing. He assured me that I will not pay a penny more than the rate I booked at. It sounds good. But waiting to see. I will feel most comfortable once I have something in writing that acknowledges a pricing error has occured by the rate I booked at will be honored. I am sooo done with HAL. I have faxed/emailed/and left voicmails very calmly...to the executives and PR folks and nobody has had the courtesy to even call me. If this agent does right by me....he will have a client for life.

 

 

Congrats hopefully we'll here more stories like this.

[bankerbabe]

Perseverence pays off. Although we aren't paying the originally quoted price, through some creative math and discounts we ended up paying just a little bit more, but a lot less than the $450 that they originally told us the increase would be.

 

Keep calling. Repeatedly. My poor husband spent hours on the phone. I would call him from work and ask him to call again and again. (He's a very patient man - must be since he's married to me :) ) Lucky for us my husband works from home.

 

The squeaky wheel gets the grease. And boy did we squeak. If you don't get what you want from the customer service rep, ask for their supervisor. If that supervisor doesn't help you ask for the next up. The TA should be fighting your fight for you - after a lot of prodding ours did. And because they did, I will likely use them again.

[jvermonttravel]

BILLANDJEN: That is wonderful. I would love to have the name of your TA if you would be willing to email it to me.

 

TURIA: also your TA.

 

My email address is: jschilcher@gmail.com

 

Thanks. Good luck everyone.

[familymom]

Well there seems to be two good resolutions due to some good TAs. But HAL is continuing to stonewall, ignore us all, and offer no real explanation about what happened.... let alone try to help us.

 

I'm beginning to wonder about HAL. They say they are a quality company who cares about customer service but they won't even explain what happened. Their attitude seems to be if I just continue to stonewall, these people will either pay more or cancel, then I can rebook with new customers and go on. No apologies, no nothing.

 

If I was a new customer thinking about booking with HAL and I got a good price quote from a TA, I'd think a long time before I made the booking and even longer before I booked non-refundable airfare. Because after all the next pricing error could be yours.

 

Shame on you HAL. I really expected better.

[happy cruzer]

If this is so big that HAL can't eat the cost, I would have hoped for a press release. It looks like the typical customer (dis)service model of keep them divided and conquered. yuck. And we all know it could be our cruise next time. I truely don't think anyone could tell is was that good of a deal.

 

As I posted way early in this thread, I have a Nov booking for 10 nights on the Volendam inside at $76.30 per night which includes the port and taxes. That's booked directly with HAL and no discounts at all.

 

So this whole episode does trouble me, in that it could be me next time.:o

[bankerbabe]

My husband told me a little story the other day, went something like this:

 

One of my husband's customers (let's call him Hal) purchased a travel trailer, from a well known manufacturer. Less than a year later things started going wrong with the trailer. Not just one thing, not any big problems, but several little things. He came to the conclusion that the trailer was a piece of junk.

 

Through the course of working with the manufacturer, Hal obtains the email address to an employee - in order to facilitate communications. Well, Hal isn't getting any satisfaction, so he takes that email address and from it figures out what the president of the manufacturing company's email address is. For instance, if it was John.doe@companyname.com he figured out the president's email address was his first name . last name @ companyname.com.

 

Hal starts emailing the president of the company relentlessly. Sends him letters constantly. Finally, the president of this manufacturing company gets fed up with it and sends him a check to pay off the remaining balance due on his travel trailer loan.

 

The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Does anyone have the email address to one of the lower-ranked employees at Holland America? Maybe you all could try using it to email Mr. Kruse directly.

[CaribbeanCrazy]

My TA who I beleive is the same as the OP's isn't reducing our price zilch!!!

I have been in contact with two agents...both whom are asst. managers. They both said they have tried relentlessly to get HAL to honor my original booking. But to no avail. I am throughly disgusted with the whole thing.

As I posted early, my booking was a btb. I just found out how much more I would owe if I decided to keep the booking. It's $2100.00!!!!!!!!! This is an outrage! I booked this cruise in good faith. I even questioned whether the price was indeed accurate before I booked. I was assured that it was. They took my payment in full and charge my credit card as requested. They even sent me a confirmation.

I'm probably going to end up canceling...it isn't worth the stress. I havenl't slept very well ever since I was told about the so called glitch!

This was to be my first HaL cruise. After this experience I will never step foot on a HAL ship. Nor will I deal with this online agency again. I booked with them once before this and everything went smooth. But now I know that when a problem arises they won't be any help.

I was so excited when I booked this cruise. I couldn't wait to tell everyone what a great deal I got...thank goodness I only told a few people.

Now I guess it's back to the planning stage!

Good Luck to anyone else that's in this mess. I hope your TA works out some kind of deal for you.:)

 

CaribbeanCrazy

[sail7seas]

CaribbeanCrazy........I'm sorry it isn't working out for you but I'm puzzled why you would have paid in full at the time of booking.

 

Unless the cruise was less than 90 days (approx when final payment would be due), why would you pay in full? I can't figure that part out.

 

[i have read this whole thread and if you answered this previously, I am sorry I missed it and do not recall having read it.]

 

[CaribbeanCrazy]

Because Holland America was requiring 600.00pp deposit on each cruise. We didn't pay much more than that for our obstuted view outside cabin. In other words there wouldn't have been much of a balance left. Less than 100.00 per cruise. So we just went ahead and paid for it all. Now of course with the "glitch" we have a balance of 2100.00. Which I'm not paying. I haven't cancelled yet because I still hope some kind of compromise can be reached. I just got done reporting this to the Washington state Better Business Bureau! Doubt it will help...but it made me feel better. I don't think businesses should be allow to treat their customers this way. It's not just the price increase...but even the way they have been avoiding answering any questions. Very poor customer service!

Anyways I will post if I get any where with this.

 

CaribbeanCrazy

[hammybee]

Caribbean Crazy:

 

Which BTB HAL sail and ship did you book?

 

BTW, from your previous posts on this and other boards, it looks like you are planning to winter btb on several cruises with different cruise lines. I envy you.

[Guienevere_Arianette]

In the past 10 years, the best price I've ever seen on a HAL cruise was $90/day for the lowest category inside on a 7-day out of FLL and that was at the end of 2001 when other lines were trying to give away passage.

 

Now if you're new to HAL I could, possibly, believe that you thought this was simply a "good price" but you indicate "So it's not such an outstanding price, at least to my knowledge, that led me or the TA (which is a large firm) to question the price." Has this TA never booked a HAL cruise before?

 

The additional $1800 brings your total to $5600, or $1120 per person, about right for a deeply discounted fare on that ship for that cruise.quote]

 

Thanks for the great advice for us newbies; I have done my best lurking on the boards for about a year, reading posts and keeping up with HAL promotions, so I made a booking last week (apparently, a bad week for many HAL bookings) at a price that I thought looked relatively nice; however, what do I know? Your posts points out that being a novice cruiser to HAL may cause a misperception of what consitutes a good deal, or a deal too good to be true:)

 

Does anyone have any comments to help put my mind at ease concerning my booking? Like I said, I watched prices over the summer and contacted several TAs to compare prices. I booked a 14 day European Cruise, leaving from Rome and ending up in Amsterdam, for June of 2007. For two adults, and a low end interior cabin, M, we paid $4100. I thought this was a great price, but maybe I'm being taken :o

[turia]

Thanks for the great advice for us newbies; I have done my best lurking on the boards for about a year, reading posts and keeping up with HAL promotions, so I made a booking last week (apparently, a bad week for many HAL bookings) at a price that I thought looked relatively nice; however, what do I know? Your posts points out that being a novice cruiser to HAL may cause a misperception of what constitutes a good deal, or a deal too good to be true:)

 

Does anyone have any comments to help put my mind at ease concerning my booking? Like I said, I watched prices over the summer and contacted several TAs to compare prices. I booked a 14 day European Cruise, leaving from Rome and ending up in Amsterdam, for June of 2007. For two adults, and a low end interior cabin, M, we paid $4100. I thought this was a great price, but maybe I'm being taken :o

 

I would check with your TA to see if your price is still the same. From what I know the cruises that were affected were out of NY on the Noordam from Jan - April.

[hammybee]

 

A cabin is a commodity subject to supply and demand. As such prices often fluctuate day to day and even intra day, no different than an airline seat.

 

With past passenger status, this cruise for the lowest cat. inside, at the moment, is around $2K P/P+/-, not including port and taxes. Given your sailing is the Prinsendam, I would be surprised to see it go much lower than this, barring an econmoic shock. But who really knows? A group could decide to cancel and a sailing that was on its way to being sold out may all of a sudden be underbooked and the need to futher reduce prices.

 

If prices drop prior to final payment date, your TA and thusly HAL may allow you to take advantage of savings or you could cancel and re-book.(Careful for any imposed TA cancel fees, else passengers might be inclined to cancel and rebook daily). There is always the risk that the cruise or the catagory you want could sell out in the blink, it takes to rebook you.

 

Some people watch for price fluctuation like the stock market. Others determine that they have paid a fair price and get on with planning their vacation.

[Çay girl]

ok I checked, I booked and paid in full on 8/28/06 for my Noordam 10/25 cruise. The online TA gave me a HAL bkg # and an online confirmation (which still comes up today) showing paid in full. The documents are enroute to me thru DHL I just received the confirmation from DHL. So no increase mentioned at all. BUT the price for the same sailing in a balcony cabin has increased by 1.4k per person on the TA's website! HMMMM, scary! Just wondering if I'm going to find out we owe $$ at the pier or before, or if they are honoring our price. I posted on another similar thread, I don't want to call TA and / or HAL because I feel this is inviting an increase!!!

 

I'm going on this vacation to relax and I came on these boards for help planning now I'm sssooooo stressed out!!!

[turia]

ok I checked, I booked and paid in full on 8/28/06 for my Noordam 10/25 cruise. The online TA gave me a HAL bkg # and an online confirmation (which still comes up today) showing paid in full. The documents are enroute to me thru DHL I just received the confirmation from DHL. So no increase mentioned at all. BUT the price for the same sailing in a balcony cabin has increased by 1.4k per person on the TA's website! HMMMM, scary! Just wondering if I'm going to find out we owe $$ at the pier or before, or if they are honoring our price. I posted on another similar thread, I don't want to call TA and / or HAL because I feel this is inviting an increase!!!

 

I'm going on this vacation to relax and I came on these boards for help planning now I'm sssooooo stressed out!!!

 

Just phone your TA I'm sure he would know but I don't think yours was one of the sailings included in this glitch.

[serendipity1499]

Quote Thanks for the great advice for us newbies; I have done my best lurking on the boards for about a year, reading posts and keeping up with HAL promotions, so I made a booking last week (apparently, a bad week for many HAL bookings) at a price that I thought looked relatively nice; however, what do I know? Your posts points out that being a novice cruiser to HAL may cause a misperception of what consitutes a good deal, or a deal too good to be true:)

 

Does anyone have any comments to help put my mind at ease concerning my booking? Like I said, I watched prices over the summer and contacted several TAs to compare prices. I booked a 14 day European Cruise, leaving from Rome and ending up in Amsterdam, for June of 2007. For two adults, and a low end interior cabin, M, we paid $4100. I thought this was a great price, but maybe I'm being taken :o

 

I don't think you are being taken at all but to be sure you can request a price quote from several on-line agents for your "M" cabin..

 

The Prinsendam is more expensive than the other ships & we paid $437.00 per day for an Outside Cat. "E" cabin in April of 2006..This figure includes Port charges & Taxes..

 

You will love the Prinsendam and the service! We hope to go on here again!

[KAKcruiser]

When you are calculating what is a reasonable price you have to consider the season you are booking. Fall cruises are much cheaper than spring.