Fuel Surcharge

[GottaLuvCruising]

In all walks of life everyone now charges a fuel surcharge. I just sent a 4lb package on ups and was charged .44 fuel surcharge so my 5.50 is now 5.94 charge. Trucking frims have done this for years. If Carnival raised the price of their cruises by $35 per a person for 7 days. You would have people complaining about that. I have no problem paying a fuel surcharge as long as Carnival maintains their ship and great service.

 

Mike:)

 

If you paid to ship the package, then UPS called the next day and said you had to pay another 44 cents (or whatever) for them to actually deliver it, then how would you feel????

 

While I think the cruise lines should be upfront and simply raise the fares on future bookings, the issue is that they added these fees to confirmed bookings.

[Cuizer2]

Cruizer2. Yes I agree with you. Actually I made it a point to my family NOT to drink any of the soda's or water in our room, yet we also got charged for two soda's. I was not happy, considering we gave our cabin attendent a nice tip for being so nice. I don't think that I will make that mistake again.

You only have to agree once, otherwise my head swells up. :D

[Cuizer2]

Mike,

Posts such as these intrigue me. (I know it doesn't take much :)) What is your price? What I mean is.. what is the price that would make you have a problem as long as Carnival maintains their ship and great service?

Is there a special on double posts today? :p

[sea_u_onboard]

I compare it to a layaway. I go to XYZ retailer and I put an item in layaway and pay a deposit and promise to pay the balance when the time comes. If the price of the item goes up or costs associated with the item goes up they don't go into my layaway and tack on the additional charge. The will also reduce the cost if I go in and tell them that the item is on sale or been reduced (just has been Carnivals practice for many years).

 

I can only imagine the uproar if people returned to the store to pick up their layaway and were told they need to pay more.

 

Just don't think it would go over to easy.

[jessemon]

It is time for everyone to get over this. I have a 9 day cruise in Oct. and had payed my deposit. I get to pay the $45.00 or stay home.....No brainer....;)

I saw an example of if UPS charged X amount of money after you sent a package would you pay it ? Well, the option is we'll return it to you and you can ship it by another carrier that raised their price yesterday. Hope the package isn't important. (The poster though gave a very good example) The difference is that the cost to UPS is short term. A day or two. If you shipped on Monday and it got there Wednesday but they raised the price on Tuesday...they didn't loose much. With cruising people book a year or more (at times) in advance....Big difference.

Just wait. When gas for your car reaches $4.50 a gallon two months from now, guess what the cruiselines might do again.;) ;)

[VentureMan_2000]

 

I do not know any other industry that would do the same thing in principle.

 

 

I can think of a few industries that have been doing this for years... the most common industry is the Hotel business. They've been adding an "energy" surcharge for well over 6 or 7 years now. The Hotel industry is way larger than the Cruise Industry.

 

Pizza Hut is another...

 

Companies that cite higher costs for energy, transportation and petroleum-based raw materials ad surcharges.

 

Huge delivery and frieght companies like FedEx, UPS, DHL, Conway, and Yellow, to name a few.

 

Folks should just suck it up... it's just one cocktail less per person, per day... :eek: Did I just say that -- to give up a cocktail...? :eek:

[cruzegirl]

If you paid to ship the package, then UPS called the next day and said you had to pay another 44 cents (or whatever) for them to actually deliver it, then how would you feel????

 

While I think the cruise lines should be upfront and simply raise the fares on future bookings, the issue is that they added these fees to confirmed bookings.

Exactly...... :p

[Mirela]

I can think of a few industries that have been doing this for years... the most common industry is the Hotel business. They've been adding an "energy" surcharge for well over 6 or 7 years now. The Hotel industry is way larger than the Cruise Industry.

 

Pizza Hut is another...

 

Companies that cite higher costs for energy, transportation and petroleum-based raw materials ad surcharges.

 

Huge delivery and frieght companies like FedEx, UPS, DHL, Conway, and Yellow, to name a few.

 

Folks should just suck it up... it's just one cocktail less per person, per day... :eek: Did I just say that -- to give up a cocktail...? :eek:

 

Although a handful of hotels still attempt to charge an "energy" surcharge, many of the bigger chains stopped doing so after they were sued by state AGs and in class actions beginning in 2001/2002. Admittedly, those suits focused largely on a lack of disclosure of the "energy" surcharges, rather than whether the energy surcharges were appropriate in and of themselves. However, had the larger hotel chains not "voluntarily" withdrawn their "energy" surcharges, one would have seen more litigation around the merits of the energy surcharges in and of themselves.

 

As to pizza delivery surcharges (if I understand your reference to Pizza Hut), one is paying for an additional service when one has a pizza delivered to their home versus picking it up at the shop. It's reasonable for a pizza shop to charge an additional fee for this additional service, so long as the additional fee is properly disclosed. On the other hand, it's counterintuitive for a cruise line to argue that the base fare of its cruise does not include the cost of fuel, and that the cost of fuel should be recouped through an add-on fee. I never heard of a cruise that doesn't use fuel, unless it's on some wind-powered vessel from the 18th century.

 

With respect to regulated common carriers and transport companies, please see my post above.

 

Airline surcharges have gone up as much as tenfold during the past several years. So, while the cruise lines' fuel surcharge may be the cost of a cocktail today, their surcharge could easily be the cost of a bottle of wine tomorrow, and some wine is very expensive. Moreover, the point is not the amount of the surcharge, but why the cruise lines insist upon assessing a surcharge when they could simply bump up their fares a bit more (apparently, Carnival increased its fares an average of 4% last year, so why not 5% or 5.5%?). Unfortunately, in that regard, the airlines are on a higher road than the low road taken by the cruise lines, since the airlines' fuel surcharges must be included as an element of their base fares and may not be hidden in the mice type.

[rellersi]

Although a handful of hotels still attempt to charge an "energy" surcharge, many of the bigger chains stopped doing so after they were sued by state AGs and in class actions beginning in 2001/2002. Admittedly, those suits focused largely on a lack of disclosure of the "energy" surcharges, rather than whether the energy surcharges were appropriate in and of themselves. However, had the larger hotel chains not "voluntarily" withdrawn their "energy" surcharges, one would have seen more litigation around the merits of the energy surcharges in and of themselves.

 

As to pizza delivery surcharges (if I understand your reference to Pizza Hut), one is paying for an additional service when one has a pizza delivered to their home versus picking it up at the shop. It's reasonable for a pizza shop to charge an additional fee for this additional service, so long as the additional fee is properly disclosed. On the other hand, it's counterintuitive for a cruise line to argue that the base fare of its cruise does not include the cost of fuel, and that the cost of fuel should be recouped through an add-on fee. I never heard of a cruise that doesn't use fuel, unless it's on some wind-powered vessel from the 18th century.

 

With respect to regulated common carriers and transport companies, please see my post above.

 

Airline surcharges have gone up as much as tenfold during the past several years. So, while the cruise lines' fuel surcharge may be the cost of a cocktail today, their surcharge could easily be the cost of a bottle of wine tomorrow, and some wine is very expensive. Moreover, the point is not the amount of the surcharge, but why the cruise lines insist upon assessing a surcharge when they could simply bump up their fares a bit more (apparently, Carnival increased its fares an average of 4% last year, so why not 5% or 5.5%?). Unfortunately, in that regard, the airlines are on a higher road than the low road taken by the cruise lines, since the airlines' fuel surcharges must be included as an element of their base fares and may not be hidden in the mice type.

 

might have something to do with profit. Reporting and the amount of. Not sure about the accounting involved in reporting the surcharge vs including it in the cost of the cruise, but if they include it in the cost of the cruise, approx 15% of the increase would go toward the commission that they pay the travel agent, so this way they are not increasing their expenses

[mjbearit]

If you paid to ship the package, then UPS called the next day and said you had to pay another 44 cents (or whatever) for them to actually deliver it, then how would you feel????

 

While I think the cruise lines should be upfront and simply raise the fares on future bookings, the issue is that they added these fees to confirmed bookings.

Agreed! I was completely paid, filled out my funpass and everything, then out of nowhere this extra charge came up. Sure, I could have cancelled, but at that point, you've already paid for everything, figured out and paid for the excursions, put all that time into the whole deal, got yourself all psyched up for it, then, wham! Here's another $140 or whatever it was. Although I understand about fuel prices and all, I felt like I was in high school again and the owner of the car pulled over and said "Okay, everybody pony up for gas!". It just felt wrong somehow. I don't think I would feel that way if I hadn't been paid in full, but as soon as I was, that, to me, is kind of a committment. It felt like they were making changes to a contract we had already both agreed to and signed. I know they have it worded so that they can do that, but there is a big difference between what is legal and what is right sometimes. It's hard to express, but I hope that made some sense.

[firefly333]

Agreed! I was completely paid, filled out my funpass and everything, then out of nowhere this extra charge came up. I don't think I would feel that way if I hadn't been paid in full, but as soon as I was, that, to me, is kind of a committment. .

 

We only owed I think $67 pp more on one cruise. I disagree with your statement that I wouldnt have felt cheated if they had said ok if you paid in full, no surcharge, I would have been saying....but I was so close to paid in full, not fair!!!

 

Iv got two cruises that were booked for months and got hit and I do mind and if they let some go thru because they were paid in full and I got hit, I would still be mad lol.

 

I just got too many other things crashing down on me right now in life to fight this battle, but of course Im in the camp that I think anyone already booked before the surcharge was announced should be exempt.