price drops

[sjdnv]

Thinking of booking an Alaska cruise for 09 when the schedule comes out just a quick question if you book

directly with HAL and the price drops do they honour

the price reduction. thanks

[hammybee]

Generally speaking HAL and or travel agencies will honor subsequent price drops. Generally speaking, you will get a better price from a travel agency than you will by buying directly from a cruise line. Not all travel agencies offer the same price or terms. An increasing number of agencies are charging a fee to cancel and/or change a booking.

 

Be aware however, that oftentimes, subsequent pricing is for new bookings only. Then it becomes necessary to cancel your original booking and execute a new booking. In the meantime, it is possible that your preferred cabin ( if there is one) could be sold to someone else.

[vbmom87]

We got two price drops for our June 2008 booking. (We booked in August 2007). Once we were able to keep our booking. The other we had to cancel our booking and rebook. Since we were able to go from inside pricing to a guarentee outside for $200 pp less, we did that. Our earlier price drop was $100 pp. I know there are those who don't like guarentees, however, we have never cruised before so we don't really know the difference between a good and bad cabin. We just liked the fact that overall we saved $600 which will be used for excursions. We liked working with a TA. She took care of everything with HAL for us. As a first time cruiser I definitely liked going this route. Her prices were always very close to the online discounters. Either the same, less or only slightly more. We felt it was worth going with her. I will say that the posted prices on HALs website were always more than what our TA gave us.

 

As hambee mentioned, make sure you find out cancellation fees and change fees with whomever you go with. Some online discounter don't charge, others do. I imagine it is the same for "real" TAs. I know mine did not charge for any of my changes. She was wonderful to work with. Always called back in a timely fashion when I had to leave messages. Told me once that she was ill and not sure if she would be in the next day, but to call the office and have another agent call her at home and she would call me from home. Every change she sent out new documents quickly. I would not hesitate to use her again.

[Opinions]

Be aware however, that oftentimes, subsequent pricing is for new bookings only. Then it becomes necessary to cancel your original booking and execute a new booking. In the meantime, it is possible that your preferred cabin ( if there is one) could be sold to someone else.

 

Also when you get a new booking number any tours you may have booked with the cruiseline are automatically cancelled...You then have to re-book them with the possibility some may not be available.

[vbmom87]

Also when you get a new booking number any tours you may have booked with the cruiseline are automatically cancelled...You then have to re-book them with the possibility some may not be available.

 

we ran into that but fortunately we were able to get the one tour we had booked.

[Sea Island Lady]

My cruise cabin just went down $125 pp, as did most the cabin categories on my cruise. I am pretty sure that because final payment has come and gone, that there is nothing my TA can do to get a refund...correct?

 

I have been checking pricing, in hopes that the suites would go down enough in price, that I could upgrade from my VF to an SY. $125 is not enough, but it would be nice to have that money. :(

 

I am not going to bother my TA on this one (I think she will be busy enough with dealing with the Fuel refunds), but if the suites were to come down enough that I could pay perhaps $200 more pp, to get a suite, is this allowed without having any booking repercussions? ;)

 

PS - This appears to be a regular price drop, and not a FLASH special. I should also add that this reduction is on my TA's site and not through HAL. I think this cruise is having trouble filling up.

[heavenly]

My cruise cabin just went down $125 pp, as did most the cabin categories on my cruise. I am pretty sure that because final payment has come and gone, that there is nothing my TA can do to get a refund...correct?

 

I have been checking pricing, in hopes that the suites would go down enough in price, that I could upgrade from my VF to an SY. $125 is not enough, but it would be nice to have that money. :(

 

I am not going to bother my TA on this one (I think she will be busy enough with dealing with the Fuel refunds), but if the suites were to come down enough that I could pay perhaps $200 more pp, to get a suite, is this allowed without having any booking repercussions? ;)

 

Believe it or not, and this one is hard to believe, HAL policy is that after final payment any change is considered a cancellation unless the change is initiated by them. So, if Hall offers you an upsell to a suite you are good, if you call to upgrade to a suite they will give you problems. We usually have to pull our sales rep in to waive all the fees in instances like these.

[Sea Island Lady]

Believe it or not, and this one is hard to believe, HAL policy is that after final payment any change is considered a cancellation unless the change is initiated by them. So, if Hall offers you an upsell to a suite you are good, if you call to upgrade to a suite they will give you problems. We usually have to pull our sales rep in to waive all the fees in instances like these.

Thank you! Yes, that is hard to believe that you would want to pay more for a suite and be turned down. :rolleyes:

 

:( I guess I will quit checking prices and hope that HAL will offer me an Upsell. If not, I can always try "a long-shot" and try at the pier. LOL