UKstages

you know, i used to think it was a "leak" or loophole in the system, too. but the same thing is true with a lot of airlines' wifi systems. in fact, the "leak" is so prevalent that united airlines now promotes it as a free "service" onboard its aircraft. you could always send and receive iMessages on UA, but now they're actively telling customers about it. so, i think the limitation may be technology-based in some way.

hmmm... you describe this accurately to a degree, but i'm not entirely sure you understand how it works. i was a seven stars member for many years myself, but gave it up last year, after the eldorado desecration. so i do understand how this works. if you qualify for seven stars for the 2023 membership year, that's because you played enough in the 2022 qualifying year (for 2023 status). the reason you get "double benefits" is because you qualified for seven stars status for both 2022 and 2023... and there is overlap in the calendar year and the membership years. also, the date by which the prior year's benefits must be consumed extends into the next calendar year. your original statement was that "at land based casinos, you don't have to requalify every year." that is simply not correct.

it was only a unique issue once. it has clearly happened a number of times or they would not have issued a TA advisory. they treat each occurrence as a one-off at the front line level, however, and that is a problem. that's why this occurred. @Ozmodiar did a good job of explaining this in post #174, but let me just say once again that they designed a penalty to support a valid business rule, they designed behind-the-scenes code to automatically implement that penalty, but they did not design an appropriate process. there are known defects in the app with regard to how it handles abandoned cart items. and that glitch does not play well with their automatic cancellation business rule and subjects a number of customers to cancellation of fully paid reservations. the business rule - cancel people who haven't paid - makes sense. the definition of what constitutes an unpaid reservation does not make any sense at all.

i don't think the rep intentionally lied to you, but you were given wrong info, most likely because the rep was confused. the rep probably doesn't gamble and may not even have ever been on a cruise. it is confusing if the rep is unfamiliar with tiered loyalty programs that are common in the hospitality industry. the rep probably knew that the march 31/april 1 date meant something, but wasn't quite sure what. the rep probably knew status carried over into the 1st quarter, but got confused about which year. technically, your status DOES carry over into the next year, but not the entire year, unless you've requalified.

are you touring new orleans for the day? or having breakfast and/or lunch in town before heading to the airport? if so, there's a marriott within walking distance of the pier. (in fact, that's where NCL did covid testing after the restart.) it's maybe a half a mile... about a ten minute walk for most people without mobility issues. consider taking your bags there, checking them with a bellman and then picking them up later in the day as you get a taxi or car service to the airport. if they refuse you (and if you're tipping both at drop off and pick up, i doubt they would), then go to the nearby hitlon, loew's or harrah's hotel and check your bags there.

yes, absolutely, ALL of the NCL personnel involved believe that they could do this because they are not empowered to creatively problem solve, to think outside the box or to recognize when something isn't what it first appears. everybody who looked at this asked "what do we have here? oh, this is a simple case of somebody who didn't pay their balance." the question they should have been asking is "why do we think this customer owes us money? does she in fact owe us money?" if you create an app that cancels fully paid reservations under this scenario, you will always have customer resolution team members who will back up the behavior of the app. "well, that must be the policy. the app wouldn't have canceled the reservation if it wasn't appropriate... after all, it's a computer! computers don't make mistakes!" the policy you keep referencing is a policy that says reservations not paid in full will get canceled within a certain time frame. there is no policy that states they will cancel your reservation if you attempt to add a product or service and the transaction falls through within that same time frame. there is a memo to travel agents explaining that this might happen... a defensive tactic presumably rolled out by NCL to warn travel agents of this unexpected app behavior. they built an app that follows their business rules regarding unpaid cancellation, but never imagined that the app would actually follow those rules after a simple failed transaction. this is a failure of imagination. few at NCL likely have direct experience with the app, few at NCL have likely made mock bookings in a test or staging environment. they could never imagine that a business policy would be misinterpreted to such disastrous results by their app. and they only know there's a problem when this sort of thing happens and people complain. then it takes weeks or months to rectify because they haven't prioritized web development. meanwhile, the front line customer resolution folks hold the company line... because they won't listen to the customer. if they did, they would have quickly realized that this thing is not like other problems of this type that they have handled.

i do. that's because when i add something to my cart on amazon or any other e-commerce site, it doesn't demand payment and then cancel all the other merchandise that i've already paid for, but which hasn't yet shipped. my own belief is that NCL is much more likely to monitor and pay attention to a 7-page thread on cruise critic than a consumer advocacy site, but that site certainly did get the ball rolling. bravo! my understanding is also that two popular youtube cruise personalities covered the story extensively. that probably had a lot to do with it, too. that's just it... they have no such policy. what they have is wonky and thoughtless web developers. i can assure you that it was never NCL's intent to cancel fully paid reservations over an abandoned cart item. their app sucks and they are behind schedule in realizing it and taking appropriate action to make it a best in class booking tool.

this sounds odd to me. i haven't sailed on the prima yet, but i've stayed in other havens on other ships. thy all have a lounge with an extensive set up of snacks throughout the day, as well as juices and ice water... and a really spiffy coffee contraption. i don't drink coffee myself, but people seemed to be pretty impressed by the coffee available in the haven. is there no "drink coffee station" or snack area in the haven lounge on deck 16 of the prima? (again, i haven't been on the prima yet.) i'm sure they would fix you up at the haven restaurant if you stumbled in there looking for coffee, but it just seems really odd to have to go to the haven restaurant... to get coffee. and it would certainly interfere with the service being provided to others actually dining there.

i don't believe it states your status on the website. you'll have to call for that info. if you earned ruby last year, then you're ruby this year, too. if you only earned ruby in 2021 for the year 2022 and didn't play enough last year to earn ruby again, then your status will have changed. if they gave you $550, some or all of that may have been discretionary comps. the $400 OBC ruby tier status benefit is placed in your folio you when you board. there should be a notification card in your cabin, along with your player's card and other notifications.

gosh, i don't think so. i think i've pretty much nailed it. if, by "information," you mean a disclosure that somebody using the app to casually peruse ancillary services, could have their fully paid reservation canceled... no, that information is most definitely not "there." nope. they did, however, alert travel agents to the possibility of this type of cancellation. they did not feel it was necessary to give their customers the same information at the time of purchase or at the time their customers were "shopping" within the app. on this we can agree! it is, however, incumbent about NCL to make sure that their terms and conditions are clear and their marketing materials, websites, apps and agents communicate appropriately with customers and don't obscure key conditions related to a customer's purchase. yet again, we agree! kindly show me in the "T&C" or "ticket contract" where it says "warning: once your reservation is fully paid for, do not attempt to add any item to your booking when using our app or your reservation will be subject to immediate cancellation and all monies you have paid us will be forfeited." i may have missed it, but i don't think it says that. the contract simply says that reservations not fully paid by a certain date will be canceled. this customer, using NCL's tools and following its guidance, had absolutely no reason to believe her reservation was not fully paid by that date.

i agree with you. it's a bit of a sham. (not a scam, but a sham.) but i think they can get away with this because, technically, there are indeed a few totally "free" excursions. there are some ports that have self-directed "hop-on, hop off" bus tours or tram rides that are sold for just $35 or $40 or less. apply the $50 benefit and the "excursion" is actually "free."

but she wasn't using the website. she was using, at NCL's invitation and encouragement, their app. is it a term and condition of NCL that customers are required to use the services of someone familiar with their restrictions? do they? one would think immediately before canceling a fully paid reservation with no apparent balance due that they would notify the customer and give a small window during which the error could be corrected or the balance (if valid) paid. it doesn't look like that happened here at all.

there's an extraordinary amount of work in the provinces, chiefly in call centers. it's one of the top industries in the philippines, with 10% or more of the global market and employing nearly 1.5 million people. and in the last two years, a lot of the work has shifted to remote work... meaning that many agents can now work from their homes, in manila, cebu, lipa or whatever province or barangay they live in. i think i get what you mean. if you come from a country with a lower cost of living and by working on a cruise ship you could greatly improve your station in life and take care of relatives by sending money home... sure. strictly speaking... there is indeed poverty in the philippines, in india, in malaysia and in indonesia, those are the countries most cruise ship employees come from. (approximately 60% come from the philippines.) none of these are impoverished nations. and at least one has poverty levels only 2% or 3% higher than america, which is also not an impoverished nation.

if you are a casino guest and an elite player, part of your perks include OBC. when you do a B2B, you will "double dip" and get a second allowance of OBC (amount varies based on status), so definitely a high value perk.

maybe seven or eight minutes. he followed up with an email - which i've received from other CAS agents - with his direct phone number and an invitation to book with him in the future. thanks!

not everyone. butlers can and do work outside of the haven in ordinary suites on some ships, for passengers that do not have access to the haven or on ships that do not have a haven.

following up again on my own post. i did call CAS... got a random agent out of florida at about 8 PM ET. usually when i call at night, i get an arizona-based agent. (i do have a phoenix-based CAS consultant that i have used in the past and have been happy with, but she's usually more of a go-to when i'm ready to book.) i do tend to find the AZ agents less jaded and more knowledgeable. but this guy seemed pretty smart and savvy. he took a good three or four minutes to review my account and my offers. he said i had nine different offers, including tournament offers, with travel on some permitted through april, 2024. it appears as if my offers have been downgraded in one regard... but also simultaneously upgraded. i'm now up to a "free" twelve day cruise, whereas, formerly, i was only eligible for a ten day cruise. but i'm no longer getting haven comped... i'm getting club balcony suites, which, as we know, are not really suites at all. the only exclusions (for me), as expected, are hawaii and viva. prima is included, but i think that has been the case for awhile. all of europe is now included. i used to have mediterranean cruises excluded and no balconies on alaska cruises. he also told me something i had never heard before and which i seriously doubt is true. he said NCL looks at your play during the last three years to determine offers. most land-based casinos i know look at your last three to six visits (and most ignore your worst trip among them). it was just odd the way he expressed it... i can maybe see them looking at all the cruises you made in the last three years and then dividing by the total number of cruises to calculate actual win/loss and ADT and other metrics. but three years of data could be unwieldy for some players. and you really only need three or four cruises at most. and wouldn't it be better to have those be recent trips? (what have you done for me lately? they really want to look at three years of data? ) saying they look at three years of data (and not actual cruises) implies that they are averaging calendar year activity, and not average daily theoreticals, which would place most people at a disadvantage for the last three years due to a long covid shutdown. i found that puzzling. i asked about upgrading to haven and whether - as a solo CAS guest - i would be charged twice for the upgrade, as if there were two passengers, the same way the regular online upgrade bidding process works. and then he told me something else i had never heard: ruby players (and higher) can upgrade as a solo guest and only pay for a solo upgrade. if true, and he insisted that it was, that's a pretty good unpublished tier benefit. i hit ruby on my last cruise and so i have no prior experience traveling as a ruby player. anybody else ever hear of this 1X upgrade fee benefit for solo CAS guests?

• because they haven't prioritized this as a problem because it - up to now - is a situation that has occurred only a relatively small number of times • because their IT team doesn't speak regularly to their marketing, sales or customer resolution teams • because they have poor user testing and few who work in IT or customer resolution make mock bookings in the app • because they have written internal policies that frontline personnel are not empowered to override (or even reconsider or reinterpret), when confronted by unique circumstances not specifically covered in the policy • because they don't have a strong internal escalation process for problem resolution • because they lack imagination and foresight

if you're in a broadway show - on broadway - unless you're a star or principal player who may have a "run of show" contract, you typically only have a six month contract. you're not guaranteed six months of work, you're obligated to stay with the show for six months. if the show gets bad reviews and closes after two weeks, you're out of work.

yes. it's written and intended to penalize those who don't pay in full to secure their reservation. their reservations get canceled. but it's clear the NCL team either didn't consider all the ramifications or didn't consider all use cases or how the rules would be applied under (not so) extraordinary circumstances. or their app developers simply do sloppy work and the app can't handle the same functions as the website and NCL's internal systems. i have no concern about the policy. it's their right to cancel unpaid reservations. but it appears that they haven't built an IT infrastructure capable of discerning the difference between a reservation paid in full and a reservation paid in full that has something added to it - possibly tentaively - within a cancellation window.

sort of. what we appear to have is a communication to travel agents. it may indeed be their policy, but if they don't communicate key aspects of their "policy" to their customers, those likely to be affected by their "policy," do they really have a "policy" or do they just have a lot of gobbledegook they can impose at will, when it suits their interests or when their customer support mechanisms don't work as intended? perhaps. but NCL makes no distinction between money that comes from distracted cell phone users and money that comes from dedicated and devoted experienced cruisers who participate in online forums. (there's likely an intersection of those two groups, by the way.) in any case, the onus should be on the customer only if the customer has been sufficiently warned/advised. that doesn't appear to have been the case here. did the customer dismiss a warning that says your reservation is about to be canceled? it appears as if the app doesn't have that functionality built into it. it appears as if the app either didn't work properly for all its intended uses or it wasn't designed in such a way so as to provide sufficient warning(s) of the cancellation. that's on NCL, not the customer.

lots of reasons. people like to use apps. they are accessible and easy to use, if they are designed right. if a company offers an app, it's up to the company to make sure that the app works properly. and there are countless stories on this board and in this thread of experienced NCL cruisers having to take aggressive action to make up for something the app couldn't do. the fact she used an app is neither here nor there, except if we're trying to isolate the "glitch" to an app error. companies have to appeal to customers in their moment of need when they are ready to purchase. if this customer wanted to use an app to purchase or contemplate purchasing transfers, and NCL has an app, she should be able to use that app without involving NCL's legal and customer resolution teams. the company offering to sell transfers within its app should have made it explicitly clear that the customer's 5K fully paid reservation was subject to cancellation and forfeiture through her casual browsing of goods and services in the app. i can't understand the repeated focus on a mythical hapless customer and her terrible, horrible, no good, very bad irresponsible behavior. it appears as if the customer was just trying to buy something from a company that was selling something, but made it ridiculously difficult to actually complete the purchase. do you really think NCL execs sit around a conference room table and say... "listen, we gotta pull the rug on all these looky-loos who won't buy our transfers!" "i know what we can do... when somebody has a fully paid cruise and they think about buying our transfers... if they don't complete the purchase, let's cancel the whole cruise and not refund their money. that'll show them! word will get out and people won't be abandoning their carts any more!" "great idea FDR! this is even better than that crazy new deal you came up with years ago!"

well, we don't know how many people it's happening to... we simply don't know if that is the case. we do know that it apparently was happening often enough to one TA's customers, that the TA felt compelled to warn people about the practice in their confirmation notes. i doubt it's happening to thousands of people because i personally don't believe a large number of people are using the app to order things pre-cruise. and that's because the app provides a poor user experience, both onboard and offshore, but especially offshore before your cruise. it lacks essential functionality. also, there are only 2K - 4K passengers on every cruise, so it would really be something if this was happening to thousands of passengers fleet wide. dozens might be more like it. assuming it is app related, it may be related to a recent app update. if so, the first reports of a problem have to start trickling in from somewhere. the average cruise ship passenger does not participate in online forums. this one went the consumer advocacy route. the number of affected customers is largely irrelevant and can actually be used to explain why NCL has been so slow to act... to fix this, if indeed it's a verifiable reproducible error/glitch. from their IT infrastructure perspective, it's not a big deal because it is only affecting a handful of customers. up to now. we are hearing about it! this entire five page thread is devoted to discussing it!

the ship is repositioning without passengers? they will almost certainly board early! the rooms will probably already be made up when the ship pulls into port. being in the haven does mater, although not so much in manhattan. there is a priority security line, although you'll have to sometimes fight to get to it... meaning clueless port contractors will tell you to go to the regular line. once past security, look for the sign for haven check-in. it's a small nondescript room, with a few finger sandwiches and drinks. nothing fancy; same hard plastic seating as the rest of the terminal. the haven concierge will probably be in there. he or she will check you in and get you on board as early as possible, possibly as early as 11 AM - maybe earlier - if there were no passengers on the prior journey.

all these restaurants are good. and they have all been bad, or at least less than stellar. it depends on the ship, the staff and sometimes on the passengers, the supply chain and a host of other factors. it's kind of like when you got to any land-based franchised restaurant... sometimes they knock it out of the park... sometimes they are clueless. while NCL has brand standards and your visit to cagney's is supposed to be more or less the same on any ship in the fleet... the reality is, it often isn't. i love moderno... on some ships. on one ship, it was really bad. i love cagney's... on one ship. on other ships, it was meh. the best recommendation i can make is to view recent reviews not just for the restaurant, but that restaurant on the encore.