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Price drop honored?


Rosebud5t
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I apologize if this has been answered already, I can't find anything on the boards.

 

I wondered if anyone knows if MSC will honor a price drop in the cruise fare, and if so, how to request it? I haven't paid my full balance yet, which I know is sometimes the cutoff. I received notice yesterday (from another travel app) that the cruise fare has dropped for my category. It's already a great deal, so I don't care a lot, but every little bit helps, right? [emoji16]

 

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I'm not sure they do, at least not on a UK booking contract. Perhaps a US version is different.

 

The reason I say this is that when I made a booking on Orchestra, initially in a B2, I upgraded to a B3 and then eventually an S3. However, the rate I paid for the S3 was the same rate I would have paid if I booked an S3 from outset (despite one not being available!!). So MSC did a promo and the S3 was something like £30 p.p. cheaper - they would not honour this.

 

They explained to me that in order to be 'fair,' at least for an upgrade, they had to charge the same 'rate code' as what was used for the INITIAL booking, regardless of the fact they may offer a deal later on a higher category of cabin.

 

They confirmed to me this works 'both ways' - so that if you book in a lower category, wish to upgrade, but the price for the upgrade is more than it was when you made the original booking, you would get it at the initial (in this case, lower) price.

 

Seems a bit silly to me to be honest.

 

So, to answer your question, although the scenario I speak about above relates only to an upgrade, I would doubt they will honour a price drop either in the form of partial refund or OBC. I know other lines do do this for US booking contracts.

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I am thinking they do offer the price drops, just depends on whether you had possibly any extra promo's that aren't valid any longer. I called in for our booking with a question on something else and the rep with MSC pointed out the fare change, and did the adjustment. I had no idea, but was really nice and they ended up adjusting our rate by about $220.

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CJ ... Our Aurea B3 dropped by £100 per cabin a week ago, I asked our travel agent about the price drop, MSC said no.

 

They have us over a barrel, Dave, 'cos we lose our deposits if we cancel and re-book. Those in the US are facilitated because it's just easier than having them cancel and rebook.

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Not sure if similar but we are from the UK and made a booking direct with MSC and booked a fantastica Bella cabin .. anyway fast forward a few months and it’s turns out that AUREA package was coming up only another £100 for same cruise

 

Anyway called msc and they said the only way they could

Do it was to cancel current booking and to rebook

 

I had to lose the £100 deposit per person so was

£200 but I only stil had to pay another £100 so not bad going from fantastica to aurea

 

 

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it is ridiculous that we have to lose our deposit when they could have just taken the difference in money and done the upgrade! meanwhile those in the USA can block a cabin for over a year and cancel at the last minute and not lose a thing!

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it is ridiculous that we have to lose our deposit when they could have just taken the difference in money and done the upgrade! meanwhile those in the USA can block a cabin for over a year and cancel at the last minute and not lose a thing!

 

I totally agree, Dave! It drives me mad when I read posts on here from people saying they have this and that booked, often across various cruiselines, and will decide closer to the time, which ones they'll cancel. Meantime, those who actually want to book that particular cruise can't because of lack of availability. Add to that, we can't even avail of any last minute deals as flight prices are usually prohibitive the nearer you are to the required dates. It wouldn't surprise me if there were a certain cohort who manipulate the market by booking and cancelling in the expectation that the price will drop closer to sailing and who live close enough to ports so flights aren't a factor for them.

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it is ridiculous that we have to lose our deposit when they could have just taken the difference in money and done the upgrade! meanwhile those in the USA can block a cabin for over a year and cancel at the last minute and not lose a thing!
I'm in the US and even I think that's unfair! I had no idea that would be different based on where we live. I can almost see not refunding (to avoid exactly the shenanigans mentioned) but why not put it toward an upgrade! Wow.

 

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