HAL offers 110% refund if you can get identical shore excursion for less

Just got this email from HAL. Color me skeptical, especially in light of the footnotes. But let's discuss.

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>>> New Best Price Guarantee Program

Book your EXC Tours™ with total confidence that you’re getting the best value! Our award-winning EXC Tours (Shore Excursions) give you many unique options for exploring ashore, with a level of comfort, care and convenience you won’t find anywhere else. Find a better price on any tour we offer and with our new Best Price Guarantee program we’ll refund you 110 percent of the difference in the form of an onboard credit! *

* In order to be eligible to receive the Best Price Guarantee, you must (1) purchase the applicable Holland America Line EXC Tours™ prior to the commencement of your cruise and (2) complete and submit an online EXC Tours Best Price Guarantee form at least seven days prior to the commencement of your cruise. Failure to meet any of the following conditions will result in your request being denied.

Holland America Line will review your request within two (2) business days. The lower tour rate must be publicly advertised, including applicable taxes and fees and available to the general public at the time your request is submitted, as determined by Holland America Line personnel. Rates offered on membership program websites, corporate discounts or rates, group, charter, rewards program, incentive, meeting, convention, consolidator or interline prices, prices obtained via auction or similar process or prices available only by using a coupon or other promotion not offered to the general public are ineligible for this program. The tour price matched must be the listed price on hollandamerica.com in USD. Pricing is visible upon log in to My Account. The Best Price Guarantee is available only for exact tour matches, including, duration of the tour, transportation fees, meals and beverages and the exact dates of the tour as booked through Holland America Line. The Best Price Guarantee does not apply to tours provided in private vehicles with drivers or Mid-Cruise Overlands & Overnights. The Best Price Guarantee is not available for tours booked through any third party where tour details are unknown until after purchase. The Best Price Guarantee is not available in Asia, Southeast Asia or Japan ports. The Best Price Guarantee does not apply to Land+Sea Tours, EXC City Stays & Pre/Post Overlands.

If your request meets these requirements, Holland America Line will issue a nonrefundable onboard credit worth 110% of the price difference. An email confirming the outcome of the request will be sent to you prior to sailing. If your tour is canceled for any reason, your onboard credit will also be cancelled. The onboard credit is nonrefundable, nontransferable, and has no cash value. The onboard credit must be used during the applicable cruise. Any unused amounts will not be refunded or cashed out.

Holland America Line reserves the right in its sole discretion to modify or discontinue the EXC Tours Best Price Guarantee or to restrict its availability to any person, at any time, for any or no reason, and without prior notice or liability to you. The terms that are in effect at the time of your booking will determine your eligibility under the EXC Tours Best Price Guarantee. No change in the EXC Tours Best Price Guarantee will affect any onboard credit that has already been issued to you. The failure by Holland America Line to enforce any provision of these Terms & Conditions shall not constitute a waiver of that provision. Ships’ Registry: The Netherlands. <<<<

Phew! That's a lotta conditions!

see this thread from last month: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2555916&highlight=110%25+refund

Thanks for linking to the previous thread. I see from reading it that it is 110% of the *difference* in price, which eluded me.

Carnival has a similar guarantee, but in my experience, it's hard to qualify for. The excursion must be 100% the same as the Ship's tour. I lost out one claim due to a 15 minute time difference. I expect it will be easy for HAL to see what the independent tour companies offer and make their tours just different enough so they don't have to pay out.

Wouldn't it be challenging to find a tour that matches precisely with the ships tour?

Keith

Carnival has a similar guarantee, but in my experience, it's hard to qualify for. The excursion must be 100% the same as the Ship's tour. I lost out one claim due to a 15 minute time difference. I expect it will be easy for HAL to see what the independent tour companies offer and make their tours just different enough so they don't have to pay out.

I agree - I would not rely on this guarantee!

Oh the other hand, I think it is good that HAL is watching what other tours are charging, so that they do not get too far out expensive.

we’ll refund you 110 percent of the difference in the form of an onboard credit! *

if the wind is blowing from the southeast and you hold your mouth just right and if we are in the mood we give you back the "difference"? wow so generous .....not worth the time to try and meet a list of conditions that only a lawyer could love....

I have done it twice on my South America Antarctica cruise. Got approved both times in less than 2 days. Just do your research. Now have an additional $275 OBC plus my shareholder $250 and TA $75 OBC. Works for me. I research before I book with HAL. When I find identical tours, I book with HAL, then send in the email. This way I get more mariner days. Won't work for all, but I am a believer.

Like I said in the other -- the catch is -- "identical"!!

I have done it twice on my South America Antarctica cruise. Got approved both times in less than 2 days. Just do your research. Now have an additional $275 OBC plus my shareholder $250 and TA $75 OBC. Works for me. I research before I book with HAL. When I find identical tours, I book with HAL, then send in the email. This way I get more mariner days. Won't work for all, but I am a believer.

The shareholder benefit and any TA paid OBC has nothing to do with excursion purchases. Mixing all that together it is unclear if that $275 OBC is the refund form the excursion overcharge or not. Even if it is then you paid approx $250 (275-25) more for those two excursions than direct from the actual tour provider. I am rounding numbers and just estimating; you know exactly what the deal was a you had to submit the prices to HAL. Then you got $25 as the 10% bonus.

So your real financial benefit was by booking with HAL and then doing the research to find an identical excursion and submitting each claim was $13 each.

I am NOT saying this is not a good promotion by HAL. In fact I really like it; great marketing and tends to keep prices in-line. And not am I saying that booking their excursions is not the right thing to do. Just correcting some arithmetic that you are not benefiting by $250 (+275+75) because you made a couple of claims on their lowest price guarantee.

Please correct me if I have misunderstood you post.

I am a tireless researcher but the terms and conditions would strongly discourage me from spending too much time on finding "duplicate" tours -- especially with the additional qualification that it is only 110% of the difference, not of the tour price. :rolleyes:

I suspect most cruise lines "personalize" their tours just enough to make it difficult to claim equivalence. The cynical me says if it is the same tour but HAL adds a 30 minute "rest-stop-cum-shopping-opportunity" they will cover themselves 99% of the time.

Just not worth it, especially since any private tours I do tend to be very small groups anyway.

Deleted.

The shareholder benefit and any TA paid OBC has nothing to do with excursion purchases. Mixing all that together it is unclear if that $275 OBC is the refund form the excursion overcharge or not. Even if it is then you paid approx $250 (275-25) more for those two excursions than direct from the actual tour provider. I am rounding numbers and just estimating; you know exactly what the deal was a you had to submit the prices to HAL. Then you got $25 as the 10% bonus.

 

 

So your real financial benefit was by booking with HAL and then doing the research to find an identical excursion and submitting each claim was $13 each.

 

I am NOT saying this is not a good promotion by HAL. In fact I really like it; great marketing and tends to keep prices in-line. And not am I saying that booking their excursions is not the right thing to do. Just correcting some arithmetic that you are not benefiting by $250 (+275+75) because you made a couple of claims on their lowest price guarantee.

 

Please correct me if I have misunderstood you post.

I’m not Westport, but check out their post #15 on this thread...

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=54360643#post54360643

I got $275obc from price guarantee for shore excursions

$250obc for the ccl stock

$75obc from TA

$600 Total

The shareholder benefit and any TA paid OBC has nothing to do with excursion purchases. Mixing all that together it is unclear if that $275 OBC is the refund form the excursion overcharge or not. Even if it is then you paid approx $250 (275-25) more for those two excursions than direct from the actual tour provider. I am rounding numbers and just estimating; you know exactly what the deal was a you had to submit the prices to HAL. Then you got $25 as the 10% bonus.

 

 

So your real financial benefit was by booking with HAL and then doing the research to find an identical excursion and submitting each claim was $13 each.

 

I am NOT saying this is not a good promotion by HAL. In fact I really like it; great marketing and tends to keep prices in-line. And not am I saying that booking their excursions is not the right thing to do. Just correcting some arithmetic that you are not benefiting by $250 (+275+75) because you made a couple of claims on their lowest price guarantee.

 

Please correct me if I have misunderstood you post.

I got $275obc from price guarantee for shore excursions

$250obc for the ccl stock

$75obc from TA

 

$600 Total

Good going!!👍🏼

I got $275obc from price guarantee for shore excursions

$250obc for the ccl stock

$75obc from TA

 

$600 Total

Plus the Mariner days. And I use our HAL credit card which gives double points for HAL purchases.

I would do it.

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I have done it twice on my South America Antarctica cruise. Got approved both times in less than 2 days. Just do your research. Now have an additional $275 OBC plus my shareholder $250 and TA $75 OBC. Works for me. I research before I book with HAL. When I find identical tours, I book with HAL, then send in the email. This way I get more mariner days. Won't work for all, but I am a believer.

so you were overcharged a total of $250 and received 110% (275) of that back? seems a large overcharge for identical tours...but better than no refund i suppose... but should it really be necessary to research every tour booked with HAL to see if u got ripped off? How about HAL just make sure that their tours are sold at identical prices to exact same other tours and THEY do the research?

I have done it twice on my South America Antarctica cruise. Got approved both times in less than 2 days. Just do your research. Now have an additional $275 OBC plus my shareholder $250 and TA $75 OBC. Works for me. I research before I book with HAL. When I find identical tours, I book with HAL, then send in the email. This way I get more mariner days. Won't work for all, but I am a believer.

That's great. I think that HAL promotes that the ship will wait for you if HAL excursions are late. Nice to know that HAL will reimburse even if private excursion cannot guarantee this. Privately arranged excursions can often be less crowded and more enjoyable.

An interesting guarantee, when you read the fine print. The 110% is not 110% of the cost of an excursion but 110% of the DIFFERENCE between the cruise line price and what you paid. And the language makes it clear it must be a nearly identical excursion. But the problem is that, in many cases, that would be impossible because the cruise lines often have exclusive contracts with shore providers that prohibit them from directly selling to a cruiser (at any price or a lower price). A good example would be in Puerto Vallarta (our winter home) where one shore excursion provider (Vallarta Adventures) has contracts with all the cruise lines. The price you pay on board is often more then those of us who live in PV would pay for the same excursion. But the tour provider will not sell it to cruisers (they will ask for a phone number/address if you try to book directly). While other tour providers might provide something similar....it would not be exactly the same excursion so not eligible for the guarantee.

Call me a cynic, but this guarantee sounds more like a marketing gimmick....rather then anything with real meaning. We assume that HAL is trying to counter the many complaints about the high cost of their excursions.

Hank

That's great. I think that HAL promotes that the ship will wait for you if HAL excursions are late. Nice to know that HAL will reimburse even if private excursion cannot guarantee this. Privately arranged excursions can often be less crowded and more enjoyable.

I love private excursions too.

HAL does Not gurantee that the ship will wait for you. They guarantee to get you to the next available port.

But in all honesty, on many cruises I have seen the ship tidy things up ready to go and waiting for a HAL cruise to come back late while our private excursions were back well before the HAL ones.

I have also seen HAL excursions left behind when there was no choice. HAL excursions do not guarantee that you are back on the ship.

I got $275obc from price guarantee for shore excursions

$250obc for the ccl stock

$75obc from TA

 

$600 Total

Yes, I understand you got $600. You do understand that $325 of that has nothing to do with excursions and this thread? You would have had that even if you did not buy HAL's excursions.

Yes, I understand you got $600. You do understand that $325 of that has nothing to do with excursions and this thread? You would have had that even if you did not buy HAL's excursions.

I think anyone who reads this understands that $275 was from price guarantee for shore excursions. Which is awesome in my mind! The poster also relayed their good fortune of having $600 total OBC. I’d surely be happy with that.

I’m new here, but it seems as there’s some very snarky responses to very informative posts, and I don’t really understand why. 😕

I got $275obc from price guarantee for shore excursions

$250obc for the ccl stock

$75obc from TA

 

$600 Total

I'd be curious to know how much time you spent to get the $275 for the Shorex guarantee?

I know what my clients pay per hour for my time and I value my personal time even higher. So much much time did your $275 in savings take?

It took me less than an hour to research the two tours. Here's the deal. Most of the penguin tours in South America are identical, which made it easy. I do do a combination of both private and HAL tours, but if I can get additional sea days to reach my five star status sooner , I don't mind taking an hour to do a little research.

HAL must be concerned about losing business to private tours. I received a questionnaire after our just completed cruise asking about tours taken; and if private why. From the price match T&C's, it doesn't sound like they will be paying out too many claims, since "identical" will normally be with the companies they use that aren't allowed to sell independently. Also, in my opinion, even if it was an identical itinerary, I don't want to be on a bus with 40+ other people, if I can get a real small group private tour.