Price drop UK help?????

[Madkitty]

Can anyone let me know the official status r.e price drops in the UK as Im getting conflicting advice from RCI - one minute they say they honour them, the next they dont, then its a £35 admin fee and I dont know whether Im coming or going :(

[sandancer]

Unfortunately RCCI have recently moved the goalposts for UK and Europe. We have had price drops honoured before. Once 3 on the same cruise but now they either want you to take shipboard credit or an upgrade. My TA also insists that the amendment fee is £75 pp for any change to a reservation. Good luck, I really hope you get it sorted.

[Madkitty]

OBC doesnt bother me in the slightest and they werent disagreeing with the price drop they were just coming up with really bizarre figures that made no sense and physically didnt add up.

[Elizanessie]

First change on a booking is free.

 

After that to be able to take "advantage" of a price drop you will be charged £35 per person :rolleyes:

 

The £75 fee is when you change ships.

 

So if you havent made any changes to your booking at all since you made the booking...you get the price drop free.

 

If however you have even changed cabins then the £35 fee per person will be charged.

[Albert Ross]

First change on a booking is free.

 

After that to be able to take "advantage" of a price drop you will be charged £35 per person :rolleyes:

 

The £75 fee is when you change ships. or sail date on the same ship, only the first 2 people in the cabin pay this

So if you havent made any changes to your booking at all since you made the booking...you get the price drop free.

 

If however you have even changed cabins then the £35 fee per person will be charged.

 

Liz is right (as usual ;)) a few other 'rules'...

 

RCI guidelines regarding price drops are

[a] the price code is not for new bookings only,

there are rooms left in the category and

[c] and that the agent has not made the booking as part of a group allocation ,

[d] the price code must allow a conversion to be made and

[e] the code does not have restrictions regarding flights.

 

Should be no problems to get the price drop if it meets the above criteria

Some UK agents don't know about px drops and some don't like doing it as it affects their commissions!

[coxswain]

Found it on the T&C

 

 

 

For guests wishing to make a significant amendment to their booking outside of 56 days from departure, such as changing the ship, sail date or brand, please note that a

booking transfer fee is applicable. The transfer fee is £75 per guest which is limited to the first two guests on a booking, therefore any 3rd/4th guests will not be charged. Please note that your booking will be re-priced in-line with the up-to-date business and price

rules and a new confirmation invoice will be issued.

 

For all minor changes (such as change of stateroom or name changes on an existing booking) outside of 56 days from departure, an amendment fee of £35 per guest per booking will be payable together with any costs incurred by ourselves and any costs or charges incurred or imposed by any of our suppliers

 

 

 

 

In saying that for minor changes you are entltled to one free change !!

 

 

 

 

 

 

jj.....

[jestley]

We were charged £35 each by RCCL to change our booking to cruise only as we originally had flights booked with them. We booked through Thomas Cook, and they insist to me that RCCL do not honour price drops in the UK, yet I read otherwise on the boards, seems it depends on how good your TA is!. We are sailing on the Rhapsody of the Seas in January and although there have been a few price drops from what I have been told on our Roll Call, none of them have worked out cheaper than what we paid. We booked in the first 4wks of the sailing going on sale, so far it seems we got a genuine good deal:)

Jo

[sandancer]

Under the old rules, if you made a change which increased the total cost of the cruise the amendment fee was not applied. Has this also changed? Hope not.

[Yorkshire Voyagers]

Hi Elaine (sandancer) - looking forward to seeing you again on the Voyager ta.

 

We've recently had price drops on 2 weeks out of our 3 week b2b cruise in January and our TA hasn't had a problem with RC. There again, he also doesn't mind that his commission reduces each time they honour us a price drop but other TA's do and won't enquire for you.

 

Carol

[happydaysmanchester]

Hi,

 

I too got a price drop - booked via a TA - I had to ask the TA to phone RCCL and I wrote down the prices of the cabins (even the ones above our grade were cheaper) - on line it said that there were no cabins available in our category E2, but RCCL price matched it with an E1.

 

We did lose some of our TA discount though because I guess thier commision reduced!

[sandancer]

Hi Elaine (sandancer) - looking forward to seeing you again on the Voyager ta.

 

We've recently had price drops on 2 weeks out of our 3 week b2b cruise in January and our TA hasn't had a problem with RC. There again, he also doesn't mind that his commission reduces each time they honour us a price drop but other TA's do and won't enquire for you.

 

Carol

Hello Carol, unfortunately we will not meet on the Voyager this time round. Instead we are doing Equinox and Oasis B2B in January and are not expecting a price drop on either of them. If there was one our TA would get it for us, they are very good about looking after their clients. We are however doing a TA on the NCL Epic in June 2010. Regards, Elaine

[Madkitty]

so what happens if you book air as well do you go by the overall price or the cabin price?

[NorbertsNiece]

so what happens if you book air as well do you go by the overall price or the cabin price?

It's the cabin that's discounted so that's the price you use to compare for a price drop.

[Albert Ross]

so what happens if you book air as well do you go by the overall price or the cabin price?

Hi Bex - your cruise is made up of several elements: cruise fare, air fare, taxes/fees and grats.

So when you buy a cruise the air fare, taxes/fees and grats are 'locked in' at the price you pay, but the cruise fare is able to go up and down.

If you get a price drop applied, and the air fare, taxes/fees and/or grats changes in price, then your TA will get these costings amended back to what they were on the day you bought the cruise.

So in short, only your base cruise price will change

Does that make sense...or is it the rantings of a madman!?

[Madkitty]

thanks everyone its been really helpful - after getting nowhere at all with RCI customer service I have emailed their UK ops director as its all so frustrating.

 

Coxswain do you have a link to the terms as I couldnt find them anywhere - although that doesnt seem to mention price drops directly?

[Madkitty]

Hi Bex - your cruise is made up of several elements: cruise fare, air fare, taxes/fees and grats.

So when you buy a cruise the air fare, taxes/fees and grats are 'locked in' at the price you pay, but the cruise fare is able to go up and down.

If you get a price drop applied, and the air fare, taxes/fees and/or grats changes in price, then your TA will get these costings amended back to what they were on the day you bought the cruise.

So in short, only your base cruise price will change

Does that make sense...or is it the rantings of a madman!?

 

thats what I was basing it on. This is what I added in my email:

 

Our original cruise fare was booked at £582pp excluding grats, fees and fuel. The RCI website now shows the fee at £507pp excluding grats and fees so we were enquiring r.e a price drop which was honoured to us previously with another RCI cruise and is still being offered to this day to UK cruisers (for the drop in cabin price even if booked as a package). Cruise Deals were speaking to RCI who were coming back with a figure of £486pp excluding grats and fees therefore meaning a price difference of £96. We were told that there was a £35pp admin charge (which from my previous experience the first amendment is free and subsequent amendments are £35pp so this is confusing) and therefore an onboard credit of £35pp would be applied. Both Cruise Deals and myself could not fathom how they came to this figure and RCI also could not clarify.

£486pp + £35pp admin fee = £521pp therefore a difference of £61pp for the onboard credit anyway and not £35pp as stated. Yet it should exclude the admin charge making it £96pp

However to confuse matters further if the price on the website is £507pp (excluding grats and fees) - £35pp fuel charge = £472pp then the difference in price drop is £111pp

 

its not the biggest drop in the world but £100 each sure helps!

[coxswain]

thanks everyone its been really helpful - after getting nowhere at all with RCI customer service I have emailed their UK ops director as its all so frustrating.

 

Coxswain do you have a link to the terms as I couldnt find them anywhere - although that doesnt seem to mention price drops directly?

 

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.co.uk/content/en_UK/pdf/pdfsfromPD/TCsUKOCT.pdf

 

 

 

If you've no luck email jrzymowska@rccl.com the boss for the UK

 

 

 

 

 

jj.......

[emdia43]

thats what I was basing it on. This is what I added in my email:

 

Our original cruise fare was booked at £582pp excluding grats, fees and fuel. The RCI website now shows the fee at £507pp excluding grats and fees so we were enquiring r.e a price drop which was honoured to us previously with another RCI cruise and is still being offered to this day to UK cruisers (for the drop in cabin price even if booked as a package). Cruise Deals were speaking to RCI who were coming back with a figure of £486pp excluding grats and fees therefore meaning a price difference of £96. We were told that there was a £35pp admin charge (which from my previous experience the first amendment is free and subsequent amendments are £35pp so this is confusing) and therefore an onboard credit of £35pp would be applied. Both Cruise Deals and myself could not fathom how they came to this figure and RCI also could not clarify.

 

£486pp + £35pp admin fee = £521pp therefore a difference of £61pp for the onboard credit anyway and not £35pp as stated. Yet it should exclude the admin charge making it £96pp

 

However to confuse matters further if the price on the website is £507pp (excluding grats and fees) - £35pp fuel charge = £472pp then the difference in price drop is £111pp

 

its not the biggest drop in the world but £100 each sure helps!

No matter how 'liittle' it's better in your pocket than theirs :)

[Madkitty]

Will let you know how I get on as the Head of UK Sales is calling me today - will be interesting to hear their direct response

[Madkitty]

Well the biggest update is that they will not discuss any costings with me due to data protection so have gone back to my TA - great wasnt it the 3 way getting nowhere conversations that led to this in the first place. I can understand data protection but I gave them all the costings in my email LMAO do they surely think I made those up and also bit of a coincedence the email came from the email address on my booking.....I give up :mad:

[coxswain]

Well the biggest update is that they will not discuss any costings with me due to data protection so have gone back to my TA - great wasnt it the 3 way getting nowhere conversations that led to this in the first place. I can understand data protection but I gave them all the costings in my email LMAO do they surely think I made those up and also bit of a coincedence the email came from the email address on my booking.....I give up :mad:

 

 

 

Don't give up - email Jo !!!

 

 

 

 

jj.....

[Madkitty]

Don't give up - email Jo !!!

 

 

 

 

jj.....

 

I did LMAO :eek:

[coxswain]

I did LMAO :eek:

 

 

 

And what did she say ?

 

 

 

 

 

jj.....

[Madkitty]

And what did she say ?

 

 

 

 

 

jj.....

 

It was forwarded to customer services who said they couldnt discuss it directly due to data protection so they have emailed my TA - still waiting to hear more from them :rolleyes:

[coxswain]

Well email her again and again until they honour the price drop.

 

 

 

 

 

jj.....