I am aggravated with Carnival's booking policies

[mzewe]

My wife and I are currently booked on the Conquest leaving out of New Orleans on February 10th. The cruise has of course passed the final payment date. I have been calling for the past several weeks to see just how much it would cost to add my son to the booking. It has been, and remains, quite expensive in my opinion. I was on Carnivals website checking pricing today, and noticed that today the price for the three of us would only be about $200 more than my original price that has been paid in full. Do you think that Carnival would let me pay the additional $200 and add him to the cabin that I am in which is already configured for three people? No. Instead, they want to charge me over $400 to add him. They say that I can’t pay the lower rate because that would require them to change the rate code on my booking – something that they will not do this close to sailing. It did not matter that we were all Platinum guests or that they would actually make more money on the deal.

 

I find it interesting that they are so inflexible. I did not ask for an OBC or any money back. All I asked was to be allowed to pay them more money and they said no, not enough.

My best guess as to the additional revenue that they are missing out on is as follows:

 

What we would have spent

 

3rd person Ticket - $200.00

7 Day Soda Card - ($4.50 / day x 7 days - $31.50 + 15% Gratuity ) $36.23

1 Excursion Ticket - $50.00

1 Gratuities - $11.50 / Day $80.50

1 Assumed misc expenses (based upon my previous 7 cruises with him) $200.00

 

Total $566.73

 

What Carnival Wanted and is not getting:

 

3rd person Ticket - $400.00

 

The amount of additional revenue that Carnival could have had without creating any additional cabin space had they allowed me to pay the lower rate - $166.73.

 

That is just in DIRECT COSTS. Now I understand that $166 is not a large amount of money, but they actually could stand to lose more because now I am mad at them and will be MUCH less willing to splurge on any additional on-board expenses such as:

Bar Tab - $400

Jewelery - $150 - $200

Perfume - $200

Bingo - $10

 

All told, they could stand to lose an additional $810 in INDIRECT COSTS. Plus I may take my 1 or 2 cruises per year to Royal Caribbean (that is an unknown future loss).

 

Basically, they lost out on about $1,000 of additional on board revenue because they would not change a fare code on a booking. Oh yeah, I understand completely. I guess is probably a good thing that I sold my CCL stock last year as decisions like this don't seem to make much financial sense.

 

Oh, and for those of you who will flame me for taking my frustration out on the crew by not spending anything while on board - I FULLY INTEND TO PAY MY GRATUITIES, AND PROBABLY SOME MORE. The crew works entirely too hard for what little pay they receive.

[BeachChik]

So you expect them to change a rule because you are platinum? Oooook

 

The cruise line isn't going to hurt because of this. The only person affected is the person that now won't go. I don't understand the logic of getting mad because they have rules in place and won't break them just for you.

[aggieastrosfan]

Have you checked to see what the 1st/2nd rate is vs the 4th? I've been price checking my upcoming cruise, and on a recent check, I discovered that the piece of the 3rd passenger had actually gone down by about $70 (we paid $359, now showing $289), but the cost for the first and second went up by $30/pp, making the total savings to us only $10.

 

It sounds like the cost of the first and second may have dropped, but the cost of the third went up, possibly because the ship is almost maxed out on thirds and fourths. You don't get to pay the net difference - when adding a third, you have to add them at whatever the current rate is - which in your case is apparently $400.

 

But I have to agree at the aggravation - assuming I am correct, using that logic I should be able to get the $70 for the rate drop on the 3rd - but I only get $10 because the first two rates went up. The net difference is all you get when asking for a price drop, but you don't just get to pay the net difference when adding someone.

[songbird1329]

Most of the time people are looking to skirt the rules in order to cancel a booking or get money back, and I can fully understand why Carnival enforces its rules.

 

In this case you wanted Carnival to bend the rules in a different way. You're not willing to spend $400 to add a third passenger to the cabin when others are being offered a lower price for the same service, but by allowing you to book a third passenger at the lower rate Carnival would actually increase its revenue on this cruise and create good will with its customer. In this case Carnival's inflexibility is actually to Carnival's detriment.

 

It is what it is.

[mzewe]

You are correct - it is what it is.

[chasinraynbowz]

The rules are there for a reason. You can go to any cruise line and they have those same rules in place.

 

Best of luck to you.

[macandlucy]

Hi OP,

 

I would try calling again and talking to a different person, or asking for a supervisor/manager. Maybe the answer will be different. Can't hurt, right? Best of luck with it. :)

 

For what it is worth I completely agree with you. I think it's a poor business practice, and doesn't make a lot of sense to me to risk losing loyal customers for such a small amount of money.

 

I hope it works out for you.

[Havingfun2010]

Unfortunitely, with big business, the only way to make a statement, is to go to another company. This is happening more often. It is also unfortunite that they, the common worker at the company have their hands tied.

 

This happened to me at a bank. Car loan for 6 years. After 2 1/2 years, they sent me a notice they did not have my title and for me to send it to them. I did not have it, never had it, because this was between the dealership, and the bank and the state. Apparently, they did not have it, so they Charged me $79.00 to get it from the state. I already paid this on my original note. The somehow blamed me. I did not understand. The long story short, they refused to credit me the $79.00 and I refinanced my loan, at a .5% lower with a local bank, lowered my payment, kept pretty much the same amount of months left.

 

The old bank, that refused to refund me the $79.00? They lost approximately $3,500 in interest payments over 3 1/2 years.

 

Companies do not care - the moral of the story

[MissMeggieMurphy]

so, everyone will now book for 2 choosing their perfect cabin, wait until after final payment, wait until the last minutes fares are posted, call carnival and insist that any extra pax in the cabin get billed the going last minute rates. sounds fair:rolleyes:;)

[mfs2k]

Perhaps restaurants and hotels should also change their pricing because the customer has determined the variable costs are covered by adding additional guests to the table or the room.

[Mizzouaholic]

Lots of business' have policies in place and choose to break them depending on certain situations. Look at Wal Mart for instance...you can take something back long after the 90 day return policy. All they usually need is a managers approval. And I'm pretty sure Wal Mart has figured out how to run a business. Policies are set to prevent the majority of people from questioning them. But when a customer challenges them they can be altered depending on the situation. A happy customer is a repeat customer and when people say "you're only 1 customer, they don't care if you leave" they are completely wrong in thinking that any company is run that way, and if a company was run that way they wouldn't be in business long

[macandlucy]

so, everyone will now book for 2 choosing their perfect cabin, wait until after final payment, wait until the last minutes fares are posted, call carnival and insist that any extra pax in the cabin get billed the going last minute rates. sounds fair:rolleyes:;)

 

I like the sound of that; let's make it the next Platty perk! ;)

[tonit964]

My wife and I are currently booked on the Conquest leaving out of New Orleans on February 10th. The cruise has of course passed the final payment date. I have been calling for the past several weeks to see just how much it would cost to add my son to the booking. It has been, and remains, quite expensive in my opinion. I was on Carnivals website checking pricing today, and noticed that today the price for the three of us would only be about $200 more than my original price that has been paid in full. Do you think that Carnival would let me pay the additional $200 and add him to the cabin that I am in which is already configured for three people? No. Instead, they want to charge me over $400 to add him. They say that I can’t pay the lower rate because that would require them to change the rate code on my booking – something that they will not do this close to sailing. It did not matter that we were all Platinum guests or that they would actually make more money on the deal.

 

I find it interesting that they are so inflexible. I did not ask for an OBC or any money back. All I asked was to be allowed to pay them more money and they said no, not enough.

My best guess as to the additional revenue that they are missing out on is as follows:

 

What we would have spent

 

3rd person Ticket - $200.00

7 Day Soda Card - ($4.50 / day x 7 days - $31.50 + 15% Gratuity ) $36.23

1 Excursion Ticket - $50.00

1 Gratuities - $11.50 / Day $80.50

1 Assumed misc expenses (based upon my previous 7 cruises with him) $200.00

 

Total $566.73

 

What Carnival Wanted and is not getting:

 

3rd person Ticket - $400.00

 

The amount of additional revenue that Carnival could have had without creating any additional cabin space had they allowed me to pay the lower rate - $166.73.

 

That is just in DIRECT COSTS. Now I understand that $166 is not a large amount of money, but they actually could stand to lose more because now I am mad at them and will be MUCH less willing to splurge on any additional on-board expenses such as:

Bar Tab - $400

Jewelery - $150 - $200

Perfume - $200

Bingo - $10

 

All told, they could stand to lose an additional $810 in INDIRECT COSTS. Plus I may take my 1 or 2 cruises per year to Royal Caribbean (that is an unknown future loss).

 

Basically, they lost out on about $1,000 of additional on board revenue because they would not change a fare code on a booking. Oh yeah, I understand completely. I guess is probably a good thing that I sold my CCL stock last year as decisions like this don't seem to make much financial sense.

 

Oh, and for those of you who will flame me for taking my frustration out on the crew by not spending anything while on board - I FULLY INTEND TO PAY MY GRATUITIES, AND PROBABLY SOME MORE. The crew works entirely too hard for what little pay they receive.

 

OP, what I'm not understanding is you are willing to pay about $1000.00 in additional on board revenue but you don't want to pay the additional $200.00 just to add your son.

 

It can't hurt to keep calling and best of luck!

[Out to sea!]

Lots of business' have policies in place and choose to break them depending on certain situations. Look at Wal Mart for instance...you can take something back long after the 90 day return policy. All they usually need is a managers approval. And I'm pretty sure Wal Mart has figured out how to run a business. Policies are set to prevent the majority of people from questioning them. But when a customer challenges them they can be altered depending on the situation. A happy customer is a repeat customer and when people say "you're only 1 customer, they don't care if you leave" they are completely wrong in thinking that any company is run that way, and if a company was run that way they wouldn't be in business long

 

And I'm pretty sure Carnival has as well! ;)

[mzewe]

First of all, this is a violation of TOS.

 

But back to topic, why should they make an exception for you? While you state what you planned to do (which , there is no guarantee to them that you would actually have done any of the things you listed and them bending the rules would still have provided no guarantee. I'm glad to see that Carnival is at least following some of their rules.

 

Very on point. I apologize to those who may be offended by a violation of the TOS (Twice).

 

It is actually very interesting to read all of the follow-ups to this thread. It seems to be pretty evenly split between those who think that I was demanding or insisting for some special treatment and those who think that I was actually commenting on the inflexibility of large corporations (I was).

 

You are correct in saying that there was and is no guarantee to them that I would spend any of the money as I say that I probably would (other than my spending history on previous cruises), but I think that somewhere in the deep recesses of their headquarters there is a business model which assumes some similar spending on a per customer basis.

 

I was not expecting any "special treatment". I was hoping that the company would be reasonable and want to come out ahead.

 

Others on here have implied that I waited until the last week before the cruise to try and add a third person to the cabin. Actually, what happened was we realized about two weeks ago that our son could go with us. So since we ALREADY were in a cabin configured for three we thought that maybe he could come along if the price were acceptable. We did not start out with some nefarious plans on how to get one over on the cruise line. Instead we thought (mistakenly) that the cruise line would want to generate as much revenue as it could. But then, as many on here seem to be happy about, we were taught a lesson - rules are rules!

[mzewe]

OP, what I'm not understanding is you are willing to pay about $1000.00 in additional on board revenue but you don't want to pay the additional $200.00 just to add your son.

 

It can't hurt to keep calling and best of luck!

 

I guess that the reason is this: When you go to an auction you know how much you are willing to spend on that Rembrandt right? If the bid goes higher than what you have determined is the correct price point you stop bidding. You don't just say oh, it is only another $200. The same thing happened here except that in my case there are no other bidders so the auction house will just not sell the item and they won't make anything on the deal because this item has an expiration date (can't sell it to another bidder next week).

[PrettyBrownGirl86]

I do not know why but this post made my day, in fact I almost laughed out loud. I know this is very serious to the OP. But in all honestly, I don't think Carnival is going to lose $166. You stated you have been calling for several weeks to add your son, why so many calls? Why wasn't he added in the first place?

 

How about just paying the additional $200 and then limiting your son's on board spending. That will teach everyone a lesson about budgeting, from your post it seems like you're going to add him anyway.

[truecruiser]

Just a guess, but thinking about this logically, they probably can't give you the new 3rd person rate without changing the code, and they probably can't change the code bc you're only 10 days out, and if they change the code with you being only 10 days out, it's probably going to result in a cancellation of the old code and rebooking of the new code with the problem being you would lose 100% of your cruise fare in a cancellation at this date.

 

 

I see what you're saying -- you already have a triple, they're not out $, they only stand to gain it. You would think there wld be a way to override the cancellation wiping you out. You can try again, but if it doesn't work I vote to take your son anyway, lol! :)

 

do you have a specific pvp you always deal with (someone who knows you and for whom you have their 5 digit ext?) maybe they will be able to work some magic on a supervisor.

 

good luck

[Croozer101]

I too understand what you are saying but if you can afford the 400 .00 it would be a shame for your son to miss out on the cruise and for you and your wife to miss out on some nice family memories

[cruisinfanatic]

My wife and I are currently booked on the Conquest leaving out of New Orleans on February 10th. The cruise has of course passed the final payment date. I have been calling for the past several weeks to see just how much it would cost to add my son to the booking. It has been, and remains, quite expensive in my opinion. I was on Carnivals website checking pricing today, and noticed that today the price for the three of us would only be about $200 more than my original price that has been paid in full. Do you think that Carnival would let me pay the additional $200 and add him to the cabin that I am in which is already configured for three people? No. Instead, they want to charge me over $400 to add him. They say that I can’t pay the lower rate because that would require them to change the rate code on my booking – something that they will not do this close to sailing. It did not matter that we were all Platinum guests or that they would actually make more money on the deal.

Sounds like to me the rates for the first 2 passengers went down and since you aren't booked early saver you can't get that reduction. You want this savings and then pay the additional $400 for the third. About right?

[T. Advisor King]

....

 

This happened to me at a bank. Car loan for 6 years. After 2 1/2 years, they sent me a notice they did not have my title and for me to send it to them. I did not have it, never had it, because this was between the dealership, and the bank and the state. Apparently, they did not have it, so they Charged me $79.00 to get it from the state. I already paid this on my original note. The somehow blamed me. I did not understand. The long story short, they refused to credit me the $79.00 and I refinanced my loan, at a .5% lower with a local bank, lowered my payment, kept pretty much the same amount of months left.

 

The old bank, that refused to refund me the $79.00? They lost approximately $3,500 in interest payments over 3 1/2 years.

 

Companies do not care - the moral of the story

 

Hmmm, I understood everything right up to the conclusion. They lost $3,500 in interest payments from you. But when you re-financed with a local bank, the bank paid out the first bank for the principle remaining on the original loan. The first bank then took that money and loaned it to another customer. Maybe it made more in interest payment from the other customer; maybe it lost some. But the difference is probably less than $100 either way.

[che5904]

OP, I'm certainly not a CCL cheerleader since I haven't even went on my first Carnvial cruise yet.

 

However, I don't understand posts like this. Certainly it never hurts to ask a company if they will bend the rules for individual cases. My motto, nothing ventured, nothing gained. But what I don't understand is the anger.

 

I'd have to bet that you knew what the rules were to begin with, you asked but sometimes the answer is no. I don't know how old your son is but I'm assuming he had rules growing up and I'd almost bet he was not always thrilled with the rules and had some pretty good (logical to him) arguments to fight those rules. But as a parent you still sometimes had to say no for your own reasons. Well? Carnival obviously is saying no for their own reasons.

 

No matter how many numbers you throw around, Carnival will make that somewhere else. So really the only ones losing in this is your family. IMO if you want to take your son, spend the extra $200 to pay his way and cut somewhere else that is not as important to you. Like another poster said, go make some nice family memories.

[mzewe]

Sounds like to me the rates for the first 2 passengers went down and since you aren't booked early saver you can't get that reduction. You want this savings and then pay the additional $400 for the third. About right?

 

No, I wasn't asking for any savings. I was asking to pay an additional amount so that we could add a third person. Carnival and I just could not agree what that ADDITIONAL cost was going to be...

 

Maybe that is where my miscommunication is here - some of the people here seem to think that I am asking Carnival for some savings (special treatment), while I believe that I was asking to pay an additional amount equal to that of the amount being paid by others booking today. I wanted to pay MORE than I already had..

[T. Advisor King]

As for the OP's original comment, I presume they have crunched the numbers and determined that the benefit to them from you being a happier customer (spending more on the current cruise and the possibility of future cruises) is less than:

 

- the marginal cost of servicing one more passenger

- the lost revenue from all those in a similar position to you who are willing to pay the higher amount. That is, if the majority of people in your position are willing to pay, they can't cut the rate just for those who are unwilling to pay the higher amount. They would have to cut it for everyone.

 

I'm not a Carnival cheerleader, but I'm very unemotional about businesses making pricing and price policy decisions that affect me.

 

I do find it somewhat odd (and I appreciate that this is slightly off topic) that the cruise industry seems rife with different rates that change in ways that enable you to apply for credits, but only if you go through hoops that most people would never bother doing. If I book a flight to Chicago, I make my booking and I pay the price. I may have some limited ability to reschedule the flight for a fee. But 95%+ of the time, I make the booking, take the flight I booked and pay the fee I paid. If a week later, they're selling the seat next to me on the plane for $50 less, I'm not expecting them to give me back the difference.

[truecruiser]

No, I wasn't asking for any savings. I was asking to pay an additional amount so that we could add a third person. Carnival and I just could not agree what that ADDITIONAL cost was going to be...

 

Maybe that is where my miscommunication is here - some of the people here seem to think that I am asking Carnival for some savings (special treatment), while I believe that I was asking to pay an additional amount equal to that of the amount being paid by others booking today. I wanted to pay MORE than I already had..

 

But cruises don't work this way. I don't care how much they change it to read "everyone's average price" blah blah b;ah now. it's still 1 and 2 pay more than 3, 4, 5. they are calculating 3's fare based on the fare code you used to book it. if they use the fare code you're looking at today it's gonna result in a cancellation of your cruise which requires a rebooking.

 

problem is, if you cancel less than 14 days from sailing, you lose everything.

 

I suggested you try to ask a supervisor if they cld override the cancellation but i don't think you're gonna have much luck. while i am certain there must be a way for a supervisor to do this, i wld bet it must only come, if at all, from a person very high up with a very good reason, or the person changing it wld really run the risk of losing his or her job.

 

and that is completely understandable

 

There is no way to book a 3rd alone under a different fare code. the 3rd is always tied to the 1st and 2nd.