HAL Westerdam Stateroom Switch

[rondelco]

In February, we booked a specific stateroom on the Westerdam for the last week in August.

A month ago yesterday on HAL website’s My Reservation pages, I noted that they had us in a different stateroom (not an upgrade). At my behest, our TA inquired and replied with “The cabin was lost and Holland told us it was an IT issue and they would get it back. They claimed it was in "internet heaven', not occupied and not sold and not available. They wait listed it so when it came back into their system it would become yours.”

Seven more emails back and forth and a month later, what seems to have been a simple entry error still hasn’t been fixed; moreover, the wrong stateroom number is now on my “express docs” (received this weekend) and luggage tags.

 

Has anyone else run into this problem, and, if so, was it rectified and what did it take to do so?

 

Thanks

[Krazy Kruizers]

I have never heard of this happening to anyone.

Have your TA keep after HAL.

Hopefully your TA is now talking with a supervisor and is faxing the cabin number you originally had.

[Markanddonna]

Check to see if there are any cabins "higher" than the original one and insist that they give it to you at no charge since this was their error.

[jtl513]

I have never heard of this happening to anyone.

I have mentioned here before that we were once switched to a different cabin (at the same level) than we had chosen. It was just two doors down the hallway from what we had chosen, and we had not had our reservation specifically marked Do Not Upgrade, so we didn't try to fight the switch. I presume the switch was because the one we had chosen was a connecting cabin, and HAL wanted it for somebody else.

 

OP, was your chosen one a connecting cabin? Was it marked DNU?

 

However, IIRC the contract fine print says that HAL reserves the right to put you anywhere they like, at the same level or higher, whether you say DNU or not. :(

[rondelco]

OP, was your chosen one a connecting cabin? Was it marked DNU?

 

Thank you Krazy Kruizers, ConnieG, and jtl513 for your kind and thoughtful responses.

The stateroom they switched us from is indeed a connecting one and the one to which they re-assigned us is not, so you might have something there. The latter is nine staterooms forward from the original which may not seem like that much of a difference, but it does take us largely out of the mid-ship location we desired and booked early to get. I had had our TA re-assign us from the original room to the one we wanted in February, so they should have been able to surmise we wanted a specific location, but I don’t know whether this implicit desire not to be upgraded or changed again was conveyed to HAL or not. In any case, the new stateroom is not an upgrade, so whether I requested to not be upgraded would seem to be irrelevant.

I understand that "HAL reserves the right to put you anywhere they like...," but, short of that, does anyone else have an idea of just how to get them to put us back in the stateroom originally promised and paid for?

[Krazy Kruizers]

Your TA really needs to talk to a supervisor -- not just the first person who answers the phone in Seattle -- or the person that your TA booked the cruise through.

We have never been moved from the cabin we selected.

When we have had a couple of minor issues, our TA does talk to a supervisor in Seattle to get things straightened out.

[Typhoon1]

Very strange experience.

 

Have your TA tell them to recover that cabin or you will cancel your cruise at their expense.

 

HAL will have no recourse, as the credit card issuer will support your position. Watch how fast that cabin is recovered.

[IRL_Joanie]

Thank you Krazy Kruizers, ConnieG, and jtl513 for your kind and thoughtful responses.

 

The stateroom they switched us from is indeed a connecting one and the one to which they re-assigned us is not, so you might have something there. The latter is nine staterooms forward from the original which may not seem like that much of a difference, but it does take us largely out of the mid-ship location we desired and booked early to get. I had had our TA re-assign us from the original room to the one we wanted in February, so they should have been able to surmise we wanted a specific location, but I don’t know whether this implicit desire not to be upgraded or changed again was conveyed to HAL or not. In any case, the new stateroom is not an upgrade, so whether I requested to not be upgraded would seem to be irrelevant.

 

I understand that "HAL reserves the right to put you anywhere they like...," but, short of that, does anyone else have an idea of just how to get them to put us back in the stateroom originally promised and paid for?

 

I did not see where you listed the specific stateroom number, so I am wondering since you say that it was a connecting room......

 

Was the Connecting room a Handicapped room? If so, it might be that a Handicapped person traveling with a Care Giver needed to have their rooms connected............

 

On Oosterdam we had a Handicapped Room that was also a connecting room. So....I am thinking and ........

 

Joanie