Why do NCL favour US clients, no upgrades for lowly UK passengers. Annoyed :(

[JuneauWhatIMean]

Uh........When you book through the U.S. NCL site it requires you to pick which U.S. state you live in from the drop-down menu. It also states that it must be a "valid address". So how are Europeans getting around this?:confused:

[dazza70166]

Hi All, I am in the UK and have for the past 3 years booked through a US online agent for my cruises with NCL, I have never had a problem with upgrades and have gone from inside to oceanview a few times with no charge due to a price drop and my upcoming cruise I just paid $100 more to go from inside to a balcony. I keep an eye on prices and compare the US prices to the UK prices quite frequently, pretty much most of the time US prices are cheaper especially for caribbean cruises and they also have a lot more OBC......I am also a travel agent in the UK but my company do not deal with cruises.....it is pretty much standard in the UK that tour operators and travel agents do not want to amend or offer anything in the way of changes/upgrades once a booking has been made regardess if final payment has been made or not, and if you want to change amend anything there are always admin fees or some excuse as to why you cant have the new lower price that's advertised...usually the most repeated answer is that price is for new bookings only !

 

Happy Cruising Everyone

Edited November 9, 2013 by dazza70166

[Demonyte]

Uh........When you book through the U.S. NCL site it requires you to pick which U.S. state you live in from the drop-down menu. It also states that it must be a "valid address". So how are Europeans getting around this?:confused:

 

If you're talking about the basic info given before seeing real prices on the new site, the state dropdown can be left "blank" (meaning that one doesn't select a state from the list). Haven't tried to book a cruise all the way through on the new site yet though, if it wouldn't be possible anymore, I can still do that through a TA or PCC.

Edited November 9, 2013 by Demonyte

[Out to sea!]

I frequently read on here great stories from those of you in the US saying how you managed to upgrade your cabin. For example there is a current post about how a lady was her own Upgrade Fairy - she called up NCL and because a higher grade cabin was actually cheaper than her original, she got upgraded. Or people have the opportunity to pay slightly more but for a much better cabin. Obviously that's great news and makes clients very pleased with NCL customer service.

 

Well I decided to give this a try as that is now the case for me. I originally booked an inside guarantee stateroom as this was an unexpected cruise I hadn't budgeted for, and I am fine with whatever cabin I get. However on the UK NCL website, it now costs less to book a mid ship oceanview and only slightly more for a mid ship balcony, than I paid for my guarantee inside. The sailing has a lot of cabins available and they are obviously attempting to fill them by dropping the prices.

 

The NCL rep I spoke to said I am not allowed to upgrade to an oceanview, because they have to 'maintain the price of my booking.' He just kept repeating that to me when I asked him (politely!) to explain what that means and why I cannot upgrade (even with payment) when I know there are plenty of those cabins free. He would only let me change to a balcony but still paying significantly more than if I were to create a new booking online.

 

I understand that I was just pushing my luck, I paid what I was happy to at the time and don't expect I should get upgraded just because the prices dropped, but what really annoys me is that this does not seem to be the case in the US. It should be one standard rule for everyone, not different treatment depending on where you live. To me it gives the impression that NCL value their US clients more. Anyway, it's not often I rant on here, so thanks for bearing with me and letting me vent!

 

I think this has more to do with law differences between the US & UK than it does NCL favoring one over the other.