Price drop - help

[Missbrightstar]

Hi. We booked our upcoming cruise through a travel agent about 3 months ago and today the price has dropped by almost £500 per person. Is there anything we can do or is it just 'tough luck'?

[galavant3]

In the US, if you are not within the final payment period, you can get the price adjustment. If not, perhaps an upgrade.

 

Regardless, call your agent ASAP...this is part of the service they are paid to perform!

[Brit-Cruiser]

Hi. We booked our upcoming cruise through a travel agent about 3 months ago and today the price has dropped by almost £500 per person. Is there anything we can do or is it just 'tough luck'?

 

I have never had a problem getting RCI to honour price drops when I have booked direct with them.

In the past, when using a Travel Agent, it was more problematic & took some severe persistence to get them to agree to it. Call them, tell them you want the price drop. If they won't honour it, cancel your cruise and rebook direct with RCI. You might lose the £150 pp deposit, but you'll still be better off if it's dropped £500 per person. Good luck! :)

[Alohaaloha]

Let us know how you get on if you manage to get your TA to honour the price drop. I use a TA based in the USA and managed to bag a brilliant price drop for my upcoming cruise. However, we have another cruise later this year which we booked onboard the AOS was then transferred to a British TA. I've never heard of a British TA honouring a price drop, but it's definitely worth a try.

 

 

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[little britain]

Hi. We booked our upcoming cruise through a travel agent about 3 months ago and today the price has dropped by almost £500 per person. Is there anything we can do or is it just 'tough luck'?

 

Hi, I just had a price drop 3 weeks before travel. I called my agent and got a refund of over £300, so for £500pp I'd definitely fight for it!

 

So the key word is 'convertible.'... so ask your TA to call and ask if the current price showing for your specific grade is convertible....and if it is they MUST convert the price you paid to the current price and give you the refund. Yes, you may loose the perks you got when you booked but for £500 I suspect it may be worth it (but that is your call...)

 

The issue is that if you do a dummy booking on the website, the web doesn't know if you have a booking already or not and shows you the lowest pricing. RCI have a system where they have some prices for new bookings only and some prices that are valid for both new bookings and for existing bookings (these are the 'convertible prices')

 

Good luck !

 

ps: ignore the US posters who say you cannot get a drop after final payment as they have clearly defined rules in the US, where as in the UK (or Guatemala as we now call it) there is no such rule.

 

pps: if your agent doesn't play ball then in your case it is worth cancelling, losing the £150pp deposit and rebooking with another agent who knows what they are doing!

[Missbrightstar]

Thanks all. I'm off to the travel agent tomorrow so I'll report back. We've decided we will cancel and rebook as we'll still be almost £340 better off

[Missbrightstar]

Ps meant to say cancel and rebook if TA wont do anything

[Barnum42]

Hi. We booked our upcoming cruise through a travel agent about 3 months ago and today the price has dropped by almost £500 per person. Is there anything we can do or is it just 'tough luck'?

I followed Little_Britian's advice and chased the refund on the price difference and got it.

 

The travel agent said, "tough luck". I contacted Royal Caribbean directly and kept on to a supervisor at their Guatemalan call centre. Took half an hour or so, but they eventually say sense. No point losing future custom by failing to refund now. I lost the "free" parking and teen soda package but that comes to a lot less than the refund.

 

Alternatively, if this is not your first Royal Caribbean cruise and you are now a Crown and Anchor member, some folk have reported they get a better response going through Crown and Anchor.

 

Don't take no for an answer.

[Missbrightstar]

Hi everyone. We got a result!

We had booked 2x gtd balcony cabins 3 months ago. Our TA rang RCI and we've had our final bill reduced by £1415! A better saving than if we had cancelled (lost £150pp) and rebooked with RCI. We did lose our $200 obc per cabin but if you take that £62 off the bill we are still better off by £291 EACH! Over the moon. Now just need to wait for our cabin number but our TA said we might end up keeping the same cabins

[PCWalton1]

Hi everyone. We got a result!

We had booked 2x gtd balcony cabins 3 months ago. Our TA rang RCI and we've had our final bill reduced by £1415! A better saving than if we had cancelled (lost £150pp) and rebooked with RCI. We did lose our $200 obc per cabin but if you take that £62 off the bill we are still better off by £291 EACH! Over the moon. Now just need to wait for our cabin number but our TA said we might end up keeping the same cabins

 

Congratulations. What I nice bonus to get for your cruise. :)

[Barnum42]

Hi everyone. We got a result!

We had booked 2x gtd balcony cabins 3 months ago. Our TA rang RCI and we've had our final bill reduced by £1415! A better saving than if we had cancelled (lost £150pp) and rebooked with RCI. We did lose our $200 obc per cabin but if you take that £62 off the bill we are still better off by £291 EACH! Over the moon. Now just need to wait for our cabin number but our TA said we might end up keeping the same cabins

 

:D

 

Well done! More proof that we don't have to bend over and say "thank you, may I have another?" when the companies pull a move like this.

 

You've saved more than our tip costs! (But we are in steerage) ;)

[Sitzmark]

:D

 

Well done! More proof that we don't have to bend over and say "thank you, may I have another?" when the companies pull a move like this.

 

 

Pull a move like what? Lowering prices? having a price guarantee? When the new sale started, I just called my TA and had them lower my price, I never felt like someone was doing something underhanded to me. I look forward to the next rate adjustment to see if I can lower it further.

[londongal796]

Pull a move like what? Lowering prices? having a price guarantee? When the new sale started, I just called my TA and had them lower my price, I never felt like someone was doing something underhanded to me. I look forward to the next rate adjustment to see if I can lower it further.

 

The OP is in the UK and price drops are not actually honoured here. I would guess either their TA worked quite hard to get the price drop honoured OR the TA actually booked through the US side of things, in which case a price drop is 'guaranteed'.

[Barnum42]

Pull a move like what? Lowering prices? having a price guarantee? When the new sale started, I just called my TA and had them lower my price, I never felt like someone was doing something underhanded to me. I look forward to the next rate adjustment to see if I can lower it further.

 

As londongal said, those of use here in the UK have been told to take a hike when asking for a refund when a trip we booked in good faith drops by a considerable amount. Fortunately there's been support and encouragement from forum members like little britain that has resulted in some of us getting a positive result.

 

It can only be a good thing when the little people get some fair treatment from companies that have turned out country into Rip Off Britain.

[emeraldcity]

Congratulations on the final result. That is a significant savings.

[Missbrightstar]

Thanks everyone - if it wasn't for this forum I didn't even realise this was possible. To be fair our TA did work very hard and spent 40 mins on the phone to RCI. However if she didn't succeed we could have cancelled and rebooked ourselves. Everyone in the UK should be tracking prices and doing the same - rip off britain indeed

[Barnum42]

Thanks everyone - if it wasn't for this forum I didn't even realise this was possible. To be fair our TA did work very hard and spent 40 mins on the phone to RCI. However if she didn't succeed we could have cancelled and rebooked ourselves. Everyone in the UK should be tracking prices and doing the same - rip off britain indeed

 

Sounds like you have a good TA. Afraid mine just said a refund was not possible, so I had to put the time in myself. So methinks it's a good idea to stick with yours.

[Missbrightstar]

I didn't realise it was such a problem here - I suppose our TA didnt want to lose almost £4000 by us going direct to RCI

[Missbrightstar]

Update - we were gtd balcony cabins. The cabins have now been assigned and we've gone from E2 on deck 6 to D2 on deck 8. Cabins are next to each other and I'm buzzing! Was worried about the steel balcony on deck 6 and now have a glass top one

[Merion_Mom]

Update - we were gtd balcony cabins. The cabins have now been assigned and we've gone from E2 on deck 6 to D2 on deck 8. Cabins are next to each other and I'm buzzing! Was worried about the steel balcony on deck 6 and now have a glass top one

 

Congratulations on getting Deck 8 and getting two guarantee cabins next to each other! That's a crap shoot, and you won!

 

:)

[dacsmom]

It seems like you made out well. Congratulations and have a great cruise.

[Missbrightstar]

Thanks guys. Heres to our first rci cruise - hope it's going to be as good as everything I've read

[julie15]

Hi

 

I booked direct with RC, I am in UK saw the price drop and rang them had booked a balcony cabin but got a Junior Suite for less than we had paid plus a reimbursement of £200, not much but I am very pleased, never done anything like that before!!!

 

Julie

[Missbrightstar]

Wow brilliant! Its time us brits start doing this more often. Its not fair on us that usa bookings can take advantage of price drops but we have to battle for it