Difference in booking rules Aust vs US RCI

[reedy8]

We have a booking on the Voyager in March 2017 and I see that RC have another WOW sale with $200 cabin credit and reduced cabin fares which works out to be all up about $1000 less than what we are paying.

From what I can fathom from what US cruisers post on the RCI site, it appears they can either go back to RCI and ask for a fare reduction, or cancel and rebook with no loss of deposit.

I don't think we can do that here due to different the different booking rules of the International Cruise Line Associations.

Does anyone know if that in correct? I would love to go back to my TA and ask for a reduction.

 

Thanks

[mr walker]

No harm in asking your TA.

 

Right now you would be before the RC cancellation period so should be able to get full refund, but be careful, as there may be penalties from the TA. Also, there are rules around 'group' bookings thru a TA, not your party being a group, but you may find you are part of a group the TA has for the cruise.

 

I have friends who had a similar case as yours. Thru their TA, the cancelled & booked again. They had to pay a new deposit & wait for a refund, but otherwise they got the new deal - not sure there was any OBC involved, but they did get the reduced cruisefare, just different equivalent cabins.

 

Let us know how you go.

[reedy8]

Thanks Mr Walker!

[tazza_0712]

You will most likely not get a reduction. 95% sure of this, as I've made similar requests in the past and have been denied.

 

However, it looks like you are still within your free cancellation period. There's nothing to stop you from cancelling your existing booking and rebooking the cruise.

 

The only caveat to this would be if your TA has their own cancellation fees, as some do.

 

 

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[tazza_0712]

I realise that the poster before me covered all of that lol.

 

Anyway, good luck with it but I would just cancel assuming you're not going to incur a penalty, and rebook with the new pricing.

 

 

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[mrs and mrs]

May I be rude to ask,does the $1000 saving take in exchange rates.:)

 

I guess what I'm saying is, is the original booking in Aud,and will the new booking be in Usd.

 

Would that be a factor.

Edited August 23, 2016 by mrs and mrs

[Ausmel]

if you book with RCI direct you definitely can. I have a booking on the voyager in March also and have been keeping an eye on prices for this very reason. you can benefit from price drops up until 150 days prior to sailing. I booked another cruise in the WOW sale just yesterday and double checked this again. I'm not sure about using a travel agent it wouldn't hurt to ask. I know some charge a fee to do the re-pricing but $1000 difference is a lot. up until recently was only the US that honoured price drops but we Aussies can now take advantage of this too which is great

[The_Big_M]

As Ausmel mentioned any difference here would be between you booking with a TA, rather than Australia and the US.

 

Both can cancel and rebook if outside final payment when going direct. However TAs in both countries can add their own fees on top.

[Aus ATC]

We Aussies can't take advantage of "price drops" like the US can - but we can cancel and rebook under the new conditions if outside 150 days. A big difference in conditions between AUS and US - especially once inside the cancellation fee period.

[Ru2on]

Yes just cancelled and rebooked my cruise for March 2018 ..no price drop but $200 U.S obc was worth it . Same cabin etc booked . Original booking deposit will be refunded into my credit card over the next week and I had to put a new deposit on this booking (although only $200 not $400 due to half price deposits )

 

 

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[GUT2407]

Yet another ax ample of how some companies discriminate.

[Aus ATC]

Don't feel too hard done by. Just priced my upcoming Legend Cruise on the US website - USD 3600(AUD4800), vs AUD3400!!. So I'm happy with the Aus booking conditions in this situation!

[reedy8]

May I be rude to ask,does the $1000 saving take in exchange rates.:)

 

I guess what I'm saying is, is the original booking in Aud,and will the new booking be in Usd.

 

Would that be a factor.

The Wow prices are on the RC Australian site, and are all in AUD thank goodness.

 

Have since discovered though, that there are no cabins left in the category we are booked in, (or above) so if I cancelled, my cabin would fall back into the pool (so to speak) and would probably be snapped up by someone else before I could rebook it.

[reedy8]

Yet another ax ample of how some companies discriminate.

I looked on the UK site, and they have no period at all where they get their deposit back, thats even worse.

[Hawka]

We have a booking on the Voyager in March 2017 and I see that RC have another WOW sale with $200 cabin credit and reduced cabin fares which works out to be all up about $1000 less than what we are paying.

From what I can fathom from what US cruisers post on the RCI site, it appears they can either go back to RCI and ask for a fare reduction, or cancel and rebook with no loss of deposit.

I don't think we can do that here due to different the different booking rules of the International Cruise Line Associations.

Does anyone know if that in correct? I would love to go back to my TA and ask for a reduction.

 

Thanks

 

i booked via the princess web site for my nz cruise i had registered a yr or so before hoping one day i would do a cruise , time came and i committed , i had got an email once saying that if i ever booked email this person it was on of the princess line agents ,

i could not find it at the time and just decided to go fo it anyway about a month after booking it i got another email , it stated if i booked through the agent and if price went down cheaper then what you booked they would lower your fare to that , i emailed the lovely lady that i had already booked it quoted booking number not thinking that she would be able to do anything as i had already booked , she came back saying that looks like price has gone down so proceeded and reduced my fare to that , over the time my fare was reduced i think4 or so times sometimes i got credit bottles of wine and a meal at a speciality restaurant etc which when a better deal came along disappeared , in the end i saved $1000 au dollars to what my original cruise cost was going to be , i just had to watch the price and let her know it had gone down it never went down lower then that and princess actually had to refund some of my fare back as i had just about paid it off , she said if it went down again to let her know but it went back up then down but never as far down as it got that day .

not sure if same applies for the other companies but i was very happy that Princess did that cause that extra money certainly helped me with my cruise

[The_Big_M]

Yet another ax ample of how some companies discriminate.

 

Companies have long discriminated. Look at senior and child pricing.

 

As we're talking globally though, and budgets and departments are all set locally, I wouldn't expect everything to be the same. They need to comply with different laws throughout the world so necessarily need to make changes. Changes mean costs and departments, currency conversion and financial administration and reporting means costs, so prices and terms will necessarily vary between countries.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Yet another ax ample of how some companies discriminate.

 

Companies have long discriminated. Look at senior and child pricing.

 

As we're talking globally though, and budgets and departments are all set locally, I wouldn't expect everything to be the same. They need to comply with different laws throughout the world so necessarily need to make changes. Changes mean costs and departments, currency conversion and financial administration and reporting means costs, so prices and terms will necessarily vary between countries.

 

I dont think its discrimination at all.

For goodness sake ,cruise lines want to make money and they can only do that by getting passengers onto ships, They want to sell you a cruise.

However getting you on board has to comply with all the legal and political stuff that is thrown at them , and if its going to cost them more to sell to you , why bother?

Dont forget that Australia has also chosen to go down the path of a high wage economy . Cruises dont just happen on their own but need a huge onshore backup and that has to be paid for . High wages = high costs.