Non Refundable Deposit is now the default pricing

[Tampa Girl]

Per my TA, simultaneously on phone with me and HAL, Grand Asia bookings made prior to 11 July deposits fully refundable until 2 June 2018.

 

 

Thank you! Much appreciated.

[blizzardboy]

So, I was checking the price of my 2018 cruise now that the Ready Set Sail promo is over. I noticed that the price has gone down. In small print under the pricing it shows that the reflected fares are for non refundable deposits. I did a quick search of the site and it appears to be the default now. I called HAL and they confirmed this. If you want a price that is fully refundable you must call them for pricing. ��

I asked my PCC about these Snap Fares showing up with the non-refundable deposit, etc. The following is his explanation: "Yes, the Snap fares are just the re-named version of the Limited Inventory Fares which have always been around, on almost every cruise.

There are zero extras included with a Snap Fare, only the rate is the perk. All deposits are non-refundable, again I say non-refundable and if any type of cancellation or insurance through Holland America is desired, it must be added and paid for at the time of booking, those are the draw backs. Once booked, its booked. No re-faring. It’s not a normal low mariner sale fare, there are stipulations as mentioned above. You will not get your deposit back.

And yes, the Casino promotion is combinable with the Snap Fares if applicable." End of his quote.

Hope this clears the waters. HAL is not changing to all non-refundable deposits.

bb

[AncientWanderer]

This is disappointing news. Princess has been doing something like this recently and we went ahead and did a booking with the nonrefundable deposit, as staterooms were going fast. Naturally we had an emergency in the family and we did lose our deposit. Just gone and nothing to be done about it.

 

With that bad experience, I'm sorry to hear that HAL is going in this direction. We will be more cautious about our bookings and if we lose out on availability, I guess we'll go do something else. I always felt HAL was making enough on us when they require large deposits that they can collect interest on for a long time, even if we do eventually decide to cancel. I guess I was mistaken.

[TiogaCruiser]

Last August there was a cruise I was interested in, and offered a great deal with a non-refundable deposit on a BigBox website. A week later, a similar deal reappeared which offered the same cruise for about $100 more, but with traditional refundable deposit. So it isn't totally new.

[Andi Land]

I asked my PCC about these Snap Fares showing up with the non-refundable deposit, etc. The following is his explanation: "Yes, the Snap fares are just the re-named version of the Limited Inventory Fares which have always been around, on almost every cruise.

There are zero extras included with a Snap Fare, only the rate is the perk. All deposits are non-refundable, again I say non-refundable and if any type of cancellation or insurance through Holland America is desired, it must be added and paid for at the time of booking, those are the draw backs. Once booked, its booked. No re-faring. It’s not a normal low mariner sale fare, there are stipulations as mentioned above. You will not get your deposit back.

And yes, the Casino promotion is combinable with the Snap Fares if applicable." End of his quote.

Hope this clears the waters. HAL is not changing to all non-refundable deposits.

bb

 

I realize that they are not changing to all non refundable deposits. The problem I have is that the only price reflected online is for the non refundable deposit and if you want a refundable rate you must call to get one.

[POA1]

I suspect that your future cruise credits will be treated as fully refundable. If you read the terms and conditions, it would be hard to enforce the surrender of what you paid. Really hard.

[sfaaa]

This is disappointing news. Princess has been doing something like this recently and we went ahead and did a booking with the nonrefundable deposit, as staterooms were going fast.

 

Not just Princess but also Carnival (ES), RCCL and now HA. I fully expect NCL will follow suit shortly. Like it or not, this is where the mass market cruise industry is heading.

[Tampa Girl]

Ia All deposits are non-refundable, again I say non-refundable and if any type of cancellation or insurance through Holland America is desired, it must be added and paid for at the time of booking, those are the draw backs. Once booked, its booked.

bb

 

Where is this provision in the booking process? I re-read the CCP Standard and Platinum provisions yesterday, and they still read that they can be purchased by the time of final payment.

[blizzardboy]

Where is this provision in the booking process? I re-read the CCP Standard and Platinum provisions yesterday, and they still read that they can be purchased by the time of final payment.

A lot of the "normal" provisions evidently don't apply to these very restrictive fares. BTW, when we compared our current Ready Set Sail price w/ casino discount on our Neptune to the Snap Fare with casino discount, the difference in fare was almost exactly the amount of our free gratuities, internet allowance, and the OBC. It is truly a "net fare". Add the restrictions and it's a loser. I am waiting to see what our fare is with Explore 4 anyway.

[VMax1700]

I suspect that your future cruise credits will be treated as fully refundable. If you read the terms and conditions, it would be hard to enforce the surrender of what you paid. Really hard.

 

They will possibly change the terms on the FCC. Already FCC's for Europeans have terms that if the FCC are used to book a cruise and that cruise is subsequently cancelled then the FCC is also cancelled. No more value :mad:

[RocketMan275]

A lot of the "normal" provisions evidently don't apply to these very restrictive fares. BTW, when we compared our current Ready Set Sail price w/ casino discount on our Neptune to the Snap Fare with casino discount, the difference in fare was almost exactly the amount of our free gratuities, internet allowance, and the OBC. It is truly a "net fare". Add the restrictions and it's a loser. I am waiting to see what our fare is with Explore 4 anyway.

I re-fared on the promo prior to Ready Set Sail.

Fare was $2199 PP. Included gratuities $105. Included OBC $250. Included Beverage Card $25. Total Fare less 'includeds' $1819.

Current SNAP Fare $1799

Difference $20

Looks like Holland considers the fair market price for this cabin (SB) as $1799.

Oh, and my fare is refundable.

[DaveOKC]

I re-fared on the promo prior to Ready Set Sail.

Fare was $2199 PP. Included gratuities $105. Included OBC $250. Included Beverage Card $25. Total Fare less 'includeds' $1819.

Current SNAP Fare $1799

Difference $20

Looks like Holland considers the fair market price for this cabin (SB) as $1799.

Oh, and my fare is refundable.

 

Thats pretty much what I have found. We gave up on the Explore4 packages since HAL's value of this is greater than ours.

[RocketMan275]

Thats pretty much what I have found. We gave up on the Explore4 packages since HAL's value of this is greater than ours.

 

On the last promo, it was a beverage package or an amount of OBC which was far less than the 'value' HAL assigns to the package. That should tell you what the cruise line thinks it's worth.

[iancal]

Absolutely. We discount all the cruise company so called freebees down to the value that they have for us. So a 'free drink' package may have a cruise company price of $500 however to us it may only be worth $200. So that is the amount we place on it when comparing fares between ships/cruise lines.

 

We prefer no bundling other than perhaps gratuities. We just want to get to the bottom line, ie the cost of our desired cabin. We are happy to pay for the other items on an as needed/as wanted basis. We place no value on the other items like priority boarding, etc. If we are not willing to pay for them, then we will not include them in our value price comparisons.

[RocketMan275]

Absolutely. We discount all the cruise company so called freebees down to the value that they have for us. So a 'free drink' package may have a cruise company price of $500 however to us it may only be worth $200. So that is the amount we place on it when comparing fares between ships/cruise lines.

 

We prefer no bundling other than perhaps gratuities. We just want to get to the bottom line, ie the cost of our desired cabin. We are happy to pay for the other items on an as needed/as wanted basis. We place no value on the other items like priority boarding, etc. If we are not willing to pay for them, then we will not include them in our value price comparisons.

 

Exactly. Marketers have long understood that the best way to make a deal is to convince the other party that they're getting something for free. "Free drinks", "Free gratuities", "Free Internet" are all nothing but marketing gimmicks that really aren't "free". "Included", yes. "Free", no.

[jmps]

We booked a cruise using a "big box" travel agency. We had to cancel (for the first time ever) for medical reasons prior to the date where you lose any deposit. It turned out contrary to all the documentation in the booking that it was a nonrefundable fare. They honored that and paid me the deposit back since HAL would not. We did have cruise insurance that would have paid as well but we didn't need it for this deposit. They apparently have had this happen with others. With HAL changing their policy on some fares it caused the agency system to not indicate the fare quoted was nonrefundable. We would NEVER book a cruise more than three or so months out that was nonrefundable. If this trend continues we will be booking cruises much closer in to sail date.

[DaveOKC]

The current issue with these Snap fares is that HAL normally automatically show the website user the current promotion pricing. They need to figure out an option to show us the non-promotion price, but I doubt they will do this as it would be too easy for users to figure out that the promotion is not worth as much as they think.

[bUU]

The current issue with these Snap fares is that HAL normally automatically show the website user the current promotion pricing. They need to figure out an option to show us the non-promotion price, but I doubt they will do this as it would be too easy for users to figure out that the promotion is not worth as much as they think.

I'm not so sure. Carnival makes it relatively easy to find the refundable price.

[iancal]

I don't know what it is about some of those so called perks that people seem to gravitate to.

 

We have had priority boarding priviledges on the last few cruises that we have taken, for various reasons.

 

On each one we skipped the so called priority or suite line and went in the line for the unwashed masses. Why...because there was a line up at the suite/priority group and not at the general boarding area. Yet folks were still lining up and waiting. Cannot figure it out. Is it ego that need stroking or does making someone feel important have that much value to folks that they line up for in in preference to zooming through the process. Or is it the sheep phenomenon?

[RocketMan275]

I don't know what it is about some of those so called perks that people seem to gravitate to.

 

We have had priority boarding priviledges on the last few cruises that we have taken, for various reasons.

 

On each one we skipped the so called priority or suite line and went in the line for the unwashed masses. Why...because there was a line up at the suite/priority group and not at the general boarding area. Yet folks were still lining up and waiting. Cannot figure it out. Is it ego that need stroking or does making someone feel important have that much value to folks that they line up for in in preference to zooming through the process. Or is it the sheep phenomenon?

 

They may not have realized they had the choice.

[iancal]

Don't know...some of them looked like vets.

 

We will take a lower price over a meaningless (to us) bundled 'perk' any day, any time

[RocketMan275]

Don't know...some of them looked like vets.

 

We will take a lower price over a meaningless (to us) bundled 'perk' any day, any time

 

There are many who just follow instructions even when the instructions don't make sense.

[bUU]

They may not have realized they had the choice.

True priority would have agents at non-priority stations taking the first passenger from the priority line whenever there is a priority line. I suppose it doesn't work that way at the ports.

[RocketMan275]

True priority would have agents at non-priority stations taking the first passenger from the priority line whenever there is a priority line. I suppose it doesn't work that way at the ports.

 

I've seen that happen at every port we've been too.

I've also seen priority check-in stations take persons from the non-priority lines when there was no one in the priority queue.

[kazu]

True priority would have agents at non-priority stations taking the first passenger from the priority line whenever there is a priority line. I suppose it doesn't work that way at the ports.

 

I have seen that done in two ports.

 

We have also gone to the "regular" line when the priority looks overwhelming.

 

The staff were quite insistent that we go to the other line and I just pointed and said see that line?, see this one?

 

Usually it is a non issue for us. I guess our timing has been good?