price error when changing cabin assignment

[reeinaz]

I have a hypothetical situation. A person calls the cruise line to change their cabin to a higher category. Let's say from a standard oceanview to a suite. It's something that clearly costs more. They receive confirmation of their new cabin assignment which shows the new cabin category but the original price hasn't changed. Their online account with the cruise line shows the same information. How long would you guess it would take for the cruise line to notice the mistake?

[BlueRiband]

When changing an existing reservation?  Not likely as the increased price would come up on the agent's screen.  It's more likely a pricing glitch would come with an initial booking - e.g. the price of a suite comes up the same price as a standard balcony.  Whether the cruise line would honor a price mistake really varies. 

[reeinaz]

1 hour ago, BlueRiband said:

When changing an existing reservation?  Not likely as the increased price would come up on the agent's screen.  It's more likely a pricing glitch would come with an initial booking - e.g. the price of a suite comes up the same price as a standard balcony.  Whether the cruise line would honor a price mistake really varies. 

This would be an existing reservation. The person is changing the room that was originally booked. 

[Sea Hag]

What price shows on the cruise line's website? The price for the better cabin may have gone down.

[leaveitallbehind]

How long it would take to be noticed is impossible to say.  But when you would call to request the upgrade, the agent would confirm the new price with you prior to changing the reservation.  So it would not likely appear later on a confirmation at a different price.

 

All pricing is entered into the cruise line booking system and is automatically repopulated into an existing reservation when a category change is made.  To your hypothetical scenario, if the pricing for the higher category stateroom was entered in error to being with, then that may be one way that the price could be the same after the change.  However if uncovered, the cruise line would likely make the correction and issue a new confirmation. 

 

Another way this could occur is if the same price was entered manually by the agent at the cruise line with the category change as a price override.  But as I understand it, pricing overrides require a supervisor's OK as a safeguard against a mistake.  If that were the case, however, it may never be uncovered.  

 

But most cruise lines have safeguards in their terms and conditions that allow them the option to adjust unfavorable mistaken pricing back to their favor if discovered.

 

I'm curious why you are asking - especially as a hypothetical situation?

[reeinaz]

14 hours ago, leaveitallbehind said:

 

 

I'm curious why you are asking - especially as a hypothetical situation?

Ha. ok. Caught me 🙂 It's not completely hypothetical. A friend and I are going on a cruise in 2021 and we originally booked inside cabins on separate reservations. My friend later decided that she could afford a balcony, so we both got our cabins upgraded. This was a few weeks ago. She never looked at her reservation again, other than confirming the new room showed, until we started trying to come up with a trip budget. When her total didn't match my total, that's when she discovered that her fare never changed. Now we're wondering if the mistake wasn't noticed by now, will it ever be noticed? 

[leaveitallbehind]

1 hour ago, reeinaz said:

Ha. ok. Caught me 🙂 It's not completely hypothetical. A friend and I are going on a cruise in 2021 and we originally booked inside cabins on separate reservations. My friend later decided that she could afford a balcony, so we both got our cabins upgraded. This was a few weeks ago. She never looked at her reservation again, other than confirming the new room showed, until we started trying to come up with a trip budget. When her total didn't match my total, that's when she discovered that her fare never changed. Now we're wondering if the mistake wasn't noticed by now, will it ever be noticed? 

 

Hard to say if it will ever be picked up, but if it is the cruise line may correct the pricing.  I would be prepared for that in your budget just in case. But as one of you has the correct price it likely was a human error which they would want to correct if found IMO.

[ShawninFL]

On 11/2/2019 at 1:32 PM, reeinaz said:

Ha. ok. Caught me 🙂 It's not completely hypothetical. A friend and I are going on a cruise in 2021 and we originally booked inside cabins on separate reservations. My friend later decided that she could afford a balcony, so we both got our cabins upgraded. This was a few weeks ago. She never looked at her reservation again, other than confirming the new room showed, until we started trying to come up with a trip budget. When her total didn't match my total, that's when she discovered that her fare never changed. Now we're wondering if the mistake wasn't noticed by now, will it ever be noticed? 

 

 

First of all, make sure that the new stateroom on the new invoice is really the balcony it is supposed to be.  Second, if that checks out and it's a significant difference, pay that cruise in full right now.  If it's paid in full, the price should be locked in, even if there is a later error discovered.

[SRF]

It is also possible that both cabins are balconies, but different category of balcony cabin.  So her cabin might be cheaper than your cabin.  There may be 10 different categories of balcony based on size (some are slightly smaller or larger), location (deck or forward/aft/mid), or other reasons why the cruise line thinks this cabin is better than that cabin.

 

And paying in full now does NOT lock in anything.  Not until the final payment date set by the booking.  

[sanger727]

I think it's very likely to be rectified by the time final payment due date comes around. I would absolutely budget for and be prepared to pay the price that was quoted for the upgraded room.

[leaveitallbehind]

On 11/14/2019 at 12:21 PM, SRF said:

And paying in full now does NOT lock in anything.  Not until the final payment date set by the booking.  

 

Agreed.  Payment is not considered final or paid in full until the cruise line mandated final payment date.  Adjustments up or down (up, typically only resulting from such an error as that indicated by the OP) can be made to the stateroom rate until that time, regardless of amount paid prior to that date.

Edited November 16, 2019 by leaveitallbehind

[SRF]

I still have not heard if anyone checked the actual cabin classes to see if they are the same.

[zqvol]

On 11/1/2019 at 1:14 PM, reeinaz said:

I have a hypothetical situation. A person calls the cruise line to change their cabin to a higher category. Let's say from a standard oceanview to a suite. It's something that clearly costs more. They receive confirmation of their new cabin assignment which shows the new cabin category but the original price hasn't changed. Their online account with the cruise line shows the same information. How long would you guess it would take for the cruise line to notice the mistake?

 

If not sooner it will definitely be found on boarding, but truthfully, most errors like this are found no later than final payment date. Just check your cruises lines website to see if you have a balance.

[SRF]

Again, have to checked to make sure both new cabins are the exact same category??????

[reeinaz]

We selected our cabins together. They are the same category. Her price isn't just different than mine, it did not change from the original booking. It's a difference of several hundred dollars. But she'll just keep an eye on her emails and booking and see what happens.

[leaveitallbehind]

3 minutes ago, reeinaz said:

We selected our cabins together. They are the same category. Her price isn't just different than mine, it did not change from the original booking. It's a difference of several hundred dollars. But she'll just keep an eye on her emails and booking and see what happens.

 

Again, it may not be discovered at which point she will have a good price on her stateroom.  But as indicated before, just be prepared that at some point it may be realized by the cruise line and the difference charged.

[SRF]

1 hour ago, reeinaz said:

We selected our cabins together. They are the same category. Her price isn't just different than mine, it did not change from the original booking. It's a difference of several hundred dollars. But she'll just keep an eye on her emails and booking and see what happens.

 

Even if they are side by side, they may be different categories.

 

Check the deck plans and check the category.

[leaveitallbehind]

30 minutes ago, SRF said:

 

Even if they are side by side, they may be different categories.

 

Check the deck plans and check the category.

 

The OP indicates that they both upgraded from their same original stateroom category to the same higher category stateroom and that her rate changed accordingly but her friends did not, and remained at the original category rate.   If they in fact both upgraded to the same higher category, then I interpret this as a mistake with the cruise line in not adjusting her friends fare with with hers at the time of the upgrade.

 

In fact she suggests that it was a significant change in categories, such as from an ocean view to a suite, which had a clearly higher published rate.  Perhaps the OP can confirm this part.

Edited November 22, 2019 by leaveitallbehind

[CruisingAlong4Now]

Upgrade was from inside cabin to balcony cabin.

 

Let's see. Your friend is paying less that you are for the equivalent cabin. You think that's a mistake and she should be paying the same as you. Why not have her call the cruiseline and ask?  Oh, I see.  You want to see if she can get away with it. 

 

Analogy.  I go to the supermarket and put 5 cans of soup in my cart.  At checkout, the checker only rings of 4 cans of soup. Do I ask if they are on sale, "buy 4, get 1 free"? do I tell the checker I actually have 5 cans, or do I try to get out of the store as fast as I can and hope no one notices their mistake?

[leaveitallbehind]

13 minutes ago, CruisingAlong4Now said:

Upgrade was from inside cabin to balcony cabin.

 

Let's see. Your friend is paying less that you are for the equivalent cabin. You think that's a mistake and she should be paying the same as you. Why not have her call the cruiseline and ask?  Oh, I see.  You want to see if she can get away with it. 

 

Analogy.  I go to the supermarket and put 5 cans of soup in my cart.  At checkout, the checker only rings of 4 cans of soup. Do I ask if they are on sale, "buy 4, get 1 free"? do I tell the checker I actually have 5 cans, or do I try to get out of the store as fast as I can and hope no one notices their mistake?

 

Really? Completely different situation as they are not deceiving an individual as to what they purchased.  They initiated the upgrade and the cruise line responded with the pricing they initiated internally.  The customer has nothing to do with pricing or manipulating the circumstances for a different price.

 

Very poor and unrelated analogy IMO.  And BTW, if this was your booking would you call and suggest to the cruise line that they should be charging you more?

Edited November 23, 2019 by leaveitallbehind

[leaveitallbehind]

43 minutes ago, CruisingAlong4Now said:

 

Analogy.  I go to the supermarket and put 5 cans of soup in my cart.  At checkout, the checker only rings of 4 cans of soup. Do I ask if they are on sale, "buy 4, get 1 free"? do I tell the checker I actually have 5 cans, or do I try to get out of the store as fast as I can and hope no one notices their mistake?

 

To my prior response, in other words your analogy implies deception on the OP's part in obtaining an incorrect price, which did not occur. This is also an unfair accusation. They only requested an upgrade and have no responsibility with the pricing resulting from the cruise line from that request. They also did not make a hasty disappearance after the purchase - their booking remains on open file with the cruise line. Again, IMO, irrelevant analogy.

Edited November 23, 2019 by leaveitallbehind

[packedandready]

I found a cheap cruise that would happen on our anniversary, so I grabbed it. A few weeks later I noticed a price drop. I did a mock booking to see if my booking qualified and sure enough they were offering a residence rate. I went further in the mock booking and something just didn't look right. I finally found where RCI was discounting Guest #1 $75 for residence discount, but Guest #2 was discounted $1224. I've grabbed quite a few residence discounts and they've always been the same for each guest so thought this was just an error. 

 

I cleared out the booking and did it again with the same results. Also...the average price pp I was seeing was not what the website was showing. Anyway, I decided to call RCI. Told rep I think there might be a price drop and to please see if I qualified. He did his thing and I kept hearing ...ummm...ummm...Finally, he said I've never seen anything like this, must be a mistake..But let's finish the transaction and see what happens. Everything went through and I got the really cheap price. He sent a new invoice but I was sure it would be caught before final payment. I paid final payment without a hitch, able to do online check in and ended up cruising for 7 nights in a hump balcony for $409 pp. 🙂

[SRF]

On 11/22/2019 at 1:49 PM, leaveitallbehind said:

 

The OP indicates that they both upgraded from their same original stateroom category to the same higher category stateroom and that her rate changed accordingly but her friends did not, and remained at the original category rate.   If they in fact both upgraded to the same higher category, then I interpret this as a mistake with the cruise line in not adjusting her friends fare with with hers at the time of the upgrade.

 

In fact she suggests that it was a significant change in categories, such as from an ocean view to a suite, which had a clearly higher published rate.  Perhaps the OP can confirm this part.

 

I am not sure that they upgraded to the SAME category, but the same class of room.

 

Both moved from a inside to a balcony.  Two balcony cabins, side by side, can be different categories.

[leaveitallbehind]

10 hours ago, SRF said:

 

I am not sure that they upgraded to the SAME category, but the same class of room.

 

Both moved from a inside to a balcony.  Two balcony cabins, side by side, can be different categories.

 

True - but the OP also says that her friend"s stateroom rate remained unchanged.  It would seem unlikely if moving from an inside to a balcony (which is a two category jump) that the one balcony would be the same rate as the original inside. Those are two different classes and fares altogether.  I think the cruise line made a mistake.

Edited November 25, 2019 by leaveitallbehind

[2wheelin]

On 11/22/2019 at 10:47 AM, reeinaz said:

We selected our cabins together. They are the same category. Her price isn't just different than mine, it did not change from the original booking. It's a difference of several hundred dollars. But she'll just keep an eye on her emails and booking and see what happens.

 

15 hours ago, SRF said:

 

I am not sure that they upgraded to the SAME category, but the same class of room.

 

Both moved from a inside to a balcony.  Two balcony cabins, side by side, can be different categories.

OP has stated more than once they are the same category. Why can they not be believed?