Waitlisted price increases from website pricing?

[seasack]

My plan as in the past situations I have had is to write a email at this point with as much reference material so I can make my point and have it in writing. 
 

I still feel the situation is misleading from the Crystal website and that’s what I intend to present from my perspective. 

[ChatKat in Ca.]

I think your TA did not book you as waitlisted.  Prices change based on booking and that category cabin has staggered prices based on location.  I know because that’s the category I book and waitlist for.  The closer to mid ship makes a difference.  

[avalon244]

4 hours ago, seasack said:

My plan as in the past situations I have had is to write a email at this point with as much reference material so I can make my point and have it in writing. 
 

I still feel the situation is misleading from the Crystal website and that’s what I intend to present from my perspective. 

Of course you are free to do what you want and complain to Crystal, but imho most of the blame for this misunderstanding falls squarely on the shoulders of your cruise TA who should understand basic cruise pricing. This is a common practice to combine 2 segments into 1 longer cruise and frankly, it's ridiculous that a cruise TA doesn't know that.

[May B]

Just now, avalon244 said:

Of course you are free to do what you want and complain to Crystal, but imho most of the blame for this misunderstanding falls squarely on the shoulders of your cruise TA who should understand basic cruise pricing. This is a common practice to combine 2 segments into 1 longer cruise and frankly, it's ridiculous that a cruise TA doesn't know that.

I think you are jumping to a big conclusion here.

 

While the OP’s TA wasn’t able to explain it to the OP’s satisfaction, s/he may understand it, perfectly. If you and I had been a fly on the wall during the phone conversation, we might be better qualified to assess the situation.

 

In the meantime, I think we all are very happy the OP got the exact stateroom they wanted.

[seasack]

20 minutes ago, avalon244 said:

Of course you are free to do what you want and complain to Crystal, but imho most of the blame for this misunderstanding falls squarely on the shoulders of your cruise TA who should understand basic cruise pricing. This is a common practice to combine 2 segments into 1 longer cruise and frankly, it's ridiculous that a cruise TA doesn't know that.

My opinion Crystal’s the problem not my travel agent in this situation!

 

IMHO!

[seasack]

@avalon244Btw show me where on the wonderful Crystal website it tells you that’s the Btb price I would really appreciate you showing me that!

[avalon244]

5 minutes ago, seasack said:

@avalon244Btw show me where on the wonderful Crystal website it tells you that’s the Btb price I would really appreciate you showing me that!

You just made my point. It's common industry knowledge, but a novice cruiser wouldn't know that. And that's why you need to rely on an experienced cruise TA who knows the ins and outs of the business. No need to get snippy. I will be sailing on the Symphony soon and can't wait. Have a nice day.

[seasack]

Common industry knowledge to whom? I’m guessing not the average person looking at the website to book this cruise. What about the people who don’t use a TA.
 

If I was someone looking at the website and was thinking about booking this cruise I would assume my pp price would be $9100.00. I had some friends that were interested before I decided to book and told them that would be the price based on all the other bookings I have that work that way, again all 4 other bookings I have match the website pricing this one does not so this is the first time I feel imho I was mislead. Again imho a Crystal problem. 

 

Not getting snippy you don’t know me! 
 

Enjoy your cruise. 

[BWIVince]

We can debate the industry best practice (and in some cases regulatory requirement) of advertising the final booking price, and then showing the fare breakdown as part of the fare quoting process, but honestly I think the odds of this changing are about as close to zero as I’ve ever seen in my professional career.  Sure, Crystal could add verbiage to the website on the final quotes pointing people to see the breakdown, but in this case the agent saw the final breakdown and misunderstood why the B2B discount was applied, so that wouldn’t have helped any at all.

 

I think what it came down to is just a difference of perspective — a lack of situational awareness by both the travel agent and the call center agent.  The agent was focused on the gross fare and was probably questioning why the B2B discount didn’t come off the fare they expected, and the call center agent saw the B2B discount applied correctly and probably assumed the travel agent was requesting was B2B discount be double-applied because of the subsequent booking when the agent questioned why the 5% wasn’t applied to the post-discount fare.

 

Vince

[avalon244]

4 minutes ago, seasack said:

Common industry knowledge to whom? I’m guessing not the average person looking at the website to book this cruise. What about the people who don’t use a TA.
 

If I was someone looking at the website and was thinking about booking this cruise I would assume my pp price would be $9100.00. I had some friends that were interested before I decided to book and told them that would be the price based on all the other bookings I have that work that way, again all 4 other bookings I have match the website pricing this one does not so this is the first time I feel imho I was mislead. Again imho a Crystal problem. 

 

Not getting snippy you don’t know me! 
 

Enjoy your cruise. 

Now I'm confused. The price IS $9100 pp.

[seasack]

1 minute ago, BWIVince said:

We can debate the industry best practice (and in some cases regulatory requirement) of advertising the final booking price, and then showing the fare breakdown as part of the fare quoting process, but honestly I think the odds of this changing are about as close to zero as I’ve ever seen in my professional career.  Sure, Crystal could add verbiage to the website on the final quotes pointing people to see the breakdown, but in this case the agent saw the final breakdown and misunderstood why the B2B discount was applied, so that wouldn’t have helped any at all.

 

I think what it came down to is just a difference of perspective — a lack of situational awareness by both the travel agent and the call center agent.  The agent was focused on the gross fare and was probably questioning why the B2B discount didn’t come off the fare they expected, and the call center agent saw the B2B discount applied correctly and probably assumed the travel agent was requesting was B2B discount be double-applied because of the subsequent booking when the agent questioned why the 5% wasn’t applied to the post-discount fare.

 

Vince

Thanks for your time and explanation.

 

It’s certainly unfortunate that this industry practice is this type of case.

 

I certainly like to be able to figure out my invoice with what is available on a cruise lines website and I have been able to do this with my other 4 bookings. 

[seasack]

Just now, avalon244 said:

Now I'm confused. The price IS $9100 pp.

It’s $9600.00 pp on my invoice then they take the 5% off that. 
 

In other words I feel it should be the $9100.00 pp then they take the 5% off because I’m adding it the the cruise after that.

 

I’m frustrated and it is not my intention to frustrate everybody else. I apologize if I’m doing that to you. 

[BWIVince]

6 minutes ago, seasack said:

It’s $9600.00 pp on my invoice then they take the 5% off that. 
 

In other words I feel it should be the $9100.00 pp then they take the 5% off because I’m adding it the the cruise after that.

 

I’m frustrated and it is not my intention to frustrate everybody else. I apologize if I’m doing that to you. 

I know this isn’t your preference, but this is EXACTLY why they have to always display the gross fare and then show the discounts now.  The B2B discount should only be applied once for each segment, no matter how many B2Bs are booked, and this format shows clearly when it’s applied or missing.  Applying it to the $9100 would be a violation.  There’s a science to this, even if it’s not to your liking.

 

Vince

[seasack]

6 minutes ago, BWIVince said:

I know this isn’t your preference, but this is EXACTLY why they have to always display the gross fare and then show the discounts now.  The B2B discount should only be applied once for each segment, no matter how many B2Bs are booked, and this format shows clearly when it’s applied or missing.  Applying it to the $9100 would be a violation.  There’s a science to this, even if it’s not to your liking.

 

Vince

I get that I really do if I was putting segments together. When I go on the website there is a 20 day cruise listed. How am I supposed to know that Crystal put 2 other segments together if I am only looking at that 20 day one. So you’re saying who the hell knows what cruises are combined segments and which ones are not. Because again I can’t find it anywhere on the website that the 20 day is a multi segment combination and the price is priced accordingly. 

[BWIVince]

2 minutes ago, seasack said:

I get that I really do if I was putting segments together. When I go on the website there is a 20 day cruise listed. How am I supposed to know that Crystal put 2 other segments together if I am only looking at that 20 day one. So you’re saying who the hell knows what cruises are combined segments and which ones are not. Because again I can’t find it anywhere on the website that the 20 day is a multi segment combination and the price is priced accordingly. 

That’s a valid question…. The second step in the booking process is to review a fare quote, where the breakout would show the full construction.  Part of the reason for this method by cruise lines these days is to accommodate the use of templated content management systems and the need for consistency on each web page.  Once upon a time every web page for every sailing was different, but now every sailing detail page is just one page, and it populates the same fields from a data table, so the format has to be identical for every sailing.  This is yet another reason behind displaying simplified  final fares, adding a random notes field for particular sailings would throw off the template for non-B2B sailings, or complicate the terms block by having to have various flavors of nearly identical terms that could be easily mixed up.

 

That said, while the detailed breakout is meant to be that indicator, there are other hacks to figure out is a “sailing” is actually multiple joined segments.  The first are multiple sailing dates for the same ship — you can see your sailing is actually a combo when you see the individual segments listed.  A TA would see the segments on a list of voyage numbers as well, since there would be listings for multiple durations for the same date.  Some longer combos are also listed as “Grand Journeys” on the website.  Finally, you can often see a turnaround port in the itinerary…. In your case the ship comes back to FLL for a turnaround day mid-cruise, before sailing to the other side of the Caribbean — that’s a pretty big tell that shows on a lot of combos.  Again, there’s an actual process for this, those are just other indicators you can also use.

 

Vince

[seasack]

@BWIVince Thanks again I don’t know why it has to be so difficult to show this is the case on a cruise lines website. I’m guessing a fine print indication would probably be sufficient at least for someone like me. 

[May B]

On 9/10/2023 at 3:27 PM, seasack said:

I get that I really do if I was putting segments together. When I go on the website there is a 20 day cruise listed. How am I supposed to know that Crystal put 2 other segments together if I am only looking at that 20 day one. So you’re saying who the hell knows what cruises are combined segments and which ones are not. Because again I can’t find it anywhere on the website that the 20 day is a multi segment combination and the price is priced accordingly. 

I don’t know why it took me to post #64 to understand what is going on here, but now I do see your frustration.

 

I hit the Like button for Vince’s post #65, but honestly, I didn’t even follow every word of it!

What I absolutely like is the key for us to figure out if a cruise is already a B2B … by looking at the itinerary! And also, sometimes we see two cruises starting or ending on the same day, but one cruise is shorter than the other.

 

The old Crystal web site was easier for this, and I think the old Crystal TA site was, as well. When I just ask for Dec. 2024, it’s pretty easy as well.

 

And the most confusing part to me is that it looks like an ocean view is $8200 pp, and a veranda is $8500 pp. Those fares include port charges etc. So where did the $9100/$9600 pp fare come into the equation? Availability is limited now to the preferred locations?

Edited September 11, 2023 by May B

[seasack]

@May B I hope I don’t make this ever so more confusing?

 

So for the room I wanted on the 2023 holiday cruise that is showing on the website it’s the one for 20 days and it shows $9100.00 for my room. Based on the education I have appreciated from everyone it turns out that that cruise is the combination of 2 cruises, one 9 day and one 11 day. If you look at there individual pricing for those segments for the same room I wanted the price would be $9600.00 in combination so the pricing on the combination 20 day mentioned above is showing on the website with the 5% combination discount already included. On the website it’s says from $8500 to $9100.00 for same category depending on location.

 

I hope that helps?

[May B]

58 minutes ago, seasack said:

@May B I hope I don’t make this ever so more confusing?

 

So for the room I wanted on the 2023 holiday cruise that is showing on the website it’s the one for 20 days and it shows $9100.00 for my room. Based on the education I have appreciated from everyone it turns out that that cruise is the combination of 2 cruises, one 9 day and one 11 day. If you look at there individual pricing for those segments for the same room I wanted the price would be $9600.00 in combination so the pricing on the combination 20 day mentioned above is showing on the website with the 5% combination discount already included. On the website it’s says from $8500 to $9100.00 for same category depending on location.

 

I hope that helps?

Now it’s Crystal clear!

 

I see verandas are wait-listed again.