Club Orange cancelled by HA two days before cruise

[KAKcruiser]

People look at you when they pass in the dining room.  I don't know why someone looking at you in Club Orange should cause any discomfort.

[Ken the cruiser]

8 hours ago, kentuckycruiser said:

As it turned out the PCC made an error with our original booking. After 5 hours the accounting dept determined she made a mistake and so our proper refund was $350 and $365 for CO. They also gave us $100 pp OBC. 

And one of our rooms was an inside so no upgrade. 

I apologize, but I'm trying to do the math. My understanding is that CO costs $25 per person per day for cruises up to 13 days. I'm guessing it was a 7-day cruise based on the $350 refund for one of the 2-person cabins. But I'm not understanding how the $365 refund for the other 2-person cabin was compiled?

[sunviking90]

Thank you for reporting back. I’m glad to hear it sounds like you have received the refunds you were hoping for. Interesting that there were so many on your sailing in the same situation. Hopefully this was a one off for your sailing and not a a regular overbooking practice.

[Iamthesea]

Thanks for the update and glad you seem to be OK with the turnout. 

 

With so many people bumped from CO, perhaps there was a computer glitch that overbooked.  That happened to me when I took an upsell to a Signature Suite on our cruise last month, only to have the stateroom taken away because it had been double booked.  

[jwfornow]

First time HAL cruiser and we only booked in May because of a very good deal. After reading about Club Orange on this site we paid to upgrade. The original person I spoke with said she could not change our cabin and I would need to call back on Monday. When I called back (888-628-8107) I spoke with a very nice lady who seemed a bit miffed that the person I spoke with on Saturday had not gone ahead and changed our cabin, she said she was sending an email to help educate them. But she very pleasantly upgraded out cabin. So we went from an obstructed view verandah to an unobstructed view on Mozart deck. We are also very much looking forward to the dining and maybe most importantly - shorter lines (we have some mobility issues). I really hope we don't get our Club Orange rescinded!

[shipshape sam]

Not sure I understand how you get bumped or why you get bumped.  I would think there are "X" number of slots for CO due to dining room seating.  First off, cabins where  CO is automatically included.  Then as I am guessing, some cabin categories can add CO while others can upgrade if there are slots.

 

If i am not missing something, then HAL could fix this pretty quickly.  Take the "X" number of slots and reduce the available slots due to CO included and then slots due to option to purchase CO.  Then the remaining slots can be sold from day one and not have an issue with a passenger buying CO benefit to then have it  taken away.  What an odd and disruptive way to manage this benefit.  

 

As for CO in general, for those bumped, i would think they could leave all benefits of CO other than the dining component.  We looked at it and decided we were eating in the specialty restaurants a number of times and for the other few evening, we are good to eat in MDR or in Lido buffet area on a long busy day.  None of other benefits created value for us.  The dining aspect was interesting, but we want to enjoy the speciality restaurants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cccole]

shipshape sam - there are many reasons why passengers opt to pay for CO.  Just from my limited knowledge, the benefits include an upgraded cabin, priority boarding and debarkation, a priority dining line for the MDR if there is not a private CO dining room on the ship, a CO guest services line to take care of problems.  Of course if you do specialty restaurants every night it really doesn't matter about the priority line into the MDR or the CO speciality restaurant, and if you pay the price of the cabin you want and will not give up, CO has little value.   Good post.  Can't wait to see the responses to your post.  That's the great thing about CC, differences of opinion.   Cherie  

[shipshape sam]

On 5/31/2024 at 6:46 AM, kentuckycruiser said:

If anyone has a contact number I would appreciate it, our PCC has vanished. I also just checked our account and I assumed the "refund" would be $350 per stateroom but it is $151 for one room and $296 for the other, so that makes zero sense. The refund is showing on our balance statement for the cruise purchase. 

 

Is this something I can discuss with someone onboard the ship? 

I would ask HAL (A) why are they 'overselling' this feature/benefit. and then ask (B) what was the criteria for having CO taken away from me and (C) were we the only ones to loose the ability to enjoy that feature/benefit.

 

The  more I think about it, makes me think they should have better inventory control of the CO program.  Great companies woutd not just notify you of the issue and just give you a refund.  I think they should refund you and at a minimum provide the CO program to you on your next HAL sailing for free. That would do 2 things in my mind, Hopefully fix the overbooking and if not, NOT penalize customers for their overbooking policy.  I can understand why they may not want unused CO spots, but do as airlines do on overbooking, buy off some CO customers by offering  X number of CO's needed by providing my solution above.  And if needed add OBC's to the mix.

 

 

 

My thoughts only.  

[ChinaShrek]

Better yet, simply offer it as another bundle when booking the cruise. Why all the secrecy and need to call? They have the HIA plan right on the booking page. Add CO as one more option. Do you want a free upgrade and private dining room away from the masses? Click here! It's only for $350 for a 7-night cruise!

[cbr663]

On 6/4/2024 at 7:25 AM, kentuckycruiser said:

As it turned out the PCC made an error with our original booking. After 5 hours the accounting dept determined she made a mistake and so our proper refund was $350 and $365 for CO. They also gave us $100 pp OBC. 

And one of our rooms was an inside so no upgrade. 

 

For our last cruise in Nov we also experienced a PCC that made an error on the CO charge.  They overcharged us for CO.  When I called back several days later to verify the charge it was a long call of several holds for the person on the other end to return to tell me that they have no idea why we were charged the CO amount as it was clearly incorrect.

 

Of course, as is typical HAL fashion, the person I was speaking with could not correct the mistake and could only offer to transfer me to Ship Inventory to have the matter corrected.  As CO is added to your cruise fare and the CO charge is added to your account as part of your deposit, I replied to simply keep it as is and let the overcharge stand.  My thinking was that I knew we were sailing anyway so let things stay as is.  This thread though has shown that I will never do that again.  

[SDARCH]

17 hours ago, shipshape sam said:

I would ask HAL (A) why are they 'overselling' this feature/benefit. and then ask (B) what was the criteria for having CO taken away from me and

I would guess that someone with a very high status booked later and demanded the benefit and the lower status passenger lost out.  its how the airlines work

[LAFFNVEGAS]

I think what happened in this situation was a one off.But I will say how it was handled was not good. It was probably passed down to the Rep that initiated the error to begin with.

I do know that there are two lists for each sailing with number of people that will be added to Club Orange. One list is for North America and the other for Europe. If one list fills up they are allowed to take from the other allotment based on where the ship is sailing. In the past North America tended to get a bigger share but in recent cruising seasons the Europe market has become more aware of this perk.  I have called recently checking on Club Orange to be told that it was full but to hang on and let them check on the Europe List. I think it is possible that there may have been a missed calculation early on but they held out to the last minutes like all cruise lines do basing it on the fact there could easily be a cancellations and they would be fine. Also each sailing is totally different for passenger number content. This particular sailing could have been at the max in Neptune suites for triple and quad occupancy which is not always the normal. As well a number of Club Orange cabins sold may have also had 3 and 4. HAL does not charge extra for Club Orange for 3rd and 4th passenger.I am sure there have a max limit and it probably normally never gets to that but when it got down to the end they realized they had no choice.

Again how it was handled was totally wrong or at least how it was perceived to the poster. It did sound like all was OK in the end but it should have been explained differently so as not to have upset the client in thinking they were getting ripped off.

[PROCRUISE]

On 6/4/2024 at 1:13 PM, SilvertoGold said:

Having the ocean view is definitely a plus! We went to a wine tasting in CO once, sitting at a hallway side table. We had at least one third of pax walking along looking into the room, at the tables. Didn't feel very comfortable.

Actually the best comment we ever heard, by several passing by CO dining on the Rotterdam:

"That's where the uppity people eat!" The wine came out my nose I laughed so hard.

[KAKcruiser]

It's really no different than spending extra to eat in a specialty restaurant.  We all decide how we want to spend our money.  It has nothing to do with being "uppity."

[iloverags2]

On 6/2/2024 at 9:04 AM, NCTribeFan said:

This is very concerning.  I always add CO when I book, and I typically book very early (just booked Nov 2025 and Jan 2026 cruises).  I booked my 17 nights on K'dam for next January in Dec 2023, and included CO, but changed my booking to 24 nights.

 

 

We are sailing HAL for the first time in Jan 2026, and I booked CO less than a week after booking the cruise. I do hope also nothing goes astray...really looking forward to this!