Fed up with royal caribbean - never again

[T2C]

We cruised on the Liberty of the Seas March 14th with a group of 43. The air was purchased along with the cruise. When we arrived at the airport at 5am to fly out, I was advised that RCCL had not paid for my son's ticket. He had a seat assignment that I had checked on so I assumed everything was good. I had talked to Delta confirming the reservation and seat assignments. They were making last call so we paid 50.00 to change my husbands name to our son's name. It was his senior year Spring Break with a lot of his friends and their families. There were no tickets to purchase as everything was oversold.

 

I called Royal Caribbean while in Atlanta and got no help. I called again when arriving in Miami and spent the whole rest of the afternoon on the phone with them. They tried to offer my husband a flight with a 12 hour layover in Chicago and then said if we found one to go ahead and purchase it and then get it reimbursed when we arrived back home. We got him a one way to San Juan for the whopping price of $905.00. At least that went well, he arrived just before the ship and met up with us. Onboard they acted very cool and like they did not understand why I was so upset. He missed his first 3 days of vacation.

 

It is now 2 months later and we still have not received payment back. I called the first day back and they had me file an insurance claim which was denied since it was Royal's error. When I call to check they told me the other day that they only cut checks once a month. That is crap. So we should receive a check in the next 2 to 3 weeks. We did receive 300.00 each future cruise credits, but my husband promises that he will never cruise with them again, so those are of no use to us. Just when I reach Platnium. This is just so upsetting to think that this is their mistake and then they take 3 months to pay back almost 1000.00 dollars. If we do not receive it by the end of the month we are contacting an attorney. This is just wrong. This was my first time to do air thru Royal and last.........

Sorry for your bad experience but never, never book air through the cruise lines

[ByeBye1]

I empathize with you and would be very mad as well. The only future solution you have is to vote with your wallet and I would not book RCL ever again unless they compensate you for your lost vacation and airfare.

[dougp26364]

Wow, and I thought we got the short end of the stick with RCI after the ending of a Med cruise that was messed up thanks to a fishermans strike. At least in that case, it wasn't RCI's fault. What was their fault were the promises they made to contact everyones airlines so that the computers and phones weren't tied up with a couple thousand passengers all trying to change airline reservations and get hotels at once. RCI dropped the ball badly on those promises but, in the end, they did live up to most of their promises. It was just a pain to have to call them and remind them of what those promises had been.

 

Not booking the air once it had been paid for and now making you jump through hoops of fire to be reimbursed for their mistake is unacceptable. This is something that should have been addressed quickly and put to rest. It's not that mistakes won't happen, it's how a company handles those mistakes that leaves the lasting impression. In this case, it appears RCI has done a very poor job of handling their own mistake.

[Happy ks]

There are a lot of complainers on here but yours is probably the most justified I have read in a while.

 

That's really bad service.

 

I agree with this.

 

And I don't blame the OP one bit for being furious, I would be as well. I do hope RCI steps up and takes care of this ASAP, no more excuses :mad:

[Aquahound]

There are a lot of complainers on here but yours is probably the most justified I have read in a while.

 

I agree. This sounds like a very frustrating situation. I would have been furious.

 

I'm not even sure what lessons there are to be learned here. Don't book air throught the cruise line? Show up to the airport earlier?

[dna1990]

How you got them to change Dad's name to Son's name, is a miracle...name changes at checkin time I thought was a big no-no.

[crusinmama06]

How you got them to change Dad's name to Son's name, is a miracle...name changes at checkin time I thought was a big no-no.

 

$50 name change. The airlines are always happy to take your money. ;)

[long4theocean]

Did you at least enjoy the cruise?

 

I did. Very much so. We were with a very fun group and the ship is beautiful.

[long4theocean]

$50 name change. The airlines are always happy to take your money. ;)

 

Absolutley right. $50.00 and they chased me down the jetway to get my cc.

[long4theocean]

Wow, and I thought we got the short end of the stick with RCI after the ending of a Med cruise that was messed up thanks to a fishermans strike. At least in that case, it wasn't RCI's fault. What was their fault were the promises they made to contact everyones airlines so that the computers and phones weren't tied up with a couple thousand passengers all trying to change airline reservations and get hotels at once. RCI dropped the ball badly on those promises but, in the end, they did live up to most of their promises. It was just a pain to have to call them and remind them of what those promises had been.

 

Not booking the air once it had been paid for and now making you jump through hoops of fire to be reimbursed for their mistake is unacceptable. This is something that should have been addressed quickly and put to rest. It's not that mistakes won't happen, it's how a company handles those mistakes that leaves the lasting impression. In this case, it appears RCI has done a very poor job of handling their own mistake.

 

 

I totally agree with you! Mistakes do happen everyday. But good customer service has to step in and take care of errors. I also own another business and I know that if one of my employees or myself make an error then I am going to do what t takes to keep that customer happy. In this case 2 months and 1 week is entirely too long. You know it could be more then the $952 they are giving us because if it were still on a cc then there could also be interest. Like my husband said what if a family had saved and saved for this special family vacation and then got to the airport and this happend and then they didn't have $900.00 to spend for a ticket that they thought had been paid for. It could have been much worse. But I'm still very disappointed with RCI

[long4theocean]

How you got them to change Dad's name to Son's name, is a miracle...name changes at checkin time I thought was a big no-no.

 

The name can be changed as long as it is immediate family. Of course with a $50.00 fee.

[cruislovin]

Did the fact that you checked-in and got to the gate on last call contribute to the airline not being able to resolve the problem?

[Cuizer2]

We cruised on the Liberty of the Seas March 14th with a group of 43. The air was purchased along with the cruise. When we arrived at the airport at 5am to fly out, I was advised that RCCL had not paid for my son's ticket. He had a seat assignment that I had checked on so I assumed everything was good. I had talked to Delta confirming the reservation and seat assignments. They were making last call so we paid 50.00 to change my husbands name to our son's name. It was his senior year Spring Break with a lot of his friends and their families. There were no tickets to purchase as everything was oversold.

 

I called Royal Caribbean while in Atlanta and got no help. I called again when arriving in Miami and spent the whole rest of the afternoon on the phone with them. They tried to offer my husband a flight with a 12 hour layover in Chicago and then said if we found one to go ahead and purchase it and then get it reimbursed when we arrived back home. We got him a one way to San Juan for the whopping price of $905.00. At least that went well, he arrived just before the ship and met up with us. Onboard they acted very cool and like they did not understand why I was so upset. He missed his first 3 days of vacation.

 

It is now 2 months later and we still have not received payment back. I called the first day back and they had me file an insurance claim which was denied since it was Royal's error. When I call to check they told me the other day that they only cut checks once a month. That is crap. So we should receive a check in the next 2 to 3 weeks. We did receive 300.00 each future cruise credits, but my husband promises that he will never cruise with them again, so those are of no use to us. Just when I reach Platnium. This is just so upsetting to think that this is their mistake and then they take 3 months to pay back almost 1000.00 dollars. If we do not receive it by the end of the month we are contacting an attorney. This is just wrong. This was my first time to do air thru Royal and last.........

 

First of all I hope things get resolved.

 

Second, this is just another reason never to book cruise air.

[realtreebar]

sorry to hear of your spolied flights! all I can say about resolutions department is the squeaky wheel gets the grease this has worked for me with royal caribbean more than once I just don't go away!!! so keep bugging them and go up the chain until you get answers!!

 

TRY THIS EMAIL ITS THE ONE I USED http://www.agoldstein@rccl.com and it is the top of command. good luck

[aloha43]

 

Personally I want to control what airlines and flights I'm on...so would likely never allow the cruise line to take this on for me.

 

 

Me Too! :)

 

My mom had a trip out of New Orleans, coming home to San Francisco. Her "cruise supplied air" took her to Washington DC first. Nothing like going completely in the wrong direction. It added about 8 extra hours to her trip. Plus, she didn't know the airline, route, times or seats until she got her cruise docs, only 1 month before her cruise......no time to change it, or select seats. They had to sit apart on the plane. :mad:

 

I won't do that. Period.

[reallyitsmema]

Some people make the best of a situation and are able to enjoy what they do have. The OP did say they enjoyed the cruise, which I admire them for.

 

When we have horrid things happen to us, we get angry and then get over it. Leave it behind. This person is angry more so at the lack of attention from RCI after they got home.

 

I have no idea why or how this could happen. All I know is after our first cruise/air experience, not even on RCI, we have chosen to book our own air, regardless if we have to pay more. Although, we've never paid more, usually so much less that we have enough to cover a hotel, meals and taxi at the port town.

But why would a TA book airfare through RCI for themselves and then come on CC and say they aren't recommending RCI to their clients because of this experience?

[East Bay Skiers]

I agree. Royal's air is way to overpriced in most situaions anyway.

 

 

I couldn't agree with you more! We had purchased air through Royal on our Panama Canal Cruise in Oct '08. It was sort of a one way, so we thought RC air would be easier (we are in FL and the cruise departed from San Diego and ended in Fort Lauderdale) Well, when we got our air assignment, the combination was so horrible, that we decided to look for our own air. We found what we wanted with no problem and saved us quite a bit. We cancelled Royal air and got a refund with no problem.

 

I'll have to add we used them once, the first time we had to fly to a port (it was from Orlando to San Juan, PR) and that one was OK. We now have air with RC once more on an upcoming Transatlantic in November. We went to custom air and got exactly what we wanted so we'll probably keep it.

 

I'm so sorry about your experience! I agree is the principle. So glad you enjoyed your cruise!

[long4theocean]

Did the fact that you checked-in and got to the gate on last call contribute to the airline not being able to resolve the problem?

 

 

No, we arrived 2 hours early to the airport. We arrived at the gate with last call because we had been at the counter the entire time trying to figure out what was wrong. We were checking in at the kiosk. There were 6 of us on this flight and the others were all on American. Some also had there own air. While at the kiosk there was a problem checking us in and so then we had to get help from an agent who then turned us over to a supervisor. This is what made us late to the gate was her trying to figure out the problem. Then she changed the name and didn't collect for the change fee but they ran down the jetway to get my cc.

[long4theocean]

sorry to hear of your spolied flights! all I can say about resolutions department is the squeaky wheel gets the grease this has worked for me with royal caribbean more than once I just don't go away!!! so keep bugging them and go up the chain until you get answers!!

 

TRY THIS EMAIL ITS THE ONE I USED http://www.agoldstein@rccl.com and it is the top of command. good luck

 

Thanks for the address. You would think with me being in the business that they would want to accomodate me and resolve this since I do sell their product. Our rep here in our area has been ZERO help, nor has even tried to follow up with me.

[long4theocean]

But why would a TA book airfare through RCI for themselves and then come on CC and say they aren't recommending RCI to their clients because of this experience?

 

Why would I not? Number one when we booked the group air was cheaper then purchasing it seperatley. I am on CC because I am so frustrated with RCI and have given them a chance to respond in a timely manner, which they have not. Just because I am an agent, does not mean that I have to protect them from what is wrong. I don't work for RCI, so if they do not have good customer service why would I want to promote them. That is a silly question.

[cruislovin]

No, we arrived 2 hours early to the airport. We arrived at the gate with last call because we had been at the counter the entire time trying to figure out what was wrong. We were checking in at the kiosk. There were 6 of us on this flight and the others were all on American. Some also had there own air. While at the kiosk there was a problem checking us in and so then we had to get help from an agent who then turned us over to a supervisor. This is what made us late to the gate was her trying to figure out the problem. Then she changed the name and didn't collect for the change fee but they ran down the jetway to get my cc.

 

Wow, this is terrible.

 

The last time we used cruise air we were with a group. Our whole family had their return flights cancelled. We found this out while checking in at the Miami airport. Fortunately, we had arrived super early and they were able to get all four of us on the flight. No explanation was ever given as to why it was cancelled, especially since it was a return flight and we had flown the same itinerary to Miami for the cruise. No one else in the group of about 30 people was impacted. We were very fortunate to get on the flight, but it wasn't Spring Break time which probably helped...

[reallyitsmema]

Why would I not? Number one when we booked the group air was cheaper then purchasing it seperatley. I am on CC because I am so frustrated with RCI and have given them a chance to respond in a timely manner, which they have not. Just because I am an agent, does not mean that I have to protect them from what is wrong. I don't work for RCI, so if they do not have good customer service why would I want to promote them. That is a silly question.

You might think it is a "silly question", I think it is poor business practice on your part.

[luckyprincess]

But why would a TA book airfare through RCI for themselves and then come on CC and say they aren't recommending RCI to their clients because of this experience?

 

They booked airfare through RCI because it is a convienent option. Some find it more expensive and have problems with it but it is by no means a taboo thing to do. They aren't recommending them to clients because of the way they dropped the ball on customer service with this issue. Of course I'm just getting this information from reading the OP's post, so if I'm off the mark someone correct me...

[Salt air hair]

You might think it is a "silly question", I think it is poor business practice on your part.

 

The OP is a TA and now has the unfornate first hand expierence of how RCI handled this particular problem. If she is a reliable and trustworthy TA she'll let her clients know what happened to her and how RCI does/does not handle it. I want my TA to tell me and direct me into the most positive way possible and if they don't I'll find someone who can. Kudos to you OP!

[searoses]

so how did the op's son and husband get home? was there a seat assignment for the return? did the husband have to pay from miami to home? did rci cover that? what a pain. for me the whole airline thing is like a really long visit to the dentist and then you're on vacation! the only time we used cruise air as we booked last minute it took us from fll to chicago to new hampshire. never again. if rci has admitted fault where is the money already!!!