price reduction

I was determined to stay with Costa after Concordia sank and we transferred to Serena leaving 27th April from Valencia. We have cruised before but my daughter organised everything and I am a bit unsure of what to do. We paid 1.000 euro for the two of us and now when trying to obtain access to the website (which won't allow us to enter our booking number) we discover that the cruise is now on offer for £199 each from the UK, (we are in Spain).I feel very let down that we have been charged so much for our loyalty, is there anything we can do?

gill556 ..... you may well find that the UK price you quoted is for Cruise Only and once you add air fare and transfers it may well be close to what you paid!

Just checked the website of TC and it is £199 for cruise only for an Inside cabin.

Yes, this is exactly what we booked. An inside cabin from Valencia, cruise only as we live in Spain. Money is a bit tight at the moment as we only have my pension and a small private pension for my husband but we sacrificed to get a holiday and now find we could have got it a lot cheaper. We booked the Concordia because it went to Malta and Sicily both places we hadn't been to before, when we had to change we lost Malta but thought we had at least got Sicily, now we are told that Mount Etna has erupted, this cruise has been a nightmare and we have stuck with it determined to support Costa but I do wonder if we have done the right thing.

Gill .... our xmas cruise last year changed 6 times before we finally set sail on the Deliziosa which was certainly annoying but made up for with an extra day added Free of charge and an upgrade.

Hopefully you will stick with your cruise and it will be enjoyable for you, it is annoying when a cruise gets offered cheaper closer to the cruising date than what you have paid, have you tried asking for an upgrade?

we are awaiting a phone call from our travel agent, it is not easy as although I get by in Spanish it is difficult to understand accents especially on the phone. A price reduction would not have been drastic if it hadn't been so huge but to pay 1.008 euros compared to £398 is devastating after not asking or getting any sort of compensation for having to change our plans due to the Concordia sinking.

we are awaiting a phone call from our travel agent, it is not easy as although I get by in Spanish it is difficult to understand accents especially on the phone. A price reduction would not have been drastic if it hadn't been so huge but to pay 1.008 euros compared to £398 is devastating after not asking or getting any sort of compensation for having to change our plans due to the Concordia sinking.

You were given the option to cancel your cruise completely without paying any penalty and giving no reason.

I believe in European law, a company is not obliged to pass on any price reduction if that occurs, same as if you buy a new TV and a year later the price drops by half.

Also Costa prices for for those passengers who are resident in the country where the price is stated, has nothing to do with being a British Passport holder.

Best bet is try for an upgrade.

Yes we were offered our money back but we declined as we decided to stick with Costa thinking that they were going to need every passenger they could get after what had happened. We didn't ask for any sort of compensation despite changing the starting place which has cost us £105 in train fares to get there and losing out on one of the two stops which was the reason we originally booked that cruise. The travel agent is a lovely lady but we have had to chase her since day one, last week insisting that she did something about getting us our documents. Having finally got them we cannot customize our cruise or get details as the site will not accept our booking number which she promised to sort but we are still waiting. Added to that we have no insurance documents as she couldn't print them but gave us a phone number in case of emergency. I now discover we can print them ourselves. The phone call she promised us yesterday morning didn't happen so my husband rang the agency to be told that she is on holiday until next week so he has now rung Costa direct. Our previous cruises have been with Princess and Royal Caribbean via the UK but thought we would try from here (Spain) this time but now feel it was a mistake.

We had a similar problem last year, booked a cruise a year in advance, then 4 months before the cruise the price drops. We wrote to Costa Germany and Italy, got a reply but no satisfaction.

Costa has a new pricing policy for 2013, whereby if the price drops then the price difference is passed onto passengers who have booked at a higher price. Maybe you could try and use this policy for this year.

Did your agent book with Costa UK or Costa Spain?

Which Costa web site are you trying to access? If the cruise was booked in Spain, you will not be available to access it via Costa UK or vice a versa. All Costa country sites are separate financial entities, so a cruise cannot be booked in one country and trasfers in another.

I would suggest you give the Costa where the cruise was booked, without waiting for your agent, especially so that you can access and customise your cruise. The booking number should be on your tickets, it is an ( digit number.

Let us know how your get on.

Thank you for taking the time to reply. As far as I know we are doing everything right. The cruise was booked in Spain through Costa Spain and we are trying to access the Spanish site with our booking number but not having any joy. We have reported it to the travel agent and to Costa Cruceros es. The cruiseline say they can do nothing until they have spoken to the travel agent who is now on holiday and I can only hope that it can be sorted next week when she returns.

gill .... have you tried your booking number in the UK website ?

gill .... have you tried your booking number in the UK website ?

yes have tried both, just waiting for our agent to return from holiday now and hope she can sort it.

well we have got nowhere. The reason why we haven't been able to access the website is because of our e-mail address and surname it was being automatically redirected to the UK site who promptly deleted it as they had no booking for us. They have now cancelled it but it is going to take a further 24 hours before we can access the Spanish site. Regarding the price reduction they have basically said 'tough', if you don't like it then cancel. As my husband pointed out, if we had bought something in Marks and Spencers and then there was a price reduction we could return the product, get a refund and purchase at the lower price. We haven't even had the product yet but it has cost us 700 euros more than it would have cost if we had waited and not stayed loyal, no apology or anything. I am not going to let it spoil my cruise but we just won't book with them again as we have had nothing but problems, still no insurance documents, don't even know if there are any formal nights, no information whatsoever, all we had until last week was a receipt for the money we had paid, everything else we have had to chase.

I've been there too with a cruise. Buyers remorse when the price suddenly drops. Some people don't mind and like to book early to secure a spot. Not me, it irks me to think I missed out on a substantial savings. As a result, I tend to book only sales and enjoy the occasional upgrade if the price of upper categories go on sale at an even better deal. There are so many ships and itineraries, sales happen all the time. Basic rule of cruise booking is that once the cancellation window passes, you can upgrade to a sale but you are otherwise stuck with your original deal which is the deal you agreed to and were satisfied with until you saw the sale. You mention a return of an item to Marks and Spencer but a cruise or an airline ticket aren't like a retail store purchase where you can return the item for the lower price. None of the cruise lines can give early booked cruisers the last minute sale prices or the ships would all be in the red for every sailing. Slamming Costa for putting your category on sale and not making an exception for you above all other passengers serves only the vendetta. Trying to get back at the company is one option but in the end, you will be the one carrying a bag full of negativity on your vacation. Think of all of the time you might spend griping about it with others, chewing on it as you look around wondering who got the deal that you didn't, explaining it to others and then writing that long negative review of the ship when you get back. It is just money. Not worth the stress. You now know more about how a cruise booking works. Armed with that knowledge, you will probably save bundles on future bookings.

Kate... As you say it is annoying when cruise lines reduce their prices after you have booked! NCL have done the exact same with our cruise by selling Balconies last week at less than what people paid for an Outside! and refusing to allow a change unless they pay more .... :eek: at least from next year Costa will have a policy in place that will allow people to take advantage of lower prices if they reduce a certain category prior to a cruise.

As Sidari said, next year Costa is giving a price guarantee, I haven't found it on Costa Englsh sites, here is the German version (I'll let you put it through your favourite translator):

Wir geben Ihnen unser Wort, dass Ihre Kunden mit dem Classic- oder Premium-Tarif nach Abzug des Frühbucher Extra Rabatts garantiert die beste Kabine zum besten Preis gebucht haben.

Sollte sich der Classic- oder Premium-Tarif später ändern, passen wir automatisch den Preis Ihrer gebuchten Gäste an.

As Sidari said, next year Costa is giving a price guarantee, I haven't found it on Costa Englsh sites, here is the German version (I'll let you put it through your favourite translator):

 

Wir geben Ihnen unser Wort, dass Ihre Kunden mit dem Classic- oder Premium-Tarif nach Abzug des Frühbucher Extra Rabatts garantiert die beste Kabine zum besten Preis gebucht haben.

 

Sollte sich der Classic- oder Premium-Tarif später ändern, passen wir automatisch den Preis Ihrer gebuchten Gäste an.

I think the OP had made final payment. The cruise is in two weeks. Costa's upcoming price guarantee might not save the day in that situation. I know there are additional guarantees for super early bookers on some of the lines that I do not fully understand.

Excellent advice below from "Griller" on the Princess Board in a recent post about the limitations on Princess after final payment.

"Watch the price until final payment date, get a reduction if it gets lower, then after final payment never look at it again for to do so invites nothing but heartache and despondency."

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=33191770

With this caveat--one might be able to upgrade so one might still want to endure the pain of checking prices after final payment. I tend to book the cheapest inside so I have no where to go but up, which is allowed even after final payment. When I booked the 18-day transatlantic, the balconies were tres expensive but after my final payment, Costa offered the restricted balconies cheaper than the outsides with no balcony. Not only did Costa graciously upgrade me to the restricted view balcony I selected for just a few dollars above my previous inside cabin, Costa sua sponte upgraded me again to an unrestricted view just before sailing.