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Better Rates Paying in NOK


hejiranyc
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When paying with a EU credit card (EU rule) - does not apply to Norway.

 

Thanks, but sorry, I'm not sure what you mean.

 

Does the UK law not apply because we would be paying a Norwegian company?

 

Or does it not apply if we in the UK use an 'EU' credit card (but what is an EU credit card)?

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Thanks, but sorry, I'm not sure what you mean.

 

Does the UK law not apply because we would be paying a Norwegian company?

 

Or does it not apply if we in the UK use an 'EU' credit card (but what is an EU credit card)?

 

 

Did not UK leave the EU, and would that thus change things? Glad to hear that UK prevents add on charges The Aussies will nail you both with added charges AND make you pay in advance, in full for hotels booked in advance !!!.

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Did not UK leave the EU, and would that thus change things? Glad to hear that UK prevents add on charges The Aussies will nail you both with added charges AND make you pay in advance, in full for hotels booked in advance !!!.

 

 

Sorry for NOT being clear. I ment a credit card issued in an EU country. To my knowledge UK is still part of EU. Yet another year the EU rules will apply to UK.

 

 

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Did not UK leave the EU, and would that thus change things?

 

Not yet, but we're working on it. 29 March 2019 is the day we leave but there will almost certainly be a transition period.

 

 

Glad to hear that UK prevents add on charges

 

It was long overdue, though some smaller outlets are finding it difficult to, in effect, absorb the fee the credit card companies charge.

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Sorry for NOT being clear. I ment a credit card issued in an EU country. To my knowledge UK is still part of EU.

 

Ah, many thanks for the clarification!

 

 

Yet another year the EU rules will apply to UK.

 

Yes, but the end is (almost) nigh!

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  • 2 weeks later...

With no warning, it appears that Hurtigruten.no is redirecting American visitors to the hurtigruten.us site; it is impossible to access hurtigruten.no here. Yet, at the same time, it is still possible to visit other country websites (UK, DE, DK, SE, etc.). Very strange. Shady even. Very, very shady. I can understand slight variations in pricing due to currency fluctuations. But the US website pricing is generally 30%+ higher than the NO website. Also, most importantly, there are some trips that are simply not offered on the U.S. website (such as the Svalbard trip I booked for August). I guess they really don't want Americans on their trips since they are singling out Americans to pay more while offering fewer trips. Well, I guess this will be my last trip on Hurtigruten and I hope other Americans get the word that their money and participation are not welcome. Admittedly, the Hurtigruten itineraries and NOK pricing were wonderful, but they are certainly not the only game in town. There are plenty of other trip organizers willing to take my money without making me feel like I'm being penalized for being American.

 

BOYCOTT HURTIGRUTEN

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With no warning, it appears that Hurtigruten.no is redirecting American visitors to the hurtigruten.us site; it is impossible to access hurtigruten.no here. Yet, at the same time, it is still possible to visit other country websites (UK, DE, DK, SE, etc.). Very strange. Shady even. Very, very shady. I can understand slight variations in pricing due to currency fluctuations. But the US website pricing is generally 30%+ higher than the NO website. Also, most importantly, there are some trips that are simply not offered on the U.S. website (such as the Svalbard trip I booked for August). I guess they really don't want Americans on their trips since they are singling out Americans to pay more while offering fewer trips. Well, I guess this will be my last trip on Hurtigruten and I hope other Americans get the word that their money and participation are not welcome. Admittedly, the Hurtigruten itineraries and NOK pricing were wonderful, but they are certainly not the only game in town. There are plenty of other trip organizers willing to take my money without making me feel like I'm being penalized for being American.

 

BOYCOTT HURTIGRUTEN

 

Are you able to access a non-USA website for Hurtigruten using a VPN?

 

Also, which Svalbard cruise is not showing on the USA website?

We've been interested in one, so I just checked, and there are quite a few variations showing.

 

Thanks!

 

Not that this is necessarily a proper "excuse", but in some cases (with other cruise lines, anyway), the prices may be different, but so are the "terms". Some of that seems to be due to different local regulations, so it might be the same for Hurtigruten.

 

GC

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Are you able to access a non-USA website for Hurtigruten using a VPN?

 

Also, which Svalbard cruise is not showing on the USA website?

We've been interested in one, so I just checked, and there are quite a few variations showing.

 

Thanks!

 

Not that this is necessarily a proper "excuse", but in some cases (with other cruise lines, anyway), the prices may be different, but so are the "terms". Some of that seems to be due to different local regulations, so it might be the same for Hurtigruten.

 

GC

 

I am able to access all of the non-US Hurtigruten sites... with the glaring exception of NO. I am booked for the 6-day western Svalbard voyage which you will not see on the US site. And I don't believe that it is some kind of Norsk-only trip because it is offered on all of the other European country sites (so the tours will be given in English, German and Norwegian, as usual). And it's not like they are offering special country-specific airplane arrangements because all flights to Svalbard originate or connect through Norway. Also, I don't think local regulations are an excuse. They were certainly willing to take my registration for the cruise booked through the NO site a couple of months ago. In a nutshell, you are subject to the terms and conditions that you agree to at the time of booking (i.e., subject to Norwegian regulations), regardless of your country of origin. A few years ago I booked a flight to Copenhagen on Norwegian Airlines and my checked luggage never arrived (for an 11-day trip!). Needless to say, I spent a lot of money having to buy/wash clothes and toiletries. If this happened in the U.S., by federal regulation, airlines have minimum requirements for compensating passengers in the event of delayed/missing luggage, i.e., covering all reasonable, verifiable expenses. After almost two weeks of shopping daily for inexpensive T-shirts and washing my socks in the sink, I still ended up submitting receipts for over $250 to Norwegian. Under Norwegian law, claimants not only need to submit receipts. They also need to send the actual purchased clothing items too! To Norway! To add insult to injury, any compensation they provide is through wire transfer only, and they impose a $15 fee to do this. Needless to say, after two weeks of suffering and having to buy everything, an international telephone call and some tense emails, I netted $32 in compensation. Anyway... the moral to the story is that if you do business with Norwegian businesses, you are operating under their terms and conditions. Buyer beware!

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I am able to access all of the non-US Hurtigruten sites... with the glaring exception of NO. I am booked for the 6-day western Svalbard voyage which you will not see on the US site. And I don't believe that it is some kind of Norsk-only trip because it is offered on all of the other European country sites (so the tours will be given in English, German and Norwegian, as usual). And it's not like they are offering special country-specific airplane arrangements because all flights to Svalbard originate or connect through Norway. Also, I don't think local regulations are an excuse. They were certainly willing to take my registration for the cruise booked through the NO site a couple of months ago. In a nutshell, you are subject to the terms and conditions that you agree to at the time of booking (i.e., subject to Norwegian regulations), regardless of your country of origin. A few years ago I booked a flight to Copenhagen on Norwegian Airlines and my checked luggage never arrived (for an 11-day trip!). Needless to say, I spent a lot of money having to buy/wash clothes and toiletries. If this happened in the U.S., by federal regulation, airlines have minimum requirements for compensating passengers in the event of delayed/missing luggage, i.e., covering all reasonable, verifiable expenses. After almost two weeks of shopping daily for inexpensive T-shirts and washing my socks in the sink, I still ended up submitting receipts for over $250 to Norwegian. Under Norwegian law, claimants not only need to submit receipts. They also need to send the actual purchased clothing items too! To Norway! To add insult to injury, any compensation they provide is through wire transfer only, and they impose a $15 fee to do this. Needless to say, after two weeks of suffering and having to buy everything, an international telephone call and some tense emails, I netted $32 in compensation. Anyway... the moral to the story is that if you do business with Norwegian businesses, you are operating under their terms and conditions. Buyer beware!

 

Huh?

 

You need to submit the receipts for the replacement clothing AND send the new clothing, too?

And then they are supposed to send you the money... so... you can go back out and purchase duplicates of the replacement clothing?

 

??

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Huh?

 

You need to submit the receipts for the replacement clothing AND send the new clothing, too?

And then they are supposed to send you the money... so... you can go back out and purchase duplicates of the replacement clothing?

 

??

 

I applied for compensation AFTER I returned home from my trip. I submitted my receipts (through email) as requested. But then I received an e-mail that I had to send the clothing items in too (to Norway)! Supposedly they donate it to charity. Whatever. Needless to say, I didn't get any compensation for clothing due to Norwegian's complete and utter incompetence.

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If you go to the menu page you can select any language or currency including NO.

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

No, that doesn't work. It might work from your location, but selecting NOK brings me back to the US site. If I ever decide to book Hurtigruten again (probably not), I had better do it while I am in Norway in a few months.

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No, that doesn't work. It might work from your location, but selecting NOK brings me back to the US site. If I ever decide to book Hurtigruten again (probably not), I had better do it while I am in Norway in a few months.

 

I’m able to get all sites from the locations I have tried within Europe. Might be different in the US.

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

I know I'm late to the game on this thread, but has anyone from the U.S. (or another country where prices are higher) tried booking a Hurtigruten cruise on the UK or global site? It's shocking how much higher prices are in the U.S., sometimes as much as 40% more. I understand that I'd be bound by the rules are of the country I book with, but will Hurtigruten stop a U.S.-based passenger from booking on their European sites?

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I’m not aware of any problems apart from the Norwegian language.

I know that the UK site and the NO sites are similar - have both pages open - also some communication and links provided are in Norwegian Language. Use google translate or similar. You can also find all information at the global site. Payment using credit card.

Let us know if you experience any problems.

 

 

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We'd be *very* interested in this.

 

When we were first exploring Hurtigruten, we somehow landed on what seemed to have been the Norwegian site. (I'm not 100% sure of that, but we needed to use Google translate to figure out what was what.)

 

Later, we found out there was a new (?) USA office in the Seattle area, and we had already found the "USA" (or "English language" at the least) website.

 

But we saw prices in a chart in English, with US$, and that was what we paid, with a Canadian-based TA.

Now, our TA often travels internationally, and has family in Europe, so he may be able more easily to check Norwegian prices.

I should have thought about that by now - Duh!

I'll check with him to see if he can find a way to book with Norwegian prices AND also what the terms are, assuming they are different.

(He'll get more trips from us if this works... less money per trip, but more trips, and almost definitely more spent in total. We find it much more difficult to book a single trip that is very expensive, no surprise! Win/win! :))

 

Thanks for this reminder, and please do let us know your progress.

 

GC

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As I read it the deposit is 10% when booking in Norway

 

PAYMENT

When you have asked Hurtigruten to confirm your order, the trip will be due for payment as follows:

If the booking is made more than 60 days before departure, a deposit of 10% of the total cost of the trip will be charged. The full price of the trip must be paid 60 days prior to departure.

 

Cancellation as follows

More than 60 days before: Fee corresponding deposit

60-42 days before 30%

41-28 days before 60%

27-14 days before 90%

Less than 14 days before 100%

 

link to terms and conditions in Norwegian Language

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I have booked several trips on the Norwegian website (I live in France, we do have a French office and website). I bought several Norway port-to-port last year (you can now only buy them on the Norwegian website anyway) and I bought a full Norwegian round-trip for next year, as it was subtantially less expensive than on the French website.

I had no issue whatsoever. The only thing to look out for, as has been already said, is that you consent to the Norwegian TOS, and your trip falls under the Norwegian consumer laws. If you have travel insurance, maybe check with them if they would cover it.

Communication by email for these trips are both in Norwegian and English, so that's handy.

Honestly, I find Hurtigruten's presence on the internet a confused mess, but so far it seems it allows travellers around the world to get better rates for their trip, with a little bit of work.

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We'd be *very* interested in this.

 

 

American here. I booked my expedition trip on the NO site because it was not offered on the US site (back before American traffic became automatically redirected to the US site). In a nutshell, so far so good. Keep in mind:

 

-All communications, forms, itineraries and information documents are written in Norwegian. Using Google Chrome to translate to English is helpful for emails but not for PDF attachments. Fortunately, with a little searching around the Hurtigruten sites, you will find the equivalent PDF documents written in English.

 

-10% payment upfront, followed by an email containing a link to a payment site to pay the balance. Unfortunately, the payment site was on the NO site, so I was unable to access it. After a single email exchange, I was sent a link to the U.S. pay site where I was able to make the payment.

 

The USD is really, really strong at the moment, especially against the Scandinavian currencies. If you are going to book a Hurtigruten voyage now, and you haven't figured out a way to get to the NO site, I believe you can try the DK or SE sites. The pricing may not be as good as NO, but it will probably be better than the EUR or UK sites. But with great pricing comes great risk; the cancellation policies are generally more strict than the US.

 

If all goes well on my Svalbard expedition next week, I may book an Antarctica expedition while I am in Norwegian territory.

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Just for kicks, I priced out a 13-day Midnatsol cruise to Antarctica for this November 6th. Thirteen days, six in Antarctica, cheapest cabin, per person:

 

 

 

U.S. website: $6,667

Germany and Global websites: $5,687

Sweden website: $4,825

 

 

It's pretty remarkable, although I know that European travelers often experience the reverse when booking with U.S.-based cruise companies.

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Just for kicks, I priced out a 13-day Midnatsol cruise to Antarctica for this November 6th. Thirteen days, six in Antarctica, cheapest cabin, per person:

 

 

U.S. website: $6,667

Germany and Global websites: $5,687

Sweden website: $4,825

 

 

It's pretty remarkable, although I know that European travelers often experience the reverse when booking with U.S.-based cruise companies.

 

That's quite a difference, more than I expected.

 

However, for cruises way far in advance, only the deposit would be at these good currency rates.

When final payment is due, it could be quite different.

 

I assume they do *not* "bill in US$", including for final payment.

If they did, the currency conversion would be protected.

 

Am I correct that for a cruise perhaps 15-18 months from now, it would be a "who knows" what the US$ cost would be?

(Sorry; it should be obvious that we've never tried to do this before, taking advantage of currency differences far in advance.)

 

Thanks.

 

GC

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That's quite a difference, more than I expected.

 

However, for cruises way far in advance, only the deposit would be at these good currency rates.

When final payment is due, it could be quite different.

 

I assume they do *not* "bill in US$", including for final payment.

If they did, the currency conversion would be protected.

 

Am I correct that for a cruise perhaps 15-18 months from now, it would be a "who knows" what the US$ cost would be?

(Sorry; it should be obvious that we've never tried to do this before, taking advantage of currency differences far in advance.)

 

Thanks.

 

GC

 

If Google Translator is doing this right, the Swedish cancellation policy is more punishing than the U.S. or Global policies unless you cancel more than 151 days out, in which case it's a little less punishing. Then it escalates to 30% for 91-150 days, and then it's a mixed bag afterwards.

 

I wonder if you can pay the entire cost of the cruise up front and not have to worry about currency conversion shifts (the kronor was much stronger against the dollar in 2014 but it's been pretty level for a few years).

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If Google Translator is doing this right, the Swedish cancellation policy is more punishing than the U.S. or Global policies unless you cancel more than 151 days out, in which case it's a little less punishing. Then it escalates to 30% for 91-150 days, and then it's a mixed bag afterwards.

 

I wonder if you can pay the entire cost of the cruise up front and not have to worry about currency conversion shifts (the kronor was much stronger against the dollar in 2014 but it's been pretty level for a few years).

 

No - The % cancellation fee is the same for Sweden as for Denmark and Norway - and Sweden also has a 10% deposit. Note that the cancellation schedule is different for Costal Voyages and for Explorer Voyage.

The big different from Nordic to Global terms is the 10% deposit in Nordics versus the 20 % deposit for Global

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