False advertising by NCL, Free Balcony upgrades All ships - All Destinations

[che5904]

Not going to get in the middle of the false v. misleading advertising discussion but I do wish NCL would do a better job of preparing their CSAs and their website (and checking it twice as Santa always does) before they advertise one of these big promotions.

 

Yesterday, after hearing about the “free upgrade” sale like we used last year to buy our October 2011 cruise, I wanted to see if I could rebook/upgrade our Canada cruise in September 2012. I called NCL and pretended I was making a first booking, the person I talked with said the upgrades from OV to Balcony were sold out even though it was showing with the little arrow "upgrade available".

 

Not wanting to give up, I tried again and this time told them I was already booked but wanted to see about this new sale, the agent looked into it and came back and said since we have one of the Lattitudes graduation OBCs that it wouldn’t save us any money which I initally accepted..

 

After further consideration and realizing that there was a $300 pp price difference between the most expensive OV and the cheapest Balcony, I decided that didn't sound right since the OBC was only $75 per cabin….so I called yet again and this time the agent said that the upgrade offer differed between ships – on some it was good either between categories (from OV to Balcony) and on others was solely within a category (from a low OV to a higher one). Thinking I had misread the fine print, I accepted this.

 

Back I went to read the fine print but that is not what it said for Gem…so I called again (that’s 4 calls if anyone is counting), I explained to the nice lady what the previous agent had told me and that I couldn’t understand why there wasn’t an OV category showing the same price as one of the balcony categories, which is how this promotion was done last time year. She used her system and said she couldn’t see any upgrade promotional codes so then she pulled up the NCL website and pretended to make a booking just like I had done and agreed that it said there should be some balconies at OV pricing but that they weren’t pricing that way. She asked me to hold on while she did some research.

 

After about 10 minutes, she came back and said it appeared that none of the NE/Canada cruises had been correctly inputted into the system. She said the “cheat sheet” she received showed that Gem's Canada sailings should have had a “free” upgrade from a lower inside category to a higher inside, but didn’t show the OV to Balcony that the website was advertising. She apologized and suggested I either go ahead and book one or the other or keep checking the website as she was hopeful that my question would prompt someone to rectify the situation.

 

So today after reading this thread, I looked again, and alas, NOTHING is different. Still has the arrow with the "upgrade" available box which when you click on it says, "Get a balcony for the price of an oceanview (select categories)" but when you try to book, none of the Balconies are priced the same as any of the OVs. :confused::confused:

 

Anyone have a suggestion other than giving up?:(

 

Outside of moving up the ladder to supervisors, sorry I have no other suggestions.

 

But this was the point I was making earlier on with my recommendation to NCL and my side note. I love NCL but they have to do something about their front line workers knowledge. They are very nice (the ones I've spoken to), their willingness to help is always wonderful (the ones I've spoken to). But boy the knowledge is lacking. Do I expect excellence, no I live in the real world and they are just call center employees. But frustrating, I agree, it is and definately improvement is needed.

[stubbornoldowl]

Not going to get in the middle of the false v. misleading advertising discussion but I do wish NCL would do a better job of preparing their CSAs and their website (and checking it twice as Santa always does) before they advertise one of these big promotions.

 

Yesterday, after hearing about the “free upgrade” sale like we used last year to buy our October 2011 cruise, I wanted to see if I could rebook/upgrade our Canada cruise in September 2012. I called NCL and pretended I was making a first booking, the person I talked with said the upgrades from OV to Balcony were sold out even though it was showing with the little arrow "upgrade available".

 

Not wanting to give up, I tried again and this time told them I was already booked but wanted to see about this new sale, the agent looked into it and came back and said since we have one of the Lattitudes graduation OBCs that it wouldn’t save us any money which I initally accepted..

 

After further consideration and realizing that there was a $300 pp price difference between the most expensive OV and the cheapest Balcony, I decided that didn't sound right since the OBC was only $75 per cabin….so I called yet again and this time the agent said that the upgrade offer differed between ships – on some it was good either between categories (from OV to Balcony) and on others was solely within a category (from a low OV to a higher one). Thinking I had misread the fine print, I accepted this.

 

Back I went to read the fine print but that is not what it said for Gem…so I called again (that’s 4 calls if anyone is counting), I explained to the nice lady what the previous agent had told me and that I couldn’t understand why there wasn’t an OV category showing the same price as one of the balcony categories, which is how this promotion was done last time year. She used her system and said she couldn’t see any upgrade promotional codes so then she pulled up the NCL website and pretended to make a booking just like I had done and agreed that it said there should be some balconies at OV pricing but that they weren’t pricing that way. She asked me to hold on while she did some research.

 

After about 10 minutes, she came back and said it appeared that none of the NE/Canada cruises had been correctly inputted into the system. She said the “cheat sheet” she received showed that Gem's Canada sailings should have had a “free” upgrade from a lower inside category to a higher inside, but didn’t show the OV to Balcony that the website was advertising. She apologized and suggested I either go ahead and book one or the other or keep checking the website as she was hopeful that my question would prompt someone to rectify the situation.

 

So today after reading this thread, I looked again, and alas, NOTHING is different. Still has the arrow with the "upgrade" available box which when you click on it says, "Get a balcony for the price of an oceanview (select categories)" but when you try to book, none of the Balconies are priced the same as any of the OVs. :confused::confused:

 

Anyone have a suggestion other than giving up?:(

 

We received a similar run-around on a Canada/NE cruise for October 2012.

[nikimouse]

most companies use clever advertiseing to make you think you are getting a bargain, Ive lost count of the amount of times Ive seen a holiday at a bargain price, and when I call up its not avaliable but they try to sell you something else.... usually when somethings just too good to be true, its not true!

At the moment the sailing im on has ocean views at $20 more than insides , so I am thinking of upgradeing.

[Clay Clayton]

We received a similar run-around on a Canada/NE cruise for October 2012.

 

Discovered yesterday they have finally fixed the pricing on the website....our balcony cabin's price Has been lowered a hundred bucks to be the same price as a family OV....of course it appears they have raised the price of the OV $150 or so:eek:

[che5904]

Discovered yesterday they have finally fixed the pricing on the website....our balcony cabin's price Has been lowered a hundred bucks to be the same price as a family OV....of course it appears they have raised the price of the OV $150 or so:eek:

 

Yes they have definately played with the prices for this promotion. Not all bad though. This is from a sailing I have been watching over the last month.

 

OV's for the most part have dropped by $20

Except the OV they are using to price match which has raised by $200

The balconies as well as the balcony they are using to price match OVs with have dropped $20-$30.

 

So unless you wanted to book that particular OV category on our sailing, all of the rest of the OV and balconies have dropped in price.

So anyone that wanted to book that OV category could just wait until this promo is over and then it will probably drop back down.

[belizegal]

Okay, I am upset & frustrated with what NCL has done with my booking of 14 Day Panama Canal cruise in Janaury 2014.

I noticed that they had put the Panama Canal intinerary back during the winter months (when I am able to vacation) and also that there was a "free upgrade" sale. I called the Harrah's line and was told that I could upgrade from an oceanview to a balcony, which I did. The oceanview was priced at $2,099.00 per person and the balcony was also priced at $2,099.00 per person. I asked the rep about the pricing and I wanted to be sure that the price of the oceanview did not drop after the "sale", she guaranteed me (verbally) that all that would happen would be that the price of the balcony would go UP after the "Sale". Well low & behold, looking at the pricing the cost per person for an oceanview has DROPPED by $800.00 per person....so tell me what type of sale was this??? Really not a sale at all just a "come on" to get you to book.

Really, NCL, I have been a loyal NCL cruiser and do not like this kind of deceptive practice. I will be calling and cancelling this cruise just for the prinicpal (& have found other cruises that I am interested in).

Wendy

[che5904]

Okay, I am upset & frustrated with what NCL has done with my booking of 14 Day Panama Canal cruise in Janaury 2014.

I noticed that they had put the Panama Canal intinerary back during the winter months (when I am able to vacation) and also that there was a "free upgrade" sale. I called the Harrah's line and was told that I could upgrade from an oceanview to a balcony, which I did. The oceanview was priced at $2,099.00 per person and the balcony was also priced at $2,099.00 per person. I asked the rep about the pricing and I wanted to be sure that the price of the oceanview did not drop after the "sale", she guaranteed me (verbally) that all that would happen would be that the price of the balcony would go UP after the "Sale". Well low & behold, looking at the pricing the cost per person for an oceanview has DROPPED by $800.00 per person....so tell me what type of sale was this??? Really not a sale at all just a "come on" to get you to book.

Really, NCL, I have been a loyal NCL cruiser and do not like this kind of deceptive practice. I will be calling and cancelling this cruise just for the prinicpal (& have found other cruises that I am interested in).

Wendy

 

Sorry not really sure what all your complaint is. If you read any of my posts above you will see that in order to match the the balconies to the oceanviews, they up the price of some of the oceanviews and lowered the price of the balcony involved in that. Is this quite common practice in companies...yes. Is it right...probably not. But U.S. citizen have been accepting this practice for many years from companies and bigger retail stores.

 

Now onto your post. A Harrah's rep guaranteed you (verbally) about an NCL price???? An NCL rep couldn't even guarantee you that NCL prices wouldn't go down let alone a "Harrahs rep", since they go up and down on pretty well on a weekly basis under normal circumstances. If you wanted an oceanview in the first place and I'm assuming you are before final payment since you just booked last week. If your price has lowered on that particular oceanview, why not call back and change to the oceanview. No penalty if you are before final payment.

 

I personally think I would have been more ticked if the balcony I booked under the "sale" had dropped in price the day after.

[Cruzaholic41]

That's awesome...and I must agree with the OP. The ad is terribly misleading. I hope the person he spoke to at NCL was mistaken.

 

I agree with the OP. It is misleading

ALL SHIPS ALL DESTINATIONS

 

Agreed. The apologists can explain it away all they want, but the advertisement is still misleading and I think it's meant to be misleading.

[che5904]

Agreed. The apologists can explain it away all they want, but the advertisement is still misleading and I think it's meant to be misleading.

 

I didn't see anyone defending, just stating reality and facts. The fact is consumers have accepted this type of advertising for as long back as I can remember. I just don't see any reason to pick on one company for doing this when all large companies do it.

 

As a matter of fact society provides an entire career based on this that requires a college degree, it is called marketing and advertising.

 

These same people that appear shocked by this are probably the same one's that fall for it every evening on their TV set or when they get their flyers from their local grocery or department stores.

 

There are the odd consumers, I would bet, like the poster above who actually bought into it. The reason I claim and explained in a post above why I call it clever advertising is not because somone is going to fall for the supposed deal but because it is going to bring them to their website or call center and gee while they are there they might as well look into a cruise they have been thinking about anyway. And even if a person fell for it they aren't getting a bad deal just not as great as they believed.

[Cruzaholic41]

I just don't see any reason to pick on one company for doing this when all large companies do it.

 

I have no recent e-mails from any other cruise line misleadingly advertising Free Upgrades - All Ships - All Destinations. So yes, for right now, I see plenty of reason to pick on this one company. Tomorrow, perhaps it will be another cruise line and on that board, I'm sure it will be discussed. But today, it's NCL.

[che5904]

I have no recent e-mails from any other cruise line misleadingly advertising Free Upgrades - All Ships - All Destinations. So yes, for right now, I see plenty of reason to pick on this one company. Tomorrow, perhaps it will be another cruise line and on that board, I'm sure it will be discussed. But today, it's NCL.

 

Well go for it! :rolleyes:

[redlef]

=Middleager;31612412. . . . I'm disappointed by this advertising. If NCL had said "Select ships, select destinations", it would be truthful. . . . This thing about upgrading from top oceanview to balcony, well yes you can call it an upgrade but it is deceiving.

 

I totally ignore the cruise ship advertising. IMHO, charging me for deck 8 but giving me a cabin on deck 9 or 10 isn't an upgrade. With that mentality, an airline should charge more for row 8 than row 12. (They probably will pretty soon). Guess I'm not that deck conscious. Cruise line advertising has such little integrity, I have a filter setup in Outlook to delete anything from Carnival or NCL - they're just false promises, even if their lawyers have calculated that they're legal.

 

As a matter of fact, I can't think of much advertising anywhere that's really honest. How about buying a car - do you ever get the car they advertise on the radio? "You can have this fully loaded Chevy Tahoe for only $129 per month." Sure, they'll do that if you come down with a $30,000 down payment. Just not very upfront.

 

As far as the Expedia vs NCL price, the web TA's are just as bad as the cruise lines. Lots of times they add taxes after the fact, so you're not comparing apples to apples until you fill out the entire form and get almost all the way to "Click here to confirm your purchase." They do the same things with airfare.

 

I just booked our cruise through an airline frequent flyer program (which turned out to be a web TA) and after 25 or 30 minutes on the phone, found out there was a $24.95 booking fee. The ad said "$479pp with up to a $250 OBC." On the phone, they offered me a price of $429pp (this is for a balcony cabin, so I grabbed it) but it didn't qualify for the OBC.

 

I could have booked at the $479 (NCL price) and gotten a $75 OBC, but it seemed like I was saving $25. After 30 minutes on the phone, I gave up. Then they hit me with the $24.95 booking fee. My total savings after half an hour on the phone: five cents.

 

I should have told them their offer was bogus and hung up and called NCL directly, but I had already spent half an hour on the phone and would have just booked the same cabin at the same price. It just wasn't worth all the extra time on the telephone.

 

I'll never book through the airlines Frequent Flyer Program again, and I'll stay away from web TAs as well. Still, I got a great price on a 7 day cruise in a balcony, so I'm not upset, I just figured I'd share my "truth in advertising" story.

 

The TA told me they could do this offer because they "negotiated a fantastic deal with the cruise lines by buying thousands of cabins on hundreds of cruises." Yeah, right.

 

In the words of Forest Gump, "The Army said it was a million dollar wound, but they must keep the money because I never saw a dime." :)

[Cruzaholic41]

nm. nwi.

[che5904]

I totally ignore the cruise ship advertising. IMHO, charging me for deck 8 but giving me a cabin on deck 9 or 10 isn't an upgrade. With that mentality, an airline should charge more for row 8 than row 12. (They probably will pretty soon). Guess I'm not that deck conscious. Cruise line advertising has such little integrity, I have a filter setup in Outlook to delete anything from Carnival or NCL - they're just false promises, even if their lawyers have calculated that they're legal.

 

As a matter of fact, I can't think of much advertising anywhere that's really honest. How about buying a car - do you ever get the car they advertise on the radio? "You can have this fully loaded Chevy Tahoe for only $129 per month." Sure, they'll do that if you come down with a $30,000 down payment. Just not very upfront.

 

As far as the Expedia vs NCL price, the web TA's are just as bad as the cruise lines. Lots of times they add taxes after the fact, so you're not comparing apples to apples until you fill out the entire form and get almost all the way to "Click here to confirm your purchase." They do the same things with airfare.

 

I just booked our cruise through an airline frequent flyer program (which turned out to be a web TA) and after 25 or 30 minutes on the phone, found out there was a $24.95 booking fee. The ad said "$479pp with up to a $250 OBC." On the phone, they offered me a price of $429pp (this is for a balcony cabin, so I grabbed it) but it didn't qualify for the OBC.

 

I could have booked at the $479 (NCL price) and gotten a $75 OBC, but it seemed like I was saving $25. After 30 minutes on the phone, I gave up. Then they hit me with the $24.95 booking fee. My total savings after half an hour on the phone: five cents.

 

I should have told them their offer was bogus and hung up and called NCL directly, but I had already spent half an hour on the phone and would have just booked the same cabin at the same price. It just wasn't worth all the extra time on the telephone.

 

I'll never book through the airlines Frequent Flyer Program again, and I'll stay away from web TAs as well. Still, I got a great price on a 7 day cruise in a balcony, so I'm not upset, I just figured I'd share my "truth in advertising" story.

 

The TA told me they could do this offer because they "negotiated a fantastic deal with the cruise lines by buying thousands of cabins on hundreds of cruises." Yeah, right.

 

In the words of Forest Gump, "The Army said it was a million dollar wound, but they must keep the money because I never saw a dime." :)

 

 

:D :D Sorry I couldn't help but laugh at your post. It rings so true. I love the .05 cent story.

[belizegal]

Sorry not really sure what all your complaint is. If you read any of my posts above you will see that in order to match the the balconies to the oceanviews, they up the price of some of the oceanviews and lowered the price of the balcony involved in that. Is this quite common practice in companies...yes. Is it right...probably not. But U.S. citizen have been accepting this practice for many years from companies and bigger retail stores.

 

Now onto your post. A Harrah's rep guaranteed you (verbally) about an NCL price???? An NCL rep couldn't even guarantee you that NCL prices wouldn't go down let alone a "Harrahs rep", since they go up and down on pretty well on a weekly basis under normal circumstances. If you wanted an oceanview in the first place and I'm assuming you are before final payment since you just booked last week. If your price has lowered on that particular oceanview, why not call back and change to the oceanview. No penalty if you are before final payment.

 

I personally think I would have been more ticked if the balcony I booked under the "sale" had dropped in price the day after.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I should explain myself to you. We always get a balcony and have in the past reserved our cabin during a free upgrade sale. The "free upgrade" sale let us pay for an ocean view and be upgraded to a balcony. On the Panama Canal cruise that I just booked last week during the "free upgrade" sale, I would have booked a balcony but saw the free upgrade, so booked an oceanview & was upgraded to a balcony......not realizing that the oceanview price was the same as a balcony.....what was the point....I got no deal...I paid for a balcony.

[peg013]

[quote name='belizegal']I should explain myself to you. We always get a balcony and have in the past reserved our cabin during a free upgrade sale. The "free upgrade" sale let us pay for an ocean view and be upgraded to a balcony. On the Panama Canal cruise that I just booked last week during the "free upgrade" sale, I would have booked a balcony but saw the free upgrade, so booked an oceanview & was upgraded to a balcony......not realizing that the oceanview price was the same as a balcony.....what was the point....I got no deal...I paid for a balcony.[/QUOTE]

Now you are confusing me......how is the price of the balcony being shown as the same price as the OV not giving you a balcony at the OV price. They always show the free upgrades at the price you will actually pay. Would you have preferred they showed the "old price" for the balcony so it would sink in that you are paying less than the usual price?:confused: And yes, they and the rest of the business world, sometimes raise the prices right before a sale. I'm not saying it's right....just that's the way it is.

[bambilin]

I am just reading your posts now because I got another "promo" postcard saying Free Balcony Upgrades, so I thought I would check again, but like you said, although they show Ocean view starting at $1399 and Balcony at $1699, when you click to actually book, Ocean View and Balcony are both at $1699.

I love NCL, just completed my 9th cruise on NCL on the POA in August, but really, this is very disappointing false advertisement on their part. It is not like the balcony price went up, only the Ocean View, so you are actually getting NOTHING as a promo.

[CruiserChloe]

[quote name='bambilin']I am just reading your posts now because I got another "promo" postcard saying Free Balcony Upgrades, so I thought I would check again, but like you said, although they show Ocean view starting at $1399 and Balcony at $1699, when you click to actually book, Ocean View and Balcony are both at $1699.

I love NCL, just completed my 9th cruise on NCL on the POA in August, but really, this is very disappointing false advertisement on their part. It is not like the balcony price went up, only the Ocean View, so you are actually getting NOTHING as a promo.[/quote]

I agree. It absolutely is a misleading advertisement. I've seen a couple threads on this now and it is very easy to see how people could be fooled by it.

[davesgirl51]

It isn't misleading advertising. It is VERY creative marketing.;);)

[alwalaska]

[quote name='nikimouse']most companies use clever advertiseing to make you think you are getting a bargain, Ive lost count of the amount of times Ive seen a holiday at a bargain price, and when I call up its not avaliable but they try to sell you something else.... usually when somethings just too good to be true, its not true!
At the moment the sailing im on has ocean views at $20 more than insides , so I am thinking of upgradeing.[/quote]
In our house, we call that the Good Ole Bait and Switch technique.

I got lucky and caught a balcony at the Oceanview price, but the sale prices went away after a day even though the promotion was supposed to run through Jan 21. :confused:

[bambilin]

I got a lot of flack when I posted on NCL's Facebook Page. People telling me I just was not understanding the promo and that they had "lowered" the balcony price to that of the ocean view. But you see I had the prices already, was considering booking a particular sailing. They did not bring the balcony price down to that of the ocean view, they brought the ocean view up to the price of the balcony. I guess I did not get in there on that 1st day!! :0(


I know NCL is not the only ones doing this "creative marketing" :0)
but I am just disappointed in them, have been on 24 cruises and they are my favorite line.

Happy Friday all!

[che5904]

[quote name='bambilin']I got a lot of flack when I posted on NCL's Facebook Page. People telling me I just was not understanding the promo and that they had "lowered" the balcony price to that of the ocean view. But you see I had the prices already, was considering booking a particular sailing. They did not bring the balcony price down to that of the ocean view, they brought the ocean view up to the price of the balcony. I guess I did not get in there on that 1st day!! :0(


I know NCL is not the only ones doing this "creative marketing" :0)
but I am just disappointed in them, have been on 24 cruises and they are my favorite line.

Happy Friday all![/quote]

Yes [U]in my research[/U] they did bring the selected oceanview up (not to equal the selected balcony price) but higher than it was before. Which is a pretty typical thing to be done.

I just don't get why everyone seems so put out/disappointed/upset that NCL has done this type of marketing/advertising. All large companies do it. I'd love someone to point out a large company that never uses this type of technique to get people through the door. And since you went to their web site to check this out, the technique obviously worked :).

I'm beginning to think that people are so upset because they actually fell for it. Most people don't like to think they can be had by advertising gimmicks.

[bambilin]

[quote name='che5904']Yes [U]in my research[/U] they did bring the selected oceanview up (not to equal the selected balcony price) but higher than it was before. Which is a pretty typical thing to be done.

I just don't get why everyone seems so put out/disappointed/upset that NCL has done this type of marketing/advertising. All large companies do it. I'd love someone to point out a large company that never uses this type of technique to get people through the door. And since you went to their web site to check this out, the technique obviously worked :).

I'm beginning to think that people are so upset because they actually fell for it. Most people don't like to think they can be had by advertising gimmicks.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I had already priced out particular categories prior to the promo. The lowest Oceanview is now priced exactly the same as the lowest balcony, at least on my particular sailing. I realize all big companies do this, guess I just never caught NCL before! :0)

[che5904]

[quote name='bambilin']Yeah, I had already priced out particular categories prior to the promo. The lowest Oceanview is now priced exactly the same as the lowest balcony, at least on my particular sailing. I realize all big companies do this, guess I just never caught NCL before! :0)[/quote]

Well I can't say that I ever recall them doing this, I guess I just assumed all large businesses did and NCL was a large business. Maybe they just got a new advertising firm. ;)

[Cruzaholic41]

[quote name='che5904']I just don't get why everyone seems so put out/disappointed/upset that NCL has done this type of marketing/advertising. All large companies do it. I'd love someone to point out a large company that never uses this type of technique to get people through the door. And since you went to their web site to check this out, the technique obviously worked :).

I'm beginning to think that people are so upset because they actually fell for it. Most people don't like to think they can be had by advertising gimmicks.[/quote]

Two things - One, just because all large companies do it, that makes it any less aggravating? Misleading is misleading and I don't care who all does it. This thread is about NCL doing it.

Second, people are upset because they fell for it? Well, duh! Of course they are, and rightfully so.