Consumer protection laws are dictated by country

[lenbest]

It seems that if you book a guarantee cabin here in the uk then thats it NO CHANGE under any condition however in the US i believe you can go back in the pool and be assigned another cabin-if so than this is just not fair as we will all ways be left with the worst cabins and has got nothing to do with consumer protection laws are dictated by country-but maybe I have it all wrong and if so I am sure you will tell me

[Biker19]

I think most consumer protection laws are a bit more generic than dictating RCI how run its GTY cabin scheme. Those are RCI's rules for each country within some general guidelines. If you want to take advantage of another country's booking rules, book there - there's nothing preventing you from doing that.

[xxHadleyxx]

I admit that it is frustrating that those of us not booked as Americans or Canadians cannot switch to another cabin of the same type like they can (or go back into the pool, but I am always a little surprised that is allowed anywhere, quite honestly) but, at least from the German side, I have not seen that we end up with worse cabin assignments overall than anyone else.

 

We have had our fair share of the smallest, most basic the GTY allows, but also some nicer ones and we were even given a Grand Suite with a balcony gty once!

[brillohead]

It seems that if you book a guarantee cabin here in the uk then thats it NO CHANGE under any condition however in the US i believe you can go back in the pool and be assigned another cabin-if so than this is just not fair as we will all ways be left with the worst cabins and has got nothing to do with consumer protection laws are dictated by country-but maybe I have it all wrong and if so I am sure you will tell me

 

Okay, for starters -- grammar and punctuation are your friends. That is one of the longest run-on sentences I've seen in quite some time.

 

Secondly, how do you KNOW that room assignment has nothing to do with each country's laws? Are you a lawyer / attorney / solicitor / barrister of some sort?

 

It's VERY possible that the same laws that protect you also tie the hands of the cruise line.

 

The same law that says they can't change your room assignment after the reservation is made might be the very same law that says YOU can't change your room assignment after the reservation is made.

 

Similarly, the same law that says they can't jack up your price once the reservation has been made may be the same law that says you can't rebook at a lower price (in the event of a price drop) without cancelling your reservation entirely (and losing your deposit) and making a whole new booking.

 

I don't know a lot about how laws are created in the UK, but here in the USA, both sides are fighting to get what they need to protect themselves. While consumer protection agencies are fighting for laws that protect the consumer, various industries are also fighting to make sure their interests are also protected.

 

A law that provided consumers with all kinds of flexibility while offering no financial security to the industry is going to be a law that results in the entire industry abandoning a market which no longer makes financial sense. Would you prefer to not be allowed to cruise at all, because the cruise lines have given up on an expensive endeavor?

[BND]

So, don't book a guaranty. We always book the cabin we want and have never changed cabins. If you book a guaranty, you get what you get and if UK is different than US and you know it, why would you book a guaranty? This really isn't about consumer protection as you are getting what you paid for/requested. To me, this is about wanting more than you pay for.

Edited March 13, 2016 by BND

[DrD]

It seems that if you book a guarantee cabin here in the uk then thats it NO CHANGE under any condition however in the US i believe you can go back in the pool and be assigned another cabin-if so than this is just not fair as we will all ways be left with the worst cabins and has got nothing to do with consumer protection laws are dictated by country-but maybe I have it all wrong and if so I am sure you will tell me

 

I have no idea of what that sentence means.

[debgreg]

Wow being lambasted for your grammatical capabilities seems rather harsh :rolleyes:

 

I think all the original poster was trying to say was as RCI is an American company, why don't the same rules apply everywhere ? Does different legislation here in the UK have an impact on that being possible ?

 

The difference between a gty and a selected cabin for us recently was almost £500, quite a difference.

 

I hope my grammar meets the required standards of the forum ?

Edited March 13, 2016 by debgreg

[little britain]

There is nothing to stop you booking in the USA.

I do fail to see why the UK have this strange rule, regarding guarantees, which seems to serve no purpose apart from angering UK guests and driving business away.

 

 

Sent from my iPad mini 4 using Tapatalk

[Biker19]

I do fail to see why the UK have this strange rule, regarding guarantees, which seems to serve no purpose apart from angering UK guests and driving business away.

 

Because a huge majority of the cruising public don't know the rules are different (better?) in other countries and don't complain (or do anything about it).:cool:

[Saab4444]

I think most consumer protection laws are a bit more generic than dictating RCI how run its GTY cabin scheme. Those are RCI's rules for each country within some general guidelines. If you want to take advantage of another country's booking rules, book there - there's nothing preventing you from doing that.

 

 

That is not correct. Officially RCL does not allow Europeans to book a cruise in the US. You can do this by using a US travel agent but it is against published RCL policy and in worst case they can check and reject or cancel your booking at any time.

[Paulxyz2004]

I think consumer protection laws have very Little to do with matters like this. It´s simply different Marketing in different markets.

 

It´s nothing unique to RCI.

 

A guarantee is Kind of a gamble. You are booking a certain category and are guaranteed that product. If it´s the worst or best cabin in that category, or even a better category is at the discrition of the cruiseline, Hotel, etc.

You are not forced into this gamble, as you can usually book a specific cabin at a higher Price.

 

To be honest in this case I don´t think the UK/Europe rule of not allowing any changes is strange, I think the US rule is the strange one.

 

It might anger a few customers but I highly doubt it will drive away some major Business.

 

As Long as all vacation Providers are pretty much in the same space with their rules in a specific markets customers have no way of switching to a competitor because of a rule. So unless guarantees are handeld differently By every other vacation Provider than RCI, they might lose Business over this.

 

However you Need to Keep in mind, what´s the percentage of guarantees offered, of their Overall Business? I have no idea, but I would make a bet it´s just a very low percentge. Guarantees are a Marketing strategy to be a Little more flexible about cabins and to fill the ships closer to sailling. The vast majority of cabins will be booked as regular bookings and not as guarantees.

 

As to Anger of guests - well this will only affect a very low percentage as well. The vast majority of cruisers has no idea about how different the rules are.

 

It might be a Topic on Cruise critic and maybe some other cruise boards, but how small of a fraction of the cruising Population is this?

 

Let´s just take Cruise Critic. There are roughly 24000 members on here. Included in there are all the one post wonders and probably many that might not even be around anymore, but regardless we´ll take the 24000 members.

 

Now look at how many customers the cruiselines have every year. 24000 People can be accomodated on less than 5 ships of the RCI fleet at any given day. That´s not counting that there are many more cruiselines out there.

 

Sorry to say this, but it´s simply not an issue for the world outside CC.

[Saab4444]

That is not correct. Officially RCL does not allow Europeans to book a cruise in the US. You can do this by using a US travel agent but it is against published RCL policy and in worst case they can check and reject or cancel your booking at any time.

 

 

Quote

 

NOTE: MSC Cruises, Costa Cruises, Holland America Line, Oceania Cruises, Princess Cruises and Royal Caribbean Cruise Line prohibit U.S. travel agencies from selling cruises to customers who do not have a residence in the U.S. or Canada. We will be happy to assist international clients with finding cruise lines that accept international bookings.

 

Unquote

[clarky213]

Quote

 

NOTE: MSC Cruises, Costa Cruises, Holland America Line, Oceania Cruises, Princess Cruises and Royal Caribbean Cruise Line prohibit U.S. travel agencies from selling cruises to customers who do not have a residence in the U.S. or Canada. We will be happy to assist international clients with finding cruise lines that accept international bookings.

 

Unquote

 

So why have RCCI automatically transfered my last 3 on-board bookings to my US TA, even though I am from the UK.

[Paulxyz2004]

Quote

 

NOTE: MSC Cruises, Costa Cruises, Holland America Line, Oceania Cruises, Princess Cruises and Royal Caribbean Cruise Line prohibit U.S. travel agencies from selling cruises to customers who do not have a residence in the U.S. or Canada. We will be happy to assist international clients with finding cruise lines that accept international bookings.

 

Unquote

 

Sounds like a Quote from a TA not a cruiseline. I have not had a Problem with booking RCI and Princess Cruises with a US TA, despite a similar note on their Website. I actually hold bookings with both lines at the Moment via a US TA.

 

Some TA´s might not want the Business from other countries and I´m sure the cruiselines discourage them from taking it, but there´s actually nothing stopping them from doing it.

 

Sometimes you have to contact the TA via email and ask about a booking. Most of them will happily take your booking.

The cruiseline might frown upon it, but they will not cancel your booking. They get my address and nationality and Country of Residence with the booking and it is accepted every single time. I go online as soon as I have a Reservation number and it´s all there in their System.

[Paulxyz2004]

So why have RCCI automatically transfered my last 3 on-board bookings to my US TA, even though I am from the UK.

 

Because it´s their Default Option to Transfer those bookings to the source you booked the cruise with you are currently on;)

 

And because they don´t care about it.;)

 

BTW, I´ve experienced the same Thing.

[Miryam1234]

There is nothing to stop you booking in the USA.

I do fail to see why the UK have this strange rule, regarding guarantees, which seems to serve no purpose apart from angering UK guests and driving business away.

 

 

Sent from my iPad mini 4 using Tapatalk

 

Oh no, we Europeans are regulated by RCI marketing strategies and therefore forced to book under local rules. Cannot book in US from Finland either.

 

Us Finnish are combined with other Scandinavians under Norway office where our cruises are regulated and priced. I learned this when I accidentally booked a cruise under France RCI website. French price was 500eur less than Scandinavian! I had to contact Eu customer protection authorities before they allowed me to keep the Franch pricing. But we were also then regulated by French rules for cancellind penalties, due dates etc.

 

So defenately rules are different for each marketing region. Some rules are harder, some better (like our final payment is only 30 days before embarkation and we can cancel up to that point with only 50 eur payment. But no price adjustments or changing guarantee cabins)

[Biker19]

Quote

 

NOTE: MSC Cruises, Costa Cruises, Holland America Line, Oceania Cruises, Princess Cruises and Royal Caribbean Cruise Line prohibit U.S. travel agencies from selling cruises to customers who do not have a residence in the U.S. or Canada. We will be happy to assist international clients with finding cruise lines that accept international bookings.

 

Unquote

 

Right, and there's a long list of TAs that break this rule every single day. Those are RCI's rules, not country laws.

[Biker19]

Oh no, we Europeans are regulated by RCI marketing strategies and therefore forced to book under local rules. Cannot book in US from Finland either.

Yes you can, if you are willing to ignore RCI's rules and live with the terms and conditions of the place you are booking.:cool:

[Saab4444]

Right, and there's a long list of TAs that break this rule every single day. Those are RCI's rules, not country laws.

 

 

I know that and have started to book in the US as well.

 

In Central Europe it was fine some years ago with local RCL sales experts and flexibility at least regarding prize adjustements and changing a reservation.

 

Now it is costwise not acceptable anymore and from a global perspective unfair. You have to book with a call center in NL with agents who mostly have no expertise in the product. If you call five times you get five different answers. In most cases They do not allow price adjustments even if one year ahead of a cruise, they accept changes only under very specific and not published circumstances (only to earlier and at least 10% more expensive cruises that are more than 3 months ahead is one regulation I learnt from one of the few experienced sales agents). In general all changes are a cancelation and cost you at least 10% penalty, even if more than one year ahead of travel date.

 

Buttom line is that booking early is always to your disadvantage in Central Europe as still drop, especially when it comes close to final payment date for a specific cruise and many cancel or change for free on the US side.