Price drop refund

[david_sobe]

16 hours ago, RocketMan275 said:

 

Why would that be a reason to book direct?  

 

Find a TA that discounts.  If your TA always ten percent discount/rebate, you've probably received a bigger price reduction than any price drop. 

 

 

Did you see my laughing smiley face after my comment?  It was a joke.  Having said that, there are still a few benefits booking directly with the cruise line.

[oliver67]

I am booked on the Epic in September. The cabin price I paid in June was 1,368 Euros which now dropped to 845 Euro for the same cabin, so pver 500 Euros less. Calling NCL Germany, they are refusing any upgrade or refund or OBC. Pretty disappointing. Might it be helpful to call NCL in the US directly? Are there any higher ranking service people available to decide that?

[complawyer]

my understanding (although i could be wrong) is that after the final payment is due, you're out of luck if the price goes down. i believe you can  cancel 60 days prior to sailing, but in your case, it doesnt seem like its applicable. you can also find out how much of a penalty there is if you cancel now and rebook at the lower price.

 

best of luck, ive posted before, ncl doesnt give away ice cubes in winter

[julig22]

1 hour ago, oliver67 said:

I am booked on the Epic in September. The cabin price I paid in June was 1,368 Euros which now dropped to 845 Euro for the same cabin, so pver 500 Euros less. Calling NCL Germany, they are refusing any upgrade or refund or OBC. Pretty disappointing. Might it be helpful to call NCL in the US directly? Are there any higher ranking service people available to decide that?

NCl policies vary by country, so I don't know if calling the US would make a difference.  In the US, 1) if you booked through a travel agent, the agent "owns" your reservation and you have to work with them, not NCL.  2) also in the US you will often get different answers if you call a second, third time.

 

My suggestion would be to make a hypothetical call as a potential customer- ask them what options you have if the price goes down after booking and/or after final payment, without specifically asking with respect to your cruise.  Hopefully they would tell you the policy and you'd have a better idea if the denial is legit or just an uneducated agent.  Good luck.

[julig22]

1 minute ago, complawyer said:

my understanding (although i could be wrong) is that after the final payment is due, you're out of luck if the price goes down. i believe you can  cancel 60 days prior to sailing, but in your case, it doesnt seem like its applicable. you can also find out how much of a penalty there is if you cancel now and rebook at the lower price.

 

best of luck, ive posted before, ncl doesnt give away ice cubes in winter

In the US, you get one more bite of the apple - or at least that's how it's worked in the past.  Either an upgrade or OBC.  For an upgrade, you pay the difference, if any.  OBC is 25% of the difference if I remember correctly.

[oliver67]

12 hours ago, julig22 said:

In the US, you get one more bite of the apple - or at least that's how it's worked in the past.  Either an upgrade or OBC.  For an upgrade, you pay the difference, if any.  OBC is 25% of the difference if I remember correctly.

Thanks! I will try my luck 🙂 

[victory2020]

Does the category you booked in still have to be available to get OBC or upgrade? I booked in a solo room & there are none left - but plenty in other categories. Could I move up to balcony?

[JamieLogical]

42 minutes ago, victory2020 said:

Does the category you booked in still have to be available to get OBC or upgrade? I booked in a solo room & there are none left - but plenty in other categories. Could I move up to balcony?

 

For OBC, it still has to be available, otherwise how would there be a price difference to compare? For a direct upgrade, no. You just have to be able to say "a balcony is only $10 more than I paid" or whatever to be able to try to pay the difference for a direct upgrade.

[victory2020]

8 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

For OBC, it still has to be available, otherwise how would there be a price difference to compare? For a direct upgrade, no. You just have to be able to say "a balcony is only $10 more than I paid" or whatever to be able to try to pay the difference for a direct upgrade.

Ok, the balcony is less than I paid for solo, so could I possibly get an upgrade in this case?

[JamieLogical]

1 hour ago, victory2020 said:

Ok, the balcony is less than I paid for solo, so could I possibly get an upgrade in this case?

 

Only one way to find out! Give them a call!

[julig22]

2 hours ago, victory2020 said:

Ok, the balcony is less than I paid for solo, so could I possibly get an upgrade in this case?

Please let us know if you are successful.  I got a big fat no - apparently based on having the airfare promo, which isn't available for my upcoming cruise.  PCC says promos have to be the same to get an upgrade.  Fingers crossed for a successful bid.

[complawyer]

look at it this way. i would forgo the air fare promo, and get the bigger cabin. you can always get a decent airfare. so the question is will they allow you to cancel your original reservation for the solo, and rebook for a balcony?

[julig22]

7 minutes ago, complawyer said:

look at it this way. i would forgo the air fare promo, and get the bigger cabin. you can always get a decent airfare. so the question is will they allow you to cancel your original reservation for the solo, and rebook for a balcony?

You can't cancel without penalty after final payment - and because of the short 60 day payment timeline, airfare is booked about day 45-55.  If before final payment, then no problem but normally the drastic price drops are after final payment.

[victory2020]

23 minutes ago, julig22 said:

Please let us know if you are successful.  I got a big fat no - apparently based on having the airfare promo, which isn't available for my upcoming cruise.  PCC says promos have to be the same to get an upgrade.  Fingers crossed for a successful bid.

Called twice & both said since there are no solo cabins to compare price with i cannot do it, but if I had booked other categories that are available, they can go to their accounting Dept & most likely give you 25% FCC

[JamieLogical]

7 minutes ago, victory2020 said:

Called twice & both said since there are no solo cabins to compare price with i cannot do it, but if I had booked other categories that are available, they can go to their accounting Dept & most likely give you 25% FCC

 

I thought you were calling about upgrading? In that case I don't understand why there would have to be other solo cabins available, because you would just be able to look at what you paid for your booking and see that a higher level category is available for less than what you paid?

[julig22]

12 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I thought you were calling about upgrading? In that case I don't understand why there would have to be other solo cabins available, because you would just be able to look at what you paid for your booking and see that a higher level category is available for less than what you paid?

To repeat, per my PCC:

we have changed our procedure with upgrades or price drops within final payment. Promotions on the booked reservation must match what is presently available for the newly shopped reservation (on the same ship and sail date), and the voyage fare must have reduced.

Seems to have taken effect earlier this month.  So no upgrade if airfare is on the booking because that promo isn't available.  Also implies no upgrade if no cabin available to prove reduced fare.

[radbuff]

Can you just cancel under the peace of mind policy and rebook?

 

[JamieLogical]

23 minutes ago, radbuff said:

Can you just cancel under the peace of mind policy and rebook?

 

 

Good question! If you can cancel up to 15 days out and get the credit back as FCC, what is keeping people from doing that and just applying that FCC to a new booking for the same sailing?

[MsTabbyKats]

6 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Good question! If you can cancel up to 15 days out and get the credit back as FCC, what is keeping people from doing that and just applying that FCC to a new booking for the same sailing?

I think the time it takes to receive the FCC....might be an issue if it's close to the sail date.

[julig22]

37 minutes ago, radbuff said:

Can you just cancel under the peace of mind policy and rebook?

 

Maybe an option for someone without airfare.  But then again, without airfare, it appears that an upgrade might still be possible, assuming you aren't in a sold out category.

 

If you cancel, you would have to come up with new money because it takes time to get a refund/FCC.  At one point, there was also a disclaimer that you couldn't apply FCC for a canceled cruise for the same cruise - I don't know if that is still true. 

 

Out of curiosity, I just looked at what the airfare would be for the flights NCL booked for my Italy/Greece cruise (which for those NCL air skeptics, are better than anything I could come up with) - it would be over $12K because there aren't many outgoing flights in the afternoon, and only FC available (NCL probably bought out all the economy tickets!).  I could stay overnight and even then my airfare would still be at least $200 more than my NCL cost, plus the cost of the hotel, etc. 

 

 

Edited August 27, 2021 by julig22

[scotlandyard1985]

It is not possible to use your fcc of peace of mind for the same date

[victory2020]

2 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I thought you were calling about upgrading? In that case I don't understand why there would have to be other solo cabins available, because you would just be able to look at what you paid for your booking and see that a higher level category is available for less than what you paid?

Yeah, you would think! The first person said "we don't do that" (upgrade). The second just said I'd have to talk to my agent, which I think I'll do now.

[victory2020]

51 minutes ago, victory2020 said:

Yeah, you would think! The first person said "we don't do that" (upgrade). The second just said I'd have to talk to my agent, which I think I'll do now.

My agent talked to 2 different reps & they said if I wanted to go up to a category more than what I paid I could do it. Said it would be an additional $300 - but it looks like regular balconies are $600 less than I paid. Maybe I would be getting a higher category balcony? Anyway, not worth it to me. 

[JamieLogical]

1 hour ago, victory2020 said:

My agent talked to 2 different reps & they said if I wanted to go up to a category more than what I paid I could do it. Said it would be an additional $300 - but it looks like regular balconies are $600 less than I paid. Maybe I would be getting a higher category balcony? Anyway, not worth it to me. 

 

Are you factoring in double occupancy for the balcony pricing?

[victory2020]

25 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Are you factoring in double occupancy for the balcony pricing?

Yes, out the door pricing for balcony was $1950 (It looks like single was 150%) - I paid 3$150 for solo including the $499airfare,