More Price Drops Noticed - but they're fighting back....be persistent!

[jencruzin]

I've tried explaining to the agent tonight that I notice a $126 PD on our BASE PRICE of the cruise. First agent kept saying it was because of port fees and taxes dropping, gratuities included, airfare included, excursions....she went on and on, even placed me on hold, came back, resolutions department denies it. At that point, I said ok, I'll try later on.
NEXT CALL:

I re-explain the price drop noticed, base price mock booking check on cruise shows same PD.  2nd agent persists, throws odd figures at me, claims I currently hold the base price, kept insisting I have the lower base price. 

I remained adamant and polite. $4613.40 is what your price was on Feb 7th. Tonight the price is down to $4487.40. That's a PRICE DROP of $126.

To no avail.

I've emailed the information to them, up to now, they are refusing the price drop. 

Any advice on this? Strategies? What else to say?

 

 

 

 

 

[Ourusualbeach]

4 minutes ago, jencruzin said:

I've tried explaining to the agent tonight that I notice a $126 PD on our BASE PRICE of the cruise. First agent kept saying it was because of port fees and taxes dropping, gratuities included, airfare included, excursions....she went on and on, even placed me on hold, came back, resolutions department denies it. At that point, I said ok, I'll try later on.
NEXT CALL:

I re-explain the price drop noticed, base price mock booking check on cruise shows same PD.  2nd agent persists, throws odd figures at me, claims I currently hold the base price, kept insisting I have the lower base price. 

I remained adamant and polite. $4613.40 is what your price was on Feb 7th. Tonight the price is down to $4487.40. That's a PRICE DROP of $126.

To no avail.

I've emailed the information to them, up to now, they are refusing the price drop. 

Any advice on this? Strategies? What else to say?

 

 

 

 

 

Are you 100% certain it's not the taxes.  You cannot look at the bottom line price.  If taxes drop you do not get a price drop.

[c-leg5]

38 minutes ago, jencruzin said:

I've tried explaining to the agent tonight that I notice a $126 PD on our BASE PRICE of the cruise. First agent kept saying it was because of port fees and taxes dropping, gratuities included, airfare included, excursions....she went on and on, even placed me on hold, came back, resolutions department denies it. At that point, I said ok, I'll try later on.
NEXT CALL:

I re-explain the price drop noticed, base price mock booking check on cruise shows same PD.  2nd agent persists, throws odd figures at me, claims I currently hold the base price, kept insisting I have the lower base price. 

I remained adamant and polite. $4613.40 is what your price was on Feb 7th. Tonight the price is down to $4487.40. That's a PRICE DROP of $126.

To no avail.

I've emailed the information to them, up to now, they are refusing the price drop. 

Any advice on this? Strategies? What else to say?

 

 

 

 

 

How are you seeing the breakdown of taxes and port charges? 

[shof515]

i noticed royal uses dynamic pricing which can be very unpredictable at times with pricing changing every minute or hourly.  this could be why the call center people can not see the price you see on the website

 

i noticed it myself. i seen cruises i want to book at one price on one devices. hours later i switched to a different device and then the price increased by like 50 dollars. eventfully the pricing goes down again

Edited February 22, 2023 by shof515

[ARandomTraveler]

Have you gone all the way through the booking, up to the point where you put in your dining preference, and picking the room location and the non-refundable option (if you chose that option)?

 

I ask because I've noticed that sometimes the base price and taxes look the same, but when you go to pick your room, and let's say it's "mid ship," the cost to "upgrade" the room to mid-ship is different from when you booked it.

 

Same with the non-refundable deposit price. That changes often too. A price that looks different suddenly becomes the same once you check those boxes (they may drop the base price but then raise the cost of the room location and/or the non-refundable deposit cost).

[Coralc]

They play a lot of games, don't they? 🙄

[jencruzin]

7 hours ago, c-leg5 said:

How are you seeing the breakdown of taxes and port charges? 

Technically, I can't see that breakdown, but I look at the breakdown of fees, discounts, etc on the left side, and noticed that the taxes, which do include port charges, remained the same - $199 on my Feb 7th price check.

[jencruzin]

8 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Are you 100% certain it's not the taxes.  You cannot look at the bottom line price.  If taxes drop you do not get a price drop.

Taxes are remnant from the Feb 7th price check. $199. Has not budged. The agents also tried telling me it's taxes and port fees. It can't be. Not if that $199 is the same.

[jencruzin]

7 hours ago, shof515 said:

i noticed royal uses dynamic pricing which can be very unpredictable at times with pricing changing every minute or hourly.  this could be why the call center people can not see the price you see on the website

 

i noticed it myself. i seen cruises i want to book at one price on one devices. hours later i switched to a different device and then the price increased by like 50 dollars. eventfully the pricing goes down again

That's probably it right there.

[jencruzin]

7 hours ago, ARandomTraveler said:

Have you gone all the way through the booking, up to the point where you put in your dining preference, and picking the room location and the non-refundable option (if you chose that option)?

 

I ask because I've noticed that sometimes the base price and taxes look the same, but when you go to pick your room, and let's say it's "mid ship," the cost to "upgrade" the room to mid-ship is different from when you booked it.

 

Same with the non-refundable deposit price. That changes often too. A price that looks different suddenly becomes the same once you check those boxes (they may drop the base price but then raise the cost of the room location and/or the non-refundable deposit cost).

 

[jencruzin]

I gave up after two (lengthy) attempts on the PD's noticed. I did, however, send them an email via their portal, to explain how and why I see it. But the agents were pitching smokescreens, using excursions, air fare, gratuities into the mix. I get the feeling that they know I meant BASE pricing, including taxes/fees. I am going to see if they'll honor the difference I see since Feb 7th. They are getting tougher and more resilient to fend off honoring the PD's we see, this only makes me want to press on even more.

Edited February 22, 2023 by jencruzin

[Ourusualbeach]

4 minutes ago, jencruzin said:

Taxes are remnant from the Feb 7th price check. $199. Has not budged. The agents also tried telling me it's taxes and port fees. It can't be. Not if that $199 is the same.

Is it the exact same category.

 

Take for example Oceanview balcony.  There are 2 subcategories within this one category a 2D and a 4D.  This does not show on Royals booking engine or their invoices unless you use a TA.  You could be pricing the wrong category even though its the correct category.

[jencruzin]

6 minutes ago, jencruzin said:

 

Yes, I do all of that. Just a simple mock booking, all the way through. I leave off gratuities on purpose, of course. 

[jencruzin]

1 minute ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Is it the exact same category.

 

Take for example Oceanview balcony.  There are 2 subcategories within this one category a 2D and a 4D.  This does not show on Royals booking engine or their invoices unless you use a TA.  You could be pricing the wrong category even though its the correct category.

Yes, same exact category as what we booked. But, I did not know about these two different sub categories....will investigate as the day progresses. Thanks!

[Ourusualbeach]

5 minutes ago, jencruzin said:

I gave up after two (lengthy) attempts on the PD's noticed. I did, however, send them an email via their portal, to explain how and why I see it. But the agents were pitching smokescreens, using excursions, air fare, gratuities into the mix. I get the feeling that they know I meant BASE pricing, including taxes/fees. I am going to see if they'll honor the difference I see since Feb 7th. They are getting tougher and more resilient to fend off honoring the PD's we see, this only makes me want to press on even more.

 

This is a category 4D.  what stateroom number did you book and I can check to see what category that is.

 

I ma showing a $110 price difference between the 2D and the 4D

[Ourusualbeach]

3 minutes ago, jencruzin said:

Yes, same exact category as what we booked. But, I did not know about these two different sub categories....will investigate as the day progresses. Thanks!

Did you book midship, the one you are pricing is aft.  Price difference

[TwoMisfits]

Under this new sale, my cabins went up even more...now, for each person, it's up $120, or $720 total, since I booked.  I think May 2024 will be a popular sailing month...

 

[jencruzin]

2 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Did you book midship, the one you are pricing is aft.  Price difference

Thanks for pointing this out....about to run a mock booking again to see. We're midship, on the hump, slightly bigger balcony but didn't pay more for it. We booked this cabin on our last cruise.

[jencruzin]

2 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Did you book midship, the one you are pricing is aft.  Price difference

ahhh. UPDATE: it's now just "we book your room" and no longer "you pick your room" which I chose last night. So now I know, it's off.
update#2: NO! "You pick your room" was below, I just now noticed...

I may as well pay off the remaining balance and realize no more PD checks. Final payment is due March 6th, so....but, there's still a lot of unbooked cabins! Should I give up the ghost on this?

Edited February 22, 2023 by jencruzin

[Jimbo]

2 minutes ago, jencruzin said:

ahhh. UPDATE: it's now just "we book your room" and no longer "you pick your room" which I chose last night. So now I know, it's off. I may as well pay off the remaining balance and realize no more PD checks. Final payment is due March 6th, so....but, there's still a lot of unbooked cabins! Should I give up the ghost on this?

forget about all this and royal up

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/booked/cruise-room-upgrade

 

Edited February 22, 2023 by Jimbo

[jencruzin]

So here we go. Thanks ourusualbeach for pointing this out, I'm sobered up now from thinking I'd get the PD! THIS time I ran the mock booking center ship, like our booked cabin. Now, it's went up, so I think I'm giving this up and just pay off the remaining balance:
 

[jencruzin]

7 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

forget about all this and royal up

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/booked/cruise-room-upgrade

 

Tried it, we're not within the next 30 days of sailing quite yet. Thanks though! Tempting but not certain we'd do it.

[Jimbo]

2 minutes ago, jencruzin said:

Tried it, we're not within the next 30 days of sailing quite yet. Thanks though! Tempting but not certain we'd do it.

Might be worth trying once inside 30 days if as you say there are still a lot of cabins unbooked. 

[c-leg5]

8 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

forget about all this and royal up

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/booked/cruise-room-upgrade

 

How does that help, the OP is trying to pay less not more?

[jencruzin]

Just now, Jimbo said:

Might be worth trying once inside 30 days if as you say there are still a lot of cabins unbooked. 

All of the suites are booked, just checked. But....this makes the bidding more interesting because there are usually some cancellations.