furious with Holland America

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jboydston

Guest
My husband, myself, and another couple just made final payments (March 12) on Cat I cabins on the May 23rd sailing of the Rotterdam with our TA. Last night we were checking icruise.com and saw that our cabin prices had dropped 50%! For what we paid for our Cat I's, which was a good deal at the time, icruise is offering a Cat A or B verandah suite. Of course we took action right away and called our TA this morning to see if we could either upgrade or be given the lower rate.

HAL states that these prices are only avaialbe through icruise.com and are were unavailable to our TA. In order to get the lower prices we would have to cancel our booking, relinguish our $1,000 deposit and rebook through icruise. Our TA would lose our booking that she has worked so hard for. Even taking the $1,000 loss of our deposit we would still make out about $550 ahead of the game.

I feel that HAL should honor the lower prices they are allowing icruise to sell cabins for and allow our TA to keep the booking at the new lower prices. Am I crazy here? It doesn't seem fair that those of us willing to travel during these uncertain times should be penalized. I feel like I am getting "robbed" by HAL and paying 2x what someone making a booking right now on icruise would pay for the same exact room. Don't get me wrong, I realize that prices drop as the cruise date gets closer, but a 50% decrease is ridiculous! I don't know of anyone who would be willing to ignore that type of decrease.

Has anyone else encountered a similar situation? Any advice on where to go from here? TA has been talking to the supervisor at HAL for the last hour or so and made no headway. She has bascially been dismissed and told their is nothing HAL can do. I just don't agree with that and am really disappointed in HAL. As a first time HAL cruiser I expected better customer service.

Thank you for offering any advise you might have an allowing me to vent.
jb
 
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sail7seas

Guest
I responded to you on the "other board" and my opinion has not changed.

I do not always agree with the decisions HAL in Seattle makes, but I do on this one. Every TA makes their own deals with HAL and all cruiselines and they all offer the same cruise for different rates. We choose which TA we wish to use and this time you did not get lucky with your choice. Next time your TA may be offering a better rate than some other one.

I do not think that HAL has any obligation to match every "cruise booking processor" on the Internet. They may have group space to sell; are cutting prices for volume or simply for cash flow; or are cutting commissions etc etc etc

IF HAL offers a lower rate on their own website, then I do feel they should match it for you. Any rate HAL offers IMO should be the rate all pax pay regardless of when they booked. If you booked early and then find a lower rate on HAL's site and REQUEST they match it....IMO they should!

But, I do not think they have to match every rate someone can find somewhere out on the internet or anywhere else.

Try doing as wendyandbarry above suggested.....maybe they'll be generous and make some adjustment for you.
 
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ShipNC

Guest
I found a lower rate on the HAl website for my recently completed Zuiderdam cruise. I informed my TA about it, and she got HAL to refund the difference promptly. Although I understand your frustration about paying more than you had to, widely varying rates are a feature of just about all travel related businesses these days. If you book an airline fare and find a better rate later, tough luck under any circumstances. At least HAL still has some level of protection if it lowers fares on its website.
 
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