Royal Caribbean - UK gets poor deal compared to USA

[Dinglebert]

Discovered something odd in the past couple of days. I booked a cruise for next October. Leaving from Venice (well its no longer Venice its a town 120km away but its still labelled Venice). Anyway when I booked the flights were not on their system and they asked me to phone back this week.

I phoned on Tuesday. Wanted four passengers Edinburgh to Marco Polo. They came back at £1130. Roughly the price I was expecting until they said that was per cabin and not for the four of us. Therefore double what I was expecting. I got them to check other airports only Manchester was anywhere near a good price. They did suggest waiting till 11 months out and look again.

The flights would have been with Jet2. I thought I would have a look at what Jet2 would be charging for this year in October to get a feel only to discover that they were already selling next Octobers flights. I put in my details and the price was £1080 for all four of us.

Back to RCI to get them to check again. This time they came back at £1860 for all four of us. I forwarded screen shots of my dummy booking but also of a page on their UK website which states they will provide the cheapest flights and if they can't then you would get 110% of the difference in room credit. Agent stated he was unaware of that page so it was emailed to him. After about 90 minutes on the call the line went dead.

I called back. This time their quote was £1660 for all four of us. No idea why or how their prices change so much in a day! I again pointed them to their webpage, they again said they had no idea it existed. I was promised a phone call yesterday from head office.

It came at 10pm last night. Apparently that page was for USA guests only and should not have been on the UK site. However as it was they honoured it. They could not reduce their flight price so instead we paid that price and got $750 in room credit which will pay for drinks and spa things.

Good result in the end as I needed them to book the flight so they are responsible for getting me to and from the ship.

However why do the USA only get such a deal and not us in the UK?

[KarenG]

Sometimes our deals are better than US ones. Certainly I’ve found that with NCL anyway! I guess there may be contractual reasons (maybe cruise lines buy a certain number of flights or have an agreement with popular US carriers for discounted fares?) but they probably wouldn’t do it for all airline like Jet2. Just a guess but it’s good you shopped around and that they honoured the deal

[JAF]

We have cruised with several cruise companies and normally find UK guests are charged more than UK guests. American guests are also able to cancel and amend bookings before the final balance is paid with far less penalties and often non unlike here where once you have paid a deposit then that is it.

[YorkshireT]

I booked mine with an excellent US travel agent who sorted me out an it was cheaper than I could get here. Not sure if that is typical. This was last year.

[gismo1554]

Flight wise I would add that unfortunately most of these companies end up booking the flights as if they were a US person booking the flight so the prices end up not looking anything like you can get by going direct (or at least this is what I was told when questioning a similar thing previously).

I agree with others that sometimes we luck out and sometimes we don't on these offers but that does seem very good for US travellers (mind u its unlikely they would be getting such price differences I guess)

[Jan]

I was told that under U.K. laws, we get much better “protection” than US residents who book in the US. Like, the cruise line could send US passengers on an entirely different cruise, like ports of call could be different, and there is nothing US citizens could do about it. However, that could not happen to those U.K. citizens who booked through a UK agent without the cruise line having to pay out a lot of compensation. There is probably other things too that I don’t know about!

[gismo1554]

Originally Posted by Jan

I was told that under U.K. laws, we get much better “protection” than US residents who book in the US. Like, the cruise line could send US passengers on an entirely different cruise, like ports of call could be different, and there is nothing US citizens could do about it. However, that could not happen to those U.K. citizens who booked through a UK agent without the cruise line having to pay out a lot of compensation. There is probably other things too that I don’t know about!

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We do as we have ATOL which US don't. That's a good point given everything going on in the world.

[gavvy]

Originally Posted by Jan

I was told that under U.K. laws, we get much better “protection” than US residents who book in the US. Like, the cruise line could send US passengers on an entirely different cruise, like ports of call could be different, and there is nothing US citizens could do about it. However, that could not happen to those U.K. citizens who booked through a UK agent without the cruise line having to pay out a lot of compensation. There is probably other things too that I don’t know about!

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I have heard stories of cancelled cruises and USA bookings only being offered a credit note where as UK bookings get a full refund. If you book off a UK website- even the official company website, you are booking from a UK travel agency basically, so have full protection regarding rights etc. Just make sure it is the UK site- normally big clue is its priced in GBP rather than USD.

[Sew109]

I used Travel councillors to book my next cruise I never usually use a travel agent but they were £300 cheaper than I could get anywhere else