“Pay an additional $800 or you can’t board the ship”

Timing is everything when you pull a bait-and-switch. Most of them happen just before or after the purchase – an “oops-the-price-isn’t-available” or a “sorry-did-we-forget-to-mention-a-fee” stunt. But for Mary Hoefs’ Royal Caribbean cruise, she didn’t find out until she tried to board.

Here’s what happened she tried to embark on the Liberty of the Seas with her family recently:

While checking in, our son and his family from Texas were pulled out of line and taken to another room. There they were told: “Pay an additional $800, or they you can’t board the ship.”

They were in a state of panic, and two little grandsons were in tears because they could not get on the ship. Not really understanding the reason, we had to come up with the extra cash for them to board. (Had we not had the money, what would have happened?)

The cruise was paid in full by us, at the time of booking. They had all this information far enough in advance that should there have been a problem, had plenty of time to let us or our travel consultant know so that it could have been taken care of before the date we were to set sail. Under no circumstance should this have been thrown in our face while standing in line to board the ship!

We feel that the full $800 should be refunded by Royal Caribbean. They only refunded $400, and sent that to the travel agent, with no reason or apology to us as to why our family from Texas was singled out like this.

Sounds dreadful, doesn’t it? I figured there must be another side to this story, so I asked RCCL. Here’s its response.

Our records indicate that this booking was not created in-house, rather, through a travel agent. During the booking process, the guests from Texas were booked as being residents of West Virginia – with a promotional discount that was being provided to residents of West Virginia at that time. When the guests were unable to provide government issued ID that showed they were residents of West Virginia, the discount had to be removed, thus, the additional charges.

In other words, Hoefs’ family had used a discount that can only be used by West Virginia residents. When they couldn’t prove they lived in West Virginia, they had to pay a fare difference.

I shared this information with Hoefs.

I paid for the two from West Virginia $1,787, which was the “special rate.” The family from Texas, I paid $3,275. And from here in Arizona, the price was $3,275. So the Texas family did NOT have a special rate. Regardless, I booked and paid in full on December 16th, 2008, the cruise was not until March 14th 2009. If there was a discrepancy, they had plenty of time to notify me before rather then wait till we were standing in line to board the ship. If they did not feel they were in the wrong, then why did they return half of the $800?

Hoefs is correct. She didn’t create the confusing pricing system that led to this problem. RCCL had ample time to check the IDs of the travelers. And yes, the $400 refund doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Lesson learned? If you’re booking a cruise through a travel agent, make sure you qualify for any discounts, and can prove it. At a time like this, cruise lines are trying to collect every extra penny from their passengers — even if they have to do it at the dock.

  • http://waynedayton.tripod.com Wayne Dayton

    It is clear that Richard Fain is destined to become CEO of an IATA carrier…screw the customers for $400 now but lose their business forever in the future…and then cry to the press about how higher fuel prices and H1N1 will ruin his business. I calculate that he got $8300 of business out of this, and then whined for an extra $800 (10% of the total), settling for $400 in his final extortion bid. His business is ruined by pulling stunts like this, overcharging pax from “richer” states like TX and AZ (although the PHX foreclosure rates may dispute that fact) and dumping inventory at half-price in a depressed area like WV.

  • Lianne

    If all the facts can be taken at face value then RCCL is incredibly in the wrong.

    Where is their travel agent’s involvement in all of this? If they were travelling as a group then the TA may have spread out the discount among the party to decrease the overall price, which could create confusion. BUT the TA should be able to prove this. What about credit card receipts showing who paid for what? If they have documentation of what was paid for by whom, coupled with the partial refund from RCCL this seems to have open and shut credit card dispute/small claims court written all over it.

  • Jean Farmer

    How the system works is that RCCL doesn’t know the people are from an area that isn’t in the promotional special until they sign in online and if they don’t do that in advance it is done at the pier. Specials are run by all areas of the travel business for specific areas of the country. There are specials for Arizona and Texas on different sailings. The agency is at fault if they did this on purpose and told the people didn’t live in West Virginia. They should be the ones held accountable.

  • Annette

    There have always been promos for specific residents. Sometimes it’s one state, sometimes it’s another. It’s not penalizing “richer states” by not giving them the promo. Disneyland often has a SoCal resident offer, is that penalizing the rest of the visitors that don’t live there? What about discounts for teachers or military, is that penalizing everyone who doesn’t work in those professions?

    RCCL likely waited to ask for the additional amount until the port because that’s when they could see the actual ID being used and verify in person whether the passengers are residents of the promo state or not. But aside from that, it seems to me that there is a definite problem with RCCL’s accounting. If the family from WV paid the promo rate, and the 2 other families paid a higher rate, then it seems to me that they didn’t pay the promo rate so RCCL shouldn’t be asking for more money at all and someone at their accounting department had better look at the file again.

    As for the comment “If you’re booking a cruise through a travel agent…” – this is clearly not travel agent error and that comment is completely uncalled for. There are no special precautions when booking a resident or promo rate through a travel agent as opposed to booking direct with the cruise line (or car rental agency, or hotel). If there’s a promo make sure you’re qualified to use it. Don’t use a code that’s meant for specific residents, professions, companies etc if you don’t belong to whatever group the code is meant for.

  • Teresa Stewart

    In a situation where a group is traveling and there is a special discount offered for some people in the group (senior discount, resident discount, etc), travel agencies will often shuffle people between bookings to take advantage of the discount. There only needs to be one person who meets the criteria in the cabin in order for the discount to be applied, so we could put Grandma in one cabin and Grandpa in the other, or Aunt Jane from WV in one cabin and Uncle John from WV in another. Where people actually sleep once they get on the ship is totally up to them, though sometimes it does involve getting a second ship card so you can get into the right cabin! It’s possible that something like this was intended and quoted, but then the travel agent forgot and didn’t book it right…or something. Just a thought!

  • Anonymous

    Did no one in their party read their documents? They would’ve stated in conspicuous language that they were booked under a special fare and that proof of qualfication could be required at the pier. And if they received their documents by mail there would’ve been a large sticker on the front of the documents with that information as well.

    As to the fare differences, the family from Arizona may have been booked under a special rate as well so you can’t just say the family from Texas was paying the regular fare based on that comparison. And you can’t compare the fare paid for 2 people with the fare paid for more than 2 people to determine if there was a discount either. We don’t have enough information to determine whether or not that family from Texas really was booked at the regular rate.

  • Lisa S

    I won’t be sailing with Royal Caribbean. That is an open and shut case.

  • Becky

    I am a travel agent that (shutter) reads Elliott.org and enjoys it. A situation similar to this happened in our agency. When the agent booked the client, entering the state of their residence, one would think that the system would remove or gray out any discounts that they are not eligible to receive. Our agent booked the client believing she was offering them the best deal and comparable to going rates from Texas for the same sailing. Two months after final payment, and the week of their departure, we received a fax from RCCL stating there was an additional $800 due for the booking. The client would have to pay the amount or would be denied boarding. We contacted our sales manager disputing this only to find out we were NOT the only agency in this situation. The sales manager lowered the amount due to RCCL to $400, our agency coughed up the rest. There was no way we were going to make the client pay the additional amount or have them cornered at the port.

    Yes, there was a sticker on the documents stating they had received a special fare but it was a generic sticker that did not state why they had received the discount or the fact that they had to prove residency for a specific state, just that they would require proof of residency.

    Please note, our total commission on this booking was about $135.00. That left us $265 in the hole. Not all travel agents are the devil’s spawn…..

  • LeeAnne

    This is an incomplete story, which I find very frustrating. It ended with basically a he-said-she-said: RCI says they were booked with a resident discount, the passenger says they weren’t. What’s the truth? The article doesn’t reveal it.

    The travel agent should have been brought into the story to give his/her feedback…but to give Chris the benefit of the doubt, it’s entirely possible the TA wouldn’t comment, or was inaccessible. Regardless, the article is incomplete – the truth is never revealed.

    And as such, no lessens CAN be learned, and no conclusions reached, because we still don’t know why RCI says they were booked under a resident discount, and the passenger says they weren’t.

    Chris, please finish the story. If there IS a lesson to be learned here, we’d sure like to know what it is!

  • Steve P.

    I know I may be in the minority here, but it really sounds like the scruples of the travel agent or the passenger might be questionable here, rather than Royal Caribbean.

    Several years ago (2001), when I was young and naive, I purchased a very cheap Royal Caribbean cruise on an unnamed online site known to sell cheap cruises. When we received the cruise documentation two weeks before the cruise, there was a big sticker on the front of the documents sent by Royal Caribbean that we needed to provide proof of eligibility for the “Senior Rate” the cruise was booked under. Needless to say, neither me or my travelling companion were seniors (we were in our 20s!), and a panic ensued. We finally resolved the issue when the travel agent in question ate the difference in cost, mostly because Royal Caribbean called them on it.

    This particular online travel agent, as I later found out, sold numerous cruises at the “Senior Rate” or rates for a certain State residency, with some shocks at the port by unsuspecting guests. Some guests apparently had no problem and checked in without an issue, but like in the case of the unsuspecting guests in this article, they were told that they needed to pay the difference between the discounted rate and the normal rate.

    Royal Caribbean’s website even states the following when booking:

    Please Note: A valid driver’s license or state-issued ID; U.S. or Canadian military ID; or U.S. or Canadian local, state or federal law enforcement, fire department, or EMT employment badge or ID must be presented at the pier to validate eligibility for the applicable Exclusive Rate. If eligibility cannot be validated, you will be charged the standard rate or denied boarding.

    I can say I live anywhere or work for anyone – Royal Caribbean doesn’t ask me to send in proof of me being in the military or police/fire/etc, my residency, or anything else. BUT they do say, “hey, if you want a special rate, we’ll probably ask for validation, and if you try to cheat us…well…put up or shut up.”

    Maybe other cruise lines ask you to send in a copy of your ID to prove you’re eligible for a special rate. Maybe that’s what Royal Caribbean should do. Then, you’ll be stuck with a copy of your ID floating around some travel agency, some cruise line, or maybe in their trash for someone to take and make you a victim of identify fraud. Wait…maybe Royal Caribbean actually wants to trust you’re eligible without having to jump through hoops to prove it, and will just check at the port when you show up for your cruise. Wow, a company that believes in blind trust until someone breaks that promise…and we’re complaining because someone might have tried to get a discount they weren’t eligible for?

  • Chicky

    OK. A very careful reading of the article says there was one couple in the family from W. Va. who legitimately qualified for the discount. Ms. Hoefs paid the discounted rate for that couple. She paid full fare for the couples from TX and AZ.

    I suspect what happened is that RC bungled the booking somewhere, and applied the discount erroneously to the couple from TX rather than to the one for W.Va. However, rather than admitting their error, they soaked them for $800. If they knew they hadn’t boo-fooed the booking, then why refund $400 of it?

    Credit card receipts should make this, as another poster said, an open-and-shut case in small claims court.

  • LeeAnne

    @Chicky – yours is the most plausible explanation for this whole thing so far. But the problem is, we don’t know – at this point it’s pure speculation. (The most believable speculation so far…but still speculation.)

    If that is, in fact, what happened, then the passengers are entitled to their ENTIRE $800 back.

    I’m waiting to see if Chris does any further digging and comes back to finish the story and provide some closure on this.

  • Tanya

    This same thing happened to Fanny Vandegrift Osbourne (the would be future bride of Robert Louis Stevenson) in the late 1800′s, when she purchased a ticket to cross the panama canal in order to reach San Francisco. Wait- someone please remind me what century we are in again?

  • Joe Farrell

    Don’t bother cruising. Dropping bookings will cure a lot of problems with the cruise industry who some how think people are invented for them to get money from.

    I cruised once, it was over sold in terms of quality and what I could expect.

    So I tried again on Disney with a kid – if you were not a round peg you did not fit the mold – so you need to find other entertainment or spend more money.

    Then we decided to try one last time – a super nice cabin – in fact – the nicest on the ship. Got on early? No – got our luggage fast? yes. Saved tender tickets to avoid the madness? Preferred times? No. Special access to preferred dining? No. Someone to make sure we were happy? No. Any special amenities at all? Well, yeah, we got a platter of hors dourves on the formal nights which consisted of 5 chocolate covered strawberries one night and 6 crackers and some cheese. There were 2 bottles of free water – two – not two per day. A free bottle of decent champagne for in cabin saililng = unfortunately warm. Ice took an hour to get the cabin. And by then it was dark and the sailing had begun. Could I exchange the champagne for a cold bottle at a bar? Oh no – only your cabin attendant can do that. Was he anywhere to be found? Of course not.

    I think all people really want is to be treated fairly – and to be treated as a welcome guest when you drop $7k for a week.

    I voted with my feet. You can do it as well – do NOT accept crummy service. Do not accept bare bones treatment. Do not accept the minimum promised. Since the minimum very quickly becomes the standard . . .

  • http://blueraindrop.wordpress.com blue

    wonder what chaos would follow a move to a different state between booking and sailing…

  • Yeago

    Sorry guys. Until the 500 pound gorilla is acknowledged, I’m not buying this junk.

    Who was responsible for the errant WV discount? Is the ship supposed to just eat every false discount just because they didn’t catch it? Nonsense.

    They gave back $400 for god-sakes! And this is somehow an admission of guilt? Get real.