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Cruise booking mistake, reassigned us to a crappy front-of-ship room, is $200 onboard credit compensation adequate?

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  • Aug 10th, 2018 7:37 pm
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Jun 27, 2003
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Cruise booking mistake, reassigned us to a crappy front-of-ship room, is $200 onboard credit compensation adequate?

I'm booked to go on the Norweigian Breakaway cruise in 2 weeks and today my booking agent told me that the main cruise booking company Travelbrands made a mistake and initially booked us in the wrong cabins and now 3 cabins in our group of 7 rooms are being moved to other cabins. The cruise is sold out.

The main cruise booking company is only offering $200 on board credit per room for their mistake (I paid over $7000 for the cabin for my family for 4).

My main concern is I was previously booked in category BB room, mid ship on deck 9, room 9170. Now I'm moved to room 8712 deck 8 - BX category, very front of the ship. Reviews on icruise.com says the room is very far forward (more prone to movements felt), also more noise and smoke from the crew rooms nearby. The rest of my group of 15 family members are on deck 9.

Do you guys think this $200 is adequate compensation for their mistake, or should I demand for more? I don't even know how ot check the price different (if any) for a BB vs BX cabin. Should I demand some sort of refund back, rather than onboard credit? (I don't drink alcohol and don't buy stuff on cruises, and don't eat at the fancy restaurants). This is only my second ever cruise (and maybe my last one for awhile). I emailed my travel agent that I wasn't happy with just $200 onboard credit and asked her to demand more back for me.
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Feb 15, 2006
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Who is your travel agent? Isn't it Travelbrands?

Or are you using one agent (who gets a cut), to book on another agency (Travelbrands, who gets another cut), meaning if anything happens you cannot deal directly with the cruiseline, but needs to go thru an agent to deal with another agent, to the cruiseline?
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Yup, I using a local travel agent, and she booked the cruise with Travelbrands. I don't have any direct contact with Travelbrands.
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Feb 15, 2006
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Something doesn't sound right. Why should the local TA use another TA, rather than dealing directly with the cruiseline. Maybe the local TA screwed up.
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The email I was forwarded from Travelbrands agent to my travel agent says Travelbrands screwed up and didn't assign the proper rooms with the invoice, and thus they offered the compensation.
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Jul 29, 2005
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I also don't understand why the agent didn't deal directly with the cruiseline. Why did they go thru another agent? Is the agent Tico registered?

In fact, you should've booked directly with the cruiseline and bypass the agent.
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My agent is Jade Travel, yes they are Tico registered (as per their website). I was assuming they were booking directly with Norweigian and not thru another agent. I didn't know they went thru TravelBrands until I saw the second payment go thru on my credit card.

Should I be filing a complaint thru TICO?
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I believe Jade Travel should have to compensate you, not Travelbrand (and they will have to recover this thru TravelBrand). You may have to lodge a complaint with TICO if you can't get results.
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Sep 13, 2016
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$200 doesnt even cover one day outdoor activity for a family of four. You should def. demand more possibly upto 1k-2k compensation specially since you planned to stay together with family and now you cant
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I'd personally take them to court if they don't pony up or offer a refund. 200$ credit what a joke lol
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Read your contract carefully. Most cruise contracts allow the cruise line to change cabin bookings without passenger consent.
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winnipeger1 wrote: $200 doesnt even cover one day outdoor activity for a family of four. You should def. demand more possibly upto 1k-2k compensation specially since you planned to stay together with family and now you cant
This is not realistic. If it's important to you to push harder, I suggest that you can probably squeeze another few hundred out of either your TA or Travelbrand. If you then still feel it's inadequate, you could try complaining once onboard and perhaps NCL can either move you if there's a no-show or maybe get a little extra compensation to your ship board account.

Given that you already mentioned that you don't intend to spend on board, you will likely only have gratuities to pay anyway. I suggest making peace with whatever you negotiate soon and find a way to relax and enjoy your vacation.
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The travel agents admitted they messed up.
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Sep 27, 2003
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dolfan1980 wrote: I suggest making peace with whatever you negotiate soon and find a way to relax and enjoy your vacation.
This is the most important.
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Interesting situation as typically when you book a cabin, you have the choice of either selecting an actual cabin or rolling the dice and booking a guarantee cabin. With a guarantee cabin, you can end up nearly anywhere on the ship in any cabin that is not lower than the guarantee class that you book.

OTOH - many travel agencies buy a book of cabins at a discount and then offer them at lower prices to their clients and general public. There are limits on the number of cabins, and once sold, they are sold. If not managed properly, an agency can easily over sell these cabins forcing the agency to put passengers in "regular priced" cabins. With the OP booking seven cabins, this may have been what happened. And, at this close to sailing, the only available cabins are the less desirable ones.

OP, as you have requested further compensation from your agent, please let us know what the response is. Personally, I would not want to sail in that location of a cabin and would rather not sail.

EDIT TO ADD: I also suggest that you find out the price difference between the 2 cabins. The $200 OBC may be peanuts between the 2 cabins.
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Feb 19, 2010
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Category BX is a 'guarantee' category, the lowest category of the particular class, and three categories below what OP says he booked (BB>BC>BD>BX). Can't readily determine the price difference given that it appears to be sold out but in looking at the 9 night sailing on September 23rd, the price difference between the two categories is $227 CAD. It looks like maybe the offer from the travel agent(s) may be reasonable but, personally, I'd push for some more given the separation from the rest of the party and the aggravation factor.

It should be stressed, given that somebody suggested approaching Norwegian for some relief, that the cruise line doesn't appear to have any obligation, beyond customer service, to remedy the situation given that it looks like the travel agent(s) f'd this up.
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Jan 12, 2005
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I would bug your TA more. NCL is not going to talk to you since your went through a 3rd party. If it's sold out, there's no point complaining onboard because you got the room the you were assign the date of boarding. For future reference, I would log onto NCL.com after you book through a 3rd party and verify that the information is correct. It doesn't make sense that you paid for a assigned room, but then received a guaranteed fare.
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Conquistador wrote: Category BX is a 'guarantee' category, the lowest category of the particular class, and three categories below what OP says he booked (BB>BC>BD>BX). Can't readily determine the price difference given that it appears to be sold out but in looking at the 9 night sailing on September 23rd, the price difference between the two categories is $227 CAD. It looks like maybe the offer from the travel agent(s) may be reasonable but, personally, I'd push for some more given the separation from the rest of the party and the aggravation factor.
This is exactly the price difference info I was looking for, thx. Can you tell me which website you use to search up the different category prices? Do you just lookup the next Norweigian cruise similar to what I am sailing and specify BB vs BX cabin price choices?

If the diff is only $227, then the $200 onboard credit maybe close to what I'm entitled to, which seems "reasonable". I'll still give TICO a call this week to see what they say, and maybe press for a bit more given the separation from the group and their screw up. Since it's a big group, we pretty much have to go anyways and I really don't mind the extra walk as it'll burn off calories too (no seniors in our cabin). Overall I'm not too stressed about it, just more annoyed.
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Oct 23, 2008
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I'd be asking for at least $250 obc per cabin if the difference is around $229. And ask for something (e.g. additional obc, onboard perks, wine service, gratuities, etc) for the inconvenience as it's the agent's fault from the sounds of it. He/she will just have to take it out of their commission.
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royaljelly wrote: This is exactly the price difference info I was looking for, thx. Can you tell me which website you use to search up the different category prices? Do you just lookup the next Norweigian cruise similar to what I am sailing and specify BB vs BX cabin price choices?

If the diff is only $227, then the $200 onboard credit maybe close to what I'm entitled to, which seems "reasonable". I'll still give TICO a call this week to see what they say, and maybe press for a bit more given the separation from the group and their screw up. Since it's a big group, we pretty much have to go anyways and I really don't mind the extra walk as it'll burn off calories too (no seniors in our cabin). Overall I'm not too stressed about it, just more annoyed.
He just looked at another sailing for price difference between cabin category. All the online sites show you the cabin category available for booking

But really, it's hard to say for your specific sailing what the difference was

Maybe cruisefish has some history

But at end of day, that's not going to change anything. You can push for more and see what they give you, you don't have much choice as you're going anyways.

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