Royal Caribbean changing cruise price after paying

[Mum1976Mum]

So, we have just about scraped the money together for a holiday in July. Lots of holidays out of our price range but managed to book a 7 day cruise around Norway for 2.7k - 2 adults, 2 kids. Booked it yesterday morning, paid in full, all good. I booked the hotel, parking, pet sitter etc. yesterday afternoon all non refundable. Got an email at 9pm last night to say price was wrong on website, price would not be honoured and offering me $100 in onboard credit (which we don’t need).

So this morning they still haven’t got in touch to tell me how much more I will have to pay if I don’t cancel. I phone up, it’s £1500 extra!!! I’ve now been on hold to speak to a supervisor for an hour but they say they won’t be able to do anything.

What on earth do we do? If we cancel we are £500 out of pocket. Any advice welcome. I’m so sad.

You are talking about consequential loss which is not covered.

Take screen shots of this. Can only help your case.

Here in the US, they would be made to honor the advertised price. Not sure about there. But worth looking into. As I have minimal knowledge about how things work in the UK, I'm at a loss as to who you should speak with.

For goodness sake, if that advertised price is STILL UP, get a screenshot of it!

Log the complaint on Resolver. It won’t get you an instant response, but it will start the process of getting your money back in full as none of this is your fault and having the matter formally dealt with.

Others are right, just because something is written in a contract doesn’t make it legally binding thanks to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Trading.

you should have enough time to cancel all the other bits and get your money back to as you will be giving reasonable notice.

If the holiday is still being advertised incorrectly that’s handy business practice…. This thread makes me unlikely to ever book with them TBH…. Make sure you take daily screenshots to show the lack of update and bolster your case!

Worst case scenario put in a Money Claim Online for your money back and expenses that were incurred with the evidence you have.

Tweet them publicly! Then I can also contact you and help with this. I’m pretty sure I can sort this out for you

But if they are still advertising at the original price, how can they claim a mistake has been made? Is the price quoted now for the same period that you had booked for?

You might be able to get some advice online. Maybe from Which? ABTA also has an advice site.

I can't find any posts about this on Twitter.

They took the prices down after a few hours (by 11am ish GMT on the day they went on (Wednesday morning a few days ago

I am not sure if anybody else has mentioned this, but I would report them to ABTA. They oversee travel companies. You can register a complaint online .
https://www.abta.com/

For clarity, ABTA doesn't act as an ombudsman or regulator, and they don't award compensation. They provide an Alternative Dispute Resolution service, essentially acting as mediators to help the consumer and the travel company to resolve their dispute. If the consumer is unhappy with the outcome they can go to arbitration, which is administered by an independent body.

The same thing happened to us. I've been told they'll cancel our cruise automatically by 5th May if we don't accept the revised price. We paid £918 for a 2 night mini cruise. Still waiting for a revised quote!!!
Another cruise was also cancelled a few months ago due to the ship being moved to Israel. We're still waiting for our deposit back. We've been loyal customers for over 10 years but looking elsewhere now.

It seems the scam of "bait and switch" has been reborn.

I'd be leaving reviews on Google, tripadvisor and if you have a UK version of the Better Business Bureau, I'd write a complaint through them.

I had really hoped they had managed to crush the old B&S that used to be so prevalent. Very disappointing, especially since the CC agencies are now backing it up. Three steps forward and four steps backward.

Complaining to cruise lines is completely different to all over companys. They actually dont care. They register their ships in Panama or Bahamas to escape minimum wages / employment rights etc
They dont care about bad reviews
Ive cruised 8 times in the last 18 months and I always pray it all goes ok as its almost impossible to get a complaint resolved. Trust me Im a complainer
They will argue “obvious keying error” and as it was spotted within 24 hours - they can cancel

Where they register their ships is irrelevant for consumer rights. They are trading in the UK so UK consumer laws apply.

Since they are still selling tickets at the price OP paid, "obvious keying error" doesn't apply. Indeed, even the more expensive September sailing can be booked at this price.

I always thought that if one bought an item at written price which was wrong, the wrong price stood. 🤷‍♀️

Once there is a contract this is true. In a shop that is straightforward - it is when you go to the till and the cashier accepts your payment. Online it is less clear. Many companies state in their terms and conditions that the contract is formed later - when the goods are despatched, for example. In this case, Royal Carribean say there is no contract until they have sent the confirmation invoice. They are allowed to do this as contract law requires both parties to be in agreement that they want to enter into a legally binding contract. You can't force a party into a contract against their will. However, trading standards and the ASA may well be interested in a company that advertises a product at one price then tells sthe purchaser that the actual price is much higher.

Yeah they can't do that, it's theor error so you should be offered a full refund. How did you pay for it? Maybe contact your bank and see if they can help as they have fraudulently got that money from you

Contact citizens advice, they cannot do what they day they will, its false advertisement, our prices will fo up on the future so you need to pay said price 🤣🤣🤣 morons!!!