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Best Price Guarantee Question


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Hello fellow cruise enthusiasts, 

For those of you who booked directly with Royal, has anyone had difficulty getting their onboard credit with the Best Price Guarantee program? 

Nearly three weeks ago we called about a price reduction, were told that it could take a few weeks to go through, but never heard anything back.

Last night we called to check on the status of our credit and were told that there was no record of us calling. Then the operator gave us wrong information and told that the price reduction didn’t apply to our situation.

After researching the Best Price Guarantee on their website, we called again last night and spoke to a third operator and were given different information. The third operator submitted the price reduction for us and said it could take another 2 weeks to be approved. 

We set sail two weeks from tomorrow. I think we’re going to call mid-week to make sure that we’re not forgotten. The price reduction is worth nearly $300 and I worry that we’ll get overlooked again. 

Has anyone else run into this issue? If so, what course of action did you take? 

Thanks in advance

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We used the best price guarantee last year, but that was before our final payment. It went extremely smoothly and they were able to verify the lower price, then simply change the final payment amount. However, in your situation your cruise is already passed final payment, I'm not sure how the onboard credit thing works. It's definitely a good idea to call them again and explain that your cruise is very soon.

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I have re-priced many of my cruises…some of them more than once…without an issue. One of them, in Nov, was cheaper and past final payment. So I would receive the difference as an OBC. When I reprinted my confirmation receipt several days later, there was no indication of an OBC…but when I went into the Cruise Planner, there it was. I don’t think it took more than a few days. I hope you get it resolved.

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50 minutes ago, SpeedNoodles said:

Reason #942 to book through a good travel agent.  ?

I knew that was coming. LOL. 

Usually, I have better luck on my own. I have the time to do the research and I have an obsession (maybe an unhealthy obsession) with planning. As far as I’m concerned, this is half the fun of the trip.  I won’t rule out using a TA in the future. 

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I may have you beat in the “boring” department @SpeedNoodles I think I left my life behind when I started planning this trip. Seriously. I check this blog, the official Royal Caribbean website, Royal Caribbean news and the status of my RoyalUp bid a million times a day. Doesn’t get much more boring than that. Gosh, being obsessed with cruising is exhausting. LOL. 

 

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13 hours ago, KaydenDeen said:

I may have you beat in the “boring” department @SpeedNoodles I think I left my life behind when I started planning this trip. Seriously. I check this blog, the official Royal Caribbean website, Royal Caribbean news and the status of my RoyalUp bid a million times a day. Doesn’t get much more boring than that. Gosh, being obsessed with cruising is exhausting. LOL. 

 

It may be boring…but I love it! I know I’m a bit geeky about it but….I can’t get enough of planning, scheduling, researching and talking about cruising. You’re right! The obsession is exhausting but wonderful! Being a Cruisaholic is a gift! Enjoy it!! LOL?

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I just did a reprice for Oasis of the Sea for 9/26 sailing during the WOW sale.  There is a form you can fill out for the reprice but you need to have your sailing price without taxes and fees.  Which I did not seem to have so I called, very nice agent said that it was no problem and she could handle the reprice.  She told us that it could take up to 10 days for the credit to be APPROVED but usually it is not an issue.  We had the $314 OBC posted to our account in 48 hours.  

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  • 1 month later...

I forgot to print/download my receipt from my first booking. So I forget what price I paid for the room and what all the discounts were at the time.  It does not seem to be reflected on the app or online when I look at my account. Why can't I see an accounting of what I have booked, other than the lump sum due?  I have not paid the balance yet, so does that have anything to do with it? 

I have emailed RC to see if they can send me a snapshot of what I booked, so maybe I can then keep track of whether the cost goes down or not. 

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37 minutes ago, D Alt said:

I forgot to print/download my receipt from my first booking. So I forget what price I paid for the room and what all the discounts were at the time.  It does not seem to be reflected on the app or online when I look at my account. Why can't I see an accounting of what I have booked, other than the lump sum due?  I have not paid the balance yet, so does that have anything to do with it? 

I have emailed RC to see if they can send me a snapshot of what I booked, so maybe I can then keep track of whether the cost goes down or not. 

Call them or send a message on their Facebook or Twitter account. They rarely answer emails. 

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34 minutes ago, D Alt said:

I forgot to print/download my receipt from my first booking. So I forget what price I paid for the room and what all the discounts were at the time.  It does not seem to be reflected on the app or online when I look at my account. Why can't I see an accounting of what I have booked, other than the lump sum due?  I have not paid the balance yet, so does that have anything to do with it? 

I have emailed RC to see if they can send me a snapshot of what I booked, so maybe I can then keep track of whether the cost goes down or not. 

For the most part, it doesn't matter what % or $ off discount was used when you booked.  Those "sales" and "full price" are constantly changing so that they always sound like a good deal.  All that matters is your actual price.  If today's deal works out to a better price, you or your TA can call and reprice to take advantage.

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22 minutes ago, D Alt said:

Bam! Just like that I received the invoice from my twitter request. 

So if the base cruise fare/room price is higher than a new offer, I can request OBC or an adjustment before I fully pay or do you mean if the total price is better today? 

Total price. All those random discounts  and credits from when you originally booked won't apply.

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1 hour ago, D Alt said:

I forgot to print/download my receipt from my first booking. So I forget what price I paid for the room and what all the discounts were at the time.  It does not seem to be reflected on the app or online when I look at my account. Why can't I see an accounting of what I have booked, other than the lump sum due?  I have not paid the balance yet, so does that have anything to do with it? 

I have emailed RC to see if they can send me a snapshot of what I booked, so maybe I can then keep track of whether the cost goes down or not. 

You forgot??  You’re gonna lose your membership in planners anonymous!!  

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1 hour ago, D Alt said:

Bam! Just like that I received the invoice from my twitter request. 

So if the base cruise fare/room price is higher than a new offer, I can request OBC or an adjustment before I fully pay or do you mean if the total price is better today? 

You can call this number as well 866-562-7625

I think you select option "4" and then "3" to be connected to the automated system to request a confirmation of any reservation at any time.  You need to know your reservation number and have an e-mail address linked to the reservation on file with Royal. The automated system will ask if you booked with a Royal representative or a travel agent but say directly with Royal.  When the automated system verifies your e-mail address (just say yes) it spits out an email with attached confirmation statement before I can hang up even though it says it can take 30 minutes.

Let me know if this works for you. I book directly with Royal so I collect updated confirmation statements all the time when something changes.

OBC after final payment date.  Otherwise price reduction before final payment date.

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1 hour ago, Heymarco said:

I found a cheaper price through a third-party travel agent on a cruise I had booked with Royal a few months ago (~$600). I called to get price reduced and they declined. Apparently best price guarantee only applies to bookings on their site.

Some 3rd-party travel agencies (large ones, especially), buy big blocks of rooms and get/sell them at group rates. Most of the time people booked under a group rate (which was cheaper to begin with) won't qualify for a  price reduction.  That's likely what you were looking at.  Many people here book through 3rd party travel agencies and have received price reductions/OBC from a price drop.

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1 hour ago, Heymarco said:

I found a cheaper price through a third-party travel agent on a cruise I had booked with Royal a few months ago (~$600). I called to get price reduced and they declined. Apparently best price guarantee only applies to bookings on their site.

Yup..that's pretty much what it says on their Terms & Conditions.

The CWC “best price guarantee” may be applied only if RCI is currently advertising a lower, publicly available, rate for staterooms of the same category on the same sailing and, at the time of the request, those staterooms are not sold out.

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/best-price-guarantee-policy

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2 hours ago, Heymarco said:

I found a cheaper price through a third-party travel agent on a cruise I had booked with Royal a few months ago (~$600). I called to get price reduced and they declined. Apparently best price guarantee only applies to bookings on their site.

No, your TA can also get your price reductions processed.  BUT, you didn’t book with a TA and you only have 60 days (?) from original booking to transfer it to a TA.  Once that window has closed, you can’t move it to a TA.  If I understand your post, you found a TA that was offering a better price than you were able to book but it was already too late to transfer the booking so that reduction was not available to you.  You could cancel your original booking, get an FCC for your deposit then book through the third party TA.

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I recently called about a price reduction for my Symphony cruise in Feb. I got over $700 back. I am still waiting for that money to hit my debit card, I was surprised it wasn't an onboard credit. Looks like I will be using that money for a drink package whenever I get that back, I did book through the RC website as well.

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Contacted RCL; took 5 minutes to get to the representative.  It really helped that I had done the mock booking beforehand.  He ended up saving me even more money – yay!  From $495.87 (original price) to $444.87 (from my mock booking for same category of inside cabin) to $407.37 (he found me more discounts)!  I saved almost $90 on a 3-night cruise with about 15 minutes of effort.  I acknowledge that a TA could have done the same thing for me, and even added in OBC, but on this one I had to be agile and nimble in terms of timing; if I had had to track down my TA, I might not have gotten all of the discounts I did.  Since it was well before final payment, I saw the reduction immediately on my invoice from RCL.

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