Travel Agent Requesting Excess Payment after paying in Full

johnels79

Hello All,
I’m seeking some guidance and honest opinions.
In brief I called a UK travel agent to book an upcoming cruise on the Independence of the Seas. We discussed my options and as a party of four we wanted separate staterooms. The travel agent confirmed a total price for 2 staterooms on a Guaranteed "Y" category. She said that it would have to be separate bookings and linked afterwards. I agreed and paid the amount in full over the telephone. 5 minutes later she says that she cannot proceed without taking another £630.00 for the second cabin as I have to pay for a "I" category now. Apparently Y's have sold out. After lengthy discussions and the risk of loosing the whole booking I paid up and am now challenging it.
My question is should I just accept that that’s what happens even though I was given a total price and paid this, or should I fight it and see where I get.
Stateroom numbers have since been allocated and are next-door to each other and identical. Very confused how they sold out of one category and I essentially paid extra to have the same staterooms in the end.
Many Thanks

Archergirl

Not sure about ships but it happens with airline seats, they had a certain amount at one price, when they have sold out the price goes up to the next band.

stephb34

Does your booking include flights?

littlereddevil

Once you have paid there's not much you can do. Doesn't seem very professional though. You would have been better doing it yourself

lea2012

It's because you made two separate bookings. If the booking had been made as one then the two cabins would have been held and booked together at the same time at the same cost. But as you wanted two cabins, it was two bookings and in the time it took between making both bookings the other cabin sold out and the price went up.

Did you ask for it to be two bookings or did they suggest it? I'm not sure why it would really need to be two separate bookings unless thats how you wanted it to be?

shaun_from_Africa

lea2012 wrote: »

Did you ask for it to be two bookings or did they suggest it? I'm not sure why it would really need to be two separate bookings unless thats how you wanted it to be?

From the opening post it appears to be the case that the travel agent ststed that it would have to be two separate bookings.
It might be me being cynical, but the reason for this might have been that two separate bookings resulted in the travel agent getting two separate sets of commission.

daveyjp

Did you state you wanted the cabins to be together?

lea2012

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

From the opening post it appears to be the case that the travel agent ststed that it would have to be two separate bookings.
It might be me being cynical, but the reason for this might have been that two separate bookings resulted in the travel agent getting two separate sets of commission.

That was my first thought too, one that it could have been to gain more commission / bookings and secondly cruise companies do tend to run quite a few incentives where each booking equals entry to a prize draw for something so again would benefit the agent that way.

stephb34

Cruise isn't my speciality but I think if you book 2 cabins then its done as 2 bookings because you can only do 1 cabin number at a time, then the bookings are linked together. Which is why I asked if flights were involved as the first booking could have got the last 2 cheap seats.

Poppops

Cabins can often be different categories but next door to each other. Maybe the floor area or balconies are different sizes or the view may be slightly obscured from one. Lots of reasons.

I've been on Royal Caribbean cruises a few times and have always booked the cabins separately and then linked them afterwards. Even if you book on the internet on their own site you book the cabins one by one.

Am very jealous. It's a fabulous ship. :j

shaun_from_Africa

Poppops wrote: »

Am very jealous. It's a fabulous ship. :j

According to reviews at the time, so was the Titanic!