Holland America pricing error won't be honored

In a move that surprised us, Holland America bought itself an ocean of negative publicity by refusing to honor a Noordam balcony stateroom $849 per person cruise fare that it says was a data-entry mistake. The correct fare should have been $550 higher, and the cruise line is insisting that paid-and-confirmed passengers either send the additional money, or cancel with a full refund. Holland did offer a slender olive branch in the form of a $100 onboard credit for those who decided to go ahead and travel.

One big reason for our surprise is that our experiences dealing with Holland America correcting problems of all kinds, including price discrepancies, have been entirely positive. In fact we would single them out as one of the cruise lines most dependable about "doing the right thing."

Whether Holland was within its legal rights is not the issue, as even without going to look we're sure they have fine print, someplace, permitting such "error corrections." Our question is whether Holland's move made sense.

Other travel companies have reaped a windfall of positive publicity for honoring fares that were clearly erroneous, such as US Airways' buck-or-less roundtrips. We wouldn't have faulted US Airways for cancelling those bookings, since the customer must have known when they purchased their ticket that the price was a mistake.

And that's why we disagree in this case with Holland's decision. An $849 cruise fare for a balcony stateroom on an 11-night trip, working out to $77 per person, per night, doesn't sound crazy. It seems like an unusually good, but within-the-realm-of-possibility, price. Those passengers who paid for this trip, and got their confirmations, were likely truly dismayed when Holland came around looking for another $550 per person.

Nonetheless, our years of positive experience with Holland America have us hoping that this move was either an aberration, or that there was more to Holland's side of this story than meets the eye.