Nonrefundable and mandatory -- does it still qualify as a tip?

Once upon a cruise, passengers practiced a genteel if arcane art: tipping the crew. On their last night at sea, they would slip cash into hand-lettered envelopes addressed to their cabin attendant, server, maitre d’ and a flotilla of others.

Although this quaint custom persists, mostly on a few luxury lines, in the last several years it has been replaced on many ships by an “automatic gratuity,” typically about $10 per person per day, added to the cruise bill. Even Holland America Line, which maintained a “no tipping required” policy for 35 years, relented this spring and began adding a $10 daily charge.

An automatic gratuity is not necessarily a bad thing, given that you can adjust the amount or opt out and revert to the old system if you wish -- although not many people do. It’s certainly convenient.

But here’s an innovation that should be pitched overboard: a nonrefundable service charge. Not quite a gratuity but not part of the fare either, it pays for ... what? I’m unclear, even after talking with its inventor.

Norwegian Cruise Line made the charge mandatory this summer with the launch of its Hawaii cruises on Pride of Aloha -- unfortunate timing, as I’ll explain later -- and plans to add it fleetwide in summer 2005, when it will be sailing 13 vessels.

Adults are charged $10 per day, children 3 to 12 are charged $5, and younger children are free. Beyond that, Pride of Aloha passengers are not obliged to tip for “service that is generally rendered to all guests,” the company said.

Although Norwegian has assessed a service charge for several years -- “purely for people’s convenience,” said Chief Executive Colin Veitch -- what’s new is making it nonrefundable.

“We’re changing the model from the traditional approach,” he said.

Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor of www.cruisecritic.com, a cruise information site, put it more strongly: She called the policy “revolutionary.”

Several lines that assess an automatic gratuity told me they divvy it up among the staff like tips. That’s also how Norwegian in the past described the use of its service charge.

But when I asked Veitch what NCL’s service charge on Pride of Aloha went to, he said, “I can’t discuss it on that basis. How we use the service charge ... is a complex pattern that I’m not going to get into detail on.”

If all passengers have to pay the charge, why isn’t it wrapped into the Pride of Aloha’s fare?

“No one else is doing that, and it will make our pricing uncompetitive,” Veitch said.

In other words, if we knew what the cruise really cost, we might defect to Norwegian’s competitors, which don’t make gratuities compulsory. At least not yet.

Veitch said the company disclosed the service charge in advertising, cruise brochures and documents sent to passengers.

I couldn’t find any reference to the charge in a newspaper advertisement for Pride of Aloha earlier this year. But Norwegian spokeswoman Susan Robison said it was noted (in fine print, I would add) in advertisements starting last month.

On the company’s website (www.ncl.com) last month, I found information on the policy by clicking on the “more info” tab on the home page, selecting “what you need to know” under “passenger information,” then clicking on “what about tipping?” the 21st of 27 questions.

When I linked from the company’s website to its booking engine, fares were listed without the charge.

Anne Campbell, co-owner of www.cruisemates.com, which has a staff of more than 20 reviewing cruises, said Aloha’s service-charge policy surprised passengers on her July 4 trip.

“It’s in the brochure,” she said. “But who reads the brochure?”

There are subtleties to the Pride of Aloha policy. Under certain circumstances, you may be able to get part of the service charge refunded. But forget about making that request on your last day at sea.

“We have removed the possibility for the passenger to not pay the charge by turning up at the end of the cruise and saying, ‘I didn’t like it,’ ” Veitch said.

Instead, he urged customers to complain about service problems when they arise so management can fix them immediately or offer compensation, which may include rebating the service charge.

“We’re not going to insist on people paying $10 a day for atrocious service,” Veitch said.

In the past, about 5% of Norwegian’s customers have opted out of the service charge, he said. A few complained of poor service, but most of the 5% said they wanted to tip in cash, then skipped out without tipping, Veitch said.

Evoking frantic scenes of passengers calculating tips and trying to locate recipients at the last minute, Veitch said a fixed charge was a “more appropriate way to pay people ... than chasing them around with cash.” It also allows staff to be “equally compensated,” he said.

But as with many automatic gratuity programs, Aloha’s $10-per-day service charge doesn’t cover everything. Spa treatments, for instance, carry an extra 15% service fee, plus guests are encouraged to add “appropriate gratuities,” NCL’s Robison said.

Cruisemates’ Campbell and several travel agents said the Aloha cruise was not always a happy journey. Long waits for food and service from the inexperienced American crew left passengers “livid,” she said.

Complaints were so common, for instance, on the June 13 Pride of Aloha cruise that Norwegian refunded half the service charge.

Norwegian has been an industry leader. It pioneered casual dress and multiple dining options in its Freestyle Cruising program, home-ported ships in the U.S. after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and recently revived New York-to-Caribbean year-round itineraries.

Other cruise lines have copied Norwegian’s bold initiatives, but I hope the mandatory service charge is one they’ll leave at the dock.

Hear more tips from Jane Engle on Travel Insider topics at www.latimes.com/engle. She welcomes comments but can’t respond individually to letters and calls. Write Travel Insider, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012, or e-mail jane.engle@latimes.com.