melb99

Reading this post, I suspect there was a time lapse, between viewing or receiving the price,and subsequently processing the booking.

Three days running? No, now I'm sure it's a P&O / Carnival computer issue. They are not synchronising the website ( shop front ) with their payment system ( checkout till ). It might be intended, or unintentional, psychological prospect manipulation by the Marketing Dept., or just IT Dept incompetence. I think it's the latter, where a website is bolted onto the front of an agent centric booking system. Just a thought!

Mel

I've complained via email to P&O about this attempted booking - I'm not holding my breath.

Today, I also got an email from them with a "Still keen on this holiday?" heading and containing a "Continue your booking" link. As I expected, for the third time, my booking was rejected.

I give up with P&O.

It is easy enough to write an algorithm which is set to increase prices before final payment is made. Choosing and booking a holiday takes time and many are psychologically fixed on the holiday and will pay a few quid extra as not booking means starting again.

I quite agree that this is what has happened here with P&O. What really annoyed me was that they took my full debit card details, including security code, before they rejected the booking. And this was with two booking attempts spread over two consecutive days! In normal circumstance the entry of the debit card details would be the final screen before the booking confirmation.

If they are going to do this kind of psychological trick, I think British folk in general are not the type of people that will accept being manipulated in this way. P&O are playing fast and loose with their brand name - their prices don't exactly make them Ryanair of the Seas!

I'm surprised that Cunard operate ethically. They use the same computer systems as P&O. What shocked me was that they could quote the price; take the full debit card details for the full amount requested, then reject the booking. And, they can do this two days running. That is Friday afternoon and Saturday morning on the same booking. So, it's not just bad timing on my part - i.e. one millisecond out, it's at least 12 hours during which they are misleading potential customers.

Went to book a cruise yesterday online. I keyed in all my personal and debit card details, accepted the T&C's and then got a "5043:Category is no longer available. Please select a new category and retry." message. So, booking was not accepted. Rang P&O and they said the price had gone up by £87.

In principle, I don't like this behaviour. If I see a price on the shelves at a supermarket, and certainly it happens with Tesco, I expect to pay that price at the checkout desk.

I tried the same thing today, and the same thing happened.

To me, this is the worst computer system ever - the type that p******s off customers. The booking staff didn't seem too bothered that this had happened! Get a grip Carnival / P&O !!

Mel - a potential customer, lost to Royal Caribbean.

I'm also on this Oct 20th cruise.

Check the Cruise Personaliser - detailed tab - for flight details and for seat allocations. I don't know who is managing seat allocations, but it's certainly only accessible as a P&O service . At the moment it's Pds 25 per seat reservation.

Excess baggage is another matter - you have to call Thomas Cook Airlines directly.

Cheers

Mel

Hello from Solihull as well. We get dozens of e-mails about the Cruise Show and went 2 years ago as well but paid the £5 parking and said then that was a waste of £5. So this time just for a ride out as the tickets were free we caught the X12 bus, and got of at Birmingham International. Back home by lunchtime.

Parking was £12 yesterday, Sunday. Why oh why so dear for 2 hours parking? If I ever go to the NEC again it's the X12 for me.

Hi Mel

 

I was in F314 - an inside cabin. Don't know the logic of their numbering system but looking at the plan yours looks next door! When you are in the atrium it just looks like another corridor so you don't have to go into the casino at all. People would only really go through this corridor if they had a cabin there so no passing traffic. However on my cruise (and assume it will be the same on yours) they used the gangway next to the door to the corridor for disembarking at ports and blocked that entrance to the corridor. But it was no problem at all because there is a door at the other end of the corridor (which opens onto the lifts, theatre and another entrance to the casino, all very convenient) so you just nip through there!

 

 

Have a lovely time!

Hi JoJoA,

Many thanks. That's very useful info. It definitely makes my mind a little easier. I was very happy with the mid forward position and the lower deck, remembering the old saying "The more you pay, the more you sway". Now, I much more relaxed about any possible Casino and thoroughfare issues.

You're right 314 is next door to 308. So, obviously, I trust it will be as good an experience as you enjoyed. As there's not too much disembarking on a Transatlantic I don't think disembarking will be an issue! Also with the current devastation at Barbuda and St Martin, I'm not sure the ship will do it's St Martin disembarking - it doesn't seem appropriate to visit these places when they must still be doing disaster recovery.

Many thanks again, and happy cruising to you.

Best wishes

Mel

Hi JoJoA

I'm booked on Azura for the October TA - F308. Does this cabin ring a bell?

Cheers

Mel

I've just come off the Azura and had a single cabin on F deck. I had chosen a late saver fare rather than select as there was a tremendous jump in price for select. I don't know if I am correct in thinking that if I had gone with select I would have been able to have a double for single occupancy (from doing a dummy booking this seemed to be the case). So the price would have reflected a larger cabin not just the select aspect of it. I was allocated an actual single cabin and was really worried beforehand as it was right next to the casino and the bar. I had visions of the sound of slot machines all night! I needn't have worried - I didn't hear a thing. The sound-proofing must have been really good. Also it was a perfectly decent size for one person with plenty of storage and the bed was larger than single. It was right near the lifts and the atrium and I felt a very good location.