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Deceitful, misleading 2020 prices from P&O?


Harry Peterson
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When P&O first released their 2020 prices on 3 September I made a careful note of the prices and phoned a TA to register. Even at that point there was a discrepancy between the prices I could see on the P&O website and the prices quoted by the TA - they've always been identical, because TAs always use the P&O price as the base point.

 

I assumed, as did the TA, that this was simply an error that would correct itself at the final booking stage, but it didn't. The original prices shown for what I wanted were £2754 and £3039 - but when the bookings were made they became £2900 and £3200. In each case, just over 5% higher.

 

There were discounts of 5% or 10% available against the prices shown on 3 September (for new or past passengers) and those same discounts were available when the booking was made at launch.

 

What P&O seem to have done, though, is increase the 'before discount' prices originally shown on 3 September (and afterwards) by just over 5% when bookings actually became possible - and the comment made by the TA suggests to me that this was done across the board.

 

Has anyone who took a note of the prices originally released noticed this? And has anyone had an explanation from anyone yet?

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See the thread titled Iona past guest discount from 21/9. A few of us have had this problem.

 

I noticed that, but assumed it was specifically an Iona problem. Obviously not!

 

P&O seem to be cynically manipulating prices, and I'm anticipating this is going to become quite high profile if they don't honour what they originally offered!

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I noticed that, but assumed it was specifically an Iona problem. Obviously not!

 

P&O seem to be cynically manipulating prices, and I'm anticipating this is going to become quite high profile if they don't honour what they originally offered!

 

P&O call it fluid pricing which basically means they will charge whatever they want, it is not only P&O that do this either, there is likely some small print that stops them being liable for false advertising. It is annoying but sadly the way things seem to work.

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P&O are not manipulating prices or fluid pricing has kicked in all they did was show price of £2754 and £3039 which had the 5% discount for new passengers (and also anyone else that booked) in the headline price and then the only discount off that would be 5% discount for past passengers. What they should have done is said price of cruise is £2900 and with 5% discount would be £2754 and then past passengers would get an extra 5% discount making the cruise £2616. It was just clever (deceitful) marketing giving people the thought that they would get an extra 10% discount when 5% had already been applied but they failed to show that.

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P&O call it fluid pricing which basically means they will charge whatever they want, it is not only P&O that do this either, there is likely some small print that stops them being liable for false advertising. It is annoying but sadly the way things seem to work.

 

I understand the principle of fluid pricing, but this was something very different from that. The launch prices were supposed to be fixed for anyone pre-registering, so that they were able to know in advance the price they'd be paying on day one.

 

I accept that after that point prices increased, as they usually do, but they should not have increased between announcing the pre-registration prices and the date on which those cruises were available to purchase.

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P&O are not manipulating prices or fluid pricing has kicked in all they did was show price of £2754 and £3039 which had the 5% discount for new passengers (and also anyone else that booked) in the headline price and then the only discount off that would be 5% discount for past passengers. What they should have done is said price of cruise is £2900 and with 5% discount would be £2754 and then past passengers would get an extra 5% discount making the cruise £2616. It was just clever (deceitful) marketing giving people the thought that they would get an extra 10% discount when 5% had already been applied but they failed to show that.

 

It's not as simple as that, though, because the wording they used throughout was this:

 

10% saving for past guests

Past guests booking this cruise on Select Price will receive a 10% discount if booked before 3 December 2018. Discount applied at checkout.

5% saving for new guests

New guests booking this cruise on Select Price will receive a 5% discount if booked before 3 December 2018. Discount applied at checkout.

It clearly stated that the discount would be applied at checkout, so logically, and legally, the prices displayed must have been the pre-discount (whether 5% or 10%) prices.

 

The headline prices actually increased between the date of the original price announcement on 3 September and the launch date - presumably because somebody at P&O realised they'd used the wrong prices on 3 September.

 

This was sharp practice by P&O, and I'm looking at the legal implications.

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We have booked for Britannia and the base price quoted at pre reg was £5318 for 2 pax. Reading the various mail shots both online and through the post we were led to believe that there would be 10% past guest discount but no they only gave us 5% off saying the other 5% had already been taken off to make the base price £5318. Having just checked on the website it is still the same price.

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I preregisered the price shown was 5000pp on the advert, on check out I paid 4500pp I.e. 10% off.

 

However as my suite number didn't come through till 2pm on 19th, after general sale , I was checking availability of my preferred suite online , just after lunch time, base price rose from 5000pp to 5500pp. I presume people still got 10% off but off the higher price. If you read p&o website the discount is guaranteed till december not the price.

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I too have encountered the same problem booking an Iona 2020 cruise - not directly through P&O, but with a company with guaranteed price match - and also believed that the price shown was then deducted by 10% at checkout as a past passenger. I read nothing that gave the impression that 5% had already been deducted and that only a further 5% would be deducted at checkout. The agent I used was equally confused, and despite them calling P&O - who gave them the same excuse.

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Hi....I think the point that docco is trying to make....unless I have got it wrong....is that the initial price indicated by P&O on September the 3rd should have been the same as the pre registration price....then 10%/5% off the September 3rd advertised price

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Can I confirm I got 10% at checkout on p&o website, perhaps they were confused over phone but website got it right

 

Most people, if not all, did receive the promised 10% at checkout, I think.

 

The problem is, though, that the discount is being taken off prices that had already been increased from the original launch prices - meaning that the real discount is only around 5%.

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I can confirm that I got the 10% off the original price on both the cruises I have booked. The cruises have now increased in price a little.

 

Do you happen to know the date of the 'original price' you're using there? The 'original prices' issued on 3 September were later replace by rather higher 'original prices' at some point between 3 September and the date(s) that bookings first became possible.

 

So far, P&O seem to have hidden this price change rather well, but it's been spotted by a number of people who ended up, as most did, paying rather more than the correct launch price.

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He original price I got was from my TA. That was on their website. When we rang to book the price we got was considerably less than on the website. Don’t think I saw a price from P&O. However the price for all three cruises has now gone up.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

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Yes Dai, that might explain what happened to us. My TA confirmed prices to me and then on the day I was giving him our deposits, he said that one of them had gone down by £100. Interesting. So my comment above is actually incorrect! One of them came down.

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I think the problem here is that there were two launch prices.

 

One was available right at the very outset on 3 September, but another one (showing prices around 5% higher) was released shortly afterwards when P&O realised that they hadn't intended the first set of prices to be discounted by the full 10% offered to previous passengers - just 5%.

 

I have some very clear figures for specific cabins/suites showing exactly that, but for anyone who missed seeing those initial prices on day one (3 September) they'll not be aware of the earlier prices, and think that they're getting the full 10% discount.

 

In a sense, they are - but their 10% is being taken off prices that P&O had actually increased at some point very early indeed in the process.

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I think the problem here is that there were two launch prices.

 

One was available right at the very outset on 3 September, but another one (showing prices around 5% higher) was released shortly afterwards when P&O realised that they hadn't intended the first set of prices to be discounted by the full 10% offered to previous passengers - just 5%.

 

I have some very clear figures for specific cabins/suites showing exactly that, but for anyone who missed seeing those initial prices on day one (3 September) they'll not be aware of the earlier prices, and think that they're getting the full 10% discount.

 

In a sense, they are - but their 10% is being taken off prices that P&O had actually increased at some point very early indeed in the process.

The pricing is further complicated becasue some cruises were “peninsular club cruises” so got a further 5% off. Ours was one of these so we should have got 15% off the original prices, but in fact only got 10% off because 5% has already been taken off. So where some-one says that they got a genuine 10% off, this might because they were peninsular club cruises!

Edited by Spike11
Didn’t make sense!
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