Not Happy with Princess

[Stuartm]

I visit the "My Princess" page on the Princess website every few days to see if there is anything new to check out and of course to see the number of days till my next cruise slowly diminish.

 

So it was with some surprise when I visited a couple of days ago to see that there was no reference to my cruise booking at all. I went to the cruise personalizer and put in my name and booking reference and received the message "we do not show details of cancelled cruises".

 

I searched for my cruise and it was still on offer so I navigated to the cabin selection page and sure enough, there was my cabin, listed as available.

I had booked this cabin back in January so I was now very concerned as to what was going on.

 

I was overseas at this time so I asked my partner who was at home in Melbourne to call the travel agent. The travel agent, after talking to Princess reported that the booking had been re-instated but we would need to pay another $400.

 

I arrived back home yesterday and immediately rang the TA. I asked him why the extra money and he told me that we had not paid enough deposit in the first place. I informed him that the future cruise letter that I had supplied to his agency had given us a reduced deposit of 50%.

 

He rang Princess and they told him that my letter in fact DID NOT offer a reduced deposit, only onboard credit. I found the copy of the letter and double checked that it did indeed offer the reduced deposit and sent another copy to the TA.

 

Apparently all is now well.

 

But I am far from happy. If I were not the sort of person who checked the site, and as Princess did not alert my TA that they were going to cancel our booking, then it would be quite possible that when we came to final payment day we would be told that we don't have a booking.

Also, as the booking was made 5 months ago, why is it that Princess decided to cancel now?

 

So I suggest if you don't already, just check your booking on line every now and then to avoid a major disappointment later.

 

cheers

 

Stu

[rkmw]

I visit the "My Princess" page on the Princess website every few days to see if there is anything new to check out and of course to see the number of days till my next cruise slowly diminish.

 

So it was with some surprise when I visited a couple of days ago to see that there was no reference to my cruise booking at all. I went to the cruise personalizer and put in my name and booking reference and received the message "we do not show details of cancelled cruises".

 

I searched for my cruise and it was still on offer so I navigated to the cabin selection page and sure enough, there was my cabin, listed as available.

I had booked this cabin back in January so I was now very concerned as to what was going on.

 

I was overseas at this time so I asked my partner who was at home in Melbourne to call the travel agent. The travel agent, after talking to Princess reported that the booking had been re-instated but we would need to pay another $400.

 

I arrived back home yesterday and immediately rang the TA. I asked him why the extra money and he told me that we had not paid enough deposit in the first place. I informed him that the future cruise letter that I had supplied to his agency had given us a reduced deposit of 50%.

 

He rang Princess and they told him that my letter in fact DID NOT offer a reduced deposit, only onboard credit. I found the copy of the letter and double checked that it did indeed offer the reduced deposit and sent another copy to the TA.

 

Apparently all is now well.

 

But I am far from happy. If I were not the sort of person who checked the site, and as Princess did not alert my TA that they were going to cancel our booking, then it would be quite possible that when we came to final payment day we would be told that we don't have a booking.

Also, as the booking was made 5 months ago, why is it that Princess decided to cancel now?

 

So I suggest if you don't already, just check your booking on line every now and then to avoid a major disappointment later.

 

cheers

 

Stu

 

Stu sorry this happened to you but next time you cruise buy an FCC for $100 p/p and when you cruise again thats your deposit paid and its good for cruises up to 49 days.....they are better than the old ones

[Sutho]

Did it occur to you that it could be the travel agent entirely to blame?

 

Cruise lines dont just cancel a cruise without sending out a notice first so perhaps your travel agent got these warnings and never acted on them. I have had a similar situation where tickets were not issued due to a travel agent stuff up where they continually got requests for passport/immigration information and never acted on the request as a result my tickets were put on hold and I had to fire the travel agent and take personal control of the booking. To cut the long story short I dont use travel agents anmore (regardless if their agency can give Qantas Frequent Flyer Points) and I advise everyone I know not to use travel agents affiliated with the agency that stuffed up the booking.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Hi Stu,

I was going to say something along the lines of the above post.

Never heard of Princess cancelling someone out like that and I think you should be looking to your TA. They would/should have been kept up to date with any changes....after all they are getting a nice fat commission out of the sale and you would think it was in their own interests to look after that as well.

Sounds to me like the TA did not know what an FCC was......I know it sounds crazy, but unless your TA is a specialised cruise agent , they can be blissfully unaware of what is going on.:eek:

 

[Billy and Charlie's Mum]

Hi Stu,

 

I know it was Princess's fault because the same thing happened to us last week. I went on the Personaliser to see our cruise was cancelled - as it was Friday I had to wait until Monday to ring the TA and find out what happened. The problem was when our TA rang two weeks ago to get our fare reduced as Princess had a price drop on our cruise. No problem, same cabin, same OBC and our TA received the confirmation from Princess and then forwarded it on to me.

 

However, the computer overrode the booking when it did a check on deposits (probably the same time as yours) and because there was only a $400 deposit (we used one of the old FCC letters too) cancelled it. If I hadn't been on the ball like you I wouldn't have a booking now either. We did lose the cabin we specifically asked for (A515 on the Diamond) but have now got A512 which is still a large inside so it is ok. The TA was angry too because they were supposed to get an email advising them of the cancellation, but didn't..... so it looks like Princess has stuffed up big time.... I wonder how many more of the bookings have been wrongfully cancelled!

[Stuartm]

Did it occur to you that it could be the travel agent entirely to blame?

 

Cruise lines dont just cancel a cruise without sending out a notice first so perhaps your travel agent got these warnings and never acted on them. I have had a similar situation where tickets were not issued due to a travel agent stuff up where they continually got requests for passport/immigration information and never acted on the request as a result my tickets were put on hold and I had to fire the travel agent and take personal control of the booking. To cut the long story short I dont use travel agents anmore (regardless if their agency can give Qantas Frequent Flyer Points) and I advise everyone I know not to use travel agents affiliated with the agency that stuffed up the booking.

 

I have no reason to defend my TA, this is the first time I've used them but if the TA were to blame I can't see how it would work.

 

When the booking was made back in January, if the TA didn't submit the Future Cruise Letter then Princess would have asked for the full deposit. If they did and got no repsonse from the TA then surely the booking would have been cancelled soon after.

 

Likewise, if they notified the TA that the cancellation was impending, then surely this would have happened months ago. I think it unlikely that Princess would wait several months before chasing up a missing deposit.

 

The post by Billie and Charlies Mum above seems a more likely scenario to me. We had booked a three day cruise on the Pacific Sun (no need to comment Sutho) but with the sale of the ship we were offered a similar crusie on the Pacific Pearl. We declined this offer as the dates weren't right for us and transferred our deposit from the Pacific Sun to the Dawn Princess.

 

On my "My Princess" page both cruises have been sitting there since the beginning of the year even thought the Pearl was cancelled. Maybe someone cancelled the wrong cruise but still doesn't explain Princess' comment that the Future Cruise Letter we submitted didn't offer reduced deposit as that is simply incorrect.

 

To further complicate matters ,I am going to try and re-book our cruise as the fares are on sale with a saving of about $450 each. Will probably need to hand over another Future Cruise Letter but for $900 it is worth it.

 

cheers

 

Stu

[Billy and Charlie's Mum]

To further complicate matters ,I am going to try and re-book our cruise as the fares are on sale with a saving of about $450 each. Will probably need to hand over another Future Cruise Letter but for $900 it is worth it.

 

cheers

 

Stu

 

No need to do that... we just got a price decrease on our diamond princess cruise (saved $1000) by getting the TA to contact princess. We didn't have to cancel and rebook and use another FCC letter. Go ahead and ask... it seems that princess is now honouring price drops for Aussies. Your TA might charge you a fee though - that is how you know if you have a good TA.... mine didn't.

[Sandielle]

Haha, we've got an extra cruise personaliser on My Princess. Our TA, who also doesn't charge a fee for rebooking, made an enquiry re another cabin for us and they've put it on as well. It will drop off in a few days - pity about the 11 extra days that will drop off as well. :(:rolleyes:

[rkmw]

I have no reason to defend my TA, this is the first time I've used them but if the TA were to blame I can't see how it would work.

 

When the booking was made back in January, if the TA didn't submit the Future Cruise Letter then Princess would have asked for the full deposit. If they did and got no repsonse from the TA then surely the booking would have been cancelled soon after.

 

Likewise, if they notified the TA that the cancellation was impending, then surely this would have happened months ago. I think it unlikely that Princess would wait several months before chasing up a missing deposit.

 

The post by Billie and Charlies Mum above seems a more likely scenario to me. We had booked a three day cruise on the Pacific Sun (no need to comment Sutho) but with the sale of the ship we were offered a similar crusie on the Pacific Pearl. We declined this offer as the dates weren't right for us and transferred our deposit from the Pacific Sun to the Dawn Princess.

 

On my "My Princess" page both cruises have been sitting there since the beginning of the year even thought the Pearl was cancelled. Maybe someone cancelled the wrong cruise but still doesn't explain Princess' comment that the Future Cruise Letter we submitted didn't offer reduced deposit as that is simply incorrect.

 

To further complicate matters ,I am going to try and re-book our cruise as the fares are on sale with a saving of about $450 each. Will probably need to hand over another Future Cruise Letter but for $900 it is worth it.

 

cheers

 

Stu

 

Stu can you transfer your deposit from a p&o cruise to a princess cruise

[resordanis]

No need to do that... we just got a price decrease on our diamond princess cruise (saved $1000) by getting the TA to contact princess. We didn't have to cancel and rebook and use another FCC letter. Go ahead and ask... it seems that princess is now honouring price drops for Aussies. Your TA might charge you a fee though - that is how you know if you have a good TA.... mine didn't.

Our Diamond Princess cruise has had a few drops since we originally booked. Up until now it has just been an adjustment, but the sale that started this week, says it is for new booking only, so our TA cancelled and re-booked. It gave us another reduction and an additional OBC, but I have just realised after reading here, I have used my one life line on for FCC. It does not matter as we are definately doing the cruise.

The prices just seem to be falling all the time, my last reduction was early June and now this other one. I am also lucky that our TA does not charge a fee.:)

[thied]

it pays to read your statemnet or emails.

[Billy and Charlie's Mum]

it pays to read your statemnet or emails.

 

Thied... there were no emails or statements involved.... stick to the facts or don't comment!

[resordanis]

Thied... there were no emails or statements involved.... stick to the facts or don't comment!

Totally agree!

[Stuartm]

Stu can you transfer your deposit from a p&o cruise to a princess cruise

 

I don't know if you can do it under normal circumstaces. Because our cruise on the Pacific Sun was cancelled by the cruise company, they offered us an alternative P&O cruise or the ability to transfer the deposit to a Princess cruise.

 

My TA has made a tentative booking for us on the Dawn Princess at the reduced fare and I have sent through another FC letter so I will wait and see if Princess leaves our current booking as it is and drops the price. Worst scenario is that we have to cancel the current booking and then re-book at the lower fare. With the second FC letter we will still qualify for the reduced deposit and the onboard credit.

 

I'll wait to see what happens on Monday.

 

cheers

 

Stuart

[Stuartm]

Well, I now know what happened to my booking and as a couple of posters suggested, it was indeed my TA's doing...however...I am not displeased with her.

 

The week before the Princess sale my agent noted that the price had dropped on our cruise so she rang Princess and re-booked us at the new price. As we had used a Future Cruise letter for the initial booking we had paid a reduced deposit.

 

Now, for some reason my TA didn't mention the letter when she rebooked and obviously the Princess system didn't carry it over so as far as Princess was concerned we had not paid enough for the deposit.

 

This would not have been a problem except that my TA then went to Bali for a week. I assume Princess contacted her about the issure with the booking (she didn't say) but of course they cancelled when further payment was not received.

 

So that is why my booking disappeared.

 

My TA was full of apologies for any stress she had caused me but I"m more than satisfied as she has re-booked us again (the price dropped further the week she was away) and we have the same cabin with all the same onboard credit with a saving of $900!!!

 

The last cruise we took I had to ring the TA (a different one) to tell them that the price for our cabin had dropped $1000 so would she rebook us.

So the advice is, always check the Princess website and if the price goes down ring your agent. They may not be on top of it.

 

So Princess, I'm sorry I ever doubted you.

 

Now the only thing to make the cruise perfect would be for Princess to recognize our Platinum status which we will reach on our third day of the cruise.......but I know that ain't going to happen.

 

cheers

 

Stu

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Hi Stu,

What a great outcome. Its always nice to hear good news.:):)

 

[Sandielle]

Stu, thanks for relating your story. A timely warning to remind us to check everything for ourselves. (Which we do, anyway - always hoping for an upgrade, lol ;)) Glad everything worked out for the best. :)

[suey]

Our travel agent just arranged a price drop for own Sun Princess cruise in Feb any extra saving is good:)