But We Were Marked "Do Not Upgrade"

[MsSoCalCruiser]

Well, it finally happened, our first upgrade. But, we were marked "Do Not Upgrade". What good is it to mark a booking "Do Not Upgrade" if they move you anyway?

 

We booked direct with Princess and we have two cabins next to each other. The Princess agent told me she would mark our booking "Do Not Upgrade" due to us needing the cabins next to each other (her idea). I will call tomorrow and ask for our cabin back. I hope we get it. I will be upset if we don't. We picked the cabins that we wanted for a reason. :(

 

I would normally be so excited to get an upgrade. My very first one!

[Cruise_me_Crazy]

Good luck with your phone call. I would be interested to hear how u go :).

[StevenW]

Yes. Good luck. I fear you won't get the original cabin back.:(

 

Twice I've lost a selected cabin and been assigned another without explanation from my TA, and each time the original cabin had already been allocated to someone else by the time I had noticed the cabin number on the booking had changed.:mad:

[NJ Fred]

With all respect - - never mind what someone "tells" you over a telephone. ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS get it in writing!

 

Do your best when you call to make your legitimate beef. Suggest you go so far as to insist they find you acceptable neighboring staterooms.

 

I hope it works out. Something like this makes for a poor beginning for what should be a happy voyage.

[GottaLuvCruising]

Do post how this works out for you! Princess upgrade procedure needs some tweaking as this is a common occurrence and totally unfair when booking is specifically marked "no upgrade".

[Woobstr112G]

OP;

 

Best of luck in resolving your issue.....:):):)

 

Bob

[GweninTX]

Happened to us too - we did not get original cabin back, but one close by that was the same. I was furious and do not trust Princess when it comes to honoring their "no upgrade" policy. I let my TA fight the fight, but I called first to see if it was a mistake.

[akeasley]

Good luck....hope you get your room back.

[skynight]

Like I posted many times, Princess just has very poor customer service and policies for upgrades. The sad thing is, I don't even think they realize it. The new President was VP in charge of Customer Service for the past 4 years, so I don't see it getting any better anytime soon.

[gooch47]

This seems to be getting out of hand.

[beg3yrs]

They could upgrade the other cabin to one right next to your new one...

[Loonbeam]

This seems to be happening a lot, so I made some calls.

 

Here's an important distinction. Marking your cabin Do Not Upgrade is considered a REQUEST not a command. The idea behind it was to figure out who wanted upgrades versus those who preferred to keep their cabins to keep the number of upgrade communications down.

 

However, it was never meant to be a lockout for yield management upgrades. I made the point that it was named rather poorly, and actually apparently internally it looks a little different (as in some cases a No on Do Not Upgrade shows as a Yes on Will Accept Upgrade).

 

In short, if the yield system says they need to upgrade or they need to do so for other operational reasons the system will go to cabins that don't have DNU selected first, but if there are not enough of those, it will select others.

[Happy2cruise]

Good luck! This happened to us once and we were fortunate to get our original cabin back.

[Potstech]

Time to let Princess know there is a problem. Not on your cruise satisfaction survey that there needs to be a way to show the Do Not Upgrade on all paperwork. Write in and let them know that this is a personnal choice for many and not a corporate decision to be done without notice. I know I pick my cabins for reasons that I like and would be very upset if someone changed them out especially after I paid for the cruise and all my paperwork said a certain cabin. Let Princess know they need to put this in writting somewhere so cruisers have a recourse if they are upgraded when they do not want it. After all we are the consumers not them.

[Astro Flyer]

Well, it finally happened, our first upgrade. But, we were marked "Do Not Upgrade". What good is it to mark a booking "Do Not Upgrade" if they move you anyway?

 

We booked direct with Princess and we have two cabins next to each other. The Princess agent told me she would mark our booking "Do Not Upgrade" due to us needing the cabins next to each other (her idea). I will call tomorrow and ask for our cabin back. I hope we get it. I will be upset if we don't. We picked the cabins that we wanted for a reason. :(

 

I would normally be so excited to get an upgrade. My very first one!

I've never booked separate cabins so I don't know if each cabin had its own booking number...if so, did they link both booking numbers. Unfortunately as 'Loonbeam' posted a cabin assignment is not a guarantee but a request subject to change. I believe that airline seat assignments have the same stipulation but think it's rarely done. Princess seems to be changing cabin assignments too often of those who want to keep their carefully selected cabin. :(

[JimmyVWine]

This seems to be happening a lot, so I made some calls.

 

Here's an important distinction. Marking your cabin Do Not Upgrade is considered a REQUEST not a command. The idea behind it was to figure out who wanted upgrades versus those who preferred to keep their cabins to keep the number of upgrade communications down.

 

However, it was never meant to be a lockout for yield management upgrades. I made the point that it was named rather poorly, and actually apparently internally it looks a little different (as in some cases a No on Do Not Upgrade shows as a Yes on Will Accept Upgrade).

 

In short, if the yield system says they need to upgrade or they need to do so for other operational reasons the system will go to cabins that don't have DNU selected first, but if there are not enough of those, it will select others.

 

Interesting explanation. But does it seem possible that there are soooooo many upgrades offered and/or needed that they would work their way through the entire roster of people who will accept an upgrade such that Princess would find it necessary to dip into the Do Not Upgrade crowd? That's a lot of upgrades to work through.

Edited December 30, 2013 by JimmyVWine

[AKman2495]

I guess the lesson from all of this is that, at least on Princess, booking a cabin you want is a crap shoot. Presumably, the contract lets them move you around and "Do Not Upgrade", does not mean "Do Not Upgrade" under any circumstances.

 

And it is clear that the fact that you carefully select a cabin means nothing to the Princess upgrade computer.

[likeadisguise]

I've never booked separate cabins so I don't know if each cabin had its own booking number...if so, did they link both booking numbers.

 

Each cabin gets its own booking number. However, linking booking together is primarily for dining purposes, it has no affect on cabin assignments. This seems to be a big misconception on the board.

 

Here's an important distinction. Marking your cabin Do Not Upgrade is considered a REQUEST not a command. The idea behind it was to figure out who wanted upgrades versus those who preferred to keep their cabins to keep the number of upgrade communications down.

 

...

 

In short, if the yield system says they need to upgrade or they need to do so for other operational reasons the system will go to cabins that don't have DNU selected first, but if there are not enough of those, it will select others.

That's really interesting to know... so "Do Not Upgrade" is more like "Would prefer not to upgrade." They should explain that better, because it gives people the impression that Princess will not and cannot change their cabin assignment.

[Loonbeam]

Not as implausible as you might think. From a yield system standpoint there are subclasses within the classes (dealing with things like 4th person capacity, accessibility, balcony size, sublocation for purposes of muster areas, etc). The system DOES know which cabins are booked direct and booked earlier. It's a lot more segmented than just MA versus MB and that's why you sometimes see 'upgrades' within a class.

 

I suspect if we did a detailed analysis of what cabins this occurs to, certain subsets of cabins get flagged on a much more regular basis. I also suspect that since many of the people on here tend to book the more 'popular' cabins and cabin classes, there would be substantial overlap since those are the cabins with the highest probable yield potential.

 

Interesting explanation. But does it seem possible that there are soooooo many upgrades offered and/or needed that they would work their way through the entire roster of people who will accept an upgrade such that Princess would find it necessary to dip into the Do Not Upgrade crowd? That's a lot of upgrades to work through.

[Pam in CA]

Linda, so sorry this happened. What a bummer! This happened to me years ago but my TA was able to get my cabin back. It seems to me that reports of "DNU" are mostly with people who booked directly. Something to consider.

[Astro Flyer]

Each cabin gets its own booking number. However, linking booking together is primarily for dining purposes, it has no affect on cabin assignments. This seems to be a big misconception on the board.

Thanks although they should do it because it's a big problem when groups book adjacent cabins & Princess moves them because they do not have a procedure to link cabin assignments. :(

[as19111]

I'm just curious. As mentioned a few posts ago, does your original cabin sleep 3 or 4? Is it a handicap or adjacent to a handicap room? Maybe you were selected because the new assignment needed some feature of your room. If not, wouldn't it be a great upgrade for them to switch to your new cabin and you keep the original!

[Cruzman]

Your experience is just one of many reasons to never book directly with the cruise line. I have had similar experiences, but I have a TA to intervene on my behalf, and he has always done so. Wait until you have a problem with charges to your on board account and you are left to deal with the cruise line on your own.

[aaerobear]

Imagine if it was a family and the dad and one of the kids were booked in one cabin and the mom and another child were in the other and the upgrade was given. You know the family booked it so mom and dad could have one room and the kids the other. Now what do they do? Have the kids stay on another deck or different side of the ship??? I don't think so.

[likeadisguise]

Well, I don't know that "we booked our cabins so we could plan to break your rules and put our children in a cabin alone since you won't allow us to make our booking that way" would be a terribly persuasive argument, really....