Upgrades (in PCL's opinion) In Spite of marking 'no upgrades'

[rgmacm]

I asked this question before but didn't realize I couldn't list the name of our TA (large POPULAR and well-used internet travel site/broker... ;) ) I just realized that the post got deleted. I still need an answer so am posting here with 'modifications' to my wording. ha!!

 

We bought our cruise through this travel site because of the incentives they offered...LOTS!!!! :) The reservation is marked "no upgrade' because we chose our cabin location carefully to avoid excess motion or noise. I know it is marked 'no upgrade' as I have logged in MANY times to check.

Here's my Question: I've heard that Princess upgrades those who request 'no upgrade'....and gives them 48 hrs to reject if they don't consider the room change to be 'better'. I realize they will notify this large internet site rather than me personally. Because of the sheer volume of customers/accounts and sales this company has on an HOURLY basis, I am concerned that my notification may either come late....or more probable...NEVER come at all. Therefore, I have been checking Cruise Personalizer on a daily basis (Sometimes more than once per day). Question...will Princess put any cabin change/upgrade on the Personalizer immediately so that I will see it...or will they wait until the 48 hours window is over? (and my chance to evaluate and/or refuse it is expired?)

I've also logged into our account on this travel broker site to check this as well...but the same question applies to that site....would the cabin change be listed immediately or AFTER the 48 hr window?

Has anyone purchased their cruise from a large broker such as this and what has been your experience with notifications on upgrades, et al.? I just want to know if I'll have the CHANCE to refuse an upgrade if we don't consider it to be 'better'.

Thank you

Edited March 27, 2014 by rgmacm

[Pam in CA]

It doesn't matter if you use a large Internet agency, a small high-volume travel agent, or a brick and mortar agency, Princess may or may not notify the agency. IMHO, communications can get lost in a big generic agency unless you're dealing with an agent who has been there a long time and knows the ropes. That's why I prefer a small high-volume agency... They know their clients and will be there next year and the year after. I've had too many problems with large agencies so I don't use them any more.

 

No matter what, even if your booking is marked "No upgrade," Princess can move you. :( Not often but it happens.

[Coral]

If your cabin is changed, it will show up immediately in the Cruise Personalizer.

 

If you are that concerned, I would just check it every morning. I would also speak with your agent and make sure "do not upgrade" is indicated in the Princess booking site. The vast majority of the times, Princess does honor the "do not upgrade" status. It is the rarity that you read about on this website when they don't.

[Cruisin' Chick]

One reason I would just book with a local travel agent that I can contact easily or with Princess is that if there's a situation, I don't have to go through trying a whole phone chain to find my booking agent if there's a problem. So far we haven't had our cabins changed since I've started requesting Do Not Upgrade.

[Colo Cruiser]

I believe there is no way to truly feel comfortable with this unless you booked through Princess so that you can deal with them directly.

Its just another weak link in the chain. IMO

I trust my TA to make sure its done, but a large discount TA may not be as forthcoming.

[skynight]

I asked this question before but didn't realize I couldn't list the name of our TA (large POPULAR and well-used internet travel site/broker... ;)

 

I know it is marked 'no upgrade' as I have logged in MANY times to check.

 

Thank you

Where did you log in and check? I have just looked at an upcoming booking (booked via a TA) on the Princess cruise personalizer and there is no indication that it is marked "no upgrade". I'm not aware that this shows on the Princess site, even though I know that the booking is marked as such. I have also never seen this on the Princess Booking Confirmation Passenger copy nor on the T.A.'s copy.

 

Also, I am not aware that Princess gives you the 48 hours you mention. Have not seen this or heard this before. So, if someone can comment that would be helpful.

 

Best way is to check your booking is on the Princess Cruise Personalizer each day.

[tommysgirl]

We just received an upgrade last night, I received an email to inform me and then when I looked on my cruise personalized, it had already been changed to the upgraded cabin. We are keeping the upgrade but we had 48 hours to request our original cabin back.

[Colo Cruiser]

Where did you log in and check? I have just looked at an upcoming booking (booked via a TA) on the Princess cruise personalizer and there is no indication that it is marked "no upgrade". I'm not aware that this shows on the Princess site, even though I know that the booking is marked as such. I have also never seen this on the Princess Booking Confirmation Passenger copy nor on the T.A.'s copy.

 

Also, I am not aware that Princess gives you the 48 hours you mention. Have not seen this or heard this before. So, if someone can comment that would be helpful.

 

Best way is to check your booking is on the Princess Cruise Personalizer each day.

 

I believe they are referring to logging in to see if the cabin had changed.

There is no where for passengers to see if the booking is marked no upgrade.

[whatcruiseisnext]

Even if you use a TA you can call Princess and they will tell you if your booking is marked no upgrade. I have done this numerous times. If your booking is marked NO upgrade and you are seeing it on your TA's website...that does not mean that Princess has been notified of the No Upgrade request.

[rgmacm]

Where did you log in and check? I have just looked at an upcoming booking (booked via a TA) on the Princess cruise personalizer and there is no indication that it is marked "no upgrade". I'm not aware that this shows on the Princess site, even though I know that the booking is marked as such. I have also never seen this on the Princess Booking Confirmation Passenger copy nor on the T.A.'s copy.

 

Also, I am not aware that Princess gives you the 48 hours you mention. Have not seen this or heard this before. So, if someone can comment that would be helpful.

 

Best way is to check your booking is on the Princess Cruise Personalizer each day.

 

It's marked 'no upgrade' on the 'site I'm not allowed to mention here' :) :) --the travel broker site-- when I log onto my account there.

I had just read many times here on CC that you have 48 hrs...no personal experience, of course. :)

[rgmacm]

One reason I would just book with a local travel agent that I can contact easily or with Princess is that if there's a situation' date=' I don't have to go through trying a whole phone chain to find my booking agent if there's a problem. So far we haven't had our cabins changed since I've started requesting Do Not Upgrade.[/quote']

 

Well.....we DID book with a local agent the last time. Our cruise was on Carnival and they gave price adjustments if the price went down. I went to her (local TA) twice to get a price adjustment and though she did it both times, it appeared that she felt a great deal of 'annoyance' toward us....I don't know if that was because we were 'bothering' her or if it was that she was losing commission everytime our price went down??? but it made me feel very uncomfortable. I vowed to not get into that situation again.

When we booked with this "unmentionable site', I didn't realize THEY would be considered a TA as well. (We're still on the learning curve with all this) I thought I was making my own reservation and would be able to actually talk to Princess. I learned differently, ...ha! Anyway, I've learned my lesson and probably won't ever book with a huge broker like this again, but in the meantime, this is our situation. Don't get me wrong, this company has been great...we've actually changed our cabin once during this process based on information learned here on CC and had no problem, but I DID have to wade through the call- wait- on hold- call back- etc...stuff...

Booking through Princess doesn't seem to get the best deals...They just don't seem to offer the incentives... ???

I just need to find a local TA who truly WANTS me to get the BEST deal. :) :) :) Does such a person exist??? hahahah!!!

Edited March 28, 2014 by rgmacm

[Cruisin' Chick]

As I said on a similar thread, if you've marked your booking "do not upgrade" and Princess wants to change your cabin, how it SHOULD work is that Princess asks if you would be willing to move...just as they do with moveover to other cruises offer. You are sent the offer (which includes some perks such as a refund/upgrade) and if you want to accept it, you contact Princess. They don't move you to another date and then you have to contact them to get moved back to your original sailing. None of this moving you to another cabin, and then you have to 1) discover the change, and 2) beg to be moved back to your original cabin. If Princess gives a good enough incentive, some passengers may actually go for the move.

[Pam in CA]

Booking through Princess doesn't seem to get the best deals...They just don't seem to offer the incentives... ???

I just need to find a local TA who truly WANTS me to get the BEST deal. :) :) :) Does such a person exist??? hahahah!!!

Yes. Princess allows TAs to discount fares for their clients and you can often save 10-20%, depending on when you book and your cabin category, plus get OBC and other perks. However, they're not allowed to promote or advertise discounted rates so if you do a general search, you'll see the same price everywhere. They are not necessarily big online or big box agencies. Best way to find them is to ask around, particularly if you go to a M&G on the ship.

[Bucky3]

Here is my daughter's experience in summer of 2012. She booked a minisuite through a large agency, had the booking marked "no upgrade" (it showed on her copy of the booking). When she went to fill out the personalizer information, she saw a different cabin number. They had been assigned to a full suite, but it was facing aft on the ship, and for reasons of seasickness their original cabin was midship. She called me and together we went to the Princess website and discovered that there were several suites available midship in the same category as the suite they had been assigned. The next morning she called her booking agency, they called Princess, and she was assigned a midship suite. SO, it all turned out well for her......and now she's really spoiled!!! What we learned from this is if you are "upgraded," check the location and if not to your liking see if there is the same category as the upgrade available in a location of your choosing. Good Luck and Happy Cruising!

[Eagle_and_hawk]

If you are really set on your room, contact Princess and ask them if it's marked as do not upgrade. We went through the same thing with our TA as told us it was marked that way, we believed them, then Princess moved us anyway. It was 5 months before sailing, and the ship had plenty of rooms available, so not sure why.

 

We could not get our original room back and of course Princess claims they notified the TA and the TA said they knew nothing about it. We ended up getting a room in the same area and turned out OK, however for the next 5 months, I was signing on every day, to be sure we were not a victim of their so-called upgrades.

 

Based on the email I received back from Princess, it sounds like their systems will perform some automatic upgrades, unless it is marked as do not upgrade, in which case, it's *suppose* to overlook those. In the response, they said it was currently showing DNU, but they have no way of knowing if it did when the system selected it for upgrade or not as by this time, we had already been assigned another room and marked as DNU.

 

I can understand if there was a specific situation to where they needed to move someone, just not their automatic assumption that just because they list a cabin in a higher category, that someone is wanting to move to for free as an upgrade. Most cruisers would have taken the upgrade they gave us, but it was a downgrade to us.

 

David & Ellen

[recyclelady]

Here is my daughter's experience in summer of 2012. She booked a minisuite through a large agency, had the booking marked "no upgrade" (it showed on her copy of the booking). When she went to fill out the personalizer information, she saw a different cabin number. They had been assigned to a full suite, but it was facing aft on the ship, and for reasons of seasickness their original cabin was midship. She called me and together we went to the Princess website and discovered that there were several suites available midship in the same category as the suite they had been assigned. The next morning she called her booking agency, they called Princess, and she was assigned a midship suite. SO, it all turned out well for her......and now she's really spoiled!!! What we learned from this is if you are "upgraded," check the location and if not to your liking see if there is the same category as the upgrade available in a location of your choosing. Good Luck and Happy Cruising!

I had a similar (but not as cool!) upgrade a few years ago. We were booked in an interior cabin. We were moved to an OV near the very front of the ship. I found another empty OV more near the midship location and they were happy to move us there.

[Loonbeam]

This has been covered in some other threads.

 

DNU is techncially a preference. What it means is that if they need to move cabins, then yours will be at the end of the list. But lets say there are 10 cabins in a a certain block and they are all marked DNU. Princess will move some.

 

The most common reason for a move so far out is that someonet booked a B2B in that cabin on the prior cruise. The system will either move you to a similar cabin in the same class or upgrade depending on the yield management system numbers. This is one time DNU will be ignored. There are a few others (scheduled maintenance on a cabin block, request of VIPS, accommodating linked bookings where minors are involved with connecting cabins, etc.)

 

Princess has long since realized that many people will not even notice or care...

 

If you are really set on your room, contact Princess and ask them if it's marked as do not upgrade. We went through the same thing with our TA as told us it was marked that way, we believed them, then Princess moved us anyway. It was 5 months before sailing, and the ship had plenty of rooms available, so not sure why.

 

We could not get our original room back and of course Princess claims they notified the TA and the TA said they knew nothing about it. We ended up getting a room in the same area and turned out OK, however for the next 5 months, I was signing on every day, to be sure we were not a victim of their so-called upgrades.

 

Based on the email I received back from Princess, it sounds like their systems will perform some automatic upgrades, unless it is marked as do not upgrade, in which case, it's *suppose* to overlook those. In the response, they said it was currently showing DNU, but they have no way of knowing if it did when the system selected it for upgrade or not as by this time, we had already been assigned another room and marked as DNU.

 

I can understand if there was a specific situation to where they needed to move someone, just not their automatic assumption that just because they list a cabin in a higher category, that someone is wanting to move to for free as an upgrade. Most cruisers would have taken the upgrade they gave us, but it was a downgrade to us.

 

David & Ellen