P&O no longer loyal

[Scriv]

I like to book early for our main holiday or a special one because I like to be able to choose cabin, dining etc and to be able to link up with friends.

 

I usually look out for one of the early deals, usually with good OBC and a loyalty discount from a previous cruise plus extra OBC from my Future Cruise Deposit.

 

I expect some fluctuation after that, but am happy with my lot once I have it.

Edited December 19, 2014 by Scriv

[crompton21]

The price can (and does) go up as well as down. People rarely seem to be offended when that happens.......

[daiB]

Correct. Those who only sail the same line again and again then moan about it, need to look outside the box!

 

 

Some people do not have a choice. If you are restricted to certain cabins, I use a scooter. Therefore I have to book as early as I can.

 

BTW I never moan about it. Most people don't but I do find your post insulting. As of course you meant it to be, as you indicated the other day.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[richleeds]

Some people do not have a choice. If you are restricted to certain cabins, I use a scooter. Therefore I have to book as early as I can.

 

BTW I never moan about it. Most people don't but I do find your post insulting. As of course you meant it to be, as you indicated the other day.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

 

 

Just scouring my post, can't find an insult anywhere?

 

Saying that looking outside the box and maybe trying other lines (yes other lines can also accommodate scooters), ships, destinations, itineraries etc as bobstheboy suggests above is common sense and fits in with the OPs theme of this thread that sailing with the same line again and again does not give you any pricing loyalty.

[Scriv]

I don't think richleeds comment is meant for those who are loyal to P&O and are happy..... but it is sensible for those who don't like the pricing policy to look elsewhere rather than sticking with them, but moaning.

Edited December 19, 2014 by Scriv

[PORT ROYAL]

Some people do not have a choice. If you are restricted to certain cabins, I use a scooter. Therefore I have to book as early as I can.

 

BTW I never moan about it. Most people don't but I do find your post insulting. As of course you meant it to be, as you indicated the other day.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

 

:confused

:confused

 

An unfair attack one thinks on a legitimate and sensible post.

[richleeds]

I don't think richleeds comment is meant for those who are loyal to P&O and are happy..... but it is sensible for those who don't like the pricing policy to look elsewhere rather than sticking with them, but moaning.

 

 

Correct Scriv. There are some tetchy people on here!

[richleeds]

:confused

 

:confused

 

 

 

An unfair attack one thinks on a legitimate and sensible post.

 

 

Thanks Port, it baffled me also.

[BalkanCruiser]

Hi All

we booked our holiday for August 2015 last month leaving a small deposit of £50.00 each. four days later we found that the price of our cabin had dropped by £300.00. As i thought we had P&O price promise (Vantage Fare) as we had had in previous years, I contacted P&O to discuss options. I was informed that P&O no longer operated a price promise and that fares would go up or down as they see fit and the only way i could benefit from this was to cancel my holiday and re-book with the new price. This is fine because I only paid the small deposit, but what about the people who paid the full 10% deposit.

 

I wrote to P&O giving my concerns and asked them if there was anything they could do. The reply was not what I was expecting. they made several quotes which thourghly upset me.

 

Quote "I would advise that any decrease in fares are applicable to new bookings only. We would of course rather not have to reduce fares after the initial launch period for any cruise holidays, but ultimately, it is our aim to ensure that all berths are sold on each and every cruise"

 

I can understand this if the price dropped 6 to 8 weeks before sailing, but 9 months before. Why would we book so early if it was known that the price promise had disappeared and we could be losing hundreds of pounds.

 

Quote "The only way passangers can take advantage of new offers is to cancel the booking with the relevent charges levied and rebook under the new fare"

 

I was fortunate that i only paid £50.00 per passenger, so I could cancel and and still rebook saving £200.00 in the mean time. but what about the others who paid the full 10% deposit. if you cancel, you lose your deposit, so if you paid the 10%, you would not benefit from cancelling and rebooking.

 

I did not rebook. I cancelled my holiday and lost my £100.00 deposit. The bad taste this letter left would not allow me to enjoy what would have been a great holiday on AZURA during August 2015 the joy of boking early and planning ahead had gone.

 

we have sailed with P&O for several years now and enjoyed the holdays we have had with the peace of mind that if we boked early, our loyalty would be rewarded with the knowledge of P&O's price promise, we would not lose out.

 

This has now gone and P&O's loyalty to its passengers has also gone.

 

I cancelled my holiday tonight and within a few minutes a received an email with my cancellation invoice stating that I had lost my £100.00 deposit. I suppose it could have been worse, it could have been the full 10% that others may have paid.

 

I will be writing back to P&O just to express our disapointment with them, not expecting a reply as they have shown that we no longer matter.

 

Please take this as a warning, is it worth booking early and will P&O be loyal if anything changes.

 

Steve

 

Your annoyance with P&O seems to come because you failed to read the Terms and Conditions before booking. That is entirely your fault not P&Os.

 

By the way had the fair for a similar cabin on your intended cruise gone up would you be offering to the extra to P&O ?

[dsrdsrdsr]

Loyalty is a red herring, because it very rarely applies to holidays. Booking the holiday you like best or get the best deal on is not loyalty - even if you book with P&O every year, if you do it because every year's that's your idea fo the best holiday, you aren't being loyal. You're doing what you feel is best for yourself.

 

If you think you might like a different holiday better, eg. a Fred Olsen or a non-cruise, but you book P&O anyway, that's loyalty. It's also very rare. You have loyalty to family, to football teams, possibly to local corner shops, but you don't have loyalty to cruise companies.

 

As for the OP, he doesn't like the way P&O do business so he doesn't do business with them any more. Fair enough. I think losing the deposit was extreme behaviour, because all that changed from when he booked to when P&O cut the prices was that he could have saved £200 (but chose not to). I would have at least gone on that cruise, even if I never sailed with them again. But ultimately, like it always has been all through the retail world, you see what is on offer and you buy it if you want it. If the price changes later, so be it.

[richleeds]

Your annoyance with P&O seems to come because you failed to read the Terms and Conditions before booking. That is entirely your fault not P&O's

 

 

Does anyone read T&C's these days?

[majortom10]

Does anyone read T&C's these days?

 

Yes I always do because it is a lot of money to me and I want to know my rights before I book anybody that doesn't is a fool and deserves all they get. Having said that having booked cruises early with P&O even before Vantage we had cruises we had booked heavily reduced at a later date. It is nothing new and has happened as long as we have been sailing with P&O since 2000 long before Select, Early Saver, Saver and Vantage and like I said after the Vantage fiasco IMO the new prices are very similar just a different name. We now cruise more often than not with Princess who we find are better in food and service onboard and even better customer service even though they are in the same building in P&O in Southampton.

[Scriv]

I also always read the terms and conditions and I think it is silly not to.

[richleeds]

I was talking about in general. For example every time I update my iPhone's software Apple's T&C's run to 63 pages, if I hire a car, I never read the small print on the back of the hire agreement, PayPal and eBay user agreements run for pages etc etc etc....

[bee-ess]

I also always read the terms and conditions and I think it is silly not to.

 

Strangely enough with P&O I feel I need to - so many complicated conditions such as dining choice etc, make it so.

[Scriv]

I agree that there are some agreements where you would lose the will to live if your read every word, but I do make sure I read them when there are different conditions attached to different price categories like here.

 

I also read cancellation terms and conditions very carefully to make sure we don't get caught out.

[Turbofun]

Does anyone read T&C's these days?

 

I doubt most do, whatever contract they agree to, whether a mortgage, a loan or a holiday.

Of course they then wail and often demand compensation when they fall foul of those contracts they signed up to.

It ain't hard, read the contract and if you don't like it, don't agree to it and go elsewhere.

[silver wedding]

Hi All

we booked our holiday for August 2015 last month leaving a small deposit of £50.00 each. four days later we found that the price of our cabin had dropped by £300.00. As i thought we had P&O price promise (Vantage Fare) as we had had in previous years, I contacted P&O to discuss options. I was informed that P&O no longer operated a price promise and that fares would go up or down as they see fit and the only way i could benefit from this was to cancel my holiday and re-book with the new price. This is fine because I only paid the small deposit, but what about the people who paid the full 10% deposit.

 

I wrote to P&O giving my concerns and asked them if there was anything they could do. The reply was not what I was expecting. they made several quotes which thourghly upset me.

 

Quote "I would advise that any decrease in fares are applicable to new bookings only. We would of course rather not have to reduce fares after the initial launch period for any cruise holidays, but ultimately, it is our aim to ensure that all berths are sold on each and every cruise"

 

I can understand this if the price dropped 6 to 8 weeks before sailing, but 9 months before. Why would we book so early if it was known that the price promise had disappeared and we could be losing hundreds of pounds.

 

Quote "The only way passangers can take advantage of new offers is to cancel the booking with the relevent charges levied and rebook under the new fare"

 

I was fortunate that i only paid £50.00 per passenger, so I could cancel and and still rebook saving £200.00 in the mean time. but what about the others who paid the full 10% deposit. if you cancel, you lose your deposit, so if you paid the 10%, you would not benefit from cancelling and rebooking.

 

I did not rebook. I cancelled my holiday and lost my £100.00 deposit. The bad taste this letter left would not allow me to enjoy what would have been a great holiday on AZURA during August 2015 the joy of boking early and planning ahead had gone.

 

we have sailed with P&O for several years now and enjoyed the holdays we have had with the peace of mind that if we boked early, our loyalty would be rewarded with the knowledge of P&O's price promise, we would not lose out.

 

This has now gone and P&O's loyalty to its passengers has also gone.

 

I cancelled my holiday tonight and within a few minutes a received an email with my cancellation invoice stating that I had lost my £100.00 deposit. I suppose it could have been worse, it could have been the full 10% that others may have paid.

 

I will be writing back to P&O just to express our disapointment with them, not expecting a reply as they have shown that we no longer matter.

 

Please take this as a warning, is it worth booking early and will P&O be loyal if anything changes.

 

Steve

 

I agree with the OP and my wife and I will never book early with P&O again. Once bitten twice shy as they say. Loyalty is a two way street but P&O think it is only one way.

[Turbofun]

Loyalty is a two way street but P&O think it is only one way.

 

As do most large corporations these days, for them it's all about the "bottom line", nothing else.

It's the next quarter's results that rule.

Problem is, as a consumer, there's little, at the individual level, you can do to change that.

[PRINCESSTHE BEST]

You well know Princess do not do this out of the kindness of their hearts. They have to do it by US law.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

 

Makes no difference. The service is there and it gives peace of mind, knowing you are not going to lose out.:)

[tartanexile81]

If you book with Princess you don't have this problem. You can cancel outside of 180 days with no cancellation charge. If prices reduce before final payment date just ring them up and they'll reduce the price for you. Now that's what I call customer service!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Makes no difference. The service is there and it gives peace of mind, knowing you are not going to lose out.:)

 

I think you got the reply from Dai because you said Princess' cancellation policy was to ensure good customer service when in fact it's entrenched in US law. I'm sure if our government passed a law setting the same expectations, then P&O, Cunard and Fred Olsen would adopt the same policy as Princess and other US-based lines.

[majortom10]

Let's be honest P&O are a large company and like all other companies all they are bothered about is profit and to get that profit means selling cabins. Any ship that sails with empty cabins is profit lost so they would rather sell at a lower price than not at all. I was once rather stupidly told by a P&O employee that P&O dont care who fill the cabins whether they have done 30+ cruises or whether it is their first cruise as long as the cabin is sold I think that says it all.

[CCFC]

I think you got the reply from Dai because you said Princess' cancellation policy was to ensure good customer service when in fact it's entrenched in US law. I'm sure if our government passed a law setting the same expectations, then P&O, Cunard and Fred Olsen would adopt the same policy as Princess and other US-based lines.

 

Princess actually apply price drops to UK customers now, they didn't up to about a year ago. No laws involved.

[tjwa]

Princess actually apply price drops to UK customers now, they didn't up to about a year ago. No laws involved.

 

That is correct.

[terrierjohn]

You well know Princess do not do this out of the kindness of their hearts. They have to do it by US law.

 

 

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Dai, I keep telling you this is incorrect, Princess in the UK has its own terms and conditions which are totally different to those in the US and not at all subject to US law.

However they do still offer to price match for UK passengers, without any strings for those who know the score and request a price match, just don't expect them to offer it without you asking.