guarantee cabin q's

[the english lady]

Could somebody kindly explain when the different types of booking become available, e.g...

 

Select

Early Saver

Saver

 

Does the Early Saver option become available first as soon as the new brochure becomes available, or do they al become available at the same time?

 

Select-This starts from when the cruise first goes on sale. Rather than vary the price too much they now tend to vary the amount of OBS dependent on how the cruise is selling.

Early Saver-This really does depend on how a cruise is selling. If it is selling well at select fare they will probably delay bringing this in. We are sailing in July and our cruise has only just gone to early saver.

Saver-this will appear very close to sailing (90 days prior). Final payments would have been collected from Select and Early saver fares, so they will have a very good idea what number of cabins they will have left.

At least that is how I read things.

first 2 you pay a deposit and balance

last 1 you pay 100% at booking, and if you cancel you lose 100%

[the english lady]

The personal cruise consultant has told me they will not be allocating the cabins until 4, at most 6 weeks, before departure, which I think is disgraceful, as they expect customers to book excursions etc. and to have paid the full price up front before knowing what they are getting.

 

We still booked for several reasons. We had tried to book on Ventura for Christmas 2014 and it was all going great until we found the customer service person at P&O had quoted us for our choice of dates in November, not December, and therefore we couldn't do it because the children would still be at school/college and it made a significant difference to the price.

 

The Britannia Christmas/New Year 2015 dates fitted perfectly with school holidays, work etc. and DH has his heart set on going back to the Caribbean, where we honeymooned, for our silver wedding anniversary. If it were up to me we wouldn't have done it, but he prevailed.

 

I have spoken to Trading Standards and will be writing to P&O.

 

Thank you or explaining Groovechick. Just to warn you p and o operate on a 21day turnaround when replying to letters, so you may have a wait with that as well..sorry.

Still not entirely sure why they cannot allocate after final payment has passed.

All as clear as mud.

Do come back when you have a reply as I am sure others in the same position may like to know how you got on.

[Thejuggler]

Celebrity have just released a GTY fare for a cruise I am tracking. You get all the benefits of the fare from four weeks ago (dining times etc), except no cabin number.

 

The Celebrity GTY fare is about 25% lower than the 'choose your cabin' fare. Still too high for me, but we are getting there.

Edited February 23, 2015 by Thejuggler

[jasperado]

Hi again

Just heard back from TA. He emailed P and O a good while ago regarding my dissatisfacion regarding the GTY cabin status following my paid upgrade and my "dipping out" of the increased OBC.

P and O have eventually replied after a reminder.

Tough luck over increased OBC (was pushing my luck! :o )

".....as a gesture of goodwill regarding cabin allocation, please accept cabin upgrade from HF to HA with cabin number A406".

 

So thankyou local TA for your tenacity and thankyou P and O for your gesture of goodwill. :)