Problem with online booking

[RICO72]

Hi all,

 

Over the past 24 hours, at several different times, I have had the following problem while trying to book an Azura May 2017 departure on the P&O U.K. website :

 

I try to book the Select price, pick my grade of balcony cabin then get to the pick cabin number section. The site offers several cabins or I enter a cabin to pick another of my choosing. The problem is that every single cabin number for HD grade balcony returns back as 'Does Not Exist' - I have tried tens of cabins all with the same response. Surely they can't be booked up this early so why this response ? It will accept the choice if I pick the options that P&O recommend but, in my opinion, these are frequently in poor positions on board so I always pick one of my choosing.

 

First time with this issue and I'm stumped. I've tried countless cabins in multiple grades, other dates in May just in case cruise A712 was the problem, even tried in Internet Explorer in case Google Chrome was the issue - all to the same result.

 

Anyone else had the issue or am I to resort to phoning reservations instead, on a premium number ?

[Thejuggler]

Compared to some the P&O website is very clunky when trying to search and book.

 

Call on the "saynoto0870" number.

[Josy1953]

Hi all,

 

Over the past 24 hours, at several different times, I have had the following problem while trying to book an Azura May 2017 departure on the P&O U.K. website :

 

I try to book the Select price, pick my grade of balcony cabin then get to the pick cabin number section. The site offers several cabins or I enter a cabin to pick another of my choosing. The problem is that every single cabin number for HD grade balcony returns back as 'Does Not Exist' - I have tried tens of cabins all with the same response. Surely they can't be booked up this early so why this response ? It will accept the choice if I pick the options that P&O recommend but, in my opinion, these are frequently in poor positions on board so I always pick one of my choosing.

 

First time with this issue and I'm stumped. I've tried countless cabins in multiple grades, other dates in May just in case cruise A712 was the problem, even tried in Internet Explorer in case Google Chrome was the issue - all to the same result.

 

Anyone else had the issue or am I to resort to phoning reservations instead, on a premium number ?

 

We had the same problem booking back in January, I eventually rang P&O and the young lady I spoke to told me that it was a known problem and she booked my first choice cabin for me with no trouble. It seems incredible that they still haven't solved a problem 3 months on, what do their IT guys do ?

[Mysticalmother]

We had the same problem booking back in January, I eventually rang P&O and the young lady I spoke to told me that it was a known problem and she booked my first choice cabin for me with no trouble. It seems incredible that they still haven't solved a problem 3 months on, what do their IT guys do ?

 

Having worked on IT systems from the end user perspective, I know only too well that a lot of IT system changes simply cant be done overnight. Sometimes it is down to cost and prioritising , and sometimes it is a difficult technical issue. What seems a simple change tothe layman, isnt quite so easy to the Company concerned.

Having said that, P &O and their IT always seem to be on the trailing edge and are riddled with problems! Shame they cant dump it and start again, instead of investing in sticking plasters!

[Wull92]

We had this same problem over a year ago. It`s still the same as it was then. They have not rectified it.

Shame on them in this day and age,

 

Regards

P&W

[Josy1953]

Having worked on IT systems from the end user perspective, I know only too well that a lot of IT system changes simply cant be done overnight. Sometimes it is down to cost and prioritising , and sometimes it is a difficult technical issue. What seems a simple change tothe layman, isnt quite so easy to the Company concerned.

Having said that, P &O and their IT always seem to be on the trailing edge and are riddled with problems! Shame they cant dump it and start again, instead of investing in sticking plasters!

 

Far from being a layman (I have a masters degree in IT and 40 years experience working in IT development) I would agree that what may appear to be a simple change may be difficult technically but it would appear that P&O are incapable or unwilling to resolving many of their IT problems. I personally know that this problem was in the system at the beginning of January so they have had plenty of time to resolve a problem that impacts the end customer.

 

I could have accepted this being a major job 20 years ago when the programmer would have to have had the ability to analyse a memory dump of the whole program at the point that the system fails in order to find what was causing the failure. I do not know their system but with the way that most systems are written these days this is likely to be an easy problem to fix. Most programs are written using "objects" which are discrete pieces of coding that can be re-used in many final solutions, the programmers can quickly locate the object that has the problem coding and then de-bug it.

 

P&O seem to ignore the impact of their decisions on their customers. Most of us would not find this a particular problem because we know that P&O's IT is pretty poor so we know to call P&O when we can't get the booking system to give us what we want but potentially new business could be impacted because if a new passenger to P&O may accept that none of the cabins that that they were interested in were unavailable and would go to another line to look for a cruise.

[RICO72]

P&O seem to ignore the impact of their decisions on their customers. Most of us would not find this a particular problem because we know that P&O's IT is pretty poor so we know to call P&O when we can't get the booking system to give us what we want but potentially new business could be impacted because if a new passenger to P&O may accept that none of the cabins that that they were interested in were unavailable and would go to another line to look for a cruise.

 

I could not agree more with you there Josy. Thanks to all on this issue - I'm not alone it would seem. I feel a phone call coming on but, oh, the business P&0 potentially loses from this system defect !

[Whitechapel girl]

Could it be the Ant n Dec effect and everyone looking at their website??

[jeanlyon]

I would simply not book something like a cruise online, there are so many things to ask and be sure about and also they do not put all available cabins on the website. I have tried it before for an inside cabin and they only give A deck. We like D deck and always get it when booking with a TA. The TAs have access to all cabins.

[deekay242]

Anyone else had the issue or am I to resort to phoning reservations instead, on a premium number ?

 

Try this number: 023 8065 5000

 

It's the switchboard for Carnival UK, which incorporates P&O, but at least it'll be at a more reasonable call rate.

 

I too have tried using the "choose a specific cabin" facility and have never got it to work.

[bee-ess]

Far from being a layman (I have a masters degree in IT and 40 years experience working in IT development) I would agree that what may appear to be a simple change may be difficult technically but it would appear that P&O are incapable or unwilling to resolving many of their IT problems. I personally know that this problem was in the system at the beginning of January so they have had plenty of time to resolve a problem that impacts the end customer.

 

I could have accepted this being a major job 20 years ago when the programmer would have to have had the ability to analyse a memory dump of the whole program at the point that the system fails in order to find what was causing the failure. I do not know their system but with the way that most systems are written these days this is likely to be an easy problem to fix. Most programs are written using "objects" which are discrete pieces of coding that can be re-used in many final solutions, the programmers can quickly locate the object that has the problem coding and then de-bug it.

 

P&O seem to ignore the impact of their decisions on their customers. Most of us would not find this a particular problem because we know that P&O's IT is pretty poor so we know to call P&O when we can't get the booking system to give us what we want but potentially new business could be impacted because if a new passenger to P&O may accept that none of the cabins that that they were interested in were unavailable and would go to another line to look for a cruise.

 

I also have worked my whole career in IT and have a niggly problem that to me should be easy to fix but alas NO !! On march 1st I had 160 Peninsular points removed from my loyalty total which downgraded me to Med Grade - I informed P&O who told me that it would not be either easy or quick to fix. I can't see why not, just credit them back. I have a cruise on May 2nd and my Caribbean benefits have not kicked in - for example I have a late embarkation time and not priority. I am assuming that this situation will continue throughout the cruise. They either can't or won't fix this - if I look at my loyalty on line and add up all the points I am Caribbean but it reports the total as 160 less making me and my wife Med grade - so frustrating when it must be easy to fix.

Edited April 6, 2016 by bee-ess

[pjltopfca]

Another 4+ months on and the problem still isn't fixed. I have been looking at 2 or 3 P&O cruises over the last few weeks and every time I try to choose a specific cabin, I get told that the cabin number does not exist.

 

I have booked cruises previously with P&O online and never had this problem although the last one I booked online was about 18 months ago.

 

So annoying as I like to review all the available cabins before making a choice and you cannot do that in a phone call.

[the english lady]

I also have worked my whole career in IT and have a niggly problem that to me should be easy to fix but alas NO !! On march 1st I had 160 Peninsular points removed from my loyalty total which downgraded me to Med Grade - I informed P&O who told me that it would not be either easy or quick to fix. I can't see why not, just credit them back. I have a cruise on May 2nd and my Caribbean benefits have not kicked in - for example I have a late embarkation time and not priority. I am assuming that this situation will continue throughout the cruise. They either can't or won't fix this - if I look at my loyalty on line and add up all the points I am Caribbean but it reports the total as 160 less making me and my wife Med grade - so frustrating when it must be easy to fix.

 

Print off the screen that shows your total loyalty points/cruises and take it with you. Turn up about 1pm..high tier loyalty can board then (even if peoples account shows they are Caribbean due to a glitch they are being later boarding times, pando said to ignore the boarding time and turn up at 1pm)

If they want to make you wait show them the printout with the total number of points/cruises on it, plus any correspondence to do with it. Hopefully common sense will kick in at that point.

[bee-ess]

Print off the screen that shows your total loyalty points/cruises and take it with you. Turn up about 1pm..high tier loyalty can board then (even if peoples account shows they are Caribbean due to a glitch they are being later boarding times, pando said to ignore the boarding time and turn up at 1pm)

If they want to make you wait show them the printout with the total number of points/cruises on it, plus any correspondence to do with it. Hopefully common sense will kick in at that point.

 

Thanks English Lady, my problem was back in April and it has since been fixed by crediting the points back as I suggested at the outset - it took them 3 months to do this after being unable to find out what caused it.

[Florry]

This is probably why they have had "An unusually high volume of calls" which has brought the call centre to its knees recently.....

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Mewat]

I also had a problem trying to book on-line recently when the system didn't recognise mine or my husband's Peninsular club numbers - saying "the number doesn't match the name".

 

As mentioned, looks like it will have to be a phone call

 

Michele

[ann141]

Call on their freephone number 08000523840:)

[jools222]

I too had this problem but it turned out that our information had been changed on the system & my DOB & husbands name had been entered incorrectly. Though why they had been changed is beyond me.

[Florry]

I too had this problem but it turned out that our information had been changed on the system & my DOB & husbands name had been entered incorrectly. Though why they had been changed is beyond me.

 

 

Snap they had my DOB as the day before my real one. Also they had two accounts for me which was really hard to get rectified, doesn't sound too bad until you realise you have hardly any points!

 

 

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[crosby99]

Hi all,

 

Over the past 24 hours, at several different times, I have had the following problem while trying to book an Azura May 2017 departure on the P&O U.K. website :

 

I try to book the Select price, pick my grade of balcony cabin then get to the pick cabin number section. The site offers several cabins or I enter a cabin to pick another of my choosing. The problem is that every single cabin number for HD grade balcony returns back as 'Does Not Exist' - I have tried tens of cabins all with the same response. Surely they can't be booked up this early so why this response ? It will accept the choice if I pick the options that P&O recommend but, in my opinion, these are frequently in poor positions on board so I always pick one of my choosing.

 

First time with this issue and I'm stumped. I've tried countless cabins in multiple grades, other dates in May just in case cruise A712 was the problem, even tried in Internet Explorer in case Google Chrome was the issue - all to the same result.

 

Anyone else had the issue or am I to resort to phoning reservations instead, on a premium number ?

 

P&O have lost about 5 bookings with me due to issues on their website. However to be fair other companies are not much better

[SteveH2508]

Snap they had my DOB as the day before my real one. <snip>

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Interesting - I used to deal with an exam board who had issues with not being able to recognise many of our students from the electronic data transfers. When they sent the list of mismatches, many of the dates of birth were one day out (always one day earlier IIRC). I wonder if there is a particular piece of software used in website databases which is introducing this error?