Princess Booking transfer policy

[Cruise Raider]

19 hours ago, caribill said:

 

TAs are supposed to have the charge made to Princess, not to their own agency. So if the charge is made to Princess I cannot understand why any card that Princess accepts would not be acceptable to the TA.

 

Well, one might think so but it just doesn't work out that way.  The big box agency I use doesn't accept American Express .... PERIOD!  

[Pam in CA]

On 11/25/2018 at 6:44 AM, chamima said:

 

 

Looking back at my emails I emailed her Friday morning. She said she had sent LOTS of forms and expected Princess  to honor them.

The FB suggestion sounds good.

She told me Saturday she had over fifty transfer requests pending that so far, Princess wouldn’t honor. If Princess makes an exception for one, they should make an exception for all. This change took her and other TAs by surprise. IMHO, Princess should have announced the change and grandfathered all bookings until the end of the year. 

[Wulfwyn]

Faxed my request  yesterday  to transfer booking   I just  got my email back saying no, that I have passed  my 60 day window  to transfer  to a travel agency.   

So not far.  

[SteelMagnolia9]

I just booked yesterday evening under the $1.00 deposit promotion for 2020. Thank you for sharing this important information. I have every intention of going, but with the holiday season would have set this aside to address later.

[dickinson]

8 hours ago, Pam in CA said:

She told me Saturday she had over fifty transfer requests pending that so far, Princess wouldn’t honor. If Princess makes an exception for one, they should make an exception for all. This change took her and other TAs by surprise. IMHO, Princess should have announced the change and grandfathered all bookings until the end of the year. 

 

Wow.  Fifty requests.  She didn't tell me that.  The day after I emailed my request to her I received a denial letter from Revenue support.  TA told me she had some emails into some contacts but it wouldn't hurt if I called Monday to complain.  As noted above I did call yesterday.  Agent I spoke with at first said supervisor said no.  After I asked to speak with supervisor I thought I was on hold to be transferred but when she came back to me she said supervisor said yes.  She may have changed her mind when she saw that I could not cancel and rebook as it shows sold out. She emailed me a form and gave me fax # and "supervisor" name who was in customer relations.  I sent the form. Later in the day TA emailed me that booking was transferred.  I assume it was because of what I did but you never know if TA's contacts helped too.  Either way... I'm good to go.

 

I agree that Princess dropped the ball on this.  It should have been for all bookings after xx date.  If it was til the end of the year then there would be people complaining that they booked under the old rules and don't read cruise critic all the time so didn't know until they went to transfer to TA and it was too late.

[chamima]

9 hours ago, Pam in CA said:

She told me Saturday she had over fifty transfer requests pending that so far, Princess wouldn’t honor. If Princess makes an exception for one, they should make an exception for all. This change took her and other TAs by surprise. IMHO, Princess should have announced the change and grandfathered all bookings until the end of the year. 

 

51 minutes ago, dickinson said:

 

Wow.  Fifty requests.  She didn't tell me that.

 

I agree that Princess dropped the ball on this.  It should have been for all bookings after xx date.  If it was til the end of the year then there would be people complaining that they booked under the old rules and don't read cruise critic all the time so didn't know until they went to transfer to TA and it was too late.

 

 

I'm not at all surprised that she had fifty requests.

Most of her clients are seasoned cruisers and know how busy she is so don't transfer our bookings until close to sailing so as to handle price drops , etc. ourselves.

I'm used to giving her my Celebrity bookings from the get-go and in the future will do the same with Princess but they REALLY need to grandfather in all the old bookings!

[dickinson]

52 minutes ago, chamima said:

 

 

 

I'm not at all surprised that she had fifty requests.

Most of her clients are seasoned cruisers and know how busy she is so don't transfer our bookings until close to sailing so as to handle price drops , etc. ourselves.

I'm used to giving her my Celebrity bookings from the get-go and in the future will do the same with Princess but they REALLY need to grandfather in all the old bookings!

 

Have you heard back yet if your request was approved or denied?

[RealDeal]

I just learned of this a few days ago thanks to CC. I, too, faxed my request and was denied. It is absolutely appalling that Princess is not grandfathering those who booked more than 60 days out. I was on the fence anyway about my cruise and I'm so annoyed right now, I'm going to cancel. Too bad for Princess b/c we also have 2 friends who were going to book who now will not. 

[smf81]

Sigh... I'm in the same situation as many people here, and quite possibly one of those fifty requests.  I got my emailed denial on Saturday and immediately replied with a request for an exception.  Crickets since then.

 

I hate taking the time to call Princess directly, but the cost savings are worth it so I'll bite the bullet.  This was going to be our first full suite, so the cost is not trivial.

[mthomp5]

I’m glad I escaped this one and transferred in time — more than 60 days since booking but before the policy change.

 

just curious, does anyone know where I can find this policy for reference?  I learn of all of this through CC but don’t know where to find the official policy.  Would like to know where to reference in the future in case Princess makes another instant policy changes like this.  

[chamima]

13 minutes ago, RealDeal said:

I just learned of this a few days ago thanks to CC. I, too, faxed my request and was denied. It is absolutely appalling that Princess is not grandfathering those who booked more than 60 days out. I was on the fence anyway about my cruise and I'm so annoyed right now, I'm going to cancel. Too bad for Princess b/c we also have 2 friends who were going to book who now will not. 

 

Please make note of this on FB, if you're able to.

If you just cancel corporate will have no idea of why - and that it's repercussions of their own lack of transparency that could so easily be remedied.

[RealDeal]

16 minutes ago, chamima said:

 

Please make note of this on FB, if you're able to.

If you just cancel corporate will have no idea of why - and that it's repercussions of their own lack of transparency that could so easily be remedied.

OK, I will try to do that this afternoon. I have no problem w/the policy changing; my issue lies with the lack of notification and Princess's reluctance to allow people who booked previously the opportunity to get their reservations transferred. If not for CC, I would have had no idea...no email advising customers of this change?? 

[chamima]

6 minutes ago, RealDeal said:

OK, I will try to do that this afternoon. I have no problem w/the policy changing; my issue lies with the lack of notification and Princess's reluctance to allow people who booked previously the opportunity to get their reservations transferred. If not for CC, I would have had no idea...no email advising customers of this change?? 

 

 

We're all upset about this exact thing.

It's a policy Celebrity has had for many years and we just booked things accordingly - but for Princess to suddenly make this change with absolutely no notice to their passengers/customers and no grace period is not only upsetting but terrible customer relations!

I think people complaining on FB (or somewhere else that is very visible) is our only recourse.

[RealDeal]

17 minutes ago, chamima said:

 

 

We're all upset about this exact thing.

It's a policy Celebrity has had for many years and we just booked things accordingly - but for Princess to suddenly make this change with absolutely no notice to their passengers/customers and no grace period is not only upsetting but terrible customer relations!

I think people complaining on FB (or somewhere else that is very visible) is our only recourse.

100% with you. We've mostly been cruising w/Celebrity, so I'm very familiar. Was going to give Princess another go, but my heart wasn't 100% in it, and this tipped the scale. Without that additional OBC, it's just not worth it. Plus, it's the principle of the thing. This stunt has really rubbed me the wrong way.

[RealDeal]

27 minutes ago, chamima said:

 

 

We're all upset about this exact thing.

It's a policy Celebrity has had for many years and we just booked things accordingly - but for Princess to suddenly make this change with absolutely no notice to their passengers/customers and no grace period is not only upsetting but terrible customer relations!

I think people complaining on FB (or somewhere else that is very visible) is our only recourse.

Chamima: I posted on FB.

[TheRabbit]

On 11/21/2018 at 4:57 PM, mthomp5 said:

I wonder why they implemented this change?  Maybe they don’t like passengers transferring to their TAs?  Will need to keep an eye out on the 60 days from booking.  

 

Thank you for sharing this info!

One reason is a few years ago some agents started charging a cancellation fee. We have numerous place holders (FCD) we put down when cruises first come up to get the room we wanted. A year out or so when we decide we can go on the cruise, we transfer the cruise to the agent, thus avoiding the cancellation fees for the ones we do not take.

[Dididi]

OP,  thank you for informing all of us about the new policy.  In our school district, the 2019-2020 academic schedule is not issued until April.  I put the 10% deposit on the Christmas 2019 Hawaii itinerary last month to take advantage of the 3 for free deal -- gratuities on a 15-night cruise add up.  I planned to wait for the school schedule before transferring the booking to my TA because I don't know if the dates will match.  Because our booking was within the 60-day window, I was able to transfer it and get TA OBC.  It may be that we'll have to cancel the booking, via our TA.  But if the dates work, I'll have the Cruise Critic members to thank for TA OBC.

[caribill]

8 hours ago, dickinson said:

I agree that Princess dropped the ball on this.  It should have been for all bookings after xx date.  If it was til the end of the year then there would be people complaining that they booked under the old rules and don't read cruise critic all the time so didn't know until they went to transfer to TA and it was too late.

 

Reading Cruise Critic should have nothing to do with it. Princess dropped a number of balls including not notifying all customers with reservations and not notifying all travel agents.

[chamima]

8 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

Reading Cruise Critic should have nothing to do with it. Princess dropped a number of balls including not notifying all customers with reservations and not notifying all travel agents.

 

Correction:

Reading Cruise Critic should have nothing to do with it. Princess dropped a number of balls including not notifying all customers with reservations and not notifying  ANY  travel agents.

[caribill]

1 minute ago, chamima said:

 

Correction:

Reading Cruise Critic should have nothing to do with it. Princess dropped a number of balls including not notifying all customers with reservations and not notifying  ANY  travel agents.

 

I'll add another correction to my post:

Reading Cruise Critic should have nothing to do with it. Princess dropped a number of balls including not notifying ANY customers with reservations and not notifying  ANY  travel agents.

[Hobbes67]

I received my rejection email and called back into Customer Relations.  Was basically told "Too bad"  nothing they can do about it.  She said travel agents were sent an email but they were not sending anything out to customers.  Seems strange.  What good does it do telling the travel agent.  If you booked direct with Princess they do not know you have the booking....  In my opinion Princess customer service is really going down hill.

[caribill]

4 hours ago, Hobbes67 said:

I received my rejection email and called back into Customer Relations.  Was basically told "Too bad"  nothing they can do about it.  She said travel agents were sent an email but they were not sending anything out to customers.  Seems strange.  What good does it do telling the travel agent.  If you booked direct with Princess they do not know you have the booking....  In my opinion Princess customer service is really going down hill.

 

Yet posters here say their travel agents never received such a message.

[tailspintom]

8 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Yet posters here say their travel agents never received such a message.

Mine did.  They were notifies on November 12th.

[cruiseintoheaven]

Since my post on this topic, I'm still scratching my head as to how I knew about this months ago when I booked the Sky Princess for 2020.  I booked this cruise in April 2018, directly with Princess (which I've only done once back in 2014) simply because I wanted to grab a particular cabin, knowing I would transfer it for the price reduction and agent OBC I get from my TA.  When confirming with the Princess rep the details of my booking, one of the things we went over was the transfer process, and that was when I was told I had 60 days to do so.  This wouldn't have struck me as new/unusual because I had no prior experience booking and transferring.  The ONLY thing I can think of is that the rep I spoke with accidentally rattled off the 60 day policy by accident.  Perhaps this change was already circulating before becoming official policy and she said it without being aware?  It's the best guess I can come up with.  In any case I agree that Princess dropped the ball on this big time, and should rework this change to honor existing bookings AND let their customers know directly about the change.  

[Loritd]

The transfer office must be covered up with requests. I filled out the transfer paper and my travel agent faxed it yesterday morning about 9 and it is not showing the travel agent as my contact in my cruise personalizer.  In the past it was almost instant. My travel agent had no notification of the change but it is a small 2 person agency. Maybe they notified the travel agencies that do a large volume of princess cruises. Royal Caribbean had the 60 day policy when I booked a cruise with them two years ago but it was clearly stated on my confirmation e-mail.