Tipping - A911

[miranda53]

I’ve just received my P&O Holiday Information in the post. In the section about Tipping, it says “Our Service Reward Programme adds a discretionary daily amount of £7.00 per day for each guest...”.

 

But the website says: 

For cruises departing after May 2019* tipping isn't required on board - good service, good value and good times are all part and parcel of your P&O Cruises holiday.

*For all cruises departing on or after cruise numbers A911,...”

 

So will I have something added to my bill or not??  Thanks for your help 😊

[P-L-B]

 

As your cruise starts on the 4^th May the discretionary daily amount of £7 should have ended, so you should not be charged.

 

Of course as its discretionary you could have it removed but that should not be necessary after May.

 

Probably the Holiday information sent to you in the post has not been amended to reflect the change.

 

You could possibly consider contacting your TA or P&O direct for confirmation if you wish.

[terrierjohn]

26 minutes ago, miranda53 said:

I’ve just received my P&O Holiday Information in the post. In the section about Tipping, it says “Our Service Reward Programme adds a discretionary daily amount of £7.00 per day for each guest...”.

 

But the website says: 

For cruises departing after May 2019* tipping isn't required on board - good service, good value and good times are all part and parcel of your P&O Cruises holiday.

*For all cruises departing on or after cruise numbers A911,...”

 

So will I have something added to my bill or not??  Thanks for your help 😊

If your cruise starts after the new system comes in then no gratuities will be added, but the start date is slightly different for each ship.

[Selbourne]

Last time I looked at a calendar, “after May” would be June, but then the asterisk says “on or after A911” and you are ‘on’ A911, so should not be charged the auto gratuity!

 

I would check your on board account on around the 3rd day and if they have been added request that they are removed. 

[miranda53]

Thanks for these helpful replies 😊

[sidekick180]

I am also booked on that cruise and I booked it directly through P&O. When I made the booking the lady actually said 'lucky you, this will be the first cruise that the gratuities will have been removed'.

As far as I am concerned, this means I will not have the automatic gratuities added to my account. Mind you, I will still double check after a couple of days just to make sure.

[sidekick180]

By the way, feel free to join in on the roll call that I started for this cruise!

[MrsNorman]

I was confused by this when we booked up recently for next year.  We booked via P and O and were told that the charge had been removed, but when I asked if the cost of the holiday included a service charge, I was told "No". So that implied to me that tipping was still expected, but that we would have to give tips at the end of the holiday.  Not that I begrudge giving tips, but the practice of adding them to the account was preferable to us because we could then forget about them. I am not sure I like the new arrangement.

[davecttr]

1 hour ago, MrsNorman said:

I was confused by this when we booked up recently for next year.  We booked via P and O and were told that the charge had been removed, but when I asked if the cost of the holiday included a service charge, I was told "No". So that implied to me that tipping was still expected, but that we would have to give tips at the end of the holiday.  Not that I begrudge giving tips, but the practice of adding them to the account was preferable to us because we could then forget about them. I am not sure I like the new arrangement.

Tipping will not be expected, there is no service charge included in the cost of the holiday for the simple reason that including one they would have to list it and people would complain about the amount and the fact that it was compulsory.

 

Rest assured that you will still be paying the crews wages. Of course you can still tip if you want to for the proper reason, a crew member has gone above and beyond of what is expected of them and really enhanced your cruise experience.

 

There will passengers who will say 'we always tip, it is expected', no it is not, they are possibly trying to demonstrate their imagined social superiority over you or they like the master/slave relationship, preferably with tugged forelock! 

[MrsNorman]

23 minutes ago, davecttr said:

Tipping will not be expected, there is no service charge included in the cost of the holiday for the simple reason that including one they would have to list it and people would complain about the amount and the fact that it was compulsory.

 

Rest assured that you will still be paying the crews wages. Of course you can still tip if you want to for the proper reason, a crew member has gone above and beyond of what is expected of them and really enhanced your cruise experience.

 

There will passengers who will say 'we always tip, it is expected', no it is not, they are possibly trying to demonstrate their imagined social superiority over you or they like the master/slave relationship, preferably with tugged forelock! 

 

Thanks for your reply which has cleared up a bit of confusion and was reassuring.  

[jeanlyon]

If you search for the cruise on the P&O website, it says right there "No Service charge on this cruise"

 

https://www.pocruises.com/a911/

[majortom10]

On 2/22/2019 at 12:22 PM, miranda53 said:

I’ve just received my P&O Holiday Information in the post. In the section about Tipping, it says “Our Service Reward Programme adds a discretionary daily amount of £7.00 per day for each guest...”.

 

But the website says: 

For cruises departing after May 2019* tipping isn't required on board - good service, good value and good times are all part and parcel of your P&O Cruises holiday.

*For all cruises departing on or after cruise numbers A911,...”

 

So will I have something added to my bill or not??  Thanks for your help 😊

I have this week received my Holiday Information booklet for my cruise on Britannia B912 and it says exactly the same in the back of the booklet but says there are no gratuities for my cruise on P&Os website. I am afraid it is the same old story with P&O that the left hand doesnt know what the right hand is doing.