HAL PCC Question

[Bruinboy]

We booked two cruises while on board previous cruises and need to change one. We have had a great Personal Cruise Consultant with HAL, and I'm sure he is still great, but apparently overloaded. We called on Monday to change a reservation, got his voice mail and left a message. His message said, "Thank you for calling. I'm experiencing a high volume of calls. My response time is longer than usual. Be assured I will get back to you as soon as I can." When we did not hear from him we called two days later and left another message on his voice mail with the same response. We called a third time on Friday and left a message, but not before we asked to speak to another PCC to handle the change in our booking. We were told, "We had to cut 30% of our staff and we are trying to keep ourselves afloat. Be assured that they are working as hard as they can." We were not transferred to another PCC. We are still waiting to hear back.

 

My question is this ... has anyone else experienced something similar recently? In the past response times have been quick. We have enjoyed working with HAL directly, but wondering about using a local TA in the future to get better service ... the kind of service we have had with HAL until this past week. We will continue to sail with HAL. We love their ships and staff ... and even most of the passengers!! ... but wonder if we should make a change with future bookings. Since some staterooms and suites go quickly, we don't want to miss out on our first choices of location. Oh well ... major first world problem ... in the scheme to things it seems pretty trivial given what the majority of the world's population has deal with. Thanks for taking the time to read this treatise. 

 

Richard

[richwmn]

I had a really great PCC, but unfortunately she was one of the "cuts".

The first contact I had with her replacement went fine and I actually booked another cruise with him. When I submitted the paper work to transfer the cruise to a TA, which my previous PCC had actually encouraged, I got a message that the rules had changed and if I transferred he would get no credit. I explained that the TA had been great during the pause, he allowed the transfer to go thru.

I still have 29 days worth of cruises booked with him but have not had a response from him to either voice messages or emails. When I made final payment on the cruises still booked with him I asked for an invoice showing full payment with no response. I ended up calling and get a random PCC to send me the paid invoice.

I have now booked a major cruise with the TA and will continue to deal with her.

 

[rucrazy]

Richard 

Apparently they recently gave our PCC some time off as well, I need to make a change as well but have decided to wait until ours comes back next week. If you can wait then I would if it needs to happen immediately then i would talk with one of your PCC's associates.

 

[cabinluvn]

Our PCC that we had used previous to the pandemic was also “cut”. We were so sorry to see him go. He had been with HAL for a long time. Next time I called, I was transferred to a new PCC and he has been absolutely wonderful. I think they all work from home now. I have noticed that, since things are loosening up and cruising is going to resume, there is a longer response time. I found if I call and leave a voicemail and the follow up with an email stating my needs, I get a response...sometimes within the hour. Sometimes I just get an email showing my request fulfilled, depending on what I needed. Sometimes it is a few days if it is not urgent. Overall, I am happy with the new PCC. I have never booked with the big box companies. I feel more confident staying with HAL

[DaveOKC]

Happy with my PCC.  I often use email to communicate with her, as it seems to be easier for both of us in these times.

 

 

[Bruinboy]

54 minutes ago, DaveOKC said:

Happy with my PCC.  I often use email to communicate with her, as it seems to be easier for both of us in these times.

 

 

OK ... thanks for the responses. We have not tried email so we'll add that to our arsenal.  CC folk are great.

[kazu]

I have a new PCC as well as my good one was “retired”.  She knew her stuff.  The new PCC did nothing to impress me when she reached out to me.  She even mentioned the cruise I am booked on (which is the one I cancelled) and totally missed the others.
 

I’ll stick to my TA thanks who is very knowledgeable and helpful.

[St. Louis Sal]

I have used a combination of PCC and local TA. I have sadly never found a local person who wowed me. I confess to using a certain online TA only for research (the one time I reached out to them, they didn’t return my call until I had booked direct with HAL).

Hearing about the many PCCs no longer with HAL makes me wonder about mine. My last three cruises were charters (2) and a group. I haven’t booked with her since 2018 (Cuba and Alaska). If they are so busy I would hate to bother her just to check, but I wonder if she’s still there.

 

St Louis Sal

[iancal]

We use email for all travel arrangements-cruise and otherwise.  I like to have everything in writing before we hit the buy button so there is no misunderstanding.

 

About the only time we spoke to the on line TA that we used for cruises was to give her our credit card numbers OR of she want to share some feedback on a cruise that we asked her to book, if she wanted to give us a heads up about more attractive competing offers, or if she wanted us to delay booking for a week or so because she was aware of another price decrease coming for our booking made inside the final payment window.

 

Cannot get that kind of service, guidance, and information from a salesperson employed by a cruise line.    Not to mention the attractive OBC's.

Edited May 15, 2021 by iancal

[Turtles06]

1 hour ago, Bruinboy said:

OK ... thanks for the responses. We have not tried email so we'll add that to our arsenal.  CC folk are great.

 

What I've found about voice mails v. emails is that when you are trying to reach someone (like a PCC) who is often on the phone, they may not have a chance to listen to a voice mail for quite some time because they are on the phone.  But they are often multi-tasking and seeing their emails while they are taking phone calls.  🙂

[KAKcruiser]

I generally book with the regular reservations people at HAL.  That way if you need to make a change, anyone can help you.  I don't want to be in a position of trying to make a quick change when a deal comes through and having to wait to reach a PCC.

[oaktreerb]

7 hours ago, Bruinboy said:

We booked two cruises while on board previous cruises and need to change one. We have had a great Personal Cruise Consultant with HAL, and I'm sure he is still great, but apparently overloaded. We called on Monday to change a reservation, got his voice mail and left a message. His message said, "Thank you for calling. I'm experiencing a high volume of calls. My response time is longer than usual. Be assured I will get back to you as soon as I can." When we did not hear from him we called two days later and left another message on his voice mail with the same response. We called a third time on Friday and left a message, but not before we asked to speak to another PCC to handle the change in our booking. We were told, "We had to cut 30% of our staff and we are trying to keep ourselves afloat. Be assured that they are working as hard as they can." We were not transferred to another PCC. We are still waiting to hear back.

 

My question is this ... has anyone else experienced something similar recently? In the past response times have been quick. We have enjoyed working with HAL directly, but wondering about using a local TA in the future to get better service ... the kind of service we have had with HAL until this past week. We will continue to sail with HAL. We love their ships and staff ... and even most of the passengers!! ... but wonder if we should make a change with future bookings. Since some staterooms and suites go quickly, we don't want to miss out on our first choices of location. Oh well ... major first world problem ... in the scheme to things it seems pretty trivial given what the majority of the world's population has deal with. Thanks for taking the time to read this treatise. 

 

Richard

I had the exact same experience.  Same voicemail from the PCC who was assigned to me.  He had e-mailed me to introduce himself and his services but I was never able to speak with him.   I wanted to book a promo and it was expiring and the regular HAL reps didn’t know how to book it with the room upgrade included with Club Orange.  Since I had an assigned PCC other PCC’s could not help with my booking.  I called the Mariner Society and explained how frustrated I was that I had been assigned a PCC who would not call me back and I needed to be reassigned.  They apologized, connected me to a supervisor, and I stayed on the line until I had been reassigned and had the new PCC on the line to help me.  He knew exactly how to assist me.   When I left a message for him a few weeks later he called me back within the hour.

 

Call the Mariner’s Society and they should be able to get you reassigned to someone who knows how to help you.

 

We Cornhuskers need to stick together.  Go Big Red.

Edited May 15, 2021 by oaktreerb

[Bruinboy]

5 hours ago, oaktreerb said:

Call the Mariner’s Society and they should be able to get you reassigned to someone who knows how to help you.

 

We Cornhuskers need to stick together.  Go Big Red.

Thanks so much. We will try to Mariner's Society as well.

 

Frost warning this Fall. GBR.

[OVgirl]

If I need something done by my PCC and I'm not sure he will get back to me, I take screen shots of any details that show the offer and pricing I can get online. Then I email it to him. This way it is confirmed as being an available offer and it also has the date associated with the screenshot. 

 

If it is past the offer date, they can go to a supervisor who can then add the offer to your booking.

Always good to leave a paper trail.

[iancal]

We want everything in writing.  We do not want to be friends with our TA.

 

From our perspective this is simply a business relationship.

 

 If things go pear shaped for any reason we want to feel free to raise an issue without friendship or loyalty coming in the way of the dispute.

 

We feel exactly the same way about selecting the most attractive offer without personally  offending one of the vendors or agents.  

Edited May 16, 2021 by iancal

[Taters]

I've had an extremely good PCC for several years, who always got back to me timely and who was wonderful in explaining the various promotions, restrictions, etc.  He and I also enjoyed a lot of banter, and booking (and cancelling) cruises with him was always a pleasure.  We eventually became friends on FB so that we could keep in touch.

 

I recently received a casino deal via email and so forwarded that to him so that he could book a couple of them for me.  I received an Out of Office reply stating that he was no longer with HAL.  My heart sank.  I got in touch with him to ask if he was okay, and he said he'd not been gone long, and that he was perfectly well, and working in a different career.  He left HAL on good terms on his own. 

 

So they do come and go, and if you are not receiving any returned calls, it may be that your PCC no longer works for HAL...  Just another scenario that I wanted to throw out there.

[Indianadaytripper]

My advise when finalize your travel of any kind make a hard copy of what ever you agreed too!

[chisoxfan]

On 5/15/2021 at 8:26 AM, richwmn said:

I had a really great PCC, but unfortunately she was one of the "cuts".

The first contact I had with her replacement went fine and I actually booked another cruise with him. When I submitted the paper work to transfer the cruise to a TA, which my previous PCC had actually encouraged, I got a message that the rules had changed and if I transferred he would get no credit. I explained that the TA had been great during the pause, he allowed the transfer to go thru.

I still have 29 days worth of cruises booked with him but have not had a response from him to either voice messages or emails. When I made final payment on the cruises still booked with him I asked for an invoice showing full payment with no response. I ended up calling and get a random PCC to send me the paid invoice.

I have now booked a major cruise with the TA and will continue to deal with her.

 

I think you hit on something - we started looking at extended cruises for 2022/3 and a new HAL PCC had reached out to me and I ultimately called her (we had booked all of our cruises with the west coast big bix store). She was very personable.  'On my own' I focused on a cruise that was of interest.  As pleasant as the PCC was she had no experience with the ship or itinerary we were evaluating. She booked a balcony that for me was less than desirable and I told her I appreciated her effort but that this would not work. She did come back eventually with a better option- by that time I reached out to the box store and saw that I was looking at almost 2000 in credits. I shared this with her and even sent a print out of this- she said she might be able to match. I offered to book with her but said all things equal I would want to transfer and not lose the $$$. I suggested I book and do a transfer to C- something I had done a few times previously. The response was kind of a thanks but no thanks - I assume she would not get credit so did not want to get involved. Maybe she got a credit for the initial booking she made for me?  I have no idea but it does leave me a bit frustrated and confused. I was trying to be upfront and straightforward but still do not know what the deal is. I would think HAL would be OK with customers reaching out to PCC's if they were dealing with them in an open and fair way which could ultimately be an incentive for future bookings. Apparently this is not how the marketing program is directed currently.

[DaveOKC]

My PCC has told me in the past that if I find a better deal to let her know and she would try to match it.  I have not taken her up on that yet, but will in the future.

 

[richwmn]

5 minutes ago, chisoxfan said:

I shared this with her and even sent a print out of this- she said she might be able to match. I offered to book with her but said all things equal I would want to transfer and not lose the $$$. I suggested I book and do a transfer to C- something I had done a few times previously. The response was kind of a thanks but no thanks - I assume she would not get credit so did not want to get involved.

 

2 minutes ago, DaveOKC said:

My PCC has told me in the past that if I find a better deal to let her know and she would try to match it.  I have not taken her up on that yet, but will in the future.

 

For quite a few years I did my initial bookings with a PCC, and was encouraged to transfer the booking to a Travel Agency if I got a good deal. I was told many times that as long as the PCC got the initial booking that she got the credit she needed.

When Ryndam (Now Rotterdam) came up for booking I booked the Premier Voyage with her. I then found an agent that had a good deal. I submitted the request and got a call asking for the details which I sent. HAL matched the agent with the provision that I gave up any right to transfer. I took it. When I decided to add another week, they matched for that as well.

Fast forward to the "Pandemic". The travel agency I used for my cancelled cruises was very helpful in getting the mess of credits correct, even for cruises they weren't responsible for. I had booked for Christmas of '21 and when I submitted the paperwork to transfer I was told that the rules had changed and the PCC would no longer get any credit. I told the PCC that I wanted to reward the agent for her help and he allowed the transfer to take place, but I haven't received any communication from him (the PCC) since.

[Suslor]

On 5/15/2021 at 9:15 AM, Bruinboy said:

We booked two cruises while on board previous cruises and need to change one. We have had a great Personal Cruise Consultant with HAL, and I'm sure he is still great, but apparently overloaded. We called on Monday to change a reservation, got his voice mail and left a message. His message said, "Thank you for calling. I'm experiencing a high volume of calls. My response time is longer than usual. Be assured I will get back to you as soon as I can." When we did not hear from him we called two days later and left another message on his voice mail with the same response. We called a third time on Friday and left a message, but not before we asked to speak to another PCC to handle the change in our booking. We were told, "We had to cut 30% of our staff and we are trying to keep ourselves afloat. Be assured that they are working as hard as they can." We were not transferred to another PCC. We are still waiting to hear back.

 

My question is this ... has anyone else experienced something similar recently? In the past response times have been quick. We have enjoyed working with HAL directly, but wondering about using a local TA in the future to get better service ... the kind of service we have had with HAL until this past week. We will continue to sail with HAL. We love their ships and staff ... and even most of the passengers!! ... but wonder if we should make a change with future bookings. Since some staterooms and suites go quickly, we don't want to miss out on our first choices of location. Oh well ... major first world problem ... in the scheme to things it seems pretty trivial given what the majority of the world's population has deal with. Thanks for taking the time to read this treatise. 

 

Richard

Having some of same problem. We love our PCC and called beginning of April and his recording said he was out until April 19th which was day after our July cruise final payment was due so used another PCC to cancel. Called on 4/19 and his message said out until May 3rd. Have been leaving message every day and it still says May 3rd and today’s the 17th. We’ve had 5 PCC’s since 2014 and have liked all of them. Hopefully he’s not one of those let go but you’d think they’d change his message. 

[iancal]

It all comes down to the level of service that one requires. 

 

We view cruises as a commodity item.  The product is identical no matter who processes the order with the cruise line.

 

We do not need any service other than booking, and sometimes repricing.  We had a TA who did that for us and provided us with agency OBC's.

 

Others need or want a higher level of service and are willing to pay for it.  Hence a full service agency or PCC may be best.

 

It all comes down to choice.  One thing for certain...if we were 'paying' for service and were not getting it we would switch booking agents in very  short order.

[Bruinboy]

Anyone recall the novel "Catch 22?"  That's where we feel we are at the moment. We want to change a booked cruise but can't because no one will help us.

 

Just an update for all you thoughtful folk who weighed in on my question. As oaktreerb did, we contacted the Mariner's Society yesterday. My wife had a delightful conversation with a man there, who promised to look into the lack of a response for us. He talked to the PCC's supervisor and the supervisor said he would contact our PCC to have him call us. That was at 2 PM yesterday. We still have not heard a thing.

 

The frustrating thing about the entire process is we cannot transfer the reservation to anyone else inside HAL or outside HAL. We have requested another PCC to no avail and when we explored transferring it to a TA here in beautiful Omaha, we were told we could not do it, even though HAL isn't servicing our current reservation. We feel rather helpless at the moment. I guess what we will do if we do not hear today, is not make the final payment when our final payment comes do and book another cruise with a local TA here. At least that way we will be able to have someone respond to us in a timely manner. If we didn't enjoy HAL so much we would cruise another line, but we love the itineraries compared to other lines. We just probably won't do business directly with HAL again. 

[oaktreerb]

Call the Mariner’s Society again and hopefully get someone else to help you (a lady helped me).  It’s possible your PCC has left the company or changed assignments.  Did you get the name of the supervisor?    Does it help if you are a stockholder, and/or 4*?   Stay on the line until they transfer you to someone who can help!

 

I am having a similar issue with a travel insurance company that can’t seem to transfer my cruise insurance from this years cancelled cruise to next year.  I’ve been dealing with this for months.  Last week I filed a complaint with the BBB and still have not gotten the issue resolved.  

 

I sympathize with customer service reps (been there) but companies need to get their act together if they want to retain their customers!

[KirkNC]

I am always amazed that people are willing to pay 10% more for a cruise, a commodity as @iancal mentions and then on top of that get poor service.