HAL PCC Question

[oaktreerb]

34 minutes ago, KirkNC said:

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.

Amazing that a company that offers poor service is able to retain customers.  Eventually the poor service levels become known and people go elsewhere.  

[kazu]

1 hour ago, KirkNC said:

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.

 

Agree with you.  My TA has been swamped but she still calls me back the same day.  I don’t get the dedication to anyone who is not getting the service they deserve.

[Bruinboy]

Thanks once again for all the comments. Just to clarify ... we cannot change PCC's. HAL will not let us. So we are going to go outside of HAL to get the service we need. We have asked four times for another PCC and HAL refuses to accommodate us. That even applies to a second call to the Mariner's Society this afternoon. The person at the Mariner's Society was pleasant, empathetic, but still no response. We have hit a brick wall when it comes to responsive customer service with HAL. Unfortunately, we are lowly three-star Mariners so little clout.

[Bruinboy]

Of course, we are only talking about "short" cruises ... one 35 days and another 25 days. 😀

[kazu]

5 minutes ago, Bruinboy said:

Thanks once again for all the comments. Just to clarify ... we cannot change PCC's. HAL will not let us. So we are going to go outside of HAL to get the service we need. We have asked four times for another PCC and HAL refuses to accommodate us. That even applies to a second call to the Mariner's Society this afternoon. The person at the Mariner's Society was pleasant, empathetic, but still no response. We have hit a brick wall when it comes to responsive customer service with HAL. Unfortunately, we are lowly three-star Mariners so little clout.

 

I would not worry about changing PCC’s.  I would go shopping for a good TA.  There are some out there and they are worth their weight in gold and some will either discount or give you OBC.

Unless your cruise is really well booked, once you find a TA you are comfortable with I’d cancel and let them rebook it.

 

4 minutes ago, Bruinboy said:

Of course, we are only talking about "short" cruises ... one 35 days and another 25 days. 😀

 

Nice to know you are valued, isn’t it?

 

If your PCC doesn’t care or can’t handle their work load, there are many TA’s out there that will.  And you’ll get more bang for your buck.

 

If HAL cut back too much, too bad so sad, their problem - don’t make it yours.  You deserve good service.

[Florida_gal_50]

7 minutes ago, Bruinboy said:

Thanks once again for all the comments. Just to clarify ... we cannot change PCC's. HAL will not let us. So we are going to go outside of HAL to get the service we need. We have asked four times for another PCC and HAL refuses to accommodate us. That even applies to a second call to the Mariner's Society this afternoon. The person at the Mariner's Society was pleasant, empathetic, but still no response. We have hit a brick wall when it comes to responsive customer service with HAL. Unfortunately, we are lowly three-star Mariners so little clout.

I’m a 5 star and have no clout 😛so don’t feel bad.  My pcc is a little slower than usual but still acceptable.  What I do find lately is Hal’s customer service sucks.  I got charged twice when I called guest services for an item and she realized that she had done it.  It was pricy.  Both charges appeared on my credit card but no credit.  I got the royal run around.  They even told me my credit card was holding the credit.  It took about 2 weeks to get resolved and about 5 hours of my time.  Is this the gold standard for customer service?   You’d think they’d be a little nicer.

[DeeDee Groff]

5 hours ago, KirkNC said:

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.

 

My savings over 20 years have been as much as 13% on a handful of bookings, and I have gotten consistently great service from three TA's who work for three different "brick and mortar" agencies!

[JanDay]

18 hours ago, KirkNC said:

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.

I think I’m missing some info. We have booked through HAL with a PCC for all our cruises. The PCC we had for seven years was great, responsive, and strategic. She was always able to match offers from outside companies, or get very close, using her discretionary OBC fund. She either got cut or bailed during covid. We were assigned a different PCC. Kind, but not as experienced, not strategic. And response times have been slow (albeit due to being very busy and a vacation). I assumed booking through HAL was the best option for keeping up with changes, upgrades, offers, etc. Is booking with HAL through the PCC different than booking with HAL through their general call center? I booked recently through the call center line on a weekend due to a sale ending. The PCC later told me that’s a different department, and that if I cannot reach her to still use the PCC phone line, but enter 0 instead of her extension. A bit confusing. Does HAL have two separate booking departments?

 

It sounds like many on this thread find working with a TA or outside source to be a better deal, and more responsive as well. Thoughts? Info? How can I get the name and contact for your valued and trusted TAs?

 

Thanks to all for bringing us newer cruisers up to speed.

Jan

[Rockit]

I had a similar experience with my PCC being busy and difficult to reach by phone, I went the  email route which was easier to reach him with and as usual he looked after our needs like a Rockstar!

 

Cheers

[kazu]

12 minutes ago, JanDay said:

It sounds like many on this thread find working with a TA or outside source to be a better deal, and more responsive as well. Thoughts? Info? How can I get the name and contact for your valued and trusted TAs?

 

Sorry but this is against CC guidelines

[StLouisCruisers]

28 minutes ago, JanDay said:

 

It sounds like many on this thread find working with a TA or outside source to be a better deal, and more responsive as well. Thoughts? Info? How can I get the name and contact for your valued and trusted TAs?

 

Thanks to all for bringing us newer cruisers up to speed.

Jan

 

Someone once recommended I ask frequent cruisers you meet at your cruise meet and greets for ideas on TAs.  Nothing wrong with that.  I agree with Jacqui that the rules prohibit us from giving out names on CC.

[Bruinboy]

And they lived happily ever after ... sort of. Well, a HAL supervisor called my wife this morning and said she had a new PCC on hold. Would we like to speak with her? My wife did and we are semi back to normal. The new PCC was helpful and courteous. We did book another cruise from an outside TA and will keep that booking to see how the service compares. Right now the difference is $200 for a 24 night cruise 2023. So our saga ends for now. We hope HAL gets its act together once again in the near future. Why they would not assign a new PCC to us earlier in the process remains a mystery.

 

Thanks again for everyone who chimed in on this post. It is much appreciated.

[Crew News]

I spoke with my PCC this afternoon and learned that HAL changed their phone system five weeks ago and they are still working some glitches.  Her voice greeting was deleted and a generic greeting was in place.  My PCC will redo her greeting now that I let her know of its deletion.

 

FWIW the big PCC layoff occurred last May and since then some have left voluntarily.

 

I have been with my PCC for the last 13 years and consider her a family friend.

[KirkNC]

18 hours ago, DeeDee Groff said:

 

My savings over 20 years have been as much as 13% on a handful of bookings, and I have gotten consistently great service from three TA's who work for three different "brick and mortar" agencies!

Agreed, I purposely went lower to not over state.

[KirkNC]

5 hours ago, JanDay said:

I think I’m missing some info. We have booked through HAL with a PCC for all our cruises. The PCC we had for seven years was great, responsive, and strategic. She was always able to match offers from outside companies, or get very close, using her discretionary OBC fund. She either got cut or bailed during covid. We were assigned a different PCC. Kind, but not as experienced, not strategic. And response times have been slow (albeit due to being very busy and a vacation). I assumed booking through HAL was the best option for keeping up with changes, upgrades, offers, etc. Is booking with HAL through the PCC different than booking with HAL through their general call center? I booked recently through the call center line on a weekend due to a sale ending. The PCC later told me that’s a different department, and that if I cannot reach her to still use the PCC phone line, but enter 0 instead of her extension. A bit confusing. Does HAL have two separate booking departments?

 

It sounds like many on this thread find working with a TA or outside source to be a better deal, and more responsive as well. Thoughts? Info? How can I get the name and contact for your valued and trusted TAs?

 

Thanks to all for bringing us newer cruisers up to speed.

Jan

I think it’s important to point at that those TA’s that provide the steepest discounts do require a little more work.  What I mean is they generally are there to book a transaction, while advice maybe forthcoming, they really expect you to know what you want.  Ours will definitely let us know of pricing changes, she just sends us a new invoice when prices drop.  I am sure they have software monitoring pricing. 

[iancal]

IF we book outside the final payment window we monitor for price fluctuations.  Our on line TA will re price when we request it.   She does/did not monitor price fluctuations.  

 

  OTOH, our TA has saved us money in the past by suggesting we wait a few days or week when we about to book inside the final payment window because she was aware of, or suspected another impending price decrease.

 

She also made certain that we were aware of an extremely attractive Princess move over offer and went so far as to set up a con call between us, her, and the Princess rep  to finalize the details.

 

We always got/get an OBC.  I know that we could probably save a hundred dollars more or so in OBC by using the on line cruise price tender system but we only care if her price, net of OBC's is in the ballpark, not the lowest.  Alas, she exited the business.

 

We get the level of service that we need and we were happy.  What we can never understand is people who routinely complain about a vendor, cruise line, TA, whatever  yet  continue to patronize them.   Strange.

Edited May 20, 2021 by iancal

[DaveOKC]

I use a HAL PCC and have to monitor pricing myself.  When I find a better deal on a booked cruise I normally just email her and very often within minutes I get a confirmation back of the refared booking.  Sometimes the PCC will find something (like a great promotion or a special OBC) and let me know, but this is rare.

 

This past year with all the cancellations and rebooking, I am glad I stayed with her, as the credits and charges were VERY confusing (and I am pretty good at accounting!) - would hate to see how a discount TA would have handled this.  Plus, we sometimes get a casino offer, which has to go through HAL directly (I know that TAs can handle casino DISCOUNTS, but not sure of casino OFFERS).

 

Edited May 20, 2021 by DaveOKC

[NCTribeFan]

I used to only use the cruiseline sales people.  I had a guy at Carnival that I just loved.  I had his cell # and would call him at any time and always heard back very promptly.  Sadly, he was promoted a few years ago and I didn't care for the guy they assigned me.  He told me that when he booked a cruise, he got credit for the booking.  It made no difference if the booking was in the cheapest inside cabin or the most expensive suite.  So, there was absolutely no pressure to upsell, and I really appreciated that. 

 

I'm one of those people who does my research ahead of time, go online and know exactly what the price should be for the cabin I want, so whomever is booking for me really doesn't have to do much work.

 

I've been leery of using online agencies just because I'm paranoid that if I need something while en route or on board, that I won't be able to reach them when I need them.

 

I've been using a TA for the past couple of years.  She's a top seller for Carnival.  So far, I'm her only client that sails HAL and MSC.  Last time I messaged her to book MSC, so said to go ahead and book it myself because they're a nightmare to work with and the fares are low, so not worth the effort for her.  Uh, OK.  I booked myself online with no problems.  Of course, cruises were cancelled and I have FCCs, so rebooking may not be so easy.

 

I have a casino offer from HAL.  I asked her to check cabin availability and she again said that with the nearly-free casino offer, it wasn't worth her time.  I'm not particularly happy.  I have several cruises booked with her so it's not like I'm only asking her to book sailings for which she'll receive almost no commission.

 

Sorry.  I'm rambling.

 

I have PCC with HAL.  He's still with them and he's still assigned to me.  Do the HAL PCCs operate like they do at Carnival, where they get credit for a booking rather than commissions based on the fare?  I'm not going to bother him with my $200 casino booking if he gets next-to-nothing for it.  But if he gets credit like any other booking, I'll ask him to book it for me.

[seagarsmoker]

I had an issue with OBC for a cruise we paid in full last year for a cruise this year.  I called my PCC and she is no longer with HAL. I talked to someone random there and they gave me the FCC# and told me to call Guest Relations. I called guest relations and explained situation. The rep said hold on a minute and she would look in to it. Forty minutes on hold and she comes back with an explanation. Someone at HAL pulled our OBC and said it had expired. I explained it may have expired because the previous 2 cruises had been cancelled and this was our third cruise re-booked. How could it be our fault if it expired? I mean really, they had no ships to cruise on and we did re-book each time. She said she would send note to a manager, but they were pretty firm on this policy.  😞     

Edited May 20, 2021 by seagarsmoker

[richwmn]

20 minutes ago, NCTribeFan said:

Do the HAL PCCs operate like they do at Carnival, where they get credit for a booking rather than commissions based on the fare?  I'm not going to bother him with my $200 casino booking if he gets next-to-nothing for it. 

Up until early this year a HAL PCC got credit for booking a cruise and it didn't matter what price or if the cruise was transferred. That changed, I believe on Feb 1st. Now they have to retain the booking in order to get any credit and it might be a commission.

 

[Hlitner]

Folks, the issue of PCCs is actually very simple and a matter of choice.  But folks who do use their PCC (or book directly with the cruise line through anyone else) should understand that they are generally paying an extra 7-10% (or more) for that privilege.  You can spin the issue anyway you please, but the savings when shopping around among some decent high volume cruise agencies is just a fact.  

 

For many years we thought this did not make a lot of sense for any cruise line and have asked two cruise lines (HAL and Princess) if they will simply match the deals we can get through their authorized cruise agencies.  In both cases we have simply been told that the cruise lines do not want to compete with travel/cruise agencies on price.   I will also say that having found some decent cruise agencies (who we have used for decades) the customer service we get from our cruise agencies exceeds what we can get from just about any cruise line.  With my favored agencies there is no waiting on hold, and I do not even need to call (most times a short e-mail is adequate).  If I do need help it is available quickly and with hours that are better then the cruise lines.

 

Hank

[NCTribeFan]

I'll email him and give him the option to book it or not.  If he gets next-to-nothing, I'll do it myself.  I'm not interested in transferring the booking.

 

I may have to give in a try an online agent for my HAL and MSC bookings.  I may even use them for Carnival unless my TA has a group booking to put me in that has perks.  If she's not willing to book my low-fare cruises, maybe I won't book my higher-fare cruises with her, either!

 

I have a quasi B2B on Carnival OZ/NZ (which probably won't sail); I have B2B2B Carnival Med/Med/TA for October 2022; I have another quasi B2B TAs on NCL for April/May 2023.   Yes, they're solo bookings in inside cabins, but they aren't dirt cheap!  It's not like she isn't getting commission from me.  Prior to COVID, I was sailing 3-4 times a year.

[NCTribeFan]

I do so wish I knew who these wonderful online cruise agencies might be.  But I know that's not allowed.

 

And all my cruise buddies use the TA I've been using, and they love her, so no referrals from them.

[aliaschief]

I wonder if Hal Hdqs. Is working from home? Sure appears Seth and Gus were!

[DaveOKC]

My HAL PCC seems very willing to book my casino offers - never any question about it.  On an upcoming one of mine she also made sure to link my brother's reservation to ours and it also was a casino offer.