Totally P&O'd

[arbhorseal]

1 minute ago, gumshoe958 said:

Sure. Because I understand that prices can go down as well as up, whatever it is you’re buying.

Fine..........good luck to you........I suppose its just individual choice.  Looks like I wont be buying any more jeans.

[arbhorseal]

6 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

We always book an aft cabin as we love the location - it will be quiet, and we've never found that it has been too choppy or noisy. 

 

I suppose you always take a chance when you book saver and whenever you book you may find that someone gets a better deal than you. We once did a land holiday and had booked 18 months in advance. Got to the hotel and the balcony / room location was terrible so we asked to be moved. Got moved but still not brilliant. Met a couple in what would have been our ideal location .... they had booked for half the price 2 weeks before the holiday. Felt brassed off, but looking back I suppose its the way things go.

 

Hope you manage to have a great cruise and you find that aft cabins really are not that bad.

I just wanted to say thank you. A well thought out and pleasantly constructed post.  

[Presto2]

1 minute ago, zap99 said:

Haha. Spell check Is doing my nut in.🤣

 

A good excuse - stick to it 😉

[sam49]

I can understand why you are annoyed I would be too, thats a lot of money.

 

I have travelled on RC which is mainly american cruisers and I am sure that they are allowed to rebook  if they find the same cruise at a cheaper price with RC.

 

It would have been nice if P & O had let you move cabins and would have generated some good customer service feedback. Instead  its made you feel like you don't want to travel with them again and you will probably talk to other people and dissuade them from P & O.

 

I do sometimes wonder if people in charge of these organisations ever think things through.

[arbhorseal]

3 minutes ago, sam49 said:

I can understand why you are annoyed I would be too, thats a lot of money.

 

I have travelled on RC which is mainly american cruisers and I am sure that they are allowed to rebook  if they find the same cruise at a cheaper price with RC.

 

It would have been nice if P & O had let you move cabins and would have generated some good customer service feedback. Instead  its made you feel like you don't want to travel with them again and you will probably talk to other people and dissuade them from P & O.

 

I do sometimes wonder if people in charge of these organisations ever think things through.

Thank you for some thoughtful input. 

 

[gumshoe958]

6 minutes ago, sam49 said:

I have travelled on RC which is mainly american cruisers and I am sure that they are allowed to rebook  if they find the same cruise at a cheaper price with RC.

Indeed they are. But UK bookings charged in sterling aren’t eligible.

[bobstheboy]

You are obviously not a new comer to cruising or the holiday trade in general. Fluid pricing is the norm and you pay your money and take your choice. We have four cruises booked, three on Select and chose our cabin, one on saver because the Select price was too much more to pay. Our choice and we are waiting to find out the number for our January 23 cruise. 

 

It will be a balcony, on a lovely cruise ship, lovely, jubilee.

[zap99]

6 minutes ago, bobstheboy said:

You are obviously not a new comer to cruising or the holiday trade in general. Fluid pricing is the norm and you pay your money and take your choice. We have four cruises booked, three on Select and chose our cabin, one on saver because the Select price was too much more to pay. Our choice and we are waiting to find out the number for our January 23 cruise. 

 

It will be a balcony, on a lovely cruise ship, lovely, jubilee.

For the Christmas Iona cruise in question a saver balcony is £3600. A select balcony is £5000 and includes £540 OBC. We always chose select and say no upgrade. If we picked saver fare, buyer beware.

[arbhorseal]

4 minutes ago, bobstheboy said:

You are obviously not a new comer to cruising or the holiday trade in general. Fluid pricing is the norm and you pay your money and take your choice. We have four cruises booked, three on Select and chose our cabin, one on saver because the Select price was too much more to pay. Our choice and we are waiting to find out the number for our January 23 cruise. 

 

It will be a balcony, on a lovely cruise ship, lovely, jubilee.

Thanks for the input. Point well made.  For a couple of hundred pounds I would have just smiled and taken it on the chin. But we are talking about a considerable amount of money and P&O didn't offer the slightest vestige of customer service. I felt they were almost laughing at me.  I will enjoy the trip whatever happens. But I will never book with carnival again. A polite explanation by P&O and a small amount of on board spend. Say enough for my wife and I to have a special meal might well have kept my business. In real terms probably costing P&O nothing. 

[bobstheboy]

24 minutes ago, zap99 said:

For the Christmas Iona cruise in question a saver balcony is £3600. A select balcony is £5000 and includes £540 OBC. We always chose select and say no upgrade. If we picked saver fare, buyer beware.

We all have our price limits, a personal choice. When we booked our Jan 23, Canary Isles cruise on Iona, the price difference was about £700 pp between Saver and Select, £400 OBC for the cabin on Select. I won't pay £1000 to chose a cabin, others will.

 

[zap99]

1 minute ago, bobstheboy said:

We all have our price limits, a personal choice. When we booked our Jan 23, Canary Isles cruise on Iona, the price difference was about £700 pp between Saver and Select, £400 OBC for the cabin on Select. I won't pay £1000 to chose a cabin, others will.

 

The last 2 we booked, Azura and Iona, the select price difference was less than the OBC, so we booked select. Once the difference is about £250-300 extra we probably won't book at all.

[arbhorseal]

21 minutes ago, zap99 said:

The last 2 we booked, Azura and Iona, the select price difference was less than the OBC, so we booked select. Once the difference is about £250-300 extra we probably won't book at all.

I thought you had waisted 2 hours of your life and were moving on?

[FangedRose]

1 hour ago, arbhorseal said:

It just means I will never buy jeans from there again.  Would you?

You do realise that everything that is in a sale has (by law) been on sale at full price beforehand. Your statement means you will never buy anything fron anywhere again.

[jeanlyon]

As I would never, ever book an aft cabin, I choose Select and refuse any upgrades.  Simples!

[arbhorseal]

8 minutes ago, FangedRose said:

You do realise that everything that is in a sale has (by law) been on sale at full price beforehand. Your statement means you will never buy anything fron anywhere again.

No..............it doesn't.  It means I will shop where my custom is valued. 

 

[Ardennais]

Our next cruise (not P&O) is a saver fare and I won’t be complaining about the location of our cabin because we’ve paid much less for it. Just accept it! No use complaining. 

 

On the other point, it is disappointing when you find that prices have come down, but then again, we’ve often seen the price increase too after booking. It’s swings and roundabouts and if you cruise quite often, it probably balances itself out in the end. 
 

 

[arbhorseal]

2 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

Our next cruise (not P&O) is a saver fare and I won’t be complaining about the location of our cabin because we’ve paid much less for it. Just accept it! No use complaining. 

 

On the other point, it is disappointing when you find that prices have come down, but then again, we’ve often seen the price increase too after booking. It’s swings and roundabouts and if you cruise quite often, it probably balances itself out in the end. 
 

 

If it was maybe £200 or so I would not mind so much. I paid £4398. Better cabins are presently available for £3598. That is £800! No wonder P&O have had staff shortages. If they treat staff like this no wonder they have staff problems. Perhaps if people were not so accepting of such practises........P&O might not get away with this so easily. Or maybe the UK economy is tanking so badly.............worse is to come. 

[Wonky]

Just out of interest do you feel the same when booking flights, hotels or package holidays if they drop in price? This dynamic pricing is perhaps new to cruising(?) but probably here to stay.

[Ardennais]

4 minutes ago, arbhorseal said:

If it was maybe £200 or so I would not mind so much. I paid £4398. Better cabins are presently available for £3598. That is £800! No wonder P&O have had staff shortages. If they treat staff like this no wonder they have staff problems. Perhaps if people were not so accepting of such practises........P&O might not get away with this so easily. Or maybe the UK economy is tanking so badly.............worse is to come. 

Not sure what you mean by “If they treat staff like this”. 
 

As I said, it is disappointing, but in the past, we’ve booked a longer cruise on launch and seen the price increase by over £1500! So it works both ways! 

[arbhorseal]

31 minutes ago, Wonky said:

Just out of interest do you feel the same when booking flights, hotels or package holidays if they drop in price? This dynamic pricing is perhaps new to cruising(?) but probably here to stay.

I understand how it works. But £800 for an inferior cabin? What surprises me is how happy people seem to be in getting ripped off. I cannot be the only one! I understand now why they do it. Everyone seems to be happy with the situation. Well they have had the last of my money. 

[arbhorseal]

48 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

Not sure what you mean by “If they treat staff like this”. 
As I said, it is disappointing, but in the past, we’ve booked a longer cruise on launch and seen the price increase by over £1500! So it works both ways! 

Rather looks to me like demand for P&O cruises is declining rather rapidly. I would have thought P&O might have valued my repeated previous custom. That does not appear to be the case. Consequently, I will move my future business accordingly.  I cannot understand why people are happy to accept this. If they treat loyal customers in such a manner maybe, they treat the staff in a similar manner. Which goes some way to explain why they have problems recruiting staff. 

[9265359]

Booking Saver fares early seems to be a bit of a mugs game - you are gambling both that the price won’t fall before sailing and you are gambling that the cruise doesn’t sell well so you are left with the dross that nobody else wants. 
 

If (and I severely doubt it) that P&O gave some priority to early Saver bookers to receive the best of the dross left when it came to allocating cabins then there might be some point, but as the allocation method appears to be a ‘put the names in a hat’ approach then why expose yourself to the risk. 
 

And if booking late then it is straightforward choice between weighing up the price difference between Saver and Select - and on the Iona cruise I am currently sat on the price difference was negative £450 - yes £450 cheaper to book Select over Saver. 

[arbhorseal]

4 minutes ago, 9265359 said:

Booking Saver fares early seems to be a bit of a mugs game - you are gambling both that the price won’t fall before sailing and you are gambling that the cruise doesn’t sell well so you are left with the dross that nobody else wants. 
 

If (and I severely doubt it) that P&O gave some priority to early Saver bookers to receive the best of the dross left when it came to allocating cabins then there might be some point, but as the allocation method appears to be a ‘put the names in a hat’ approach then why expose yourself to the risk. 
 

And if booking late then it is straightforward choice between weighing up the price difference between Saver and Select - and on the Iona cruise I am currently sat on the price difference was negative £450 - yes £450 cheaper to book Select over Saver. 

Thanks for the input.........appreciate it. 

 

[cruising.mark.uk]

1 hour ago, arbhorseal said:

If it was maybe £200 or so I would not mind so much. I paid £4398. Better cabins are presently available for £3598. That is £800! No wonder P&O have had staff shortages. If they treat staff like this no wonder they have staff problems. 

I think you'll find that crew don't pay for their cabins, so the price passengers are charged for cabins is unlikely to be causing staff shortages...

[arbhorseal]

1 minute ago, cruising.mark.uk said:

I think you'll find that crew don't pay for their cabins, so the price passengers are charged for cabins is unlikely to be causing staff shortages...

I sincerely hope that comment is tongue in cheek.........if not I'm worried.