Princess doesn't seem to be able to do a re-fare - is this no longer offered?

[kmhkmb]

I checked the price of my upcoming cruise under the current promotion and it is less than what I paid.  I did a mock booking with the same fare type (Princess Plus) and category of cabin (BA), same deck, same location (mid-ship)  and the price is now about $250 less.  I've gone through 3 agents now and none of them understand the concept of a re-fare. One of them won't listen at all - she just keeps explaining the difference between the fares types (which I already understand).    I'm at a loss as to what to do - I don't work with a travel agent.  Any suggestions?  I've already wasted about 2 hours on this today.  Are re-fares no longer a thing?  

[1emerald1]

I just had an upcoming cruise refared to the new promotion.  I work with a CVP and he took care of it in less than 24 hours.

[wallyj]

I has a similar issue when I saw the website was showing a lower fare and I was before final payment. For my situation, it turned out the ‘new’ fare was applicable for ‘new’ bookings only, so the only way to get the lower fare is cancel the existing booking and rebook. The website was not clear that the new promo lower fare was new bookings only, but this might be your situation too?

[kmhkmb]

Update - finally got my re-fare!  Spoke to someone named Stacey who did the re-fare in about 2 minutes.  She told me that all the agents should know how to do a re-fare but to ask to speak to someone in Guest Services if the agent isn't understanding what a re-fare is. 

 

I actually did nicely ask one of the agents if there was anyone else I could speak to and she hung up on me!  

Edited December 20, 2022 by kmhkmb
Fixed a typo

[Wishing on a star]

Doesn't sound like your the first!  (both non-helpful agent, and that 'dropped connection')

Princess should be ashamed.  

But staffing issues, and all of the changing around Princess is doing.  NOT GOOD

 

I know somebody who was not able to get any help with a refare until after final payment finally past, and costed them almost $300.00

[kmhkmb]

Based on my experience today Wishing on a star that doesn't surprise me!  I did provide Guest Services with the names of the agents that gave me such a hard time so that they could receive training in how to process a re-fare - not sure on whether or not the person I spoke to will pass this along though.  

[cruzin4us]

2 hours ago, kmhkmb said:

 

I actually did nicely ask one of the agents if there was anyone else I could speak to and she hung up on me!  

 

This seems to be happening more and more lately.   Had it happen to me once this week already and it's only Tuesday....

 

[damiross]

I booked the 5 day California Coastal for April 2023.  My fare was $341 per person for a balcony.  Balconies now start at A$498.  Interior cabins start at $437.

 

I also noticed that yesterday I had complimentary gifts from Princess.  These are now gone.  The firsts Princes Prizes Play, Specialty Dining 2 nights, and Premier Photo Package.  Looks like I need to call Princess tomorrow to ask about this.  I know it was probably a mistake but I'm retired so I have the time to stay on the phone for 10-15 hours! 😁

Edited December 21, 2022 by damiross

[caribill]

8 hours ago, kmhkmb said:

Update - finally got my re-fare!  Spoke to someone named Stacey who did the re-fare in about 2 minutes.  She told me that all the agents should know how to do a re-fare but to ask to speak to someone in Guest Services if the agent isn't understanding what a re-fare is. 

 

I actually did nicely ask one of the agents if there was anyone else I could speak to and she hung up on me!  

 

One benefit of using a good Travel Agent is they know how to do re-fares.

[pompeii]

3 hours ago, caribill said:

 

One benefit of using a good Travel Agent is they know how to do re-fares.

So do Princess Vacation Planners.  Yesterday mine refared one of my bookings that was marked "new bookings only" without me having to cancel and rebook.  I emailed her and in a couple of hours, it was done.  It benefitted me to refare instead of rebook because I had pre-purchased wifi that has since gone up in price.  If I had to rebook, I would have had to repurchase the wifi at the new higher cost.  

[Perky1]

They said that to me and I said are you telling me I have to cancel and rebook??  He came back with a refare.

[Buckeye10640]

14 hours ago, kmhkmb said:

I checked the price of my upcoming cruise under the current promotion and it is less than what I paid.  I did a mock booking with the same fare type (Princess Plus) and category of cabin (BA), same deck, same location (mid-ship)  and the price is now about $250 less.  I've gone through 3 agents now and none of them understand the concept of a re-fare. One of them won't listen at all - she just keeps explaining the difference between the fares types (which I already understand).    I'm at a loss as to what to do - I don't work with a travel agent.  Any suggestions?  I've already wasted about 2 hours on this today.  Are re-fares no longer a thing?  

I work with  a Princess PVP.  Just this week I checked my May cruise and it had gone down $100pp. I emailed her and she replied the next day that the refare was done (and I verified by checking my booking). So done within 24 hours. I suspect you are talking with inexperienced agents.  You are going to get responses telling you to work with a TA only, but the right Princess PVPs can definitely handle this. 

Edited December 21, 2022 by Buckeye10640

[wowzz]

Us Brits get very jealous reading about the ability to refare. We can only refare once, and it costs £50 ($60) pp to do so. Seems very unfair. 

And we can't participate in the upgrade bidding system either.

[Coral]

2 hours ago, pompeii said:

So do Princess Vacation Planners.  Yesterday mine refared one of my bookings that was marked "new bookings only" without me having to cancel and rebook.  I emailed her and in a couple of hours, it was done.  It benefitted me to refare instead of rebook because I had pre-purchased wifi that has since gone up in price.  If I had to rebook, I would have had to repurchase the wifi at the new higher cost.  

More importantly - if you rebook, you can lose your airfare and shore excursions. Both of those go up also.

[Rick&Jeannie]

5 hours ago, wowzz said:

Us Brits get very jealous reading about the ability to refare. We can only refare once, and it costs £50 ($60) pp to do so. Seems very unfair. 

And we can't participate in the upgrade bidding system either.

Bummer!

[latebuyer]

Do you get the obc if you do the refare under the new sale?

[wowzz]

2 hours ago, latebuyer said:

Do you get the obc if you do the refare under the new sale?

As a Brit, if you refare, you get the obc offer on the new, lower fare, assuming there is one. So you lose any previous obc.

Therefore, you really need to do the maths before going for the refare option, especially as you can only do it once.

For our forthcoming April cruise, we refared to a minisuite. Lost the obc on our standard balcony cabin, but got a better cabin for the same price  even taking the £100 "penalty" into account.

And our shareholder obc compensates for the lost obc, which we probably would only have spent because we had it.

[Ombud]

21 hours ago, Coral said:

More importantly - if you rebook, you can lose your airfare and shore excursions. Both of those go up also.

Not exactly. A CVP (aka PVP) can lift & shift EZAIR fare & shore excursions so that you do not lose preferred pricing. Why couldn't TA's?

[Coral]

52 minutes ago, Ombud said:

Not exactly. A CVP (aka PVP) can lift & shift EZAIR fare & shore excursions so that you do not lose preferred pricing. Why couldn't TA's?

I didn't realize this. My TA can re-fare so I haven't needed to cancel and rebook.

[Ombud]

1 hour ago, Coral said:

2 hours ago, Ombud said:

Not exactly. A CVP (aka PVP) can lift & shift EZAIR fare & shore excursions so that you do not lose preferred pricing. Why couldn't TA's?

I didn't realize this. My TA can re-fare so I haven't needed to cancel and rebook.

Great! But sometimes a lower fare is only available for new bookings. Then I'd want to utilize a rebooking. 

15 hours ago, wowzz said:

As a Brit, if you refare, you get the obc offer on the new, lower fare, assuming there is one. So you lose any previous obc.

Therefore, you really need to do the maths before going for the refare option, especially as you can only do it once.

For our forthcoming April cruise, we refared to a minisuite. Lost the obc on our standard balcony cabin, but got a better cabin for the same price  even taking the £100 "penalty" into account.

And our shareholder obc compensates for the lost obc, which we probably would only have spent because we had it.

Same this side of the pond except the 100 penalty. That's unfair. Is it a Princess or UK govt thing??? 

Edited December 22, 2022 by Ombud

[wowzz]

5 minutes ago, Ombud said:

Same this side of the pond except the 100 penalty. That's unfair. Is it a Princess or UK govt thing??? 

Princess policy. Nothing to do with the UK government for once !

[isosika]

We just did a re-fare for 2 June cruises.  We saved about $2000 over our booking fares.  However, we use a travel agent who not only did the re-fare without hesitation but said that he would do it again if we found more lower fares.

[Rick&Jeannie]

1 hour ago, isosika said:

We just did a re-fare for 2 June cruises.  We saved about $2000 over our booking fares.  However, we use a travel agent who not only did the re-fare without hesitation but said that he would do it again if we found more lower fares.

Nice!