Waitlisted

[Womble99]

For something different we thought we would give wait listing a couple of cruises a go. Never tried it before so why not give it a go 🤷‍♂️

 

We booked onboard a couple of months ago while there was a promo running, sounded ok to be able to lock in a promo price and conditions and wait/hope a cabin becomes available. Well that is how it was explained to us at the time.

 

Interesting part came today when I get a call from our PCC letting us know that our cruise has been cancelled due to him being unable to apply an  FCD to it??? Odd, I explained to him that it never needed an FCD as it required a deposit paid on board by credit card at the time of wait listing?

 

Confused response, followed with the standard I will have to chase that one up. But what he really wanted to talk to me about was that there is now a cabin available for a cruise we had wait listed that he can helpfully secure for us at the current sale prices today (only 25% more than we had originally booked on the wait list, bargain). Would we like to secure the cabin today?

 

Umm why are we not being offered the cabin via the wait list? I was not able to get a straight answer out of that one, all I got was I will need to talk to my supervisor to see if the previous rates can be applied but I can guarantee the room today at the current sale price.

 

Is this the normal behavior of Princess when dealing with customers on wait lists? Try to ignore the previous agreement and push for a more profitable sale?

Or do we need to find a better PCC?

[caribill]

2 minutes ago, Womble99 said:

For something different we thought we would give wait listing a couple of cruises a go. Never tried it before so why not give it a go 🤷‍♂️

 

 

I am confused.

 

A waitlist is used when a the category you want is 100% sold out.

 

(This is different than a guaranty booking which is when there is or Princess believes there will be cabins available.)

 

So you purposely chose to pick a cruise where the category you want is sold out?

 

Was there another category that was available and would have been acceptable to you instead?

 

Or was the ship 100% sold out? No cabins or GTYs available, a very rare instance?

[Womble99]

3 minutes ago, caribill said:

Was there another category that was available and would have been acceptable to you instead?

 

It is a Xmas cruise and there is only ocean view or interior available, everything else already booked.

 

However people do change their minds and cabins become available again as cancellations occur.

[caribill]

5 minutes ago, Womble99 said:

 

It is a Xmas cruise and there is only ocean view or interior available, everything else already booked.

 

However people do change their minds and cabins become available again as cancellations occur.

 

If there is a cabin available in the exact category you are waitlisted, then you should be able to get it now at the price you booked it at or, if the current price is lower, at the current price. Your PCC sounds incompetent.

 

By the way, in a perfect world the Princess computers would detect that a waitlisted cabin is available and automatically put it in the name of the next person on a waitlist.

 

Reality is that, at least on Princess, this does not happen automatically. One theory is that this is done manually and thus a cabin can become available and actually get booked before the manual look at this occurs.

 

Lesson learned from the past is if you are waitlisted and see a cabin becomes available, contact your TA (or Princess if the booking is with Princess) to get that cabin for you. Looks like you tried to do this, but your PCC did not come through for you.

 

By the way, that dropped reservation also looks like incompetence at Princess because you did have an appropriate deposit in place.

[Womble99]

It has been a number of years since we have had a decent PCC, sadly I think covid has killed off customer service (well at least down under)

 

At least it didn't kill off cruising!

[cruisegirl25]

I'm not sure if their wait list program works very well. I was waitlisted for an inside room for our kids because when we tried to book it was sold out. A couple days later I happen to be on and there was a room available and I booked it. I've never received anything from the waitlist. So a room became available to the general public without being offered to the waitlist first.

[Womble99]

11 minutes ago, cruisegirl25 said:

I'm not sure if their wait list program works very well. 

 

I've never received anything from the waitlist. So a room became available to the general public without being offered to the waitlist first.

 

Yes it does seem to be a really poor way of treating their customers. Certainly not a great way to encourage them to stay with the line?

[Nebr.cruiser]

The only time we did a waitlist--it was on Princess-- we did get an email that we had cleared the waitlist, but the room price was considerably more than what it was when we entered the wait list.

 

I too thought we would be getting a cabin at the price that the cabin was when we went on the waitlist.  At least for that sailing, not true.  You get whatever is the going price at the time you clear the waitlist.

 

The price was almost double.  We didn't accept.

[Rick&Jeannie]

47 minutes ago, Nebr.cruiser said:

The only time we did a waitlist--it was on Princess-- we did get an email that we had cleared the waitlist, but the room price was considerably more than what it was when we entered the wait list.

 

I too thought we would be getting a cabin at the price that the cabin was when we went on the waitlist.  At least for that sailing, not true.  You get whatever is the going price at the time you clear the waitlist.

 

The price was almost double.  We didn't accept.

Well that's a real bummer!  I would have thought the same as you...original price.

[teecee60]

On 2/9/2023 at 1:10 AM, Womble99 said:

Umm why are we not being offered the cabin via the wait list? I was not able to get a straight answer out of that one, all I got was I will need to talk to my supervisor to see if the previous rates can be applied but I can guarantee the room today at the current sale price.

 

Is this the normal behavior of Princess when dealing with customers on wait lists? Try to ignore the previous agreement and push for a more profitable sale?

Or do we need to find a better PCC?

 

Booking directly with the cruise line almost always GUARANTEES you pay the HIGHEST price.

 

There are MANY online agencies that offer lower prices AND more perks/OBC.

[cruzsnooze]

Waitlist is not a booking with a price gty. You pay the current price on the day a cabin becomes available to book. That has always been the procedure. It is a new booking.

[Womble99]

9 hours ago, cruzsnooze said:

Waitlist is not a booking with a price gty. You pay the current price on the day a cabin becomes available to book. That has always been the procedure. It is a new booking.

 

Interesting, though as I said this is the first time we had given the waitlist a go.

 

As we booked it on board we spent a bit of time asking about how it was meant to work etc and it was explained by the Future Cruise consultant that it was a booking at the current promotion t&c, in fact we had one of the waitlist bookings altered just before the cruise ended as a new promotion had begun which further reduced the price.

 

Whether the Princess employee on board or in the sales office here in Australia is providing the wrong information to the customer they are still representing on behalf of Princess.

 

My last update was Friday afternoon from my PCC who was still trying to convince me that the new offer at a 25% increase was a great deal. He is now clearly aware that we are happy to accept what we had originally booked or we are more than happy to look elsewhere, there are plenty of cruise lines to choose from.

 

He is still trying to work the issue and has asked if can call back on Monday 🤷‍♂️