Princess Policy Question

[Engineer_Lady]

My husband and I booked a balcony (BF) guarantee for an upcoming cruise. At this point, it's only a $200 deposit; the rest is due in April. During a chat with Princess about a potential price reduction, we were told that a mini-suite would only cost us $100 more per person, so my husband requested that upgrade. After waiting for quite some time, he was told by the agent that she was having trouble...and that we should call. The person I spoke with told me that Princess won't do an upgrade from a guarantee unless that reservation is first canceled. We don't wish to do this because we will lose our air arrangements.

 

TLDR: Hs anyone else heard the policy about not being allowed to upgrade from a guarantee booking?

[Valiamo]

If you are using one of Princess's Vacation planners, they will tell you that you cannot get a price difference/upgrade without cancelling and re-faring the cruise.  This is a change from pre-covid where they would just refare the cruise.  I do not if this is policy, and the PVP was just lazy and didn't want to do the work.

 

I would do a mock air booking on EZair and see if the routing you have is still available (and at the price you want)

 

I just did what you are trying to do and have had to re-book everything I had booked with my previous cruise, BUT.. I got a healthy discount off what I would be paying (over $1900).  Alas, I had one excursion that almost doubled in price, plus lost a killer deal on Internet (was $108 for 4 devices and now $432 CAD).  I can do without the extra internet, but hate missing that particular excursion.

[Engineer_Lady]

17 hours ago, Valiamo said:

If you are using one of Princess's Vacation planners, they will tell you that you cannot get a price difference/upgrade without cancelling and re-faring the cruise.  This is a change from pre-covid where they would just refare the cruise.  I do not if this is policy, and the PVP was just lazy and didn't want to do the work.

 

I would do a mock air booking on EZair and see if the routing you have is still available (and at the price you want)

 

I just did what you are trying to do and have had to re-book everything I had booked with my previous cruise, BUT.. I got a healthy discount off what I would be paying (over $1900).  Alas, I had one excursion that almost doubled in price, plus lost a killer deal on Internet (was $108 for 4 devices and now $432 CAD).  I can do without the extra internet, but hate missing that particular excursion.

Thank you. I may try rebooking the cruise online with a minisuite and air and seeing the result, without logging in. I know we'll pay a $200 cancelation penalty, but it might be worth it.

[Buckeye10640]

On 2/11/2023 at 6:11 PM, Valiamo said:

If you are using one of Princess's Vacation planners, they will tell you that you cannot get a price difference/upgrade without cancelling and re-faring the cruise.  This is a change from pre-covid where they would just refare the cruise.  I do not if this is policy, and the PVP was just lazy and didn't want to do the work.

 

I would do a mock air booking on EZair and see if the routing you have is still available (and at the price you want)

 

I just did what you are trying to do and have had to re-book everything I had booked with my previous cruise, BUT.. I got a healthy discount off what I would be paying (over $1900).  Alas, I had one excursion that almost doubled in price, plus lost a killer deal on Internet (was $108 for 4 devices and now $432 CAD).  I can do without the extra internet, but hate missing that particular excursion.

My PVP refared my existing cabin a month or so ago for my May cruise when the price dopped $100 pp. But the OP wants to book a different cabin......

[Valiamo]

28 minutes ago, Buckeye10640 said:

My PVP refared my existing cabin a month or so ago for my May cruise when the price dopped $100 pp. But the OP wants to book a different cabin......

Interesting... mine absolutely refuses to re-fare when there is a price drop.   Keeps quoting "new bookings only" or other mumbo jumbo.  This will be the 3rd cruise that we have had to re-book anew.  The really sad part is Princess lost out on more, as the not only gave me the cabin for $1800 less, they also now have to give me Princess Plus (new version), and I have decided to not book the expensive excurision (@$279 per person).  My cabin went from an Aft corner starboard to port (same cabin style type).

 

[Mary loves to travel]

We work with a PVP that we love.   As far as price drops (for the same cabin), sometimes she can just reprice our existing booking, but sometimes the great deal we spotted is for 'new bookings only'.

Most of the time, the savings is still in our favor even with having to rebook excursions, etc.

On the last one, we lost our great internet price, but the overall drop in price was still quite a nice savings, so we went ahead.

 

So, rebooking or repricing?   It depends on the details of the promotion.

 

Mary

[cruisingrob21]

Annoying - its pretty easy for TAs to change categories of a booking, provided that the promotion is still valid.  If it has expired, its still possible, but a TA (or PVP) has to call into princess to make the change.  If there is air attached to it, I have seen the system not allow the change, but once again, calling in, the princess reservations rep was able to make the change.

 

A PVP might resist a refare to a lower price because it means less commission, but if OP wanted to pay more, that should be easy.  Perhaps the PVP has a quota of bookings to hit, in which case, more booking would be better.  Either way, the fact that the PVP was having trouble is a good indication that they might be a bit inexperienced and a call into the reservations group by the PVP should be the logical course of action.