Booking via Cruise Critic

[Vampiress88]

This site any good for booking as it’s coming in a good few hundred cheaper. 
I just always seem to book direct. 

[happy v]

4 minutes ago, Vampiress88 said:

This site any good for booking as it’s coming in a good few hundred cheaper. 
I just always seem to book direct. 

You will have to give us a clue

[alpha whiskey]

9 minutes ago, Vampiress88 said:

This site any good for booking as it’s coming in a good few hundred cheaper. 
I just always seem to book direct. 

https://www.pocruises.com/why-choose-us/price-promise

Have all the details of the other TA site to hand (i.e dated screenshot)  when you call P&O direct. 

 

[wowzz]

49 minutes ago, happy v said:

You will have to give us a clue

Which Vamps can't do, as the thread will be deleted, and she might be suspended.

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, Vampiress88 said:

This site any good for booking as it’s coming in a good few hundred cheaper. 
I just always seem to book direct. 

Most big cruise TAs will give some sort of discount, the more regularly you book with them the bigger the discount, generally up to 5% for P&O cruises. If you book direct with P&O and have an up to date quote from a TA, then P&O will match their price.

BUT why go to that trouble, why not save yourself the hassle of trying to get through to P&O and book with the TA in the first place.

PS Most TAs wont offer a discount unless you ask, so shop around the big online ones for the best deal, and more importantly the best service.

Edited February 15, 2023 by terrierjohn

[Harry Peterson]

I’m probably completely and utterly wrong on this, but aren’t P&O cruises always sold at exactly the same price wherever they’re booked? Subject of course to the discount of around 5% that one excellent agent will give if asked nicely.

 

Whenever I investigated this in the past I always found that the apparently large discounts were never actually bookable, and just a sleight of hand. Or just plain misdescription. 
 

If that view’s wrong, please correct me.

[AchileLauro]

It's worth checking to see if P&O have advertised or are operating price matching.

[NavyPanda]

1 hour ago, Harry Peterson said:

I’m probably completely and utterly wrong on this, but aren’t P&O cruises always sold at exactly the same price wherever they’re booked? Subject of course to the discount of around 5% that one excellent agent will give if asked nicely.

 

Whenever I investigated this in the past I always found that the apparently large discounts were never actually bookable, and just a sleight of hand. Or just plain misdescription. 
 

If that view’s wrong, please correct me.

 

On 'cruise only' deals then the price will be same (before any discount offered by a TA). If booking through a travel agent purely due to price, you should look for 5% discount.  I was lucky recently that I found and booked at 7%  discount through an online only agent (or at least that trading name is online only), but strangely that was only for Britannia, the other ships were 5%.

 

On fly cruises, where the travel agent puts together their own package with flights, maybe hotel + transfer then these can vary in price significantly. I believe in the trade these are known as 'net rates'. 

[Vampiress88]

13 hours ago, wowzz said:

Which Vamps can't do, as the thread will be deleted, and she might be suspended.

sorry didn’t even realise that I couldn’t post it. 
I actually put it in the title but it’s been changed by the looks of it. 
Its more like should I trust travel websites rather than going direct when it saves me lots of money. 
typical really that I booked three more for 23/24 whilst on board iona but still looking at more. Specifically school holidays which are more expensive so need to try and keep the cost low. 
 

[kalos]

4 hours ago, Vampiress88 said:

sorry didn’t even realise that I couldn’t post it. 
I actually put it in the title but it’s been changed by the looks of it. 
Its more like should I trust travel websites rather than going direct when it saves me lots of money. 
typical really that I booked three more for 23/24 whilst on board iona but still looking at more. Specifically school holidays which are more expensive so need to try and keep the cost low. 
 

 

If your asking what I think ? 

If you see a good deal cheaper on a tinternet cruise web site and it's cheaper ,what are my 

options ? 

 

A) You could book with them the "tinternet"

B) Book with P&O    BUT    use their price match page and pay exactly the same as option A.

 

Down to your personal choice . see https://www.pocruises.com/why-choose-us/price-promise

[Selbourne]

18 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

Most big cruise TAs will give some sort of discount, the more regularly you book with them the bigger the discount, generally up to 5% for P&O cruises. If you book direct with P&O and have an up to date quote from a TA, then P&O will match their price.

BUT why go to that trouble, why not save yourself the hassle of trying to get through to P&O and book with the TA in the first place.

PS Most TAs wont offer a discount unless you ask, so shop around the big online ones for the best deal, and more importantly the best service.

Is 5% still possible? We now use the TA that most regulars on here use and, whilst the service has been excellent, we aren’t getting 5%. Not even close. 

[majortom10]

12 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Is 5% still possible? We now use the TA that most regulars on here use and, whilst the service has been excellent, we aren’t getting 5%. Not even close. 

Yes you can I also use a cruise TA that many use on here and is possibly the same.

On my last cruise booking for QA on Cunard they offered me just under 2% discount on top of cruise line price. When asked if I wanted to go ahead with booking I said not at the moment was asked if I had received a better offer. I told her I had been offered 5% discount and was told she would speak to her supervisor and to ring me back. I have booked many times with them so 5% isn't offered automatically and she returned my call within 5 minutes and said they would match that offer.

[terrierjohn]

33 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Is 5% still possible? We now use the TA that most regulars on here use and, whilst the service has been excellent, we aren’t getting 5%. Not even close. 

Neither am I yet but I hope once things normalise, and the huge borrowings by the travel industry start to diminish, that it will get back there eventually.

[Selbourne]

38 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

Yes you can I also use a cruise TA that many use on here and is possibly the same.

On my last cruise booking for QA on Cunard they offered me just under 2% discount on top of cruise line price. When asked if I wanted to go ahead with booking I said not at the moment was asked if I had received a better offer. I told her I had been offered 5% discount and was told she would speak to her supervisor and to ring me back. I have booked many times with them so 5% isn't offered automatically and she returned my call within 5 minutes and said they would match that offer.

Thanks. That’s useful. Just checked and the two P&O bookings I have made with them were a paltry 2%, but the most recent Cunard one was 4%. Note to self - next time push for 5%!

[Harry Peterson]

1 hour ago, majortom10 said:

Yes you can I also use a cruise TA that many use on here and is possibly the same.

On my last cruise booking for QA on Cunard they offered me just under 2% discount on top of cruise line price. When asked if I wanted to go ahead with booking I said not at the moment was asked if I had received a better offer. I told her I had been offered 5% discount and was told she would speak to her supervisor and to ring me back. I have booked many times with them so 5% isn't offered automatically and she returned my call within 5 minutes and said they would match that offer.

Exactly the same here - the 5% isn't by any means automatic. It's a matter of negotiation, and does sometimes involve reference to a supervisor (I'm assuming that's not just a ploy!).

[Vampiress88]

3 hours ago, kalos said:

 

If your asking what I think ? 

If you see a good deal cheaper on a tinternet cruise web site and it's cheaper ,what are my 

options ? 

 

A) You could book with them the "tinternet"

B) Book with P&O    BUT    use their price match page and pay exactly the same as option A.

 

Down to your personal choice . see https://www.pocruises.com/why-choose-us/price-promise

Didn’t know they did that. Will try that next time. 
I am really trying to behave though as we have three holidays this year and two next already booked and I probably shouldn’t even be looking on holiday websites but I can’t seem to help myself 

[majortom10]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

Thanks. That’s useful. Just checked and the two P&O bookings I have made with them were a paltry 2%, but the most recent Cunard one was 4%. Note to self - next time push for 5%!

Best thing is to shop around and get quotes and then approach your TA, I am guessing is same as mine. There was one TA who offered me 7% and my TA wouldnt match that but agreed to match 5%. I booked straight away because I had no interest in booking with the TA who offered me 7% due to previous issues with them just used their quote as a reference point and bargaining tool.

[NavyPanda]

3 hours ago, Selbourne said:

Is 5% still possible? We now use the TA that most regulars on here use and, whilst the service has been excellent, we aren’t getting 5%. Not even close. 

 

Absolutely, I know one travel agency doing 5% discount for all P&O cruises. This agent is online-only and works best for cruises from Southampton (or otherwise cruise only), for some Britannia cruises the discount is 7%!  Their sister company (a very well-known agent) will offer the same 5% for fly cruises as well, but you have to phone and speak to a human in those cases.

 

If you're booking with an agent entirely based on price then don't accept any less than 5%. If you appreciate and value the service given by your current agent then the slightly lower discount may be worth the extra for you.

Edited February 16, 2023 by NavyPanda

[Vampiress88]

11 hours ago, NavyPanda said:

 

Absolutely, I know one travel agency doing 5% discount for all P&O cruises. This agent is online-only and works best for cruises from Southampton (or otherwise cruise only), for some Britannia cruises the discount is 7%!  Their sister company (a very well-known agent) will offer the same 5% for fly cruises as well, but you have to phone and speak to a human in those cases.

 

If you're booking with an agent entirely based on price then don't accept any less than 5%. If you appreciate and value the service given by your current agent then the slightly lower discount may be worth the extra for you.

sounds like that one I was looking at actually. 
and they have 15% on msc- don’t like msc like I do p&o but unfortunately they do better prices, like ridiculously better in school holidays perhaps cos they aren’t British. Also looked at RC- really want to go on one, think it’s a good deal but again as they are probably more of a higher line than p&o then I’m getting prices to match. 
might need to do more research but can’t have all my holidays on p&o- they are just too convenient for me to say no to. 

[NavyPanda]

2 hours ago, Vampiress88 said:

sounds like that one I was looking at actually. 
and they have 15% on msc- don’t like msc like I do p&o but unfortunately they do better prices, like ridiculously better in school holidays perhaps cos they aren’t British. Also looked at RC- really want to go on one, think it’s a good deal but again as they are probably more of a higher line than p&o then I’m getting prices to match. 
might need to do more research but can’t have all my holidays on p&o- they are just too convenient for me to say no to. 

 

The one I'm thinking does give 15% on MSC. If you scroll down to the bottom of the travel agent's webpage and check the privacy policy the name of the parent company will be in the first sentence, if indeed we are discussing the same one. The parent company are a well-known cruise travel agent. Both travel agents (or trading names) use the same ABTA number. 

 

I've personally used them for an MSC booking (and successfully been on the cruise with no problems). I also have a P&O cruise booked through that website, I had the booking reference through immediately and all seems fine when logging on using that booking reference on the P&O website. 

 

Haven't had to contact them for any customer service queries, but for the MSC booking they did send my tickets as expected (unlike P&O you can't print them off yourself if you book through an agent)

[jeanlyon]

They are not allowed to say on here, but most specialist cruise travel agents will give a discount on P&O cruises and others.  Mine gives me 5% every time.  So why would I book direct.

[alpha whiskey]

1 hour ago, jeanlyon said:

They are not allowed to say on here, but most specialist cruise travel agents will give a discount on P&O cruises and others.  Mine gives me 5% every time.  So why would I book direct.

I became disillusioned with 2 different TA's during the pandemic, so have only booked direct since. 

 

P&O do honour price match.

https://www.pocruises.com/why-choose-us/price-promise

I have successfully done this a number of times at the point of booking.

Anyone I have spoken to directly have been great and very accommodating.

If you don't have a preferred travel agent, give them a go. 

 

[Cardiff girl]

I started using a travel agent last year in case anything went wrong and they could sort it out for me. I'd had atrocious customer service from Tui when I got covid and had to cancel a Marella cruise.

My TA has been fine but I've ended up speaking directly to P&O re issues and queries, and they've been mainly helpful.

If they price match, I might go direct next time. 

[devonuk]

I recently saved £1000’s on a Princess cruise by using a well know UK TA by asking if they had any ‘codes’ which could make it cheaper. After some deliberation the price was a shock and so cheap that whether to go on the cruise was a ‘no brainer’. 
A friend was also interested in the same cruise, he looked at the TA’s advertised price and then did what I did. He too saved a lot of money! I don’t normally book with TA’s now as I got my fingers burnt due to the pandemic but had no issues when dealing with cruise lines direct. Perhaps in the the future I’ll be changing my booking strategy 🤔

[Camberley]

I’ve found bookings directly with P&O frustrating to say the least as they have barely dealt with things competently for several cruises previously. And I have found their inability to respond effectively to communication is staggeringly poor. But that is, I feel, P&O through and through: they could probably work it into their advertising!!

 

I now use use a TA who have been superb each time, much for helpful and are economically better. But booking direct works well for some, so each to their own.

Edited March 17, 2023 by Camberley