Princess Promotions

[mskaufman]

We got a call tonight from someone who said they were from Princess.  They knew our past cruising history and wanted to sell us future cruise credits.  Their web site was "princesspromotions". They had a "Balcony Package" and a "Suite Package", which had nothing to do with the type of cabin you might book in the future. Sounded fishy to me but was wondering if anyone has heard of this (or has used it)

[PacnGoNow]

14 minutes ago, mskaufman said:

We got a call tonight from someone who said they were from Princess.  They knew our past cruising history and wanted to sell us future cruise credits.  Their web site was "princesspromotions". They had a "Balcony Package" and a "Suite Package", which had nothing to do with the type of cabin you might book in the future. Sounded fishy to me but was wondering if anyone has heard of this (or has used it)

There are quite a few threads on this subject last one started in Feb 3rd.  

Here’s another thread:

 

These may answer your questions.

[mskaufman]

Thanks

[whirledpeas]

we got a call today. is it a scam? it sounded pretty reasonable but i'm not signing up for anything over the phone. 

[mtnesterz]

I'd make an analogy that if you got a call claiming to be your bank about an account, you wouldn't give any information, but call your bank back on a known number and perhaps ask to speak to someone whose voice you recognized. 

Here too, I'd call back on a known number and possibly someone you've worked with previously. They can confirm if it's legit and transfer you to the extension.

Edited October 20, 2023 by mtnesterz

[wallyj]

5 hours ago, whirledpeas said:

we got a call today. is it a scam? it sounded pretty reasonable but i'm not signing up for anything over the phone. 

These packages are now being offered at the Future cruise desk on the ships, so if you are inclined to find out more info, check out on board or ask someone you know who might be on a ship to get more answers for you.

 

A YouTuber has shared the hotels offered are not revealed until you ‘buy’ a package, which I know makes many people wary.

 

This packages sound like to me a FCD on steroids.

[Ganusja FarmerJohn]

Never again. Not only you don't get a promised value of 15k, but you pay 7500 to get 6300 in cruise credits, the customer service is horrific, no issue resolution. It seems that they got your money, so they just wait until you give up calling.

We purchased Princess Promotions on board of Discovery Princess (the cruise was great). We have a great experience with Norwegian Next Cruise credits, and we thought this was going to be a great experience that we could trust as well. However, the presentation was full of misrepresentation.

We were told that the credits do not expire (not true), that there are plenty of hotels (that are the type of "smart hotels" like Homewood Suits type etc, that we could easily use and there was a plethora of them available). The package cost was 7500, but the value of the service is 15000. We would get 6000 credits for a cruise with a 300 on board credit, plus 100-200 credits for booking on board of the ship, a 7- day free stay, plus 2 2-night stay certificate (pay taxes only), $750 in hotel stays that were completely free. We were not advised of the cancellation timeline.

As we were on board of the ship using our InCruises (separate story), she put that as a name of our travel agent. We booked a cruise to Europe for 2025 and happily continued our cruise. Internet was poor and we thought we had no reason to research this further.

After we came back, in a few weeks we received a letter from Princess that the itinerary for our cruise has changed. This prompted us to start looking, as we were not interested in the new itinerary. We called Princess and they would not talk to us, as only our travel agent could talk to them. We explained that InCruises is a sort of self-service customer service.

No avail, we had to get in contact with InCruises. Although InCruises does not offer phone support, it took them a couple of days, but they cancelled our cruise (no problems with them).

We called Princess and they guided us though the log in process into the Princess Promotions. Once we logged in, we were surprised to find out that the credits very much expire, and we have only 2 years to complete our travel. This presented a problem, because we already have our travel planned out for the next 2 years. But we proceeded.

Next there were a few unpleasant surprises with the hotels. The 2-day hotels stays are not free but are "discounted". If you book the same hotel through Expedia, you will pay a lot less then you would pay here for "free". The 7-night stay is possibly "free", but there are a couple of "tiny issues". In Europe (where we looked and need to go), there are only one or two hotels per country (just a hand full in the entire Europe not even one per country) in the middle of the boonies that are a part of that. Also, if you pay 1500 over the cruise credit that you get, divide that by 7, and you need a $215 room minimum cost to break even just to get your money's worth. They show that the rooms cost exorbitant amount of money, but in reality, if you go to Expedia, they cost 80-90 bucks per night.

Next, there is a HUGE problem with a customer service. I called Princess Promotion and asked them if it would be possible to get out of the contract, due to the initial misinformation. They took my request and said someone would contact me shortly. (next 2 days or so). Jake did call me, said that he understood and although this was outside of the cancellation window (7 days, which no one told us before), but he would discuss it in a meeting in which they present special circumstances the same day. He would call me after the weekend. He gave me his direct extension. Mon, Tue, ... a week passes. I leave one voice mail, few more days another, another few days another. No response, no emails.

I call Princess directly. One rep after another, asking to speak with a supervisor. One supervisor, they said would call back (to save me time on hold)- No call. We gave them another day or 2 - nothing. Meanwhile, calling Jake, just in case. No result. Call again to the main line. Another rep, who you need to tell the whole story from scratch, and they do not understand anything. Asked to speak with a supervisor. Have to justify why. Back and forth she goes to the sup, as our justification is not enough for them. Finally, a supervisor gets on the line. He is clearly miffed, but at least understands something. Sends me off to write an entry into customer relations. I said there was already an entry. Finally, he listens. He says he will make an entry into the system and will get back to us. I said we already did it. He, annoyed says, then we just have to wait. The decision has not been made yet. I asked what the response time is. He says it is 24-48 hours. I said it was already done over 2 weeks ago. Again, his tone is irritated, and tells me to wait or if I want to place an inquiry. I agreed for the inquiry. He said he is expediting it and we should hear back within 2-3 days. Two weeks later- no emails no calls.

I try calling Jake in the interim. Still nothing. Just goes into the voice mail. We work full time. I call after work when I get home- they are already closed. I call on the weekend- they are not open on the weekend. It sounds like I have to take time off work to even get through to them, to talk about the money that they will get from me in hopes to recoup something.

Princess Promotions NEVER EVER EVER again! I would expect better of Princess!

[MacMadame]

Maybe dispute the charge with your credit card company since you did not get what you paid for.

[Hobbes67]

I received one of those calls when they first started offering this.  It just didn't sound right to me, so I declined.  It was really hard sell, nothing in writing, and you needed to make a decision at that time.  I'm so glad I did not do it based on your story.  Thank you for sharing!

[Guest Snaxmuppet]

Did you get the agreed benefits in writing before you paid? If you did then the credit card route may be a good one. If not then it is just your word vs theirs and the credit card may not help.

 

I feel your pain. The takeaway for everyone here, not just with Princess but with everything we buy, get it in writing BEFORE paying. If it is a salesperson telling you verbally it then it isn't worth the paper it is written on! If you have to delay purchase a day or two while you check it out then it is worth the wait. If there isn't time to check it out then either walk away or take the risk that you might not get what you expect.

[Ganusja FarmerJohn]

I agree.  I wish we did all of that. Our previous positive experience with Norwegian gave us a false sense of security. (I understand that that is a different company, but we thought that dealing with big cruise companies was safe).

[Kira KH]

On 1/14/2024 at 3:12 PM, Ganusja FarmerJohn said:

Never again. Not only you don't get a promised value of 15k, but you pay 7500 to get 6300 in cruise credits, the customer service is horrific, no issue resolution. It seems that they got your money, so they just wait until you give up calling.

We purchased Princess Promotions on board of Discovery Princess (the cruise was great). We have a great experience with Norwegian Next Cruise credits, and we thought this was going to be a great experience that we could trust as well. However, the presentation was full of misrepresentation.

We were told that the credits do not expire (not true), that there are plenty of hotels (that are the type of "smart hotels" like Homewood Suits type etc, that we could easily use and there was a plethora of them available). The package cost was 7500, but the value of the service is 15000. We would get 6000 credits for a cruise with a 300 on board credit, plus 100-200 credits for booking on board of the ship, a 7- day free stay, plus 2 2-night stay certificate (pay taxes only), $750 in hotel stays that were completely free. We were not advised of the cancellation timeline.

As we were on board of the ship using our InCruises (separate story), she put that as a name of our travel agent. We booked a cruise to Europe for 2025 and happily continued our cruise. Internet was poor and we thought we had no reason to research this further.

After we came back, in a few weeks we received a letter from Princess that the itinerary for our cruise has changed. This prompted us to start looking, as we were not interested in the new itinerary. We called Princess and they would not talk to us, as only our travel agent could talk to them. We explained that InCruises is a sort of self-service customer service.

No avail, we had to get in contact with InCruises. Although InCruises does not offer phone support, it took them a couple of days, but they cancelled our cruise (no problems with them).

We called Princess and they guided us though the log in process into the Princess Promotions. Once we logged in, we were surprised to find out that the credits very much expire, and we have only 2 years to complete our travel. This presented a problem, because we already have our travel planned out for the next 2 years. But we proceeded.

Next there were a few unpleasant surprises with the hotels. The 2-day hotels stays are not free but are "discounted". If you book the same hotel through Expedia, you will pay a lot less then you would pay here for "free". The 7-night stay is possibly "free", but there are a couple of "tiny issues". In Europe (where we looked and need to go), there are only one or two hotels per country (just a hand full in the entire Europe not even one per country) in the middle of the boonies that are a part of that. Also, if you pay 1500 over the cruise credit that you get, divide that by 7, and you need a $215 room minimum cost to break even just to get your money's worth. They show that the rooms cost exorbitant amount of money, but in reality, if you go to Expedia, they cost 80-90 bucks per night.

Next, there is a HUGE problem with a customer service. I called Princess Promotion and asked them if it would be possible to get out of the contract, due to the initial misinformation. They took my request and said someone would contact me shortly. (next 2 days or so). Jake did call me, said that he understood and although this was outside of the cancellation window (7 days, which no one told us before), but he would discuss it in a meeting in which they present special circumstances the same day. He would call me after the weekend. He gave me his direct extension. Mon, Tue, ... a week passes. I leave one voice mail, few more days another, another few days another. No response, no emails.

I call Princess directly. One rep after another, asking to speak with a supervisor. One supervisor, they said would call back (to save me time on hold)- No call. We gave them another day or 2 - nothing. Meanwhile, calling Jake, just in case. No result. Call again to the main line. Another rep, who you need to tell the whole story from scratch, and they do not understand anything. Asked to speak with a supervisor. Have to justify why. Back and forth she goes to the sup, as our justification is not enough for them. Finally, a supervisor gets on the line. He is clearly miffed, but at least understands something. Sends me off to write an entry into customer relations. I said there was already an entry. Finally, he listens. He says he will make an entry into the system and will get back to us. I said we already did it. He, annoyed says, then we just have to wait. The decision has not been made yet. I asked what the response time is. He says it is 24-48 hours. I said it was already done over 2 weeks ago. Again, his tone is irritated, and tells me to wait or if I want to place an inquiry. I agreed for the inquiry. He said he is expediting it and we should hear back within 2-3 days. Two weeks later- no emails no calls.

I try calling Jake in the interim. Still nothing. Just goes into the voice mail. We work full time. I call after work when I get home- they are already closed. I call on the weekend- they are not open on the weekend. It sounds like I have to take time off work to even get through to them, to talk about the money that they will get from me in hopes to recoup something.

Princess Promotions NEVER EVER EVER again! I would expect better of Princess!

My parents are dealing with a very similar situation. They paid Princess for this package but there are “known system issues” that prevent them from being able to log in or access their credits. They sail in 20 days and have been told they need to pay gratuities, excursions, flights, and hotel out of pocket until these issues resolve. We are receiving no help from Princess or ONE Company, the company that manages Princess Promotions. We have contacted our state senators and congresspeople and are looking into consumer protection agencies that may help us.

[dog]

2 minutes ago, Kira KH said:

My parents are dealing with a very similar situation. They paid Princess for this package but there are “known system issues” that prevent them from being able to log in or access their credits. They sail in 20 days and have been told they need to pay gratuities, excursions, flights, and hotel out of pocket until these issues resolve. We are receiving no help from Princess or ONE Company, the company that manages Princess Promotions. We have contacted our state senators and congresspeople and are looking into consumer protection agencies that may help us.

Contact the credit card company too.

[AZjohn]

1 minute ago, Kira KH said:

My parents are dealing with a very similar situation. They paid Princess for this package but there are “known system issues” that prevent them from being able to log in or access their credits. They sail in 20 days and have been told they need to pay gratuities, excursions, flights, and hotel out of pocket until these issues resolve. We are receiving no help from Princess or ONE Company, the company that manages Princess Promotions. We have contacted our state senators and congresspeople and are looking into consumer protection agencies that may help us.

One just doesn’t manage the company, they own it and has nothing to do with Carnival or Princess. 
 

This BS sales company is acting like they are Princess and taking advantage of people that think they are Princess.

 

I read your thread the other day and as I wrote, I really hope you can help your parents.

 

At lease some people hear on CC is now reading about this scam

[Kira KH]

5 minutes ago, AZjohn said:

One just doesn’t manage the company, they own it and has nothing to do with Carnival or Princess. 
 

This BS sales company is acting like they are Princess and taking advantage of people that think they are Princess.

 

I read your thread the other day and as I wrote, I really hope you can help your parents.

 

At lease some people hear on CC is now reading about this scam

They definitely have something to do with Princess. Their email addresses are all @princesscruises and when they call, it’s the official Princess phone number. They’re independent contractors working for Princess.

 

regardless, thank you for your comment and well wishes. I hope we can find some resolution.

[dog]

11 minutes ago, AZjohn said:

One just doesn’t manage the company, they own it and has nothing to do with Carnival or Princess. 
 

This BS sales company is acting like they are Princess and taking advantage of people that think they are Princess.

 

I read your thread the other day and as I wrote, I really hope you can help your parents.

 

At lease some people hear on CC is now reading about this scam

Why does the caller have our information- loyalty level etc?

[AZjohn]

8 minutes ago, dog said:

Why does the caller have our information- loyalty level etc?

Princess shares this into (for $).

Many companies do this.

[wallyj]

2 hours ago, dog said:

Why does the caller have our information- loyalty level etc?

ONE has been contracted by Princess to oversee/manage Future cruises on all Princess ships. The Princess Promotions Package can also be booked/bought at the Future cruise desk. At least there you have actual paperwork to review opposed to getting a call and promises of what that package includes.

 

Future cruises has all of your Princess cruises history/bookings and they are responsible for managing Captain circle loyalty issues as of beginning 2023, when these departments were merged.

[cr8tiv1]

Still waiting to hear a “success” story.  Thank you very much for taking the time to detail your ordeal.
 

The cancellation policy is similar to time share rules.  You have x number of days to cancel.  I bought into a lovely time share property New Orleans.  I was so proud of myself.  I shared this with my father.  He quickly chastised me and told me to get right back down there and cancel.  That was an extremely painful process, but I was able to cancel my contract.  With a few years, Hurricane Katrina hit the area.

Princess  should be ashamed of themselves in getting involved and allowing this “promotion” to continue.  Maybe it’s time for a class action suit to stop Princess from selling these “too good to be true” offers.

 

[Ganusja FarmerJohn]

We purchased on beard of the ship. So we were sure it is Princess. We got no paperwork ( and we asked),  but still thought we were OK because it was "Princess". My husband( bless his paranoid soul) took a picture of the laminated flyer, but it doesn'tgive you much)).  We thought we were safe. She booked our cruise right there and then. I was observing the software, through which we were booking.  Our cruise was more than what we paid, so, we would have used up the credits right away ( except that they charge an extra 1500 for the "travel benefits"). We started receiving emails about our itinerary from Princess shortly. With cruising continued ( poor internet,  etc), holidays, coming back to work, I did not see the PP email. It went to spam, I guess.i was not too worried,  because I was booked already. 

I did locate the email from PP later, once the issues with itinerary began and I started really looking. 

 

BTW, still no response from them. 

 

I am hoping that can be forewarned, the more people share their experiences.  

 

Good luck, everyone! 

[1retired Mom]

Gansusja,

I am going through the exact same issues.  Have you been able to get any resolve yet?

 

[Rick&Jeannie]

1 hour ago, 1retired Mom said:

Gansusja,

I am going through the exact same issues.  Have you been able to get any resolve yet?

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

[Ganusja FarmerJohn]

Another "pleasant" surprise. 

We didn't. We gave up on trying to book the European Cruise and to hear back from Princess. I can't spend any more time of frustration on the phone, having to tell my story to another rep from scratch, and still no resolution.

 

We started researching another cruise (local) on the Princess website, only to find out that only a portion of the FCC is being applied!  (try to book on the Princess website, you'll see).  We called Princess to find out why. After another clueless rep (call option for PP questions) hung up on us after an hour and a half of wasting our time, we got to a good rep (through the booking of a new cruise call option)  who was knowledgeable, polite, and involved.  When we started asking about why only 1600 is being applied, he explained to us that it covers my fair only (The FCC is under my name).   You can only use the FCC for the fare of the person who purchased the package - not even to cover my husband, who was buying it with me, or our kids! Needless to say, we were very shaken.

 

Somehow, with his manager's assistance, he was able to apply the FCC to the entire room (it was not easy and took awhile). At this point, we picked extra Plus packages, which we did not need, just to be able to utilize the points. We are scared to touch anything. 

 

P. S. Also, when he was booking, he asked which airport is near us. We explained that we didn't need to fly. He explained that the system asks this to apply a regional discount. After the call was finished, although exhausted, we persisted in reviewing the details of the invoice. There was a "transfer" fee that was $88 per person ( $ 352 total) that was invoiced to us. We had to call Princess again to find out what this fee was. Of course, we got someone new. Eventually, we found out that the fee was for the transfer from the airport to the cruise! The rep found the fee reasonable, even though we started the call telling her we didn't need a transfer. 

 

So, watch out, fellow cruisers!