Was booking select fare a big mistake?

[killaypirate]

Booked a late cruise on Aurora, select rather than saver fare. Won’t accept my choice of Freedom Dining, also forced me to have a guarantee cabin. So not looking good for the extra hundreds of £’s. My advice would now be only book a saver fare when booking late. First time returning to P&O since Covid and it looks like the last.

[smj777]

I'd be inclined to query this, did you book direct through P&O or use a travel agent. You aren't getting what you paid for so I'd see what remedies are available.

 

[terrierjohn]

I was doing a dummy booking quite recently and it would only let me book a guarantee cabin on select. As the OP points out you may as well book a saver fare if that's the case.

[Cloudyrain]

1 hour ago, killaypirate said:

Booked a late cruise on Aurora, select rather than saver fare. Won’t accept my choice of Freedom Dining, also forced me to have a guarantee cabin. So not looking good for the extra hundreds of £’s. My advice would now be only book a saver fare when booking late. First time returning to P&O since Covid and it looks like the last.

I would call them, or speak to your TA; it usually means that there isn’t availability in a specific category. I had this last time I booked direct, and it was sorted straight  away. I just upped the category (an extra £50, but it was a better category of cabin so it was worth it) and I was able to pick my cabin and dining.

[Megabear2]

Exactly the problem I had in May.  I was upgraded from the cabin I booked into one that it was impossible to sleep in before 2.00am.  My complaint onboard was met with deaf ears and a shrug of the shoulders.  It appears to be happening more since the introduction of the new deck plan layout as the entry level select fare does indeed only offer guarantee.  Unless there is a huge amount of OBC on offer there is virtually no reason to book entry level select from what I can see.

[majortom10]

There is no way I would book a cruise paying the full Select Fare and only have a guaranteed stateroom. If they wouldn't let me choose a stateroom then I wouldn't book.

[kalos]

11 hours ago, majortom10 said:

There is no way I would book a cruise paying the full Select Fare and only have a guaranteed stateroom. If they wouldn't let me choose a stateroom then I wouldn't book.

 

Worst comes to the worst ,as it's select fare the poster could use their right to move

to another cruise but make sure they can select their own cabin in future.

[paulad39uk]

We have just returned from a 30 night cruise on Aurora R318 to Canada and North America. We booked Select Fare but received no benefit from it

We never ate in the main restaurant only speciality dining which we paid extra for.

They did not put on any shuttle buses apart from a free one in Boston

We had to pay extra for a central cabin to prevent us being upgraded? to a cabin aft or stern

So we may as well have paid saver fare we won't be bitten by that one again😥

Edited October 4, 2023 by paulad39uk

[terrierjohn]

9 hours ago, paulad39uk said:

We have just returned from a 30 night cruise on Aurora R318 to Canada and North America. We booked Select Fare but received no benefit from it

We never ate in the main restaurant only speciality dining which we paid extra for.

They did not put on any shuttle buses apart from a free one in Boston

We had to pay extra for a central cabin to prevent us being upgraded? to a cabin aft or stern

So we may as well have paid saver fare we won't be bitten by that one again😥

But you did receive the benefit of a midships cabin  which probably would not have been the case if you had booked a saver fare.

[pete14]

9 hours ago, paulad39uk said:

We have just returned from a 30 night cruise on Aurora R318 to Canada and North America. We booked Select Fare but received no benefit from it

We never ate in the main restaurant only speciality dining which we paid extra for.

They did not put on any shuttle buses apart from a free one in Boston

We had to pay extra for a central cabin to prevent us being upgraded? to a cabin aft or stern

So we may as well have paid saver fare we won't be bitten by that one again😥

I guess that as you say you received no benefit from booking Select, you didn’t receive any onboard credit to close the gap between the relative costs of select and saver to a degree? If you did, maybe it covered some of your select dining which for 30 nights must have set you back a bit. Presumably, being Aurora, that was Sindhu, Glasshouse and / or Beach House.

Edited October 5, 2023 by pete14

[daiB]

On 10/3/2023 at 2:31 PM, smj777 said:

I'd be inclined to query this, did you book direct through P&O or use a travel agent. You aren't getting what you paid for so I'd see what remedies are available.

 

Sorry this is standard practice for late bookings. Ever since I have been cruising. But I agree If I could book late I would not book select. Booking at that time would not give you the cabin you wanted as the popular cabins would all be gone.

Edited October 5, 2023 by daiB

[JeanieC,Aston]

31 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

But you did receive the benefit of a midships cabin  which probably would not have been the case if you had booked a saver fare.

Hi

On Saver you can pay a few pounds more to select location of cabin.

When I book it I choose Mid Aft that way you won’t get Aft or Forward.

The categories are ‘Aft—-Mid aft—Mid—Mid forward—Forward.

[paulad39uk]

1 hour ago, terrierjohn said:

But you did receive the benefit of a midships cabin  which probably would not have been the case if you had booked a saver fare.

No I had to pay extra on top of the select fare to ensure my midships cabin wasn't moved. I could have paid extra at saver fare for the same.

[paulad39uk]

1 hour ago, pete14 said:

I guess that as you say you received no benefit from booking Select, you didn’t receive any onboard credit to close the gap between the relative costs of select and saver to a degree? If you did, maybe it covered some of your select dining which for 30 nights must have set you back a bit. Presumably, being Aurora, that was Sindhu, Glasshouse and / or Beach House.

Not enough on board credit to pay for the select dining🤣. Sindhu on Arcadia was fabulous, on Aurora not so. We had fabulous meals in the Glasshouse and Beach House though with wonderful staff and service. Yes the bill was a bit of an eye opener and I was a bit annoyed they took a payment without letting us know until after it was taken two weeks into the cruise. Yet some people struggled using their onboard credit go figure🤔

[paulad39uk]

1 hour ago, JeanieC,Aston said:

Hi

On Saver you can pay a few pounds more to select location of cabin.

When I book it I choose Mid Aft that way you won’t get Aft or Forward.

The categories are ‘Aft—-Mid aft—Mid—Mid forward—Forward.

Thanks Jeanie that's why I was a bit disappointed that I could have done the same at saver rate and saved more not really benefitting from select fare as I said

[terrierjohn]

4 hours ago, paulad39uk said:

No I had to pay extra on top of the select fare to ensure my midships cabin wasn't moved. I could have paid extra at saver fare for the same.

What extra cost did you have to pay, other than the normal premium that a midship location commands over forward or aft, and you are correct a similar premium would also apply to the saver fare, however saver fares are not able to select actual cabins.

 

[pete14]

4 hours ago, paulad39uk said:

Not enough on board credit to pay for the select dining🤣. Sindhu on Arcadia was fabulous, on Aurora not so. We had fabulous meals in the Glasshouse and Beach House though with wonderful staff and service. Yes the bill was a bit of an eye opener and I was a bit annoyed they took a payment without letting us know until after it was taken two weeks into the cruise. Yet some people struggled using their onboard credit go figure🤔

Your earlier post stated you received no benefit from booking select fare but you received OBC which paid for some of your 30 specialist dining meals. I realise that your OBC perhaps did not match the price difference between select and saver but it should surely be considered to be a benefit of booking select which you would not have received if you had booked a saver fare. 

[paulad39uk]

3 hours ago, pete14 said:

Your earlier post stated you received no benefit from booking select fare but you received OBC which paid for some of your 30 specialist dining meals. I realise that your OBC perhaps did not match the price difference between select and saver but it should surely be considered to be a benefit of booking select which you would not have received if you had booked a saver fare. 

What I got refunded in OBC wasn't anywhere near the difference in price between the two fares. What I am saying is the Saver fare in my case would definitely have been the better choice in the long run you live and learn.

[pete14]

1 hour ago, paulad39uk said:

What I got refunded in OBC wasn't anywhere near the difference in price between the two fares. What I am saying is the Saver fare in my case would definitely have been the better choice in the long run you live and learn.

I don’t doubt that in your case, a saver fare may have been better. I was only pointing out that your assertion that you received no benefit was a little wide of the mark because of the OBC.