Princess air left us stranded!!!!!

[kooljamming]

From my point of view it must be a difference in culture;)

 

Off topic:

Yes, cultural difference. In mine it doesn't mean 'that' until it's three times, then someone is stupid, slow, or just having fun.;)

 

OP- sorry this happened. I want to use a cliché like things happen for a reason but right now I feel sad for you. Doing many flights over the years I have experienced similar delays, even booking on my own.

[Megsdad]

Smashin';)

[awhcruiser]

See Toto's post.

 

What don't you understand?

[iancal]

Pam...my TA did explain everything-I simply did not go in to the details . She was a star. Wish she had not left the business. She did four years of business travel for me-out two weeks per month with multiple stops. Took care of all those bad weather issues. Got to the point where I could tell her when and where I had to go and she did everthing including handle the airline and hotel glitches at all hours of the day. She did he same for our personal travel which is probably why she always gave me straighforward advice. She knew it would cost her some commission but she valued our 'total' business and that of many business associates that we sent her way.

[krikir]

I am so upset that Princess nor the airline would do much for us, we even had to use our return ticket home to get back to Toronto! So even if we could have somehow got to the ship, we still had to pay our own way home! Why didn't the airline offer more help, a place to stay, something. As far as I am concerned, Princess was hired to get us to the ship. They subcontracted it out to take us somewhere where we couldn't fly with anyone else if something happened. They should have had a contingency plan of some sort!

 

I just hope that since Princess is in the service based industry, they will really step up and at least offer us something. At least if they do, they are not out of pocket because they already have all of our money!

 

I just hope there is something that can be done! There hasn't been any news yet.

 

To be continued.....

[Shogun]

Hi All,

 

Can we have a little more faith in international air travel.

 

we have to fly from Scotland to England to Canada then an internal flight,

 

so 23 hours after leaving home I am hoping to be in a bed in Canada dreaming of sailing away on the Crown Princess.

 

Kirkir, from my dealings with Princess I think they will do little, as they will say did not sub contract anything just tried to help out by acting as your agent in getting tickets for you,

 

very different over here were they sell a package.

 

Pity airline did so little to help, would try them again.

 

yours Shogun

[West Coast]

I just hope that since Princess is in the service based industry, they will really step up and at least offer us something. At least if they do, they are not out of pocket because they already have all of our money!

 

You should try filing a complaint through TICO:

 

http://mytico.ca/consumer/consumer_complaints.php

 

It may be worth a shot.

[Toto2Kansas]

I am so upset that Princess nor the airline would do much for us, we even had to use our return ticket home to get back to Toronto! So even if we could have somehow got to the ship, we still had to pay our own way home! Why didn't the airline offer more help, a place to stay, something. As far as I am concerned, Princess was hired to get us to the ship. They subcontracted it out to take us somewhere where we couldn't fly with anyone else if something happened. They should have had a contingency plan of some sort!

 

I just hope that since Princess is in the service based industry, they will really step up and at least offer us something. At least if they do, they are not out of pocket because they already have all of our money!

 

I just hope there is something that can be done! There hasn't been any news yet.

 

To be continued.....

 

 

If you have filed a complaint, sit back and relax, nothing will be done (if anything) for 6 weeks or more. And you may end up attempting to fight this for the next 6 months. Whether you win or loose, none of us can actually know for sure. But! Princess is not a subcontractor for the airlines, they sell you the flights as a 'courtesy only', so you won't win on that aspect. They have tons of legal mumbo jumbo to cover themselves in this one, they make sure of that.

 

If I remember correctly, you orignally stated that 11 of you could be rebooked through the airline, but two couldn't, so you 'chose' to just go home. That alone is not going to help you in this fight I am afraid.

 

Good Luck, and please keep us posted. It's really going to take some time before this is settled, I can tell you that much. But settleing this to your satisfaction I doubt is going to happen in any way shape or form. :(

[AWorldCruise4Me]

KriKri,

 

I hate to say it but you may not stand much of a chance. You would have had to attempt to work with the system to get money back.

 

The best thing to have done would have been for the 11 of the 13 of you offered seats on the plane to have taken them and gotten onto the ship. The other two would have had to fly on the next day to catch the ship in the next port. Those two would have had to cover their expenses in getting to the ship. However they would have been able to submit the expenses to the travel insurance company after the trip. (You mentioned in a previous post that you did have travel insurance so I'm assuming that there were at least two in your group who purchased good insurance.)

 

I don't mean to criticize you but it appears that the board is giving you false hope regarding your situation.

 

Princess has no obligation to refund the cruise cost as they stocked and staffed the ship as if you were aboard. In addition they had no opportunity to resell the space.

 

Unfortunately this is just one of those lessons or perhaps you just weren't meant to go. I'm truly sorry when that happens to anyone.

 

Best of luck on your future travel plans.

 

Regards,

Michelle

[zacc]

I am so upset that Princess nor the airline would do much for us, we even had to use our return ticket home to get back to Toronto! So even if we could have somehow got to the ship, we still had to pay our own way home! Why didn't the airline offer more help, a place to stay, something. As far as I am concerned, Princess was hired to get us to the ship. They subcontracted it out to take us somewhere where we couldn't fly with anyone else if something happened. They should have had a contingency plan of some sort!

 

I just hope that since Princess is in the service based industry, they will really step up and at least offer us something. At least if they do, they are not out of pocket because they already have all of our money!

 

I just hope there is something that can be done! There hasn't been any news yet.

 

To be continued.....

 

I am suprised that this thread is still going. The point I highlighted is the major area I disagree with the OP. You did not hire Princess to get you to the ship. You paid Princess to book your flights - which they did. This is no different than paying a TA to book your flights or for you to book your own flights for that matter. They did not subcontract they simply acted like a TA....they booked your air and charged you. They found an option for you....unfortuately the airlines(not Princess) could only accommodate 11 of your party. YOU elected to pass on the offer. Princess did not delay your flight the airlines did. Princess, nor anyone other than the airlines, has control over airport delays, cancellations, or the number of seats available on a particular flight. I fail to see any valid reason why you think Princess should do anything more for you than they already did. By the way, no cheerleading here. Everything being equal I would feel this way regardless of the lines. Sorry.

[caribill]

They could only get 11 of us on while they were still assigning seats to other people not in the group.

 

 

Did those 11 go on the cruise, or did they not go because two of you could not get on the flight?

[marcoigna]

You should try filing a complaint through TICO:

 

http://mytico.ca/consumer/consumer_complaints.php

 

It may be worth a shot.

 

being that Princess or NorthWest are both u.s. based companies, they have nothing to do with TICO,,,,but had the person booked a cruise with a Canadian Tour Operater then it would be worth to contact TICO

[Pam in CA]

I am suprised that this thread is still going. The point I highlighted is the major area I disagree with the OP. You did not hire Princess to get you to the ship. You paid Princess to book your flights - which they did. This is no different than paying a TA to book your flights or for you to book your own flights for that matter. They did not subcontract they simply acted like a TA....they booked your air and charged you. They found an option for you....unfortuately the airlines(not Princess) could only accommodate 11 of your party. YOU elected to pass on the offer. Princess did not delay your flight the airlines did. Princess, nor anyone other than the airlines, has control over airport delays, cancellations, or the number of seats available on a particular flight. I fail to see any valid reason why you think Princess should do anything more for you than they already did. By the way, no cheerleading here. Everything being equal I would feel this way regardless of the lines. Sorry.

Zacc, I agree with you 100%.

[curiouscat]

I'm sorry for your situation but the real culprit is Northwest for the cancelled and the delayed flights. Why aren't you saying "Don't fly Northwest"?

 

Secondly, having a group of 13, and not all rebooked, apparently not all of you came to the Northwest desk as a group - e.g. "we are a group of 13 travelling together, here are all our boarding passes." To blame Princess for having only 11 rebooked is unreasonable.

 

We have flown with Princess Air scheduled travel for both domestic and international cruises for about half of our cruises, and only once did we have any problem at all - and that was totally due to Delta Airlines, which we will avoid booking in the future if at all possible. On that occasion, having Princess Travel Care Gold, the Princess in-transit travel rep went to bat for us outlining our options which included flying us to St Thomas (2nd port) and compensating for flight, hotel, and meals. Moreover, they kept in contact with the ship and even though we were late getting into FLL the Captain held the ship until we arrived.

 

We don't always have the latitude to arrive at the port a day early, but with air and insurance through Princess we have a reasonable plan for getting to the ship, with viable alternatives in the event of an airline failure to execute our travel plans.

 

From our experience, I cannot endorse the "Don't fly Princess Air" recommendation.

 

 

That ship they held was Emerald Princess? I remember us all waiting to sail away....and somebody,ahem, didn't show up for the CC sailaway party..LOL

 

CC

[Joy R]

Hi All,

 

flights are about the only thing we get a better deal with Princess on this side of the pond than you do.

 

We buy a complete package, price of cruise includes flights, any transfers, any over night in hotel etc, which means we are Princess's problem from the minute we check in, they have to get us to the ship.

 

 

yours Shogun

 

Yes, that is true - but they do take control from you. I have just found out that for our flight from Rio to Heathrow we are on a group booking with British Airways. So we can't check in on line or get pre-allocated seats. We could get taken off the flight, and book our own flight, but Princess gets special deals from the airlines so if we did that we'd be about £300 each out of pocket. Our travel agent could get us out of the group about a week before the flight (when we'll be on the high seas!) and then we would be able to check in on line, but not before 24 hours before the flight, which is at 11.30 p.m. on the night of the day we disembark. No access to ship's internet at 11.30 p.m. on the last night. By the time we would have access to the internet (if at all) it would be during the day of departure, when any decent seats would have been allocated.

 

I speak from bitter experience, as something similar happened to us before, and we were stuck in the middle two seats of the middle row of four for a 9 hour overnight flight. Not funny.

 

Another strange thing - we can't upgrade to Premium Economy when with Princess Air, only to Business, which is colossally expensive. Why?

 

The travel agent did tell me that I could e-mail her four days before the flight, and she could then get allocated seats for us. Still no pre-flight check in, but that's the best we can do. It seems that although there are advantages in Princess Air, there are also some great disadvantages.

[Donray]

I have been on over 25 cruises with at least 20 with air from the cruise line. I must be in the minority, but I have never had a problem with the air from the cruise line. This would include three times to Tahiti, four times to Europe, twice to Acapulco, and the rest to Florida or San Juan. Never had a bad connection times or number of connections. In almost all cases I could not find a better price on my own.

I fly in and out of LAX and that could make a difference.

Now that being said, I would not fly in winter the same day that the cruise leaves. The worse flight I had was seeing my mother in Fort Wayne in January two years ago; it took two days getting there and two days getting back with weather delay overnight in Chicago both ways. And on the trip American Airlines was wonderful considering that Continental was the main carrier involved and they would not help. It was Continental from SNA to Chicago and AA to Fort Wayne and back to Chicago.

Why isn't the OP looking at the airlines for compensation??????? They caused the problem.

[TERESAh]

we booked our air through Princess when we went to the med a few years ago, thinking they would take care of us if there was a problem. We learned this is not the case. We were in Venice getting ready to board our return flight when the clerk kept talking in Italian to several different people. It seems Princess cancelled the first leg of our return flight for some unknown reason. We tried to get the Princess rep at the airport to help us but she couldnt as it was midnight in LA and she told us someone there had to take care of it. This was a Sunday so the plane was booked but the airline felt bad for us and gave two travelers credit slips to give up their seats. We had checked our reservtions before we left but should have checked them again while onboard. We have learned to do this and to book our own air---which is usually cheaper and better connections.

[iancal]

As has been said before, when the cruise line arranges air, they are simply acting like your TA. With one exception though....you get charged for a full fare economy seat (or just about) and your chances of getting (on a domestic flight) a bottom of the pile consolidator ticket is extremely high-with no input on routing unless you want to pay deviation charges etc. I do not consider this value for money or a convenience.

[sultan_sfo]

Do you have any personal instance to report on -- or is this another grandma's tale?

 

As has been said before, when the cruise line arranges air, they are simply acting like your TA. With one exception though....you get charged for a full fare economy seat (or just about) and your chances of getting (on a domestic flight) a bottom of the pile consolidator ticket is extremely high-with no input on routing unless you want to pay deviation charges etc. I do not consider this value for money or a convenience.

[yyzatcqq]

I say it then.

 

Princess Air takes all of the choices away from you (unless you pay the surcharge for choice air) and more often than not (with the exception of some one-way international flights) costs more than if you did it yourself.

[jagsfan]

DH and I flew Jax to Sea for an Alaska cruise. We were visiting friends

overnight and paid for air deviation.

Our 4 friends were flying directly to Vancouver. This was all on Princess air.

Boy, were we in for a shock when we met them at dinner the first night

of the cruise.

 

One of our friends experienced chest pains and their flight was diverted to Portland Or.

He and his wife were taken to the hospital, and the plane took off with our other 2 friends.

They were panicking, hating to leave them, and not knowing what to do.

Rex was checked in the hospital, docs decided it was anxiety, and released him. Princess

provided transportation to the airport, and a flight to YVR. They were met at the plane

by a Princess rep and transported to the ship 30 minutes before sailing. Their luggage,

believe it or not, had been picked up from baggage claim and was waiting for them in their

cabin. The flight between PDX and YVR was on a completely different airline, as the

original didn't fly between those cities.

Princess certainly came through for these guys, 150pct. Plus, they never purchased

travel insurance. Didn't think they would need it.

[Colo Cruiser]

DH and I flew Jax to Sea for an Alaska cruise. We were visiting friends

overnight and paid for air deviation.

Our 4 friends were flying directly to Vancouver. This was all on Princess air.

Boy, were we in for a shock when we met them at dinner the first night

of the cruise.

 

One of our friends experienced chest pains and their flight was diverted to Portland Or.

He and his wife were taken to the hospital, and the plane took off with our other 2 friends.

They were panicking, hating to leave them, and not knowing what to do.

Rex was checked in the hospital, docs decided it was anxiety, and released him. Princess

provided transportation to the airport, and a flight to YVR. They were met at the plane

by a Princess rep and transported to the ship 30 minutes before sailing. Their luggage,

believe it or not, had been picked up from baggage claim and was waiting for them in their

cabin. The flight between PDX and YVR was on a completely different airline, as the

original didn't fly between those cities.

Princess certainly came through for these guys, 150pct. Plus, they never purchased

travel insurance. Didn't think they would need it.

 

 

Great story.

 

When was that?

[Megsdad]

Great story.

 

When was that?

 

Similar to the 89 year old balcony nudist:)

[Sun City Allan & Sharo]

Princess is just your travel agent. You wouldn't go back to your own TA to get your money back for a cancelled or delayed flight would you?

[jagsfan]

Great story.

 

When was that?

 

without looking up my seapass, I would say it was 10 years ago. What was done for

my friends impressed the heck out of me.

Something similar for a cruise out of FLL. Flight out of Jax was full, so the two elderly

mothers were able to fly, but the son and daughter were put on the next flight. When

they arrived in FLL, sure they'd miss the ship, a rep was waiting and put them in a

taxi (no charge). Their luggage had arrived on the earlier flight, and Princess pulled them

off and sure enough, they were waiting in their cabin.

There are so many complaints about Princess, and, indeed, same thing for every cruise

line. We can either make ourselves bitter about the things that go wrong, or we can

find joy in the things that go right.

There are usually more of those.