Has anyone had problems with upgrade list from balcony to suite?

When we initially booked our cruise no suites were available but we immediately requested our TA to put us on the list, which they confirmed that they had done. Over the weekend whilst browsing I noticed that our forthcoming cruise in October was now showing suites available. I investigated further and found that indeed there were some available. We selected one and emailed our TA to say we were disappointed that they hadn’t brought this fact to our attention but please go ahead and upgrade us and that we would pay the difference by return. You can imagine my shock when they responded that we could upgrade to the suite but not at today’s price but at th price that was being charged at the time that we made our original booking, another £5000 on top of the current advertised price! Since none were available when we made our original booking I’m not sure a) where this price came from and b) is this a permissible practice under Contract law? We were obviously happy to pay the price difference of the upgrade as it stands today but not this additional amount. Is this standard?

This is how it works. You pay for an upgrade at the price it would have cost when you originally booked. I quite like it that way. I book a low cost cabin to secure all the potential cabin grade prices and then upgrade if I feel able later. On my cruises the prices has usually risen before I upgrade.

I am not sure if contract law is relevant but I am not a solicitor. You contracted for your original grade cabin at your original price, and P and O are still happy to honour that. You are asking P and O to vary the contract and they entitled to ask for a different price. If you don’t like it then the original contract, cabin and price still stands.

Sometimes the cheapest way to upgrade is to book a new cabin at todays price and cancel your previous booking. When I did this I lost my first deposit but I was still many hundred of pounds better off. This was with Cunard where I had booked a mini suite, paid for an upgrade to a suite and received a free upgrade to a penthouse. So all in all I was happy. Make sure you include onboard credit you might lose or gain in your calculation. Also if you are switching from a Select to a Saver fare you will lose some perks.

Best wishes, Stephen.

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Thank you Stephen for taking the time to respond to my very first post. To clarify, this upgrade request was from one Select Fare to another and if it wasn’t for the fact that final payment had already been made we most certainly would have been better off cancelling the balcony and re-booking the suite. It’s rather annoying that they are basing the price to upgrade on a date when no suites were available which I can’t equate to. It’s certainly a steep learning curve getting to know all the intricacies of how things work!

Thank you Stephen for taking the time to respond to my very first post. To clarify, this upgrade request was from one Select Fare to another and if it wasn’t for the fact that final payment had already been made we most certainly would have been better off cancelling the balcony and re-booking the suite. It’s rather annoying that they are basing the price to upgrade on a date when no suites were available which I can’t equate to. It’s certainly a steep learning curve getting to know all the intricacies of how things work!

I recently looked to upgrade on an upcoming cruise, as well as the increased cost of the cabin I was quoted a £50 admin charge. I didn't take up the upgrade but should have asked if the admin charge was P&O's or the TA's.

I guess that P&O may have used the last quoted price that was available for the suite before you made your booking?

I believe that you must be right and P&O have used the last price that a suite had sold for before I made our balcony booking when no suites were available. We would be happy to pay the upgrade cost at today’s price plus £50.00 admin fee but they wanted the upgrade cost at today’s price plus £5000.00....ha ha!

Has the price of your originally booked cabin gone down substantially? If it has you might have some luck in getting a refund or upgrade due to the 'significant alteration to the Package' mentioned in the terms and conditions. I did on a Cunard cruise and the terms and conditions are the same as P&Os.

Thank you for highlighting the clause regarding “significant alteration to the package” which I was unaware of. However in this instance the cost of our balcony is less than £100 difference in price to what it was on the day we booked it last November. We’re simply going to enjoy the balcony cabin we booked and enjoy the cruise and learn from the experience.

Thank you for highlighting the clause regarding “significant alteration to the package” which I was unaware of. However in this instance the cost of our balcony is less than £100 difference in price to what it was on the day we booked it last November. We’re simply going to enjoy the balcony cabin we booked and enjoy the cruise and learn from the experience.

If you booked inNovember and are sailing this year then you picked an expensive time to book. In my experience the time to book is at the start of the booking period or near the end. The latter comes with the proviso that you may pay more or not get what you want.

In terms of booking a suite I have not seen any come down compared to my early booking.

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Thank you, we are still quite new to cruising but being recently retired we don’t now need to plan far ahead. I guess if we leave it until we feel like it’s time for a break and something is available at a price we are happy with then that is the time to jump in. We actually booked a long time in advance to secure a cabin in a position on the ship that we thought we would like. Getting older and wiser each cruise!!

We are cruising with Cunard for the first time this year having only ever been with P&O. I booked it over 18 months ago. I decided to upgrade to a different suite and worked out how much extra it would be from the price showing currently on their website. Like you I was surprised that it was going to cost so much more and was told that I had to pay the price it had been when I first booked which was higher than the price now showing. I did pay it and also the £100 charge. I'm not new to cruising but new to Cunard so like you I've learned a lesson for next time.

Our reaction was that we will use Cunard next trip but it sounds like they all use this method. I appreciate businesses need to turn in profits but I don’t like the feeling of being exploited for as much as they can get out of you. When I’ve upgraded flights I am sure that it has been at the prevailing rate on the day of change and to be fair, BA have always managed to make us feel like valued customers. I believe customer loyalty for P&O isn’t a problem since the huge upsurge of interest in cruises means that there are plenty of new cruisers following on.

I understand you wanted to book a suite when you booked your cruise. You would have paid the higher price at that time and now you able to have suite you don’t want to pay that price.

Unfortunately P&O have the policy -you must pay the upgrade price as was when you booked your cruise.

If you book with most if not all cruiselines from the UK you will find they work in the same way. Upgrades "you" ask for are at the price for that cabin on the day you booked.

Only the Americans have the luxury of amending a booking at the current days rates.

They can also have price drops applied to a booking to, I think and I only say Think Princess are the only company that will do that to a UK book as well.

That said they do not have all the travel protection we have ie Abta or Atol.

Jules

We weren’t given a price when we booked the balcony since none were available but simply placed on a waitlist. However it is strange that our balcony is now slightly more expensive than when we booked but the suite £5000.00 less. I’m sure somebody will shortly snap it up at this competitive rate.

It's funny isn't it that they do it this way when you want to change cabin, but when they cancel a cruise because they have sold a ship and you rebook, they charge you the current price, not the brochure launch price. They win every way they can!

Thanks Jules - very interesting to learn that Americans get a different deal to us Brits, guess they have been more vocal at being exploited and of course there is a lot more choice over there. Not knowing that this was how things worked I just felt I would be rather foolish to pay £5000 more for something P&O valued it at today. I know for the future and many thanks to all contributors for your input. I can see that this rule could have equally worked in my favour if the price had increased from point of booking rather than fall.

They have had this policy for quite a few years now, Grumblebelle..... but like Jean says, it only works that way when you are wanting to change, not when you have to rebook when they have cancelled.

The lesson we learned is to stay away from checking the current price list. We were amazed that the price we are paying for a balcony is slightly higher than the current price for a suite. Live and learn.

Oh dear - just learnt something else - cruises get cancelled? I hadn’t appreciated that ever happens......that certainly sounds infuriating enough without then being disadvantaged re the price. I haven’t checked prices in the past after booking for exactly the reason of not wanting to be disappointed but I don’t believe anybody likes to feel ripped off.

They get cancelled if for some reason the ship goes into dry dock for a problem although not that often. they also get cancelled if P&O sells the ship!

Thanks Jean, yes I can now appreciate that these things could happen but it would seem very unfair of P&O not to offer some sort of compensation. I’m beginning to see that they always have their deck stacked to win!

When they sold Adonia, we rebooked on Oriana, I think we got £100 extra OBC and that was it. We paid £200 more each for the new cruise or the same length.

They get cancelled if for some reason the ship goes into dry dock for a problem although not that often. they also get cancelled if P&O sells the ship!

Yes and when they sell the ship they offer you derisory compensation (token obc) to book another cruise, much higher prices and allegedly (I am told though I haven't personally verified) increased the prices of similar cruises the days they announce the sale

Thanks Jean - that seems a very disappointing amount. I think my expectations of P&O have been suitably lowered so nothing will come as too much of a shock now!

When they sold Adonia, we rebooked on Oriana, I think we got £100 extra OBC and that was it. We paid £200 more each for the new cruise or the same length.

Mind you we rebooked after Adonia on Braemar and that was an awful experience. Never again with FO