Upgrade and a $500 credit if I change dates

[Tfish]

TA just advised me of an itinerary change on my Sunday Star Princess and advised me that Princess was offering a limited time offer of upgrade to a Balcony and a $500 ship board credit and $100 towards airline charges if I was willing to change to the March 13th sailing of the Star Princess.

 

Whats that all about?

 

My wife would freak out if I told her we were changing our vacation.

 

I guess our sailing on Sunday is full or over-booked.

 

What do you think?

 

 

Leaving tomorrow.....

 

Tfish

[Toto2Kansas]

You have guessed it. It sounds like your cruise is overbooked and Princess is trying the 'offer' ploy to rid themselves of the extras onboard. Not to worry if you don't want to except, there will be somone out there that will jump on the offer.

I don't quite understand the 'itinerary change' as part of this though?

[chrysalis]

sounds like a good deal...but I suspect your problem will be with getting seats on an airplane, since that is the start of school break in Ontario and I would think that flights out of Pearson are already booked full......is driving a possibility?

 

 

marc

[Tfish]

My wife would freak if I phoned her and told her that we weren't leaving tomorrow, but were sailing in March instead.

 

No way; someone else will have to change, I'm hanging tuff.

 

Tfish

[elmtree]

Don't blame you! I would have a fit if my cruise was postponed one day before leaving..I find it amazing that they would not know earlier than one day before sailing that they needed to get someone bumped..I could see a week or two, but one day before..no way could they get me to switch!

[Coral]

I got an offer this summer for a free cruise and an upgrade if I switched to a July cruise verses my scheduled May cruise. I turned it down also. Too much to rearrange to switch.

[rjp111838]

i just took the deal, grand princess 1/15 mini suite was changed to 3/5 ph suite and $500 credit. living 50 miles from galveston and being retired paid off. i booked last minute with rcl for 1/16 out of galveston and will take 2 cruises this winter.

[Coral]

i just took the deal, grand princess 1/15 mini suite was changed to 3/5 ph suite and $500 credit. living 50 miles from galveston and being retired paid off. i booked last minute with rcl for 1/16 out of galveston and will take 2 cruises this winter.

 

Being retired and close to the port did pay off for you! Congrats - enjoy your suite :)

[Druke I]

Sounds reasonable to me.

 

Once, on an overbooked Hawaii trip, Princess offered us a full suite through the Panama if we took the bump. We didn't - but that is a long story.

[hcs81m]

TA just advised me of an itinerary change on my Sunday Star Princess and advised me that Princess was offering a limited time offer of upgrade to a Balcony and a $500 ship board credit and $100 towards airline charges if I was willing to change to the March 13th sailing of the Star Princess.

 

Tfish

 

Are you currently in a inside cabin or an ocean view?

[mii]

That happened to us once got upgraded from an inside to Balcony. Our sailing was from S.F. and as we live 90miles east of that city and my DH could change his vacation we took advantage of it and also got a $500.00 shipboard credit.Princess said that they were overbooked and they did gives us about 3 weeks until our cruise.

 

Marilyn

[Tfish]

I am in an obstructed ocean view

 

 

Tfish

[Stevesan]

i just took the deal, grand princess 1/15 mini suite was changed to 3/5 ph suite and $500 credit. living 50 miles from galveston and being retired paid off. i booked last minute with rcl for 1/16 out of galveston and will take 2 cruises this winter.

 

Wow! What a great deal. We have an active (126 posts) Roll Call thread for the 3/5 trip. Come on over and sign in. Everybody there will be green with envy.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=2760592#post2760592

[Lady L]

rjp111838-

 

We are also on the 3/5 sailing...if I may ask, which p/h will you be in?

 

Lisa

[rjp111838]

moved from an ae minisuite guarentee to ph suite c 241. they had several ph suites open.

[ssantow]

Another possibility is that the ship is not overbooked but they have a large group and need space. I have even heard of cruises being canceled because of large groups booking the whole ship.

If it is a large group wanting space I would get out and take the offer, only because you do not know who or what the group is.

[iluvcruzin]

They are must be overbooked. I doubt it's a group cruise. I can't remember the line, but one of them had all sorts of problems this past summer with overbooking. Some didn't find out until they arrived at the pier and were sent away. I think it was one of those east coast cruises (someone could correct me if I'm wrong on that).

 

I find it ridiculous to notify someone a few days before cruising. They knew shortly after final payment was made. Good Grief. They should offer more than $100 for airfare change.. How about 1/2 amount back and a suite upgrade. That sounds more reasonable.

[Stevesan]

moved from an ae minisuite guarentee to ph suite c 241. they had several ph suites open.

 

You must have a typo. C241 on Grand is an inside cabin on Caribe deck. http://www.princess.com/ships/ap/room/C241.html

[Coral]

I find it ridiculous to notify someone a few days before cruising. They knew shortly after final payment was made. Good Grief. They should offer more than $100 for airfare change.. How about 1/2 amount back and a suite upgrade. That sounds more reasonable.

 

Maureen - in my case they offered me my entire cruise cost back (they said as shipboard credit but what I didn't use, I could cash out), an upgrade and a $100 airfare change.

 

I had the option to take the offer or turn it down. If I didn't take it, they were going to offer it to someone else. So I wasn't forced off the ship - I actually sailed when I was supposed to. It just would have been beneficial to me to switch dates and take them up on their offer.

 

My main reason for turning it down was that I was using FF miles and the $100 change fee would not have helped me and that with my job, July (when they offered me as an alternative date) is much busier than May so I decided to go in May as planned.

[Cruisin' Chick]

The day before our first Princess cruise (2/03) we got a message on our answering machine telling us the cruise was overbooked and they were wondering if we would delay for a few weeks in return for a free cruise and upgrade to balcony.

 

We didn't take them up on the offer because we had already packed, had my daughter's kindergarden homework to take with (yes, they now have homework that early), and didn't want a balcony (because of our daughter for safety reasons). And besides we were counting down the minutes (I bet you all do that too). It was going to be just a drive (no flight) so that wouldn't have been a problem. And my hubby didn't have a problem adjusting the schedule at work (since he does the scheduling) but with the war about to begin and two military men on his staff, he didn't want to be off just in case they got deployed.

 

If you get such an offer and are flexible with your plans, try making a counter offer (free flight, cabin upgrade, shipboard credit, the whole enchilada) and see what you can get.

[WCAB]

We booked a cruise to Hawaii a few years ago and the TA notified us about three weeks before the cruise, that the ship was overbooked. We were offfered a cruise to the Holy Lands instead, which was a longer cruise and much more expensive. This cruise left within a day or so of our orginal cruise, so we did not have to really change vacation dates, just add a few more at the end. It was a

fantastic trip.

 

Carol