Captain Circle Pricing Error

[retta]

Princess made a mistake on Captain Circle Mailing. I did not know this antill I tried to book and pricing was wrong. I was told to call customer relations. She could not find mailing so I had to fax at my expense, since I don't have a fax machine. I never received a call back to say they received fax, so I called after 24 hours several times. Finally I was told it was an error, but the best they could offer me was a higher price than travelocity offered for the same ship and sailing. Really all I am doing here is venting because I felt that offering me the higher price was an insult and I would just had them say they would not do anything about it. I just feel better sharing it always helps.

[coiran]

Which mailing?

 

Ron

[calikak]

Retta, what mailing was it and what was the error? Maybe some of us got it too, I know I recently got a mailing from them with offers on 2005 cruises, but we aren't sailing again until 2006 so I didn't read it very carefully.

[can786]

I just wanted to relate my good experience with Princess when I found a mistake on pricing for my recently completed sailing on Golden Princess. It was New Year's eve day and I was checking online for price drops. I always check one of the large internet sites where you can book airfare, rental cars, hotels, cruises, etc. I check them because I know they don't generally discount, so if the price drops, it is most likely a price drop by Princess rather than an individual TA's special. Anyway, that day I noticed that the price of my AD minisuite had dropped by $1000pp on this site (since I use a TA who discounts, the new price was only around $800pp less). Two other online sites that discount had it for even less. Unfortunately, my regular TA was out of town but I was able to speak to her. She told me to try to put it on a three day hold with another agency and she would try to get the price for me on Monday. I called one of the agencies that had it for the lowest price and spoke to a wonderful agent there. When she checked with Princess for pricing it was discovered that an incorrect price had been entered into the online booking engine by a Princess employee. Since the mistake was theirs, Princess was willing to honor the price though they did want me to pay in full at that time. It was three and a half months before final payment was due, but it was well worth it to save almost $800pp. I give Princess a lot of credit for honoring their mistake. My regular TA was very understanding about my switching TAs to save that kind of money and I had great service from the new TA as well. So now I have two good TAs to use as well.

[cattman]

retta, sounds like you booked directly... if you had used a trusted TA, your situation would most likely have turned out like can786's...

Those CC mailing 'specials' are the bane of the agent's existence... reservation agents at P are never familiar with them, categories are often sold out by the time the mailings are received, and often there is an even better promo to be found by the diligent agent.

If Princess will admit to the error, and eligible cabins are still available, any good agent can get them to honor it.

 

Moral: NEVER book direct...