Spoke to P&O regarding their 40% increase in automatic gratuities.

[AL ZYMER]

Good post. Pretty much along the lines of my earlier remarks. Thanks for the extra info.

[Josy1953]

I have never removed the 'service charge' and said I never will but this time I will be removing them and envelope tip to the same amount or even above that amount. I have two reasons for doing so and they are the letter going to those who remove them via the cabin and yesterday's P&O email bribery about the staff! Altogether there are six of us travelling and we have all agreed to do this. We are going to hate doing it but raising the service charge after we booked, the letter and the email all adds up to a very bad taste in the mouth.

 

This may be a one off and next time I may revert to automatically paying it as yet I'm undecided but on our up coming cruise I will make a very strong point of removing it.

 

Rightly or wrongly it's my choice but I will always tip one way or the other and P&O can go whistle Dixie

We are exactly the same, never removed or reduced the tip / service charge but have decided that we will remove it when we join Azura on Friday because these reported letters are the last straw. We will pay cash tips and if we get a letter I will complain on board since tips are supposed to be voluntary.

[jeanlyon]

yes same here. We are on Oriana next week.

[Eglesbrech]

As I said earlier we have always left the autotips on but will probably remove them next time for much the same reason as others.

 

As we are usually in freedom can I ask has anyone tried to ask the Maitre,d for the same area/ waiters so that tipping cash is easier? Did they facilitate this?

[Josy1953]

I launched the poll on this question, but it does seem to have moved on with this form of shame if one does not pay AG.

 

Has anyone contacted PO to complain and if so what reply?

 

Just one thing from earlier in the thread, PO will have to include any new AG into the basic price if they want to make it mandatory. Offering a cruise with one price tag and then adding would be illegal in UK and maybe any of Europe. So it is as is or included.

Please see my post on this thread after I emailed P&O https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showpost.php?p=55779465&postcount=221

I have since emailed them asking if they are saying that the posters who say that they received a letter are lying, still waiting a reply to that email.

[grapau27]

Good post. Pretty much along the lines of my earlier remarks. Thanks for the extra info.

I agree, good information.

[daiB]

I'm really getting very tired of the cruise lines wanting passengers to fix the World. So lets talk about facts for a country I know well. A good percent of cruise ship workers now are coming fro the Philippines and yes cruise lines can talk about these people leaving families, and the hardships of children growing without parents because they are away on ships....

 

 

 

Whatever cruise passengers do or pay will not save the people here in the Philippines. And why only worry about the small number on the ships, if you really care that much about these poor hard working people forfeit cruise cruise and give the money to a good NGO.

 

 

 

It is not my job as a passenger to fix the negatives of the World, if tomorrow I give away everything I have, by the next day it will be meaningless. It is not right for the cruise lines to try to pull the help these poor people card and try to have passengers take pity on them.

 

 

 

Every crew member who gets tips that I have talked to all say the same about the same thing they liked cash, but do not want it know they are taking cash. If the crew lines really cared about workers they would pay them and stop this begging act.

 

 

 

But lets look at the facts: Philippines total population 102 million, overseas workers Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW ) 2.2 million. OFW remittances 2016, cash remittances $26.9 billion (how much money the workers sent home.) The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Philippines 304.90 USD Billion in 2016.

 

 

 

It is a poor country with almost 3% of the population working outside of the country. The OFW remittances make up a major part of the economy. The cruise industry in total has only about 250.000 cruise ship crew members: Royal Caribbean Cruises 33,000 crew, Carnival Cruise Line 32,000, Norwegian Cruise Line with 19.000 shipboard employees.

 

 

 

The estimate is about 50,000 of the 250,000 are from the Philippines. Only about 1/10 of 1% of the OFW are on cruise ships.

 

 

 

Don’t understand the relevance for P&O at all. Who thinks they are trying to solve poverty in a country.

 

You are giving a tip to an individual for the work he/she has done for you. Just as I do for the hairdresser, waitress and taxi driver.

 

Posts like this are just muddying the water. Irrelevant.

 

Not sure if this poster has been on P&O as the staff are mainly from India. Which is in itself irrelevant.

 

The thread is about leaving the auto tip on or taking it off. As I am going to tip anyway I leave it on as it is easier.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[mickrory]

If you get allocated freedom dining can you still remove the autotip?

[Josy1953]

If you get allocated freedom dining can you still remove the autotip?

Yes you can. Until now we have always left it on because removing it means that we will have to take cash to the MDR each evening but we are planning to do this on our upcoming cruise.

[groovechick]

As we are usually in freedom can I ask has anyone tried to ask the Maitre,d for the same area/ waiters so that tipping cash is easier? Did they facilitate this?

 

You can ask, and they will try to accommodate you if possible, but if the section is already busy then they will put you elsewhere. On Aurora last year (the first time we'd done Freedom dining) on the first night we had a fantastic team and wanted to sit in the same place subsequently, but could see when we came in that all the tables were full. Standards of service in other sections where we were seated ranged from acceptable to terrible.

 

On the last night we could see the same table we'd had on the first night was free and asked to be seated there. The waiters didn't seem very happy and we found out (through my husband overhearing a conversation) that the waiters were actually at full stretch already and hadn't wanted another table, but the maître d' had insisted because we'd asked for them. We apologised to the waiters and said we hadn't realised, which they seemed to appreciate.

[kalos]

Hi, we are back home today from the Ventura and would like to share and give a " heads up "

to what we can only call P&O mind games they are now starting .

 

Once on the ship Mrs Kalos and I was chatting about the service reward programme whilst sat in the Red Bar having a drink what would be the best way to protest about the recent increase in the service charge.

We even had a chat with reception about what we thought about it all and as it was at our discretion

opted to reduce to £5 per day .We wanted to Tip as well ,which came to more than the £2 per day that was took off to make P&O take note.

Our thinking was It was a minor reduction in service charges but as we are still paying this charge then any tips can be kept by our cabin steward and any waiter we cared to tip in the way of cash.

Everyone should be happy ,they are in the service charge pot and getting a bit of cash as well.

A win - win unless you are P&O and would really like full control of where your money goes.

The Reception seemed happy that we were not removing the service charge in full.

Now for the heads up ...P&O Do Not Like This !

 

We came in from a evening out to find an open letter with Mrs Kalos name and cabin number sat

with the Horizon news letter outside our door.

 

The gist of this letter was ..

 

Dear Mrs Kalos we note you have removed all your service charge ( no mention of me )

and we hope you can see how hard working our staff are to make your holiday good. (we can)

We hope you will put the £7 back on whilst you still have time to do so, or even pay a reduced rate.(which we did .. both of us )

 

Our next move was back down reception to be met by a different person on duty and when we complained over this open letter he just seemed to go into a planned speech.

"Ah well it's just a blanket letter sent out to you and anyone else who have stopped the service charge due to a lot of people....."

 

Mrs Kalos and I stopped him dead in his tracks with "read our statement now please." which we put before him.

I went onto ask him "Can you see our payment and what the hell is P&O playing at ? "

This could cause a lot of upset to people who pay cash and your sending out what looks to me a disgusting begging letter.

The receptionist went onto say "It's just a trial letter for those removing them, I now can see you have paid...sorry."

We got our statement back and the offending letter which he wanted to keep.

Must have been down to the fact that I told him I would be spreading the word and firing an e-mail

off to Paul Ludlow who had put his name to this letter.

Later that day a bunch of flowers was sent to Mrs Kalos with a message "sorry for any upset"

So make what you will of it all , just giving you all a heads up .

[jeanlyon]

Yes, saw that letter on Facebook. It's just unbelievable.

[eddie11]

This is all very clumsy, isn’t it? The heartstring-tugging email; the ‘Please reconsider’ letter.

 

I have the feeling things may be coming to a head.

[PRINCESSTHE BEST]

Yes, I think it will be changed to a compulsory gratuity payment. From what I recall RCB have a compulsory gratuity programme. If you want freedom dining your gratuities have to be paid when you book.

[terrierjohn]

Yes, I think it will be changed to a compulsory gratuity payment. From what I recall RCB have a compulsory gratuity programme. If you want freedom dining your gratuities have to be paid when you book.

If you mean Royal Caribbean, then having to pre pay gratuities if you book freedom dining is no longer compulsory. I suspect they have had to backtrack because gratuities cannot be compulsory or they would be classed and taxed as wages.

[grapau27]

Yes, I think it will be changed to a compulsory gratuity payment. From what I recall RCB have a compulsory gratuity programme. If you want freedom dining your gratuities have to be paid when you book.

It has not been compulsory on RC for 2 years although we always prepay because it is in £sterling not dollars when we book.

We are Diamond+ loyalty on RC if you want any more information.

[grapau27]

If you mean Royal Caribbean, then having to pre pay gratuities if you book freedom dining is no longer compulsory. I suspect they have had to backtrack because gratuities cannot be compulsory or they would be classed and taxed as wages.

It used to be compulsory if you wanted My Time( RC equivalent of Freedom dining) but no longer although they still try and encourage prepaying gratuitys.

[jeanlyon]

The only way is to include it in the cruise price.

[Eglesbrech]

They will achieve nothing but annoying and upsetting people with these letters, Kalos being a case in point. Do they seriously think that someone will change their mind about an auto tip as a result of the letter.

 

It really does look as if P&O are getting desperate so there must be a lot of people removing the auto tips. The last increase was the straw that broke the camels back.

[sussex blue]

Hi, we are back home today from the Ventura and would like to share and give a " heads up "

to what we can only call P&O mind games they are now starting .

 

Once on the ship Mrs Kalos and I was chatting about the service reward programme whilst sat in the Red Bar having a drink what would be the best way to protest about the recent increase in the service charge.

We even had a chat with reception about what we thought about it all and as it was at our discretion

opted to reduce to £5 per day .We wanted to Tip as well ,which came to more than the £2 per day that was took off to make P&O take note.

Our thinking was It was a minor reduction in service charges but as we are still paying this charge then any tips can be kept by our cabin steward and any waiter we cared to tip in the way of cash.

Everyone should be happy ,they are in the service charge pot and getting a bit of cash as well.

A win - win unless you are P&O and would really like full control of where your money goes.

The Reception seemed happy that we were not removing the service charge in full.

Now for the heads up ...P&O Do Not Like This !

 

We came in from a evening out to find an open letter with Mrs Kalos name and cabin number sat

with the Horizon news letter outside our door.

 

The gist of this letter was ..

 

Dear Mrs Kalos we note you have removed all your service charge ( no mention of me )

and we hope you can see how hard working our staff are to make your holiday good. (we can)

We hope you will put the £7 back on whilst you still have time to do so, or even pay a reduced rate.(which we did .. both of us )

 

Our next move was back down reception to be met by a different person on duty and when we complained over this open letter he just seemed to go into a planned speech.

"Ah well it's just a blanket letter sent out to you and anyone else who have stopped the service charge due to a lot of people....."

 

Mrs Kalos and I stopped him dead in his tracks with "read our statement now please." which we put before him.

I went onto ask him "Can you see our payment and what the hell is P&O playing at ? "

This could cause a lot of upset to people who pay cash and your sending out what looks to me a disgusting begging letter.

The receptionist went onto say "It's just a trial letter for those removing them, I now can see you have paid...sorry."

We got our statement back and the offending letter which he wanted to keep.

Must have been down to the fact that I told him I would be spreading the word and firing an e-mail

off to Paul Ludlow who had put his name to this letter.

Later that day a bunch of flowers was sent to Mrs Kalos with a message "sorry for any upset"

So make what you will of it all , just giving you all a heads up .

 

We have just got back from Ventura today too. I really struggled with whether to leave the recommended service charge in place and eventually made my mind up to remove it on Saturday (the penultimate full day). I completed the form and did not subsequently receive the standard letter to the cabin (I can very well understand your fury). I wrote out very full comments on the form about why I had opted out, making very clear too that it had nothing to do with the service received which was 10 out of 10. The next day I did however receive the 'insightful' email spotlighting the backgrounds of individual staff.

 

It did certainly appear that a very large number of people opted out of standard service charges judging by the long lines at Reception and those walking away with forms to complete. Shame that it has come to this but changing times.

[pisces14]

 

It really does look as if P&O are getting desperate so there must be a lot of people removing the auto tips. The last increase was the straw that broke the camels back.

 

That's exactly what I think and the more this goes on the more hopeful I become that the gratuities will be included in the price of the cruise.

[jeanlyon]

Oh well, there will be big queues on Oriana next week then when I board. LOL Someone in Marketing needs shooting!

[Eglesbrech]

Oh well, there will be big queues on Oriana next week then when I board. LOL Someone in Marketing needs shooting!

 

It will be interesting to see if you get a letter given that you will presumably say that you prefer to pay in cash, as you always do.

 

Perhaps by then they will have realised that the letters are a counterproductive waste of paper.

 

Leaving open letters is presumably supposed to shame people into putting the tips back on. Those who pay in cash will still do so. Those who never had any intention of paying tips (and they don’t have to) will not relent because of this.

 

Want to start a sweet stake on how long it will take for them to add the tips onto the initial price if auto tip removals continue to rise.

[AnOnymously]

It will be interesting to see if you get a letter given that you will presumably say that you prefer to pay in cash, as you always do.

 

Perhaps by then they will have realised that the letters are a counterproductive waste of paper.

 

Leaving open letters is presumably supposed to shame people into putting the tips back on. Those who pay in cash will still do so. Those who never had any intention of paying tips (and they don’t have to) will not relent because of this.

 

Want to start a sweet stake on how long it will take for them to add the tips onto the initial price if auto tip removals continue to rise.

 

Depends on what sweet you were thinking about:o:')

[Eglesbrech]

Depends on what sweet you were thinking about:o:')

 

Fingers slower that brain! Perhaps I,ll start a trend.:)