Online Booking

[L751]

Just wondering if booking a cruise on line with P&O, can you pick your cabin number on select fare 

[pete14]

2 minutes ago, L751 said:

Just wondering if booking a cruise on line with P&O, can you pick your cabin number on select fare 

Yes but probably easier to phone them to make the booking. Try 08000523840.

[terrierjohn]

3 minutes ago, L751 said:

Just wondering if booking a cruise on line with P&O, can you pick your cabin number on select fare 

Yes you can but you need to follow the process carefully and use the amend details where requested. Not sure if there is user guide anywhere, but even if there is and it was produced by P&O it will be faulty.

[Adawn47]

I've booked all our cruises online with P&O and haven't had a problem, yet😆The only times I've had an issue was when booking with a TA. The last booking was October 2019.

Avril 

Also print everything off for your own reference. 

Edited July 16, 2020 by Adawn47
Added text

[Captain Rob]

21 hours ago, L751 said:

Just wondering if booking a cruise on line with P&O, can you pick your cabin number on select fare 

 

 

It's not obvious, you need to click on "CHANGE CABIN" when you get to this page.

 

[wowzz]

I normally book all our non-cruise holidays online, booking all the seperate items (flights, car hire, villa etc) individually.

However, I do find it much easier booking a cruise through an actual person, who has a complete view of all available cabins. By looking at the deck plans whilst talking to the agent it is (imho) much easier to decide on a particular cabin, rather than trawling through the deck plans online. 

Edited July 17, 2020 by wowzz

[the english lady]

Agree its not as simple as book cabin, they will pick one, you then have to go in and change it. Should add not all available cabins are shown when booking online, that is why I agree that talking to a human who can see all available cabins  is much easier. I also would not trust that sort of money to the ether.

You dont have to book when you speak to them, I usually say i'm just getting quotes. I have never had any sort of hard sell when booking direct, only when I have gone via a TA. Where when I have had a quote, but chosen not to go with them, I've had chase up calls saying would you like to book now..blah.blah.

 

[Son of Anarchy]

I always book by phone, mainly because it's the only way they can apply extra OBC which we are entitled to.  However, I always check cabin availability online first.  It is a bit clicky/unwieldy, but I've got used to it.

[jeanlyon]

I always use a TA.  They can see all the cabins that are available.  If you do it online, then you only see the cabins that P&O want you to see.  Whenever I have done a dummy booking, it is always A deck on offer.

[terrierjohn]

Booking direct or through a TA will remain a very personal choice, based on experience and satisfaction.  Mine is still to use a TA, but if my current TAs service standards dropped, then I would have to decide whether to seek a new TA or book direct.

[wowzz]

4 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

Booking direct or through a TA will remain a very personal choice, based on experience and satisfaction.  Mine is still to use a TA, but if my current TAs service standards dropped, then I would have to decide whether to seek a new TA or book direct.

The way things are going at the moment with the cruise industry, I fear for the future of specialist cruise agencies, so there may not be that much choice in years to come. I see Bolsover are now offering 'normal' holidays, in reasonably upmarket hotels, but in all honesty there is nothing they are offering to differentiate them from any other agency.

[zap99]

8 hours ago, wowzz said:

I normally book all our non-cruise holidays online, booking all the seperate items (flights, car hire, villa etc) individually.

However, I do find it much easier booking a cruise through an actual person, who has a complete view of all available cabins. By looking at the deck plans whilst talking to the agent it is (imho) much easier to decide on a particular cabin, rather than trawling through the deck plans online. 

Yes. We normal book all our P&O cruises on line, but Celebrity/RCI by phone as they sometimes have an extra perk. we booked flights on BA to Canada by phone as we had a credit to use. The young lady on the phone was super helpful and sorted out seats out as well. It did take a few attempts and a 30 min hold, but not much else to do at the moment.

Edited July 17, 2020 by zap99
Added

[Bazrat]

We book online first we look at the plans of the ship see if there any reviews of the cabin  we’re looking at if everything ok book it, only once have we not got the cabin we wanted but got the same type but one deck higher.

[Selbourne]

7 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

I always use a TA.  They can see all the cabins that are available.  If you do it online, then you only see the cabins that P&O want you to see.  Whenever I have done a dummy booking, it is always A deck on offer.

That’s as much due to P&O’s rubbish IT systems Jean. If you phone P&O the person you speak to can see all available cabins. I speak from personal experience. Cabins I have wanted have shown as unavailable on the P&O website yet I have been able to book them by phoning them.

[Selbourne]

7 hours ago, Son of Anarchy said:

I always book by phone, mainly because it's the only way they can apply extra OBC which we are entitled to.  However, I always check cabin availability online first.  It is a bit clicky/unwieldy, but I've got used to it.

Likewise, for the same reason as you although, as I said in my last post, I find that the online info is often incorrect. I would want a discount of at least 10% to add a middle man and use a TA and, as far as I know, most don’t even come close to that.

[Bazrat]

10 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Likewise, for the same reason as you although, as I said in my last post, I find that the online info is often incorrect. I would want a discount of at least 10% to add a middle man and use a TA and, as far as I know, most don’t even come close to that.

the last time booked online my wife then joined  blue light scheme  we phoned p&o and they added it to our booking,as for using a TA we had a bad experience with the last one,she told us we only needed one name on the Disney tickets even though i had a print out from Disney saying they needed all guest names so we do not use them now.

[Josy1953]

We usually book direct with P&O and have had no problems with them but because we heard good things about booking with one of the large cruise specialist TAs we booked with them for 2 cruises this year .  I know that this year is a anomaly but I will never book with a TA again because when P&O cancelled our June cruise the TA did nothing to help us and I had to  deal directly with P&O to get a refund, a few weeks after we got the refund I had an email from the TA telling me that they had decided to start chasing P&O for refunds so I then wasted an afternoon trying to contact the TA  to tell them that we had already had the refund.  They then told us that we couldn't cancel our cruise for November and that they had changed their terms so we would have to pay our balance 4 weeks earlier than we were due to pay.  They then sent an  email threatening court action if we did not pay early.  I have at long last managed to cancel the November cruise.

I have learned a lesson and will never use any TA again.

[wowzz]

1 hour ago, Josy1953 said:

We usually book direct with P&O and have had no problems with them but because we heard good things about booking with one of the large cruise specialist TAs we booked with them for 2 cruises this year .  I know that this year is a anomaly but I will never book with a TA again because when P&O cancelled our June cruise the TA did nothing to help us and I had to  deal directly with P&O to get a refund, a few weeks after we got the refund I had an email from the TA telling me that they had decided to start chasing P&O for refunds so I then wasted an afternoon trying to contact the TA  to tell them that we had already had the refund.  They then told us that we couldn't cancel our cruise for November and that they had changed their terms so we would have to pay our balance 4 weeks earlier than we were due to pay.  They then sent an  email threatening court action if we did not pay early.  I have at long last managed to cancel the November cruise.

I have learned a lesson and will never use any TA again.

P&O took it upon themselves to take over the refund process,  as so many TAs had shut down.  To be fair, that was not a bad decision. However,  once that decision was made, the TAs had little input into the refund process.. 

I really do not understand why you had a problem cancelling your November cruise, and the 4 week early payment is strange, especially in July. Our TA happily cancelled our cruise and moved our deposit to a later cruise.

Are you dealing with a specialist cruise TA ? 

A little more information would be useful: ie why are you trying to cancel your November cruise, rather than moving your deposit? You obviously know that if you cancel your November cruise now you will lose your deposit.

[pete14]

11 hours ago, Josy1953 said:

We usually book direct with P&O and have had no problems with them but because we heard good things about booking with one of the large cruise specialist TAs we booked with them for 2 cruises this year .  I know that this year is a anomaly but I will never book with a TA again because when P&O cancelled our June cruise the TA did nothing to help us and I had to  deal directly with P&O to get a refund, a few weeks after we got the refund I had an email from the TA telling me that they had decided to start chasing P&O for refunds so I then wasted an afternoon trying to contact the TA  to tell them that we had already had the refund.  They then told us that we couldn't cancel our cruise for November and that they had changed their terms so we would have to pay our balance 4 weeks earlier than we were due to pay.  They then sent an  email threatening court action if we did not pay early.  I have at long last managed to cancel the November cruise.

I have learned a lesson and will never use any TA again.

One thing will be sure - the balance they were insisting you paid 4 weeks earlier than it was originally due, would not have been paid 4 weeks early to P&O. 

[Josy1953]

We were dealing with the people from a cold place so yes a cruise specialist.

The TA were telling us that P&O were not allowing cancellation which we obviously knew was not true.

We decided to cancel the November cruise because I don't want to cruise until there is a vaccine.

We didn't want to move it because we would have been tied into staying with the TA. I checked with P&O and they could not take the cruise over, if they had been able to we would have kept the booking and moved it.

We decided that after all of the hassle with this company it was easier to lose £100 than to deal with more hassle with this company.

The final payment date was at 17 weeks before the cruise when we booked but they wanted to move it up a further 4 weeks (21 weeks before the cruise).

I have serious doubts now about this company because I feel that they just wanted to get hold of our money early possibly because they are in a difficult cash flow situation due to the current situation.

[wowzz]

4 minutes ago, Josy1953 said:

We were dealing with the people from a cold place so yes a cruise specialist.

The TA were telling us that P&O were not allowing cancellation which we obviously knew was not true.

We decided to cancel the November cruise because I don't want to cruise until there is a vaccine.

We didn't want to move it because we would have been tied into staying with the TA. I checked with P&O and they could not take the cruise over, if they had been able to we would have kept the booking and moved it.

We decided that after all of the hassle with this company it was easier to lose £100 than to deal with more hassle with this company.

The final payment date was at 17 weeks before the cruise when we booked but they wanted to move it up a further 4 weeks (21 weeks before the cruise).

I have serious doubts now about this company because I feel that they just wanted to get hold of our money early possibly because they are in a difficult cash flow situation due to the current situation.

Your particular company is getting a lot of bad press at the moment,  and I can understand your frustration.  In a way, they were right in saying that you could not cancel it, in the sense that if you did so, you would have lost your deposit. They should, however have let you move the deposit to a cruise as late as March 2022.

All I would say is that you should not judge all TAs by this one example.  

Edited July 18, 2020 by wowzz

[Josy1953]

10 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Your particular company is getting a lot of bad press at the moment,  and I can understand your frustration.  In a way, they were right in saying that you could not cancel it, in the sense that if you did so, you would have lost your deposit. They should, however have let you move the deposit to a cruise as late as March 2022.

All I would say is that you should not judge all TAs by this one example.  

I am sure that you are right there are many good TAs and when we first cruised in the late 80s and 90s we used to book with a high street TA. We have never had a  problem since we started booking directly with P&O so we will go back to booking directly for the future, one less link in the chain to go wrong.

They were wrong saying that we could not cancel, we are well aware that we would lose our deposit as per t&cs

Edited July 18, 2020 by Josy1953

[No pager thank you]

There used to be online cashback available by booking direct with P&O - up to £120.  However, this stopped around 12 months ago, quietly.

 

In terms of cabin choices, I will always cross check the cabins between the P&O website and an online/phone based TA of choice.  I have always been able to find a suitable cabin, usually in the lower pricing category (be it an inside, ocean view or balcony cabin which we choose).

 

The benefit of booking on the phone (and specifically not online) is that various additional OBC can be obtained.  This is not redeemable via any other route.  In part, this makes up for the cashback which is no longer available.

 

Incidentally, other cruise companies and various TAs (I understand that I am not allowed to say which) also offer cashback for bookings via them.

 

Overall, the current balance usually falls in favour of a telephone booking when it comes to P&O.

[majortom10]

1 hour ago, No pager thank you said:

There used to be online cashback available by booking direct with P&O - up to £120.  However, this stopped around 12 months ago, quietly.

 

In terms of cabin choices, I will always cross check the cabins between the P&O website and an online/phone based TA of choice.  I have always been able to find a suitable cabin, usually in the lower pricing category (be it an inside, ocean view or balcony cabin which we choose).

 

The benefit of booking on the phone (and specifically not online) is that various additional OBC can be obtained.  This is not redeemable via any other route.  In part, this makes up for the cashback which is no longer available.

 

Incidentally, other cruise companies and various TAs (I understand that I am not allowed to say which) also offer cashback for bookings via them.

 

Overall, the current balance usually falls in favour of a telephone booking when it comes to P&O.

Many cruise TAs offer a portion of their commission as a reduction in price to encourage you to book with them. That is why we have never booked direct with P&O or any other cruise line because it is cheaper with TA.

[No pager thank you]

50 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

Many cruise TAs offer a portion of their commission as a reduction in price to encourage you to book with them. That is why we have never booked direct with P&O or any other cruise line because it is cheaper with TA.

Fair enough - our experience has been that either the cashback, or the value of the additional OBC by calling P&O direct (we have a code), has been greater than the value of the discount offered by a TA, often by some margin.  The same code cannot be used when using a TA.

 

There was one exception to this, but on all other occasions we have booked direct for that reason.