Cost went up for registered user... saved by Princess PVP

[OccasionalSanta]

Bad news nd good news.

 

I got an email from Princess for a sale on the recently released Summer cruises from the West Coast. I went to book a 7-day California coastal out of L.A. and when I logged into my account the price went up over 10% and also lost the $100 OBC promised in the sale. I logged out, relocated the lower fare and tried to manually input my personal info, but the site recognized me (probably due to my email address) and wouldn't continue until I logged in... at which time the price jumped up again. Attempted to contact my PVP who was already away for the weekend, so left him an email.

 

I was able to call the 1-800-princess line and got thru fairly quickly... 5-10 minutes. I was assisted by Tina who asserted that this wasn't supposed to happen, but she then  jumped in, found the cruise, added/verified all my info and got me the lower fare and the OBC. She also linked it to another cruise as the new one was now  B2B with a previously booked cruise.

 

Takeaways.....

 

1. Be careful to notice prices and perks before and after logging in. The site is supposed to give you the lowest of all available fares, but sometimes this doesn't happen.

 

2. I've seen a lot of people whining about the phone service at 1-800-princess and I suspect a lot of it is justified. But some of them are good and I have to applaud the service I got from Tina.

[ken_ll]

I had a similar situation with an existing booking a 10 night New York to Quebec City cruise in August.  The price dropped $410 for my cabin and I contacted Princess on Friday, the agent eventually found my pricing but could not adjust it.  The solution was to rebook online at the lower fare and call in to cancel prior booking and transfer payments.

 

On Sunday, like the OP I went to make the new booking while signed in, the price showing was $710 higher (the $410 drop reversed plus $300).  Went back into Princess without signing in, the lower price was reflected, then signed in and booked.  Just have to call Princess to cancel the higher priced booking and transfer payments.

 

This is the second time for this process, with the Princess Valentine promo in Feb. the price dropped significantly, I am now on the 3rd booking for the cruise to take advantage of price drops.

[Lady Arwen]

This has happened to me a few times.  Log in to get okay price, log out to get great price!  Thank goodness I have a good PVP now, who is able to figure it all out and give me the lower price.  Before that, I had to cancel and rebook, because no one at Princess could do it manually!  Lots of excuses, but never success.  I highly recommend getting a reputable travel agent or a PVP who knows their stuff.

[brisalta]

Try clearing the browser cache and removing the Princess cookies. Then go back to the web site and see if you see the new fare when logged in.

[Lady Arwen]

33 minutes ago, brisalta said:

Try clearing the browser cache and removing the Princess cookies. Then go back to the web site and see if you see the new fare when logged in.

In my case, even numerous Princess reps couldn’t make it work!    Finally, they said book the lower fare online and place a hold, call us back and we’ll pick up the hold and switch it over to your account that you’re already registered with.  That’s when I decided to acquire a PVP.