Totally P&O'd

[besberry]

5 hours ago, arbhorseal said:

Have just discovered our cabin for our Christmas cruise on Iona. Its 10737. Or to put it another way about as far back on the ship as it is possible to go.

 

So really looking forward to being bounced around and being subjected to plenty of manoeuvring noise.

 

Certainly, disappointing but hey. Still on the ship!

 

I then discover if I booked today. I could get a better cabin for £650 less than I have already paid!

 

So I rang P&O. Explained the situation. Told them we were on our second P&O cruise in 7 months and our total spend with them in this period was likely to be close to £10,000. Explained we were on our seventh carnival cruise.

 

P&O’s answer to this was to suggest I pay for a cabin upgrade (when they are still selling these cabins for £650 less than I have already paid!).

 

Other than that it was just a case of P&O saying….............…unlucky.

 

Last ever P&O cruise for us………………….

I stayed in 10737 and it was fine,  It's a smaller balcony cabin to the rest but as I was solo it wasn't a problem.   I felt no movement at all.  Furthermore I was on Select Fare and chose it!.

[Fionboard]

My August Arcadia cruise (select price) was half the price shortly before sailing due to poor uptake.  Annoying yes, but just have to soak it up. That's life. Just booked Iona 14 nights in 3 week's time, select price balcony for solo at £1110 plus generous obc. Bargain!  Swings and roundabouts. 

[john watson]

4 hours ago, sam49 said:

I can understand why you are annoyed I would be too, thats a lot of money.

 

I have travelled on RC which is mainly american cruisers and I am sure that they are allowed to rebook  if they find the same cruise at a cheaper price with RC.

 

It would have been nice if P & O had let you move cabins and would have generated some good customer service feedback. Instead  its made you feel like you don't want to travel with them again and you will probably talk to other people and dissuade them from P & O.

 

I do sometimes wonder if people in charge of these organisations ever think things through.

 

American bookings on cruise lines do permit changing bookings but their consumer protection laws are not as good as in the UK.

 

P&O accept bookings on a saver and select tariff.  The latter being where you may choose your cabin and move.  The saver version is a budget system where you pay less and get fewer options the main one being no cabin choice.  If the cruise line permitted the passengers who paid lower fares to change cabins then a huge number of "select" passengers would be asking why are we paying a much higher fare?

 

P&O would have thought this through and set out a marketing plan for differential pricing on this basis.  Prices on all things do change and on the more expensive items the price difference is likely to be far greater.

 

Regards John

[Dinglebert]

While you may wish to shop around as you feel P+O have been unfair in not allowing you a discount, you will find it very hard to find any cruise line as a UK customer who would allow you to do that.

 

Once booked its never a good idea to go back and reprice.  No good can ever come of it.

[Ardennais]

2 hours ago, arbhorseal said:

I understand how it works. But £800 for an inferior cabin? What surprises me is how happy people seem to be in getting ripped off. I cannot be the only one! I understand now why they do it. Everyone seems to be happy with the situation. Well they have had the last of my money. 

The “inferior cabin” is what happens when you go for the saver fare. As I said, my next cruise is a saver, and I fully expect to be allocated an “inferior cabin”. No complaints on that score.

 

The price adjustment is another issue entirely. It’s not a matter of being “happy with the situation”, it is what it is. Yes, we can all argue that it’s sneaky of P&O to lower their prices just after the final balance is payable, but this happens in other situations too. I noticed that self catering cottages had greater availability this summer and many sites had cut-price promotions in a bid to fill their properties. 

Edited November 5, 2022 by Ardennais

[davecttr]

4 hours ago, zap99 said:

For the Christmas Iona cruise in question a saver balcony is £3600. A select balcony is £5000 and includes £540 OBC. We always chose select and say no upgrade. If we picked saver fare, buyer beware.

£860 to reserve a cabin!. All Marella fares are 'saver' but if you want to book a specific cabin it is £50.

 

Methinks maybe P&O are becoming less value for money

[Teddy123]

18 minutes ago, Dinglebert said:

While you may wish to shop around as you feel P+O have been unfair in not allowing you a discount, you will find it very hard to find any cruise line as a UK customer who would allow you to do that.

 

Once booked its never a good idea to go back and reprice.  No good can ever come of it.

Certainly no good once the balance has been paid, but I recently discovered that for my April 23 cruise it was worth writing off the deposit and making a completely new booking for essentially the same cabin, thereby saving money and getting extra OBC.  If the price goes down again after the balance is paid, I just aceept this as a fact of life.

[bobstheboy]

1 hour ago, 9265359 said:

Booking Saver fares early seems to be a bit of a mugs game - you are gambling both that the price won’t fall before sailing and you are gambling that the cruise doesn’t sell well so you are left with the dross that nobody else wants. 
 

If (and I severely doubt it) that P&O gave some priority to early Saver bookers to receive the best of the dross left when it came to allocating cabins then there might be some point, but as the allocation method appears to be a ‘put the names in a hat’ approach then why expose yourself to the risk. 
 

And if booking late then it is straightforward choice between weighing up the price difference between Saver and Select - and on the Iona cruise I am currently sat on the price difference was negative £450 - yes £450 cheaper to book Select over Saver. 

Doesn't always follow.

 

My Jan 23 Iona cruise was £1129 pp for a balcony in May. Now £1499 pp

[Son of Anarchy]

1 hour ago, Fionboard said:

My August Arcadia cruise (select price) was half the price shortly before sailing due to poor uptake.  Annoying yes, but just have to soak it up. That's life. Just booked Iona 14 nights in 3 week's time, select price balcony for solo at £1110 plus generous obc. Bargain!  Swings and roundabouts. 

See you on board!  Started the on-line check in stuff today.

[zap99]

55 minutes ago, bobstheboy said:

Doesn't always follow.

 

My Jan 23 Iona cruise was £1129 pp for a balcony in May. Now £1499 pp

We booked Iona for September 2023 whilst on Britannia. £4,000 for 2. It's now £4,500 for the same grade.

[john watson]

1 hour ago, davecttr said:

£860 to reserve a cabin!. All Marella fares are 'saver' but if you want to book a specific cabin it is £50.

 

Methinks maybe P&O are becoming less value for money

 

No, your thinking is inverted, what P&O are offering is an £860 saving on a cabin by not insisting on a specific one.

 

Regards John

[arbhorseal]

8 minutes ago, zap99 said:

We booked Iona for September 2023 whilst on Britannia. £4,000 for 2. It's now £4,500 for the same grade.

Here again.........??????

 

[terrierjohn]

7 hours ago, arbhorseal said:

Let me spell it out then......................

 

As I said "hey, still on the ship".

 

Its the being ripped off I object to. 

You're annoyed because the price has reduced and P&O won't compensate you, what would you have done if the price had increased, would you have compensated P&O?

[arbhorseal]

I have truly found this whole thing quite illuminating.

 

Thank you all for your input.

 

It would appear that the cruisers that inhabit these boards are more than happy with the arrangements as they presently stand and consider a loss of £800 is of no consequence.

 

Thats certainly the attitude P&O has also taken.

 

I am aware of vicissitudes of dynamic pricing and have suffered before. Though never anywhere near the same extent.

 

Perhaps I booked at a time when "the post covid" boom was still in effect. Where as presently UK plc has been driven at high speed into an iceberg and is now sinking. Consequently, the cruise is having to be very heavily discounted. Good luck Carnival UK.

 

I wonder how many people on this cruise will have been similarly affected and have no knowledge.

 

Perhaps they are too embarrassed to raise the issue themselves or do not which to expose themselves to potential ridicule such as exist on these boards.

  

My wife and I will hopefully still enjoy the cruise.

 

What is certain though. I will never book Carnival ever again. 

 

I wish you all self and enjoyable trips. 

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

[kalos]

3 minutes ago, arbhorseal said:

  

My wife and I will hopefully still enjoy the cruise.

 

What is certain though. I will never book Carnival ever again. 

 

I wish you all self and enjoyable trips. 

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

 

I hope you and your wife do have an excellent cruise regardless of who you book with in the future .

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your good wife.

[zap99]

7 minutes ago, arbhorseal said:

I have truly found this whole thing quite illuminating.

 

Thank you all for your input.

 

It would appear that the cruisers that inhabit these boards are more than happy with the arrangements as they presently stand and consider a loss of £800 is of no consequence.

 

Thats certainly the attitude P&O has also taken.

 

I am aware of vicissitudes of dynamic pricing and have suffered before. Though never anywhere near the same extent.

 

Perhaps I booked at a time when "the post covid" boom was still in effect. Where as presently UK plc has been driven at high speed into an iceberg and is now sinking. Consequently, the cruise is having to be very heavily discounted. Good luck Carnival UK.

 

I wonder how many people on this cruise will have been similarly affected and have no knowledge.

 

Perhaps they are too embarrassed to raise the issue themselves or do not which to expose themselves to potential ridicule such as exist on these boards.

  

My wife and I will hopefully still enjoy the cruise.

 

What is certain though. I will never book Carnival ever again. 

 

I wish you all self and enjoyable trips. 

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Have you noticed that you have minimal support.

[arbhorseal]

11 minutes ago, kalos said:

 

I hope you and your wife do have an excellent cruise regardless of who you book with in the future .

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your good wife.

Thanks very much.................and all the very best to you and yours.

 

[Harry Peterson]

I think you may well enjoy that cabin a lot more than you might expect. We booked an aft cabin once, with some trepidation, but now it’s where we always go. 

[terrierjohn]

33 minutes ago, arbhorseal said:

I wonder how many people on this cruise will have been similarly affected and have no knowledge.

 

Perhaps they are too embarrassed to raise the issue themselves or do not which to expose themselves to potential ridicule such as exist on these boards.

  

My wife and I will hopefully still enjoy the cruise.

 

What is certain though. I will never book Carnival ever again. 

 

I wish you all self and enjoyable trips. 

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

It's not ridicule it's just a fact of dynamic pricing which  you say you know all about.

In which case like the rest  of us you know what to expect when, as now, demand drops and P&O need to reduce prices to fill the ship back up to above a loss making level.

Pre covid it was always the other way round and early bookers gor the best deals, in todays cost of living crisis it looks like benefiting late bookers, so you know what to do in future.

Make the best of it if you can, because there are people, like us who need accessible cabins, and we have to book early and at select fares if we are to obtain a cabin.

[Ardennais]

52 minutes ago, arbhorseal said:

 

 

 

37 minutes ago, arbhorseal said:

I have truly found this whole thing quite illuminating.

 

Thank you all for your input.

 

It would appear that the cruisers that inhabit these boards are more than happy with the arrangements as they presently stand and consider a loss of £800 is of no consequence.

 

I’m not “more than happy” with the arrangements, but take the view that financially, I’ve won some and lost some over my many cruises with P&O. 
 

You haven’t actually lost any money have you? You were happy with the price you paid on booking. You’re still, hopefully, going to get the same product. It’s evident that you’re dissatisfied with your cabin allocation, but you decided to pay the saver fare, so that’s that! 

[Dinglebert]

1 hour ago, arbhorseal said:

I have truly found this whole thing quite illuminating.

 

Thank you all for your input.

 

It would appear that the cruisers that inhabit these boards are more than happy with the arrangements as they presently stand and consider a loss of £800 is of no consequence.

 

Thats certainly the attitude P&O has also taken.

 

I am aware of vicissitudes of dynamic pricing and have suffered before. Though never anywhere near the same extent.

 

Perhaps I booked at a time when "the post covid" boom was still in effect. Where as presently UK plc has been driven at high speed into an iceberg and is now sinking. Consequently, the cruise is having to be very heavily discounted. Good luck Carnival UK.

 

I wonder how many people on this cruise will have been similarly affected and have no knowledge.

 

Perhaps they are too embarrassed to raise the issue themselves or do not which to expose themselves to potential ridicule such as exist on these boards.

  

My wife and I will hopefully still enjoy the cruise.

 

What is certain though. I will never book Carnival ever again. 

 

I wish you all self and enjoyable trips. 

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

There is no loss.  You booked a holiday at a price.  You were happy with that price when you booked.  It went lower. Get over it.  I could buy halloween chocolate today at the supermarket for less than I could have on the 31st.   I could buy an item from Amazon months after its release date cheaper than when it was released.  Its a pricing thing.  Holidays go up and down in price.  You choose when to opt in. 

 

Good luck in finding a cruise line which works to the way you want it to.  They don't exist.

[funinhounslow]

13 hours ago, arbhorseal said:

 

It would appear that the cruisers that inhabit these boards are more than happy with the arrangements as they presently stand and consider a loss of £800 is of no consequence.

 

...

 

Perhaps they are too embarrassed to raise the issue themselves or do not which to expose themselves to potential ridicule such as exist on these boards.

 

…
 

My wife and I will hopefully still enjoy the cruise.

Or maybe they realise that when purchasing something the time to haggle and try and negotiate a better deal is before they sign on the dotted line and pay up, not after. 
 

I hope you enjoy your cruise but suspect you won’t unless you “let this go”. 

[arbhorseal]

2 hours ago, funinhounslow said:

Or maybe they realise that when purchasing something the time to haggle and try and negotiate a better deal is before they sign on the dotted line and pay up, not after. 
 

I hope you enjoy your cruise but suspect you won’t unless you “let this go”. 

......................there's a song in there somewhere.......................................

 

[Son of Bare]

I wouldn't give up on PO just yet fella.

It's a p*sser that you've paid more for the cabin that's been allocated than you could get it for now, but as others have said, you were happy to part with that much wonga at the time you booked the cruise.

Next time perhaps consider an early saver? At least that way you get a guarantee of whereabouts you'll be without actually knowing the cabin number. We've done select, saver and early saver, and the last is our preferred option.

We've actually done quite a few cruises with PO and upto now we've only lost out once in terms of the price reducing as departure gets closer. How did you book, direct or through a TA. We book direct and think talk of PO reserving the detritus for saver fare passengers is inaccurate. 

We were on Iona last October and compared to other ships in the fleet she's huge. You wont know you're at sea. We've also gone transatlantic and around Iceland at the rear (and at the pointy end) on smaller ships and not had too many problems. At least you'll be able to jump in the lift and get to the MDR without too much of a hike. If you really aren't happy once you embark there's probably still options open to you...not all cabins are 100% satisfactory all of the time, we have had a very noisy balcony previously for instance. I'm sure you know what I'm saying here.

Gary Barlows gaff is definitely worth checking out btw as is the Cow and Keel. You'll need to queue for the former and book for the latter.

Have a great cruise.

 

 

[arbhorseal]

4 minutes ago, Son of Bare said:

I wouldn't give up on PO just yet fella.

It's a p*sser that you've paid more for the cabin that's been allocated than you could get it for now, but as others have said, you were happy to part with that much wonga at the time you booked the cruise.

Next time perhaps consider an early saver? At least that way you get a guarantee of whereabouts you'll be without actually knowing the cabin number. We've done select, saver and early saver, and the last is our preferred option.

We've actually done quite a few cruises with PO and upto now we've only lost out once in terms of the price reducing as departure gets closer. How did you book, direct or through a TA. We book direct and think talk of PO reserving the detritus for saver fare passengers is inaccurate. 

We were on Iona last October and compared to other ships in the fleet she's huge. You wont know you're at sea. We've also gone transatlantic and around Iceland at the rear (and at the pointy end) on smaller ships and not had too many problems. At least you'll be able to jump in the lift and get to the MDR without too much of a hike. If you really aren't happy once you embark there's probably still options open to you...not all cabins are 100% satisfactory all of the time, we have had a very noisy balcony previously for instance. I'm sure you know what I'm saying here.

Gary Barlows gaff is definitely worth checking out btw as is the Cow and Keel. You'll need to queue for the former and book for the latter.

Have a great cruise.

 

 

Thats a great post. Thanks very much indeed for taking the time. Much appreciated. I took a select on Venture earlier in the year. It was a descent trip which we both enjoyed although the staffing problems were pretty obvious.

 

We are still looking forward to Iona next month. The ship does look great and we will be going onboard with an open mind. its our 7th time with Carnival and every one on a different ship!

 

As I say thanks once again for such a positive post.