Booking with a Princess Vacation Planner

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, AE_Collector said:

Canadian at par is a 26% discount so yes very very good, but not 35%. $135 Cdn as .74 (26% discount) = $100 or the US price for Canadian $.

I suppose you might say it depends how you look at it, but math is math. 

 

A $1,000 USD cruise costs a Canadian booking in CAD $1,350 these days - 35% higher.

 

If you can get the cruise at virtually par, you are paying CAD $1,000.  That indeed is a 35% discount. 

 

What Princess does is reduce the USD fare down to something close to $740.74 (which you won't see unless using a US-based booking site that shows all fares in USD).  Therefore, when a Canadian is shopping that cruise on Princess.com, the fare shows as ~$1,000 CAD and thus showing "at par".  

 

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, AE_Collector said:

Whether booked under wrong code somehow or not, something messed up as friends who booked same day and are also Canadians did receive the advertised OBC. Yes Cdn at par is very good deal but if that disqualifies a bunch of other sale perks that paying in $US gets, the at par part is no longer worth what it seems to be worth. It doesn’t matter as they were going to delete and rebook the whole thing to try to get the OBC but I said to not worry about it is only $100.

 

My reference to this part of the problem was just that this should have been a slam dunk for someone at Princess to either find an error or to determine that this part of the sale wasn’t valid with the Cdn at par. But instead I gt no help.

You mentioned you and friends booked same cruise on the same day.  But likely with two different agents at Princess, so that might explain something.  Did you book the same cabin type and category?  How much did they pay versus what you paid?  If it was exactly the same, then it would seem you were both booked under the same Fare Code and should have received same benefits.  If your fare was somewhat lower, then perhaps the CAD at par theory has merit?  Unfortunately, the time has gone by and I don't have any way to look into fares and see the situation and don't recall if those fare codes were combinable.  The Canadian only fare codes are special codes and may not be.

 

Most certainly, someone at Princess should have been able to explain the situation clearly to you and also confirm what Fare Code you were booked under.  In fact, you should still be able to find that out (and your friends), by simply calling and asking.

 

Nevertheless, the 35% discount exceeds $100 OBC if indeed you were not supposed to get both.

 

[Steelers36]

25 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

You mentioned you and friends booked same cruise on the same day.  But likely with two different agents at Princess, so that might explain something.  Did you book the same cabin type and category?  How much did they pay versus what you paid?  If it was exactly the same, then it would seem you were both booked under the same Fare Code and should have received same benefits.  If your fare was somewhat lower, then perhaps the CAD at par theory has merit?  Unfortunately, the time has gone by and I don't have any way to look into fares and see the situation and don't recall if those fare codes were combinable.  The Canadian only fare codes are special codes and may not be.

 

Most certainly, someone at Princess should have been able to explain the situation clearly to you and also confirm what Fare Code you were booked under.  In fact, you should still be able to find that out (and your friends), by simply calling and asking.

 

Nevertheless, the 35% discount exceeds $100 OBC if indeed you were not supposed to get both.

 

ETA:  I did some poking and investigation.  My normal booking engine "go to" doesn't indicate combinability of various Fare Codes, but does caution that the Fare Code in question I am looking at (and I looked at multiple) MAY not be combinable with other offers.  This is something a TA or Princess CVP would be able to tell on their system (POLAR direct).  But what I did see was both CAD at par offer for Canadian residents and the current Princess promo with $150 OBC/pp on the same voyage.  The CAD at par was coming out within pennies of the USD current promo fare converted at Princess rate of 1.35.  Note that Princess often doesn't do an exact conversion of 1.35, but plays with the end result and adjusts a few cents.  

 

Anyway, the outstanding unknowns for your situation are:

• What did you pay versus friends?
• Was/Is the CAD At Par promotion combinable with current sales promo (or the former B.S.E. promo).

 

[happy42cruise]

Princess seems to be trying to make things better by letting us (the consumer) and the CVP/PVP make our reservations.  I also wish the people with great travel agents or CVP's could name them so others could use them but that's not to be.  There are many threads with success stories for getting problems resolved so I would hope you don't write off cruising with Princess entirely.  On this next cruise ask for TA recommendations from your fellow cruisers if you can.  Enjoy your cruises wherever you go!

[Coral]

7 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

ETA:  I did some poking and investigation.  My normal booking engine "go to" doesn't indicate combinability of various Fare Codes, but does caution that the Fare Code in question I am looking at (and I looked at multiple) MAY not be combinable with other offers.  This is something a TA or Princess CVP would be able to tell on their system (POLAR direct).  But what I did see was both CAD at par offer for Canadian residents and the current Princess promo with $150 OBC/pp on the same voyage.  The CAD at par was coming out within pennies of the USD current promo fare converted at Princess rate of 1.35.  Note that Princess often doesn't do an exact conversion of 1.35, but plays with the end result and adjusts a few cents.  

 

Anyway, the outstanding unknowns for your situation are:

• What did you pay versus friends?
• Was/Is the CAD At Par promotion combinable with current sales promo (or the former B.S.E. promo).

 

I really don't think booking with a Cruise Vacation Planner or Princess Vacation Planner allows for any different pricing than Princess direct. I think these individuals probably do dig deeper into the rate codes for their clients than if you call 1-800-Princess but I don't think they get the discounts that we get going through outside agents.

[Steelers36]

2 hours ago, Coral said:

I really don't think booking with a Cruise Vacation Planner or Princess Vacation Planner allows for any different pricing than Princess direct. I think these individuals probably do dig deeper into the rate codes for their clients than if you call 1-800-Princess but I don't think they get the discounts that we get going through outside agents.

The last sentence is true, but Princess.com only shows one of the possible fare codes that can be available to a guest.  It may not always be the best one or the one the guest wants/needs.  At least a CVP or TA can see all eligible codes and discuss with the guest.

[Coral]

2 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

The last sentence is true, but Princess.com only shows one of the possible fare codes that can be available to a guest.  It may not always be the best one or the one the guest wants/needs.  At least a CVP or TA can see all eligible codes and discuss with the guest.

I completely agree. 

[AE_Collector]

9 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

 

Anyway, the outstanding unknowns for your situation are:

• What did you pay versus friends?
• Was/Is the CAD At Par promotion combinable with current sales promo (or the former B.S.E. promo).

 

I cant answer all of this so there is potentially answers in the unknown. Friends in Canada booked a balcony so they received the $100 US OBC each which was part of the BSE (Best Sale Ever). They booked Direct but may have booked online or at 1-800 Princess. So maybe they didn’t get the CAD at Par, not sure. Certainly a possibility.

 

Others booked with their CVP two days after sale ended so no OBC but handed a 20% discount to the CAD at par price we paid. The price we continued to see online remained the same after the sale so it wasn’t likely a price reduction of the cruise after that sale ended.

 

Thanks for all the info and opinions!

 

 

[AE_Collector]

Okay must have been my imagination that I used it years ago. I see the icon for it so assumed it was usable. Thanks…..

Edited April 7, 2023 by AE_Collector

[Steelers36]

10 hours ago, Steelers36 said:

That indeed is a 35% discount. 

In truth, the 35% "upcharge" is avoided.  However, one could also say that $350 off a fare that would otherwise be $1,350 is saving $350/$1,350 or 25.926%.  Perspective is everything - looking from bottom up or top down.

[AE_Collector]

1 hour ago, Steelers36 said:

In truth, the 35% "upcharge" is avoided.  However, one could also say that $350 off a fare that would otherwise be $1,350 is saving $350/$1,350 or 25.926%.  Perspective is everything - looking from bottom up or top down.

Yes the most common errors made with $ conversions done on the fly…. For example if $1US is $1.25 Canadian then $1 Canadian must be 75c US. NOT. Oh for the good old days 10+ years ago when $ = $!

Edited April 7, 2023 by AE_Collector

[memoak]

8 hours ago, Coral said:

I really don't think booking with a Cruise Vacation Planner or Princess Vacation Planner allows for any different pricing than Princess direct. I think these individuals probably do dig deeper into the rate codes for their clients than if you call 1-800-Princess but I don't think they get the discounts that we get going through outside agents.

CVP’s can now see and book casino camp offers

[Coral]

12 minutes ago, memoak said:

CVP’s can now see and book casino camp offers

That makes sense. 

[memoak]

4 hours ago, Coral said:

That makes sense. 

Yeah just turned 2 full price cruises to basically half the price