Courtesy Hold - TA

[Tedferg]

I saw a cabin we like and made a courtesy booking. I sent the Booking Number to my TA thinking this was the easiest way to inform her. She replied asking What Ship, What Date Which cabin. Since she had not made the booking, she could not see my on hold booking number.

 

So much for my little idea 😞

 

[billco]

7 minutes ago, Tedferg said:

I saw a cabin we like and made a courtesy booking. I sent the Booking Number to my TA thinking this was the easiest way to inform her. She replied asking What Ship, What Date Which cabin. Since she had not made the booking, she could not see my on hold booking number.

 

So much for my little idea 😞

 

You could have done that if you were using a Princess CVP. Actually, when I put a booking on hold I will often get an email from my CVP that she saw it.

Edited April 13, 2023 by billco

[cruisingrob21]

8 minutes ago, Tedferg said:

I saw a cabin we like and made a courtesy booking. I sent the Booking Number to my TA thinking this was the easiest way to inform her. She replied asking What Ship, What Date Which cabin. Since she had not made the booking, she could not see my on hold booking number.

 

So much for my little idea 😞

 

Your TA can only see bookings made under their agency.  You can ask the TA to get the form that allows a transfer of the booking from Princess to the TA.

[Tedferg]

8 minutes ago, cruisingrob21 said:

Your TA can only see bookings made under their agency.  You can ask the TA to get the form that allows a transfer of the booking from Princess to the TA.

It was a 24 hour standard hold and possibly would have expired before TA could act. I was asking for a quote from TA, still pondering the cruise.

 

Just thought I'd point out a problem with this process.

[Thrak]

I just take a "snip" from the booking and send it to my TA asking him to take the booking. He emails me the transfer form to sign. I sign it email it back. I find the "snip" tool in Windows to be quite useful for many things.

 

[trbarton]

Interesting as I’ve had my agent take my booking but they never had me sign anything. Guess it depends on the agent. 
 

Tom😀

[startedwithamouse]

1 hour ago, Tedferg said:

I saw a cabin we like and made a courtesy booking. I sent the Booking Number to my TA thinking this was the easiest way to inform her. She replied asking What Ship, What Date Which cabin. Since she had not made the booking, she could not see my on hold booking number.

 

So much for my little idea 😞

 

Princess owns the booking you made, not your TA. Let it cancel and have your TA book it. 

[cruisingrob21]

53 minutes ago, Tedferg said:

It was a 24 hour standard hold and possibly would have expired before TA could act. I was asking for a quote from TA, still pondering the cruise.

 

Just thought I'd point out a problem with this process.

I'm not sure its a "problem", Princess wants to make it easy for you to book directly with them, but since most agents cultivate personal relationships with clients that a cruise line cant, Princess certainly recognizes value there.  The relationship between agents and vendors (cruise lines) from the outside is a "a solid two-way partnership".  Cruise lines save on labor costs and acquiring new customers, but have to pay out commissions and have to keep the incentives good enough that agents steer indecisive clients a certain way. 

 

But make no mistake, if the cruise lines could just get everyone to book directly with them, they'd save a lot in commission payments.

 

Another industry gave travel agents the boot several years back - you might be a customer in that industry, and you'll know its not one with great customer service.  You'll probably need to use that industry to get to your cruise ship.

Edited April 13, 2023 by cruisingrob21

[CruisinChris]

Better yet - most agencies have an online booking portal.  I frequently book through their portal as a hold and notify my agent and she converts it to a real booking for me.

[Thrak]

5 hours ago, trbarton said:

Interesting as I’ve had my agent take my booking but they never had me sign anything. Guess it depends on the agent. 
 

Tom😀

 

 

That changed a while back. Now you only have (I think) 60 days from the date of booking to transfer the booking to someone else and you need to use their form.

 

PCL Reservation Transfer Request Form.pdf

[Tedferg]

5 hours ago, startedwithamouse said:

Princess owns the booking you made, not your TA. Let it cancel and have your TA book it. 

I made a mistake; I thought the temporary Hold was the easiest way to transfer all the details to TA and preserve the cabin location. It is now ~ 48 hours and still on hold.

11 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

 

That changed a while back. Now you only have (I think) 60 days from the date of booking to transfer the booking to someone else and you need to use their form.

 

PCL Reservation Transfer Request Form.pdf 224.37 kB · 1 download

I asked princess Chat if they could release the Booking so that my TA could book it. They sent me the form to make the transfer, but I thought that would take longer than a) original cabin coming off hold or b) book a similar cabin next to the first. Waiting for TA to respond.

[Thrak]

5 minutes ago, Tedferg said:

I asked princess Chat if they could release the Booking so that my TA could book it. They sent me the form to make the transfer, but I thought that would take longer than a) original cabin coming off hold or b) book a similar cabin next to the first. Waiting for TA to respond.

 

If you aren't set on that specific cabin you can book a different cabin and the original hold will eventually fall off.

[Tedferg]

1 minute ago, Thrak said:

 

If you aren't set on that specific cabin you can book a different cabin and the original hold will eventually fall off.

Thanks, E415, 417, 421 all similar 'Obstructed' with only Promenade below, no lifeboats. E421 has slightly bigger balcony, but not enough to worry about.

[cruzsnooze]

8 hours ago, Tedferg said:

It was a 24 hour standard hold and possibly would have expired before TA could act. I was asking for a quote from TA, still pondering the cruise.

 

Just thought I'd point out a problem with this process.

Why is this a problem with this process? You booked a courtesy hold on a Princess website and the booking belongs to Princess. You have 30 days to transfer a booking made with Princess to a TA. 

[Coral]

At one time, a TA could grab a hold (no deposit or money down) if you gave them a booking number. I don't know the current process. 

 

If money is down on a booking - then you have to fill out the form and have so many days to transfer it. I forget how many days. 

[palolake]

On Good Friday we called Princess to place a courtesy hold on a cabin until our TA was in the office.  Actually we tried to do it first with the online chat and gave up!  She said she placed the hold. Then we received an email saying she used our FCDs for the deposit.  Turns out she actually booked the cruise and not just a courtesy hold.  It turned out ok but those people just don't know what they are doing now.  And yes I'm positive she actually booked the cruise.

[Tedferg]

14 hours ago, cruzsnooze said:

Why is this a problem with this process? You booked a courtesy hold on a Princess website and the booking belongs to Princess. You have 30 days to transfer a booking made with Princess to a TA. 

My point is not that there is a problem per se. Merely to point out that using Hold until you can contact TA, as @palolake did and Coral suggested, does not work.

 

I did not make a deposit, so the 30 day transfer to TA would not apply.

 

Incidentally the Hold is still in place three days later.

Edited April 14, 2023 by Tedferg

[Mary loves to travel]

58 minutes ago, Tedferg said:

My point is not that there is a problem per se. Merely to point out that using Hold until you can contact TA, as @palolake did and Coral suggested, does not work.

 

I did not make a deposit, so the 30 day transfer to TA would not apply.

 

Incidentally the Hold is still in place three days later.

In my experience, the courtesy hold lasts 3-5 days.

[Tedferg]

2 hours ago, Mary loves to travel said:

In my experience, the courtesy hold lasts 3-5 days.

Correct thank you, I just did a test booking on 14th, and it says, 'temporary hold until 17th.'

[Astro Flyer]

18 hours ago, Coral said:

At one time, a TA could grab a hold (no deposit or money down) if you gave them a booking number. I don't know the current process. 

 

If money is down on a booking - then you have to fill out the form and have so many days to transfer it. I forget how many days. 

Theresa, I had that situation last week & it has changed.

 

On the Elite level one day early booking we saw our bucket list Around Australia cruise that was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic. I check cabin availability before contacting my TA & since cabins were rapidly being booked made a 3 day Hold before contacting her. Unfortunately she could not take over our Hold even though no deposit had been made. I immediately submitted the Reservation Transfer Request Form that Thrak shared which Princess said takes 3-7 days to process. That risked losing our very popular 2025 cruise so on the next day called Princess because their website stupidly cannot use an FCD as a deposit…only by charge, PayPal or gift card. The Filipino service rep was very pleasant however her English was bad & she didn’t understand that I wanted to use an FCD & kept asking about using an FCC. I cannot blame her that Princess hires these offshore call center reps who are not properly trained & have limited English skills. After 20 minutes she finally completed this simple task of using an FCD instead of the $400/pp deposit shown in our Hold. A couple of days later our booking was transferred to our TA well within their 60 day requirement.

 

Just another example of Princess wasting staff & customers time by not having the online option to make a deposit using an FCD. I was able to do that years ago but it’s no longer an online option when directly booking…crazy! 🙄

 

Edited April 14, 2023 by Astro Flyer

[palolake]

4 hours ago, Mary loves to travel said:

In my experience, the courtesy hold lasts 3-5 days.

I was told 72 hours last week. 

[Mary loves to travel]

22 minutes ago, Astro Flyer said:

Theresa, I had that situation last week & it has changed.

 

On the Elite level one day early booking we saw our bucket list Around Australia cruise that was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic. I check cabin availability before contacting my TA & since cabins were rapidly being booked made a 3 day Hold before contacting her. Unfortunately she could not take over our Hold even though no deposit had been made. I immediately submitted the Reservation Transfer Request Form that Thrak shared which Princess said takes 3-7 days to process. That risked losing our very popular 2025 cruise so on the next day called Princess because their website stupidly cannot use an FCD as a deposit…only by charge, PayPal or gift card. The Filipino service rep was very pleasant however her English was bad & she didn’t understand that I wanted to use an FCD & kept asking about using an FCC. I cannot blame her that Princess hires these offshore call center reps who are not properly trained & have limited English skills. After 20 minutes she finally completed this simple task of using an FCD instead of the $400/pp deposit shown in our Hold. A couple of days later our booking was transferred to our TA well within their 60 day requirement.

 

Just another example of Princess wasting staff & customers time by not having the online option to make a deposit using an FCD. I was able to do that years ago but it’s no longer an online option when directly booking…crazy! 🙄

 

When I was looking at the most recent cruise we booked (1-2 weeks ago), I selected a cabin, etc.   Last step offered the choice of using our FCD , use a credit card for the deposit, or do a Hold.   
 

We did the courtesy Hold, then the next day decided to move forward.    At this point, using the FCD was no longer offered as an option.  
I used Live Chat, and they were able to use our FCDs.   That took only a few minutes.   
No idea why we couldn’t do that ourselves.  
 

 

Mary

[Astro Flyer]

12 minutes ago, palolake said:

I was told 72 hours last week. 

Looking at a screenshot I took of my 4/4/23 Hold it stated payment was due on 4/7…3 days or 72+ hours which is basically your experience. 🙂
 

Our deposit was due on Good Friday & didn’t want to risk it by waiting that long hoping the transfer to my TA would be made before deposit was due. As it turned out the transfer was made on the same day the deposit was due however I wasn’t willing to risk losing our bucket list cruise.

 

[Astro Flyer]

12 minutes ago, Mary loves to travel said:

When I was looking at the most recent cruise we booked (1-2 weeks ago), I selected a cabin, etc.   Last step offered the choice of using our FCD , use a credit card for the deposit, or do a Hold.   
 

We did the courtesy Hold, then the next day decided to move forward.    At this point, using the FCD was no longer offered as an option.  
I used Live Chat, and they were able to use our FCDs.   That took only a few minutes.   
No idea why we couldn’t do that ourselves.  
 

Mary

Thanks…since I wasn’t making a Deposit when booking & only a Hold don’t recall if it was possible to use an FCD when booking the cruise.

 

Like you on the next day using an FCD as a Deposit was not an option (charge, PayPal, gift card) which is crazy and wastes their time & mine. Appreciate learning about your positive Chat experience which I would try if ever in that situation again.

 

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, palolake said:

I was told 72 hours last week. 

Really not much difference between 3 days and 72 hours. 🤣