Upgrade from plus to premier on existing booking?

[Cruz4Sun]

I have a booking for March 2025 with the plus package.  While looking at the specialty dining choices I decided it would be worth it to have the premier package instead. I called the princess 800 number and the agent told me that I would need to do that once I was onboard the ship.  Does anyone know if I was told correctly and this is the policy?  Thank you.

[ceilidh1]

No, this is not correct. You can add the premier on and just pay the difference. I've just done it for an upcoming sailing...

[Wishing on a star]

Do you have a travel agent, or did you book thru Princess.

If you booked thru Princess, request a Princess Planner, and hope you get a good one.

There is a lot of confusion at Princess about a lot of things.

There are stories that, once onboard, due to the demand on the Specialty Restaurants, that they have reached a max number of Premier Packages and will not do this.

 

Pull up your cruise (not your booking...) like you are going to book now.  See if it offers both PLUS and PREMIER when you act like you are booking today.

[Cruz4Sun]

Thanks.  I thought that was an odd answer.  I'll have to call again.

[Cruz4Sun]

Just now, Wishing on a star said:

Do you have a travel agent, or did you book thru Princess.

If you booked thru Princess, request a Princess Planner, and hope you get a good one.

There is a lot of confusion at Princess about a lot of things.

There are stories that, once onboard, due to the demand on the Specialty Restaurants, that they have reached a max number of Premier Packages and will not do this.

 

Pull up your cruise (not your booking...) like you are going to book now.  See if it offers both PLUS and PREMIER when you act like you are booking today.

I booked through the web site.  I'll try what you have suggested.

[ceilidh1]

Just now, Cruz4Sun said:

Thanks.  I thought that was an odd answer.  I'll have to call again.

You should be able to "upgrade" either on the app or the personalizer and just do it yourself. Pull up your booking and go to packages and it should give you the option. I say "should" as there have been some definite IT issues of late..

[Cruz4Sun]

I just tried to do a mock booking and the only option was the plus package.  Perhaps they have already sold the maximum allowed for the premier package.

[ceilidh1]

This is in my app

[ceilidh1]

3 minutes ago, Cruz4Sun said:

I just tried to do a mock booking and the only option was the plus package.  Perhaps they have already sold the maximum allowed for the premier package.

I would think it more likely an IT glitch (or maybe they plan on raising prices...)😁

[Wishing on a star]

NOTE:  There is a PLUS and PREMIER beverage package...  (which is what is showing above)

AND there is the PLUS and PREMIER bundle,  with Gratuities and WIFI.

 

Be sure you understand which one you are looking at.

[dog]

Ok, I don’t buy packages but I’ve noticed recently that new bookings are only offering standard and plus.

 

if you have already booked go to your booking and pull up the payment or package page as shown in post # 8 above.  That is the option if you already have a booking.

[ceilidh1]

10 minutes ago, Wishing on a star said:

NOTE:  There is a PLUS and PREMIER beverage package...  (which is what is showing above)

AND there is the PLUS and PREMIER bundle,  with Gratuities and WIFI.

 

Be sure you understand which one you are looking at.

The post that I shared above (with the upgrade picture) is for the upgrade from Plus PACKAGE (or bundle) to Premier PACKAGE (or bundle) (not just the beverage portion)

[Cruz4Sun]

11 hours ago, ceilidh1 said:

This is in my app

I went to the app and my screen looked just like this.  I hit upgrade and it said "you've upgraded to Princess Plus, great choice!  I already had Plus.  Went back and tried again, same message.  I think the only option now is a CVP.  I'll give that a try.

[lx200gps]

12 hours ago, Cruz4Sun said:

I have a booking for March 2025 with the plus package.  While looking at the specialty dining choices I decided it would be worth it to have the premier package instead. I called the princess 800 number and the agent told me that I would need to do that once I was onboard the ship.  Does anyone know if I was told correctly and this is the policy?  Thank you.

I've done this Plus to Premier upgrade twice, by phone with Princess, and it's been successful both times though with slightly different results. I called in myself to the 800 number though we always work out bookings with a TA.

 

Both times I called, amazingly, I was talking to a human within minutes, virtually no waiting. Both times, the CSR I spoke to did not know if they would be able to do the upgrade and had to put me on hold for a few minutes while they checked with their superiors. The first time, she processed the upgrade effectively as a new package booking, and our Personalizer showed us as having the Premier Package when it previously showed Plus. The change happened within hours. The second time, a few weeks ago, was different. She processed the upgrade as an "upgrade" rather than as a new package booking, and to this day, the Summary page on the Personalizer for this trip still shows us as Plus. It's only when I look deeper into the Personalizer pages that I find us as having the Plus package with the "Premier Upgrade", rather than as the Premier package.  All the Premier add-ons are listed correctly.

 

So as the others have said, the agent you spoke to was wrong, you definitely can do it by phone. Try calling again. Best of luck...

[JamieLogical]

Did you book through any sort of Casino promo? I booked my upcoming August sailing with a casino promo and when a chat agent tried to upgrade me from Plus to Premier, it destroyed my whole booking and it said I owed $1200 even after he switched me back from Premier to Plus! This was after final payment. I was on the live chat with him for probably an hour and then on the phone for over 3 hours and FINALLY got my booking back to what it was before I tried to upgrade. Needless to say, I am now waiting until I am onboard to upgrade!

[Wishing on a star]

Ohhh darn,  sorry guys...  I was only seeing that upper part about the beverage package on your post.

 

I have looked around on the web-site a little bit.  It looks like it is only showing the PLUS.

We have PLUS on a booking, and hope to find out today if our TA would be able to upgrade to PREMIER.    So,  we will see???

[ceilidh1]

3 hours ago, Cruz4Sun said:

I went to the app and my screen looked just like this.  I hit upgrade and it said "you've upgraded to Princess Plus, great choice!  I already had Plus.  Went back and tried again, same message.  I think the only option now is a CVP.  I'll give that a try.

Princess IT really is the worst!

[ceilidh1]

The most frustrating aspect of this is that it’s the simple addition of a code on the booking. It literally takes 3 seconds. I do it all the time for clients. 
 

I know some folks have said they are seeing bookings where only standard or plus is available. I haven’t come across that (yet) but I find it really odd that Princess wouldn’t be trying to squeeze some extra $$$ anywhere they can. I wonder if the new pricing structure has thrown things sideways on some sailings? I’m finding that pricing is all over the place - I expected the price I’m seeing to be higher with the taxes etc included, but it also appears to have gone up a lot in many of the bookings I’m tracking. Despite the “sale” they have. Several of my bookings have premier and now the final price for standard is higher than the final price I booked with premier - and this all happened overnight when the new price structure kicked in. 

[Abercrombie2019]

13 minutes ago, ceilidh1 said:

I know some folks have said they are seeing bookings where only standard or plus is available. I haven’t come across that (yet) but I find it really odd that Princess wouldn’t be trying to squeeze some extra $$$ anywhere they can.

I think this is just a glitch.  If someone can only see Standard and Plus fares, just refresh the page and the Premier fare will appear (at least it has for me).  

 

[ceilidh1]

19 minutes ago, Abercrombie2019 said:

I think this is just a glitch.  If someone can only see Standard and Plus fares, just refresh the page and the Premier fare will appear (at least it has for me).  

 

Glitches abound with Princess that’s for sure! It’s about the only thing that’s consistent with them lately!

[insidecabin]

1 hour ago, Abercrombie2019 said:

I think this is just a glitch.  If someone can only see Standard and Plus fares, just refresh the page and the Premier fare will appear (at least it has for me).  

 

I did notice the refresh worked but the Premier showed without the discounts for casino offer where plus and standard had them.

 

 

 

[Wishing on a star]

Thank you Ceilidh! Some good insight!

And, just to see, I am going to go and pull this up and try refreshing (and refreshing) and see what happens.

[Wishing on a star]

I acted like I was booking a cruise, and at first, it just showed PLUS.  But, yes, when I did a refresh it pulled up PREMIER too.

 

I pulled up a booking, and the system did not offer to Upgrade To PREMIER.  

Tried it a couple times, tried doing a refresh.  Didn't work.

[ceilidh1]

1 hour ago, Wishing on a star said:

I acted like I was booking a cruise, and at first, it just showed PLUS.  But, yes, when I did a refresh it pulled up PREMIER too.

 

I pulled up a booking, and the system did not offer to Upgrade To PREMIER.  

Tried it a couple times, tried doing a refresh.  Didn't work.

For mine, the "upgrade" is in the app - are you looking at the web or app version of the booking? It shouldn't be this difficult for people to spend money!

[Jnsplace1]

I literally did this two weeks ago.   All through chat box.

 

All that was needed was "what is the price difference".   "Thank you, can I get Premier?".   It was all done through that.  I had to pay the difference promptly otherwise it wouldn't go into effect.

 

Now, my booking still shows Plus, BUT in the booking details you can see the upgrade to Premier.   And then I booked two specialty restaurants "free".  

 

PS: she did say that doing it via app or web not through the service can cause issues, so she was glad that I contacted them.  Take it for what it is.  😉 

Edited July 8 by Jnsplace1