p&o overbooked

[hisarah15]

i got a phone call today from my travel agent and she told me that the cruise we were ment to go on was over booked so we're not going :mad:

 

the cruise we were ment to be going on is n911 that leave on the 21st of march 2009

 

i was rellay pissed as i have paid in full and i had a cabin number and erveything i have just spent the night trying to get my mother to stop crying as she can't get any other time off work and she rellay needs this holiday after her car accident and her youngest begining high school Effected her as well sorry that i ramble on but i'm a bit upset

anyway i want to know how can i help her feel better until i can fix it

thank you for all youre input and sorry about the spelling

[leggyliz]

i got a phone call today from my travel agent and she told me that the cruise we were ment to go on was over booked so we're not going :mad:

 

the cruise we were ment to be going on is n911 that leave on the 21st of march 2009

 

i was rellay pissed as i have paid in full and i had a cabin number and erveything i have just spent the night trying to get my mother to stop crying as she can't get any other time off work and she rellay needs this holiday after her car accident and her youngest begining high school Effected her as well sorry that i ramble on but i'm a bit upset

 

anyway i want to know how can i help her feel better until i can fix it

 

thank you for all youre input and sorry about the spelling

 

OMG!!!! Are they allowed to do that?! That is absolute b******t!! and I think they should have to take you. When did you book? Surely there were people that booked after you that they should take off first.

 

I don't know what I'd do if that happened to me as there are 8 of us and have organised work, kids and everything. I've never heard of this happening before? Has anyone else?

 

I really hope this can be fixed. I'd be persistent and ring P & O and your travel agent has a lot to answer to as well!

 

Thinking of you.

Liz

[lvtotrvl1]

Usually they will give you an option of changing or staying.....I've never heard this situation...Can you give us more details? What else did your TA say?

[sailawaysally]

i got a phone call today from my travel agent and she told me that the cruise we were ment to go on was over booked so we're not going :mad:

 

the cruise we were ment to be going on is n911 that leave on the 21st of march 2009

 

i was rellay pissed as i have paid in full and i had a cabin number and erveything i have just spent the night trying to get my mother to stop crying as she can't get any other time off work and she rellay needs this holiday after her car accident and her youngest begining high school Effected her as well sorry that i ramble on but i'm a bit upset

 

anyway i want to know how can i help her feel better until i can fix it

 

thank you for all youre input and sorry about the spelling

 

I would be checking in with P & O about that and if it is so then I would be blaming your T/A and I would in fact threaten with legal action because they have accepted your full payment. If you have a cabin number and is listed on your cruise personaliser on P & O's site I really don't see how they can cancel your booking. Definitely ring P & O.

 

P.S. Don't use that T/A again!!!!!

[rkmw]

i got a phone call today from my travel agent and she told me that the cruise we were ment to go on was over booked so we're not going :mad:

 

the cruise we were ment to be going on is n911 that leave on the 21st of march 2009

 

i was rellay pissed as i have paid in full and i had a cabin number and erveything i have just spent the night trying to get my mother to stop crying as she can't get any other time off work and she rellay needs this holiday after her car accident and her youngest begining high school Effected her as well sorry that i ramble on but i'm a bit upset

 

anyway i want to know how can i help her feel better until i can fix it

 

thank you for all youre input and sorry about the spelling

 

hi hisarah, i would have very mad also but if you ring p&o they may not talk to you as you have gone thru a TA, normally it depends when you booked and if they are over booked they offer people money back plus other rewards like OBC, if someone has retired and time doesnt matter to them they can go another time but when you have to get time off work or has family comminents its not very nice

 

i would ring up your TA today and tell them to speak to p&o and to sort it out

 

rkmw

[Ruste]

We have been asked to get off the ship in the week before we sailed as they needed cabins for extra crew. We were given the offer of our cruise at a later date and a free cruise. At no stage were we pressured to get off and when I explained the situation the guy on the phone said fine and we stayed on. Like everyone has said go to P&O and ask what has happened. It would be interesting to find out whether your T/A was offered choices and if they asked if they could check with you.

[karmac]

I would be checking in with P & O about that and if it is so then I would be blaming your T/A and I would in fact threaten with legal action because they have accepted your full payment. If you have a cabin number and is listed on your cruise personaliser on P & O's site I really don't see how they can cancel your booking. Definitely ring P & O.

 

P.S. Don't use that T/A again!!!!!

 

I know anything is possible but I find it unlikely to be the T/A's fault.:confused: When you go to a T/A to book a cruise, they then book it in with P&O which obviously the T/A had done as Sarah had a cabin number. If the T/A rang P&O and they took the booking & gave hem a cabin nmber, how is that the T/A's fault??:confused:

 

 

Also, for those of you that are asking, "are the allowed to do it?"....all I can say is, airlines do it ALL the time.

 

Sarah, you must be very dissappointed & I feel for you but as others have said, speak to your T/A or P&O. I have heard of them overbooking before but as someone else said, there was no pressure on anyone to stay home. They simply offer passengers the same cruise ata later date & a free cruise (yes, I have heard of it happening before). Many passengers, such as retired people who can go on holidays basically whenever they want would gladly take up an offer like that.

[rugbypopsie]

Airlines may do it but then they can also put you on a later flight the same day!

 

P and O will talk to you irrespective of booking with an agent. They may be able to fly you to another port to catch another ship or something talk to them today. I see that the Pacific Dawn in sailing from Sydney the next day...if there is space they should fly you down to catch it.

 

Be strong, your Mum needs you.

 

I am so sorry you have this terrible situation, I hope it works out...let us know how you get on.

[Ela 2]

I agree with what most of the others have said. On occasions P & O has asked passengers if they are prepared to not go on the cruise in return for compensation.This is usually a full refund plus a free cruise in the future.

 

Last year we have seven family members booked on a back to back cruise. P & O phoned only a few days before the cruise and said both cruises were "more than fully booked" and asked if we would step down. The person said we would be compensated. I replied that with a group of seven, it simply was not possible to re-arrange holidays. The P & O rep was very polite and accepted immediately that we were not prepared to cancel. By the way, we had got the cruise at a very very good price, so it would have been in P & O's interests to have us cancel.

 

I think your TA might not have done the right thing for you. You should have been given an option. I suggest you get onto P & O immediately and see what can be done. All the best. I will keep my fingers crossed for you.:):)

 

Evon.

[Alymo1]

We were asked to go on a different cruise as it was over booked. P&O got us on the cruise that we originally wanted to go on but it was over booked at the time. This was a much longer cruise and we got a better cabin plus lots of extras :D. So we were all glad to do it.

I am sure your TA is pulling a fast one on you!!! DON’T TAKE IT from them. They are most likely getting the rewards from P&O and not passing it on to you.

[kaseyoz]

It would certainly seem amazing that your cruise was overbooked seeing as it is not school holidays and they run this cruise so often.

 

You would think by now they would know how many to overbook. With cruises going weekly you would think it would be easy to ask some cruisers to go the following week with hefty compensation of course.

 

I would not be giving up without a fight, what is your mum doing about it, it is still a month away yet. It should be a choice, were you offered another cruise.

[qld cruiser]

i got a phone call today from my travel agent and she told me that the cruise we were ment to go on was over booked so we're not going :mad:

 

the cruise we were ment to be going on is n911 that leave on the 21st of march 2009

 

i was rellay pissed as i have paid in full and i had a cabin number and erveything i have just spent the night trying to get my mother to stop crying as she can't get any other time off work and she rellay needs this holiday after her car accident and her youngest begining high school Effected her as well sorry that i ramble on but i'm a bit upset

 

anyway i want to know how can i help her feel better until i can fix it

 

thank you for all youre input and sorry about the spelling

 

 

Hi there, I can understand your disappointment....but would check again with your TA.

I have known in the past of overbooking, but not just being told you are off the cruise.

It is usually a REQUEST to move to another cruise.-and with a full refund, plus a cruise and a cabin upgrade.

 

 

 

kind regards, Lorraine:):)

[planning obsessed]

Airlines may do it but then they can also put you on a later flight the same day!

 

P and O will talk to you irrespective of booking with an agent. They may be able to fly you to another port to catch another ship or something talk to them today. I see that the Pacific Dawn in sailing from Sydney the next day...if there is space they should fly you down to catch it.

 

Be strong, your Mum needs you.

 

I am so sorry you have this terrible situation, I hope it works out...let us know how you get on.

 

The Dawn is actually sailing the day before and it's a 17 nighter to Samoa, so it would be somewhat more costly than the 7 nighter out of Brisbane. I would expect it to be totally sold out at this point. Ring P&O and ask to speak to someone in authority. Don't be too proud to cry and blubber as much as you possibly can. If there are any staff members, or their family or friends, booked under a substantial staff discount, they are booted off if a full paying passenger requires the cabin, so perhaps there is someone there who could be forced to forfeit their cabin. I feel very sorry for your situation, I'd be devestated. Don't give up without a fight, and preferably an offer of some sort of compensation if they can't fit you in. They did after all benefit from holding your money in their account.

[karmac]

Airlines may do it but then they can also put you on a later flight the same day!

 

 

Sometimes, yes. It happened to my sister once and it was a few days before they got to go. Fortunately they were staying with friends in UK & didn't have other accommodation booked and they lived close enough to the airport (an hour away) to go back home.

But in my opinion, overbooking should not be allowed. I know some people cancell at the last minute but I honestly can't see that it would be many and if you do, you lose your money amyway so they're not out of pocket.

[NSWP]

Bad news and not right. Why not E mail the CEO of Carnival Australia and ask her to look into the matter personally?

 

Throw one of the ship's officers out of his/her cabin and make them double up, you can have that one.

[Ruste]

Just thought I would throw something in here, for safety the number of passengers is limited to the number of life boats. So if they are having a problem with a lifeboat the number of passengers they are able to carry is cut back. I'm sure the option would still be given to passengers as to whether they are prepared to get off.

 

In response to planning obsessed comment about staff families getting really discounted fares. Don't believe all you hear, on our cruises we have paid a lot more than the fares other passengers told us they had paid.

 

Karmac, we got offered $400us each to change from a morning flight to a night flight. There were 5 of us, 3 were children and the NZD was40cents. We couldn't get off the flight fast enough. Then there was the day at the Sheraton and food for a day.

[Ela 2]

The Dawn is actually sailing the day before and it's a 17 nighter to Samoa, so it would be somewhat more costly than the 7 nighter out of Brisbane. I would expect it to be totally sold out at this point. Ring P&O and ask to speak to someone in authority. Don't be too proud to cry and blubber as much as you possibly can. If there are any staff members, or their family or friends, booked under a substantial staff discount, they are booted off if a full paying passenger requires the cabin, so perhaps there is someone there who could be forced to forfeit their cabin. I feel very sorry for your situation, I'd be devestated. Don't give up without a fight, and preferably an offer of some sort of compensation if they can't fit you in. They did after all benefit from holding your money in their account.

I agree Debbie. By the way, I have been told our 17 nighter to Samoa is sold out.

 

Don't give up without a fight. I am surprised that the TA just accepted this. :mad: From our own experience and also from what I have heard from others, P & O always gives the passenger a choice of still going on the cruise or getting generous compensation. Luckily for you, the cruise is still a fair way in the future so there is time to get it sorted out. Best of luck.

 

Evon.

[LuckiePuris]

This is why I don't book with travel agents. I prefer to book it all myself...that way if I need to make enquiries on the account, I can do that directly. If they need to contact me, they contact me directly.

 

No middle person...that's where a lot of things get confused.

 

Perhaps P&O DID offer you the option of taking the refund plus a free cruise if you cancelled...hope the TA hasn't agreed and held onto these offers!

 

Good Luck!!

[Chrissy53]

OK I may sound suspicious but have you received a receipt from the Travel Agent that is backed up by P & O. Travel Agents have been known to defraud their clients, and I would definately make sure that the money you have paid actually went to P & O. We do not know the travel agent so I do not feel I am crossing the mark with this. (14 years as a Police Officer makes me extra suspicious) As others have stated, deal directly with P & O and find out what they have to say, and then go back to your travel agent armed with the correct information from the main source, namely P & O.

 

I wish you and your mother luck, hopefully it will all turn out for the best.

 

Christine

 

[LOVE cruising!]

Wow Hisarah, You must be beside yourself!. I would be furious! So sorry to hear about this. I hope it gets sorted for you. After all this, they had better give you 2 twin rooms on a balcony for all the trouble & distress they have caused. Dont let them get away with it.

[planning obsessed]

Have you tried ringing P&O to ask if they still have vacancies? Ask without revealing your situation and you may be able to rebook, or transfer your booking if they're not full. Perhaps the travel agent has a certain number of passengers allotted to them which has been reached. I know that in the case of land holidays there are allottments on hotel rooms for varying agents and travel companies.

[Diddles62]

It does happen unfortunately it happened to us.... We were actuallly booked on the 28 Jan 09 cruise on the Pacific Dawn, all was paid for etc aswell.:mad:

 

We then had to choose from a few other cruises etc that they had available whilst at the T/A, we ended up instead of 9 night cruise a 10 night cruise that did a extra islands and it worked out cheaper thank heavens.

 

DH & I were very upset aswell as our daughter and grandkids came for Christmas and they had to loose their money and re booked flights back to the Gold Coast as they were due to go home on the 22 Jan 09 & not the 13 Jan 09 as arranged so DH & I could go on the cruise on the 18 Jan 09.:(

 

Guess thats why we ended up with a good upgrade.

[strawberrypatch81]

That is just disgraceful! I would be furious!! I would definitely contact the head of P&O and see what they say. When you have holidays especially booked. That is so unfair.

 

I really hope it gets sorted out for you and I hope you do get to go on the cruise. Let us know what happens.

[stevedonna]

I have just had a look at a few of my favourite online agencies and they are all still showing cabin availability for this cruise ?????? something is crook in tobruk

[strawberrypatch81]

I have just had a look at a few of my favourite online agencies and they are all still showing cabin availability for this cruise ?????? something is crook in tobruk

 

That doesn't sound good. Something is not right, maybe with the travel agent. :confused::confused: