P&O personal cruise specialist - just had a call from one

Not sure why but just had a call from p&o asking if I wanted a personal cruise specialst. I asked what it entailed and was told I would be given details and phone number for someone to call directly with any requests or queries.

Anyone else had this? Is there any real benefit?

I can see no benefit at all, the two different ladies I have had have never called me back, never notified me of any special deal cruises, when wanting to book my cruises I have ended up just booking with the person who answers the call because in the past when I have left my details for my personal cruise specialist to phone me back waited and waited and no call back, sorry to be so negative :(

I'm not expecting to use the service was hoping it might have been the upgrade fairy on the phone. I have received a 'here is my details' email from him and replied saying thank you for calling me and hinting heavily about my silver wedding anniversary which fails during the cruise. :D Well you never know.

A bit of information...

There is no benefit at all and it's hardly personalised. It works similiar to a Travel Agent, they get the booking and then it's hard to get back in contact with that specific person to be your 'cruise agent' not that will want to know when they get your booking probably. It defeats the whole point.

Some of them may not be as experienced at the normal inbound consultants, but somehow find themselves in that position talking about cruises as a 'specialist' If you go through one they will log any quote (incl your information they've given on a database and some don't ask if that's ok. If you speak to one make sure you say you don't want your details stored elsewhere and you can expect to be called out the blue by them trying to get you to book.

Seems as though they wanted to get more revenue by making an outbound team on probably a higher wage, when they are obviously just taking a large amount of money that normally would have come through their reservations people anyway and have duplicated their resources by doing so. I'd always recommend booking without them plus I suspect if you speak to inbound they might be passing your quote onto this specialist team to "mop up" the booking when they other person has done all the labour....

A bit of information...

 

There is no benefit at all and it's hardly personalised. It works similiar to a Travel Agent, they get the booking and then it's hard to get back in contact with that specific person to be your 'cruise agent' not that will want to know when they get your booking probably. It defeats the whole point.

 

Some of them may not be as experienced at the normal inbound consultants, but somehow find themselves in that position talking about cruises as a 'specialist' If you go through one they will log any quote (incl your information they've given on a database and some don't ask if that's ok. If you speak to one make sure you say you don't want your details stored elsewhere and you can expect to be called out the blue by them trying to get you to book.

 

Seems as though they wanted to get more revenue by making an outbound team on probably a higher wage, when they are obviously just taking a large amount of money that normally would have come through their reservations people anyway and have duplicated their resources by doing so. I'd always recommend booking without them plus I suspect if you speak to inbound they might be passing your quote onto this specialist team to "mop up" the booking when they other person has done all the labour....

We use one, have for the past 3 cruises. She knows what we like. Any queries I have I drop her and email. Sometimes I get an out of office email drop back, but she always contacts me on her return. So I definatley think she is worth it.

Not sure why but just had a call from p&o asking if I wanted a personal cruise specialst. I asked what it entailed and was told I would be given details and phone number for someone to call directly with any requests or queries.

 

Anyone else had this? Is there any real benefit?

We use one and find her very helpful. Obviously they are trying to get a booking, it would be naive to think other wise but I think they are worthwhile.

We use one, have for the past 3 cruises. She knows what we like. Any queries I have I drop her and email. Sometimes I get an out of office email drop back, but she always contacts me on her return. So I definatley think she is worth it.

Yes I agree with the English lady and dgs1956. I have used my PCS over the last three years covering seven or more cruises and she has always been easy to contact. if she is not available at the time,I leave a message and Stefanie always telephones me back ASAP.In fact I would not consider booking a cruise without consulting with her first about cabin and flight availability, especially flight availability,as we are limited with flights from our local airport .She knows exactly what grade of cabin I book and always keeps me informed about cruises that she thinks I may be interested in.

I have cruised with P&O since 2002 and only wish I had been allocated a PCS sooner than three years ago. in fact she attended to several bookings for me prior to her being appointed my PCS so I was happy that it was Stefanie allocated to me and it is always Stefanie that finalises the booking not anyone else. It is also very convenient for me to have her personal number without having to go through the normal procedures before you get to speak to someone. Why don't you give it a try and judge for yourself.

We have one for P&O and another for Cunard. The P&O one is very good, easy to get hold of, always gets back to us and really knows what he is talking about however the Cunard one is completely useless so I guess that it is luck of the draw.

We did much better through a TA though. They gave us discount that we would not have got through P&O and it was well worth it.

I have used my cruise specialist once as I knew more about it than he did and he had to call me back twice. !

Well of course they're trying to get a booking but out as a matter of principle (for me) I'd book through the one who's done the work and not through an outbound team that recieves leads (probably 'encouraged' to them on a plate by the inbound bookers.

I just think that's bad practice but hey that's my view, I'm sure you get good ones but the knowledge is with the ones taking call after call.

We have one for P&O and one for Princess. The Princess girl is amazing, i use her to book cruises and flights. She will monitor the prices of flights after i have booked and if the price goes down she will cancel and rebook at the cheaper price and let me know. She keeps me informed of special offers and knows what areas of cruising interest me. She has arranged OBC and booked onboard purchases for me in advance. If you get a good PCS they are invaluable. The guy who contacted me from P&O unfortunately offered nothing and delivered even less.

We did much better through a TA though. They gave us discount that we would not have got through P&O and it was well worth it.

I thought they weren't allowed to do that anymore?

I thought they weren't allowed to do that anymore?

They do not advertise discounts now but I know that they do sometimes offer small discounts because we have had several calls from a TA that we have used in the past offering us a small discount on certain cruises. When I asked the girl who called me how they could do this she said that P&O have drastically reduced their commission so they can no longer offer general discounts but they can and do target former clients who they know are regular cruisers because they know that they will probably get return business so although they are reducing the commission that they get to keep it is still worthwhile to make these offers to a targetted audience.

Just had a call from my "cruise specialist" after I have recently booked a cruise for next June 2015. Very rarely hear from him and really cannot see the point although after reading some replies others think differently to me.

We have a Cruise specialist and I have to say he's been excellent. Looking for a low cost cruise (Saver fair) he called us to inform us that prices had dropped on a couple of Cruises.

He's also helped us choose and also offers a personal service.

We had a brilliant one.

I was taken ill a few weeks before my cruise a year ago. We had to cancel.

She helped enormously, had a lovely attitude and guided us and advised re using the money on a shorter recuperation cruise, which did me a power of good, and then a longer one recently (a year after the event).

P and O in general were brilliant to us and having the lovely Personal Adviser made it even easier. You just e mail, or phone, and back she comes with an answer to your query. however small.

We have one for P&O and another for Cunard. The P&O one is very good, easy to get hold of, always gets back to us and really knows what he is talking about however the Cunard one is completely useless so I guess that it is luck of the draw.

Would like a first class Cunard PCS?

Then consider our contact

Sevin White | Personal Cruise Specialist | Carnival UK

100 Harbour Parade | Southampton | Hampshire | SO15 1ST

Cunard Tel. 0843 374 0002 Ext 2025

E-mail: sevin.white@carnivalukgroup.com

:D

Would like a first class Cunard PCS?

 

Then consider our contact

 

 

 

Sevin White | Personal Cruise Specialist | Carnival UK

 

100 Harbour Parade | Southampton | Hampshire | SO15 1ST

 

Cunard Tel. 0843 374 0002 Ext 2025

 

E-mail: sevin.white@carnivalukgroup.com

 

 

 

:D

I think Personal Cruise Specialists are only allocated to Caribbean tier members and above. It is an enhanced service for their best customers .

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

I think Personal Cruise Specialists are only allocated to Caribbean tier members and above. It is an enhanced service for their best customers .

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

But this does not stop one contacting Sevin direct, and asking for her to be your consultant. Friends have ;)

We met a P&O cruise specialist at the cruise show and we booked a last minute with her. She said she could book any Carnival group cruises for us, knew all the Princess gang "upstairs" and could get the best prices. They're all in the same building.

I thought they weren't allowed to do that anymore?

P&O changed the amount of commission they give TAs last year back up to nearer what they got before, so now they are able to give discounts if they want. We have done very well for next year.

I would normally not book direct for that reason, although we did pre-register for Adonia in April.

I think Personal Cruise Specialists are only allocated to Caribbean tier members and above. It is an enhanced service for their best customers .

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Well we have been Baltic since the start of Peninsular Club and had one phone call ages ago saying they were my personal cruise specialist and never had one phone call since even though done cruises on P&O. Wouldnt know who or how to contact and they certainly arent interested in contacting me so not a personal service for Caribbean and above.

We have been allocated a personal cruise specialist and with a meagre two P&O cruises under our belts (and another one booked) we are the "lowest of the low" tier (we were told our "credit" from two cruises in the 1990s would be carried over, but it hasn't been and when we queried this they had changed their tune). Sorry, but she is useless. Never there, never returns calls, when we use her "direct line" we get someone else who invariably says they can deal with the call. Next time you call you get someone else who tells you completely different information - not a good experience.