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Help our cabin is not what we expected!


eddiecat
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I hope this is soon resolved satisfactorily for the OP. If they specified queen bed to the travel agent then P and O should honour that as a matter of principle. They were not told that it was only a request. The agent was acting on behalf of P and O and the booking is with P and O after all. Getting P and O to behave honourable seem quite difficult though.

 

These cabins would probably make good single balcony cabins.

 

Best wishes, Stephen.

 

 

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If they specified queen bed to the travel agent then P and O should honour that as a matter of principle. They were not told that it was only a request. The agent was acting on behalf of P and O and the booking is with P and O after all.

 

Can they prove what they were told. I could because I booked directly with P&O over the phone and the call is recorded.

 

A discussion with a travel agent...

 

Getting P and O to behave honourable seem quite difficult though.

 

I had no problem getting them to do so, but then I booked direct and they had the evidence.

 

All the OP has is 'he said, they said'. However such a terrible travel agent ought to be named and shamed.

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Hi....this point about stating what bed formation you required could be the pivotal point.As I said in my case I asked for twin beds and at the point of booking I was informed that they were fixed beds so no chance of them changing into a Queen formation....I accepted.

The OP asked for Queen formation so at the point of booking it should have been made clear that on this particular ship it wouldn't be guaranteed. Who is actually to blame ....debatable....but I would think the contract is between the TA & P&O so in my mind it should be the TA who should be like a " dog with a bone" and contacting someone higher up the " scale" who can actually override any decision made by some one lower down.

A few years ago I " had a battle" with a very well holiday company and I wouldn't give up .....eventually they succumbed after quite a few months. In that case they kept quoting their T&Cs but I also had laid down my T&Cs at the point of booking....they broke the contract so eventually it was a happy outcome.

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The OP should have already started a credit card dispute. The line has a contract but it is second to the credit card user agreement. The cruise line would take notice if they got a dispute. On basis for this is the product delivered is not what was order or expected. A case could even be made that the cruise line misrepresented the product (Cabin) being offered. Combine that with all the special added information about the cabin from the first cruise line.

 

It would get the attention of someone higher up who could correct this situation. The OP booked believing she had a queen size bed, even if not within her contract, if that is what was represented to her then she has a very good claim.

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The OP should have already started a credit card dispute. The line has a contract but it is second to the credit card user agreement. The cruise line would take notice if they got a dispute. On basis for this is the product delivered is not what was order or expected. A case could even be made that the cruise line misrepresented the product (Cabin) being offered. Combine that with all the special added information about the cabin from the first cruise line.

 

It would get the attention of someone higher up who could correct this situation. The OP booked believing she had a queen size bed, even if not within her contract, if that is what was represented to her then she has a very good claim.

 

Correct. Contract Implied.

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Waiting to hear more from the OP as we are also booked in a guarantee cabin for our cruise on the Azura at Christmas. First time on P&O and only the second time in a guarantee although we have been cruising for 28 years (I am def not going to point out how wonderful at all was, as far as we are concerned, it still is).

 

 

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They appear still to be selling balcony cabins for this cruise. With a choice of cabins ... Hopefully the OP will get their move

 

I would say nothing happens, they have put her in a bad cabin and she has allowed it. They will keep selling the better cabins. She posted here and on other sites, but does not seem to want to challenge the cruise line so they do not need to do anything.

 

Unless she puts the effort in to fix with the Cruise Office, vs posting here she has her only cabin...

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I would say nothing happens, they have put her in a bad cabin and she has allowed it. They will keep selling the better cabins. She posted here and on other sites, but does not seem to want to challenge the cruise line so they do not need to do anything.

 

Unless she puts the effort in to fix with the Cruise Office, vs posting here she has her only cabin...

 

As you say, she's posted this all over the place, including Tripadvisor (where the posts have been deleted). She's had a lot of good advice, and probably successfully challenged/challenging P&O on this and achieved/achieving a satisfactory outcome.

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It would appear that the OS on my phone is playing up! My comment was, The young lady is 19 years old, give her a break, most 19 year olds can't conjugate a sentence or use cutlery.

 

She has contacted P&O several times and has tried very hard to sort out the problem (IMHO) It is the TA who should be castigated and sort out a solution. I would be very unhappy and post my frustration everywhere, as this seems to be the "new" way to complain by shaming the company with Joe Public.

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It would appear that the OS on my phone is playing up! My comment was, The young lady is 19 years old, give her a break, most 19 year olds can't conjugate a sentence or use cutlery.

 

She has contacted P&O several times and has tried very hard to sort out the problem (IMHO) It is the TA who should be castigated and sort out a solution. I would be very unhappy and post my frustration everywhere, as this seems to be the "new" way to complain by shaming the company with Joe Public.

 

You say shaming the company with Joe Public is the “new” way to complain, and that the TA should be castigated. In my view, the OP is trying to shame the wrong company as I agree that it appears as though the error is down to the TA the OP chose to use. However, I think such tactics are unfortunate and in the end, less likely to reach a resolution.

 

The only thing that is not to OP’s liking is that they have not been allocated a cabin with a queen bed. The cabin is otherwise as described albeit ordered differently from most. It seems to have everything that other balcony cabins have. That is the risk of accepting a guarantee cabin rather than a different category of cabin where you can choose, if booking select (as OP probably did), and opting not to be upgraded. If OP didn’t realise this, perhaps the agent should have made it clear. P&O will take a booking from an agent on the assumption that the agent has done the job the OP and not P&O selected them to do.

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P&O will take a booking from an agent on the assumption that the agent has done the job the OP and not P&O selected them to do.

 

P&O don't take a booking from the agent they take a booking from the traveller facilitated by their agent. The agent is also P&O's agent (since they pay them) not the traveller's agent.

 

So since P&O are selling a cruise to a honeymoon couple where having a double bed is a key factor in the booking, then they should make damn sure this key factor is brought to the customer's attention and not hidden in the T&C's.

 

And if the agent is rubbish then P&O should fire them by refusing to allow them to sell their cruises.

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They appear still to be selling balcony cabins for this cruise. With a choice of cabins ... Hopefully the OP will get their move

 

It seems as though there are still balcony cabins available for the first seven nights of the cruise and not the second seven nights. It is either two seven night cruises or one fourteen night one, OP is doing the fourteen night one.

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I cannot find any mention from OP that this is her honeymoon. Perhaps I missed it.

 

It was several pages in.

 

The OP chose the agent and in my view, it is the agent who has caused this problem.

 

P&O choose who can act as their agents, so you would hope they would want all those to be satisfactory.

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I thought I would do some “market research” on this subject and have made calls to what are probably recognised as the main cruise booking agencies - they are all UK companies and I made the five calls from Friday to today. My enquiry was steering them towards a GTY cabin without actually saying so. In four of the five cases when we reached the pricing point, I was told the cabin would be allocated by the cruise line and I would not have the option to reject it. The four of them did not say, “it might be under the swimming pool” or “it might be over the night club” but they did all say that I need to be content/happy with what is allocated - I.e balance the deal against the possible disadvantages. The fifth agent really urged me to look at deck plans and see what was below and above the decks that my cabin may end up being on even with an AQ on X - I had never realised that so many if their AQ’s (in my opinion) are not brilliantly located.

 

I am not sure that the OP’s agent did anything too far off course.

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Without going back through all the posts, one of the gripes of the OP regards queen or separate beds. I've never booked a guarantee cabin but it seems a fair complaint if queen beds was specified.

 

As for position on the ship - 'under a pool' or 'above a night club' then that's what you have to take a chance with.

 

Even before this thread I wouldn't ever risk booking a guarantee cabin.

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Just a few closing thoughts from me, as I feel that this thread has now run its course.

 

Firstly, the OP has never said that this was their honeymoon. In fact I’ve just double checked and re-read all their posts. The ‘honeymoon’ aspect was added in error by a respondent. The OP has consistently referred to it as a holiday and nothing more. Classic case of Chinese whispers! Perhaps if they said it was their honeymoon they might get more of a reaction - but it isn’t.

 

Secondly, as many of us have stated, whilst the cabin grade is guaranteed (as a minimum) and is therefore a condition of booking, the bed configuration is a preference and merely that. When you accept a booking without a specified cabin, you take your chances.

 

Finally (and I say this as someone who offered support in my responses), am I alone in getting frustrated when someone effectively joins Cruise critic to effectively complain about something, elicit lots of helpful responses from many of us, only to then vanish? The OP has not posted on this thread for almost a week now. I’m sure that many of us would have liked to know how this ended up or at least, as a courtesy, an update - even if just to say there is no update!

 

If the OP isn’t going to return, are we wasting our time?

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I would say nothing happens, they have put her in a bad cabin and she has allowed it. They will keep selling the better cabins. She posted here and on other sites, but does not seem to want to challenge the cruise line so they do not need to do anything.

 

Unless she puts the effort in to fix with the Cruise Office, vs posting here she has her only cabin...

 

She went through a TA and has been calling & communicating with her TA all the time. It is my understanding that if you are using a TA, then cruise lines won't talk to the cruiser directly. I don't know if that is ALL cruise lines, but that's what I've seen/hear/know.

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Just a few closing thoughts from me, as I feel that this thread has now run its course.

 

Firstly, the OP has never said that this was their honeymoon. In fact I’ve just double checked and re-read all their posts. The ‘honeymoon’ aspect was added in error by a respondent. The OP has consistently referred to it as a holiday and nothing more. Classic case of Chinese whispers! Perhaps if they said it was their honeymoon they might get more of a reaction - but it isn’t.

 

Secondly, as many of us have stated, whilst the cabin grade is guaranteed (as a minimum) and is therefore a condition of booking, the bed configuration is a preference and merely that. When you accept a booking without a specified cabin, you take your chances.

 

Finally (and I say this as someone who offered support in my responses), am I alone in getting frustrated when someone effectively joins Cruise critic to effectively complain about something, elicit lots of helpful responses from many of us, only to then vanish? The OP has not posted on this thread for almost a week now. I’m sure that many of us would have liked to know how this ended up or at least, as a courtesy, an update - even if just to say there is no update!

 

If the OP isn’t going to return, are we wasting our time?

 

It's 11 pages long, so I didn't re-read ALL of the posts. But I did see one my own posts that said honeymoon. I don't know where I saw it, picked it up ... but it wasn't corrected either. So the mistake continued, I guess.

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Secondly, as many of us have stated, whilst the cabin grade is guaranteed (as a minimum) and is therefore a condition of booking, the bed configuration is a preference and merely that. When you accept a booking without a specified cabin, you take your chances.

 

Provided you are actually told that.

 

As I said before, when I was allocated fixed twins on a Saver I complained I had been asked whether I wanted twin or double and when I asked for a double it was not explained a double may not be available.

 

This was a booking direct with P&O over the phone.

 

They went away and played the tapes, agreed they had messed up, and allocated me a cabin with a double bed.

 

Long gone are the days of companies being allowed to bury important matters in the T&C's and not explicitly tell you.

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Provided you are actually told that.

 

As I said before, when I was allocated fixed twins on a Saver I complained I had been asked whether I wanted twin or double and when I asked for a double it was not explained a double may not be available.

 

This was a booking direct with P&O over the phone.

 

They went away and played the tapes, agreed they had messed up, and allocated me a cabin with a double bed.

 

Long gone are the days of companies being allowed to bury important matters in the T&C's and not explicitly tell you.

 

An example of where booking direct with P&O can be advantageous. We do the same. Removes the middleman. Sadly the OP didn’t, and used a clueless TA.

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I have been watching this thread with interest as it has been rather like a 'soap' and some very good advice and information has come from the wonderful cruise critic posters. I am watching as I have booked a guarantee cabin for the second time for a cruise in June on Azura. This will be the second time we have done this on Azura - last time to the Caribean in 2017 when we received a very slight upgrade and had a good inside cabin and a great holiday. We booked both times through a TA who specialises in Cruises and we were made very aware of the gamble this can be. Currently I don't know what our cabin allocation will be and our information on the Cruise Personaliser just says as below. We did ask for Queen bed but we know even that is not always possible. We choose this way of booking a saver fare because the price is right for us and we poor are at booking holidays a long way in advance. Not sure if this is of use to the discussion but I am watching the thread in the hope that I will learn the eventual outcome like lots of others here.

 

Number: GUAR Category: Deck: TO BE ASSIGNEDBed Configuration: Queen

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Just a few closing thoughts from me, as I feel that this thread has now run its course.

 

Firstly, the OP has never said that this was their honeymoon. In fact I’ve just double checked and re-read all their posts. The ‘honeymoon’ aspect was added in error by a respondent. The OP has consistently referred to it as a holiday and nothing more. Classic case of Chinese whispers! Perhaps if they said it was their honeymoon they might get more of a reaction - but it isn’t.

 

Secondly, as many of us have stated, whilst the cabin grade is guaranteed (as a minimum) and is therefore a condition of booking, the bed configuration is a preference and merely that. When you accept a booking without a specified cabin, you take your chances.

 

Finally (and I say this as someone who offered support in my responses), am I alone in getting frustrated when someone effectively joins Cruise critic to effectively complain about something, elicit lots of helpful responses from many of us, only to then vanish? The OP has not posted on this thread for almost a week now. I’m sure that many of us would have liked to know how this ended up or at least, as a courtesy, an update - even if just to say there is no update!

 

If the OP isn’t going to return, are we wasting our time?

 

 

 

I tend to agree with you on this. I have looked each day to see if there is a resolution.....

 

 

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I have been watching this thread with interest as it has been rather like a 'soap' and some very good advice and information has come from the wonderful cruise critic posters. I am watching as I have booked a guarantee cabin for the second time for a cruise in June on Azura. This will be the second time we have done this on Azura - last time to the Caribbean in 2017 when we received a very slight upgrade and had a good inside cabin and a great holiday. We booked both times through a TA who specialises in Cruises and we were made very aware of the gamble this can be. Currently I don't know what our cabin allocation will be and our information on the Cruise Personaliser just says as below. We did ask for Queen bed but we know even that is not always possible. We choose this way of booking a saver fare because the price is right for us and we poor are at booking holidays a long way in advance. Not sure if this is of use to the discussion but I am watching the thread in the hope that I will learn the eventual outcome like lots of others here.

 

Number: GUAR Category: Deck: TO BE ASSIGNED Bed Configuration: Queen

 

Your information shows a queen size bed, so the line is required to provide a queen size bed based upon:

 

Number: GUAR Category: Deck: TO BE ASSIGNED Bed Configuration: Queen

They can assign any deck and any cabin number that meets the requirements. Even if this information was supplied by the TA, it is now part of the contract. Not the contract you and the cruise line but the contract with the credit card service.

The cruise line and or TA takes credit cards for payment. The credit card user agreement has first place over the cruise contract. They (Credit Card Service) would consider not giving a queen bed or larger a material change, and would allow and process a credit card dispute.

The cruise line must give you a queen bed or risks losing the payment. They (Cruise Line) also cannot take any negative actions against you if they lose a credit card dispute. Because of the Merchant Agreement with the processing service.

Many guest to not understand the rights they have and allow the cruise line to push them around don't fall into this group.

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