Getaway Fares..............again

[daiB]

Mr Rant you are defending bad practice from P&0 regarding the price promise under vantage fares again , P&0 do not , repeat do not give people a choice of vantage or getaway fares if they book early ,the getaway fares have only just been introduced recently for near sailings in 2013 , it is now becoming quite clear to me now knowing your a P&0 shareholder why you are continually defending bad practice from this company towards all subscribers to this thread . Mr Rant you are defending a sinking ship , just like the crew on the Titanic according to the last film .The crew denied or wanted to believe the ship was sinking . My opinion , especially after reading many posts on this site is that P&0 will suffer consequences worse than the recent vomiting bug outbreak for this price promise gimmick-scam that is worthless . Customers can see this scam for what it really is and on sites like this discus this issue . Mr Rant , my advice to you is sell these shares in this company while you can because gimmicks like this being pulled on past loyal customers will not pay in the long term , I mean this with all good intentions to you and your family , happy sailing :)

 

 

As well as being rude you misrepresent me. If you read what I have said. I have said that they were wrong to not tell people about the getaway fares sooner ie that they would be brought in near the end of the booking process. You clearly have a bee in your bonnet about it but the process is now clear. You can book very early and get extra discount book in the middle and get vantage fares or at the end and get the cheaper getaway fares, if they are available. Now if you do not like this then go elsewhere, as you are doing or so you say.

 

I am sure that my huge holding in Carnival is quite secure so I look forward to the profit we will make by you cruising with us.:rolleyes:

 

 

Gan Canny

 

 

Dai

[JEBEV]

Just returned from 2 weeks on Azura in the Caribbean

We booked the Getaway fare directly via the P&O web site in Jan for the cruise 21st Feb and as required we paid the full price at that time.

 

The web site allowed me to choose the airport to fly from and the guarantee cabin type and then the freedom dining option down to choosing a table for two.

 

We have cruised 3 times before on Ventura & Azura and never had a problem with the dining option however arriving onboard we found we were allocated to 1st sitting which we just didn't want.

 

Having always had Freedom dining on previous cruises I checked with Reception and the Food Service manager and was informed Freedom was at capacity and we had been waitlisted.

 

So in some respects my fault for not reading all the detail on the final invoice sent to me i.e. that your choice of Dining is a request subject to confirmation and you could be waitlisted.

 

However what's interesting is when I queried how long the waitlist was there were over 270 passengers in front of us and Freedom had actually been booked up by the end of August the previous year.

 

 

The Food Service manager told us that many passengers were being disappointed and it was a big problem they keep flagging back to P&O so much that he had to allocate a manager and himself for a full day at the beginning of each cruise explaining the same thing to passengers expecting to get what they thought they booked.

 

Now if the Manchester flight had been fully booked P&O would have taken the option off the web site, similarly they put sold on cabins as they are booked, so why not flag the freedom dining as fully booked and not available? i.e. make customers aware they don't stand a chance at all of getting Freedom dining prior to paying 100% of their fare.

 

I cant help thinking that the answer is circa 270 people may have decided (like I would have done) to book another cruise.

[kersh]

Jebev,

I agree with you. We have booked a getaway for end of May and our TA told us that all 3 options were available. We booked freedom dining. I am now concerned that this will be changed on arrival. I agree with pax paying Vantage fares getting first choice of cabins and dining but the dining should beep honoured as booked.

[mr.swan]

Just returned from 2 weeks on Azura in the Caribbean

We booked the Getaway fare directly via the P&O web site in Jan for the cruise 21st Feb and as required we paid the full price at that time.

 

The web site allowed me to choose the airport to fly from and the guarantee cabin type and then the freedom dining option down to choosing a table for two.

 

We have cruised 3 times before on Ventura & Azura and never had a problem with the dining option however arriving onboard we found we were allocated to 1st sitting which we just didn't want.

 

Having always had Freedom dining on previous cruises I checked with Reception and the Food Service manager and was informed Freedom was at capacity and we had been waitlisted.

 

So in some respects my fault for not reading all the detail on the final invoice sent to me i.e. that your choice of Dining is a request subject to confirmation and you could be waitlisted.

 

However what's interesting is when I queried how long the waitlist was there were over 270 passengers in front of us and Freedom had actually been booked up by the end of August the previous year.

 

 

The Food Service manager told us that many passengers were being disappointed and it was a big problem they keep flagging back to P&O so much that he had to allocate a manager and himself for a full day at the beginning of each cruise explaining the same thing to passengers expecting to get what they thought they booked.

 

Now if the Manchester flight had been fully booked P&O would have taken the option off the web site, similarly they put sold on cabins as they are booked, so why not flag the freedom dining as fully booked and not available? i.e. make customers aware they don't stand a chance at all of getting Freedom dining prior to paying 100% of their fare.

 

I cant help thinking that the answer is circa 270 people may have decided (like I would have done) to book another cruise.

 

I fully agree with you , this is very shoddy practice and I hope my wife and I do not experience the same problem as we are booked on the Azura in June with freedom dining

[tjwa]

I fully agree with you , this is very shoddy practice and I hope my wife and I do not experience the same problem as we are booked on the Azura in June with freedom dining

 

I agree . This practice is a "sprat to catch a mackerel" as was Azura calling into Guadalupe only to be cancelled at P&O discretion.:eek:

[mr.swan]

As well as being rude you misrepresent me. If you read what I have said. I have said that they were wrong to not tell people about the getaway fares sooner ie that they would be brought in near the end of the booking process. You clearly have a bee in your bonnet about it but the process is now clear. You can book very early and get extra discount book in the middle and get vantage fares or at the end and get the cheaper getaway fares, if they are available. Now if you do not like this then go elsewhere, as you are doing or so you say.

 

I am sure that my huge holding in Carnival is quite secure so I look forward to the profit we will make by you cruising with us.:rolleyes:

 

 

Gan Canny

 

 

Dai

 

Mr Rant , I must admit I have been a little rude with some of my replies to your threads , defending bad practice from P&0 regarding there vantage fare price promise farce , your reply to my first post on this thread stating that you was astounded at people coming on here complaining was in my opinion unequivocally rude on your behalf , your lack of any perception of understanding towards people who have experienced problems or have concerns regarding P&0 on these threads as left me with the opinion that your quite rude and arrogant and replied back to your posts in a similar manner . regarding a bee in my bonnet , correct , I do have a bee in my bonnet just like the majority of others on this thread , I used to work in sales a good number of years ago for a company much larger than P&0 UK and knew most of the sales gimmicks at the time , actually I quit my work

due to similar gimmicks and my sales records were very high in the company but my principles lead me to quit , every company as to come up with new ideas to boost sales if the company is to survive , we all know that some sales gimmicks do work much of the time , particularly for one off sales , but gimmicks directed at loyal regular customers that are worthless is a disaster waiting to happen ,

Mr Rant you say above your huge holding in Carnival is quite secure :rolleyes:

as I have said in a earlier post your comments have lost all credibility with me :rolleyes: , you have not once commented directly regarding the vantage price promise scam instead you rant on about other issues ,

will you answer me this question ! the vantage price promise , book early you have nothing to loose , if the price comes down your will receive this amount by O B C or upgrades etc which is directed mainly towards loyal regular customers who book early is this promise genuine with no misleading or is it bad practice , end off story ,

[Mybelle2]

I work for one of the large travel agencies who sell a lot of P&O Cruises - in fact, until a year or so ago that's pretty much all we sold. We did the odd RCCL, Princess, Cunard and NCL booking, but probably 80% of our business was P&O.

 

Since P&O have gradually become more and more penny pinching - both with these Getaway fares, upping their charges for things such as WI-FI (according to customers) and doing things such as no longer sending booklets out to all customers prior to travel, our figures have probably dropped by around 20%. This 20% has been replaced by virtually the same amount of RCCL /Celebrity bookings. We had a visit from a member of head office who mentioned this drop in P&O bookings and a sharp increase in RCCL/Celebrity bookings and said that virtually every shop she had visited was saying the exact same thing and had had a similar percentage switch to RCCL/Celebrity. If that's just one company that's a heck of a lot of business to lose if all the major cruise agents are experiencing similar switches in business.

 

Personally, I've travelled P&O three times and have decided to try RCCL for the first time in August. They quoted over £1000 cheaper for the exact same Fjords cruise as P&O were doing. For this I got a Superior balcony cabin. P&O for the £1000 more was an obstructed outside cabin. Bit of a no-brainer really.

 

I'm also trying Cunard next year for a short break as P&O have cut out one of the stops on their 3 night breaks so you only stop once. Cunard are exactly the same price and we still get two stops.

[the english lady]

Jebev,

I agree with you. We have booked a getaway for end of May and our TA told us that all 3 options were available. We booked freedom dining. I am now concerned that this will be changed on arrival. I agree with pax paying Vantage fares getting first choice of cabins and dining but the dining should beep honoured as booked.

I always took it that dining requests were just that, requests. We have always been lucky and got what we asked for (that is under what was vantage and getaway)

People on here have always said if you are not happy once on board with that you have been allocated ,see the Maitre'D about changing it. When we have been asked what we would like we have said and they have always said, it is a request. A TA will say what they think a customer would like them to say.

I guess it is possible in the future that getaway fares will lose the option of what dining option they would like , what you are give you have to stick with and cannot change.

I suppose people booking vantage fares would like to think they would always get the option they requested .

[upthewall]

You are already on a good saving looking at the price so if you can wait till payment i would....then consider

[upthewall]

I wish i had not been drawn into the Vantage fare last November, because as the weeks and months had trundled by more offers were coming onto the market from the likes of RCC etc...with also few more destinations ( Fjords one at least ) I have cruised with P&0 5 times but i am afraid after these Vantage Fares being offered on Getaway it's a no brainer to book the Vantage!

[upthewall]

Totally agree! I booked last November for Fjords cruise on Vantage,and at the time even then i had limited cabin choice, but as the months have passed i have watched my booking which basically did not budge until 2 days ago i noticed deluxe balcony's were on sale on Getaway for less than i paid for obs view outside and i am furious! Hardly last minute offers as we don't go till 16th June! And i see aswell my booking yesterday was down by £100 also, but i bet i won't benefit from that as there will be a small print lurking somewhere

[the english lady]

Thing is I think it is much clearer now what you get with the 2 fares. We are booking one for next year when the bookings open. We know what we are paying for.....

We know when getaway fares come out for this cruise (if they do) they will be much much cheaper. That is not to say that the grade we want will be available on getaway. We have already missed out on a cruise we were looking at for next year. all the cabins at the grade we want are sold out. We were not waiting for getaway or anything. We just thought we would like to go away at a certain time.looked at where pando were going decided on the one, and poof no cabins...That was for a special birthday. We also have a special anniversary so will be booking that as soon as they open.

Do I want to go with any other line...well a friend went with Celebrity, and by the time she had finished telling me about all the nickel and dimeing, I said to her ,did she think it was worth it....not really was her reply.

Out of an entire ship I would guess very few onboard are computer literate and even less of that are even aware of CC. When people come on here saying people will not be caught out again...very very few will even know anything about these discussions.

A couple of years ago when people started becoming aware of the price drops that were happening nearer departure they came on here an complained and problably complained to Pando.

Last year I think people became more aware -who use these forums -of the drops. Some of them did get OBS back or upgrades.

Pando have made it much clearer now what you get for each fare.

You will always get people who chase the cheapest fare, you will equally get those who want something special for a special time, and are happy to pay the extra to get it. Each to his own.

As for the TA...well we know their commission has been cut, and some of them just do not push Pando now, as the other lines given them more money, so the drop in Pando bookings could be down to that.

I am getting tired though of people booking getaway and then coming on here moaning about not having this ,not having that. Witness the person who booked 2 cabins on getaway,having had it explained there was no guarantee they would be near each other, and now moaning because they are not.

[AnnieC]

At what point did asking a question become moaning?

 

Judge for yourselves: http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1814252

 

Annie

[the english lady]

At what point did asking a question become moaning?

 

Judge for yourselves: http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1814252

 

Annie

They accepted with a getaway that they would have no control over where the cabins were. Now they have been allocated they want to move the goal posts to fit themselves. ie having double the number of people in a cabin ,with double the work for the steward.

maybe moaning was not quite the right word but they knew the parameters when they booked-it was explained to them-now they are not too happy with the throw of the dice.

[tillybilly321]

They accepted with a getaway that they would have no control over where the cabins were. Now they have been allocated they want to move the goal posts to fit themselves. ie having double the number of people in a cabin ,with double the work for the steward.

maybe moaning was not quite the right word but they knew the parameters when they booked-it was explained to them-now they are not too happy with the throw of the dice.

 

 

Sorry but I think you have got that a bit wrong. The lady was not complaining, just asking a perfectly sensible question.

 

Most of the super deluxe cabins are in fact 4 berth. If she has been lucky enough to be allocated 2 x 4 berth cabins then it would make perfect sense just to use one of them !

 

This just reinforces the stupidity of P&O not allowing families to book a single cabin under the Getaway scheme. They have lost a cabin which could have been sold to another passenger and also lost the associated on-board spend of said passenger.

Whilst 4 berths do sell out fairly quickly during school holidays there is ALWAYS availability the rest of the year. 39 weeks of the year, to be precise. Surely P&O has the sense to see this is going to be an ongoing problem if they continue to make families book 2 cabins at a time.

[simonpjd]

P&O have shot themselves in the foot here. They say families cannot book Getaway fares so they book 2 cabins - and not complaining about that. Then P&O go and allocate them a family cabin so they do not need the other. One almost wonders whether they could stick the other one on ebay!! The older I get the more incompetence I seem to see - and this is right up there. I just hope you have a wonderful cruise and are able to put this nonsense behind you.

P&O - SORT YOURSELF OUT.

[nhamer04]

P&O have shot themselves in the foot here. They say families cannot book Getaway fares so they book 2 cabins - and not complaining about that. Then P&O go and allocate them a family cabin so they do not need the other. One almost wonders whether they could stick the other one on ebay!! The older I get the more incompetence I seem to see - and this is right up there. I just hope you have a wonderful cruise and are able to put this nonsense behind you.

P&O - SORT YOURSELF OUT.

 

Well said.... I have only cruised a couple of times and never with P&O before. I dont have much spare cash and have to save hard for any cruise we take. I booked a short break cruise leaving 18th April before Xmas and a week later they released the Getaway fare. I am paying £319 p.p for a basic ND inside cabin and its now £229 on a Getaway, a balcony is £299p.p? The difference in price would of payed for my parking and some!! P&O wont allow me to change it as the Vantage fair is now more expensive! What a complete joke.

 

It wont make a difference to me enjoying this cruise but I will not be booking with P&O again in future until last minute if at all. Im willing to take the chance on a cruise selling out than being ripped off again!!

[upthewall]

yes your complaint is the same as mine..in your case an inside cabin ( one choice sadly i would never book) mine was an obstructed outside at least, but nevertheless finding out much better cabins going for the same or even cheaper is a kick in the teeth

[Somerset Cruiser]

Well said.... I have only cruised a couple of times and never with P&O before. I dont have much spare cash and have to save hard for any cruise we take. I booked a short break cruise leaving 18th April before Xmas and a week later they released the Getaway fare. I am paying £319 p.p for a basic ND inside cabin and its now £229 on a Getaway, a balcony is £299p.p? The difference in price would of payed for my parking and some!! P&O wont allow me to change it as the Vantage fair is now more expensive! What a complete joke.

 

It wont make a difference to me enjoying this cruise but I will not be booking with P&O again in future until last minute if at all. Im willing to take the chance on a cruise selling out than being ripped off again!!

 

I bought a pack of cereal in tesco last week for £2.99. This week the same cereal is 2 or £4. Coffee in Sainsburys, 1 week it is £7, a week later £5.

 

A definition of ripped off;

To exploit, swindle, cheat, or defraud: a false advertising campaign that ripped off consumers.

[the english lady]

Did the people who are querying the price drops now, come on here first ,to discover how the lay of the land was, or did they just book it, without checking anything out first. Last year when they had fluid pricing ,and prices went up,as they were being booked in some cases, people were not too happy about that either.

With all these people chasing the lowest price, will they also be the ones who get on board and they query why standards are dropping.

ref the thread with the 2 cabins/1 cabin somebody had stated on there about the safety aspect.

As has been mooted at a guess last time when they let families book guarentees (were the t and c the same as getaway) they possibly had a human working out cabins. If they only have 2 people each time booking getaways I guess that a computer could just do the allocating , as there will not be any requests out side of we want a cabin-do not mind where it is.

I had already said earlier maybe moaning was not the right word.

[AnnieC]

I bought a pack of cereal in tesco last week for £2.99. This week the same cereal is 2 or £4. Coffee in Sainsburys, 1 week it is £7, a week later £5.

A definition of ripped off;

To exploit, swindle, cheat, or defraud: a false advertising campaign that ripped off consumers.

 

The difference, which most seem to understand but a few seem still unable to grasp, is that Tesco gave me no deliberately misleading price promise on the subsequent price of my goods. That's the main focus of this year's complaints and, despite having booked a cut-price getaway myself, I am in complete agreement with those who feel deceived.

 

If anyone can either point me towards anyone who has benefitted after the Vantage fares came into operation, or who actually believes that P&O and Cunard had any intention of reducing the price of a single solitary Vantage fare, then you are right. Otherwise, the only conclusion to be drawn is that these fares were marketed in a deliberately misleading way to get inexperienced passengers to book early. If you think that's right, then that says more about your values than mine.

 

Annie

[nhamer04]

As I've said I will enjoy my cruise regardless but will certainly look into things more closely before I book anything next time.

 

Once bitten, twice shy. And I doubt ill be the only one.

[Dreamgirl1957]

On a slightly different note but still to do with P&O and how they price/sell their holidays.

 

I am an ex TA, in April 2010 i booked a P&O to canaries, later deciding we would prefer Caribbean we amended to Caribbean / 2 weeks with a Balcony which was a huge expense for us and a dream holiday being far dearer than our original choice .

( As our commission at the TA's had just been cut to 5% also meant i received only 3.5% staff discount and could have got 12.% booking with RCi, Thomson, Celebrity etc but i wanted P&O so paid the price..happily i might add!)

 

We were due to sail in Nov 12, my husband works on a farm and last summer we had the type of weather you never expect in the UK , all the wet weather caused so many problems for farmers and as my husband plants and picks the potatos the times had to be changed, they feared they would be picking far later as they had planted late so we had to move our holiday .

It was ultimatly our choice

a) to help out when needed and

b) every year my husbands boss gives him a good bonus, this is for hard work through the year and would have been wrong to take time off when busiest!

 

We contacted P&O, they would not allow another change as we had amended once, even with another fee. Yes i know rules are rules..... fully accept that but, we wanted to still sail, with P&O , we wanted to spend money, offered to increase holiday cost again etc etc...they would not budge!

 

My manager ( i had now just retired,) tried and tried to reason with them , i had personally sold many many P&O cruises , always my first offer to new cruise customers as i thought they were the best all round etc and also to many repeat customers but it made no difference. They said we would lose £627 , now i know to many this isnt much. it is to us im afraid.

I just cannot understand their problem if you are willing to a) pay another fee and b) increase booking value.

 

Most other cruise lines allow unlimited changes with a small fee, they mostly do not require any increase in spending either and will often let you book something cheaper instead just happy to keep your business for the future, not P&O!!

 

We re-booked for July with RCi for a two week Fjords, there were some very good P&O bargains at the time but i would not give them another penny.

 

Eventually after a few letters they have given us £200 credit to use towards another cruise. Better than nothing i suppose but i feel so many of their rules are very outdated and nothing shows me they put the paying customer first!

 

We are looking at the caribbean for Feb 14, i want to wait and look for a getaway fare if we do go with P&O .

 

I hope i dont sound like a moaner or winger, my point is i think they were very unfair when we didnt want to cancel we wanted to amend, this has happened to so many people and many wont go back ever to P&O. We are just deciding at the moment , if a good enough deal comes up we will see.

 

Looking at their pricing and diff fare types..not everyone can afford to book a Vantage fare and not worry if the price comes down, we did last time but it didnt do us any favours at all apart from the fact we would have lost the lot if a getaway fare! If they allowed for more changes may make it more appealing. Life has its ups and downs, things happen that are often not covered by insurance, we are not all retired with a nest egg........of course we would prefer to choose a cabin, dining options etc but as they now offer their late deals with no frills and very few choices we will have to go with the flow if we do book with them but they do seem to be pushing good custom away instead of trying to attract it, my opinion and im sure many will say im wrong ........... we are just ordinary working people on a budget like many P&O customers looking for a good deal but on such a dear holiday the getaway rules make it feel a little "bargain basement" and two classes like the old titanic days :eek: , shame they cant just reduce fares a bit at the biggining and stick to them, that way most would book early boosting P&O's coffers and they would get a bit of extra interest and of course they could add a few more flexable otions for changes when lifes little hick-ups occur !!!

 

Surely keeping customers happy is the most important thing and recently from things ive read quite a few regular customers seem a little unhappy with P&O

[pozza_73]

What confuses me is that Cunard are now blurring the lines between Getaway and Vantage fares. Whilst I didn't agree with it, I certainly understood the differences between the two and that Vantage had added benefits. I was however surprised to see free on board credit offered on Getaway fares. I usually book holidays early but I certainly will consider booking my next cruise as a Getaway fare.

[wilson2579]

I booked Vantage 2 weeks ago and didn't get any OBC so a bit miffed.:confused: