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

[poppy123]

Just had another look and a mini suite is now £80pp less than we paid for a balcony. So that makes an even greater loss. We booked a vantage believing that if the price came down we would be looked after, little did we know at that stage that getaways would be introduced. I will just have to make sure that I eat an extra £3000 worth of food and grab an extra drink at the free parties:D:D

[wilson2579]

We did get an upgrade with our Vantage cruise in July but our new cabin was the noisiest cabin we have ever had. Won't opt in to an upgrade again.:(

[Dreamgirl1957]

Just had another look and a mini suite is now £80pp less than we paid for a balcony. So that makes an even greater loss. We booked a vantage believing that if the price came down we would be looked after, little did we know at that stage that getaways would be introduced. I will just have to make sure that I eat an extra £3000 worth of food and grab an extra drink at the free parties:D:D

 

Hi poppy123 , I really feel for you and I wouldn't give up! We had a two week Caribbean booked two years ago which had originally been a canaries but we had amended it so when my husband was asked to move his holiday forward by two or three weeks by his boss ( he works on a Farm and heavy rain during the summer had changed things) we asked if we could do that and pay another fee. They point blank refused, we tried everything but no they would not budge! We lost £650 which for us takes an awful lot of earning. We re-booked with rci but as we had lost all that money we didn't get to the Caribbean. I was so mad I would not re-book with p&o at the time out of principle!

A very silly rule I think as we still wanted to travel, we couldn't claim on ins and it would have been unthinkable to ignore my husband's boss and not change it.

At the time I was very upset and posted on cc, I had various replies lots of sympathy but several saying tough you knew the rules! In life things happen and we sometimes have to change things I think the way we and many others are treated by not allowing more than one change resulting in us losing huge sums is disgraceful. It's just the same as the way vantage customers are being treated now and I'm pleased P&O are going to try and sort it out but how long will that take and loyal customers are starting to leave. Early bookers should be treated like Kings but they are the big losers it seems. We eventually got £200 good will gesture towards another cruise but it took some getting. I know there are rules and they are there for a reason but it's a daft rule, we would have re-booked, spent even more (as you have to if you amend!!! ) as it is they sent us to the competition! With most other cruise companies you can make as many changes as you want you just pay a fee, also most allow the new booking to be of a lower value so they retain their customers by giving excellent customer service. Our change was months before departure not close to it so shouldn't have caused so much trouble to them really.

Worst thing was I'm an ex ta, I sold many cruises but I always recommended p&o first , I really felt kicked in the teeth at the time as we so wanted to do the cruise we'd booked just two or so weeks later.

Ours was only a small loss compared to what's happened to you so I hope you get something decent by way of compensation.

 

Sent from my C6603 using Tapatalk 2

[PRINCESSTHE BEST]

I love that , hope someone at P&O reads these forums , perfectly put !

 

Rest assured, they do. When we were on Aurora 2 weeks ago Neil Turnbull was saying that someone on cruisecritic was criticising him about how many ports he missed on the USA and Canada cruise in 2012.

[Thejuggler]

If I had lost over £3k on the back of a dubious price promise guarantee it would be worth the cost to go through small claims and see what P&O do to defend themselves.

[PRINCESSTHE BEST]

I wish our cruise had only gone down by £300 pp, we have lost by over £3000 for a cruise we booked 15 months ago. Have written twice to David Dingle regarding this. Do P&O care. NO they don't, all they do is tell you of all the advantages of booking a vantage fare, yeah right. They have not even offered us a cabin upgrade as a goodwill gesture despite the fact we have been on 21 P&O cruises.

 

So from next year it will be goodbye P&O and hello Celebrity and Princess.

 

This is financial suicide by P&O and it has to stop. You may be severely out of pocket on this one, but don't give up on P&O (HELL WHAT AM I SAYING!!!!). On Aurora 2 weeks ago it is apparent that everything is not well and they are desperate to put things right. They are allegedly renegotiating terms with travel agents to get them back onside, as the big players have been deliberately steering customers away from P&O allegedly. I think once this new management team have got their act together a P&O Cruise will be a good product at a competitive price with none of this reckless marketing rubbish.

[majortom10]

If I had lost over £3k on the back of a dubious price promise guarantee it would be worth the cost to go through small claims and see what P&O do to defend themselves.

 

It isnt dubious even though a bit naughty price promise clearly stated that Vantage fares when booked the price promise would not cover if price went to Getaway fares.

[Dreamgirl1957]

This is financial suicide by P&O and it has to stop. You may be severely out of pocket on this one, but don't give up on P&O (HELL WHAT AM I SAYING!!!!). On Aurora 2 weeks ago it is apparent that everything is not well and they are desperate to put things right. They are allegedly renegotiating terms with travel agents to get them back onside, as the big players have been deliberately steering customers away from P&O allegedly. I think once this new management team have got their act together a P&O Cruise will be a good product at a competitive price with none of this reckless marketing rubbish.

 

You've hit the nail on the head ! My last year as travel agent was when p@o , princess and cunnard cut the commission they paid to agents from 15%down to 5%.

The idea , they said was to deter heavy discounting and ensure wherever you booked you would get the same price .

We were "advised" by head office to sell rci, Fred , NFL, etc etc whoever still paid the company 15% even to try to move regular p&o ,princess and Cunard customers over to other brands . Regular p&o customers thought we were being "difficult" by not giving discount, they got stroppy and would quote previous discounts , what a nightmare .

That's why the travel agents are so "anti" p&o etc and you can't blame them .

They just can't survive on 5% with all the overheads so of course they won't push the products ,hence low bookings so then in come the getaway fares to try and fill the ships !

If they just paid the agents the 15% again then two things will happen , they will start to sell sell sell p&o etc again and of course lots of happy customers who can get a bit more off as the ta can discount again! Everyone happy and no stupid two tier system . I think they should forget vantage and getaway and go back to what worked so well for years .

[micky most]

Well they have dropped again £699 for a balcony £649 outside cabin on the TA. We paid over twice that price each for a balcony if only we had waited AND some on Vantage Rates have paid over 3 times that price each.The air fare would cost that back from Barbados how can they do it at these prices?:(

 

Micky

[davecttr]

Well they have dropped again £699 for a balcony £649 outside cabin on the TA. We paid over twice that price each for a balcony if only we had waited AND some on Vantage Rates have paid over 3 times that price each.The air fare would cost that back from Barbados how can they do it at these prices?:(

 

Micky

They can't but having the cabin occupied is better than having it empty

 

The recession is beginning to bite and there are a lot of cabins out there that need filling. I can only carry on cruising at the level i do by running down my savings. That can't go on forever :(

[micky most]

They can't but having the cabin occupied is better than having it empty

 

The recession is beginning to bite and there are a lot of cabins out there that need filling. I can only carry on cruising at the level i do by running down my savings. That can't go on forever :(

 

know what you mean by using savings that are dwindling with no interest thanks to the government and useless banks,but hey you only live once so we may as well enjoy it and before last year we had never been abroad and hadnt holidayed for 12 years so now us both being 50 plus we gonna spend spend spend and sooo love cruising!! so spending the kids inheritance:D and why not we b====dy earnt and saved it..;)

 

micky and mrs micky

[jeanlyon]

I heard the same from the staff on Oriana. This has hit P&O really hard, very bad corporate error. one fjords cruise went out with over 1500 Getaway pax. the ship only holds 1800 pax, so they lost money big time. Now wonder two of the directors were for the high jump and have gone.

[daiB]

know what you mean by using savings that are dwindling with no interest thanks to the government and useless banks,but hey you only live once so we may as well enjoy it and before last year we had never been abroad and hadnt holidayed for 12 years so now us both being 50 plus we gonna spend spend spend and sooo love cruising!! so spending the kids inheritance:D and why not we b====dy earnt and saved it..;)

 

micky and mrs micky

 

I have to say Mr.M I do sgree with your statement and as you can see we are doing our best.

 

 

Gan Canny

 

 

Dai:cool:

[micky most]

I have to say Mr.M I do sgree with your statement and as you can see we are doing our best.

 

 

Gan Canny

 

 

Dai:cool:

 

Thanks Dai

 

Can I pressume what you are saying is as you have many more cruises booked for 2014 that you and your good wife are also doing your best to spend the kids inheritance? :)

 

Micky..

[cheekyscouse]

I for one think getaway fares are brilliant I got a very cheap holiday half what I paid last year,if I had hung on I could have saved even more, but good luck to those getting really good deals now, you pay your money and take your chance:cool:

[tjwa]

I for one think getaway fares are brilliant I got a very cheap holiday half what I paid last year,if I had hung on I could have saved even more, but good luck to those getting really good deals now, you pay your money and take your chance:cool:

 

I agree. I've had 3 to date.