P&O reduce prices/refunds

[ParisHilton]

Thanks Pete, 

  It's frustrating the 'offer' appears all over the cruise till you try to book it (this was an MSC btw).

 

I'm liking the Tesco Clubcard with P&O and RC though. MSC looking less attractive by the day!

[Grandad John]

Que? Tesco club card on P&O?

[ParisHilton]

on the clubcard website, the part to redeem vouchers, travels and holidays (2nd page).

You'll find the below (and a bit of other blurb)

 

Whether you’re new to cruising or a seasoned pro, it’s good to know that when you holiday with P&O Cruises you’re in safe and trusted hands. Whenever you book with us, you’ll have reassurance and expert support when needed, so you can focus on enjoying your holiday

Where you choose to explore, there’s never a better time to rediscover that holiday feeling. We can jet you straight to the heart of the Canaries on a fly cruise? Perhaps you want to feel the warmth of the Caribbean or Mediterranean sunshine from our retractable sky dome on Azura or visit the beautiful location of Norway on our new innovative ship, IONA.

What you need to know

Cruise must be for a minimum of 6-night duration and you must book at least 90 days before you travel.

Reward Partner codes are redeemable against all special offers and promotional prices on the 'Select' fares with the exception of any repeat booker offers. Partner codes cannot be used on Early Saver or Saver Fares.

A maximum value of £810 in codes can be used per booking. You cannot add more codes at a later date.

Visit P&O Cruises website

[Grandad John]

You live and learn, but then again never realised I could speak Spanish. Must be the Rioja I had with the lamb for my lunch!

[Cathygh]

Someone on my last cruise complained to the Loyalty Manager because she booked 2 years ago and had paid so much more (double, I think) than other passengers in the same grade of cabin who booked late. He told her that certain large agents buy the cabins at launch and sell them off cheap if they haven't sold them by final payment. 

I am not sure how accurate this is. I am not aware of agents undercutting P&O by hundreds of pounds after final payment. Most  of them under cut by a few per cent and seem to follow P&Os price rises and falls. IMHO.

[Megabear2]

25 minutes ago, Cathygh said:

Someone on my last cruise complained to the Loyalty Manager because she booked 2 years ago and had paid so much more (double, I think) than other passengers in the same grade of cabin who booked late. He told her that certain large agents buy the cabins at launch and sell them off cheap if they haven't sold them by final payment. 

I am not sure how accurate this is. I am not aware of agents undercutting P&O by hundreds of pounds after final payment. Most  of them under cut by a few per cent and seem to follow P&Os price rises and falls. IMHO.

P&O undercut themselves too though.  My last cruise I booked direct 6 weeks out, for a single "cheap".  Others on board, also at future sales, seemed to have paid twice as much as me - remember I'm a single so uprated  anyway -  and were very unhappy. Lots of cancelling to rebook was observed!

Edited August 29, 2023 by Megabear2

[sogne]

On 8/23/2023 at 11:53 AM, sogne said:

had email as well

just got my new fare , a very pleasant surprise was not expecting such a large amount thought more likely to be £50 or so

 

 

 

 

[Bill Y]

58 minutes ago, sogne said:

just got my new fare , a very pleasant surprise was not expecting such a large amount thought more likely to be £50 or so

 

 

 

 

I have been surprised that I had not heard any more about the original topic or anything from my TA, So I phoned TA this afternoon, there were no correspondents on my file and they were unaware of any new P&O pricing or any promise to refund if fares are reduced. They are going to contact P&O aboult this 2025 cruise and also enquire if our 2024 cruise will be treated the same as that was not mentioned by P&O.

 

Maybe the "Tomorrow 24 September 2023" mentioned on the 23 Aug was not the typo I assumed. I realise that P&O have been busy with "operational reasons" over the last couple of days but I thought that was a different department but maybe its all hands to the pumps.

[sogne]

1 hour ago, Bill Y said:

I have been surprised that I had not heard any more about the original topic or anything from my TA, So I phoned TA this afternoon, there were no correspondents on my file and they were unaware of any new P&O pricing or any promise to refund if fares are reduced. They are going to contact P&O aboult this 2025 cruise and also enquire if our 2024 cruise will be treated the same as that was not mentioned by P&O.

 

Maybe the "Tomorrow 24 September 2023" mentioned on the 23 Aug was not the typo I assumed. I realise that P&O have been busy with "operational reasons" over the last couple of days but I thought that was a different department but maybe its all hands to the pumps.

I don't know the original cost of your cruise obviously but I would keep at it. To give u an idea our reduction would pay almost for a 7 day cruise

 

[Bill Y]

17 hours ago, sogne said:

I don't know the original cost of your cruise obviously but I would keep at it. To give u an idea our reduction would pay almost for a 7 day cruise

 

Thanks for that, did you get any information as to why this was offered or what "our newly released pricing" is or will be? The only mention on here the OP said it applies to possibly Aurora and Arcadia. The silence has been deafening so I did wonder if NDAs were at play, but then we were emailed by P&O.

[sogne]

35 minutes ago, Bill Y said:

Thanks for that, did you get any information as to why this was offered or what "our newly released pricing" is or will be? The only mention on here the OP said it applies to possibly Aurora and Arcadia. The silence has been deafening so I did wonder if NDAs were at play, but then we were emailed by P&O.

No reason given, ironic because we were thinking of cancelling for QM2. We may now reconsider. A choice between itinerary and ship.

 

It is an Arcadia cruise.

.

 

[Cathygh]

2 hours ago, Bill Y said:

Thanks for that, did you get any information as to why this was offered or what "our newly released pricing" is or will be? The only mention on here the OP said it applies to possibly Aurora and Arcadia. The silence has been deafening so I did wonder if NDAs were at play, but then we were emailed by P&O.

Sorry I have no further information but I will post anything I hear about

[ParisHilton]

Just saw a great cruise on Arcadia based on that post Cathygh.

But then I see it's adult only 😞

[pete14]

2 minutes ago, ParisHilton said:

Just saw a great cruise on Arcadia based on that post Cathygh.

But then I see it's adult only 😞

Both Arcadia and Aurora are adult only ships. 

[ParisHilton]

3 minutes ago, pete14 said:

Both Arcadia and Aurora are adult only ships. 

 

My mind wanders at the idea of anything being 'adult only'.

But then I guess most clubs and bars are.

[rdmaidment]

I had this email as well but haven't received any new booking confirmation.

 

I have discovered that if you access the pay outstanding balance page (there is a link in the cruise personaliser) the price of the cruise has been adjusted.  The difference isn't trivial, this is for a 21 night cruise on Arcadia in 2025.

[Selbourne]

I had a detailed plough through all the future P&O cruises that we might possibly be interested in yesterday. I always work out a ‘net’ price as being the quoted fare less OBC.

 

I did the same back in March, so compared the net prices now to the net prices then. Of the 5 that we had on the shortlist (1 in 2024 on Aurora and 2 on Britannia and 1 on Aurora in 2025) the net price was broadly the same for 4 of them. The outlier was the Oct 2025 Britannia cruise where although the OBC had shot up to £750, the quoted fare had increased by more than £1,000 so the net price had actually increased. 
 

Having found this year that we were able to secure a booking at a very keen price after balance due date (even for an accessible balcony cabin on a Select basis), we have decided not to make any more bookings at this stage. 

[terrierjohn]

7 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I had a detailed plough through all the future P&O cruises that we might possibly be interested in yesterday. I always work out a ‘net’ price as being the quoted fare less OBC.

 

I did the same back in March, so compared the net prices now to the net prices then. Of the 5 that we had on the shortlist (1 in 2024 on Aurora and 2 on Britannia and 1 on Aurora in 2025) the net price was broadly the same for 4 of them. The outlier was the Oct 2025 Britannia cruise where although the OBC had shot up to £750, the quoted fare had increased by more than £1,000 so the net price had actually increased. 
 

Having found this year that we were able to secure a booking at a very keen price after balance due date (even for an accessible balcony cabin on a Select basis), we have decided not to make any more bookings at this stage. 

We are operating on a similar basis, we no longer intend to book on brochure launch. So far we have managed to book 2 Princess cruises with available accessible cabins and at sale prices with 50% off the Plus package, more expensive than P&O but change does keep our interest up in cruising.

[Selbourne]

18 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

We are operating on a similar basis, we no longer intend to book on brochure launch. So far we have managed to book 2 Princess cruises with available accessible cabins and at sale prices with 50% off the Plus package, more expensive than P&O but change does keep our interest up in cruising.

I find it frustrating with P&O that in order to check whether there are any accessible cabins available you have to phone them or ask the TA to check, whereas with Cunard (which uses the same IT system) you can check this yourself. What is the situation with Princess? Thanks. 

[terrierjohn]

3 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I find it frustrating with P&O that in order to check whether there are any accessible cabins available you have to phone them or ask the TA to check, whereas with Cunard (which uses the same IT system) you can check this yourself. What is the situation with Princess? Thanks. 

Princess shows available accessible cabins on line, when you tick you need an accessible cabin at the beginning of the booking process it will only then show you available cabins in each grade.as you proceed.

[Gettingwarmer]

4 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I find it frustrating with P&O that in order to check whether there are any accessible cabins available you have to phone them or ask the TA to check, whereas with Cunard (which uses the same IT system) you can check this yourself. What is the situation with Princess? Thanks. 

On the front page under requesting a cabin for 2 there is a box asking if you want an accessible cabin. Does this not work?

[Selbourne]

2 minutes ago, Gettingwarmer said:

On the front page under requesting a cabin for 2 there is a box asking if you want an accessible cabin. Does this not work?

No. You just get a message to say that you have to call P&O to check availability. Cunard work off exactly the same IT system, yet when you tick that you need an accessible cabin it first of all asks you to confirm that you meet the criteria for one (and explains that your booking will be cancelled if you don’t) and then you can see further on whether or not there are any accessible cabins available. Daft that P&O works differently. 

[ParisHilton]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

I had a detailed plough through all the future P&O cruises that we might possibly be interested in yesterday. I always work out a ‘net’ price as being the quoted fare less OBC.

 

I did the same back in March, so compared the net prices now to the net prices then. Of the 5 that we had on the shortlist (1 in 2024 on Aurora and 2 on Britannia and 1 on Aurora in 2025) the net price was broadly the same for 4 of them. The outlier was the Oct 2025 Britannia cruise where although the OBC had shot up to £750, the quoted fare had increased by more than £1,000 so the net price had actually increased. 
 

Having found this year that we were able to secure a booking at a very keen price after balance due date (even for an accessible balcony cabin on a Select basis), we have decided not to make any more bookings at this stage. 

 

Does the 'net price' method work for you because the OBC is always less than you'd plan to spend?

We had an amount for our Iona trip that would barely dent excursions ( so we skipped those) and was realistically more than we'd drink (though I gave it a good go).  We used it up on a few things in the shops.

In reality a bit more of the price of the cruise would be better.  Arguably OBC is worth say 80% of cash because of the limitations as to what you can do with it.

If however you always spend the OBC and possibly a bit more, the net method is fine.

 

(sorry maths geek brain kicking in here)

 

[Selbourne]

33 minutes ago, ParisHilton said:

 

Does the 'net price' method work for you because the OBC is always less than you'd plan to spend?

We had an amount for our Iona trip that would barely dent excursions ( so we skipped those) and was realistically more than we'd drink (though I gave it a good go).  We used it up on a few things in the shops.

In reality a bit more of the price of the cruise would be better.  Arguably OBC is worth say 80% of cash because of the limitations as to what you can do with it.

If however you always spend the OBC and possibly a bit more, the net method is fine.

 

(sorry maths geek brain kicking in here)

 

I completely agree that it is far better to have a lower headline price with low (or no) OBC than a high headline price with high OBC, especially as I get 10% loyalty discount on on-board spend.
 

However, P&O use double OBC (etc) offers to encourage bookings making people think that they are getting a bargain when, in reality, they have simply increased the headline price to pay for it (or sometimes by even more than the extra OBC, as in my Britannia example). Nothing dishonest about that, it’s just clever marketing.

 

However, I can only recall one cruise out of over 20 where we had OBC left at the end of the cruise and had to buy some perfume in the shop to use up the last bit.

 

I tend to work more on a total net price though and have a price limit with P&O that I won’t go over, unless it’s an exceptional / unique itinerary, which are as rare as hens teeth these days. 

 

 

Edited August 31, 2023 by Selbourne

[Selbourne]

4 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

 

 

Edited August 31, 2023 by Selbourne
Duplicated post