Can linked bookings book shore excursions for all?

[Rex008]

Me and DW are fairly experienced cruisers (13th coming up), but for our next Fjords cruise in May a couple of new-to-cruising close friends have booked on the same cruise. We're not going to live in each other's pockets but are likely to join together for dinner and some excursions. I was wondering if I link our bookings whether we can book shore excursions for all of us? I've googled and can't find an answer. We get 7.5% discount for Atlantic tier, so if we could book theirs with the discount it helps them out a bit.

Given we're not going to be together all the time, are the any disadvantages to linking bookings? I know OBC is still separate, so that's not a problem. We're both on freedom dining so if we did want to dine separately that's not a problem either. Can't really see any other possible downsides but might be missing something. We've both booked through the same TA, so linking should just be one phone call as I understand it.

[pete14]

12 minutes ago, Rex008 said:

Me and DW are fairly experienced cruisers (13th coming up), but for our next Fjords cruise in May a couple of new-to-cruising close friends have booked on the same cruise. We're not going to live in each other's pockets but are likely to join together for dinner and some excursions. I was wondering if I link our bookings whether we can book shore excursions for all of us? I've googled and can't find an answer. We get 7.5% discount for Atlantic tier, so if we could book theirs with the discount it helps them out a bit.

Given we're not going to be together all the time, are the any disadvantages to linking bookings? I know OBC is still separate, so that's not a problem. We're both on freedom dining so if we did want to dine separately that's not a problem either. Can't really see any other possible downsides but might be missing something. We've both booked through the same TA, so linking should just be one phone call as I understand it.

It is probably best to discuss this with your TA so that if things go wrong, you may have some comeback. 

[david63]

As far as I am aware the linking of bookings does not apply to excursions which is why they say that travelling companions should arrive together at the excursion meeting point.

 

As for booking excursions for your friends then again as far as I am aware discount is applied at passenger level - not by who makes the booking.

[Rex008]

12 minutes ago, david63 said:

As far as I am aware the linking of bookings does not apply to excursions which is why they say that travelling companions should arrive together at the excursion meeting point.

 

As for booking excursions for your friends then again as far as I am aware discount is applied at passenger level - not by who makes the booking.

Ok, thank you. Makes sense, if a bit of a pity :).

[terrierjohn]

5 hours ago, david63 said:

 

As for booking excursions for your friends then again as far as I am aware discount is applied at passenger level - not by who makes the booking.

I am not sure that is correct, if you book via your account then I would expect the discount to apply to all those booked, but check with your TA, if you booked through one.

[Gettingwarmer]

1 hour ago, terrierjohn said:

I am not sure that is correct, if you book via your account then I would expect the discount to apply to all those booked, but check with your TA, if you booked through one.

The planner only allows you to book for those in your room and nobody else. You cannot book for people in other rooms. I also don’t think you can get the discount for other rooms if you book on board. 

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, Gettingwarmer said:

The planner only allows you to book for those in your room and nobody else. You cannot book for people in other rooms. I also don’t think you can get the discount for other rooms if you book on board. 

Not surprised that the planner is not flexible, however if you book on board surely you just present your card for payment for a table for X people, they dont cross examine you to ascertain whether any in your party are not entitled to a Peninsular discount, do they?

[Gettingwarmer]

2 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

Not surprised that the planner is not flexible, however if you book on board surely you just present your card for payment for a table for X people, they dont cross examine you to ascertain whether any in your party are not entitled to a Peninsular discount, do they?

Do be honest I don’t know. However if so  it would all be charged to the one person and the others would have to pay up afterwards. 

[terrierjohn]

5 minutes ago, Gettingwarmer said:

Do be honest I don’t know. However if so  it would all be charged to the one person and the others would have to pay up afterwards. 

Of course, but presumably with friends, and making a saving, there would be no problems.

Or at least only once!!!!

Edited November 5, 2023 by terrierjohn

[Ardennais]

3 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

Not surprised that the planner is not flexible, however if you book on board surely you just present your card for payment for a table for X people, they dont cross examine you to ascertain whether any in your party are not entitled to a Peninsular discount, do they?

The discussion is about shore excursions, not speciality dining. 

6 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

I am not sure that is correct, if you book via your account then I would expect the discount to apply to all those booked, but check with your TA, if you booked through one.

Regarding pre-booking shore excursions for more than one cabin, I had to book one cabin, checkout and pay and then repeat the process straight away for the other cabin. The discount was applied according to loyalty level. On our last cruise with our grown up children, the eldest was a lower tier than the other two and it appeared automatically. I would imagine that the same thing would happen if I were to book any excursions onboard. 

[Rex008]

10 hours ago, Ardennais said:

Regarding pre-booking shore excursions for more than one cabin, I had to book one cabin, checkout and pay and then repeat the process straight away for the other cabin. The discount was applied according to loyalty level. On our last cruise with our grown up children, the eldest was a lower tier than the other two and it appeared automatically. I would imagine that the same thing would happen if I were to book any excursions onboard. 

Thanks. Seems very clear my cunning plan is not going to work! Oh well. Thanks for all the responses anyway.

[terrierjohn]

10 hours ago, Ardennais said:

The discussion is about shore excursions, not speciality dining. 

Regarding pre-booking shore excursions for more than one cabin, I had to book one cabin, checkout and pay and then repeat the process straight away for the other cabin. The discount was applied according to loyalty level. On our last cruise with our grown up children, the eldest was a lower tier than the other two and it appeared automatically. I would imagine that the same thing would happen if I were to book any excursions onboard. 

You're right @Ardennais, I seem to have got sidetracked somehow, and your experience with booking on board clearly shows it's not possible to get loyalty discount for fellow travellers.

[Rex008]

As a quick aside on something else mentioned, our OBC situation is interesting. They booked a week after us, the cruise price had gone down by exactly £300 but with exactly £300 less OBC. So we've got nearly £600 OBC and they have £300. P&O don't discount OBC spend by the tier discount, which I've whinged at them about with "tough" basically being the answer.

However, the point about buying drinks on one card is valid - once we do run down both OBCs (which will probably take the majority of the cruise at our drinks spend rate) it would make more sense to buy any further stuff on our card and get them to pay us back later. We do it all the time when we go out together on dry land so no trust issues there.

[terrierjohn]

23 minutes ago, Rex008 said:

As a quick aside on something else mentioned, our OBC situation is interesting. They booked a week after us, the cruise price had gone down by exactly £300 but with exactly £300 less OBC. So we've got nearly £600 OBC and they have £300. P&O don't discount OBC spend by the tier discount, which I've whinged at them about with "tough" basically being the answer.

However, the point about buying drinks on one card is valid - once we do run down both OBCs (which will probably take the majority of the cruise at our drinks spend rate) it would make more sense to buy any further stuff on our card and get them to pay us back later. We do it all the time when we go out together on dry land so no trust issues there.

I cannot see anything wrong with that scenario, but my recent track record is not good, so maybe others could comment.

[david63]

40 minutes ago, Rex008 said:

They booked a week after us, the cruise price had gone down by exactly £300 but with exactly £300 less OBC. So we've got nearly £600 OBC and they have £300

The point is that with OBC it is your money - not something that the cruise line give you (apart from a few exceptions). The "net" cost of the cruise is the same for both of you - just that you have to spend more to get your money back.

[Rex008]

3 minutes ago, david63 said:

The point is that with OBC it is your money - not something that the cruise line give you (apart from a few exceptions). The "net" cost of the cruise is the same for both of you - just that you have to spend more to get your money back.

I realise that, just seems rather perverse that loyalty is ignored for OBC. I'd rather have lower fare and less OBC when I'm getting loyalty discount, but didn't get that choice (obviously if I'd know price reduction was coming, I would have waited). Just feel that it's a mean thing for them to do, it should be easily fixable to apply discount to OBC spend, and it would keep loyal customers happier (and loyal!).
It annoyed me enough to fire off an email to them when I realised loyalty discount wasn't applied. It is stated in T&Cs but the mypocruises account viewer makes it far from obvious, you have to dig.

[david63]

4 minutes ago, Rex008 said:

I realise that, just seems rather perverse that loyalty is ignored for OBC. I'd rather have lower fare and less OBC when I'm getting loyalty discount, but didn't get that choice (obviously if I'd know price reduction was coming, I would have waited). Just feel that it's a mean thing for them to do, it should be easily fixable to apply discount to OBC spend, and it would keep loyal customers happier (and loyal!).
It annoyed me enough to fire off an email to them when I realised loyalty discount wasn't applied. It is stated in T&Cs but the mypocruises account viewer makes it far from obvious, you have to dig.

It has been that way for many years - there was a time when you got discount off your OBC. You have to hand it to them - the bean counters don't miss a trick☹️