Princess Cancelled my booking

[Coral]

We plan on making our final payment by credit card. We are using a TA - so how do we make sure the charge goes directly to Princess?

 

Ask the agency to run the charge through the cruise line directly (and not the agency). The cruise line then reinburses the travel agency their commission.

[willysgrandma]

This happened to me two years ago. It was the TA's fault. They neglected to post the credit card payment. Now I always double-check with the credit card company to make sure the payment has gone thru.

 

 

Do you mean they forgot to call it in to the cruise company? If you pay with a c.c., the TA calls the payment into the cruise line, they usually don't post it themselves.

 

We always call our payments in to the cruise line as soon as the customer gives us the authorization to charge.

 

We paid the TA in full, you can see from the VISA statement where the TA received payment from my VISA. Then the same thing occurred. I was checking the cruise personalizer and my booking was gone, poof! Called Princess who told me that we didn't make final payment so our bookings were cancelled. Called the TA who tried to blame it on Princess, I didn't believe him by that time.

 

 

Did your statement say the charge went to the TA or the cruise line? If the cruise line did the charge, then the TA is not lying.

If the charge shows that the charge was made to the travel agency - then the problem is with the TA.

[jayevee44]

Some of our cruises were booked directly with Princess, others with a TA. We have only used one TA. When we book through the TA, we get an acknowledgement with a final payment date which is about two weeks prior to the Princess final payment date. Just before the TA’s due date, I call, ask that final payment be made and give my credit card number. While I’m still on the line, she calls Princess and makes the payment using my credit card, although I’m on hold and do not hear the conversation. Once the payment is made, she comes back on the line and confirms the final payment. They next day, I check my credit card account online and it shows a charge by Princess, not the TA. Within a few days, I get a written confirmation of my payment and any shipboard credit.

 

It thought all TAs do it this way. Obviously, they do not. This thread makes me appreciate my TA even more.

 

Jim

[Jacqueline]

Since final payment was not due until today, it is even harder to see why I got cancelled. I will check to see when the charge came thru on the credit card.

There are plenty of open cabins so its not like there was a waitlist.

It does undermine my confidence when something like this happens with a TA who has no explanation. Perhaps it is not her fault, but it does not engender feelings of confidence, esp to find out tha the cabins were given away.

I feel very uneasy about the whole thing.

[S.S.Oceanlover]

I believe it would be 75 days out which would make it around the 29th May?? :)

 

 

But you said you paid it early so it should not matter, the TA should have forwarded the payment to Princess right away and not sat on the money.

 

Even if the TA sat on the payment, which at this point there is no confirmation from Jacqueline if the payment was posted the day she paid it off or not.

 

Her booking is now about 79 days out so it should have not been cancelled no matter what.

 

I'm so sorry to hear this as TA, I can tell you, you pay the same price if you had not gone with a TA, but what a TA should do for you is get the best cabin for you that is avaiable , take care of all your pre- register, and send all travel doc's to you and give you the warm fuzzy feeling that you desire, and make sure that you had the best vacation that you could have.. some TA don't understand that. Some people get a vacation once in a liftime and that they should make sure that it is best vacation because who knows when the next one will be, of each and anyone of them is special they go on so many I think some times they forget that some people have never ever cruised, Sorry for venting but I hear this so much from people that would just go to the beach then to deal with a TA , and they are missing out on so much

 

I pay less booking with a TA.:)

 

Since final payment was not due until today, it is even harder to see why I got cancelled. I will check to see when the charge came thru on the credit card.

There are plenty of open cabins so its not like there was a waitlist.

It does undermine my confidence when something like this happens with a TA who has no explanation. Perhaps it is not her fault, but it does not engender feelings of confidence, esp to find out tha the cabins were given away.

I feel very uneasy about the whole thing.

 

If after checking your credit card statement you find that the TA hadn't posted payment when you requested, then I'd lose confidence. If the TA paid the cruise off when you requested the blame is on Princess.

 

Bill

[Coral]

Jacqueline - when is your cruise (trying to figure out when final payment date should be)?

[firefly333]

I know on other threads when going thru a TA especially, we told each other in our group to make that final payment at least 24 - 48 hours in advance, dont wait until the last day. The TA could get busy and in our case she just gave it to the back room staff to handle and they seemed to be slow. We also had some problems with the wrong payment being charged.

[stevenr597]

While it is easy to blame the cancellation of a cabin on your travel agents or even late payment, the cruise agency at times will actually overbook a ship. This can lead to a late cancellation or change of cabin without the individuals consent.

 

I would suggest that if you plan to cruise or even fly, do not be passive. Contact your travel agent and your cruise line frequently to make sure that everything is in order.

 

Several years ago, we had our trip on the Coral Princess cancelled one week before the cruise because the ship was not ready in time. Princess kept pushing back the time for the first cruise and would cancel cruises (because of delay in completion of the ship) 1-2 weeks before each cruise that had to be cancelled.

[S.S.Oceanlover]

Jacqueline - when is your cruise (trying to figure out when final payment date should be)?

 

HI Coral,

In post #17 she stated it is August 12th.:)

 

Bill

[Colo Cruiser]

I still say the TA dropped the ball. :rolleyes:

[S.S.Oceanlover]

I still say the TA dropped the ball. :rolleyes:

 

Please explain . How do you drop the ball on a booking that isn't even due for final payment yet? The only way I can see is if she called Princess and cancelled the booking.

Not submitting payment when requested is not good but should still not make the booking get cancelled.:confused:

 

Bill

[Coral]

Jacqueline - when did you put a deposit on the sailing?

 

Oceanlover - thank you for the sailing date.

[S.S.Oceanlover]

Jacqueline - when did you put a deposit on the sailing?

 

Oceanlover - thank you for the sailing date.

 

Coral,

Not sure if it's the same booking in question here but Jacqueline made a booking May 15th.

 

We'll have to wait til Jacqueline to post to confirm a few things.

 

Bill

[Jacqueline]

My husband needs to get into our AMEX statement to see that information which I should have later today.

I will check for the initial deposit as well as the final. Perhaps there was an issue with the deposit ? My records indicate that it should have been posted on 5.16 or 5.17. I was able to access my personalizer with a booking number which would also indicate that the booking had gone through (is this correct?).

The ship is not full, as I was able to get two cabins on C deck next to each other in almost the same location. Checking online, there is plenty of availability.

There were several careless mistakes with the original booking which is what is also contributing to my feeling of unease- wrong last names (switched around), confusion with booking numbers (first one wrong- same on both cabins). So there were at least two errors made.

My booking number now is the same as my initial one, even though the cabins are different.

[willysgrandma]

My husband needs to get into our AMEX statement to see that information which I should have later today.

I will check for the initial deposit as well as the final. Perhaps there was an issue with the deposit ? My records indicate that it should have been posted on 5.16 or 5.17. I was able to access my personalizer with a booking number which would also indicate that the booking had gone through (is this correct?).

 

Okay, so now this makes a bit more sense - if the initial deposit isn't made within 24 - 48 hours of a booking, the booking goes away. That seems to be a better explanation.

[Coral]

My records indicate that it should have been posted on 5.16 or 5.17. I was able to access my personalizer with a booking number which would also indicate that the booking had gone through (is this correct?).

 

My initial guess is that the deposit wasn't made by the agent. She reserved the cabin (complimentary hold) but the deposit wasn't made it time, thus the cancelling of the booking....

[Colo Cruiser]

Please explain . How do you drop the ball on a booking that isn't even due for final payment yet? The only way I can see is if she called Princess and cancelled the booking.

Not submitting payment when requested is not good but should still not make the booking get cancelled.:confused:

 

Bill

 

 

If the TA does not forward funds for the initial deposit or the final payment.

 

Sounds like the initial deposit/booking was mishandled by someone??

 

What Coral stated above.

[willysgrandma]

If the TA does not forward funds for the initial deposit or the final payment.

 

Sounds like the initial deposit/booking was mishandled by someone??

 

 

OP, did you give the TA your c.c. number within 48 hours of the TA pricing it for you and holding the cabin?

[Jacqueline]

She had it - my cc- on file from my March cruise. Of course that doesn't mean that she put it through. I called, told her the cabins I wanted for the sailing I wanted - did not even as for the pricing as I knew what it would be and was correct within $25 dollars.

In March she made a mistake with my booking and I guess I should have gone elsewhere this time, too.

I tried with another agent but this time she could not make the booking as it would not go through her system. I have 2 children under 18 in a cabin (17 and 14- my two daughters) and and adult with a 17 year old in another cabin next door. Before everyone tells me that this is against the rules, this is not in fact in the passenger contract. In March we had the exact same setup for our Southern Carribean cruise. The passenger contract for Princess reads that a child under 18 must be accompanied by and adult over 21. This was the case then (March) and now.

[Seayalater]

When I booked our cruise thru our TA, she was online with princess' site booking thru them.....so couldn't I have done that.

She even told me that was what she was doing.

[PTC]

She had it - my cc- on file from my March cruise. Of course that doesn't mean that she put it through. I called, told her the cabins I wanted for the sailing I wanted - did not even as for the pricing as I knew what it would be and was correct within $25 dollars.

 

.

 

She may have had it on file but that doesn't mean she can just put a charge through for the amount. You have to authorize her to use it. Looks like you may have dropped the ball. BTW, you never did mention that you have a confirmation of your booking from the TA which I would assume be the one thing that could verify who is at fault.

 

PTC

[AlaskaGolden]

Our TA required final payment 15 days before the the Princess Final Payment Date. At the time I thought this was way too early, but after reading this thread I'm glad they did that! It gave us plenty of time to check directly with Princess that they had received final payment. ;)

[boxztrs]

Last week my TA failed to make the final payment that was due on May 14. I called Princess on May 16, and had to spend almost 2 hours on the phone with them trying to save the reservation. Apparently you can "fire" your agent and return the reservation to Princess, but unfortunately we were caught in the middle. If we fired the agent, Princess could cancel the reservation and we would have to book at the new higher prices because we were past the payment due date. We could have fired them anytime before the 75 day cutoff (but the whole reason I wanted them fired was because they missed the cutoff, go figure).

 

It is unfortunate that my TA made a commission on the trip by providing such lousy service. The ironic thing is that I've used them several times before without problems.

 

Next time I will always confirm with the cruise line directly on payment status.

[yellow vw]

We were sailing on the Millenium out of Florida and when we signed in they had double booked our cabin. What a mess! They wanted us to take the same class cabin but at the other end of the ship, however we were traveling with 4 other couples and wanted to be close to them. We said we would only accept our original cabin or an upgrade. They upgraded the couple who had been put in our cabin.

Sandy

[S.S.Oceanlover]

My initial guess is that the deposit wasn't made by the agent. She reserved the cabin (complimentary hold) but the deposit wasn't made it time, thus the cancelling of the booking....

 

I think you have hit the nail on the head here. This is about the only scenario that makes sense.:)

 

Bill