PRINCESS WON'T HONOR PAST PASSENGER WITH LOWER RATES
Recently I put together a family trip to the Mexican Rivera early next year my travel agent booked three cabins, with my wife in one, myself in another and my older daughter in another. All of us are past passangers and got a past passanger rate for each of the cabins as well a reduced deposits for all. My sister however is an avid Disney Cruiser (10+ cruises), however she did go on her Honeymoon to Alaska some 14 years ago on Princess. Our agent was not able to locate either Husband or sisters last name with Princess and such they were given a significanltly higher rate for the same class of cabins we past passangers have. Also the higher deposit.
My sister found her old cruise cards and closing statement which gave all the details and yet Princess would not honor them as past passangers..!!
WHAT ARE THESE PEOPLE THINKING? HERE WE BOOKED 4 CABINS ALL WITH PAST PASSANGERS AND THEY SLAP MY SISTER AND HER HUSBAND IN THE FACE LIKE THIS. PRINCESS HAS BEEN OUR LINE OF CHOICE THESE PAST 6 OR 7 YEARS BUT I REALLY WONDER IF IT WILL CONTINUE TO BE. THESE ARE TOUGH TIMES AND PERHAPS THE PRINCESS FOLKS LIVE IN A DREAMLAND THINKING THEY CCAN TREAT PEOPLE LIKE THIS.
DOES ANYONE HAVE AN EXPERIENCE LIKE THIS? COMMENTS/HELP??
Sorry to hear about your problem. All I can offer is my 2 cents worth as to how I would approach this problem. The first thing I would do, which I am sure you have already done, is to get your Travel Agent to call Princess and ask to speak to a supervisor. In dealing with Princess I have never had to do this, but in dealing with another cruise line, I discovered that you sometimes you just have to keep going up the line until you talk to a supervisor who has the power to correct a problem. Usually the customer service people at Princess can correct most problems, but occasionally as in all cruise lines the first line people in customer service simply do not have the power to make some decisions.
Unless you happen to be blessed with a good Travel Agent you may have to begin calling Princess yourself and explain the situation and offer to fax any proof that you have to Princess. I know that with a major problem that I had, with a different cruise line, they did talk direct to the passengers even though they had booked the cruise through a TA. Having a TA involved, IMHO, just means that your hands are sometimes tied in trying to fix a problem. Unless there is some valid reason that Princess will not offer the past passenger rate for all who have been past Princess passengers, hopefully you will be able to get this problem resolved.
Good luck and let us know how it turns out.
Debra
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With integrity nothing else matters; without it nothing else matters.
If you've taken 6 or 7 cruises with Princess you must be Platinum with them. I'd call the special Platinum CC line and see if they can help you. If you used a TA ask her/him for help too. It doesn't hurt to call and talk to a different rep--sometimes you get one who doesn't know much.
-My TA said she was trying with a supervisor but all she was told was that they only keep records for the past 10 years and that was it. BAD POLICY IF YOU ASK ME>>
-I didn't even know I have a Platinum Rep/line to talk with, how do I get to them?
I know I'm taking a different tack here than the others but you stated your sister had cruised one time approx. 14 years ago on Princess, but yet you want the same discount for her that you, as a person who has , per your words, sailed Princes for the past 6-7 years.
It's not unusual that Princess wouldn't have records going back that far and how much work and effort could one expect them to do, going through untold numbers of old records to try to find your sister's cruise approx. 14 years ago?
I know some of the other cruise lines, including Carnival hasn't been keeping records that long-- now that everything is computerized they can go back a reasonable amount of time and pull up your history if they have the proper info, but--- 14 years back, in my opinion, is a stretch, especiallly without everything being computerized back then as it is now.
Good luck-- hope it works out that you can save a few bucks.
Lets keep in mind that my sister has her and her husbands cruise cards and the closing statement from the ship.
She has given them to the agent, who gave them to Princess and they said basicly "so what, pay the frieght or don't go", which is likely what we will do; cancil all four cabins and go elsewhere, if they don't get their act together.
All of us need to be aware about the lack of customer care Princess is exhibiting here.....TIMES ARE TOUGH EVERWHERE AND PRINCESS IS LOSING BUSINESS BECAUSE OF THEIR ARROGANCE TOWARD PAST CUSTOMERS..(long and recent past!!)
I got credit for cruises in the mid 1970's by sending pictures of me at the Captain's Circle party. You're just not getting the right person to talk to which can be very frustrating. I'm surprised your TA can't get to the right person. A cruise card and final statement should certainly be proof enough.
I had a similar situation several years ago and my TA was able to get it straightened out for me. You have to find a really good travel agent. Most TA's really don't know what they are doing.
Good luck in getting it resolved.
Jim..
I had a similar situation, only with Carnival. We sailed on CCL in 1989. We were going to again. I talked directly to CCL and they said to send them something with the cruise date or something connecting to the ship with our names on it. I sent them our luggage tag and also the ships course that we were given at the end of the cruise. They assigned us a past-passenger #, no problem.
Also, we sailed with Princess. My sister and her husband usually sails with us. Last yr., I booked a cruise with my dh, and my sister and her dh wanted to go. My price was lower then my sisters, because I was a platinum member. She was not.
My TA tells me that this past passenger discount program is selective and has caused real problems for Princess. However they refuse to change it and wiill not offer the discounted prices to 2 past passenger cabins in our group. The TA reports that this has been a night mear for the TA's and she is losing bookings as folks go to other lines that honor past customers.
We just may go ahead and cancil at the last minute and wait to rebook when they have vacant space on the ship.
Princess needs new marketing managment. In these times the people they have running things are clearly incompetent and should be fired.....
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PRINCESS WON'T HONOR PAST PASSENGER WITH LOWER RATES
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