Notorius P.I.G.
Monday, April 26, 2010
So my parents are going on a cruise on Princess Cruise lines this May 2010 to Scandinavia. They have a party of 14 people going on the cruise together. Most of them purchased cabins (a little less in a year in advance) with an oceanview and paid in full right away. Soon after Princess Cruises upgraded my parents to a better room since they were two time previous cruisers (I really like that, reward your loyalists! AND it should be this way). I hope what helped as well was that I too, who lives at the same address took a cruise myself last year, and they were rewarding us for being a good family. Granted my parents take at least one cruise every year, but in their hearts, they always state Princess is the best! Anyways, the upgraded room my parents received was one on the Lido deck, is twice as big as most of the cabins, and has a balcony....PARTY ROOM! Well however 70 yr olds party...well at least they can be comfortable when they go to bed early....
But their travel agent gets a call today, about 2.5 weeks before they sail. Princess Cruise lines would like to take the room back and DOWNGRADE them back to their original room. WTF? This does not make any sense at all. I mean do you really think someone would be "SURE! Downgrade me! " Ummm...HELLS TO THE NO!
I think the big obvious question would be: Well was there compensation for the downgrade? I mean it is like a kid who was expecting a princess pony, you give her a princess horse...alright she's excited...and then go to her...well, nevermind....we want you to switch back to a pony. It's like that! That's mean! You big meanies!!! Well the answer from Princess Cruise lines was "no!" Well then, the travel agent equaled that response, and said to suck it, and do not contact my parents either. In the end, I'm hoping my parents don't get screwed. They didn't demand this upgrade...you VOLUNTARILY upgraded them.
As a marketing grad student, this concerns me. I like the fact that rewards are given for loyalty, as they should be. You are supposed to reward your good customers, but what message does this send? Well we thought you were awesome...but we changed our minds. We obviously have found someone more worthy and we would like to throw you back into the peanut gallery even though you booked far in advance and paid up...you know so we can gain interest on YOUR money. I do not understand this "logic." Branding is your power, word of mouth is fast and furious, as a 30 year old, I have lots of friends and we have plenty of potential cruises to be had and you are not the ONLy cruise line. Granted maybe my business is not important...or even my parents...but really...WOULD ANY ONE take a downgrade? And especially with no compensation? I'm sure 100% would say no.
In the end, I hope Princess does my parents right. Because, I'll know and I'm watching you.....
P.S. No ponies were harmed in this blog....scared, perhaps...but not harmed...well maybe emotionally...but only temporarily.
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2 comments:
BOOOO!!!!!! We won't use Princess Cruise next time for OUR next group outing. I heard Norwegian is pretty nice. I think that was the one that Jon and Chan liked best from the ones they had been on.
I think that the worst part in this scenario was the fact that the cruise liner offered the upgrade very early. They should have just upgraded the cabin at the last minute when they saw that nobody would end up using that certain cabin.
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