The promo.
Spotted: In a promo email
I’m on the email list for special deals from Princess Cruises. Yes, call me a cockeyed optimist, but aside from the allure of actually getting a “special deal,” I consider it my duty to keep on top of travel stuff like this on behalf of you, my faithful readers.
A few days ago, I received a message titled “Our thanks to you: exclusive Canadian fares.” Hmmm…well, at least the prices were expressed in Canadian dollars. Among the featured deals was this one:
The bait.
Okay, I thought, I’ll bite. $779 Cdn isn’t bad. I clicked. But instead of getting more info on this deal, I linked through to this:
The switch.
Whoa. Even for a princess, that’s a hefty price for 7 days of unlimited buffet food. For over $30,000, I must be buying the bludy glacier, eh? The odd part is that the name of cruise, itinerary, name of ship, and sailing date are all exactly the same. Only the price is different.
I subsequently tried the link several more times to make sure the first one wasn’t some kind of glitch, but no, I got the same result each time.
I sent Princess a message pointing out the problem like an über-responsible consumer would do. No acknowledgement, no response, no thank-you note from them.
So…was it the old bait and switch? Do they really think that discount-seeking cheapskates like me are potential purchasers of a $27,869 (plus a mere $7,000 in “additional fees”) cruise? Or was it just an idiotic error that they are too embarrassed to admit? Only Her Highness knows for sure.
Note: When I tried the link several days later, it was fixed. So someone somewhere said “Oops!”