Non refundable deposits might backfire on RCI

I had assumed incorrectly that the credit one gets if cancelling would be good for 1 yr from the sailing date. According to the rep I spoke with today the credit is good for 1 yr from the cancellation date.

If part of the point of these deposits was to make certain the suites got booked and not held they are not doing themselves a service imho.

Dh and I booked a Royal Loft Suite for Nov 2018 on Allure . We've decided instead to do a Seabourn cruise to Africa etc.

So I call to cancel expecting to get a $300 credit good until Nov 2019 and instead was told as above, that is that the credit is good for 1 yr from the date of cancellation. Obviously we will wait as long as we can to cancel then(which is August of 2018), and in the meantime we are sitting on a Royal Loft Suite which we have no intention of using. Perhaps they know they can book these out even last minute for full price, but on the other hand they may be forced to discount which will cost them more than the non refundable deposit. This seems short sighted to me and one wonders if they will rethink the strategy.

May be interesting to see how this plays out.

So I call to cancel expecting to get a $300 credit good until Nov 2019 and instead was told as above, that is that the credit is good for 1 yr from the date of cancellation. Obviously we will wait as long as we can to cancel then(which is August of 2018), and in the meantime we are sitting on a Royal Loft Suite which we have no intention of using.

What if between now and then prices double and you don't plan to cruise RCI again? I guess you forfeit your credit as well? You found a very interesting problem here in that you are willing to cancel and accept some penalty, but if their rules are going to lose you nearly a year of time to decide what to do, you'll just play by their rules that keeps inventory locked up.

Curious, did you try another agent? I wonder if you'd get the same answer twice from Royal?

As for the first reply rolling eyes at you, I still think you raised an interesting point and would like to know what happens. If they knew everything about this they could have saved the wear and tear on their keyboard.

I usually book my cruises at least a year away. I guess if I ever need to cancel, I'll have to be ready to book again pretty quickly. Thanks for the heads up. :cool:

I had assumed incorrectly that the credit one gets if cancelling would be good for 1 yr from the sailing date. According to the rep I spoke with today the credit is good for 1 yr from the cancellation date. ... .

Hopefully the rep is giving accurate info.

What if between now and then prices double and you don't plan to cruise RCI again? I guess you forfeit your credit as well? You found a very interesting problem here in that you are willing to cancel and accept some penalty, but if their rules are going to lose you nearly a year of time to decide what to do, you'll just play by their rules that keeps inventory locked up.

 

Curious, did you try another agent? I wonder if you'd get the same answer twice from Royal?

 

As for the first reply rolling eyes at you, I still think you raised an interesting point and would like to know what happens. If they knew everything about this they could have saved the wear and tear on their keyboard.

Yes, I agree with you. This info is very enlightening and I wonder if RCCL thought about this scenario.

Also agree, the rolling eyes and the posters comment was kind of snarky. I often wonder why people have to respond in such a mean way.

What if between now and then prices double and you don't plan to cruise RCI again? I guess you forfeit your credit as well? You found a very interesting problem here in that you are willing to cancel and accept some penalty, but if their rules are going to lose you nearly a year of time to decide what to do, you'll just play by their rules that keeps inventory locked up.

 

Curious, did you try another agent? I wonder if you'd get the same answer twice from Royal?

 

As for the first reply rolling eyes at you, I still think you raised an interesting point and would like to know what happens. If they knew everything about this they could have saved the wear and tear on their keyboard.

I didn't call back a second time because the rep advised me that this was clear in the terms, which I subsequently reviewed. I've copied the relevant section below. Note that the credit is issued at the time of cancellation.

"If the guest cancels an NRD Booking prior to the final payment due date, the cancellation terms of the cruise ticket contract apply, and Royal Caribbean will issue a future cruise credit in the amount of the deposit paid minus a $100USD per person service fee to the guest named on the cancelled NRD Booking (the "FCC"). The FCC is applicable only towards the purchase of a Royal Caribbean cruise and expires 12-months after the issue date (the "Expiration Date"). "

Interesting point!!

Interesting point!!

I thought you would notice.:halo:

I think you may be missing the point.

The NON refundable deposit I don't think was intended so much for the One and done cruisers. They would probably be ok with rolling a 300 dollar deposit. The ones that will have the issue are the ones that do more like this

1. Book 5 cruises Not knowing what they want. Locking up (for suites) 500 per so that's 2500.00 that They have to keep pushing down the road, as I am sure you cant most likely use 5 rooms worth of credit against one booking...

The point is to prevent people from booking multiple rooms that they may not use, so if they are going to selfishly keep playing the "lets hold 5 suites game" then they are going to have to deal with the perpetual credit that they seemingly wont ever be able to use

Does the FCC have to be used (as in cruise booked and taken) or does the cruise just have to be booked.

If the cruise just has to be booked within the year then it shouldn't be too much of an issue for most as you would be able to wait until new itineraries are released which in effect would allow you to actually take the cruise over 2 years out.

We have booked 2 cruises since the non refundable deposits came out. None were in a suite and were booked with a TA we have used for years.

Upon booking, she told us that she did not believe in the non refundable deposits and would not book that way. I did not ask any questions at the time, continued to book, so don't know what she actually means. We are not planning to cancel anyway and have insurance.

Would one's insurance cover this? I do know that our insurance does cover non refundable hotel costs.

Interesting!!

I think you may be missing the point.

The NON refundable deposit I don't think was intended so much for the One and done cruisers. They would probably be ok with rolling a 300 dollar deposit. The ones that will have the issue are the ones that do more like this

 

1. Book 5 cruises Not knowing what they want. Locking up (for suites) 500 per so that's 2500.00 that They have to keep pushing down the road, as I am sure you cant most likely use 5 rooms worth of credit against one booking...

 

The point is to prevent people from booking multiple rooms that they may not use, so if they are going to selfishly keep playing the "lets hold 5 suites game" then they are going to have to deal with the perpetual credit that they seemingly wont ever be able to use

I do get that point but since that has absolutely nothing to do with my post I didn't speak to that. I am referring to the time period in relation to the issuance of the credit and expiry of same. I expect that when RCL realizes that they have created an issue for themselves they will likely change the manner in which that works, and inevitably I expect it will be more likely based on the date of the cruise.

But as an aside interestingly there is nothing in the terms that I looked at today that suggest one couldn't use multiple credits against a single booking if your scenario applies.....see below at the bottom of the rcl page

www.royalcaribbean.com/legal.do

Does the FCC have to be used (as in cruise booked and taken) or does the cruise just have to be booked.

 

If the cruise just has to be booked within the year then it shouldn't be too much of an issue for most as you would be able to wait until new itineraries are released which in effect would allow you to actually take the cruise over 2 years out.

I agree with you. The rep was indicating that the cruise had to be within 1 yr but he didn't sound that sure, and there is not any language at all in the terms that would clarify this. But one would still want to wait as far out as they could to cancel.

I think you may be missing the point.

The NON refundable deposit I don't think was intended so much for the One and done cruisers.

I agree with your assessment, but OP is pointing out that the unintended consequence of that is that now they are not going to release a suite until 12 months from now and they know today that they won't use it. They will face the same penalty in August 2018, but they will have a longer period of time to find a cruise to move their credit towards.

Perhaps Royal did not really foresee this happening. I'm not a "company man" so to me the way to eliminate this issue, if it were to become a problem, is make the FCC good for one year after the original final payment would have been. That way OP would not lose anything releasing the suite today; in that case the FCC is usable for a minimum of 12 months, but potentially much longer.

And credits can't continually be kicked down the road, because you'd just end up in another booking situation that you would cancel and be penalized on...rinse and repeat a few times and you may as well just send them money and not even take a cruise.

I agree with your assessment, but OP is pointing out that the unintended consequence of that is that now they are not going to release a suite until 12 months from now and they know today that they won't use it. They will face the same penalty in August 2018, but they will have a longer period of time to find a cruise to move their credit towards.

 

Perhaps Royal did not really foresee this happening. I'm not a "company man" so to me the way to eliminate this issue, if it were to become a problem, is make the FCC good for one year after the original final payment would have been. That way OP would not lose anything releasing the suite today; in that case the FCC is usable for a minimum of 12 months, but potentially much longer.

 

And credits can't continually be kicked down the road, because you'd just end up in another booking situation that you would cancel and be penalized on...rinse and repeat a few times and you may as well just send them money and not even take a cruise.

I absolutely agree....it may be that we won't use the credit at all( so many trips and only so much time :) ) but at the end of the day I want to widen the window as much as possible.

I think you may be missing the point.

The NON refundable deposit I don't think was intended so much for the One and done cruisers. They would probably be ok with rolling a 300 dollar deposit. The ones that will have the issue are the ones that do more like this

 

1. Book 5 cruises Not knowing what they want. Locking up (for suites) 500 per so that's 2500.00 that They have to keep pushing down the road, as I am sure you cant most likely use 5 rooms worth of credit against one booking...

 

The point is to prevent people from booking multiple rooms that they may not use, so if they are going to selfishly keep playing the "lets hold 5 suites game" then they are going to have to deal with the perpetual credit that they seemingly wont ever be able to use

I do get that point but since that has absolutely nothing to do with my post I didn't speak to that. I am referring to the time period in relation to the issuance of the credit and expiry of same. I expect that when RCL realizes that they have created an issue for themselves they will likely change the manner in which that works, and inevitably I expect it will be more likely based on the date of the cruise.

 

But as an aside interestingly there is nothing in the terms that I looked at today that suggest one couldn't use multiple credits against a single booking if your scenario applies.....see below at the bottom of the rcl page

 

www.royalcaribbean.com/legal.do

 

 

I agree.

Carnival has been having Early Saver rate for years now with the non refundable deposit. There is only a $50 penalty and any price drops up 48 hours prior to the cruise are refunded as OBC.

The point I am trying to make is the same booking number as the original is used for the next cruise booked. Therefore no way would several refunds be able to be used for one cruise.

They have the information in their computers. Perhaps they should let people reserve the average number of cruises they have taken in the last year without a penalty deposit refund. If you only reserved one in the last year and now are reserving 5 in the current year you get a penalty for canceling. If you only are reserving one the deposit is refundable. I did not realize that there are people reserving multiple cruises and end up cancelling out of most of them. The problem becomes trying to explain the rules to everyone. I do hate one size fits all and wish there were a way to only penalize the abusers instead of everyone. Just like trying to stop the abusers of the unlimited drinks getting drinks for those that did not pay.

Carnival has been having Early Saver rate for years now with the non refundable deposit. There is only a $50 penalty and any price drops up 48 hours prior to the cruise are refunded as OBC.

 

The point I am trying to make is the same booking number as the original is used for the next cruise booked. Therefore no way would several refunds be able to be used for one cruise.

I like this way better. It's incentive for doing non refundable. You get price drops up until 48 hours to sailing. The only incentive for booking early with royal is the $100 obc which can be obtained from any of the random sales as well as a cheaper price up front. But you aren't guaranteed the best price up until sail date. I would consider the non refundable if this was the case. I won't even think about booking it just for the OBC and small reduction in price.

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They have the information in their computers. Perhaps they should let people reserve the average number of cruises they have taken in the last year without a penalty deposit refund. If you only reserved one in the last year and now are reserving 5 in the current year you get a penalty for canceling. If you only are reserving one the deposit is refundable.

That is one of the most offensive to customer policies I've read floated on here in a while. If I take one cruise last year and want to reserve two, but one is going to be penalized if changed or canceled simply to to my R12 average I'd make my next R12 average zero.

Does the FCC have to be used (as in cruise booked and taken) or does the cruise just have to be booked. ...

When we had an FCC, the cruise had to be completed within the year.

They have the information in their computers. Perhaps they should let people reserve the average number of cruises they have taken in the last year without a penalty deposit refund. If you only reserved one in the last year and now are reserving 5 in the current year you get a penalty for canceling. If you only are reserving one the deposit is refundable. I did not realize that there are people reserving multiple cruises and end up cancelling out of most of them. The problem becomes trying to explain the rules to everyone. I do hate one size fits all and wish there were a way to only penalize the abusers instead of everyone. Just like trying to stop the abusers of the unlimited drinks getting drinks for those that did not pay.

I went from 1 or 2 cruises a year to 7 the year I retired, and took everyone of them. I book 5 to 7 cruises, when the itineraries first are released, and plan on taking every one of them. If something comes up, family wedding as an example, I don't think I should be penalized, just because I booked more cruises.

I like this way better. It's incentive for doing non refundable. You get price drops up until 48 hours to sailing. The only incentive for booking early with royal is the $100 obc which can be obtained from any of the random sales as well as a cheaper price up front. But you aren't guaranteed the best price up until sail date. I would consider the non refundable if this was the case. I won't even think about booking it just for the OBC and small reduction in price.

 

 

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Would be interesting but I don't see it happening.

I was looking at a peak date cruise that is close to final payment date. I counted 15 GS and 7 OS still available for that sail date, yet only 1 JS available. Normally for peak sailings this close in I normally only see a few, if any, higher suites left. I would not be surprised to see them fall in price after final payment date. If they allowed price drops up to 48 hours out the supply might effect pricing too much for them to want to price match.

I am watching peak dates with interest to see how the new policies effect pricing and availability.

What are peak dates besides Christmas and New Years?

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