mfanderso

My question is slightly different.  I have booked and paid for my cruise and purchased insurance from another source (not HAL).  I am now being offered Have It All.  If I purchase it and then for some reason need to cancel the cruise before sailing, is the HIA refundable just as pre-booked shore excursions and other things?  I am trying to figure out if I need to add the cost to my insurance.

Thank you to all that responded. 

Is there a cover charge to order room service if saying in a veranda or mini-suite?

6 minutes ago, DaveOKC said:

No, I do not think it works that way.  Basically, your cabin mate becomes a 5 Star and gets the benefits for themselves.  No double dipping!

 

I agree with you, that we would each get 2 meals. I think the guy at the Mariner Society worded it incorrectly. Thanks for clarifying this for me. 

28 minutes ago, DaveOKC said:

You should both get two dinners.  However, be prepared to have to go to the service desk to get it handled.  Even though both of us are 5 Star, the ships try to charge us 50% off instead of free and most times we have to go request the proper billing (even after I informed the Pinnacle when making the reservation and when entering the room for dinner.  Another HAL IT issue it seems.

Thank you.  I actually pre-paid for these meals and I understand that I might be up for a fight to get my money back.   I just didn't want to get there and be told that I was entitled to 2 free meals and that my friend wasn't a 5 star so got no meals and I needed to give her one of mine.  I sent an email to the Mariner Society a few months ago asking this question and it went unanswered.  I then called them and asked and they said I was entitled to 2 meals for 2.  If that were the case, if two 5 stars were in the same cabin and they each got 2 meals for 2, wouldn't they get to eat in the Pinnacle Grill 4 times during a cruise?

I am getting ready to go on my first cruise as a 5 Star Mariner.  I understand that I get 2 free Pinnacle Grill meals.  The person traveling with me in the same cabin is not 5 Star, but in the past they have received the same benefits I have regardless of their status.  Will they also get the 2 free Pinnacle Grill meals or do I get 1 and they get 1?

I found this on HAL website:  Tamarind menu available in Pinnacle Grill on Westerdam Asia itineraries and Zuiderdam Grand World.

2 minutes ago, OlsSalt said:

An overlooked, lazy tour, on maybe a second trip to BsAs, is the Tigre Waterways boat tour - a maze of little islands, waterways and homes for those who want to live only by canals,  and not cars and streets. 

We are also considering this tour as well.  Thank you!

12 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

When we boarded the ship.

Thank you.  We are thinking of doing this in Buenos Aires.  However, we board the ship one day and overnight and the tour would be the next day.  There are several things that we want to do and may require pre-purchase of tickets which we would be glad to do but would like to be sure they could do everything we are interested in seeing before we commit.

On 2/10/2022 at 3:38 PM, CruiserBruce said:

We have done it a couple of times. They usually give you a document to fill out in advance, where you state your priorities or goals for touring. This is sent to the company providing the guide and driver, who develops an itinerary.

 

Are you "responsible" to do it? No, you could just say "take us to all the sites".

Did you get this document to fill out while on the ship or prior to the cruise?

I didn’t think the information I was reading was correct but several people kept saying that this was one of the benefits. Thank you all for confirming this is not true. 

I just read on another board that if you have Club Orange on a non-Pinnacle Class ship that you are allowed to eat breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill with the Neptune Suite guests.  Is this new or has it always been that way?

45 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

You are in error in your second statement.  There are lots of 4 & 5* Mariners who sail other cruise lines and no longer consider HAL as their primary line and others who have left altogether.  That’s a fact.  I know a number of them & of others.  Please don’t generalize and paint everyone with the same brush.

 

 

 

You are correct @kazu  I just became 5* on HAL after my August cruise.  My last 2 cruises were with Princess and actually some of the best that I have had as far as service goes.  I guess I will see how my 31 day March cruise with HAL goes.  After reading this, I went ahead and purchased my 5* meals.  Just hoping it won't be difficult to get them refunded.

13 minutes ago, ED49404 said:

Did your husband book it as a Premium Plus package, also is he getting the Military Benefit now??  It looks like this is just an upgrade to the Premium package for the people who are now getting the Military Benefit.

 

Yes, it was booked with Plus Package and he is currently receiving the Military OBC.  Once booked, it does not show the upgrade to Premium.  It is on a courtesy hold, so will let it expire in a few days.

I have a friend that just booked a cruise and he is listed on Princess as getting the Veteran OBC.  I told him about the promo and his TA (also my TA) contacted Princess and they told her there was no such promo.  My husband is also a Veteran and I did a mock booking on several cruises and non of them had this promo applied.

On 1/25/2023 at 5:46 PM, Mary229 said:

They will only deal with you if they changed their schedule significantly.  Equipment changes are not included. 

I understand this but if we purchased and payed for Business Class on a non-stop flight and the equipment was changed with a smaller Business Class, can they move us to Economy from Business Class without an option to change to anther flight with availability?  AA says Business Class is oversold and we don't have seats and we more than likely won't be in Business Class.  Flight Ease says their system is more up-to-date than AA and that we still have our seats.  Premium Economy is also sold out.

2 hours ago, Denise T said:

I am going through a very similar situation. Had the flights booked through Flight Ease for my Alaska Trip through American. Seats were picked and everything. This past week, my sister-in-law who is going with me told me that there were flight changes on her booking. So, I checked the HAL site and was getting a message that there was an error and that there were changes to the flights and the system would be updated. As of today, I am still getting that message. I was never notified, and my TA was never notified. I go to American with my confirmation number. Boy did the flights change! Going to Anchorage we were going through Allentown, PA to Chicago to Dallas and then to Anchorage. On the return we would be flying out of Vancouver to Chicago and to Allentown. Now, they have us going from Allentown to Charlotte, to Dallas, to Anchorage. No biggie. I am okay with this. The problem is that they have us flying from Vancouver to Chicago to Philadelphia. Philadelphia is about 2 hours away from Allentown where our car will be parked. My TA is working on it, but the big issue is that neither of us were notified of any changes to the flights. My sister-in-law was using American Express travel to book the trip, so she got notified. So, right now, I don't know if I have flights. I am with you. I will book direct moving forward. 

I got no notification of schedule and equipment change either. I asked my TA and she said she hadn’t received anything. I had always thought that once the flight was paid for and ticketed, you could deal directly with the airline. The airline won’t talk to us and tell us to talk to our travel agent. Our travel agent calls Flight Ease and after hours on the phone with them they are conveniently disconnected. 

3 minutes ago, Crusin-Suzan said:

Thanks I tried that and it’s just the reservation number!  

Punch 3 after the prompts and that takes you to the air department 

1 minute ago, Crusin-Suzan said:

I can’t even find a number for flight ease!  I finally wrote to guest relations yesterday and have not heard!   Payment is due in 4 days!   We don’t want this flight ease if we don’t have premium economy!   

The phone number that my TA gave us for Flight Ease is 1-800-628-4771. 

I just had something happen with my Flight Ease or I guess AA.  We booked Business Class tickets as soon as was available through Flight Ease.  We picked our seats and all was well.  Our flight is in March and the beginning of this month I asked my TA to have the fights paid and ticketed.  Everything was going fine. Friends that are going with us said there was a schedule change.  I didn't receive any notification so went into our reservation on the AA app and saw a slight change in times but I noticed that we no longer had seats.  It seems at the time that they had the slight schedule change they also had an equipment change.  The Business Class is now half the size it was and it appears we got bumped.  Our TA called AA and was told that Business Class was oversold and they couldn't guarantee Business Class seats for us and they recommended another itinerary  with a long layover (ours had been non-stop).  The next day she called Flight Ease and spoke to them.  They said we still had our original seats and give it 48 hours and everything would be fine.  96 hours later nothing had changed.  Our TA called Flight Ease back again and same story, we still have our seats. They are refusing to change to another flight and said we would get our seats at the airport which I am sure at that point will be economy as Premium Economy is also sold out.  If this had happened prior to final payment, I would have cancelled the whole trip.  I think we saved $300 by booking through Flight Ease.  Next time I will pay the higher price and book direct.

4 hours ago, PacnGoNow said:

Thank you.  That’s what I was afraid of. I’d much rather save that money up front.

Especially, if it’s a long cruise.  We don’t always want more OBC. That’s more money for PCL that way.  

 

Do you recall if it was refundable?  It should be.

 

TIA

I just went back and looked and it is listed as “Mednet Loyalty Discount”. It was already on our account when we boarded. It doesn’t say non-refundable so I guess if you didn’t use it, it would be refunded to you. We had plenty of expenses, compliments of the casino, so had no problem using it up. 

On 1/11/2023 at 8:40 AM, PacnGoNow said:

It does state on the website, that you will get the 50% loyalty discount once OB.  Would you please report back on this thread, if they will refund the discount to you, or if it’s an OBC?  
TIA

Just got off my cruise. I received 50% back as an OBC once on the cruise.  

2 hours ago, Iamthesea said:

I did not get that.  Does HAL send it, or your travel agent?

HAL sends mine to my TA and I request my TA to forward it to me. 

I had something like this happen to me recently. We booked a cruise for June 2024 and my TA sent me the HAL Confirmation which showed $700 OBC. I had to contact HAL to get my husband’s military OBC sorted out. A few weeks later my TA sent me a new HAL confirmation and the OBC had been reduced to $500. It should have been $800 since the military OBC had been added. My TA contacted HAL and they added $150 that had been left off but refused to add the other $150 because there had been a change in offers. We had made no changes to the booking at all. My TA is giving us the missing $150. 

I have called multiple times, did on-line chat and emailed the address posted on here.  The email was sent on December 7 and I received a reply December 12 telling me they have forwarded the information for them to figure out what was wrong and not to worry it would be sorted out by the time I sail.  Well I sail on Sunday and nothing has been done.  I finally purchased the wifi paying full price and just hope I will easily receive the 50% back once on board.  I have always had a package before so never worried about this.  I last sailed in October and to be honest, I don't know what it showed then.