caterpa

Yes this is very similar to me pre-cruise conversations. I was told my ‘FCC’ could be used onboard for excursions, photos, other add ons. I was told this by more than one rep. I had a NCL cruise consultant that I fired early on because he swore up and down that I owed another 3500 when I originally had over 10k in FCC. And when I disputed that amount he said he was certain he was correct. So since I fired him, I didn’t have anyone to go back to to help resolve the above. Though it seems based on your post it wouldn’t have mattered. For anyone that cares, when I called a manager about my balance on final payment, the actual amount owed was 750. 🙂. Not super impressed with the way easch are of NCL integrates with the others. They don’t seem to know what other departments are saying or promising.

Be careful what you read and believe. Based on my recent experiences in another thread, @SeaSharktells me that if any of what it says here is an ‘IT glitch’ then NCL isn’t responsible and you are to be sure you locate the actual policy by calling a customer service rep prior to purchasing to verify. The corporation can’t actually be held to the verbiage here 😀

Yeah well again. If this wasn’t all to the right of the large bold 1149.89 I’d agree with you. I have called to verify however as I’ve suggested, one of the reps I talked to prior to the cruise told me this was OBC. Obviously that conversation Is of no value now as there is no record of it.

No I did t think I had to wait to use it. I choose to since I has that option. Thinking I could use it like OBC usually can be. Excursions, extras etc. I didn’t want to book my excursions before hand as I didn’t know initially what I might be interested in doing. Sometimes, they’re not on this cruise, they have seminars in the theater that talk about each of the excursions and what you do and what you see etc. that sort of information is not available prior to departure. Yes I did end up spending my own money on those things. Which was money I had an exactly planned on spending since I thought I had OBC. The leftover FCC Normally would be valuable as you say however I’m not sure I want to use NCL again if this is how they’re going to handle this issue. If that’s the case that would render that money of No value. And if they can’t resolve this issue to my satisfaction, I’m not certain I want to be forced, once again coming back onto NCL to use the money I have owed me.

I don’t think I’m trying to sell anything. I’m simply showing you what was on my account and why I made the decisions I did. This idea of trying to ‘sell something’ seems to imply that I am trying to game the system. Far from it. It’s been explained. I had a certain amount of dollars available to me to spend on this cruise. It is all about how I decided to spend it based on the information I had. This isn’t about getting I’m not owed. i simply don’t agree with your assessment. Obviously. Thanks for replying nonetheless.

Yeah this is how I see it as well. I guess we will see if anything comes of my letter to Katty Byrd. I simply think, as a matter of principal, that we shouldn’t always simply accept explanations for customer service folks, low on the food chain, when we believe a wrong exists. In most cases they are paid to make these issues go away. I’m not sure their goal is to make the customer happy with the solution. If we simply allow them to screw us over without making a fuss then it seems to promote this ‘our way or the highway’ attitude that is more and more common in the industry. If this was a fight over simply 50$ I don’t think I’d be making any sort of a big deal. But it is far more than that obviously.

Not everyone from NCL told me the same thing actually. The only person that told me what I didn’t want to hear was the corporate NCL person that processed my complaint and dispute file. In fact, the desk representative on the Gem actually told me he agreed with me. That that is how he’d have read it too. But also told me he didn’t have the power to make the change needed. That it needed to come from corporate. So he gave me dispute case number to file and refer to.

Because I wanted to be able to have options with what I spent it on I guess. Easier to figure out what you need/want while on the cruise than anticipating it before hand.. At least for me.

Yeah I probably should have escalated it while onboard and I thought I did in a way but I should have gone higher than the customer service representative in charge at the desk at the time I suppose. I did go higher this time by submitting my concerns to Kathy Byrd. But I agree, getting them to resolve it while onboard, my original goal, would have been ideal.

No not really. I’m not sure I’ll be able to vacation again before the end of the year. Also they already had ahold of my money from 2 prior cruises I was booked for and unable to take so I can’t afford to have them continue to hold my money. Does that make sense? Afford has different meanings than purely related to dollars.

Thanks for all the replies. To address one point of @SeaShark, I don't think there needs to be anything under the OBC line. All of that text is to the right of the dollar amount. If that OBC text was to the left of the rest of it, in line with the 1149.89, Id agree with you. But it isn't. I could be convinced you are correct if it said, $0 or n/a or something to denote that there wasn't anything there. But that isnt the case. @Funky Fusion FoodsJIf it's an IT glitch as postulated, that's on them to honor it. Just as it is with any business. Their 'glitch' was responsible for this entire misunderstanding. The reason it states 'you have no bookings' was because I was on my cruise when I pulled that photo from the website after I noticed there was no credit on board. It was the same text when I had the booking but hadn't yet boarded. And it showed my pending cruise then. At this point I think it is on them to honor it even if they never intended it to be OBC. I made decisions on that basis that I wouldn't have made had that not been there. Thats all I am saying. If I had understood it to be only available prior to cruising I would have upgraded my cabin prior and enjoyed to cruise from an aft balcony or whatever.

I am posting in the hopes that some of you can be of some help. I have gone through the usual channels at NCL and haven't gotten the replies I was hoping for yet. I had an issue with my account on my recent Gem Adriatic cruise July 3rd. So where it started...... was unable to my cruise in 2019 and a subsequent cruise in 2020. I was issued an FCC. in February, I was finally able to book a cruise for myself and my 6 family members into 3 cabins on the Gem July 3rd-10th. We had a fabulous time and would do it again in a second! So, the issue.......After my cabins were booked and paid for, I had an $1149.89 FCC left. I was expecting to be available on the cruise as an onboard credit as that is what my account said on the NCL website after I booked my cruise before departure. I have enclosed a picture below. I was told by guest relations, after I raised the question onboard as to why it wasn't reflected on my onboard account, that this was to be spent before the cruise only. It was not available as an onboard credit as my account suggested. The issue is, if I had known this prior, I would have used it to prebook excursions, upgrade my room, bought a better drink package etc. Yet since my account summary said 'onboard credit', I figured I'd keep it and use it onboard for the above items and decide on excursions and drinks, photos and the like when I got underway. I was never informed that the account summary I could access was misleading, incorrect etc. at any time. In fact they told me the opposite. You can imagine my shock when the credit wasn't there during my cruise when I looked at my folio. This was a substantial amount I was hoping would be available to me. I brought my concerns up onboard with guest relations. I showed them my account summary below. They understood my confusion but sent me to the onboard Cruise Next people to assist. I did that. Cruise Next then directed me to call corporate as they couldn't help me resolve this while onboard. I did call. Many times. I even asked to use the 'at sea' Guest relations phone to call and they told me that wasn't allowed currently. I was really hoping then to get resolution before the cruise ended suspecting that was my best option for resolving the issue. Since returning, I went thru the dispute process with NCL and they said this wasn't meant to be available as onboard credit just FCC. I was like, what? My summary says 'onboard credit'. How can that be read any other way? In order to demonstrate my case, I refer you again to the photo below. Taken from my phone of my account summary. This was taken while I was onboard. I am sure that you can see how I'd be confused. There is really only one way to read this as available to me onboard. It says just that. I get it that it also says FCC. But I assumed that was simply the name for the reason I was credited and not an expressed limitation on it available uses. Bottom line, I'd like this money to be refunded. Either in the form of a check or a CC credit. I cannot afford to simply let this FCC sit in my NCL account as I did with my prior missed cruises, or I would have. We have taken a number of cruises in the past and really enjoyed this one, but this ongoing issue has me upset I can't get resolution to my satisfaction. I feel that I am in the right on this. I was surprised that they didn't see my side of things and look to resolve this in the fairest way when I received a dispute resolution email not top my liking today. I did decide to email a similar summary to Katty Byrd at NCL hoping she could help perhaps? Anyone have any better ideas? Am I being unreasonable here?

Great! Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I will do some research then call as you have suggested.

Myself, my wife and me three children (22,19,17) are cruising in July. The kids all still live at home. The two oldest in college but official residence is home still. We are all traveling together and are booked in 3 cabins on the same July cruise on NCL. We are all quite healthy. No preexisting conditions. I am not concerned about needing medical coverage for an illness while overseas. COVID, appendicitis or otherwise. I have a Chase Sapphire Preferred card. All 5 of us are vaxxed and boosted. So my question is……I am only concerned about getting to Europe and testing positive for Covid at some point. We do not need a negative test to fly to Europe. We will be in Europe for one week traveling prior to our cruise. After the cruise we will remain for 48 hours before returning home. So my only concern is that at some point just prior to flying or just prior to cruising that one of the five of us test positive and will not be allowed to cruise or will not be allowed to return to the US. A couple of us have already had Covid despite being vaccinated. I don’t think either of us will end up testing positive. I am worried about the other three. I paid for the entire trip for all of us. I am very nervous about the delay in return, failure to be able to cruise etc. Are there policies that will cover this specifically? Does my chase sapphire preferred cover this? Do I need additional insurance? If only one of us test positive obviously none of the rest of us are going to want to go on a cruise without that other person. Will we all be covered if only one test positive? Does NCL issue FCC if We are not allowed to board due to a Covid test? I did read a lot of the other threads in here but since I am not at all familiar with travel insurance I’m not sure how to handle this. We have traveled to Europe a number of times in the past, we have traveled and cruised a lot of times in the past but never had insurance. This is because we are healthy but this Covid situation adds wrinkles to be sure.