cherylandtk

Today in the Princess webinar, John Chernesky said there will be case by case exemptions, such as for adults with medical contra-indications, children under 12, or religious exemptions.  These exemptions will be limited to the 5% cap.

5 minutes ago, sandancer said:

Thanks but I can’t see pre-purchases when I log in to the booking. Is it possible that the Princess UK website could be different to the US version? Can’t see it on the Medallion app either. 

Ah, yes.  UK website operates somewhat differently; and not always predictable differences, either.  I’m hoping a UK resident will come along who might be able to guide you.

On 5/23/2021 at 3:33 PM, mina said:

The issue is not any b2bs past mid November. The cdc limited cruises to 7 days or less up until mid November.  News is now reporting that the cdc is rescinding that limitation. The question now is whether princess is letting people book  a b2b before November.  Some say they have done it, others, like me, are being told by princess that  it’s not allowed.

Mina, today on the webinar specifically about these 10 Alaska cruises, Chernesky and Marsha both said the answer was no.

You should be able to find the record of your purchase in your My Princess section of the website under your booking pre-purchases. As for changing things on board, that is about to undergo a new upgrade. The Dine My Way option is to be rolled out as cruising resumes and none of us have any experience with it yet, so you will be learning it with the rest of us.

I found it interesting that the linked CDC page recommends that fully vaccinated cruise passengers still get a Covid test before and after the cruise.  

OP, I see three cancelled July 2021 cruises on the Sky, but two do not have any replacement cruise listed and the third shows the replacement cruise is on the Crown.  Can you please clarify which itinerary you were on and what your transferred itinerary is?

I agree the L and M forward DW cabins are far different than the other DWs.  If they are already booked I would ask Princess for a refund instead of taking the transfer over.  And then find another cruise where those cabins are open.

Good to know they do that upon starting a new booking.  I was under the impression the above complaints were bookings already made which at some later point had FCCs applied.  I could be wrong.  
 

As to my particular situation...it appears so far that nobody else has found their FCC to have been reduced (or at least nobody has reported it here).  I’m going to take that as a good sign that there is something unique about our cancelled cruise or FCC or TA discount that can be explained.  I hope.  I’ll come back to report what that is when I get that explanation from Princess.

2 minutes ago, dog said:

I would keep after Princess to get it back. Should have nothing to do with TA   They get commission when Princess cancels & when you rebook, right?

Princess would not talk with us when this all transpired and made us go through the TA.  Perhaps that has changed now. I will find out when my TA has had a chance to fix this.

51 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

Is the non Goodwill FCC still on your account?  This would be the amount of your deposit.

All of our FCC was labeled Goodwill credit.  Our deposit was $2.  Princess refunded ~80% of our fare in cash and their computer system decided to charge the remaining ~20% which was $912, as a penalty (even though their written policy states the only amount they should have kept is the $2 deposit).  Sometime later, Princess retroactively granted FCC to cancellation penalties and called this Goodwill credit. They gave us $912 FCC.

At that point, we figured it was ‘close enough’.  They still really owed us $910 in cash with $2 as a penalty.  But we were willing to just take the FCC instead of insisting on the cash. There was no bonus FCC involved.
 

Now they have removed $500 from that FCC which is not close enough anymore.  
 

I would be bothered as well if the FCC was applied randomly to a booking without my knowledge.

Even worse is taking it without applying it anywhere. I am really upset that Princess arbitrarily took it away without any notification or explanation.  By any other name that’s theft.

6 hours ago, beg3yrs said:

This is why I take regular screen shots of our FCC and OBC accounts. They're dated and I use them to do my own audit of what's going where.

I have all that, too.  Fat lot of good that’s doing.  

1 hour ago, dog said:

What was the credit for-did Princess cancel,? did you get cash refund?
 

hope you get it back. 

The credit was for the penalty Princess applied when we cancelled 64 days before the cruise.
 

Princess incorrectly calculated and applied a higher penalty of 20% of the full fare.  After much drama, back and forth, getting mis-handled as a Princess cancellation and waiting months for a refund, we decided to give up trying to get through to Princess and take the FCC ($912) instead of fighting them further.  We figured we would be able to use the FCC, and the FCC + refund = Total paid.
 

Now they have reduced the FCC by $500, which is a $500 loss to us.  This is doubly frustrating because of that $912 FCC they actually owed us $910 in cash and the remaining $2 was the deposit and legal ‘penalty amount’. 

I wish it were just a matter of Princess applying them to a future booking; but nope, there is no future booking.  They were just plain reduced.  

My TA said she thinks it may be somehow related to her discount pricing.  But then I am still out about $500 from what we paid.

We had booked a 2020 Alaska cruisetour. After all the drama of cancellations and refunds and FCCs subsided we were left with about $500 in FCC each and refunds which together totaled our payments to Princess.  
 

Went to look for a replacement cruise to use the FCCs by the May ‘22 deadline only to discover that $250 has mysteriously disappeared from each of our FCC accounts. No explanation, no email or notice from Princess, just gone.  I’ve asked our TA to seek an explanation from Princess.

Has this happened to anyone else?

I’m sure one of your compatriots will be able to chime in shortly on the UK specifics, but as I recall, when this sort of thing had happened in the past, a check gets mailed from the US...which can be problematic itself with overseas mail delivery, etc.  The envelope comes from a company called Bottomline, not Princess.

Your best option is to contact Princess in the US via email with the details and ask them when your check was mailed.  You can explain it was not received, and ask them to issue you another.  

In the past, FCC ‘lost in a cancellation’ was specifically not covered by the insurance carrier, as it was not cash. This has always been defined in the fine print of the policy.
 

As of the Covid-19 cancellations, Princess was covering some of the lost FCC with yet more FCC.  Whether you can count on that continuing to happen, for how long, and for what amounts is unknown, and unless you can get it in writing from Princess, do not count on it.

On 10/8/2020 at 10:32 AM, cherylandtk said:

Just updated the authorization and will look forward to continuing with this benefit. Thanks to all.

I’m returning to update my status from Princess website.   In the main account page it still shows an expiry of 12-31-21.....BUT I took another look at the OBC for a future cruise after that date and Military OBC has now been added.   So I guess it worked?

I’ll have to let you know...it says it takes about 7 days to update in the Captains Circle account. Which is still listing 12/31/2021.

Thanks for this thread.  A while back, amidst all the cancellations, we noticed the expiration changed from 2099 to 2021.  Assumed it was due to cash flow and Covid. Had no idea it was just a renewal issue.

Just updated the authorization and will look forward to continuing with this benefit. Thanks to all.

Many third-party insurance companies will allow you to cancel the existing policy and transfer it to a future trip.  Especially if the trip cancellation is due to Covid.

Suzy, no idea if they are using the same hotels as three years ago, but post #5 in this thread gives more info: https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2293257-princess-europe-cruisetours/?tab=comments#comment-49222371

It’s going to be a lot simpler to do what you want if you cancel before the FCD expiry date is reached.

If you cancel before the FCD expires it will be returned to your CC account and you can then ask for an extension.

if you cancel after it expires it will be refunded via your cancelled card.  If you have a new account with the same bank, it is linked to your old account and the refund will show up on the new account.  If you no longer have  a relationship with that bank, they will reject the refund and at some point you will receive a check in the mail.

On 9/8/2020 at 4:45 PM, cherylandtk said:

Just an update; FCDs are now off My Princess, but nothing has yet appeared on the credit card.

And just to close this out; the refund made it to the credit card today. Three weeks start to finish.

No small part of the confusion seems to be whether FCCs are now fully returnable (or refundable). This is new territory for most of us, as past FCCs were “use ‘em or lose ‘em” with no cash value.
 

Covid FCCs are a mix of refundable (cash value) and non-refundable (no cash value) depending on what Option was offered and what each passenger chose.  From what is posted above, it seems that Aon is considering them all to be ‘just like cash’ and refundable, yet has not changed their policy DOC to reflect that they are a covered method of payment.

Given the recent history of major disconnects between what the cruiseline says vs. what actually happens, I would have to recommend that anyone purchasing travel insurance do so with the help of an independent qualified broker who can explain what is being purchased.  
 

The final result will be that any insurance company will only pay for what is specifically mentioned in their DOC.  What anybody at Princess or Aon says on the phone is useless.

I agree it makes sense to speak with an independent broker like Steve.  There appears to be some sort of missing bit of information from the DOC document about what is or is not covered by Aon and whether FCCs are returnable and/or insurable by them.