Warning About Using Up Onboard Credits

[cboyle]

The night before disembarking from the Star Princess, I learned that Princess now charges each person's stateroom account SEPARATELY to the registered credit card. In the past, the accounts were combined before a charge was made to the registered credit card.

 

For example, suppose you and your spouse are registered for express checkout with the same credit card. At the end of the cruise, if your account has a credit and your spouse's account has a debit, then your spouse's debit will be charged to the credit card and your credit will disappear. In other words, your credit will no longer offset your spouse's debit.

 

I was told that this policy change was due to Princess having a new accounting system.

 

For more details on my experience with this policy change, see:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=28288768&postcount=25

 

Another person had the same problem last week on the Royal Princess:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=28290421&postcount=27

 

Moral: Each person needs to spend all of his/her own onboard credits (or enjoy fighting with Passenger Services on disembarkation morning).

 

Carolyn

[Maryandi]

Thanks for posting this info. Carolyn. I'll be watching for it in May. Hope you enjoyed your cruise. M.A.

[-Lew-]

 

The night before disembarking from the Star Princess, I learned that Princess now charges each person's stateroom account SEPARATELY to the registered credit card. In the past, the accounts were combined before a charge was made to the registered credit card.

This is not yet system wide.

 

We disembarked the Ruby on February 27th and our charges were combined prior to billing my AmEx card. My wife had a $25 credit on her account that was transferred to mine.

 

Lew

[paul929207]

Thanks for the heads up. My wife frequently has obc left over as nothing but the tips are usually on her account

[royalcruz]

Thank you for reporting this. How do we know which name the OBC is under if we booked together and it was a TA gift???

[Toto2Kansas]

I still can't understand how they can do this Carolyn. Many credits are issued per stateroom, so they just apply them to only one name. If the credit is per stateroom, not for either passenger in particular, the combined accounts at the end of the cruise are the only way they can apply this fairly. I think Princess is going to have problems over this one.

When it happened to me, I thought it was just a fluke, until I saw your post late last night.

 

I will have to keep you posted on how my credit slip issued plays out. As I do plan to persue this with princess if the credit slips they issued are not applied.

[grandmaa]

Thank you for reporting this. How do we know which name the OBC is under if we booked together and it was a TA gift???

 

You can go to the pursers desk and ask for a print out or do your own printout of your account to see your credits and charges early on your cruise...not really a hard thing to find out. Spend it all and enjoy!

[-Lew-]

 

Thank you for reporting this. How do we know which name the OBC is under if we booked together and it was a TA gift???

Get copies of your folios at Guest Services on your second cruise day. Credit are usually posted the first day.

 

Lew

[cruisinalong001]

This just sounds like one looney idea and a real pain for passengers. Whose account gets charged the tips? Are they split in half? I think this is just another way to try to not so subtley vacuum you wallet.:mad:

[Woobstr112G]

I still can't understand how they can do this Carolyn. Many credits are issued per stateroom, so they just apply them to only one name. If the credit is per stateroom, not for either passenger in particular, the combined accounts at the end of the cruise are the only way they can apply this fairly. I think Princess is going to have problems over this one.

When it happened to me, I thought it was just a fluke, until I saw your post late last night.

 

I will have to keep you posted on how my credit slip issued plays out. As I do plan to persue this with princess if the credit slips they issued are not applied.

 

I thought something was kinda screwy (related to our room accounts) on our recently completed Golden cruise; now I know why.....

 

Bob

[Wavesprite]

Wait, your OBC's "disappear" if you don't use them all? On Carnival there is a check under your door the last morning. Hmmmm.....

[Toto2Kansas]

This just sounds like one looney idea and a real pain for passengers. Whose account gets charged the tips? Are they split in half? I think this is just another way to try to not so subtley vacuum you wallet.:mad:

 

Each account is charged the hotel charge seperately, as usual. But if you tend to use one card for most of the cruise for charges and purchases, and not the other card, there will be a problem. If there is a credit at the end of the cruise on one card, and a balance due on the other, they do not combine them, so they do not cancel each other out. They will charge the one card the balanced owed, while the credit on the other just goes back to the cruise line and not deducted from the credit.

In our case, we used mainly my cruise card. At the end of the voyage, I had just over $300 in charges showing. On my DH's card, he had well over $300 credit left. They charged my credit card the $300, while they show my hubbys credit being 'given' back to the cruise line as not used, when they should have cancelled each other out (as the print outs during the voyage showed they were doing) as those credits actually belonged to both of us (stock credit, captain's circle credit, and TA credit, that are only given in one name and not both).

With many credits issued 'per stateroom' and supposedly for both passengers use, this way of accounting is IMPOSSIBLE, as it just can not be done this way to issue credits to the stateroom and not the individual passenger.

[Nanatravel]

Thanks for sharing your experience. I will be sure to watch "our" folio accounts on the Crown. I have a large OBC this time and am doing private tours. My DH usually makes most of the on-board charges. I recall each person being charged their daily grauities individually.

[asctony]

It sure is nice of Princess to inform us all of their new changes. Cruise lines are always quickly informing us of things that make us happy. However, when it is taking away something or changing the rules, they seem to forget to tell us.

Just this year alone, 2011, they have done away with the daily Elite Happy Hour unless you are in port. Now, the OBC combined credit per cabin with the same credit card. Then the $2.99 drinks that many people can't find or know about, even the bartenders don't know about them either?

What's next?

Princess, get your act together. Remember, there are other cruise lines out there.

[Tobermory]

This is an interesting discussion, and I can add our experience. We recently completed a Holland America Cruise and noticed the same problem that my wife's account and mine were being treated as separate accounts, even though the same credit card was being charged. I had a large "per stateroom" credit on my account which, with two separate accounts, meant that we would pay more on the final bill. I, therefore, requested that our two accounts be combined, and the Front Office willingly did so. In the end, we ended up with a $0.29 credit. Otherwsie, we may have owed about $100! -- the value of our CCL shares on-board credit. They told me that from now on I would have to request that the two accounts be combined sometime before the end of the cruise. Likely the same thing can be done on Princess but, if so, it would require a specific request to do so at the purser's desk during the cruise. This problem will only occur when on-board credits are issued on a "per stateroom" basis as opposed to "per person." Will Princess combine the two accounts in the same way that HAL did?

[Wavesprite]

I'm also curious how they figure out who's OBC's are whose? My mother and I are travelling and we have:

 

$75 combined from TA

$200 promo

$100 from my mothers military service.

 

Everything is on my credit card...hmmmmm

[dutchess43]

After reading all of these posts the next time I am going to sail princess I will be using 2 credit cards one for dh & one for me. I will make sure that none of my obc's are returned to the cruise line.

[Toto2Kansas]

I'm also curious how they figure out who's OBC's are whose? My mother and I are travelling and we have:

 

$75 combined from TA

$200 promo

$100 from my mothers military service.

 

Everything is on my credit card...hmmmmm

Even though you have all the charges placed on one credit card for the stateroom, keep watch on your mothers account. If I am not mistaken, all of the credits issued above are non refundable. Your hotel charge will be charged seperately to each account ($10.50-$11.00 per person per day). They normally will split the TA credit $37.50 pp in each account. The promo I am not sure but it may also be split or possibly just issued on one name, but the military credit will be issued only to your mom's account. If she has any credit left over, it will not be refunded or your charges deducted from it, but will just disappear into credit card cyberspace while they charge you any balance owed on YOUR account without deducting it from her credit.

What a mess this is going to be as time moves on. I would guess there will be many more threads discussing this in the near future. I don't know what in the world Princess is thinking with this, but something needs to be changed with how the credits are applied.

[Potstech]

Sounds like a good time for a letter campaign to Princess to find out what is going on. didn't ahve this problem in February. I would think that if both accounts are on one credit card then they would have to figure it as on charge instead of two. I would tell the purser right at the beginning that is the way I want it to be.

 

Some one at Princess has really sold them a ball of wax with this type of program. I think before I book my next cruise I will have the TA see if it is true. If so I will not book Princess as their policy would cause me to lose money with this type of accounting tricker.

 

For all who have been affected by this change I woould write them a letter to try and find out why they are doing this kind of unannounced change?

[Phyljim]

Interesting...do appreciate the heads up. We are about a month away from boarding the Diamond..will watch our accounts carefully. Quite often my account will end with a credit, which has been automatically put on his account. Will watch, and make sure it happens....or pay for some things with my card to balance things out.

[PescadoAmarillo]

We encountered this same issue on the Emerald in February. In fact, the change appeared to have been made while we were on our cruise, because we check our account almost daily, and suddenly one day our statements looked different. In our case, our CCL credit and Military credit both get applied to DH's on board account, and we made the mistake of putting soda stickers and drinks on my card, so it looked like DH was going to have a credit balance and me a debit balance. We made a trip to the PSD on the second last day of the cruise and they were able to manually net them together. The end result is that we had just one charge to our credit card.

 

In December, we ended up getting money back, and I wondered how that was going to work. PSD actually handed us cash back on that one, after netting them together.

[Toto2Kansas]

The problem I am having with this is that when getting a print out mid cruise, and seeing they had deducted my debits from his credits, I spoke to the head purser. I asked her if the accounts would be combined (as they always have been in the past) at the end of the voyage and was told yes. And each print out showed just that, until the last morning when the final statement arrived. Grrrrrrrrrr

[LARGIN]

Looks like Ginger will have to spring for a couple of bottles of wine on our upcoming Panama cruise :D

[oskidunker]

we each list a different credit card.I would not want it combined.We have always done this.

[Shoalwater]

After reading all of these posts the next time I am going to sail princess I will be using 2 credit cards one for dh & one for me. I will make sure that none of my obc's are returned to the cruise line.

 

more of an issue to use both Cruise Cards! I believe stateroom charges are accumulated from Cruise Card use, so even if both PAX each have a separate credit card, that does nothing to use up an OBC in either account.

 

I agree with the OP, that if this is really a policy change, sneaking it in under the cloak of silence may initially drive more revenue, but in the long run it does little to instill passenger trust or loyalty in Princess. Tell me the rules of the game, don't hide them and put me on "double secret probation".:mad: