Warning About Using Up Onboard Credits

[camofwilliamsburg]

Like I said before, our unused OBC last cruise on Crown was given to us in cash. We have $750 now and it is split since some come from stock in DH name and then some in FCC and some in visa. Will have to make sure they are combined and that is that.

[willysgrandma]

You can call Princess and ask. Just be aware that your TA may not atually purchase your OBC till just before you cruise so I'd take a copy of whatever your TA sent in writing that they would be providing you with.

 

I'm going to post this here as it's kind of related.. -

 

Is there anything you can't spend your OBC on?

 

Is there anyway to check your OBC before you leave for your cruise? I booked with a TA and just want to make sure it's there.

 

Thanks

[san diego sue]

Even with FCC credits and shareholders credits, travel agents credit, we never have anything left over. After the tips are deducted and any tours , there is never a credit balance. I always charge the tours on husband's account because he always has the shareholders credit on his account. Wish we didn't have the large bill at the end.

I think now with the Veteran's benefit being allowed with shareholders,

many people are going to run into the problem if they don't charge appropriately to the individual accounts.Princess is very generous and we should be grateful for this. :D

[dundalkspur]

What more is the great Carnival corp going to do to nickle and dime everyone ?I think they should all go on courses on Customer retension and customer care .

[Loonbeam]

See my prior post. I don't think this is a deliberate attempt to reclaim credit. There are new accounting rules for credit cards going in 5/1/11 that will require changes to the way expenses are tracked. I am now pretty sure this is a side effect of those changes.

 

You can, however, blame them for not either training properly and/or testing thoroughly if this is the case.

 

What more is the great Carnival corp going to do to nickle and dime everyone ?I think they should all go on courses on Customer retension and customer care .

[Loonbeam]

Asked about that too. Apparently a lack of planning here, the last time Princess upgraded the shipboard media systems, they didn't put in an infrastructure that allowed data transmission to the rooms as many other lines did.

 

So, any on-screen data now requires a complete overhaul of the electronics, which requires a major and extended dry dock, which is expensive as heck.

 

They've started to put kiosks on some ships I believe, this would be an acceptable short term solution in my book.

 

We usually purchase extra OBC's before traveling to cover all our expenses - but I think now we'll just take the cash with us and pay down whatever extra we charge over the existing OBC's instead of having to worry about who has what left over.

 

This is just ridiculous - it is bad enough you can't track your charges through the t.v. on Princess, but this really is inconvenient to passengers. I can just see the lines at guest services.

[caribill]

See my prior post. I don't think this is a deliberate attempt to reclaim credit. There are new accounting rules for credit cards going in 5/1/11 that will require changes to the way expenses are tracked. I am now pretty sure this is a side effect of those changes.

 

 

I doubt this since through the personalzier the person who owns the credit card gives permission for others to charge to thaqt card.

[donna5]

Not in our case it won't. Our 16 day cruise will still leave over $100 on each of our invoices in OBC. However, my husband is doing an excursion that is $200..and I seldom spend anything, so it looks like I will lose my $100 extra, and he will have $100 more than we planned on, charged to our creidt card...unless I can figure out how to take it out in the Casino, without extra charges, in cash..which I would then use to pay towards his invoice.

 

You can reserve shore excursions for either of you in each others account online. So you might be able to even it out that way.

 

I'm going to post this here as it's kind of related.. -

 

Is there anything you can't spend your OBC on?

 

Is there anyway to check your OBC before you leave for your cruise? I booked with a TA and just want to make sure it's there.

 

Thanks

Have your TA send you the passenger copy invoice that princess sends them. It will have your total of OBC on it. (Minus any loyalty OBC or special gift OBC that the TA may give you--These will be in the form of a gift card in your stateroom stating you have received a gift OBC) and then you can check your onboard account.

[Loonbeam]

Not everyone stays on the cards that are set up in the personalizer though. The rules require that the purchases have to be tracked by indifvidual charger for chargeback purposes, but they can be combined for the actual transaction later. I think its the breaking out of the cruise card charges that is the source of the problem.

 

I doubt this since through the personalzier the person who owns the credit card gives permission for others to charge to thaqt card.

[juakkers]

We have just come off the same Star Santiago to Rio cruise as Carolyn and had exactly the same experience.

 

All through the cruise, the accounts were shown as a combined balance whenever I checked. My husband and I are registered to use the same credit card for payment.

 

The night before disembarkation we got the dreaded letter telling my husband he was in credit and asking how was he goning to 'settle this'. This has never happened to us before, even when the circumstances were exactly the same.

 

We phoned passenger services (hoping to avoid the nightmare queues) and finally spoke to someone. We had to specifically say we wanted both balances combining on the same card.

 

When my husband asked why this was necessary, since we both had the same card registered, the woman on the desk said they had to 'have his permission' to do this. Which was weird, seing as it is my credit card, not his anyway.

 

Anyway, lesson learned. We will now spread the costs to avoid this madness.

 

Good luck everyone in future!

[mytime53]

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:

 

If I missed the post answering your question, sorry. But here's your answer (maybe again): the gratuity is (and has been in the past) charged to each person's individual folio.

[sue & jerry]

spoke to an agent at princess and she said she's never heard of this! But, we transferred all excursions from my name to my husband's name since shareholder credit goes to him. Our next cruise is 19 days, and my FCC is insufficient to cover gratuities.

I guess we'll have them combine accounts the second day out. If this doesn't work, we'll only use my husband's cruise card for charging and make up the difference from the casino slot machines.

Sue

[teammates]

Started reading about the credits on Pia's Live thread. Can't believe how many pages you have now. Anyway I checked with my TA, she called Princess and this is the info she got.

"The Onboard Credits have always been assigned to each person....now they are strictly enforcing that the Onboard credits are for the person they are assigned to and they are not transferable. Each person has their own Folio even though you are linked to the same credit card. You can always go to the Pursers Desk and transfer a persons balance to the other person. From now on I will give you the breakdown of your Onboard Credits. For example on the Transatlantic Cruise you each have the $150 that was from the Future Cruise Deposit and you each have $25 from the Cruises Inc Group but the $250 from the Carnival Shareholders was assigned to Greg. That means that Merle has $175 Onboard Credit and Greg has $425. That is a total of $600 but you need to know how it is broken down so you can use it up for each person."

It's going to involve some record keeping on our part! Merle

[Potstech]

From the sounds of things Princess is making an accounting nioghtmare for its passengers. Every time you go to do something you will now have to stop and decied which room card to use. You will also have to periodically go to the PSD and find out how thngs are charged up to a certian point. The night before debarktation is going to become a mess of standing inlong lines and trying to get your account starightened out with some one who apparently is not sure of how to do it or what the rules really are. yes this is just what all passengers want to do in order to cap off a previously enjoyable cruise. I have emnailed Princess about this exactscenerio and have yet to hear from them. Hope something comes back soon because I am now having second thoughts about cruising if I constatnly have to beworried about finances. That is NO the reason I take cruises.

 

All they have to do is ask when you check onto the ship is if you want your accounts combined or not. Short sweet and simple. Then follow through with the passengers wishes for the rest of the cruise. Easy does it. Why wait until the last day???

[Bucky3]

I feel sorry for the travel agents who will now have to deal with the numerous questions from clients about this - a real headache and time consuming for them. At least those of us here on Cruise Critic, a small percentage of a ship's passengers, have been informed and should be prepared and able to "deal with it!" That's assuming, of course, that members have been following this ever growing thread!

[asctony]

You can always go to the Pursers Desk and transfer a persons balance to the other person. From now on I will give you the breakdown of your Onboard Credits. Merle

 

If you can transfer, then what is the purpose of Princess doing this new change? It just doesn't make sense.

[dundalkspur]

You can always go to the Pursers Desk and transfer a persons balance to the other person. Merle[/

quote]

 

This message does not make clear to me if you can transfer credit from one a/c to another.:confused::confused:I cant imagine the software was changed over to this new system to help passengers:mad:.

[Shoalwater]

If you can transfer, then what is the purpose of Princess doing this new change? It just doesn't make sense.

 

As I stated earlier, unused OBC is REVENUE! Rest assured that not every passenger will A) know about this or B) make the extra effort to use up all OBC on each account. Remember, there is no way short of dealing with the pursers desk and the pleasant mannered, customer focused crack staff that man that station so efficiently that there is never any waiting or down time in order to get a copy of your folio, and then carefully tracking your charges to use up each one's OBC. FUBAR if you are a passenger, money (your money) if you are the cruise line. Its just like rebates, people make a purchase but a majority never claim the rebate, and the marketing dept. counts on that.

 

Like I said earlier, I have no beef with the fact that Princess is a for-profit operation, just give me the tools to manage my money so I don't have to work during my cruise to avoid leaving my money on the table. Waiting frequently in a line for a folio printout is not my idea of a tool to do this :mad:.

[Loonbeam]

I'll get final confirmation tomorrow but from everything I have been able to find out, this change is in fact due to some credit card accounting rule changes that require Princess and other vendors to be able to document the source of a specific line item.

 

For example, lets say that you and your spouse are on a cruise, have both cruise cards linked to the same CC. Princess now has to be able to say which charges were run on your room key and which are your spouses. They can still combine them at the end, they just need to be able to provide that information on request.

 

It appears Princess's solution to this was to separate each individual cruise card into its own onboard account. The unintended side effect seems to be that there is no more balancing between the multiple parts of a shared account automatically, hence the OBC issue.

 

Not sure, and won't be able to find out what they have in mind to fix anything until its implemented.

 

If you can transfer, then what is the purpose of Princess doing this new change? It just doesn't make sense.

[Toto2Kansas]

From what we witnessed onboard the Royal, even the Purser's Desk did not know this was going to happen once the first of March hit. I remember a lot of grumbling at the purser's desk that I overheard, of them saying they hated the new accounting software and nobody really knew how to use it yet.

I had gone down many times during the second leg of our cruise, gotten a print out of our folio as late as March 1st, (actually what I was checking on was the added shipboard credit that was to be increased since we hit 31/32 cruise credits on this sailing, which I might add were never credited to our account either). But I talked to the head purser several times after looking at the print outs, and she assured me we didn't have to start using my hubbys card (as he had hundreds of dollars in credits while my card was into charges). She told me nothing had changed, and they would be combined at the end.

Thankfully, I remember her name, and have all of the copies of the print outs, credit card credit slips issued, and the final folio which shows they applied his credit and our balance was zero. But now the fight begins, as I won't back down on this one since the charge for over $300 is still showing on my credit card bill, while the credits for over $300 never have appeared. If I would have just not gotten any print outs, or not asked if they would be combined and subtracted from each other that final night, then I would take the blame for not doing what was needed. But the way this took place, I won't just sit back and take it and pay the $300+ charge they added to our bill, not until those credits show up at least. ;)

[Liz54]

From what we witnessed onboard the Royal, even the Purser's Desk did not know this was going to happen once the first of March hit. I remember a lot of grumbling at the purser's desk that I overheard, of them saying they hated the new accounting software and nobody really knew how to use it yet.

I had gone down many times during the second leg of our cruise, gotten a print out of our folio as late as March 1st, (actually what I was checking on was the added shipboard credit that was to be increased since we hit 31/32 cruise credits on this sailing, which I might add were never credited to our account either). But I talked to the head purser several times after looking at the print outs, and she assured me we didn't have to start using my hubbys card (as he had hundreds of dollars in credits while my card was into charges). She told me nothing had changed, and they would be combined at the end.

Thankfully, I remember her name, and have all of the copies of the print outs, credit card credit slips issued, and the final folio which shows they applied his credit and our balance was zero. But now the fight begins, as I won't back down on this one since the charge for over $300 is still showing on my credit card bill, while the credits for over $300 never have appeared. If I would have just not gotten any print outs, or not asked if they would be combined and subtracted from each other that final night, then I would take the blame for not doing what was needed. But the way this took place, I won't just sit back and take it and pay the $300+ charge they added to our bill, not until those credits show up at least. ;)

 

 

Quite right Toto! You go girl!!

[asctony]

For example, lets say that you and your spouse are on a cruise, have both cruise cards linked to the same CC. Princess now has to be able to say which charges were run on your room key and which are your spouses. They can still combine them at the end, they just need to be able to provide that information on request.

 

It appears Princess's solution to this was to separate each individual cruise card into its own onboard account. The unintended side effect seems to be that there is no more balancing between the multiple parts of a shared account automatically, hence the OBC issue.

 

Not sure, and won't be able to find out what they have in mind to fix anything until its implemented.

 

I think I understand what Princess is trying to say. However, in the past, before this new accounting went into effect, anytime I charged using my cruise card, that was under my name and my cruise card account. When my wife charged using her cruise card that went under her cruise card account and showed up under her separate account/sheet. At the end of the cruise and every time we printed out our accounts, they would 'roll-up' the total to the Credit Card we registered at the beginning of the cruise. We only registered 1 Credit Card.

 

So, based upon what Princess is saying now, 'What is the difference since they are saying the same thing now that they did before?' The exception is that they don't 'roll-up' the totals from both accounts (DH and DW) to the same Credit Card. This way they can keep some of the OBCs.

Someone from Princess is 'blowing smoke!'

I have my Final Bill print-out from Jan 2011 on the Island and that is the way it worked. We did not leave any OBC to Princess.

This is really some 'smoking mirrors.'

[mytime53]

Thankfully, I remember her name, and have all of the copies of the print outs, credit card credit slips issued, and the final folio which shows they applied his credit and our balance was zero. But now the fight begins, as I won't back down on this one since the charge for over $300 is still showing on my credit card bill, while the credits for over $300 never have appeared. If I would have just not gotten any print outs, or not asked if they would be combined and subtracted from each other that final night, then I would take the blame for not doing what was needed. But the way this took place, I won't just sit back and take it and pay the $300+ charge they added to our bill, not until those credits show up at least. ;)

 

I'm sure I'm missing something here, but is there a reason you don't just challenge it with your credit card company? Some of the credit card companies have now made it extremely easy to dispute a charge. With the one we mainly use, you log on to your account, click on the transaction you want to dispute, and there is a button for "dispute this transaction." Then a window pops up; it gives you more details, and asks you to select the reason you are disputing. In your case, you would select, "I have a credit slip, but the credit was not applied to my account."

 

When I just clicked on that, I see that an additional note pops up "Check the following before continuing" --"You have allowed the merchant the required 30 days from the date you were issued credit before initiating this dispute."

 

That is not the reason I have disputed any charges before, so I didn't know that would pop up. But still, as long as you have that credit slip, save yourself some grief and don't mess with Princess. Put a note on your calendar to check in 30 days and dispute if necessary.

 

We used to have to send in verification whenever we disputed something with a credit card company. I haven't had to send anything in for quite a while (I have all the paperwork, just haven't had to use it).

 

I'm sure you'll get your money back, but I know it's frustrating. On our recent cruise, we were charged for items that weren't ours. They refused to give me anything in writing about reversing the charge. My only recourse was to return once again in the morning before disembarking to make sure it was reversed. It was, but what if they hadn't taken care of it? It's not a pleasant way to end one's cruise, and although first impressions are important, last impressions tend to stick in one's mind longer, I think. In this regard, I think Princess is, possibly inadvertently, making an error.

[Toto2Kansas]

mytime53-This will happen after we see if the credits are applied. The actually credits applied are quite a bit more than the charge that they posted to my account as we also had government fees credited back to both accounts, the actual fees dropped after we made final payment and are refundable. In other words, I will take what I can get, but they actually owe me quite a bit more than the charge on my credit card they put through. ;)

Yes, I knew you had to give them some time to post the credits, in fact, I emailed Princess the end of last week to see just how much time I needed to give them.

Plus my TA is going to work on this problem for me next week also. It's good to have a TA that will fight for you in times like this. ;)

[mytime53]

but they actually owe me quite a bit more than the charge on my credit card they put through. ;)

 

Well, that really hurts!