Separate vs. Combined Stateroom Account - It may be a problem

[Tobermory]

There is currently an interesting thread on the Princess board re: a very recent change on Princess that results in separate accounts instead of a combined account for two persons occupying a cabin.

 

My wife and I encountered this problem on a "Noordam" cruise last week. Even though we provided the same credit card number for each of us, we ended up with separate accounts. The problem arises when an on-board credit is provided to one (not both) of the two persons in a cabin. In our case, we received a CCL shares on-board credit and it was posted to my account. Because of this, I would have ended up with a non-refundable credit at the end of the cruise, while my wife would have a credit card charge. When we discovered this during the cruise, we requested that our accounts be combined. This was readily done by the Front Desk, and we actually ended up with a small non-refundable credit for the combined account at the end of the cruise, a net saving of at least $60.

 

The Front Desk told us that, in the future, we should ask after we board the ship to have our separate accounts combined. According to the discussion on the Princess board, this has been a recent change on Princess (due to a software change), and it would appear to also be a change on Holland America.

 

For those receiving an on-board credit in one name only, then you should check with the Front Desk before the end of the cruise to ensure that accounts are combined for your cabin to avoid paying more unnecessarily. Has this also been a recent change on HAL, since it hadn't happened to us before?

[sapete]

Thanks for the info-I'll be in the same situation in May.

Good question-- Looking forward to see what the board comes up with.

[kazu]

WOW!! I have always had one account and the OBC was applied.

 

this is really helpful info - I will definitely be on alert on my next cruise.

 

Thanks so much for sharing this invaluable info :)

[TBcruisers]

There is currently an interesting thread on the Princess board re: a very recent change on Princess that results in separate accounts instead of a combined account for two persons occupying a cabin.

 

***

 

The Front Desk told us that, in the future, we should ask after we board the ship to have our separate accounts combined. According to the discussion on the Princess board, this has been a recent change on Princess (due to a software change), and it would appear to also be a change on Holland America.

 

For those receiving an on-board credit in one name only, then you should check with the Front Desk before the end of the cruise to ensure that accounts are combined for your cabin to avoid paying more unnecessarily. Has this also been a recent change on HAL, since it hadn't happened to us before?

 

Thanks very much for bringing this to our attention. We're doing a transatlantic cruise in 3 weeks and this is invaluable information.

[Krazy Kruizers]

thanks for the heads up

 

we have always had one account

 

will remember to check this out in the future

[GORDONCHICK]

We've not cruised HAL before but on all our other cruises, each cruiser had their own account. In our case, it's just me, DH & DS - all being charged to one credit card. We found once that DH had a credit at the end of the cruise, but DS and I didn't. DH asked at the front desk about it (CPA/CFO nature) and he was told that all three would "funnel" together and there'd only be one charge on the credit card total, and that's exactly what happened.

[Kay240]

We were on the Maasdam Jan. 28-Feb. 11 and discovered that we had separate accounts. It was very confusing because we had multiple OBC (stock, travel agent, and onboard booking); some of them appeared on each statement. The Front Office staff was very happy to combine the accounts for us.

[cruzn single]

It could also be a problem with the total on board spending resulting in days being credited toward Mariner status. Thanks for the heads up!

[RAYSAN11]

I would have thought that the issue may be with online documents were different credit entered or was the box ticked for the 2nd person to use the same credit card as the first person?

[Tobermory]

As a follow-up to my original posting, note that my wife and I used the same credit card number. This information was provided on our pre-boarding documents. The Noordam Front Office told me that I did "nothing wrong" even though we ended up with two separate accounts. The Front Office was very willing to combine the two accounts. They indicated that we would likely always have to combine the two accounts on-board during future cruises. To me, it seems an unnecessary extra step and more work for the Front Office. We only found out about the separate accounts because they told us when they printed out a preliminary version of our on-board expenditures. In the Princess discussion forum about the same subject, there have been over 70 postings on the subject in just one day! People are not happy about the change.

 

We also had another problem with credit card charges during the cruise. We made an "open" future cruise deposit of $100 Canadian for each of us. We got a receipt confirming the two deposits in Canadian currency. However, our credit card bill is showing one of these deposits in Canadian funds and the other in US funds (showing as $99.75 Canadian). I will have to phone HAL to see if this will cause any problem when we eventually book. Perhaps it is okay to leave it this way, but the difference between the two currencies is not always favourable to Canadians if booking in US funds. On the other hand, paying in US funds often ends up being cheaper. So, if we leave the deposits as charged to the credit card, one fare will have to be booked in Canadian dollars and the other in US dollars.

[bepsf]

It could also be a problem with the total on board spending resulting in days being credited toward Mariner status. Thanks for the heads up!

 

That's a non-issue' date=' as both parties are credited with the spending credits for the cabin as a whole.[/size']

 

Ie: If I spend $900 & my roommate spends $2400 - We both get 11 shipboard spending credits for that voyage.

 

Also kinda not getting the separate vs. unified benefit/problem.

 

If I get all the shipboard credits and my partner does all the spending - but both accounts are billed to the same card - my refund would offset his spending, so Net-Net the credit card bill would be the same.

Am I missing something?

[Tobermory]

Brian: Let me try to explain. As far as I understand it, my on-board credits were all non-refundable (stock, future cruise credit, TA credit). Thus, with two separate accounts, I ended up with a "negative" bill for the cruise which would not appear on my credit card, even though my wife uses the same credit card. My wife, with less on-board credits, would have a credit card charge for the charged amounts in her account, so we would end up paying what was charged to her account. On the other hand, with a combined account, we ended up with a lower credit card charge since the negalive amount will offset or even completely cover my wife's charges (which was the situation in our case). It should work the way you have said, Brian, but only if the credits were refundable. In our case they were not refundable and, hence, a combined account was preferable. Hope that this explains the problem. You may want to go to the Princess board to see all that has been written on this subject today.