Back to the "old" OBC leftover policy

[ready2cruzagain]

Okay, I have read through all the posts but am a bit confused. I understand that our military obc is refundable, our TA obc is refundable but our promotional credits would not be refundable nor our FCC's obc.

 

On our cruise personalizer, one of our cruises it states the promotional credit is nonrefundable, the other cruise, it does not state the promotional credit is not refundable. So are both nonrefundable?

 

Also, can we or can we not count on using our military obc towards gratuities. I know it states in the Princess rules you cannot use it for gratuities but in the past Princess has always done it.

 

Final question, lets say they won't allow the military obc to be used for gratuities. I understand and have no problem with it being applied to a credit card and us paying for them. But what if after the end of the cruise and we still have obc left due to not being able to have it applied to gratuities and it is suppose to be refundable, how would we go about receiving the refundable portion of our obc's back?

 

Never had any obc left over before and do not foresee it but who knows.

[Iamcruzin]

Please see other people's posts about what IS happening on the CB. With that in mind, we cancelled because we had booked 3 separate solo cabins, thinking we could spend some of our OBCs and cash out some. But with the new way of treating OBCs, we were going to have way too much in OBCs (more than $1300) that would really get wasted. We can't drink that much wine or eat enough specialty meals, or take that much alcohol off the ship. We live in Florida so there are no Caribbean excursions that would interest us. We would never buy anything from Park West Gallery. So we cancelled those reservations, and re-booked for a lower fare with far less in OBC's.

 

Am I understanding this correctly? What I'm reading is that paying the single supplement was financially a better deal than booking three in the room. If this is true that would have been some loophole. Plus you would be getting double points towards the Captain Circle Program. I can't wait to move to Florida.

[pablo222]

The CB is still refunding the on board cabin credit via the casino- believe it or not.

 

Shhhhhhhhhhh. At least until I cash mine...

[Iamcruzin]

Okay, I have read through all the posts but am a bit confused. I understand that our military obc is refundable, our TA obc is refundable but our promotional credits would not be refundable nor our FCC's obc.

 

On our cruise personalizer, one of our cruises it states the promotional credit is nonrefundable, the other cruise, it does not state the promotional credit is not refundable. So are both nonrefundable?

 

Also, can we or can we not count on using our military obc towards gratuities. I know it states in the Princess rules you cannot use it for gratuities but in the past Princess has always done it.

 

Final question, lets say they won't allow the military obc to be used for gratuities. I understand and have no problem with it being applied to a credit card and us paying for them. But what if after the end of the cruise and we still have obc left due to not being able to have it applied to gratuities and it is suppose to be refundable, how would we go about receiving the refundable portion of our obc's back?

 

Never had any obc left over before and do not foresee it but who knows.

On their end it doesn't make sense to refund the refundable portion of the OBC and not apply it to gratuities no matter what the rule states. I understand that you would just pay your credit card balance with the refund but Princess would be charging your credit card and will probably have to pay a small percentage of that transaction to the credit card company.

[lljost]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lovetocruiseprincess

The CB is still refunding the on board cabin credit via the casino- believe it or not.

 

 

 

Shhhhhhhhhhh. At least until I cash mine...

 

And this is why they are making these changes...

[bhopal21]

 

And this is why they are making these changes...

 

 

:D Bravo!

[billco]

They would have his name on Facebook... no hiding behind a CC handle :)

I just thought it curious that Princess would make the effort to look up my next cruise.

 

Here is a Princess Facebook reply to another poster about OBC:

 

Princess Cruises: all Onboard Credits are applied to your folio at the same time. Yes, Onboard Credits can be still be applied toward your daily hotel charge. We hope to see you soon!

 

If OBCs are applied to the folio at the same tie, I wonder how they separate the non-refundable from the refundable.

 

I imagine anything left over at the end of the cruise would be considered non-refundable.

[Host CJSKIDS]

Am I understanding this correctly? What I'm reading is that paying the single supplement was financially a better deal than booking three in the room. If this is true that would have been some loophole. Plus you would be getting double points towards the Captain Circle Program. I can't wait to move to Florida.

 

 

What they may have booked was 3 separate cabins so they could get the $400 of OBC that was part of the promotion. With some of the current promotions, some of the insides were as low as $199 per person. The single supplement would make it that the cabin was around $500 with all fees. You got $400 back as OBC plus whatever other OBC that were due to you. It you had military, TA, stockholders, FCC OBC you could obviously have enough that you could end up getting all of what you paid back in cash if you didn't do anything but pay your tips. You could probably end of making money! Plus get 2 credits for sailing.

 

I'm amazed at the deals and generous OBC they have offered and was very happy to spend it on board. I personally think it's a good thing that they closed the loophole because I'd rather they do that than do away with the generous offers.

[Iamcruzin]

What they may have booked was 3 separate cabins so they could get the $400 of OBC that was part of the promotion. With some of the current promotions, some of the insides were as low as $199 per person. The single supplement would make it that the cabin was around $500 with all fees. You got $400 back as OBC plus whatever other OBC that were due to you. It you had military, TA, stockholders, FCC OBC you could obviously have enough that you could end up getting all of what you paid back in cash if you didn't do anything but pay your tips. You could probably end of making money! Plus get 2 credits for sailing.

 

I'm amazed at the deals and generous OBC they have offered and was very happy to spend it on board. I personally think it's a good thing that they closed the loophole because I'd rather they do that than do away with the generous offers.

 

I agree.

[san diego sue]

For me never an issue. We always use up our OBC. Between auto tips,

some tours, a little drinking, and shopping, all gone plus. Just really happy that Princess allows the combining of all those credits.

We don't have the Military credit but get all the others. Really keeps me coming back to Princess. No other cruise line as generous and Princess pricing of cruises the best out there.

OBC were not meant to discount the price of cruises. Some people look at the credits in that manner.

[Pam in CA]

But you can use it to buy excursions which are technically not "On Board" :D....

Excursions are charged to your onboard account/folio so they are onboard expenditures. :)

[pms4104]

I must be very naive or ignorant, as I never even thought about cashing out any OBC ... if indeed Princess now is enforcing a non-refund policy (that may have existed always but was not enforced previously), they surely have sound financial reasons for doing so> As a shareholder, I appreciate Princess plugging this $$$ drain.

 

If I had the good fortune to have leftover OBC at the end of my sailing, and had no clue how to spend it, I suppose I would go to the front desk and have it addded to the autotips for my cabin.

[Crzn-Life]

I must be very naive or ignorant, as I never even thought about cashing out any OBC ... if indeed Princess now is enforcing a non-refund policy (that may have existed always but was not enforced previously), they surely have sound financial reasons for doing so> As a shareholder, I appreciate Princess plugging this $$$ drain.

 

If I had the good fortune to have leftover OBC at the end of my sailing, and had no clue how to spend it, I suppose I would go to the front desk and have it addded to the autotips for my cabin.

 

Like you we never thought about trying to cash out OBC. As much as we cruise, we didn't know it could be done. We always have used the OBC onboard! Lots of expenses while on board: wine, gratuities, beer, gambling, perfume (always get perfumes & make-up onboard since it is much less than what I pay in dept. stores).

 

Speaking of wine, if one brought on more than the 2 allowed wines, assume the OBCs could be used to cover the corkage fees.

 

Also plan on asking if it can be applied to additional tips for the crew with specific crewmembers identified instead of just increasing the daily amount. For example, instead of giving the steward an extra cash tip could that be done using OBC.

[pablo222]

And this is why they are making these changes...

 

It's either that, or spend it on internet minutes so I can skype...

[PunkiC]

A couple of years ago when we were disembarking the Caribbean Princess in South Hampton, we were stopped at the door and told to go to the Purser's Desk. When I got there the gave me $27 and some change which was left over OBC. That was a shock. The only reason we had that was because we were too tired to go to dinner one night and therefore didn't buy a bottle of wine.

 

When we board the ship, we get a printout of our OBC and then, after we allow for the amount of the Auto-tip, figure out how much we have left to spend and divide it by the number of the days of the cruise. We almost always come out pretty much even.

 

On Cunard they deduct the Auto-tip for the whole cruise on the first day and I like that as it makes it easier to keep track of your balance.

 

Crzn-life writes:

 

Speaking of wine, if one brought on more than the 2 allowed wines, assume the OBCs could be used to cover the corkage fees.

 

Yes it can. We often check a case of wine on longer cruises and they almost always deduct the corkage fee for 10 of the bottles from our OBC. Once they just delivered it without charging the corkage fee but we had to pay it at dinner so it really didn't matter.

Edited October 1, 2014 by PunkiC

[7leagueboots]

Thanks Pam. Hope you had a wonderful cruise! I have a couple of questions. If you have some OBC that is refundable and some that isn't which do they use first? Hopefully they use the non refundable first.

 

On my upcoming cruises in Feb I will have shareholder, FCC, goodwill gesture from Princess and OBC from TA. Will the OBC from TA be refundable and the rest NR? Can the NR be used for tips?

 

Thanks!

 

Oh and also onboard credit promotion. How do we know what is refundable and what is not?

 

I had the same question...can NR OBC be applied first.

[PunkiC]

I had the same question...can NR OBC be applied first.

 

I asked that question pretty directly on the Princess Facebook site and didn't get a straight answer.

[Lovetocruiseprincess]

Shhhhhhhhhhh. At least until I cash mine...

 

I discovered some credit ($30) on the second leg on my wife's account that we hadn't pulled out and was carried over.

I had to open another casino account & transfer it - no problem.

[candide333]

We just got off the Golden Princess and for the first time, we cashed out for $150. We went the day before disembarking and the Pursor figured what amount we still had from the original $300 OBC after deducting our expenditures including tips, drinks and the gift shop. In the middle of the night, I went and cashed out with the Pursor and that took at least 10 minutes, so I can't imagine this being done on the last morning. The computer should figure out the amount, not the busy Pursors.

Edited October 3, 2014 by candide333

[bigenna]

When this thread started I went in and printed out copies showing the OBC's for my October b2b cruises. At that time the only asterisk was showing next to a small Passenger Relations credit. All the rest were refundable.

Looking again this morning, all types of OBC are now marked as non refundable, other than military.

I have always been amazed that Princess allowed refunds prior so am not surprised that this loophole has been closed.

So, wise decision for Princess and no complaint from me as long as they still allow gratuities to be deducted.

[PunkiC]

None of my upcoming OBC show an * so does that mean it is all refundable?

 

Doesn't really matter as I have lots of ways of spending money. On the last day, I always play the Jackpot Bingo--I never win, but who knows someday I might.

 

We also like to buy a round of drinks for the band if we like them.

 

Recently, we actually bought two pictures. One of the two of us with a guest author whom we both enjoy and the other of our wonderful table group.

 

We never buy jewelry on a cruise, but gift booze can be fun, especially if we are going to visit friends or family near our disembarkation port.

 

My very favorite flashy formal top came from a cruise ship--now I just need to lose enough weight that I can wear it again. :p

 

Someday, when we are really flush with OBC, I would like to do the private ships's tour. Maybe that is what we will do next spring where we have a ton of OBC, as well as free gratuities.

 

The best thing we can take away from a cruise is wonderful memories so go ahead, and indulge yourself!

[Dudleydog73]

When this thread started I went in and printed out copies showing the OBC's for my October b2b cruises. At that time the only asterisk was showing next to a small Passenger Relations credit. All the rest were refundable.

Looking again this morning, all types of OBC are now marked as non refundable, other than military.

I have always been amazed that Princess allowed refunds prior so am not surprised that this loophole has been closed.

So, wise decision for Princess and no complaint from me as long as they still allow gratuities to be deducted.

 

I took a look at my future bookings. The cruise at the end of this month has nothing marked with an *, even though we had the three for free promo and shareholder credit applied.

 

Our Alaska cruise next year only has an * next to the Shore Ex/Onboard Spending credit from the current three for free promo. Our TA and FCC OBC are not marked with an *.

 

I guess only time will tell once we are onboard.

[Times Prince]

I had the same question...can NR OBC be applied first.

On a cruise where we had a large refundable OBC from a move-over offer plus the normal 3 other OBC's (FCC, TA, Shareholder) they applied the non-refundable first, and our outstanding balance at the end of the cruise (after spending onboard like drunken sailors) was refunded to us.

 

The refundable OBC's are coded differently in the Purser's accounting system.

[Coveguy4]

Surprise!

 

I don't disagree with you at all.

 

And further I don't think ANY of the credits should be refundable since they are in fact "Onboard Credits".

 

I realize that I am in the minority but we all have our opinions.

 

Mike:)

 

I also agree with you! The only credits that should be refundable are the ones bought for your cruise either by yourself to avoid the" end of cruise...how did I spend so much blues !" or gifted to you and PAID for by someone to surprise you on the cruise. I have no problem spending my OBC in the gift shops,spa,specialty restaurants.....and did I say BARS!!!!!!!

[Thrak]

Yesterday my OBC had no notations at all. Today it is marked as non-refundable. It looks like they are just working their way through the bookings and getting caught up. It's odd they don't have a batch process that can handle it more efficiently.

 

I'm showing Travel Agent Promotion, Onboard Sales Promotion, and Shareholders Benefits and all of them now have an asterisk and the notice below stating: *Please enjoy using these credits onboard as they are not refundable

 

It doesn't bother me a bit. As long as I get OBC - essentially free money - I don't mind having to spend it onboard.