Pre-buying OBC with Princess this morning. USD to AUD rate

[jennyg2610]

Great thread - thanks for posting.

 

I'm curious tho' ... for those Aussies who bought OBC, did you buy your cruise here in Australia or through and O/S Travel Agent?

 

I'm just wondering if that made any difference to being able to access this great exchange rate?

 

Cheers

Heather

 

 

We booked our cruise through Flight Centre but rang Princess Direct in Australia. We bought $2000 US for $2200. No credit card fees as it was charged in Aussie dollars. If we had know about it for our last cruise on the ?Sapphire, we would have saved $200.

[jennyg2610]

I brought some OBC for my last cruise to New Zealand and have just returned. One thing to keep an eye on is that the notice in my cabin said the OBC was in USD. When I checked cruise statement they did a straight dollar for dollar swap. I then went and checked it as 1usd does not equal 1aus.

 

After much going back and forward they finally agreed and I got the extra money.

 

I wonder how many people have not check there onboard statement?

 

 

 

It pays to check everything.

 

 

 

Chez

 

 

It does pay to check your statement as we have been charge at least a dozen times, extra drinks which weren't ours. It was very easy to check as it wasn't our signature.

[ckl001]

That sounds weird. If your folio was in $AUD, then I assume your cruise was a round trip from an Australian port? How did you buy the OBC in $USD? When you bought the OBC, what currency were you charged in?

 

I thought the purpose of buying the OBC this way was to take advantage of their favourable exchange rates from $AUD to $USD for when your ship had $USD as the currency used on board (that is, a cruise not in Australia). This is why I bought my OBC - for a Mediterranean cruise, on board is $USD.

 

I would have thought that when buying OBC within Australia for an Australian based cruise, the currencies would have all been $AUD - Purchasing $AUD OBC with $AUD charged.

 

Out of curiosity, what exchange rate they give you in the end?

 

I was charged in AUS. $500 usd was charged on my bank statement as $550 AUS.

I called Princess direct and they told me that it would be in USD. In the end it was all sorted and I was given the extra credits so all was good.

 

Chez