Consequences of not paying balance by due date

[Betty anne]

Would like to know if anyone has ever experienced not paying final payment on time.

A member of our travel group failed to make their final cruise payment on time.Was told by the TA,that it was up to Princess as to the final decision,which may result in their cruise being cancelled. If their cruise is cancelled,what happens to the cabin mate? Will they be required to pay an additional fee for the cabin?

Will Princess make the individual rebook or what?

Would appreciate some feed back

[spongerob]

It will be best to follow up on this as quickly as possible or the person might find that they've been cancelled automatically. How late is the payment? It is possible that both passengers might be in danger of losing their bookings, depending how the payments have been handled.

[Betty anne]

Spongerob,

the other cabin mate is paid in full.

The due date was Dec 11,and the tardy one didn't mail the money off until today,Dec 12th. Given the holiday season,mail is always late.So,that being said,it might be a week to 10 days before princess receives the payment.

The other cabin mate is not aware,and I don't want to alarm her unless I know the facts. I am concerned because I am the one who headed up the cruise.Especially concerned,when told by the TA,that the decision was now up to Princess.

Let me know what you think.

[spongerob]

I'd hate to guess, and hopefully one of our resident TA's can provide some better answers. From what you have written, the method of handling final payments is a bit chaotic. Usually the agent takes care of this, and makes sure it is done on time so they don't lose a booking and the commission that goes with it. Hopefully your group member had the foresight to send the payment via one-day air or something similar.

[JLC@SD]

Spongerob,

the other cabin mate is paid in full.

The due date was Dec 11,and the tardy one didn't mail the money off until today,Dec 12th. Given the holiday season,mail is always late.So,that being said,it might be a week to 10 days before princess receives the payment.

The other cabin mate is not aware,and I don't want to alarm her unless I know the facts. I am concerned because I am the one who headed up the cruise.Especially concerned,when told by the TA,that the decision was now up to Princess.

Let me know what you think.

 

Since you said the payment was mailed......it appears the payment was made by check.

 

Check with Princess regarding their policy for waiting for a check to clear. That may also complicate holding the reservation.

[Coral]

If at all possible - I would have the person call in with a Credit Card and tell the TA to void the check or send it back when they receive it. This really woudl be the best solution.

[S.S.Oceanlover]

If at all possible you should never pay by check. There was a post on CC about a week ago where the TA cashed the checks and took the money. About $29,000 if I remember correctly.

 

Bill

[peagreenid]

you can lose your money. I have clients that pay by check all of the time. If a client pays by check, The agency generally issues an agency check. This is where you can get some leadway if your agent helps you out. I always end up with at least 1 client that periodically thinks that they can pop a check in the mail the day that final payment is due. This just happened to me a few months ago. They did not have 1/2 of the reservation paid for as you do. I called Princess and told them that the "CHECKS IN THE MAIL" It took about 10 days for us to receive the check and the check to be sent and received by Princess. Now, Princess did tell me that they could cancel at any time due to lack of payment, but they did note on the reservation that the payment was coming. That is all that you can do.

If at all possible you should never pay by check. There was a post on CC about a week ago where the TA cashed the checks and took the money. About $29,000 if I remember correctly.

 

Bill

[Budget Queen]

I would call Princess directly and get the correct information. Do you have the booking number?? Check online and see if the cabin is still registered?

 

I agree, I would never pay by check and with credit cards you do have slightly more protection.

 

Another possibility- some agencies add a couple weeks for THEIR, "final Payment" date for you and it is not the cruise lines. I ran into this on my last sailing and payed a day before the cruiseline final payment date. So from your sailing, count back the actual days, you may still have enough time for a credit card to be summitted.

[CruiseDirect]

from experience , the cabin has to be paid by the travelagent to the cruise company 56 days prior to departure and them the cruise goes into cancellaton charges ,

 

for the person who is paying late then you can negotiate with your travel agent maybe for an extension as long as the full cruise is paid by the 56 days.

 

Or you can see if someone else can take over the cabin and the passenger not paying will loss whatever percentage of his payment and then they will have to re book the 2nd passenger again ,

 

I hope this is ok for you ,

[lahoban]

Last year something came up and I was not sure we could go. Final payment was up and our online TA let me think about it for a couple more weeks. They collect the payment's before the due date so they don't have any problem's. It was very nice of her. Hopefully they needed the payment early for you also.

[angel41]

We ran into a bit of a financial bind before our last cruise. We had booked directly through Princess, so it might be different. Two weeks before final payment, I realized I couldn't make the full final payment by the due date. I spoke to a customer service rep who was wonderful and she helped me to work everything out. I had called to go down a couple categories so we could pay on time, but she had me keep our chosen cabin, pay the amount I could and pay the remaining $500 a week late. I realize, they wanted to keep the higher sale but it was a aft balcony we had so it would have resold. She never said so, but I did wonder if she was a supervisor of some sort in order to extend that date for me and insure that our reservation would not cancel. I know since you are through a TA they won't even talk to you, but I would try it anyway. I have booked directly through the cruise line on all but one of my cruises (the first was through a TA) and had nothing but good luck with customer service. Good luck to you.

[Betty anne]

Thanks a million to all of you, for such great information.

After reading all the possibilities,I have hope that the deadline stated was that of the TA,and that there is a 56 day Princess deadline. our trip is not until the end of February.

This is the 2nd trip that I have put together for a group,and my first experience with an after deadline payment. My main concern was for the other cabin mate,as I didn't want to see her penalized,when her payment had been paid on time.Also,I have no one else to fill the spot,should Princess cancel the reservations.

This is why I love the Cruise Critic group.They are truly informative.

Thanks again.

Wishing all a Merry Christmas

[MaryPoppinz]

Check the balance and payment section of the Cruise Personalizer. It lists the actual due date for final payment.

[MaryPoppinz]

I have hope that the deadline stated was that of the TA,and that there is a 56 day Princess deadline. our trip is not until the end of February.

 

Princess' deadline for final payment is 75 days for non-holiday sailings, and 90 for holiday sailings. :(

[cactusrose]

Check the balance and payment section of the Cruise Personalizer. It lists the actual due date for final payment.

 

I think this is one of those sections that you can only see if you book directly through Princess.

[Marmarjudy]

We're sailing on January 8th. Technically, the final payment was due the end of October. I wanted to make payment after November 1st (would give me an extra 30 days until my credit card was due) and my travel agent (sister) said no problem because Princess would notify her before they would cancel. She did my credit card payment on November 2nd with no problem. Final docs are in.

I think sometimes some agents expect final payment way before Princess requires it (and it sure does help that my agent is my sister :-)

Judy

[Host CJSKIDS]

We're sailing on January 8th. Technically, the final payment was due the end of October. I wanted to make payment after November 1st (would give me an extra 30 days until my credit card was due) and my travel agent (sister) said no problem because Princess would notify her before they would cancel. She did my credit card payment on November 2nd with no problem. Final docs are in.

I think sometimes some agents expect final payment way before Princess requires it (and it sure does help that my agent is my sister :-)

Judy

 

That's so true...when my booking was with Princess directly our final payment wasn't due until 1/3/06 and now it's 12/29/05 according to our online TA. I guess they want some time to gather payments and then send them to Princess.