Princess "refundable credit"----don't believe it!

[Colo Cruiser]

13 hours ago, Cabot49 said:

I had four dollars and change left in my account in January, and they said they would be mailing a check.

They told you that at the desk?

[Cabot49]

4 hours ago, Colo Cruiser said:

They told you that at the desk?

Yup!

[Colo Cruiser]

9 minutes ago, Cabot49 said:

Yup!

Well more power to em.

[azbirdmom]

Just thought I would come back and say that we received a check for our refundable OBC today from our last cruise today.  We disembarked on January 30 so it took about 3 weeks to get our $$ back, a little better than the quoted 4 to 6 weeks.

[hobbyfarmer2]

On 2/11/2019 at 7:41 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

Just curious, how did you wind up with refundable credit? From what I understand, all of the OBC Princess issues like shareholder benefits, military service OBC and from their promotions is nonrefundable. Did you get it from your TA or is some of the Princess-issued OBC refundable?

You can purchase OBC prior to a cruise.  Any unused portion of this purchase would be refundable.  Another way is with Princess excursions which now have to be paid in full prior to the cruise date.  My wife and I each ordered $242 worth of excursions.  I had $350 of non refundable and she had $100.  We had enough OBC in total but not enough for the way Princess does the online processing.  We had to pay $142 by credit card to make up my DW shortfall.  What makes this even stranger is what happens while you are on the cruise.  All the original OBC stacks up as a debit against which charges are credited.  It's like you never paid for the excursions.  The non refundable is used first, both mine and hers and any of the unused $142 will be refunded to us if there are no charges against it.

[PescadoAmarillo]

Military OBC is refundable.  IIRC, the Captains Circle OBC (for 21+ Princess Cruises) is refundable also.  

[Ken the cruiser]

With regards to OBC and a married couple's shipboard account(s), does Princess now consider the individual accounts of a married couple booked in the same cabin as a joint account like most other cruise lines do?

 

In other words if each person has remaining OBC in their respective account at the end of a cruise, does each of them receive a check or is it combined into one check? When we cruised on the Diamond in 2015, we had to be careful which room card we used when buying something onboard, especially if we had OBC left in each one, as Princess treated each account as a separate entity?

[Pierlesscruisers]

2 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

With regards to OBC and a married couple's shipboard account(s), does Princess now consider the individual accounts of a married couple booked in the same cabin as a joint account like most other cruise lines do?

 

In other words if each person has remaining OBC in their respective account at the end of a cruise, does each of them receive a check or is it combined into one check? When we cruised on the Diamond in 2015, we had to be careful which room card we used when buying something onboard, especially if we had OBC left in each one, as Princess treated each account as a separate entity?

 

No, each one doesn't get their own check, it's combined into one. That said, there may be cases where two people had "independent" Captains Circle numbers and got married later and because of that, do get independent checks. I'm basing what I said in the first sentence on my wife's and my experience. We're both retired military and when we get a check from Princess returning any refundable OBC, it is for one amount which is the total refundable amount. It very well may depend on whether both parties have used the same credit card to pay for the cruise or not. An example of that situation might be if I used my Costco card to pay for charges on my card and my wife used her Costco card to pay for charges on her card. They both have different numbers so there would appear to Princess that there were 2 accounts instead of only 1.  Why some cards use one number for the husband and a diff. one for the wife and other cards use the same number for both spouses, I have no idea but that might set up a situation where 2 refund checks would be issued.

 

Tom

[Ken the cruiser]

31 minutes ago, Pierlesscruisers said:

 

No, each one doesn't get their own check, it's combined into one. That said, there may be cases where two people had "independent" Captains Circle numbers and got married later and because of that, do get independent checks. I'm basing what I said in the first sentence on my wife's and my experience. We're both retired military and when we get a check from Princess returning any refundable OBC, it is for one amount which is the total refundable amount. It very well may depend on whether both parties have used the same credit card to pay for the cruise or not. An example of that situation might be if I used my Costco card to pay for charges on my card and my wife used her Costco card to pay for charges on her card. They both have different numbers so there would appear to Princess that there were 2 accounts instead of only 1.  Why some cards use one number for the husband and a diff. one for the wife and other cards use the same number for both spouses, I have no idea but that might set up a situation where 2 refund checks would be issued.

 

Tom

Thanks Tom. We'll being using one credit card, so if we do have any refundable OBC left, we should get one check. However, what happens when one account has a debit amount and the other account has OBC left on it? Would Princess balance the two accounts before taking any further action or would the debt in the one account be charged to the credit card while the account with the OBC be cleared by issuing a check?

Edited February 21, 2019 by Ken the cruiser

[Pierlesscruisers]

4 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks Tom. We'll being using one credit card, so if we do have any refundable OBC left, we should get one check. However, what happens when one account has a debit amount and the other account has OBC left on it? Would Princess balance the two accounts before taking any further action or would the debt in the one account be charged to the credit card while the account with the OBC be cleared by issuing a check?

 

When we've had a credit balance on one and a debit balance on the other what has happened was they treated it all as one account and totaled it and then let the result dictate what would happen, either a charge to the card or a check for the remaining OBC.

 

What we've done in the past if we've had non-refundable OBC left over is to go to the shops and buy a few of the nice pens they sell for about $4.95 or 3 for $12 to give to friends as gifts or buy candy to give to crewmembers or something like that. I did just discover this last cruise, that you could stop by Passenger Services and donate money to the crew tip fund with leftover OBC also.  I figure there's no sense in letting money that I've gotten from the cruise line go back to them and try and use it to benefit friends or crew somehow. 

 

Tom

[Ken the cruiser]

6 minutes ago, Pierlesscruisers said:

 

When we've had a credit balance on one and a debit balance on the other what has happened was they treated it all as one account and totaled it and then let the result dictate what would happen, either a charge to the card or a check for the remaining OBC.

 

What we've done in the past if we've had non-refundable OBC left over is to go to the shops and buy a few of the nice pens they sell for about $4.95 or 3 for $12 to give to friends as gifts or buy candy to give to crewmembers or something like that. I did just discover this last cruise, that you could stop by Passenger Services and donate money to the crew tip fund with leftover OBC also.  I figure there's no sense in letting money that I've gotten from the cruise line go back to them and try and use it to benefit friends or crew somehow. 

 

Tom

Thanks once again for responding so quickly. We're glad to hear they will reconcile the two accounts before proceeding and those are some good ideas regarding any nonrefundable OBC left.

[socialworker]

This has been answered multiple times so I'll keep my comments brief.  We just returned from our annual cruise to Hawaii.  We had a lot of OBC, plus our gratuities were prepaid.  Given my mobility issues on this trip, we knew we'd never spend it all but fortunately almost half of it was refundable (military and travel agency).  We even bought our tablemates a dinner drink just to use up the non-refundable portion.  If past history holds true, we should receive our refund check within 4-6 weeks.  

[Murray's Pop]

So, is all travel agent issued on board credit refundable?

[paul929207]

On 2/11/2019 at 7:46 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

What's a move-down offer? Also, was any of the OBC options I mentioned refundable?

We recently got $1500 for moving from a regular balcony to an obstructed balcony. It was refundable 

[myjillian]

On 2/12/2019 at 12:57 PM, triple7tahoe said:

Gee, I would be tempted to check the balance, go  to the casino, put the balance on a game of chance, play ten cents and cash out-I am sure (tongue in cheek) nobody has ever thought of that 🙂

 

Been doing that for years😍

[NavyVeteran]

On ‎02‎/‎21‎/‎2019 at 1:14 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks Tom. We'll being using one credit card, so if we do have any refundable OBC left, we should get one check. However, what happens when one account has a debit amount and the other account has OBC left on it? Would Princess balance the two accounts before taking any further action or would the debt in the one account be charged to the credit card while the account with the OBC be cleared by issuing a check?

It does not matter whether or not you're a married couple or two completely unrelated people. What matters is whether or not you charge the same credit card (with one of you the owner). If you charge the same credit card, the balance from the person who is not the credit card owner is transferred to the account of the credit card owner, and the net amount is charged to the credit card or issued as a check. On a recent cruise, my brother and I traveled in the same cabin and he charged to my credit card, and everything was combined to my account.

[NavyVeteran]

4 hours ago, Murray's Pop said:

So, is all travel agent issued on board credit refundable?

No, this is not true.

 

If the travel agent pays you the OBC from its own money or from its commission, then it is refundable.

 

If the travel agent provides OBC it received from a Princess promotion, than it may not be refundable.

 

Check with the travel agent when it quotes the OBC. The agent should tell you (in writing) whether or not it is refundable.

[socialworker]

On ‎4‎/‎9‎/‎2019 at 5:19 PM, NavyVeteran said:

No, this is not true.

 

If the travel agent pays you the OBC from its own money or from its commission, then it is refundable.

 

If the travel agent provides OBC it received from a Princess promotion, than it may not be refundable.

 

Check with the travel agent when it quotes the OBC. The agent should tell you (in writing) whether or not it is refundable.

NavyVeteran is correct.  OBC refund hinges on origin of OBC from TA.