Can you add a FCD to an existing booking?

[Ken the cruiser]

We ran out of FCDs booking cruises a few months ago and have a Jan 2022 booking that doesn't have any yet. We are going on a cruise next month on the Island and are planning to buy more. Since I have been reading mixed answers from different old and new CC threads, from 2016 until now, I thought I'd open a thread to hopefully resolve this question. If anyone has recent experience with adding a FCD to an existing booking, especially after the 60 day grace period after a cruise, I would appreciate your thoughts.

[npcl]

2 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We ran out of FCDs booking cruises a few months ago and have a Jan 2022 booking that doesn't have any yet. We are going on a cruise next month on the Island and are planning to buy more. Since I have been reading mixed answers from different old and new CC threads, from 2016 until now, I thought I'd open a thread to hopefully resolve this question. If anyone has recent experience with adding a FCD to an existing booking, especially after the 60 day grace period after a cruise, I would appreciate your thoughts.

unless they have changed the rules in the past few months, the answer is no.

 

the cruise book date has to be after the date of the fcd. most customer service reps will try but the system will not allow it. I tried a few months ago.

 

you can always keep looking for an opportunity to cancel and rebook one you purchase some more.

Edited December 25, 2019 by npcl

[Ken the cruiser]

2 minutes ago, npcl said:

unless they have changed the rules in the past few months, the answer is no.

 

the cruise book date has to be after the date of the fcd.

 

you can always keep looking for an opportunity to cancel and rebook one you purchase some more.

Thanks! We had a feeling that was the case. Hopefully the fare for our Jan 2022 Discovery cruise with the BSE promotion stays the same or drops by the time we get back from our cruise next month. If so, we'll then take the necessary steps to cancel and rebook the cruise to get the FCD's OBC.

[npcl]

9 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks! We had a feeling that was the case. Hopefully the fare for our Jan 2022 Discovery cruise with the BSE promotion stays the same or drops by the time we get back from our cruise next month. If so, we'll then take the necessary steps to cancel and rebook the cruise to get the FCD's OBC.

I have had the future cruise sales person on board refare and/or cancel and rebook cruises while on board.

Edited December 25, 2019 by npcl

[Steelers36]

You can always apply a FCD to a booking.  It just becomes a payment and you get no OBC.  Some people might do this if they had one or two about to expire and had no use for them. 

 

The FCD must be registered on account in order to get the reduced deposit (if applicable) and earn the OBC.  If on board the ship, some people will book and then immediately a FCD is purchased and applied.  There is generally nothing to be gained by booking on board.  Just buy the OBC and book at home via your TA if have one.  It has been reported on CC that Princess may run some specific specials on specific cruises and if book one of those on board, the OBC earned from the FCD is enhanced.

 

[skynight]

If the same promo or better is available when on board ask the on board sales rep. to cancel your current booking and re-book. That way you will get the FCD OBC benefit. 

[dog]

44 minutes ago, skynight said:

If the same promo or better is available when on board ask the on board sales rep. to cancel your current booking and re-book. That way you will get the FCD OBC benefit. 

If you booked with a TA will the on-board rep do this for you?

[skynight]

23 minutes ago, dog said:

If you booked with a TA will the on-board rep do this for you?

Good question, but I would say probably. Worth a try. When you book on board you can assign your booking to a T.A. of your choice. 

[StLouisCruisers]

Sorry I have to disagree with a couple of facts I read here.  I recently booked a cruise for 2021 and had no FCD's.  Later that day I consolidated a previously booked B2B cruise into one booking because of the BSE promo and had an FCD available for us both to use, so within 24 hours I called Princess and asked if I could apply the two FCD's to the new booking.  They said yes, applied them, and my personalizer shows OBC on our account for using them.  Win, win!

[Ken the cruiser]

1 minute ago, StLouisCruisers said:

Sorry I have to disagree with a couple of facts I read here.  I recently booked a cruise for 2021 and had no FCD's.  Later that day I consolidated a previously booked B2B cruise into one booking because of the BSE promo and had an FCD available for us both to use, so within 24 hours I called Princess and asked if I could apply the two FCD's to the new booking.  They said yes, applied them, and my personalizer shows OBC on our account for using them.  Win, win!

Could it be you were able to use the "recycled" FCDs because they had a purchase date older than the booking date of your 2021 cruise?

[StLouisCruisers]

6 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Could it be you were able to use the "recycled" FCDs because they had a purchase date older than the booking date of your 2021 cruise?

 

Those two FCD's had original expiration dates of Dec. 2019, but had been extended by Princess in August to Dec. 2021. 

[Ken the cruiser]

1 minute ago, StLouisCruisers said:

 

Those two FCD's had original expiration dates of Dec. 2019, but had been extended by Princess in August to Dec. 2021. 

Thanks for adding this additional information. So, from your example and from what I've been reading, the original purchase date of the FCD has to be before the booking date of the cruise you want the FCDs applied to as well as they can't be expired. As in your case Princess extended the expiration of your FCDs back in August until Dec 2021.

 

Was there a reason why Princess extended the FCD expiration date to Dec 2021 as they had already been assigned to your previous B2B booking? For example was it automatically done when the FCDs were originally assigned to the B2B booking so they could potentially be reused in a timely matter if that booking was ever subsequently canceled after the original FCD expiration date?

[Cruise Raider]

4 hours ago, dog said:

If you booked with a TA will the on-board rep do this for you?

 

No, they won't do anything to a reservation that has a TA involved.  

[BRANDEE]

Last March, I purchased FCD.  I asked the FCD rep if could be applied to a cruise booked in February.  He told me yes but do it at home with my TA..at that point the cruise was the same price I paid originally.  When I got home two weeks later, I called my TA to rebook and use the FCD..but the cruise had gone up considerably and I would have lost all the original "perks".   

 

So..looks like..a) the onboard FCD rep will not do anything with a current booking if using an agent.

                          b) unless rebooking you can not use new FCD on current booking.

Edited December 27, 2019 by BRANDEE

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, BRANDEE said:

Last March, I purchased FCD.  I asked the FCD rep if could be applied to a cruise booked in February.  He told me yes but do it at home with my TA..at that point the cruise was the same price I paid originally.  When I got home two weeks later, I called my TA to rebook and use the FCD..but the cruise had gone up considerably and I would have lost all the original "perks".   

 

So..looks like..a) the onboard FCD rep will not do anything with a current booking if using an agent.

                          b) unless rebooking you can not use new FCD on current booking.

Your (a) and (b) statements are both correct.  To expand on (a), anything involving the fare, payments, etc, all have to go through your TA.  Even a Princess phone agent would not help in that regard.  (b) is correct if you are expecting to earn the OBC bonus.  What you were asking for doesn't fly because the booking was made prior to the FCD purchase. 

 

What you should have done, if you liked the price situation, was buy the FCD and make the new booking with the FCC on the ship.  Either put it on Courtesy Hold or see if the FCC can assign to your TA of record.  In any case, you can buy yourself three days and fare is locked in.  Then, write your TA an email from the ship and ask them to cancel the original cruise.

 

If the FCC on the ship cannot assign the booking to your TA, perhaps they can print you off the form to request a transfer of booking.  When you get home, you scan and email that form in to Princess and within three days, they assign the booking to your TA.  Meanwhile you have locked in the price and put down the deposit.  The three day hold just gives you some time to reach your TA if you are using internet on the ship.  One way or the other, you can act on the ship and assign to your TA later.

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

9 hours ago, steelers36 said:

What you should have done, if you liked the price situation, was buy the FCD and make the new booking with the FCC on the ship.  Either put it on Courtesy Hold or see if the FCC can assign to your TA of record.  In any case, you can buy yourself three days and fare is locked in.  Then, write your TA an email from the ship and ask them to cancel the original cruise.

 

If the FCC on the ship cannot assign the booking to your TA, perhaps they can print you off the form to request a transfer of booking.  When you get home, you scan and email that form in to Princess and within three days, they assign the booking to your TA.  Meanwhile you have locked in the price and put down the deposit.  The three day hold just gives you some time to reach your TA if you are using internet on the ship.  One way or the other, you can act on the ship and assign to your TA later.

Interesting. On our Princess UK cruise this past summer on the Crown, the FCC would not let us book another cabin on the same cruise for that specific purpose (which is what exactly what we do on Celebrity to get the extra onboard booking credits). He said "I'm not going to play that game". I guess it all depends on which FCC run get onboard.

[Steelers36]

16 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Interesting. On our Princess UK cruise this past summer on the Crown, the FCC would not let us book another cabin on the same cruise for that specific purpose (which is what exactly what we do on Celebrity to get the extra onboard booking credits). He said "I'm not going to play that game". I guess it all depends on which FCC run get onboard.

Well of course it just goes to show that the best strategy is to have plenty of FCD's on file and then one doesn't run into roadblocks.  😉