Refundable OBC vs Non refundable OBC

[Thrak]

47 minutes ago, capriccio said:

 

Thrak - have you had recent success calling Princess to do that?  I've called 3 times since mid-December and obviously spoke to 3 different reps and all say it is impossible. 

 

No. Not recent. The most recent I know of was someone else and it was a year or so ago. I think there are just a lot of Princess reps who don't know squat about anything. If I was denied I would immediately ask for a supervisor. If I was denied again I would send email to customerrelations@princesscruises.com. I would be polite but be sure to express my displeasure. The folks at that address are normally pretty responsive.

[capriccio]

9 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

No. Not recent. The most recent I know of was someone else and it was a year or so ago. I think there are just a lot of Princess reps who don't know squat about anything. If I was denied I would immediately ask for a supervisor. If I was denied again I would send email to customerrelations@princesscruises.com. I would be polite but be sure to express my displeasure. The folks at that address are normally pretty responsive.

 

Thanks Thrak.  I think you are correct and its time for some polite escalation!

[hllwdcruiser]

On 1/25/2020 at 2:05 AM, nho9504 said:

We too, have the Amex offer, in fact 3 of them - 2 of the $100/$500 and 1 of the 10,000 pts / $500.

 

We just booked the Sky from Ft. Lauderdale to St.Petersburg, using our Chase Ultimate Reward points at 1.5x value per point - essentially reduced the cruise cost by 33.33% so the Amex offers would go to waste.

 

But now this discussion opens my eyes - I never know you can buy OBC and if not used it up it can be refundable.  Does Princess still let you charge the shipboard account for Casino play money?  If so, may be we can use the Casino to extract the unused OBC ?  If that works it means $100 free money, or if we go all the way, $200 free money and 10,000 pts. lol.

 

I apologize for my delayed response but I was waiting to see if AMEX credited the $100 for the $500 OBC spend. I just checked today and it has been credited. So we got the 10,000 initial points on my card and the $100 credit on my husband's. Normally we pay our gratuities, drink packages and onboard spirits prior to boarding so as to have an illusion of "all inclusive" whilst onboard. Obviously, we are now going to wait to pay for everything with OBC once onboard.

 

I believe it has been reported on here that you can still use the OBC for Casino play money but you don't need to do that. Once you receive the AMEX credit then you've only paid $400 for the refundable $500 OBC, so you already have your "free" $100.

 

I, however, fully intend to spend it all - I just haven't told DH yet....

 

[hllwdcruiser]

15 hours ago, capriccio said:

 

Thrak - have you had recent success calling Princess to do that?  I've called 3 times since mid-December and obviously spoke to 3 different reps and all say it is impossible. 

 

5 hours ago, capriccio said:

 

Thanks Thrak.  I think you are correct and its time for some polite escalation!

 

To Thrak's Point:

 

I had a similar (but far from the same) situation. We had two cruises booked, one using our FCCs and one fully paid cruise on the Sky that we had bought without an FCC. Princess cancelled our first cruise (Enchanted TA in October '21) and credited back the FCC and OBC to my account. 

 

I called my TA and asked her to call Princess and have the FCC and OBC credited to the Sky since I didn't think we'd be sailing in 2021on Princess and the FCC will be expiring. Princess told her that since we were past final payment they would not be able to honor my request.

 

I was a little annoyed because if we hadn't booked the Enchanted (which they cancelled) - we would have used our FCCs for the Sky. I know it seems petty in the grand scheme of things, but all I could think about was that we were losing out on the free $100 OBC. So I wrote a very nice and polite e-mail to Customer Relations explaining the situation. To which I received no response. I gave it another two weeks and resent the e-mail but this time Cc'ing a very high level executive.

 

We received a phone call that very same day from Princess Customer Relations apologizing profusely and promising to grant my request immediately. IMHO, It shouldn't have had to go that far. The $200 in FCC was our money which they would have had to refund anyway. However, by their willingness to bend their own rules they will be compensated by the goodwill generated by providing superlative customer service. 

[FloridaBeachGal]

On 1/20/2020 at 12:17 PM, hobbyfarmer2 said:

Not 100% sure but I think OBC can only be used for excursions.  Grats and drinks have to be paid cash.  We sometimes purchase OBC before a cruise.  We live in Canada and sometimes the Princess exchange rate which is set at cruise booking date is quite a bit better then the current rate.

Gratuities can be paid for with OBC.

[hobbyfarmer2]

18 minutes ago, FloridaBeachGal said:

Gratuities can be paid for with OBC.

Yes, during the cruise.  Can grats be paid for with OBC before the cruise?  Did not realize that.

[GJCruiser]

1 hour ago, hobbyfarmer2 said:

Can grats be paid for with OBC before the cruise?

No.

[hobbyfarmer2]

11 hours ago, GJCruiser said:

No.

Thought so.  I have pre-paid through the Personalizer a couple of times in the past in order to avoid a price increase and pretty sure I remember they asked for credit card or PayPal.