Would you make final payment?

[jonthomas]

Yes purchasing a Future cruise credit while you are on board is very different than the FCCs being handed out now. When we purchased it, it was fully refundable if you wished to cancel it. 

 

FCCs are not refundable back to your credit card. Use within 24 months or lose it. That is why I said, no one can predict their own future, health or anything else. So you don't know if you can use it. But money in the bank right now, is there right now. 

 

The only caviat here is that some are also saying that they have it in writing that if they don't use the FCC within the 24 months,  the cruise line gave them for a cruise that didn't happen, they can have it back  in cash. Even in that case, I cant see why they would not take the cash but are holding out for 125%.  

[drkitkat123]

Some legal advice please, 😁

say Oceania or the main company went bankrupt or chapter 11 or however you term it in the USA, where would all this fcc stand in the list of creditors. I suspect very low down and it would all get wiped..., even if the company survived in some way...

Edited April 4, 2020 by drkitkat123
Typo

[PaulMCO]

18 minutes ago, drkitkat123 said:

Some legal advice please, 😁

say Oceania or the main company went bankrupt or chapter 11 or however you term it in the USA, where would all this fcc stand in the list of creditors. I suspect very low down and it would all get wiped..., even if the company survived in some way...

Totally unknown.  It depends on the circumstances of the bankruptcy and the country.

It also depends on what has been secured by bondholders -- especially those bridge loans that all the cruise lines are getting.

 

The best case could compare it to some of the US airlines (Delta, UA).  In that case tickets were honored.  Peoples FF points were unchanged the only people hosed were the bondholders, leaseholders and the shareholders.

 

The worse case were airlines that never came back.  Pan Am (after shedding their routes), Condor, where the airline liquidates and everyone loses and tickets have no value.

 

 

[pingpong1]

2 hours ago, LHT28 said:

to me  the Future cruise credit that is offered now in lieu of your cruise  is Real money  you already paid to Oceania

 

 

However, I don't think you can use them to purchase gasoline for your car, or buy food at the grocery store, or pay an electric bill with.  It (an FCC) is "money" that can only be used for one thing....to buy an Oceania cruise with.  You have lots more options with "real money"....Cash.  And "real cash" in your pocket does not have an expiration date.

[LHT28]

4 minutes ago, pingpong1 said:

However, I don't think you can use them to purchase gasoline for your car, or buy food at the grocery store, or pay an electric bill with.  It (an FCC) is "money" that can only be used for one thing....to buy an Oceania cruise with.  You have lots more options with "real money"....Cash.  And "real cash" in your pocket does not have an expiration date.

BUT  the FCC was not offered  for  those items  just for  a future CRUISE 

might have been where the name came from 🙄

 But  Cash is King  if you can get it

[pingpong1]

1 hour ago, LHT28 said:

BUT  the FCC was not offered  for  those items  just for  a future CRUISE 

might have been where the name came from 🙄

 But  Cash is King  if you can get it

Yup - Completely understand.  My only issue was with some people thinking of it, and referring to it as "money".   It's only serves as a "store of value" towards a future O cruise.  It can't even be used on any other NCLH "product" (like Regent).  And cash is definitely "king"....Something that the cruise lines themselves, are very reluctant to part with at the moment (or ever).  And that "value" is only there or "realized" if someone wants to actually go on another O cruise again, and if the company remains in business when/if you actually want to take another O cruise, and you can find one that might be of interest to you.  Regards.

[bornfreenowexpensive]

My answer to the OP.  I just cancelled Oct 26 2020   15 night cruise before penalty phase kicks in.  Supposed to get $1500 deposit back on CC.

[pingpong1]

4 hours ago, bornfreenowexpensive said:

My answer to the OP.  I just cancelled Oct 26 2020   15 night cruise before penalty phase kicks in.  Supposed to get $1500 deposit back on CC.

BornFree - We just did the same thing.  Cancelled our Oct 28 2020 TA cruise.  Just couldn't handle the "stress" and "unknown's"  that were completely out of our control, this far out.  Just too many "what if's" involved.  Cruising (along with the anticipation) is supposed to be "fun", right?

 

Like you, we'll get our full $1500 deposit back.  Potential (but uncertain) FCC's bring their own "can of worms" with them and were of no value (to us).  For now, we're "holding on" to our (cruise-associated) already booked flights (FF miles) and hotel reservations (no cash/deposits, or early cancellation penalties involved there).  I woke up this morning feeling much more relaxed and comfortable, knowing that our full deposit cash will be safely sitting back in my pocket, rather than in Oceania's.

 

If conditions somehow "radically improve" over the next 4-5 months, we might consider rebooking the cruise if the same/higher suites are still available and if that particular cruise looks likes it actually will sale (doubtful, I think at this point).  If not - no problem.  Life does go on (at least for us) without cruises involved, and there's always future years to revisit the possibility.  Regards

[jonthomas]

Yes, wise moves. We will do the same. 

[RJB]

2 hours ago, pingpong1 said:

BornFree - We just did the same thing.  Cancelled our Oct 28 2020 TA cruise.  Just couldn't handle the "stress" and "unknown's"  that were completely out of our control, this far out.  Just too many "what if's" involved.  Cruising (along with the anticipation) is supposed to be "fun", right?

 

Like you, we'll get our full $1500 deposit back.  Potential (but uncertain) FCC's bring their own "can of worms" with them and were of no value (to us).  For now, we're "holding on" to our (cruise-associated) already booked flights (FF miles) and hotel reservations (no cash/deposits, or early cancellation penalties involved there).  I woke up this morning feeling much more relaxed and comfortable, knowing that our full deposit cash will be safely sitting back in my pocket, rather than in Oceania's.

 

If conditions somehow "radically improve" over the next 4-5 months, we might consider rebooking the cruise if the same/higher suites are still available and if that particular cruise looks likes it actually will sale (doubtful, I think at this point).  If not - no problem.  Life does go on (at least for us) without cruises involved, and there's always future years to revisit the possibility.  Regards

We plan to do the same thing for the Oct.  T/A  unless O extends the final pay and penalty dates till the end of Aug. so we will know if we will go or not . Do not want any credits on O.  Just cash.   Do not need to pay for future cruises now. 

[Mura]

Back to the bankruptcy issue ... I'm not assuming O will go belly up, but then we didn't think Renaissance would until it did after 9/11.

 

As a result, ever since that happened, when we book trip insurance we make sure that bankruptcy is covered.

 

With the Ren bankruptcy we were okay because we hadn't yet made final payment -- it was due to be paid 7-10 days later as I recall, so we were only out a $500 deposit which AMEX covered.  And if we had made final payment, I'm sure that AMEX would have covered that as well.  But a friend of ours (who we have yet to meet in person) had used his Discover card for payment on a cruise at that  time and he didn't get anything back.  For some reason, he cancelled his Discover account...

 

BUT it taught us the lesson of only booking insurance that covers bankruptcy.  You never know ... None of us anticipated the current situation, did we?

 

[clo]

5 minutes ago, Mura said:

BUT it taught us the lesson of only booking insurance that covers bankruptcy.

Very good point. And, if we ever cruise again, I'll certainly do that. Thank, M.

[bornfreenowexpensive]

Next June 2021 I have a very expensive trip scheduled with a Photography company. I just went to Antartica with them in Dec 2019. I purchased insurance thru Squaremouth.com with Berkshire Hathaway specifically because they cover loss of trip due to bankruptcy of company. That could easily happen with  my company now ..

[Paulchili]

This coming Oct we have a B2B2B cruises on Marina.

All 3 are widely available and significantly less. I wish I had the nerve to cruise this Fall - would be a GREAT bargain but unless there is a vaccine (very unlikely) or meds (somewhat more likely) I will not go.

[RJB]

8 hours ago, Paulchili said:

This coming Oct we have a B2B2B cruises on Marina.

All 3 are widely available and significantly less. I wish I had the nerve to cruise this Fall - would be a GREAT bargain but unless there is a vaccine (very unlikely) or meds (somewhat more likely) I will not go.

I think most people feel the same way.  Better to be safe than sorry.

[jonthomas]

8 hours ago, Paulchili said:

This coming Oct we have a B2B2B cruises on Marina.

All 3 are widely available and significantly less. I wish I had the nerve to cruise this Fall - would be a GREAT bargain but unless there is a vaccine (very unlikely) or meds (somewhat more likely) I will not go.

 

Yes I hear you. All we can do for now is dream about a better future and look back at how good we had it.