Cancel / Rebook

[ajsdad]

I am set to sail in a month.  MSC of course like all of the other cruise lines have now cut rate pricing.   It seems I can book the exact same class of room (actually the room next door) with booze, internet, etc. for $500.00 bucks less than I booked it 6 months ago.  Normally, in my experience you are just out of luck.  But now that MSC allows me to cancel up to 24 hours prior to sailing and rebook, it makes sense to cancel and just rebook.  Has anyone tried this? Or had any experience dealing with MSC?

[Shippy]

A bit different but MSC was great...

 

I had great success with this last month, changing just a week before sailing.

BUT...I changed the date to next year & did NOT cancel...just moved out the cruise.

Next years was cheaper so the excess became OBC.

We did not have any insurance.

It was a snap & did not incur any charges from MSC.

I also have to say American Airlines also let us move the flight with no penalties. I think the travel industry as a whole has been great about this kind of thing through the whole pandemic.

But surely that will stop soon as more people are starting to travel.

 

[colorado14]

37 minutes ago, ajsdad said:

I am set to sail in a month.  MSC of course like all of the other cruise lines have now cut rate pricing.   It seems I can book the exact same class of room (actually the room next door) with booze, internet, etc. for $500.00 bucks less than I booked it 6 months ago.  Normally, in my experience you are just out of luck.  But now that MSC allows me to cancel up to 24 hours prior to sailing and rebook, it makes sense to cancel and just rebook.  Has anyone tried this? Or had any experience dealing with MSC?

You will end up paying the cancellation fee. Tried the same thing.

[racephoto]

Can you use the cruiseflex benefit more than once? I can see where they’re not going to let you use it for the same cruise that you’re on, but could you use it to transfer your booking to a different cruise, and then use it again and move your booking back to your original one? I wonder if anyone has tried that. 
 

On a sidenote, have you tried calling and asking for a price reduction? My November 14 cruise had a small price drop and I called on September 22 and they gave me credit for the difference.

[Stockjock]

4 hours ago, racephoto said:

Can you use the cruiseflex benefit more than once? I can see where they’re not going to let you use it for the same cruise that you’re on, but could you use it to transfer your booking to a different cruise, and then use it again and move your booking back to your original one? I wonder if anyone has tried that. 
 

On a sidenote, have you tried calling and asking for a price reduction? My November 14 cruise had a small price drop and I called on September 22 and they gave me credit for the difference.

Brilliant minds think alike.  I was just going to suggest that.  But OP should be prepared for problems that could potentially arise.

[ajsdad]

Ok.  I think I caused a hell of a nightmare for myself.  Called MSC directly had booked via an online TA. Was told by a nice lady at MSC.  I cant give you any OBC for the difference since you booked with your TA, but call you TA and tell them to call us.  Ok, did that. Called TA Waited  for more than 2 hrs and then was told they were closed for the night.  Called back this AM. This time I chose the we will call you back feature. Talked to a nice lady who called MSC and was told nope nothing we could do.  I said, Ok cancel the cruise than, I will take my credit for a cruise next year, and I will book a last minute deal on carnival for about 600 bucks for the 2 of us.  She called back MSC.  This time she talked to an agent who said, oh sure we will give him OBC for the difference.  Great, right?  Then I got an email from MSC saying they had cancelled all my add ons,  massage, laundry, steak house, spa package,  hmm thats odd.  Told TA, she said, thats odd.   Fine, I will just go back to MSC and repurchase what I wanted.  Sure it will be a wash when the credit hits my CC and the purchase goes thru.  Perhaps it wont be a wash in the short term since it takes MSC months to refund money.  But now, the SPA package isnt available any more.  So I cant book that.   Does anyone know is the SPA package, even being offered with COVID?  Oh and I dont see anywhere online that they actually have given me OBC.  Where would that even show up?

[rkacruiser]

21 minutes ago, ajsdad said:

I think I caused a hell of a nightmare for myself.

 

"Deals" are not always good deals.  

[intr3pid]

Their CruiseFlex program isn't a last-minute cancellation program.  It only allows you to change the sailing date.  If you cancel, you will still be subject to the cancellation penalties.

[Rhea98]

MSC has honored price drops even on fully paid cruises. There was a snag this year reported by a phone agent who resubmitted a previous agent's service request on my behalf. If your current cruise was funded in any part by FCC, the agent could not run the discount but had to submit to corporate. In my case, the SR was ignored possibly because corporate knew the cruise would be canceled. I've read that some posters had been successful with the corporate golden touch.

[ajsdad]

25 minutes ago, Rhea98 said:

MSC has honored price drops even on fully paid cruises. There was a snag this year reported by a phone agent who resubmitted a previous agent's service request on my behalf. If your current cruise was funded in any part by FCC, the agent could not run the discount but had to submit to corporate. In my case, the SR was ignored possibly because corporate knew the cruise would be canceled. I've read that some posters had been successful with the corporate golden touch.

It turned out well.  My TA was able to get the price difference in OBC.  That is fine with me.  It would appear that I will need to rebook all of my purchases but they also refunded everything they canceled.  It does appear the Spa is closed, thus the reason it cant be rebooked.