Refer a Friend - Last minute booking

[Jersey42]

Yesterday we talked two friends into taking a last minute (Feb 12) Princess cruise.  Both have never cruised with Princess before.  My spouse and I will join them.  We booked the two rooms yesterday.  Today I remembered about refer a friend $25 credits for us and the new cruisers.  So we submitted the referral, the friends accepted the referral, the friends both created Princess accounts and received Captains Circle #s and we linked the new CC #s to their reservations.

 

So, can we get the 4 $25 OBCs for next week's sailing even though we booked a day before we submitted the referral request?  If so how?

 

The hold times are crazy on 1800 PRINCESS and I don't want to hold for hours unless I am pretty sure they can do something for us.

[Thrak]

Clarification please:  Did you submit the referral before your friends booked or after?  If they booked before you made the referral I don't think you will qualify for the OBC.  If you did the referral before they booked I don't see why it wouldn't go through in time for you to benefit.

Edited February 4, 2022 by Thrak

[franktown]

From experience if they booked before the referrals were submitted you do not qualify.  At least I didn't.

[Jersey42]

Thanks.  We submitted referral a few hours after they booked.  It sounds like we are out of luck.

[Coral]

1 hour ago, Jersey42 said:

Thanks.  We submitted referral a few hours after they booked.  It sounds like we are out of luck.

It has to be before they book.

[coopco]

2 hours ago, Jersey42 said:

Thanks.  We submitted referral a few hours after they booked.  It sounds like we are out of luck.

Technically you should be OK since you submitted very soon after they booked.  I filled out the form for my brother and his girlfriend right after they booked. Your friends will get an email to confirm the referral and if they don’t click on the link, the referral won’t get credited. I remember I had to keep hounding my brother to get his girlfriend to click on the link. That being said, my son and daughter referred their boyfriend/girlfriend prior to our last cruise and I actually witnessed my son’s girlfriend click on the link in front of me and neither one of them got credit. The problem is it doesn’t show up anywhere until you are onboard. Once on the ship, both my son and daughter checked with guest services and were given the run around of I’ve never heard of refer-a-friend and call Princess customer service when you get back home. My daughter had even called customer service before sailing and was told the OBC would be there when she got onboard. I would check when you get onboard and if it’s not there use Live Chat to follow up while you are still onboard. How can you refer a friend before they even book? As long as you submit the form right after they book, you’re supposed to be OK.

[Host CJSKIDS]

16 minutes ago, coopco said:

Technically you should be OK since you submitted very soon after they booked.  I filled out the form for my brother and his girlfriend right after they booked. Your friends will get an email to confirm the referral and if they don’t click on the link, the referral won’t get credited. I remember I had to keep hounding my brother to get his girlfriend to click on the link. That being said, my son and daughter referred their boyfriend/girlfriend prior to our last cruise and I actually witnessed my son’s girlfriend click on the link in front of me and neither one of them got credit. The problem is it doesn’t show up anywhere until you are onboard. Once on the ship, both my son and daughter checked with guest services and were given the run around of I’ve never heard of refer-a-friend and call Princess customer service when you get back home. My daughter had even called customer service before sailing and was told the OBC would be there when she got onboard. I would check when you get onboard and if it’s not there use Live Chat to follow up while you are still onboard. How can you refer a friend before they even book? As long as you submit the form right after they book, you’re supposed to be OK.

The referral credit now shows up on your booking so that helps. 

[coopco]

14 minutes ago, Host CJSKIDS said:

The referral credit now shows up on your booking so that helps. 

Yes - you are right. Now that I think of it, it showed up on my cruise personalized but my brother claimed it never showed up on his. But he did get the credit on his account once onboard. That’s how I knew to tell my brother to get his girlfriend to click on the link. I could see one credit but hers didn’t show up on my cruise personalized until she finally clicked on the link.

[Steelers36]

Unless you get a kind Princess rep and have a good excuse, I'd say out of luck since the cruise was booked first.  The referral needs to be done first and the referee needs to acknowledge an email notice.

 

Good luck, @Jersey42.  Another challenge is if you missed out on it now, it is gone forever for the new cruisers involved since they will have cruised already.  I screwed it up once several years ago, and it was an Oh Fudge moment, but then $25 isn't something huge in the grand scheme.

[Thrak]

1 hour ago, coopco said:

The problem is it doesn’t show up anywhere until you are onboard. Once on the ship, both my son and daughter checked with guest services and were given the run around of I’ve never heard of refer-a-friend and call Princess customer service when you get back home.

 

Bummer. That is unacceptable. I would have sent a nicely worded email - including screen shots of everything pertinent, to customerrelations@princesscruises.com.  If you have the screen shots, any email , or any documentation at all to support your claim I would suggest that you still try this route. At this point there is really nothing to lose.

 

I referred some folks and the $75 credit showed up in my Future Cruise Credits section of my personalizer. I believe the reason it doesn't show until the people actually pay in full is simply to squelch bogus submissions. The $75 credit has been bouncing around from cancelled cruise to cancelled cruise. It now shows on our May 2nd cruise so hopefully we will, at long last, get to use the OBC. 

[coopco]

That sounds right, Thrak, about paying in full. I never thought of that. I have screenshots because I made all the reservations and I filled out the refer-a-friend online form immediately after making the reservations and I screenshotted them. But since my kids are 23 and I don’t want to be accused of being a helicopter mom, I decided if they don’t call customer service, I’m not waiting on hold for them. I guess I should have put it on my account but I wanted them to get the credit. Guest Services onboard did tell them they could probably get a FCC good until 2023 but I don’t know if they are planning to cruise again by then.

[Thrak]

10 minutes ago, coopco said:

I guess I should have put it on my account but I wanted them to get the credit.

 

With a referral you both get the credit. That's why I have $75 OBC still hanging around. They got the OBC and so did we.  I have a son who is very "slack" about money. I don't like to let money that is legitimately owed to me slip away.

[Jersey42]

Original poster here. After all of the good insights here, I called Princess customer service this morning right after they opened. Wait was only a few minutes.  They were very helpful and the four $25 credits will be applied. She couldn't guarantee that we would get them in time for the cruse that leaves in a week, but if not we would get them and they would be available on our next trip.  

 

I asked if this would have happened automatically, or if it was because of something she did. She also said because the referral was made so close to the booking, it should have gone through automatically.  She added, her prodding might accelerate the timing. 

[coopco]

9 hours ago, Jersey42 said:

Original poster here. After all of the good insights here, I called Princess customer service this morning right after they opened. Wait was only a few minutes.  They were very helpful and the four $25 credits will be applied. She couldn't guarantee that we would get them in time for the cruse that leaves in a week, but if not we would get them and they would be available on our next trip.  

 

I asked if this would have happened automatically, or if it was because of something she did. She also said because the referral was made so close to the booking, it should have gone through automatically.  She added, her prodding might accelerate the timing. 

That’s so awesome to hear you will get the credit. Thanks for the update. Enjoy your cruise.