Folio ap/final email issue

[Fianna13]

I did a quick search and didn't see a similar issue, so I thought I'd ask if anyone else had this issue or if it was a weird glitch for our party.

 

We just got off Grandeur on Friday. I booked the reservation, paid for the reservation and used my credit card (the same one as for the deposit and final) to guarantee our stateroom charges. We were 3 adults, myself, my husband and our housemate, traveling in a 2 bedroom suite. During the cruise, I only saw my charges in the ap folio and didn't realize until the last night that our housemate had access to the full folio in the ap. Okay, annoying but it's not like he was secretly pulling 5k off his Seapass in the casino. The ap is fairly new so it's probably a little glitchy. However, when they emailed the final folio, they also emailed it to him, not to me, which is not a new process and they figured out who owned the card enough to bill it on a nightly basis.

 

Suffice to say, I'm annoyed. Is this something anyone else has experienced? I'm trying to figure out why RC decided that he was the primary person, since he was the 3rd person in the cabin and they don't have any of his credit card info since I booked, paid for and guaranteed the whole thing with my AMEX.

[Biker19]

2 hours ago, Fianna13 said:

I'm trying to figure out why RC decided that he was the primary person,

That's just the way to booking was set up for whatever reason. @Ourusualbeach may have some info if the order in which the customers are listed on the invoice can somehow be forced to be in a certain way.

 

Biker, who ends being listed second most of the time on the booking.

[Fianna13]

1 hour ago, Biker19 said:

That's just the way to booking was set up for whatever reason. @Ourusualbeach may have some info if the order in which the customers are listed on the invoice can somehow be forced to be in a certain way.

 

I just find it weird that the person whose credit card was being charged isn't the person who sees the whole folio. I have a few theories:

1. It's alphabetical. He's BT, I'm CW and my husband is DW. Either first or last name, our housemate comes alphabetically first.

2. It's based on age. Housemate is the oldest. Perhaps the assumption is that the oldest guest is generally the host.

3. Worst - it's based on sex. I was the only woman in the room, and the travel industry, like hospitality in general, can be annoyingly traditional.

 

Either way, you'd figure that they know who's card it is and that the person paying should be able to see what's being charged. In my circumstance, I know that he wasn't running around a 2 in the morning pulling credit at the casino... but that might not always be the case. I know that's a risk I run when I just use my card for everyone, but giving me a heads up that someone is buying top-shelf whiskey or casino credits or arcade credits or watches or what have you would be the right thing to do to protect everyone. Not knowing until the final charge hit (or was declined) seems to not be a good strategy for anyone.

[Starry Eyes]

32 minutes ago, Fianna13 said:

 

I just find it weird that the person whose credit card was being charged isn't the person who sees the whole folio. I have a few theories:

1. It's alphabetical. He's BT, I'm CW and my husband is DW. Either first or last name, our housemate comes alphabetically first.

2. It's based on age. Housemate is the oldest. Perhaps the assumption is that the oldest guest is generally the host.

3. Worst - it's based on sex. I was the only woman in the room, and the travel industry, like hospitality in general, can be annoyingly traditional.

 

Either way, you'd figure that they know whose card it is and that the person paying should be able to see what's being charged. In my circumstance, I know that he wasn't running around a 2 in the morning pulling credit at the casino... but that might not always be the case. I know that's a risk I run when I just use my card for everyone, but giving me a heads up that someone is buying top-shelf whiskey or casino credits or arcade credits or watches or what have you would be the right thing to do to protect everyone. Not knowing until the final charge hit (or was declined) seems to not be a good strategy for anyone.

My personal experiences run counter to all of your three hypotheses.  As I do the the research and make the reservations, I routinely am guest #1.  I also do the check in with my credit card.  I get the email of the folio.

1. Alphabetical.  Hubby is first alphabetically, yet I get the folio

2.  Age.  Hubby is older.

3. Sex.  I’m the gal, and I’ still getting my folio.

 

So, how about a new hypothesis.  Maybe your housemate had a some normal contact or other with Royal Caribbean (through CSR or TA) about the reservation.  During that contact the housemate’s email address was incorrectly entered as the contact address for your reservation.  Completely accidental, I would think.

Edited January 29, 2023 by Starry Eyes

[Ourusualbeach]

4 hours ago, Fianna13 said:

I did a quick search and didn't see a similar issue, so I thought I'd ask if anyone else had this issue or if it was a weird glitch for our party.

 

We just got off Grandeur on Friday. I booked the reservation, paid for the reservation and used my credit card (the same one as for the deposit and final) to guarantee our stateroom charges. We were 3 adults, myself, my husband and our housemate, traveling in a 2 bedroom suite. During the cruise, I only saw my charges in the ap folio and didn't realize until the last night that our housemate had access to the full folio in the ap. Okay, annoying but it's not like he was secretly pulling 5k off his Seapass in the casino. The ap is fairly new so it's probably a little glitchy. However, when they emailed the final folio, they also emailed it to him, not to me, which is not a new process and they figured out who owned the card enough to bill it on a nightly basis.

 

Suffice to say, I'm annoyed. Is this something anyone else has experienced? I'm trying to figure out why RC decided that he was the primary person, since he was the 3rd person in the cabin and they don't have any of his credit card info since I booked, paid for and guaranteed the whole thing with my AMEX.

 

2 hours ago, Biker19 said:

That's just the way to booking was set up for whatever reason. @Ourusualbeach may have some info if the order in which the customers are listed on the invoice can somehow be forced to be in a certain way.

 

Biker, who ends being listed second most of the time on the booking.

I have no idea how they determine who the folio goes to.  All I can say is when I enter in the guests whomever I enter as guest one will show as guest one on the invoice.

[Fianna13]

On 1/29/2023 at 4:49 PM, Ourusualbeach said:

 

I have no idea how they determine who the folio goes to.  All I can say is when I enter in the guests whomever I enter as guest one will show as guest one on the invoice.

 

That should have been me. I created the reservation. Housemate was guest 3.

One other thing that I can think may have affected it is that both my husband and I drink. Housemate does not for medical reasons. I had to call RC to purchase our drink packages so that we could get premium for us and the non-alcoholic package for him. Perhaps in doing that the reservation somehow got moved around?

[Fianna13]

On 1/29/2023 at 4:37 PM, Starry Eyes said:

My personal experiences run counter to all of your three hypotheses.  As I do the the research and make the reservations, I routinely am guest #1.  I also do the check in with my credit card.  I get the email of the folio.

1. Alphabetical.  Hubby is first alphabetically, yet I get the folio

2.  Age.  Hubby is older.

3. Sex.  I’m the gal, and I’ still getting my folio.

 

So, how about a new hypothesis.  Maybe your housemate had a some normal contact or other with Royal Caribbean (through CSR or TA) about the reservation.  During that contact the housemate’s email address was incorrectly entered as the contact address for your reservation.  Completely accidental, I would think.

 

Nope. Not in this case, anyway. He didn't even download the ap til we were on the ship. He's not the planning kind of guy, especially not on a reservation where he's a guest. The trip was a holiday/birthday gift from us to him. Generally, I do the all the planning for this sort of thing, even if it were just me and my husband on the trip. 

 

I'd have been less annoyed if I also got the final folio. The ap is whatever, our final bill was less than 1k and most of that is bottles of wine and the specialty dining that I was aware of (and was on my Seapass anyway). Total other charges were very incidental. But I can envision a situation where someone isn't careful about expenses - after all that's why they give you the ocean-going credit card and let you use it in the casino. Part of that business model is have a few too many and spend more than you might otherwise. I'm quite certain that if this sort of thing happened with a minor if the reservation, the adult could easily dispute the whole set of charges. 

[Starry Eyes]

2 hours ago, Fianna13 said:

 

Nope. Not in this case, anyway. He didn't even download the ap til we were on the ship. He's not the planning kind of guy, especially not on a reservation where he's a guest. The trip was a holiday/birthday gift from us to him. Generally, I do the all the planning for this sort of thing, even if it were just me and my husband on the trip. 

 

I'd have been less annoyed if I also got the final folio. The ap is whatever, our final bill was less than 1k and most of that is bottles of wine and the specialty dining that I was aware of (and was on my Seapass anyway). Total other charges were very incidental. But I can envision a situation where someone isn't careful about expenses - after all that's why they give you the ocean-going credit card and let you use it in the casino. Part of that business model is have a few too many and spend more than you might otherwise. I'm quite certain that if this sort of thing happened with a minor if the reservation, the adult could easily dispute the whole set of charges. 

Then perhaps it did get messed up when the drink package exception was granted for housemate.  
To avoid this in the future, if you wish to fund an adult guest perhaps you may want to prepay gratuities and any excursions & dining, plus add an appropriate amount of OBC to their account.  They can enter their own credit card number and have a private on board account (they might want to spend their own money on something frivolous or embarrassing).  You can enter your CC for your family.