Refare Policy Change?

[Steelers36]

In 2022, I sometimes lost the S/H OBC and had to re-submit, but a couple of times it was reinstated.  I believe that depended on if I remembered to mention it to my TA and if he had the right kind of Princess rep on the phone when re-faring.  I had both re-fares and cancel/re-book.  I did have EZ-Air retained at one point because it was necessary due to pricing.  Otherwise, it wasn't an issue to re-book air on a new booking.  We don't do PCL excursions, so that never mattered and the only thing I had booked early in Cruise Personalizer was the water starter package and it was NP to re-add it.

[TBfrPH]

I would love to hear from someone who has been able to refare or rebook AFTER final payment is made without using cancellation insurance. 

 

I have had several instances of price drop after final payment date.  Each time I was told that the only way to take advantage of the new lower fare would be to cancel using my insurance and rebooking the new fare.  Of course, if one uses the cancellation insurance, the premium is "used" and not refunded. 

 

I recall reading posts about certain magician TAs and PVPs who have a way to refare even after final payment.  Just wondering if that still happens...

[brisalta]

3 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

If I might ask what type of OBC was kept? I know our Military, SHB, FCD, and the $150 excursion OBC they now include with new bookings will remain. What other type of OBC is there, other than that possibly issued by your TA?

 

The OBC that was part of a promotion when one booked the original fare.

[caribill]

18 hours ago, PacnGoNow said:

It seems most of the sale fares, say new bookings only these days.  So, the TA would need to rebook, you would lose any perks with that one and get the perks of the new fare.  Yes, you would have to rebook everything you booked originally , like excursions, onboard services, EZAir reservations, Stock OBC, your deposit, etc.  So, weigh the differences and see which is better for you.

You’ll get your refunds on these items and have to request them again.

 

Make sure your deposit is refundable.  Sometimes, they are not.

 

 

Yes, cancelling and rebooking does mean the original perks (if any) will be replaced with the new offer's perks (if any).

 

However a good travel agent can work with Princess to get EZAir reservations moved to the new booking as well as stockholder's OBC.

 

I recently rebooked two cruises and ended up with $600 more OBC than I originally had as well as better cruise pricing.

 

Of course if someone rebooks a cruise that had Plus or Premier packages, the rebooking will have the current pricing for those packages.

[no1racefan1]

7 hours ago, TBfrPH said:

I would love to hear from someone who has been able to refare or rebook AFTER final payment is made without using cancellation insurance. 

 

I have had several instances of price drop after final payment date.  Each time I was told that the only way to take advantage of the new lower fare would be to cancel using my insurance and rebooking the new fare.  Of course, if one uses the cancellation insurance, the premium is "used" and not refunded. 

 

I recall reading posts about certain magician TAs and PVPs who have a way to refare even after final payment.  Just wondering if that still happens...

I think this is MUCH less common...I've seen it mentioned occasionally on these boards but doubt it happens on a regular basis.

 

I called Carnival on one of our cruises that dropped after final payment (I've never used a TA, just book direct) and they didn't give me the lower price, but they DID upgrade me to an aft balcony. So it was worth the call regardless. Worst they can do is say no!

[13cheermom]

On 2/23/2023 at 12:03 PM, Lady Arwen said:

As I mentioned, my CVP said it is possible on some sailings, depending on the date of sailing, the itinerary and ship.  You are one of the lucky ones.  For me, it’s really not a big deal to just rebook a few excursions.  I don’t book air with Princess.  I refuse to sit on hold to get through to a regular reservation agent.  I call my CVP and either talk to her or leave a voice message.  She takes care of everything for me and I like that.

So funny thing, when I looked at the specific terms for the new rate it also stated new bookings only?  That's why when I got to the specialist, I asked if it was doable rather than stating I wanted the reface.  Oh and I was only waiting for about 30 minutes, which is fine, I put my phone on speakerphone as I continue to work and do other things, lol.  Sometimes it can pay to get different agents who are better at their jobs than others.  

[cruisingrob21]

12 hours ago, TBfrPH said:

I would love to hear from someone who has been able to refare or rebook AFTER final payment is made without using cancellation insurance. 

 

I have had several instances of price drop after final payment date.  Each time I was told that the only way to take advantage of the new lower fare would be to cancel using my insurance and rebooking the new fare.  Of course, if one uses the cancellation insurance, the premium is "used" and not refunded. 

 

I recall reading posts about certain magician TAs and PVPs who have a way to refare even after final payment.  Just wondering if that still happens...

Yes, I've done it for myself and for my clients but its rare.  You have to understand that at any given time, any cruise line has about 3 or 4 promos or prices offered (or more).  In the case of Princess, you'll have a standard fare, group fares (only agencies offer these), promo fares (Best Sale Ever), and after final payment you may have Drop n go fares as well as resident rates.  Lately Princess has begun adding non refundable fares as well for a discount.  So there are a lot of options.  If you are booked under Best Sale Ever, and that price stays fixed after final payment but the Drop n go fare is lower (like it commonly is) you have to switch your fare type.  If the Drop n go fare is "New Bookings Only" then you will have to cancel and rebook.  If the Best Sale Ever fare drops (or any promo), then you can refare after final payment without rebooking, but this doesn't happen that often.

 

The trick is, for most passengers, when you log onto the Princess website or various online TAs, you'll only see 1 or 2 fare options and these are decided by the cruise line or agency to be "best value".  Best value, in their opinion includes things like Princess Plus and other promotions.  Some will also show "best price" which are usually going to be new bookings only or non-refundable deposits.  Of course, after final payment, NRD's are the norm so that is the price that will commonly be advertised, but of course, those are new bookings only.

[donswife]

It sounds complicated!  We booked a drop and go with full payment due. Now it is $30 more pp but includes $100 each obc. Not worth it though if we lose our insurance premium.  I guess it wouldn't hurt to ask 

[no1racefan1]

Decided to post an update on this topic based on my current experience... this morning I noticed the price of our current booking is down $109pp. We would lose $50pp OBC but all in after fee/insurance adjustments should still net gain about $144.

 

I contacted Princess via Live Chat. The agent was willing to do the re-fare but she quoted me more than what was online. After asking her twice to give me a cost breakdown, I realized she was adding transfers to the total cost, which we do not have booked nor do we want. So, I asked her to remove the transfers. After she removed the transfers, she quoted me a total price LESS than what was on the website, and I realized she was including standard protection instead of platinum protection, which is what we currently have booked. She said she couldn't guarantee the protection plan wouldn't change when she did the re-fare. So, I said forget it and left it as is.

 

I will probably call and talk to another agent and see if they can get this done for me, because $144 is still $144! But it is a lot of work. And I do wonder if she was just going to make an all new booking rather than just adjusting the price. That's what it sounded like.

Edited March 24, 2023 by no1racefan1

[Tedferg]

35 minutes ago, no1racefan1 said:

I realized she was including standard protection instead of platinum protection, which is what we currently have booked. She said she couldn't guarantee the protection plan wouldn't change when she did the re-fare.

Do you get the insurance upgrade because you are Platinum or above? If so I would think that happens automatically and the agent, understandably, did not feel she could guarantee it.

[Tedferg]

On 2/24/2023 at 5:38 PM, donswife said:

Not worth it though if we lose our insurance premium. 

What do you mean? Would you have to pay Insurance twice because it was 'used' on first cancellation?

[no1racefan1]

1 hour ago, Tedferg said:

Do you get the insurance upgrade because you are Platinum or above? If so I would think that happens automatically and the agent, understandably, did not feel she could guarantee it.

No. I paid for the upgraded insurance with my original booking.

[brisalta]

1 hour ago, Tedferg said:

Do you get the insurance upgrade because you are Platinum or above? If so I would think that happens automatically and the agent, understandably, did not feel she could guarantee it.

 

The no cost insurance upgrade is for Ruby and above.

[brisalta]

6 minutes ago, no1racefan1 said:

No. I paid for the upgraded insurance with my original booking.

 

If you are refaring then you keep the original insurance you booked but the price changes for it.

[donswife]

1 hour ago, Tedferg said:

What do you mean? Would you have to pay Insurance twice because it was 'used' on first cancellation?

I have no idea. I decided it wasn't worth the hassle.

 

[suzyed]

On 2/23/2023 at 10:42 AM, ldtr said:

That has been practice with refares for quite a while. Before final payment you can refare, but any perks you had when you originally booked from Princess would not longer apply, and only the perks currently being offered with the new fare would. Basically the same as canceling and rebooting except you keep the same booking number  Any perks from your TA would be up to the TA.

I asked about changing a booking to a B2B instead of one 25 day sailing and my TA said we would have to cancel and rebook.  Not sure why?  We are almost 200 days out.

[brisalta]

On 2/23/2023 at 7:42 AM, ldtr said:

That has been practice with refares for quite a while. Before final payment you can refare, but any perks you had when you originally booked from Princess would not longer apply, and only the perks currently being offered with the new fare would. Basically the same as canceling and rebooting except you keep the same booking number  Any perks from your TA would be up to the TA.

 

When I re-fared my upcoming cruise the web site stated that the new fare rate was for new bookings only.  It had no OBC unlike the fare I had. I called my Princess Cruise Vacation Planner and told the CVP that I saw a lower fare.  The CVP lowered my fare and to my surprise kept the OBC from the former fare rate.

[Ken the cruiser]

56 minutes ago, suzyed said:

I asked about changing a booking to a B2B instead of one 25 day sailing and my TA said we would have to cancel and rebook.  Not sure why?  We are almost 200 days out.

My guess is because you are now asking to book two separate cruises, which are priced separately, rather than just one "combined" cruise.

[no1racefan1]

4 hours ago, no1racefan1 said:

Decided to post an update on this topic based on my current experience... this morning I noticed the price of our current booking is down $109pp. We would lose $50pp OBC but all in after fee/insurance adjustments should still net gain about $144.

 

I contacted Princess via Live Chat. The agent was willing to do the re-fare but she quoted me more than what was online. After asking her twice to give me a cost breakdown, I realized she was adding transfers to the total cost, which we do not have booked nor do we want. So, I asked her to remove the transfers. After she removed the transfers, she quoted me a total price LESS than what was on the website, and I realized she was including standard protection instead of platinum protection, which is what we currently have booked. She said she couldn't guarantee the protection plan wouldn't change when she did the re-fare. So, I said forget it and left it as is.

 

I will probably call and talk to another agent and see if they can get this done for me, because $144 is still $144! But it is a lot of work. And I do wonder if she was just going to make an all new booking rather than just adjusting the price. That's what it sounded like.

Update to my update: I called back and spoke to a different agent. It took about 45 minutes of mostly being on hold, but he was able to re-fare to the lower price. Actually, he re-fared to an even lower price than what I saw online, which completely made up for the lost OBC, so it was definitely worth the time to call!

[suzyed]

19 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

My guess is because you are now asking to book two separate cruises, which are priced separately, rather than just one "combined" cruise.

This is true...I had gotten a Casino discount and thought maybe I could save some money....in the end, it isn't worth cancelling and rebooking.  The other wrinkle is that we paid with FCCs and we would have to wait for those to be returned to be used again.  Just too complicated!

[BobAnne]

I refared earlier this week and not only lost my OBC but now apparently owe money on excursions I had previously paid for. Yet when I call the 800 number no one can see the money the website says I owe. I am livid as no one warned us this FUBAR would happen with the refaring. 

 

UPDATE: While typing this I called Princess for the fourth time about this issue. This person said she could see the money owing (after putting me on hold for 45 min) and took a payment. Great awesome. Except not…. She put the payment through for HALF the amount. WTH I am so frustrated with this entire situation. It feels like I’m being punished by the Universe for trying to save $1000.

[Ken the cruiser]

51 minutes ago, BobAnne said:

I refared earlier this week and not only lost my OBC but now apparently owe money on excursions I had previously paid for. Yet when I call the 800 number no one can see the money the website says I owe. I am livid as no one warned us this FUBAR would happen with the refaring. 

 

UPDATE: While typing this I called Princess for the fourth time about this issue. This person said she could see the money owing (after putting me on hold for 45 min) and took a payment. Great awesome. Except not…. She put the payment through for HALF the amount. WTH I am so frustrated with this entire situation. It feels like I’m being punished by the Universe for trying to save $1000.

I don’t know if you noticed this, but they removed the $150 pp OBC booking perk on the latest promotion. So if that was on your original booking and you used it to prepurchase any excursions, that may be why you now owe money on your excursions. 

[JoRoy218]

On 2/23/2023 at 5:55 PM, trinitygirl said:

Just a word of warning ...  I ran into this in early January - a TA cruise dropped by a considerable amount but only for new bookings.  I had already pre-paid my excursions, wifi, gratuities, Enclave booking etc before the price rises.  After doing my maths, it was still very worthwhile to cancel my existing booking and book the new fare - not only the price drop, but the increased OBC and the free specialty dining.  So I did and now, six weeks later, I am still waiting for refunds.  They transferred over my deposit to the new booking no drama, and they refunded the gratuities and wifi almost immediately, but I am still waiting for them to refund Enclave and excursions - over $1000 seems to have got lost in the system somewhere. 

Had an issue lately, spoke to first person on Princess line. Her answer made no sense, asked her same question twice in a different way. She asked me if I wanted to speak to Customer Service, said yes. Proud to say after explaining my problem, it took her less than 5 min. to fix and said “Your booking was done incorrectly.” Problem solved! Might have to go “up the chain of command.” Good luck! Be assertive! 

[RD64]

On 2/24/2023 at 8:24 AM, no1racefan1 said:

I think this is MUCH less common...I've seen it mentioned occasionally on these boards but doubt it happens on a regular basis.

 

I called Carnival on one of our cruises that dropped after final payment (I've never used a TA, just book direct) and they didn't give me the lower price, but they DID upgrade me to an aft balcony. So it was worth the call regardless. Worst they can do is say no!

Agreed - same with HAL  ( A Carnival company). I booked and paid after final payment — a satisfactory outside cabin category - my choice of cabin. Two weeks later price went down to the point where a good verandah category was cheaper than my outside.

 

I did not ask for a reduction in price or OBC as I know there is no obligation to do so on HAL’s part. I asked - because it never hurts to ask politely - if they could just slide me into one of the available verandahs on the same desk. Not a problem, and very happy with the resolution. That being said, a week later the price for both the outside and verandah categories skyrocketed to far more than what I paid.

 

Moral of the story - it never hurts to ask - not DEMAND - for something that is reasonable. 

[Steelers36]

On 2/24/2023 at 4:41 AM, caribill said:

However a good travel agent can work with Princess to get EZ-Air reservations moved to the new booking as well as stockholder's OBC.

True statement.