Losing money because of canceled excursions?

[Oceansaway17]

Just now, Greebo said:

Quebec is a great city, visited 22 years ago when on a camper vacation in Canada. 

yes I was there as part of a tour in 2012 for a day.  Now I get to see more and walk around.

Not going out to falls for the cathedral area either.

 

toodles

[Lido deck main]

On 4/8/2023 at 4:28 AM, Mary229 said:

Yes, if you cancel the money goes back to the gift card.  Gift cards don’t expire. You can use them to pay for any cruise expenses including fares, future cruise deposits, onboard spending, beverage packages and so on. 

Hi Mary, 

The OP is from the Netherlands, if the cruise was not originally booked in U.S. dollars, gift cards can’t be used to pay for cruise fares.  I am from Canada, my fares are based in Canadian dollars.  I can only use gift cards, to purchase shore excursions, I can also pre-purchase OBC or of course wait until I board and go to customer service and add the value to my onboard account.  (If digital gift card, bring paper copy of card number showing PIN also)

[kickboxrca]

We are also Canadian and have had a similar experience ... I have complained to HAL guest services ... they were less than sympathetic.  I try super hard to not book anything in advance if at all possible.

 

Yes, our original price is in $CAD, but all the shore excursions, etc. are in USD - I do like OBC for this reason as well, but sadly we can't dip into that until we are on board.

 

I really wish there was another way.

[CGinMTL]

I am from Canada and pre covid, would cruise twice per year.

That is when I decided to have a usd bank account and USD credit card 

.

I just booked Hal and they offered I better rate then current bank rate, so I did book cad and also prepaid my tips in cad

[gottacruisetoo]

On 4/7/2023 at 7:40 AM, Greebo said:

Since booking my cruise, I paid for 3 excursions. Unfortunately all 3 are now canceled. Apart from looking forward to the excursions, due to the exchange rate of my credit card, I”m starting to loose money. Since the bookings were for 4 people, the amount is getting quite substantial. 
Any tips? 
Is there an email adres to where I can send this issue?

 

Apart from not seeing a lot of other interesting excursions, I’m afraid to book any other excursion if they keep getting canceled.  

Contact your credit card company and ask for an exchange adjustment.  Since HAL cancelled and you didn't, they should pay the exchange difference. 

[Greebo]

1 hour ago, gottacruisetoo said:

Contact your credit card company and ask for an exchange adjustment.  Since HAL cancelled and you didn't, they should pay the exchange difference. 

I can try, thank you for the tip 🙂

[Florida_gal_50]

1 hour ago, Greebo said:

I can try, thank you for the tip 🙂

Let me know if it works. I have a hard time believing it will.

[kazu]

2 hours ago, gottacruisetoo said:

Contact your credit card company and ask for an exchange adjustment.  Since HAL cancelled and you didn't, they should pay the exchange difference. 

 

The credit card companies have their rates that are applicable at the time of sale and refund.  Foreign exchange rates aren’t constant.  They are not going to eat the loss when they did nothing wrong.  I bet dollars to donuts they tell the OP to get it from HAL.  (Good luck with that one) since they are the ones that cancelled.

This happens all the time when either a) you have to cancel a tour or b) a tour gets cancelled on you.  It’s one of the joys of foreign exchange risk 😑 (full sarcasm intended.)

[Kate45]

I just had a similar but different experience with credit cards and HAL. Asked TA to book signature beverage pkg for our Canada new England cruise in September BUT OnLY if the price was in CDN$. TA said rep at HAL when she called said yes...CDN$. But  it was billed in US$. We were billed over $700 ea. Told TA we could book the HIA pkg for $625 and cancel it. Our credit card, a MC actually refunded more than we paid. My sister VS refunded almost $75 less than they paid. Both were purchased and refunded on the same days, one day apart. Figure that one out!