Military and shareholders OBC no longer combinable soon.

[Steelers36]

3 minutes ago, Astro Flyer said:

Thanks for sharing your experiences…we have always applied for SOBC for our jointly owned shares in my wife’s name to balance with my MOBC for pre-booking tours. Every time it is issued to me because my name is listed first on our reservations (couldn’t get my wife listed first). Thus even if a married couple is allowed to have one person receive MOBC & the other person SOBC, we’d be ineligible due to Princess’ policy of issuing SOBC to me & not to my wife. Both of our future bookings currently show SOBC/MOBC issued to me but being 9 & 21 months away things could change as Princess changes their policies.

 

Unless this change is grandfathered, the conditions we booked under by receiving both SOBC & SOBC are changed for us. That’s a poor way to treat their guests…book based on certain criteria & then take it away later. Our trust in them has been eroding away & if I lose my MOBC that’s more lost trust for them to provide as advertised.

 

Looking forward to soon having a definitive answer from Princess to see if they will treat passengers fairly or not. 🤔

 

Do the booking with wife name first and you as cabinmate (second person).

[Astro Flyer]

14 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Do the booking with wife name first and you as cabinmate (second person).

As I wrote, in the past couldn’t get it done that way but with these proposed changes will ensure that she’s listed first if she can get SOBC & me MOBC which is still unknown. And all of our future bookings have SOBC in my name.

 

Edited June 19, 2023 by Astro Flyer

[Steelers36]

5 minutes ago, Astro Flyer said:

As I wrote, in the past couldn’t get it done that way but with these proposed changes will ensure that she’s list first if she can get SOBC & me MOBC which is still unknown. And all of our future bookings have SOBC in my name.

 

Gotcha.

[Astro Flyer]

2 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

And I have been told the opposite.  Good Luck.

Another example of them being consistently inconsistent 🙄

[nasa1974]

It sounds like those of us that travel solo will get stiffed if we qualify for military and stock OBC. We are already paying more for the cabin vs. double occupancy and now we lose some OBC. NICE!!!

[MustangGT]

3 hours ago, Astro Flyer said:

Another example of them being consistently inconsistent 🙄

Exactly!!  Princess wrote the book on bring consistently inconsistent!! 🥴

[Guest ldtr]

13 minutes ago, nasa1974 said:

It sounds like those of us that travel solo will get stiffed if we qualify for military and stock OBC. We are already paying more for the cabin vs. double occupancy and now we lose some OBC. NICE!!!

the obc is probably less than the second set of taxes and fees and the second set of gratuities that couples pay

 

Keep in mind that there is lost revenue anytime a 2 person cabin is filled by a solo.  Better than an empty cabin but to the cruise line much worse than two.  

 

In general with 35% of revenue coming from on board sales if the fare is X then

For a solo revenue would be  2X + .53X = 2.53X

For two the revenue would be 2X + 2(.53X) =3.06X

 

That is why the cruiselines tend to not give many breaks to Solo cruisers.

Edited June 20, 2023 by ldtr

[cruzsnooze]

6 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

 

 

On the bright side when we're on our Japan cruise next month, we're going to be loading up on FCDs to apply to 4 cruises we currently have booked that don't already have them applied. In addition, we're also going to buy enough to cover 3 more cruises we'll probably book within the year. Added to the AARP Gift Card perk, purchasing FCDs while onboard, and booking through a TA, there are still a few extra ways to save $$$ booking with Princess. 😉

The more people share how to minimize Princess' profit the more these perks will disappear. Let's not keep giving them ideas of what perks to take away. 

[nasa1974]

5 minutes ago, ldtr said:

the obc is probably less than the second set of taxes and fees and the second set of gratuities that couples pay

It's too late to do the math, but I'll figure it out later and post it. Not being snarky just to tired. 🙂

[Happiest when cruising]

12 minutes ago, ldtr said:

the obc is probably less than the second set of taxes and fees and the second set of gratuities that couples pay

 

Keep in mind that there is lost revenue anytime a 2 person cabin is filled by a solo.  Better than an empty cabin but to the cruise line much worse than two.  

 

In general with 35% of revenue coming from on board sales if the fare is X then

For a solo revenue would be  2X + .53X = 2.53X

For two the revenue would be 2X + 2(.53X) =3.06X

 

That is why the cruiselines tend to not give many breaks to Solo cruisers.

I do wonder about that.
From reading all these posts on OBC for various reasons, it seems many people aren’t actually shaking down their own wallets, and come off a ship with a zero balance. I know we have come off a cruise with a cheque due to us.  Sometimes we have a small balance due, but we are not making too many onboard purchases anymore. It really depends on length of cruise and how big our budget is at the time. 
 

And..it looks like we might be watching for the solo rate sale and book 2 cabins…I’ve always wanted my own bathroom. 

[Ken the cruiser]

7 minutes ago, cruzsnooze said:

The more people share how to minimize Princess' profit the more these perks will disappear. Let's not keep giving them ideas of what perks to take away. 

OTOH the first 5 cruises we went on starting back in 2012, we booked our cruises directly with the cruise line and never knew we had any options until we joined Cruise Critic. Since then we have learned a ton over time from various threads on CC about various aspects of cruising, and the “games” cruise lines employ to hopefully improve their bottom line. For my part I will continue to try to share some of what I have learned over the years to those interested in what I have to share. But TBH cruise lines are going to continue to do what they have done for years, regardless of what is shared here on the various CC forums.

[rosevew]

10 hours ago, ldtr said:

Have their checked the web site to confirm that the OBC has actually been added.  Princess will certainly take the FCD and credit the value against the booking.  But they might want to check that they are actually getting the FCD OBC.

Yes they have and have spent it

[Mud_Shark]

Lol,

Yesterday I received a rejection letter for 2 requests for Shareholders benefit because I already had the military benefit.  Yet, I also had sent in a 3rd request for a 3rd future cruise under a separate email, and what do you know... this morning I received the email showing that shareholders has been posted to my account for that 3rd cruise. So 2 "no's" and one "yes".

 

Go figure.  Consistently inconsistent.

[Steelers36]

21 minutes ago, Mud_Shark said:

So 2 "no's" and one "yes".

You need three "yes's" to get to the next round.

[jinpasco]

11 hours ago, MustangGT said:

Exactly!!  Princess wrote the book on bring consistently inconsistent!! 🥴

Maybe make that the new slogan on the side of the ship ???   😏

[Ken the cruiser]

17 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

One of the groups it may affect are those where both stateroom guests are military veterans (like us) and at least one of them is a CCL shareholder (my DW). In our case based on a booking refare we completed last Thursday, it appears we will both get to keep our Military OBC perk, but the shareholder benefits perk disappeared. We resubmitted the SHB request on Friday, but as of a few minutes ago, it has not reappeared.

Just checked our Personalizer this morning and our Shareholder Benefit OBC has been reapplied to our Jan 2024 booking we refared last Thursday. Yay! 

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, Mud_Shark said:

Lol,

Yesterday I received a rejection letter for 2 requests for Shareholders benefit because I already had the military benefit.  Yet, I also had sent in a 3rd request for a 3rd future cruise under a separate email, and what do you know... this morning I received the email showing that shareholders has been posted to my account for that 3rd cruise. So 2 "no's" and one "yes".

 

Go figure.  Consistently inconsistent.

You may want to resubmit those first two requests, but in separate emails this time. 

[MustangGT]

11 hours ago, MustangGT said:

Exactly!!  Princess wrote the book on bring consistently inconsistent!! 🥴

Darn spell check!  “Being”. Not bring! 😩

[whitecap]

2 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Just checked our Personalizer this morning and our Shareholder Benefit OBC has been reapplied to our Jan 2024 booking we refared last Thursday. Yay! 

Checked our three upcoming cruises and all OBC (Military and Shareholder) has been applied.  🥳

[Mud_Shark]

1 hour ago, Steelers36 said:

You need three "yes's" to get to the next round.

I'm in.  Gonna play the game and roll the dice.  I have one week to win and advance before this round is over - for good it would seem.

[luv2kroooz]

1 hour ago, Mud_Shark said:

Lol,

Yesterday I received a rejection letter for 2 requests for Shareholders benefit because I already had the military benefit.  Yet, I also had sent in a 3rd request for a 3rd future cruise under a separate email, and what do you know... this morning I received the email showing that shareholders has been posted to my account for that 3rd cruise. So 2 "no's" and one "yes".

 

Go figure.  Consistently inconsistent.

Good job. Gotta take what you can get.

[vjmatty]

16 hours ago, Happiest when cruising said:

I do wonder about that.
From reading all these posts on OBC for various reasons, it seems many people aren’t actually shaking down their own wallets, and come off a ship with a zero balance. I know we have come off a cruise with a cheque due to us.  Sometimes we have a small balance due, but we are not making too many onboard purchases anymore. It really depends on length of cruise and how big our budget is at the time. 
 

And..it looks like we might be watching for the solo rate sale and book 2 cabins…I’ve always wanted my own bathroom. 

I think the little-to-no onboard balance, or receiving a credit, is more common among us CC members and less common among the general cruising population. I don’t try to overhear conversations at the pursers desk, but from what I’ve unwillingly been exposed to, a lot of people spend more onboard than the initial cost of the cruise. Those passengers make me happy, as they take the heat off “deadbeats” like me with a credit balance 😉

[MissP22]

21 minutes ago, vjmatty said:

I think the little-to-no onboard balance, or receiving a credit, is more common among us CC members and less common among the general cruising population. I don’t try to overhear conversations at the pursers desk, but from what I’ve unwillingly been exposed to, a lot of people spend more onboard than the initial cost of the cruise. Those passengers make me happy, as they take the heat off “deadbeats” like me with a credit balance 😉

You're not alone. It's been many years since we've run up any sort of an appreciable tab on any cruise ship. 😄

[luv2kroooz]

7 hours ago, whitecap said:

Checked our three upcoming cruises and all OBC (Military and Shareholder) has been applied.  🥳

Yes, I can confirm the same. We  had a Shareholder Benefit added to today and combined with a Military discount on a solo cabin for a cruise in November 2023. So, apparently, it is the luck of the draw based on who is processing the request. Hopefully, Princess doesn't pull it back at some point. Whew!

[billco]

4 hours ago, vjmatty said:

I think the little-to-no onboard balance, or receiving a credit, is more common among us CC members and less common among the general cruising population. I don’t try to overhear conversations at the pursers desk, but from what I’ve unwillingly been exposed to, a lot of people spend more onboard than the initial cost of the cruise. Those passengers make me happy, as they take the heat off “deadbeats” like me with a credit balance 😉

These cuts make sense to me. I think the next cuts will be free laundry and minibar for Elites followed by free upgrade to Platinum Insurance. If the ships are sailing full, why give away anything?