Non refundable fares

It seems HAL is starting to quote non refundable deposit pricing.

Has anyone booked non refundable deposit? How far out before the cruise date would you recommend to book this type of fare.

I am looking at a cruise Spring 2019, and I figured there may be some promos or private mariner pricing available as it is so far away.

I used 2 future cruise deposit certificates, but I was told they would be lost if I cancelled under the non refundable deposit.

any opinions appreciated.

My current booking has a non refundable deposit. I booked it mid January. Normally, that would put me off from booking, but I was bound and determined I was going on this cruise.

Has anyone booked non refundable deposit? How far out before the cruise date would you recommend to book this type of fare.

I wouldn't book a non-refundable fare unless the cruise was already within the final payment window anyway. I certainly wouldn't risk a deposit a long way out from sailing, not even a FCD.

This just happened to us over the weekend. We had a choice of ready set sail with refundable deposit at a cost of $800 more than the other fare. We too used FCD so went with the non refundable fare. Only could get Guarantee cabins for our March 2018 cruise as it is so popular.

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The only non refundable fare or deposit that we would ever book would be a booking inside the final payment window.

We would rather wait to see the impact of competition from other cruise lines and the vagaries of supply and demand on final pricing.

I just got off the phone with an online travel agent who said that, if I book with a nonrefundable deposit, I won't be entitled to a price adjustment if the fare drops between now and the final payment date. She said a booking with a refundable deposit is eligible for a price adjustment prior to final payment. Does this sound correct?

There is no way I would book a cruise with a non-refundable deposit.

You will lose the money if you have to cancel for any reason.

And yes -- you will lose future cruise deposits that you used to book your cruise.

I just got off the phone with an online travel agent who said that, if I book with a nonrefundable deposit, I won't be entitled to a price adjustment if the fare drops between now and the final payment date. She said a booking with a refundable deposit is eligible for a price adjustment prior to final payment. Does this sound correct?

Yes. I'm pretty sure I've read about this situation before on cruise critic. I think this is the thread I'm thinking of:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2455019&highlight=Non+refundable+deposit

I just got off the phone with an online travel agent who said that, if I book with a nonrefundable deposit, I won't be entitled to a price adjustment if the fare drops between now and the final payment date. She said a booking with a refundable deposit is eligible for a price adjustment prior to final payment. Does this sound correct?

Yes. That is based on everything I have read in various threads, it does.

I had the option of booking a cruise with a non-refundable deposit for a savings of $6K (for the two of us). It was very clearly explained to me that it was absolutely non-refundable, no price adjustments, and that cancelling meant losing the deposit. We could tolerate losing the deposit ($300\person) but we were booking 18 months in advance of the cruise.

As one of us is of an age where medical conditions and travel insurance restrictions must be considered, we opted to go with a refundable deposit and hope the price drops to still save that $6K (or more). We shall see. It will be an interesting experiment.

We have booked 2 cruises 16 months out if the price goes down a lot it might be worth rebooking.

I just had our TA rebook us with a non-refundable deposit a couple of days ago for our November cruise. We felt we received a good price on our original booking, but we had a chance to save an additional $700, which coincidentally is the price of the airfare I recently booked.

I see it this way:

1) We want to take THIS cruise and would only cancel if a medical problem arises. We have already purchased cruise insurance and if we should have to cancel, the non-refundable deposit would be covered.

2) We know we can save $700 now, but we don't know whether a better deal will arise or whether this fare will be available later. On our Princess cruise in Alaska last year, had I passed up the chance to rebook a non-refundable deposit rate, I would have been out of luck, as the fares increased. If indeed the HAL rates go down further and we miss the chance to save more money, then we will live with it. We have a choice cabin and are satisfied with the price. If others get a better deal, then good for them.

If we had just deposited a cruise about which we were ambivalent or were still looking at other options or were a year or more from sailing, I would not have considered a non-refundable deposit, but we don't hop from cruise to cruise. It's a judgment call. Everyone should make decisions that are in their comfort zone.

A "refundable deposit" - that's not terminology known to us here in the UK!!!

I booked a Neptune suite on a nonrefundable basis and immediately bought travel insurance with "cancel for any reason" coverage. The cruise fare per person is now $1k more. I would've bought the insurance anyway so I figure I'm well ahead.

I had the option of booking a cruise with a non-refundable deposit for a savings of $6K (for the two of us). It was very clearly explained to me that it was absolutely non-refundable, no price adjustments, and that cancelling meant losing the deposit. We could tolerate losing the deposit ($300\person) but we were booking 18 months in advance of the cruise.

 

As one of us is of an age where medical conditions and travel insurance restrictions must be considered, we opted to go with a refundable deposit and hope the price drops to still save that $6K (or more). We shall see. It will be an interesting experiment.

Would the CPP be worth buying if you were to go with the non-refundable deposit?

What is the usual amount of a non-refundable deposit?

Would the CPP be worth buying if you were to go with the non-refundable deposit?

I don't know. I'd imagine it would. If we buy it, we typically don't buy it until just before final payment so it didn't enter my mind to ask at the time.

I failed to mention in my other post that by going with the refundable deposit, we also got some perks that would not have been available with the non refundable deposit option. The value of the perks are almost half of the $6K savings that we would have gotten had we gone with the non-refundable deposit.

What is the usual amount of a non-refundable deposit?

I've just checked my emails from my PCC and I don't see it mentioned that the non-refundable deposits are different from refundable deposits. For our cruise, which is a B2B of 28 days, the deposit was $300/person.

Relatively new to HAL so please forgive the question, but how do you tell if the fare is non-refundable?

I did a few mock bookings last night, and was able to click through to the last page before confirmation and didn't see any mentioning of non-refundable.

Relatively new to HAL so please forgive the question, but how do you tell if the fare is non-refundable?

 

I did a few mock bookings last night, and was able to click through to the last page before confirmation and didn't see any mentioning of non-refundable.

I'm not sure you can tell when booking online. I've always booked through a TA or a PCC. I would contact HAL and ask before finalizing any booking. I'd hate to assume it's refundable to find out it's not.

Relatively new to HAL so please forgive the question, but how do you tell if the fare is non-refundable?

 

I did a few mock bookings last night, and was able to click through to the last page before confirmation and didn't see any mentioning of non-refundable.

I have not seen anything on the website (yesterday) either. But on the large travel website I used it showed both pricing options.

We checked on a fall 2018 Prinsendam cruise on a travel website that was listed at just over 1/2 the HAL website price, but it did not say the whole fare was non-refundable, even in the terms and conditions, unless you found the obscure link where it was mentioned....and we were clicking through the payment process. I actually found out by calling and found the link after that.

We have booked with Carnival 2x where the deposit was non-refundable. They were both reduced deposits when we made the reservation. The first time we lost $50pp of the $100 deposit when we changed cruises. The second time we cancelled the first week of a b2b due to a health situation and the deposit was applied as an obc to the second week of the cruise.

Will be interesting to see if HAL shows some flexibility. But we will be certain to ask TA in future if deposit is non-refundable!

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I'm not sure you can tell when booking online. I've always booked through a TA or a PCC. I would contact HAL and ask before finalizing any booking. I'd hate to assume it's refundable to find out it's not.

Thank you. Yes that is what i will do,

I have not seen anything on the website (yesterday) either. But on the large travel website I used it showed both pricing options.

Thank you. Yes, I see the same thing. Some TA sites I see show many different fares but they don't always explain the differences.

I hope

I booked a HAL cruise earlier this year that had a non-refundable deposit and I understood that. Imagine my surprise when I cancelled the cruise because I received a free cruise bounce back casino offer for from Carnival for the same dates and received my whole HAL deposit back on my credit card. When I called HAL to cancel, the rep said I would receive my deposit back and I didn't say anything. I figured HAL would catch it before crediting my credit card with the deposit. Nope, they didn't.