Can you prepay your entire cruise?

Instead of waiting until final payment, can I prepay the entire fare (and port fees) 8 months prior to sailing? Of course, the next question is - if I do and cancel the cruise before final payment date how difficult will it be to get the payment refunded to me?

You can pay in full the day you book. If you want to go crazy, you can pay for on board spending credits in advance. If there is a credit card with zero percent APR that could be worth wild.

If you paid for everything up front would final payment date mean anything?

You can pay in full the day you book. If you want to go crazy, you can pay for on board spending credits in advance. If there is a credit card with zero percent APR that could be worth wild.

Great - now, what happens if I cancel the cruise? How hard is it to get the money refunded back?

If you paid for everything up front would final payment date mean anything?

Yes, cancellation penalties would still apply if you canceled after final payment date.

Great - now, what happens if I cancel the cruise? How hard is it to get the money refunded back?

You will get the money back if canceled before the final date, but I would expect like any refund it would take a few days to a few weeks. At the end of it, I would get something in writing from HAL stating the timeline and it would be in fact a refund not a credit.

So the obvious question is why would want to pay it all early?

So the obvious question is why would want to pay it all early?

I have as a matter of cash flow and using the miles from the credit card to fund airline tickets.

I have as a matter of cash flow and using the miles from the credit card to fund airline tickets.

We are paying for our January cruise in full early to add to our FF points to use for airfare. I want to be able to get the airfare as soon as I see a price I like. I might as well have those extra points available.

I had to cancel my cruise a week before sailing.

I had HAL platinum insurance. The credit minus the 10% went thru while I was still sitting in my travel agents office.

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Many cruises have language in the contract about not making changes after payment in full has been made, i.e., you might not be able to secure a price drop if it means they would have to cut a check back to you. How they handle individual cases may vary, of course, but it may be a consideration to at least ask HAL about.

Many cruises have language in the contract about not making changes after payment in full has been made, i.e., you might not be able to secure a price drop if it means they would have to cut a check back to you. How they handle individual cases may vary, of course, but it may be a consideration to at least ask HAL about.

Great - now, what happens if I cancel the cruise? How hard is it to get the money refunded back?

You either get cancellation or trip insurance or you had better cancel before the penalty date arrives. We prepaid our Grand Asia in January. Tomorrow is the date that penalties apply. We bought our cancellation insurance today. Whew! Hope the TA was correct! Everyone who has posted re HAL's CPP policy, said they got refunded the 80 or 90% immediately.

Dave - I am amazed that with over 8,000 posts, you have never considered this before? I don't like giving companies money until I actually have to. It might as well be increasing (or decreasing) in my own account. But with the Grands, there is a 3% discount for early payment. Given the market during the last four months, I am glad that we did.

Final payment is the day that HAL has determined, not the day YOU pay in full. All promos, price drops, etc would apply exactly the same as if you had just paid the deposit until HAL's final payment date. No worries whatsoever if you pay in full whenever you find it convenient.

If you book and pay in full, I believe you can no longer transfer the reservation to a TA for whatever perks they would give you, as one example.

You either get cancellation or trip insurance or you had better cancel before the penalty date arrives. We prepaid our Grand Asia in January. Tomorrow is the date that penalties apply. We bought our cancellation insurance today. Whew! Hope the TA was correct! Everyone who has posted re HAL's CPP policy, said they got refunded the 80 or 90% immediately.

 

Dave - I am amazed that with over 8,000 posts, you have never considered this before? I don't like giving companies money until I actually have to. It might as well be increasing (or decreasing) in my own account. But with the Grands, there is a 3% discount for early payment. Given the market during the last four months, I am glad that we did.

I am asking this for a friend who is opening up a new credit card and had to charge $4000 in the first three months to qualify for a nice 50,000 point bonus (which would cover 6 free days at the Hyatt Place in Fort Lauderdale for example!). Well worth the cost of money IMO.

If you book and pay in full, I believe you can no longer transfer the reservation to a TA for whatever perks they would give you, as one example.

If you book and pay in full, I believe you can no longer transfer the reservation to a TA for whatever perks they would give you, as one example.

You are correct, in order to transfer it to a TA, you have to owe something, but that something can be $100 out of a $15,000 fare.

Great - now, what happens if I cancel the cruise? How hard is it to get the money refunded back?

And that would be the reason why most folks do not prepay things when it is not necessary. Previous experience would not be an indicator of what would happen to you. Our experience with cruise lines and airlines is that getting money refunded is never a fast process.

But there are other issues. Lets say you prepay and the following week there is a 20% reduction in the price of your cruise. The norm would be to contact your cruise agent, mention the price drop, and ask to have your cruise repriced. Normally this would not be a problem. But once the cruise line has all of your money they do not have to be so accommodating. In financial terms, once you make a total payment you have lost much of your leverage in cases of price drops or new amenities..

Hank

I have as a matter of cash flow and using the miles from the credit card to fund airline tickets.

That's actually a pretty good ploy. Our credit card gives us a "free" companion ticket (plus taxes and fees) with $30,000 annual spend, and usually we earn it around late August/early September. It would make total sense to pre-pay big ticket items if we needed a push to get past the required amount sooner, especially if we needed the freebie for air travel on the same vacation. I'll have to keep that in mind.

I am asking this for a friend who is opening up a new credit card and had to charge $4000 in the first three months to qualify for a nice 50,000 point bonus (which would cover 6 free days at the Hyatt Place in Fort Lauderdale for example!). Well worth the cost of money IMO.

Ah, there's a possible caveat here - if you were to cancel for a refund, your bonus points would likely evaporate. The points earned for the actual spend would definitely go bye-bye. I can't imagine what would happen if you've already used the points!

Ah, there's a possible caveat here - if you were to cancel for a refund, your bonus points would likely evaporate. The points earned for the actual spend would definitely go bye-bye. I can't imagine what would happen if you've already used the points!

Good point. I guess my friend could/would rebook the credit to another cruise.

Thanks to everyone for the advice and input. I will pass it on to my friend.

DaveOKC

Good point. I guess my friend could/would rebook the credit to another cruise.

 

Thanks to everyone for the advice and input. I will pass it on to my friend.

 

DaveOKC

This is what I recently did. I didn't want to lose my Amex credit when I had to cancel a sailing so I just had them move my deposit to another sailing. Was very simple!

another easy way to meet spending requirements for airline bonus miles is to buy gift cards with the credit card for yourself at sams club or costco.....you then can use them like a debit card at sams/ walmart or costco for any purchases

Gift cards! What a great idea!

I was advised by a HAL agent to NOT pay in full until the “final payment due” date. But she said I only needed to keep a small amount, like $100, on account until final payment so I could pay everything else except for a small amount. Her rationale was that the booking agents have a lot more flexibility with making price adjustments and promo adjustments up until the point at which the cruise is “paid in full”. Once it is paid in full, any adjustments need to go through a different department and would most likely be given as OBC versus an actual price adjustment on the cruise fare. This has worked well for us as we check pricing every week and on our Caribbean cruise, we ended up with a final cruise fare that was about 1/3 less than what we originally booked plus ended up with free gratuities. All before the “final payment” due date!