Future Cruise Credits

[cdngrl]

So do you choose to pay the FCC in Cdn or US dollars? Then do you have to book your cruise in the same currency?

 

Here is our experience:

When we decided to buy FCC on the Island in 2008, the cruise consultant asked if we wanted to pay in US or CAN $$. At that time we had a Canadian TA, so we decided to pay in CAN $$.

This year after reading all the booking advice here on CC boards, we decided to book through a TA in the States. The price quoted for our December 2010 cruise was in US $$. The TA could not apply our FCCs because of the currency difference, but she told us that we could call Princess directly and request to change FCC into US $$. That’s what we did and it took about 3 or 4 days.

Though we had to pay a deposit upfront, we were able to apply our FCC later, when the currency transfer was completed.

Now we have a very nice OBC from our TA plus OBC for using 2 FCCs.

Chelsea

interesting. i usually have a couple fcc in $cdn and a couple in $us. the canadian is for when my ta can't beat princess' price and i book direct...it hasn't happened yet. so i have unused cdn fcc. good to know i can still book in $us. did princess charge you an exchange rate difference?

[caribill]

Thanks for the explanation(s)...I think I now understand! Had I known I was going to book a Mexican Riviera Cruise a month after my Alaskan Cruise, I would have gone to the Future Cruise Consultant and bought an FCC and my deposit for MR cruise would have only been $100 correct? And I would have also gotten OBC for booking that particular cruise!

 

Correct and correct.

[caribill]

I have been puzzled about Princess pricing. We took a Princess cruise in the spring. We did not know how the future cruise worked and did not intend to do another soon. However we did book a cruise about 10 days after returning home. The price quoted online was considerable less than I could find elsewhere and they only wanted a small deposit. Does Princess do this for you if you book soon after returning even without a FCC? It was quite a savings even from Princess online site if I did not sign in.

 

Princess and travel agents often do run special promotions which only require a $100 deposit. This is not dependent on when you returned from a cruise.

 

These special promotions will not have Princess OBC. You will need to use an FCC for that.

[Rhitson88]

Sorry guys. What is a FCC? Like what makes it so special? Just a quick description for me is fine. Like what makes it worth it just to get it onboard? Thanks.

[kath00]

Read this thread again. It's been answered already.

[paul929207]

Sorry guys. What is a FCC? Like what makes it so special? Just a quick description for me is fine. Like what makes it worth it just to get it onboard? Thanks.

FCC is a Future Cruise Credit. For $100 you get $100 as the deposit and an onboard credit of $25 to $150 depending on whether you book an inside or outside cabin and the length of the cruise. So for $100, you get $125 to $250.

[Pachutabelle]

Thanks, Floflegs

I was able to find OBC in my account online.:)

[Rhitson88]

FCC is a Future Cruise Credit. For $100 you get $100 as the deposit and an onboard credit of $25 to $150 depending on whether you book an inside or outside cabin and the length of the cruise. So for $100, you get $125 to $250.

 

 

 

Thanks. Its ok to repeat something as simple as that so I appreciate it.

[cactusrose]

When does FCC show up as OBC? I would assume it's when final payment is made. Am I right?

 

Look at it in your Circle Savings account you should see that it is linked to you booking number. This is done as soon as you book. Sign on to MyPrincess. Look on the upper left for a link "View Details" under Circle Savings Account. Click on that and then scroll down until you see two tabs "Cruise Credits" and "Onboard Credits". Click on the "Onboard Credits" tab and look under the status column.

[Chelseaprincess]

interesting. i usually have a couple fcc in $cdn and a couple in $us. the canadian is for when my ta can't beat princess' price and i book direct...it hasn't happened yet. so i have unused cdn fcc. good to know i can still book in $us. did princess charge you an exchange rate difference?

 

They actually returned my $100 CAN to the credit card we used to buy FCC and then charged the same card $100 US. It was not that bad, as the exchange rate in July was (and still is) pretty good :).

Now I plan to buy our FCCs only in US dollars, as I was never able to find better prices here in Canada. My new TA in the States gave me 10% discount of the past-guest rate, plus OBC, plus $100 gift card towards my future cruise if I book with them again. My old Can TA was able to offer me only OBC.

Chelsea

[jbeb]

Sorry guys. What is a FCC? Like what makes it so special? Just a quick description for me is fine. Like what makes it worth it just to get it onboard? Thanks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BayouGirlUSA

Can someone please explain to me in layman's terms what FCC's and OBC's are? I know that FCC is Future Cruise Credit and OBC is Onboard Credit...but that's about the extent of it!

 

 

The FCC (for US and Canadian residents) costs $100 and can only be purchased while onboard a Princess ship and only for people who are actually on that cruise. You can buy as many FCCs as you wish, They must be used within four years, but if not used, your money will be refunded. When you buy an FCC, you can use it immediately to book a cruise or can just buy it to use at a later date. You purchase them from the Future Cruise Consultant who has an office with office hours during the cruise. You do not have to actually meet with the consultant (unless booking an actual cruise), but can fill out a form and drop it in a box for that purpose.

 

For all but the World Cruise and World Cruise segments, a single FCC represents your total deposit for the person whose name is on it. This is much less than the amount of a normal deposit. Since the $100 you paid for the FCC is your deposit, the FCC actually costs you nothing as its full amount is applied to the cruise.

 

An FCC can only be used once. If you want to book multiple cruises, you will need multiple FCCs.

 

As other have posted (see post #4), when you do take the cruise, there will be an onboard credit of from $25 to $150 depending on the location of the cabin (inside/outside) and the length of the cruise.

 

Only the first two people in a cabin can use an FCC and get OBC.

 

Hope this helps.

 

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Last edited by caribill; August 14th, 2010 at 03:55 PM.

 

I "borrowed" this from a previous post as it seems to address you question. Sorry I am not too good with the site apps...

Jan

[aadaneboy]

Does anyone know when the FCC's changed where each person would need to use their FCCs to get the OBC? In the past when we had used them, we would only use 1, yet both my DW and I would receive the OBC. I saw on an earlier post that someone mentioned now each would need to use it.

 

If this is the case, it is very dissappointing considering we signed up for the FCCs before this new policy went into effect. The on-board Future Sales Consultant even advised of splitting our FCC for double OBC.

[paul929207]

Does anyone know when the FCC's changed where each person would need to use their FCCs to get the OBC? In the past when we had used them, we would only use 1, yet both my DW and I would receive the OBC. I saw on an earlier post that someone mentioned now each would need to use it.

 

If this is the case, it is very dissappointing considering we signed up for the FCCs before this new policy went into effect. The on-board Future Sales Consultant even advised of splitting our FCC for double OBC.

I think it was a year or so ago.

 

The Future Cruise Consultants had always said each person needed their own, but the Princess computer system was not programmed that way.

[compozer]

We purchased our first ones four years ago and were told we each needed one. Never heard you could get double credit for using one.

[drjakir]

I have a future cruise credit which I did not use on my booking for September, 2010, I booked through a travel agent and have now fully paid. I called Princess and they told me there was nothing I could do once the cruise is fully paid (except use it on a future cruise of course). Anyone had better luck, I am sure I read on cc that someone received a refund on their credit card and the shipboard credit.

[Colo Cruiser]

I have a future cruise credit which I did not use on my booking for September, 2010, I booked through a travel agent and have now fully paid. I called Princess and they told me there was nothing I could do once the cruise is fully paid (except use it on a future cruise of course). Anyone had better luck, I am sure I read on cc that someone received a refund on their credit card and the shipboard credit.

 

 

Our experience has been that they would not even add an FCC after the booking was made and deposited. They would not budge. That was awhile ago and now we make sure we get them applied.

[Franknca]

I have a future cruise credit which I did not use on my booking for September, 2010, I booked through a travel agent and have now fully paid. I called Princess and they told me there was nothing I could do once the cruise is fully paid (except use it on a future cruise of course). Anyone had better luck, I am sure I read on cc that someone received a refund on their credit card and the shipboard credit.

 

That's my concern too as we buy so many of them in advance because we cruise 2 or 3 times a year. Someone indicated that one could check their account on line to find out how many they had but I couldn't find anywhere on the Princess site that this information showed.

 

BTW, there's another way to get some cruise credits - buy 100 shares of Carnival stock. Your cabin gets a $100 on board credit if you own the stock. This goes for any of the lines that Carnival owns like Princess, HAL, etc. We just got off the Caribbean Princess where we got that credit in addition to the future cruise deposit credits and another $25 for being Elite.

Frank

[caribill]

I have a future cruise credit which I did not use on my booking for September, 2010, I booked through a travel agent and have now fully paid.

 

Next time you book, let the travel agent know you have an FCC and they will apply it. You do not have to book directly with Princess to use an FCC.

[caribill]

BTW, there's another way to get some cruise credits - buy 100 shares of Carnival stock. Your cabin gets a $100 on board credit if you own the stock. This goes for any of the lines that Carnival owns like Princess, HAL, etc. Amount varies by cruise length. Less than seven days gets $50. Seven to 13 days gets $100. Fourteen days and above gets $250.

 

We just got off the Caribbean Princess where we got that credit in addition to the future cruise deposit credits and another $25 for being Elite. The $25 was not for being elite. It was for being on your 21st-30th Princess cruise. Elites do not get this on their 16th-20th cruises.

Frank

 

See above

[Franknca]

See above

 

Originally Posted by Franknca View Post

BTW, there's another way to get some cruise credits - buy 100 shares of Carnival stock. Your cabin gets a $100 on board credit if you own the stock. This goes for any of the lines that Carnival owns like Princess, HAL, etc.

 

Amount varies by cruise length. Less than seven days gets $50. Seven to 13 days gets $100. Fourteen days and above gets $250.

 

That's correct. Our next cruise if a 15 day Panama Canal cruise where we'll get a much larger credit.

 

We just got off the Caribbean Princess where we got that credit in addition to the future cruise deposit credits and another $25 for being Elite.

 

The $25 was not for being elite. It was for being on your 21st-30th Princess cruise. Elites do not get this on their 16th-20th cruises.

 

Right again - what do they give you after the 30th?

 

Frank

[Franknca]

For those of you that saw the show, here is a video of my wife being hypnotized on this cruise. The man was told that he could only talk in space alien and my wife was told that she understood and could translate what he said:

 

Frank

[caribill]

Right again - what do they give you after the 30th?

 

31-40 $50

41-50 $75

51 and up $100

[paul929207]

And with all these credits (Shareholder, FCC, Loyalty & TA), you can get them all. There is nothing saying if you get this credit you can't get another one

[Colo Cruiser]

For those of you that saw the show, here is a video of my wife being hypnotized on this cruise. The man was told that he could only talk in space alien and my wife was told that she understood and could translate what he said:

 

Frank

 

Funny. :D

[Lynda90]

And with all these credits (Shareholder, FCC, Loyalty & TA), you can get them all. There is nothing saying if you get this credit you can't get another one

Which I call, Quadruple Dip!