wolfcathorse Posted July 7, 2018 #1 Share Posted July 7, 2018 :mad:Last night I got an email from RCI stating I owed them for the shore excursions I booked for our Nov. 2018 Panama Canal cruise. Here are the facts 1) booked this cruise with a future cruise consultant while on board a cruise. (this earns OBC) 2) booked at 16 night cruise (this earns OBC) 3) booked more than 6 months out. (this earns OBC) The booking confirmation I got on the ship showed I had a $175 OBC. In December 2017 I paid off the cruise. In April 2018 I booked shore excursions using up the $175 OBC. The cruise planner said I had $175 OBC to apply towards excursions. Royal notified me last night that my OBC is now $100 and I owe them $75 by next Friday (even the final payment date isn't until next month) or they will cancel some of the excursions. I called the C & A desk and the woman said I lost some OBC because the TA of record got me a better price. I told her that's impossible because the cruise was paid off last December. She then said I had to contact the TA to have her look into it. As slow as this TA has been, those excursions will be canceled before she even looks into it. Has anyone ever had RCI take back OBC rightfully earned? :mad: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gerif Posted July 7, 2018 #2 Share Posted July 7, 2018 Maybe your TA put you into a group booking to get you a better price? Control freak that I am, I handle everything myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pcur Posted July 7, 2018 #3 Share Posted July 7, 2018 I have obc from an onboard booking, but only $100 of it shows in my cruise planner. The LA onboard the ship told me I wouldn't see the rest of it until I got on the ship. Yes, if your TA got you a price reduction and didn't notify you, then you can lose obc if the going promo at the time of the change doesn't include that original amount of obc. If this is because of your TA, then he/she should make up the difference to you, IMO. I'd pay the $75, go after the TA for it, and then get a new TA next time. I wouldn't tolerate a slow and sloppy TA next time around. P.S. About five years ago I switched to the big box store's travel department, and haven't looked back. I loved my former TA, but big box gets me lower prices and cash cards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruzeluver Posted July 7, 2018 #4 Share Posted July 7, 2018 I would get with your TA ASAP. Its true that making changes to a booking will impact perks like obc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackshirt Posted July 7, 2018 #5 Share Posted July 7, 2018 Sounds like your TA is ripping you off. If any of that OBC was due to the promotion being run at the time and not for booking onboard, it is common to lose that OBC if the cruise is repriced. If your TA did get a lower price but hasn’t passed any of that savings back to you, that sounds fishy to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squadron Posted July 7, 2018 #6 Share Posted July 7, 2018 Maybe your TA put you into a group booking to get you a better price? Control freak that I am, I handle everything myself. If there was a new price - it may have saved you more than the OBC "lost". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nelblu Posted July 7, 2018 #7 Share Posted July 7, 2018 If the tours are so important to you as PCUR suggested pay the balance and straighten it our later. You could always cancel tours if not to your satisfaction. I had a problem in that I have $200 OBC and wanted to apply to a tour, but website would not even though there's a line that identifies this action, but system wanted my cc info. Finally, called Pre-cruise planner dept. to straighten it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdGuyMG Posted July 7, 2018 #8 Share Posted July 7, 2018 Maybe your TA put you into a group booking to get you a better price? Control freak that I am, I handle everything myself. If the TA put the OP into a group for a better price, the OP would then have seen a refund from RC to their credit card for the lower price difference. The OP does not mention any "mystery refund" so I don't think this was the case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ONECRUISER Posted July 7, 2018 #9 Share Posted July 7, 2018 :mad:Last night I got an email from RCI stating I owed them for the shore excursions I booked for our Nov. 2018 Panama Canal cruise. Here are the facts1) booked this cruise with a future cruise consultant while on board a cruise. (this earns OBC) 2) booked at 16 night cruise (this earns OBC) 3) booked more than 6 months out. (this earns OBC) The booking confirmation I got on the ship showed I had a $175 OBC. In December 2017 I paid off the cruise. In April 2018 I booked shore excursions using up the $175 OBC. The cruise planner said I had $175 OBC to apply towards excursions. Royal notified me last night that my OBC is now $100 and I owe them $75 by next Friday (even the final payment date isn't until next month) or they will cancel some of the excursions. I called the C & A desk and the woman said I lost some OBC because the TA of record got me a better price. I told her that's impossible because the cruise was paid off last December. She then said I had to contact the TA to have her look into it. As slow as this TA has been, those excursions will be canceled before she even looks into it. Has anyone ever had RCI take back OBC rightfully earned? :mad: Have a TA you have to deal with them. As others said maybe booking with them has changed something. It's on them... Paying a cruise off early doesn't do anything, good or bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjb317 Posted July 7, 2018 #10 Share Posted July 7, 2018 We had a cruise cancelled due to Irma and received, in addition to our refund, a future cruise credit that could be used on a new cruise or an existing cruise. I decided to use it to help pay off an existing cruise and discovered, after I had paid everything, that we had lost $200 OBC as using the FCC made it a new booking. No one told me this would happen in advance and nowhere on the FCC’s list of restrictions did it mention this. :mad: Sherri:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ObstructedView2 Posted July 7, 2018 #11 Share Posted July 7, 2018 Wow, you paid off the cruise far too early and missed out on possible price drops. Definitely pay the $75 and then take care of this with your travel agent because your travel agent (owns) the reservation, not you. Royal Caribbean did not rob you. You kind of robbed yourself. You paid off the cruise 8 or 9 months too early & you don't own your reservation. Good luck! I hope you fix this issue with your travel agent. :cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackshirt Posted July 7, 2018 #12 Share Posted July 7, 2018 Wow, you paid off the cruise far too early and missed out on possible price drops. Definitely pay the $75 and then take care of this with your travel agent because your travel agent (owns) the reservation, not you. Royal Caribbean did not rob you. You kind of robbed yourself. You paid off the cruise 8 or 9 months too early & you don't own your reservation. Good luck! I hope you fix this issue with your travel agent. :cool: You can still get price drops even if the cruise has been paid off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merion_Mom Posted July 7, 2018 #13 Share Posted July 7, 2018 We had a cruise cancelled due to Irma and received, in addition to our refund, a future cruise credit that could be used on a new cruise or an existing cruise. I decided to use it to help pay off an existing cruise and discovered, after I had paid everything, that we had lost $200 OBC as using the FCC made it a new booking. No one told me this would happen in advance and nowhere on the FCC’s list of restrictions did it mention this. :mad: Sherri:) Sherri, that is total BS. Using an FCC to pay for a cruise is NOT a new booking. You were lied to and cheated out of your OBC. I assume that this cruise is now past. Still, I would escalate this. Send a carefully worded explanation to mbayley@rccl.com and someone from his office should contact you very quickly. Be sure to specify what you want as your result. I have used a weather-induced FCC to pay for a cruise, and nothing "happened" to my booking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjb317 Posted July 7, 2018 #14 Share Posted July 7, 2018 Sherri, that is total BS. Using an FCC to pay for a cruise is NOT a new booking. You were lied to and cheated out of your OBC. I assume that this cruise is now past. Still, I would escalate this. Send a carefully worded explanation to mbayley@rccl.com and someone from his office should contact you very quickly. Be sure to specify what you want as your result. I have used a weather-induced FCC to pay for a cruise, and nothing "happened" to my booking. I “escalated” this after it happened and received $100 back, which, while not great, was better than nothing. Cruise is over and done, but it won’t happen again. Sherri:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toofarfromthesea Posted July 7, 2018 #15 Share Posted July 7, 2018 :mad:Last night I got an email from RCI stating I owed them for the shore excursions I booked for our Nov. 2018 Panama Canal cruise. Here are the facts1) booked this cruise with a future cruise consultant while on board a cruise. (this earns OBC) 2) booked at 16 night cruise (this earns OBC) 3) booked more than 6 months out. (this earns OBC) The booking confirmation I got on the ship showed I had a $175 OBC. In December 2017 I paid off the cruise. In April 2018 I booked shore excursions using up the $175 OBC. The cruise planner said I had $175 OBC to apply towards excursions. Royal notified me last night that my OBC is now $100 and I owe them $75 by next Friday (even the final payment date isn't until next month) or they will cancel some of the excursions. I called the C & A desk and the woman said I lost some OBC because the TA of record got me a better price. I told her that's impossible because the cruise was paid off last December. She then said I had to contact the TA to have her look into it. As slow as this TA has been, those excursions will be canceled before she even looks into it. Has anyone ever had RCI take back OBC rightfully earned? :mad: Pretty thin gruel on which to base charges of having been robbed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfcathorse Posted July 7, 2018 Author #16 Share Posted July 7, 2018 folks, no changes were made in pricing. The price I paid was the price the lady on board quoted me and took a deposit on. My TA did nothing but receive the booking from RCI because she was the agent of record. I paid it off early because that was when my mother passed and I was using the life insurance money to pay off my cruises before I retired. My booking confirmation from the ship shows I have a $175 OBC and the cruise planner summary that I printed off shows I have a $175 OBC to spend on excursions, which we did. We booked our excursions, applied the entire $175 OBC, and put the rest due on our credit card. So in April, as far as RCI and us were concerned, everything was paid for. What RCI did was after the fact. They took away OBC that we had used for excursions and now are billing us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikew0805 Posted July 7, 2018 #17 Share Posted July 7, 2018 :mad:Last night I got an email from RCI stating I owed them for the shore excursions I booked for our Nov. 2018 Panama Canal cruise. Here are the facts1) booked this cruise with a future cruise consultant while on board a cruise. (this earns OBC) 2) booked at 16 night cruise (this earns OBC) 3) booked more than 6 months out. (this earns OBC) The booking confirmation I got on the ship showed I had a $175 OBC. In December 2017 I paid off the cruise. In April 2018 I booked shore excursions using up the $175 OBC. The cruise planner said I had $175 OBC to apply towards excursions. Royal notified me last night that my OBC is now $100 and I owe them $75 by next Friday (even the final payment date isn't until next month) or they will cancel some of the excursions. I called the C & A desk and the woman said I lost some OBC because the TA of record got me a better price. I told her that's impossible because the cruise was paid off last December. She then said I had to contact the TA to have her look into it. As slow as this TA has been, those excursions will be canceled before she even looks into it. Has anyone ever had RCI take back OBC rightfully earned? :mad: A little dramatic on the title, don't you think. Based on your own explanation, RCI didn't "rob" you... your TA made a change, and didn't notify you. Seems like you have a beef with the TA. I rarely use a TA, as I like to maintain control, but when I do... I book the cruise and maintain control of it until the last possible minute, then I let the TA have it so I can get the airline miles. I have not done this though on the last 6 or 7 cruises. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare lazydayz Posted July 7, 2018 #18 Share Posted July 7, 2018 OP, call Royal again or email Michael Bailey. If your cruise cost has not changed, neither should your OBC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackshirt Posted July 7, 2018 #19 Share Posted July 7, 2018 I called the C & A desk and the woman said I lost some OBC because the TA of record got me a better price. folks, no changes were made in pricing. The price I paid was the price the lady on board quoted me and took a deposit on. My TA did nothing but receive the booking from RCI because she was the agent of record. Someone is not being straight with you. Either Royal is wrong about the TA getting a better price or the TA is not being straight with you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
setsail Posted July 7, 2018 #20 Share Posted July 7, 2018 folks, no changes were made in pricing. The price I paid was the price the lady on board quoted me and took a deposit on. My TA did nothing but receive the booking from RCI because she was the agent of record. I paid it off early because that was when my mother passed and I was using the life insurance money to pay off my cruises before I retired. My booking confirmation from the ship shows I have a $175 OBC and the cruise planner summary that I printed off shows I have a $175 OBC to spend on excursions, which we did. We booked our excursions, applied the entire $175 OBC, and put the rest due on our credit card. So in April, as far as RCI and us were concerned, everything was paid for. What RCI did was after the fact. They took away OBC that we had used for excursions and now are billing us. We can't fix it for you . You are discussing with the wrong people. Your title, pure drama Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emdia43 Posted July 7, 2018 #21 Share Posted July 7, 2018 If there was a new price - it may have saved you more than the OBC "lost". But he knew what balance was due and paid it. Wouldn't a change in price have shown then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merion_Mom Posted July 7, 2018 #22 Share Posted July 7, 2018 A little dramatic on the title, don't you think. Based on your own explanation, RCI didn't "rob" you... your TA made a change, and didn't notify you. Seems like you have a beef with the TA. I rarely use a TA, as I like to maintain control, but when I do... I book the cruise and maintain control of it until the last possible minute, then I let the TA have it so I can get the airline miles. I have not done this though on the last 6 or 7 cruises. Mike, you were posting at the same time as Karen. She explained. None of your conjecture is true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Circusboy354 Posted July 7, 2018 #23 Share Posted July 7, 2018 Is the full $175 credit from RCI? Or is $100 from RCI and $75 from your TA? A TA credit may not be available until sailing. Sent from my iPhone using Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merion_Mom Posted July 7, 2018 #24 Share Posted July 7, 2018 Is the full $175 credit from RCI? Or is $100 from RCI and $75 from your TA? A TA credit may not be available until sailing. Sent from my iPhone using Forums She said that it appeared in her cruise planner. Sent from my iPhone using Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikew0805 Posted July 7, 2018 #25 Share Posted July 7, 2018 Mike, you were posting at the same time as Karen. She explained. None of your conjecture is true. Thanks, I would never had seen that post if you did not mention it. I hope RCI will correct this issue for the OP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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