The End of Coffee Cards???

[donaldsc]

On 12/24/2018 at 5:19 PM, jagoffee said:

I puke not be surprised if Don did not actually pay for his coffee cards.  More likely a benefit or a use of non refundable OBC.

 

Where did you get that idea.  I paid for them.  I want to get what I paid for.  What would you do if you paid for a restaurant discount card with no expiration date and the restaurant decided that they did not want to honor it any more.  Would you be happy?  I doubt it.

 

DON

Edited December 26, 2018 by donaldsc

[geoherb]

We still have some punches on a couple of cards. If we don't book a cruise to sail before the end of August, I'll try to give away my cards so the punches can be used.

[jagoffee]

12 hours ago, donaldsc said:

 

Where did you get that idea.  I paid for them.  I want to get what I paid for.  What would you do if you paid for a restaurant discount card with no expiration date and the restaurant decided that they did not want to honor it any more.  Would you be happy?  I doubt it.

 

DON

Probably was just a “foggy memory” from what I thought that I had read earlier.

In the past people have accumulated significant numbers of coffee cards by trading in their Elite benefit mini bar set ups for two coffee cards or using their non refundable OBC to purchase coffee cards. (Instead of spending the OBC for something on the corresponding cruise). I do not consider either of these has paying for a coffee card.  They were free gifts. If you do not fall into one of these two categories I apologize for thinking you did.  Again, my foggy memory.

 

If you actually purchased a group of cards while on a ship, I can understand your frustration.  I do not understand why anyone would do such a thing, but it was certainly your right. If I did purchase them I would also be upset.I do believe that this the situation for most of the unused coffee cards.

[cruiseidaho]

On ‎12‎/‎23‎/‎2018 at 1:54 PM, Ombud said:

The coffee card is now a program that is loaded to your cruise card from what I understand. if you request that your minibar be traded for the 'coffee card' you will have the equivalent of 2 coffee cards loaded onto your cruise card. That gives you 30 specialty coffees as well as unlimited brewed coffee / tea / cocoa for the duration of your cruise.

Is it possible when trading the minibar,  to get one coffee card loaded to my cruise card and one to my wife's cruise card?

[Thrak]

On 12/26/2018 at 9:50 AM, donaldsc said:

 

Where did you get that idea.  I paid for them.  I want to get what I paid for.  What would you do if you paid for a restaurant discount card with no expiration date and the restaurant decided that they did not want to honor it any more.  Would you be happy?  I doubt it.

 

DON

 

One Christmas my son bought a $100 gift card for my wife at a specialty store. They happily sold him the card even though they must have known they were closing for good less than 2 weeks from the date they sold the card. Not happy at all.

[wheezedr]

7 minutes ago, cruiseidaho said:

Is it possible when trading the minibar,  to get one coffee card loaded to my cruise card and one to my wife's cruise card?

That is exactly what we have done on our cruises since the new policy was implemented.  Last 2 were 10 and 14 nights so used up most of the “punches”.  Not sure how well that might work for us on a shorter cruise.  Wonder if Princess will ultimately vary the Coffee Card cost by cruise length much as they do other drink packages.   Would be relatively simple since it is just attached to your card or medallion 

[cruiseidaho]

8 minutes ago, wheezedr said:

That is exactly what we have done on our cruises since the new policy was implemented.  Last 2 were 10 and 14 nights so used up most of the “punches”.  Not sure how well that might work for us on a shorter cruise.  Wonder if Princess will ultimately vary the Coffee Card cost by cruise length much as they do other drink packages.   Would be relatively simple since it is just attached to your card or medallion 

Thanks for the reply, wheezedr  - good to know! 

[CaribbeanIsland]

On 12/27/2018 at 12:47 PM, Thrak said:

 

One Christmas my son bought a $100 gift card for my wife at a specialty store. They happily sold him the card even though they must have known they were closing for good less than 2 weeks from the date they sold the card. Not happy at all.

Employees are often the last to know.

[tensixmom]

On 12/26/2018 at 10:33 AM, Thrak said:

 

If you only drink "punch" drinks and your husband is the one who will be getting the fresh brewed coffee I would get the package in his name. That way there is no issue if he orders fresh brewed and foo foo coffee. If the card is in your name then only you are supposed to be able to get fresh brewed without using a "punch".

Thank you!

[Doug R.]

The wife was cleaning out her dresser drawers and found our long lost card from a cruise on the Crown Princess in 2008. It has 8 punches left and only has ship name and sailing date, no expiration date so I presume it will be good on our January Regal sailing.

[floridalover5623]

1 hour ago, Doug R. said:

The wife was cleaning out her dresser drawers and found our long lost card from a cruise on the Crown Princess in 2008. It has 8 punches left and only has ship name and sailing date, no expiration date so I presume it will be good on our January Regal sailing.

Yes it will still be good....up till Aug 31. The only thing is that for the brewed/dripped coffee they punch you card. 

[Doug R.]

3 hours ago, floridalover5623 said:

Yes it will still be good....up till Aug 31. The only thing is that for the brewed/dripped coffee they punch you card. 

Not gonna happen, wife wants them for various coffee drinks.

[RDC1]

For those posting about how Princess is cheating them lets take a look at the change, the expiration of old cards) and its impact on customers.  

 

1. For elite customers that have traded in their bar setups, they obtained their coffee cards without any out of pocket cash payout. This is probably the group most impacted since frequent cruisers under the old system can obtain far more coffee cards then one could drink.  Especially if they did a number of short (7 day or less cruises). So this loss may represent a reduction of value of a previously received free benefit.  Of course this is also the group that provided a lot of the coffee cards being resold on the secondary market (ebay) counter to cruise line policy. 

 

2. As far as those that have purchased their cards during a cruise, it is rather unlikely that they purchased any more than one card per person and that they most likely used some of those punches during the cruise in which it was purchased. So the maximum loss is pretty limited. Maximum would be the full cost of 2 cards, actual probably less than half of that.

 

3. You also have some that may have purchased their cards via ebay or some other secondary source. They might have chosen to purchase all they could thinking that supply was limited and that it was a good deal.  However, those would have been purchased contrary to cruise line policy and has such are considered by the cruise line to be of zero value.

 

So if one looks at it you either have people that received their cards as a free Elite benefit, have purchased them online and have a limited exposure, or those that purchased them on the secondary market (most likely sold by an Elite and purchased contrary to policy).  Couple this with 18 month notice of expiration and it would appear that there is very little loss to those that purchased cards in line with company policy.  

 

On the other hand you probably have some elites who have lost the ability to resell the cards they have accumulated.

Edited December 30, 2018 by RDC1

[floridalover5623]

15 hours ago, RDC1 said:

For those posting about how Princess is cheating them lets take a look at the change, the expiration of old cards) and its impact on customers.  

 

 

But it's perfectly OK for Princess to cheat their customers out of their coffee punches no matter how they were obtained and the conditions they were sold under.

In the future, as far as I'm concerned, I can now see where I stand as a loyal customer with princess & it doesn't bother me in the slightest to take full advantage of anything the Princess has including getting all the free brewed coffee for as many people as I like using the one free coffee purchase that I might buy in the future.

[Potstech]

There is always a way to justify anything anyway. But the bottom line is no matter how it was obtained Princess stated it would be good for a 15 drink purchase as long as there were still punches left on the card. Now they are saying that is no longer true and will now charge you more for something that will expire at the end of the cruise no matter if you by 15 drinks or just 1,2 or 3.  Just used an old card up on the Royal between 4 of us.  We have no other cruises scheduled until Jan 2020. Will never purchase this program again. It no longer has value for our money.

[RDC1]

5 hours ago, floridalover5623 said:

But it's perfectly OK for Princess to cheat their customers out of their coffee punches no matter how they were obtained and the conditions they were sold under.

In the future, as far as I'm concerned, I can now see where I stand as a loyal customer with princess & it doesn't bother me in the slightest to take full advantage of anything the Princess has including getting all the free brewed coffee for as many people as I like using the one free coffee purchase that I might buy in the future.

They gave 18 month notice on the expiration of the cards.  For most that purchased them, that had any remaining punches, from the cruise they purchased them on, it certainly gave them time to make use of them or for that matter give them to someone else that was going on a cruise within the time frame.  For those that seldom sail Princess I suspect the cards have often just been thrown away at the end of the cruise, or lost.

 

The only group really impacted by this change are the Elites that swap their bar setup for coffee cards (I being one). While I have had 6 Princess cruises (along with a couple on HAL, Celebrity and RCL) since the change in the program was anounced I do still have a couple of unused cards that I will not being using because the new system covers my coffee use. OF course I also suspect that it was free cards given as swaps that generated a lot of the drive to change the program.  The unused cards would have impacted financial accruals where a company has to carry the liability on their books.  As well as a number of these cards being sold on the secondary market.

 

I will be giving away my unused cards and punches on the Sapphire in February.

 

Just to quantify things what exactly is the number of punches/cards that you feel Princess is cheating you out of (either the number or the dollar value)?  I seem to recall that you sailed on a number of Princess Cruises and as such are probably Elite so did you actually buy the ones that you cannot use or were they part of the Elite benefit?

 

 

Edited December 31, 2018 by RDC1

[RDC1]

2 hours ago, Potstech said:

There is always a way to justify anything anyway. But the bottom line is no matter how it was obtained Princess stated it would be good for a 15 drink purchase as long as there were still punches left on the card. Now they are saying that is no longer true and will now charge you more for something that will expire at the end of the cruise no matter if you by 15 drinks or just 1,2 or 3.  Just used an old card up on the Royal between 4 of us.  We have no other cruises scheduled until Jan 2020. Will never purchase this program again. It no longer has value for our money.

 

 

Sounds like you have gotten the value out your old cards since you stated that you used it up.  So I guess your complaint is now about the value of the new program.

 

Certainly if one is not on a long cruise where they will use all of the punches it certainly does not make sense to buy.

Edited December 31, 2018 by RDC1

[jagoffee]

2 hours ago, Potstech said:

But the bottom line is no matter how it was obtained Princess stated it would be good for a 15 drink purchase as long as there were still punches left on the card. 

Where was this stated?  Certainly not on the card itself. Terms and condition which I am sure clearly stated that they could be changed at any time.

 

 

[Paccruise]

Don't know if Princess will be selling a lot coffee cards for short cruises.  I have a lists that I follow when packing for cruise under 5 days, under 7 days, under 15 days and over.  My coffee card was on the list from the last cruise.  I will just buy my coffee after August unless it is a long cruise.

Linda    

[floridalover5623]

1 hour ago, RDC1 said:

They gave 18 month notice on the expiration of the cards.  For most that purchased them, that had any remaining punches, from the cruise they purchased them on, it certainly gave them time to make use of them or for that matter give them to someone else that was going on a cruise within the time frame.  For those that seldom sail Princess I suspect the cards have often just been thrown away at the end of the cruise, or lost.

 

The only group really impacted by this change are the Elites that swap their bar setup for coffee cards (I being one). While I have had 6 Princess cruises (along with a couple on HAL, Celebrity and RCL) since the change in the program was anounced I do still have a couple of unused cards that I will not being using because the new system covers my coffee use. OF course I also suspect that it was free cards given as swaps that generated a lot of the drive to change the program.  The unused cards would have impacted financial accruals where a company has to carry the liability on their books.  As well as a number of these cards being sold on the secondary market.

 

I will be giving away my unused cards and punches on the Sapphire in February.

 

Just to quantify things what exactly is the number of punches/cards that you feel Princess is cheating you out of (either the number or the dollar value)?  I seem to recall that you sailed on a number of Princess Cruises and as such are probably Elite so did you actually buy the ones that you cannot use or were they part of the Elite benefit?

 

 

No matter how people obtained their cards, the proper thing to do is buy back the cards for a set price instead of stealing people's money the way they plan to or let the cards be used until the punches are used up, as they promised. 

[RDC1]

15 minutes ago, floridalover5623 said:

No matter how people obtained their cards, the proper thing to do is buy back the cards for a set price instead of stealing people's money the way they plan to or let the cards be used until the punches are used up, as they promised. 

I believe that you answered my question by not answering the question.

 

If not I believe the following quote from last October indicates why you are upset by the policy change. I wonder if you notified people that were buying them from you about the expiration dates and the cruise line policy concerning resale?

 

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2595162-coffee-card-price/?tab=comments#comment-55997591

"That's correct but there are some people who just collect old memorabilia and don't really care about using the card.

btw- there are still 5 or so offers on eBay for the coffee cards. After my next cruise I'll be dumping a load of them that will expire next year. "

 

Edited December 31, 2018 by RDC1

[Colo Cruiser]

23 hours ago, RDC1 said:

For those posting about how Princess is cheating them lets take a look at the change, the expiration of old cards) and its impact on customers.  

 

1. For elite customers that have traded in their bar setups, they obtained their coffee cards without any out of pocket cash payout. This is probably the group most impacted since frequent cruisers under the old system can obtain far more coffee cards then one could drink.  Especially if they did a number of short (7 day or less cruises). So this loss may represent a reduction of value of a previously received free benefit.  Of course this is also the group that provided a lot of the coffee cards being resold on the secondary market (ebay) counter to cruise line policy. 

 

2. As far as those that have purchased their cards during a cruise, it is rather unlikely that they purchased any more than one card per person and that they most likely used some of those punches during the cruise in which it was purchased. So the maximum loss is pretty limited. Maximum would be the full cost of 2 cards, actual probably less than half of that.

 

3. You also have some that may have purchased their cards via ebay or some other secondary source. They might have chosen to purchase all they could thinking that supply was limited and that it was a good deal.  However, those would have been purchased contrary to cruise line policy and has such are considered by the cruise line to be of zero value.

 

So if one looks at it you either have people that received their cards as a free Elite benefit, have purchased them online and have a limited exposure, or those that purchased them on the secondary market (most likely sold by an Elite and purchased contrary to policy).  Couple this with 18 month notice of expiration and it would appear that there is very little loss to those that purchased cards in line with company policy.  

 

On the other hand you probably have some elites who have lost the ability to resell the cards they have accumulated.

1 hour ago, RDC1 said:

 

 

Sounds like you have gotten the value out your old cards since you stated that you used it up.  So I guess your complaint is now about the value of the new program.

 

Certainly if one is not on a long cruise where they will use all of the punches it certainly does not make sense to buy.

+1

 

Thousands of $$$ for cruises and whining about a coffee card that has reaped benefits far beyond what was intended and still 8 months more to reap.  🙄

 

I am thankful that I was able to continue using the ones I have.

smh.  

[voljeep]

5 minutes ago, floridalover5623 said:

No matter how people obtained their cards, the proper thing to do is buy back the cards for a set price instead of stealing people's money the way they plan to or let the cards be used until the punches are used up, as they promised. 

$ 2 per punch non-refundable OBC...

[floridalover5623]

7 minutes ago, voljeep said:

$ 2 per punch non-refundable OBC...

That would have been the fairest thing to do. 

[Potstech]

2 hours ago, RDC1 said:

They gave 18 month notice on the expiration of the cards.  For most that purchased them, that had any remaining punches, from the cruise they purchased them on, it certainly gave them time to make use of them or for that matter give them to someone else that was going on a cruise within the time frame.  For those that seldom sail Princess I suspect the cards have often just been thrown away at the end of the cruise, or lost.

 

The only group really impacted by this change are the Elites that swap their bar setup for coffee cards (I being one). While I have had 6 Princess cruises (along with a couple on HAL, Celebrity and RCL) since the change in the program was anounced I do still have a couple of unused cards that I will not being using because the new system covers my coffee use. OF course I also suspect that it was free cards given as swaps that generated a lot of the drive to change the program.  The unused cards would have impacted financial accruals where a company has to carry the liability on their books.  As well as a number of these cards being sold on the secondary market.

 

I will be giving away my unused cards and punches on the Sapphire in February.

 

Just to quantify things what exactly is the number of punches/cards that you feel Princess is cheating you out of (either the number or the dollar value)?  I seem to recall that you sailed on a number of Princess Cruises and as such are probably Elite so did you actually buy the ones that you cannot use or were they part of the Elite benefit?

 

 

You do know what assume means. I am not elite YET and yes I did buy it on a previous cruise. Try again. By the way I set whether I complain about value for money I spend.  Not someone else.

Edited December 31, 2018 by Potstech