Re-Faring Deadline - Final Payment or Beginning of Cancellation Fee Schedule?

[Overhead Fred]

I have a cruise with a final payment due on 12/16/2019. The cancellation fee schedule started on 11/16/2019 (we purchased the Platinum CPP). I was hoping to be able to apply the Cyber Sale perks to this cruise but our PCC said she could not make any additional adjustments since we are in the cancellation penalty phase. 

 

Could the wise and expert sages on this board comment on this? Is it consistent with your past experiences? I had been under the impression that you could make adjustments up to the final payment date. 

 

I am not too worried about this cruise since we already have a pretty good deal (but the Cyber Sale would be even better!). I would like to know for future reference if an "official" HAL policy exists and if anybody knows what it is. 

 

Thanks in advance - and finish your turkey leftovers! 

[kazu]

On many cruises the cancellation period commencement and the final payment date were one and the same.

 

This is not the case on one of our upcoming cruises (like you) and the cancellation period starts earlier.

 

When that happens, my experience is that you need to purchase the CPP (as you have) before any cancellation penalty begins.

 

You also cannot re-fare as you are in cancellation, BUT if you like the new perks and are willing to give up any ones you have and IF you like the pricing you can cancel and rebook.  You will have to pay the Cancellation penalty to do that and, of course any bookings you have made on the HAL site will be cancelled and you will need to re-book with your new confirmation number. 

 

That’s my experience and understanding, at least.

[Overhead Fred]

Thanks for the insight Jacqui.

 

This is the first cruise for us where the final payment date and cancellation schedule start do not coincide. It seems like it may be tied to the length of the cruise with longer cruises having the cancellation schedule start a month prior to final payment. 

 

It would not be worth cancelling/rebooking for this cruise.

 

It is certainly good for everyone to know that the cancellation schedule start date is the critical one with respect to fare adjustments. 

[crystalspin]

I too have one of these cruises (ours is 28-day So.Pacific). We are in the no-mans-land between sacrificing our LARGER than NORMAL deposit and final payment. The terms were "clearly stated" but in fact were invisible in plain sight: the little table of penalties looks just like any other, only the dates have been changed! I didn't even notice until I went to put the dates into our Cozi Calendar.

 

We happened to apply a mark-down that shifted us to non-refundable, a couple months ago, anyway. That locked in our price for any further reductions, but it was a deal that seemed worth it at the time. 

 

As far as cancellation protection, we will only cancel at this point for health, family health, or conceivably a home/house catastrophe... all of those are covered by our Chase Reserve card, a card with an annual fee, but benefits worth it for us.