Taxes, Fees & Port Expenses Adjustment Question

[waterfallfred]

Hi,

First question for a new member.

Just got back today from a 14 day Hong Kong to Hong Kong cruise on the Westerdam.

Yesterday when I checked my statement (on the TV) I saw that we had a credit for:

12/20/19 Taxes, Fees & Port Expenses Adjustment 128.60

There were no port changes and I see in the posts there are many explanations for port charge amounts changing. Either up or down.

However that is not the reason for my post.

We are from USA and we were traveling with my wife's sister (and husband) from Canada and another couple from China.

It turns out USA and Canada gets the credit back (to our credit cards) and passengers from China do not.

Of course we all went to the front desk to ask about it and it was explained to us that only passengers from North America get the credit back.

(Mind you this is a Honk Kong cruise where at least 75% of the passengers are Chinese/Hong Kong)

Anyone seen this before?

Fred

 

[Tom_Cruise]

My first question would be:  "How much did the 'non-North American' passengers initially pay?"  Maybe there was not a charge to refund.

 

Also, after your trip, carefully check your on-board spending total.  I had the case were the refund amount was subtracted from my on-board spending total resulting in 1 less "Mariner Day" credit.

 

Tom

[waterfallfred]

Hi Tom,

Let me explain better.

Couple 1 (us) from USA - paid for their own ticket using USA credit card.

Couple 2 (sister & husband) from Canada - paid for theirs and couple 3's ticket using Canadian credit card.

Couple 3 (friends) from China - ticket paid by couple 2 on the Canada credit card (paid them back separately)

Port charges for each person was $319USD this is confirmed for all 6 people.

On the night before the end of the cruise we noticed the credit on our account and told the other two couples to check.

Only us and Couple 2 had the credit of $64.30pp.

All of us went to the front desk and was told that only residents from North America would get the credit.

 

 

[waterfallfred]

Missed the other part of your question.  All three couples had a small amount of onboard credit remaining at the end.

[RuthC]

Welcome to Cruise Critic. 

Could the difference be due to the exchange rate on the currencies? It doesn't sound likely if the people from Hong Kong paid using a Canadian credit card, but it is something to consider and maybe rule out. 

[3rdGenCunarder]

Is it possible that the Chinese couple didn't get the refund because they hadn't been charged those fees because of some agreement between Asian countries?

 

[waterfallfred]

Nope.  Read my response to Tom.  All 6 passengers paid $319USD for Port charges.  Chinese couple fees were booked at the same time and paid for by couple #2.  Also explanation from front desk was that only North American passengers (I took it to mean USA and Canada) would be getting the refund.  What about all the Europeans then?

[SilvertoGold]

OP:  Interesting thread.  We have seen a credit for port charges on all our past 5 cruises (Canadians).

 

Could you tell me who the Hotel Director was on this cruise?  Thanks a lot!

[waterfallfred]

Cruise ended this morning.  How do I find out?

[puppycanducruise]

Very interesting.

I wonder why couple #2, who paid for couple #3, (and then were re-imbursed by couple #3,) didn't get the refund for the port charges for couple #3.

[RuthC]

Was the port charge for the Hong Kong couple separated out on the invoice? For US passengers it MUST be a separate line item, but I believe not all countries have that rule. If Hong Kong does not require that port charges be refunded, that might be the explanation. 
Different countries have different rules/court orders that must be followed. 

[waterfallfred]

We asked exactly that question and the answer was that couple #3 does not reside in North America.

[waterfallfred]

We and couple #2 (who also purchased for couple #3) bought from *****.  #2 and #3's were purchased a few months ago at the same time during the same phone call.  Ours was purchased 3 days before the sailing (we paid approx $50 more pp but ended up with an aft balcony that was sweet! 8143).  But, all of us paid the same $319pp for port fees. ($638 per cabin).

Maybe I'll try to get a copy of the cruise confirmation for couples 2 & 3.  (I have mine)  If so I'll post' em with my final statement.

[knittinggirl]

Port fees  can be very strange.  We once got a refund when we embarked in Quebec City from a tent.

 

I wish they'd itemize these port fees by port.

[catl331]

5 hours ago, Tom_Cruise said:

I had the case were the refund amount was subtracted from my on-board spending total resulting in 1 less "Mariner Day" credit.

Are you sure? Port fees etc are not part of on-board spending and the refund should not have changed that total.

[Tom_Cruise]

1 hour ago, catl331 said:

Are you sure? Port fees etc are not part of on-board spending and the refund should not have changed that total.

 

Very sure.  Here is an excerpt from one of my email exchanges with HAL.

 

"Due to the missed ports your onboard spending account was reduced by the refunded amount of the missed ports $273.96. This was refunded to your onboard account. After this was refunded to your onboard account it reduced your onboard spending total to $2151.67."

 

After 7 or 8 email exchanges, they finally credited my Mariner account with 1 additional day.  Maybe they just got tired of me 🙂  Note however, that they never admitted an accounting issue, just added the Mariner day.  Bottom line, check your final bill.  I knew I spent over $2400 and expected to see 8 Mariner days credited instead of the 7 they first gave me.

 

 

[richwmn]

29 minutes ago, Tom_Cruise said:

 

Very sure.  Here is an excerpt from one of my email exchanges with HAL.

 

"Due to the missed ports your onboard spending account was reduced by the refunded amount of the missed ports $273.96. This was refunded to your onboard account. After this was refunded to your onboard account it reduced your onboard spending total to $2151.67."

 

 

After 7 or 8 email exchanges, they finally credited my Mariner account with 1 additional day.  Maybe they just got tired of me 🙂  Note however, that they never admitted an accounting issue, just added the Mariner day.  Bottom line, check your final bill.  I knew I spent over $2400 and expected to see 8 Mariner days credited instead of the 7 they first gave me.

 

 

How long was your cruise? If it was a 7 day cruise, the spending points max out at 7 - doesn't matter how much over $2100 you spend.

 

[catl331]

38 minutes ago, Tom_Cruise said:

"After this was refunded to your onboard account it reduced your onboard spending total to $2151.67."

IMO whoever said that was dead wrong.  Port fees are charged up front as part of the base fare and do not count toward on board spending, therefore getting them back does not reduce your OBS.  If you were to walk up to the front desk and plunk down $300 on your account, that reduces the balance due at cruise end but it does NOT reduce your spending. Getting port fees back is the same thing, just like they gave it back to you in cash and you turned around and applied to your account immediately. All credits including OBC are a way of paying off your spending, but they do not reduce the spending total. Maybe they finally realized they were wrong.

Edited December 21, 2019 by catl331

[Tom_Cruise]

12 minutes ago, richwmn said:

How long was your cruise? If it was a 7 day cruise, the spending points max out at 7 - doesn't matter how much over $2100 you spend.

 

 

Much longer than 7.

[SilvertoGold]

Op: you should have received a Cruise Summary on the last day, on large heavy paper. Names of Captain, Hotel Director, etc should be on that.