Cruise Planner items - Onboard Credit in the value of 125%

[38anchor]

Like so many others, our upcoming cruise (Ovation of the Seas, May 7, 2020,) has been cancelled. 

 

As we have an upcoming sailing (Anthem January 2021) we decided to opt in for the 125% OBC for the items we had already purchased instead of getting a full refund. We filled in the form before April 8th as advised and although we didn't get any sort of confirmation we were OK with that.

 

I have now just received an email from RCI which is a Cruise Planner Cancellation Summary. It lists what we have spent, how much OBC had been used and what form or payment had been used. After that, there is just T&C's which is a little confusing (see below). I can't understand if we are now just getting a refund (which we don't want) or this is just automated and sometime in the future we will receive our 125%.

 

Anyone else receive this email, or get anything else after requesting the 125%? We are from the UK btw.

 

 

Terms and Conditions

These terms and conditions relate only to the use of promotional on-board credit that you may have received as a benefit under a promotion ("Promotional OBC"). Promotional OBC is issued in US$.

Guests that have been awarded Promotional OBC will be able to log in to Cruise Planner prior to the sail date of their booked cruise and see their available Promotional OBC in US$ where the booking was priced in US$. For all other currency bookings, Promotional OBC will be converted from US$ into the same currency as the cruise booking that gave rise to the award of Promotional OBC ("Available Spend").

Available Spend may be redeemed via Cruise Planner for individual bookings and for group bookings where Promotional OBC was allocated at an individual level.

Available Spend may be used to purchase shore excursions, dining, beverage packages, internet packages, spa & fitness services, entertainment activities and any future ancillary products / services available for purchase in advance of your cruise via Cruise Planner for your benefit or that of any other booking subject to such bookings relating to the same cruise sailing as your booking and such bookings being in the same currency.

Not all OBC is eligible for purchases through Cruise Planner. Promotional OBC excludes OBC you may have received as a gift, from your travel agent, Customer Service, or any OBC awarded through a group booking.

Making a Purchase via the Pre Cruise Planner

Subject to availability, guests may make purchases via Cruise Planner utilizing their Available Spend.

Where the value of Available Spend is less than the cost of any purchase(s), you may apply the Available Spend to the purchase(s) and pay any shortfall utilizing a credit or debit card.

Where the value of Available Spend exceeds the cost of any purchase(s) to be made, any balance will remain available to use on purchase(s) via Cruise Planner until the cut - off date for making purchases utilizing Cruise Planner (usually 48 hours prior to the sail date) after which any unused residual balance will be converted back to US$ on the sailing date and added to the guest's on-board account for spend onboard.

Please note that the value of Available Spend in your Cruise Planner account is subject to exchange rate fluctuation between the US$ and your cruise booking currency so your Available Spend will vary between visits to Cruise Planner. When however a purchase is made via Cruise Planner utilizing Available Spend, at the time of that purchase the exchange rate will become fixed for the purchase and will also be applied to the balance of any residual Available Spend (where applicable). As such, any residual balance of Available Spend will no longer be subject to exchange rate fluctuations. 

Change(s) to Cruise Booking

Should you make a purchase in Cruise Planner that utilizes Available Spend and then subsequently change your cruise booking in any way so that it is no longer eligible for any portion of the Promotional OBC, then the amount of Available Spend will be adjusted accordingly in Cruise Planner.

Please note that in the event that you have made purchases utilizing Available Spend that you are no longer entitled due to such a change of booking, then to retain those purchases you will need to pay those elements of your purchases no longer covered by such Available Spend. In such circumstances, we will promptly advise you by email of the amount payable by you and the deadline to make such payment. 

Cancellation of Cruise Booking

In the event that your cruise booking is cancelled for any reason, any purchases made using Available Spend will be automatically cancelled and forfeited. Where any cash payment was made in full or in part for any purchase made via Cruise Planner using a credit card, debit card, or other form of cash equivalent payments the amount of such cash payment will be refunded back in the original form of payment within 30 days. 

Cancellation of Purchases

In the event that you wish to cancel any purchase(s) made via Cruise Planner prior to the sail date of your cruise, you may do so via Cruise Planner up to the cut off date.

Where you do cancel any purchase made via Cruise Planner, any relevant amount of Promotional OBC released by such cancellation will be credited back to your Cruise Planner account to be used as Available Spend. In the event the purchase was in part funded by cash (via a credit card, debit card, or other form of cash equivalent payments then the applicable amount will be credited back to the original form of payment within 30 days.

Balance Due Notification & Cancellation of Cruise Planner Purchase

PLEASE NOTE, SHOULD YOU FAIL TO PAY THE FULL AMOUNT OF ANY SUM DUE BY THE STATED DEADLINE THE RELEVANT PURCHASE(S) MADE VIA CRUISE PLANNER WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY CANCELLED WITHOUT ANY LIABILITY ON OUR PART TO YOU OR ANY OTHER BENEFICIARY OF SUCH PURCHASES.

In the above circumstance, where any payment was made via Cruise Planner using a credit card, debit card, or other form of cash equivalent the amount of such payment will be refunded back to the original form of payment within 30 days.

Transfer of Available Spend for use onboard the Ship

Should you have any residual Available Spend at the cut-off date for making purchases utilizing Cruise Planner, such Available Spend will be automatically converted back to US$ for spend onboard your booked cruise.

The rate of exchange applied will be the same rate that applied to your original purchase utilizing Onboard Spend. Where however no purchase has been made utilizing your Available Spend, the original amount of Promotional OBC awarded to you in US$ shall be transferred to your onboard account to spend onboard.

Please note that Promotional OBC is non-transferable, not redeemable for cash, and will expire if not used by 10:00 PM on the final night of your cruise.

Last Minute Changes to Cruise Booking

Be advised that last minute changes to a cruise booking within 3 days of sailing and after final notification of Cruise Planner Credit Balance Summary has been sent to you where you are no longer eligible to receive Promotional OBC will have an impact on your final Cruise Planner Credit Summary and available onboard credit spend.

Additionally, this will make it impossible to organize the collection and processing of payments via Cruise Planner and thus owe us money to pay for any existing purchases made via Cruise Planner prior to any change utilizing Cruise Planner credit. We must reserve the right to simply cancel any purchases made via Cruise Planner where Promotional OBC was applied.

In these circumstances we will advise you by email that your purchase(s) are cancelled and credit any cash payments (as applicable) back to the original form of payment within 30 days. We recommend that where your change of booking is within 3 days of your sailing date, that at the time of changing your booking you ask your travel agent or our call center if any change is likely to affect any Promotional OBC. 

 

All monies will be credited or reimbursed based on your original form of payment. Please print this page for your records. 

We thank you for your understanding.

Royal Caribbean International

[Cel_cruise]

I also got a cancellation summary email today for our April 20th cruise. 
 

I had also filled out the form for the 125% credit.  (I have a screenshot but did not get an email)
 

my email does not have any terms in it -  it just says:

 

All monies will be credited or reimbursed based on your original form of payment. Please print this page for your records.

 

I’m guessing this means that something went wrong and we will end up with all of this money back..but I really wanted the extra OBC because we are looking at 7 night cruises instead of 4 when cruising resumes in 21/22 so this would have helped.  

[later]

Got the same email.  Yes it does seem like they made a mistake and are reimbursing instead of giving OBC at 125%.

 

 

[38anchor]

I am hoping this is just an automated email and being sent out to everyone who had OBC purchases on a cancelled cruise, and a second set of comms will be sent out to those who opted into the 125% FOBC. 

 

We lost out on the $18 drinks package on this and although an extra 25% will no way cover the difference at least it will be something. We also had the UDP booked so we had quite a bit tied up in these prepaid purchases.

[JDPCruisers]

Got the same letter so I called today... after 20 minutes of trying to explain to the customer service rep, she put me on hold(for 10 minutes), came back and told me I would get the 125%  in an Available Spend Account.  Don't know if she was just telling me what she thought I wanted to hear or if I really am getting the 125% vs a refund.  I've looked around and don't see anything about an Available Spend account.  She was adamant that it would not be an OBC but this Available Spend Account  could be used just like an OBC.  But to make it even more confusing, I had a Next Cruise OBC that they are suppose to return to me as an OBC... so I'm looking for the OBC and the Available Spending Account... 🤪  I'm not letting this one go, because we purchased several excursion, the ultimate drink and dining packages plus wifi.... this is big time money and with the 125%, it really adds up.

[packedandready]

Read something this morning on a social media page. Poster said she had received this letter (I received one too) and called to see what it meant. She was told that it was just an automatic reply sent when the excursions, purchases, etc were cancelled by RCI. She was told to ignore it. 

[JDPCruisers]

Just found a FAQ on the 125% Onboard Cruise Credit....https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/topics/onboard-cruise-credit-offer

After reading all the details, I'm going to take the refund.  Sounds too risky on losing your money.  If you apply the money to a future cruise and that cruise cancels, you lose your money.  Also, you cannot split between multiple cruises. 

[38anchor]

On 4/21/2020 at 2:19 AM, JDPCruisers said:

Just found a FAQ on the 125% Onboard Cruise Credit....https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/topics/onboard-cruise-credit-offer

After reading all the details, I'm going to take the refund.  Sounds too risky on losing your money.  If you apply the money to a future cruise and that cruise cancels, you lose your money.  Also, you cannot split between multiple cruises. 

 

So how does that work then? When RCI asked people to choose if they wanted to the refund or 125% credit there were no T&C's to refer to? I did read the email fully to make sure there was no link or any other info / limits attached to the offer.

 

I, as I am presuming other did, decided to take this offer up to use on a future cruise they may or may not have already booked. Now my next cruise isn't until Jan 2021, but I am sure some other pax may want to use this sooner, and I am guessing that there is still a good chance this could be used against a future cruise that still gets cancelled due to coronavirus.

 

I am sure they can't legally stipulate this as a condition AFTER people have already made the decision and when the future date of when cruising will resume is still so up in the air...

[cublet]

Hello,

 

Reading both the T&Cs in the OP and the FAQs it looks like a con - or badly thought out. If you apply the OBC to a cruise and then for whatever reason cancel it (no mention of what if RCI cancels it) then you lose the OBC. If you don't spend it all by 10.00pm on the last night you lose what's left. Now given that 100/125th of it was *MY* money I would expect some calculation take place between my money and the 25% 'gift' from RCI or in which order my or RCI's portion of the OBC was being spent. I expect (hope?) some revision or clarification comes later.

 

Regards,

 

Cublet

[squadron]

On 4/20/2020 at 5:49 AM, later said:

Got the same email.  Yes it does seem like they made a mistake and are reimbursing instead of giving OBC at 125%.

 

 

Payment for on board purchases is not part of the  original cruise cost so they are refunded in form that you paid for them.

[KelJ]

Q If I was already issued my 125% Onboard Credit and I choose to take the cruise refund instead of the 125% Future Cruise Credit at a later date, do I get to keep my Onboard Credit?

 

A Yes! If you choose to take your cruise refund after you have already been issued the Onboard Cruise Credit, you will get to keep it.  However, if you request your cruise refund before receiving the 125% Onboard Cruise Credit, you are no longer eligible for this offer and your Cruise Planner purchases will be automatically refunded.

 

When our 4-12-20 Anthem TA was canceled by Royal, I originally intended to accept 125% FCC and 125% cruise planner OBC.  When I changed my mind about wanting the 125% FCC because I accepted a free casino offer and didn't think I'd use the FCC before it expired, I was specifically told by the casino rep that I could request the cruise fare refund and still get the 125% cruise planner OBC.  She claimed to have processed both the refund of my cruise fare and also the 125% OBC.  She recommended that I use Royal's links to do the same as well, which I did (I clicked the links to opt for the cruise fare refund and for the 125% OBC).   Of course, at the time I was doing this, Royal had no terms and conditions regarding the OBC.

 

Recently I called Royal to see when I could expect to have the 125% OBC applied to my free cruise because there was a good sale in my cruise planner.  The rep told me that my cruise planner purchases had been processed for a refund, not for 125% OBC, because once I opted for a refund of the cruise fare, instead of an FCC, I was no longer eligible to receive the 125% cruise planner OBC.  I told him that I was specifically told by the casino rep that I could request the cruise fare refund and still get the 125% cruise planner OBC.  He claims that his supervisor told him that I was given misinformation by the casino rep. 

 

After reading the FAQS regarding the 125% OBC, I'm glad that I'll be getting a refund of my cruise planner purchases as the OBC can completely be lost in certain scenarios.

 

Now, if Royal would just refund me the money they owe me...