$100 Promotional Change Fee...

[Stockjock]

Just wanted to alert you to something I wasn't aware of.  On each booking you are allowed 1 promotional change without fee.  If you do more than one, there is a $100 change fee.

I had a cruise booked without drink package and now I can get it with the drink package, so I did.  They charged me an extra $100, which no one ever told me about.

Called back and the agent said my change triggered the $100 change fee.  I told her I had not done a prior change and she confirmed this and credited back the $100 fee.

So keep an eye on this, as it was an error, in my case.  Also, you can always cancel and rebook to avoid the $100 fee (outside of final payment).

Edited September 25, 2021 by Stockjock

[Rhea98]

Good to know.

[alyssamma]

1 hour ago, Stockjock said:

Just wanted to alert you to something I wasn't aware of.  On each booking you are allowed 1 promotional change without fee.  If you do more than one, there is a $100 change fee.

I had a cruise booked without drink package and now I can get it with the drink package, so I did.  They charged me an extra $100, which no one ever told me about.

Called back and the agent said my change triggered the $100 change fee.  I told her I had not done a prior change and she confirmed this and credited back the $100 fee.

So keep an eye on this, as it was an error, in my case.  Also, you can always cancel and rebook to avoid the $100 fee (outside of final payment).

While I 100% believe a rep told you this and did this, I also 100% believe if you hung up and got a different rep you wouldn't have been charged $100.

 

[cafevita]

My scenario….. When i tried to make a change i was advised that if they use the same booking number, I wound not be charged. If it entailed a new booking number, then the $100 change fee would apply. 

[Native Floridian 26]

5 hours ago, Stockjock said:

Just wanted to alert you to something I wasn't aware of.  On each booking you are allowed 1 promotional change without fee.  If you do more than one, there is a $100 change fee.

I had a cruise booked without drink package and now I can get it with the drink package, so I did.  They charged me an extra $100, which no one ever told me about.

Called back and the agent said my change triggered the $100 change fee.  I told her I had not done a prior change and she confirmed this and credited back the $100 fee.

So keep an eye on this, as it was an error, in my case.  Also, you can always cancel and rebook to avoid the $100 fee (outside of final payment).

Was this before final payment?

[racephoto]

This is interesting because I checked the price on my 11/14 Divina cruise when they came out with the balcony for the price of an oceanview promotion the other day. I originally booked that cruise under the balcony for the price of an interior promo back in July or August and made final payment a while back. The price had dropped a little bit, it was $77 cheaper than what I had paid. I didn’t have a lot of hope for it, but I called MSC and much to my surprise, they gave me the $77 OBC. And it kept the same booking number. Maybe I used my one get out of jail free card on that without them telling me. 🙂 

[Stockjock]

7 hours ago, cafevita said:

My scenario….. When i tried to make a change i was advised that if they use the same booking number, I wound not be charged. If it entailed a new booking number, then the $100 change fee would apply. 

For me, it was the opposite.  Same booking number, one free change then a $100 charge.  New booking resets the count.

[Stockjock]

4 hours ago, Native Floridian 26 said:

Was this before final payment?

Yes.  Could be something new.  It's the first I've heard of this.

[deliver42]

This can only happen on MSC. I've made numerous changes on other lines with no fees.

[Stockjock]

For the record, I did a search on 2 different search engines, reading MSC's Terms & Conditions.  I couldn't find a thing about this $100 promotional change fee (remember, the first promotional change is supposedly free). But certainly it exists because I was charged it and then another MSC agent was familiar with it.

You'd think they'd be a bit more transparent about these things, wouldn't you?

Just to be clear, as an example, if you go from "All In" to "Memorial Day Sale" that would be one change and if that was the first promotional change there would be no charge.  If you then went from "Memorial Day Sale" to "Free Balcony Upgrade", that would be the second promotional rate change and that point a $100 fee would be assessed.  

If my understanding is correct, if you cancelled "All In" or "Memorial Day Sale" and then did "Free Balcony Upgrade" as a new booking, under a new booking number, there would not be a change charge assessed (but of course, other penalties could apply).

Edited September 27, 2021 by Stockjock

[Wor1dTrave11er]

22 hours ago, Stockjock said:

For the record, I did a search on 2 different search engines, reading MSC's Terms & Conditions.  I couldn't find a thing about this $100 promotional change fee (remember, the first promotional change is supposedly free). But certainly it exists because I was charged it and then another MSC agent was familiar with it.

You'd think they'd be a bit more transparent about these things, wouldn't you?

Just to be clear, as an example, if you go from "All In" to "Memorial Day Sale" that would be one change and if that was the first promotional change there would be no charge.  If you then went from "Memorial Day Sale" to "Free Balcony Upgrade", that would be the second promotional rate change and that point a $100 fee would be assessed.  

If my understanding is correct, if you cancelled "All In" or "Memorial Day Sale" and then did "Free Balcony Upgrade" as a new booking, under a new booking number, there would not be a change charge assessed (but of course, other penalties could apply).

I had charges of $50pp (so $100 total since I had 2 people per cabin) for changes made applied by the agents, but then they had to submit a ticket to have these charges reversed (which they were - but still showing as change fee on my account, just with $0).  These changes were made due to cruises cancelled due to COVID and me using the FCC to rebook, wasn't even something I had control over as the original cruises were cancelled.  I pointed that out to the agents, but since they said it will be credited back (and it was quite quickly), I didn't complain or pursue it further.

 

I did think it was rather funny that these cruises were thankfully cancelled right before the final payments, so I could have just cancelled for a refund and rebooked if desired.  I pointed that out to one of the agents as well, and she said she was using the reasoning that the change was prior to final payment to get the fee refunded (even though cruise was cancelled by MSC).

 

I'm still trying to get the additional 25% applied to FCC from March 2020, MSC is claiming that I never paid in full (which I did, it was a May 2020 cruise, yes in March I thought this COVID thing was going away soon).  I figure if my December and then April cruises get cancelled, it would be end of the year and time to get the FCC moneys back.

[todd-r]

On 9/26/2021 at 11:38 PM, Stockjock said:

If my understanding is correct, if you cancelled "All In" or "Memorial Day Sale" and then did "Free Balcony Upgrade" as a new booking, under a new booking number, there would not be a change charge assessed (but of course, other penalties could apply).

Except if you're in Bella.

Bella always pays a change fee.

[drsel]

On 9/25/2021 at 11:24 PM, Stockjock said:

Also, you can always cancel and rebook to avoid the $100 fee (outside of final payment).

Not a good idea, cos the payment made for the cancelled cruise CANNOT be used to book a new cruise.

You will have to pay again for the new cruise, while the refund will take many months!

Edited October 1, 2021 by drsel

[Stockjock]

4 hours ago, drsel said:

Not a good idea, cos the payment made for the cancelled cruise CANNOT be used to book a new cruise.

You will have to pay again for the new cruise, while the refund will take many months!

My last 2 cancellations took about 30 days to refund.  No biggie to wait for that.  I don't need to use the same money to book a new cruise, I just put the new deposit on my credit card.