$25 Deposit and Vouchers

[Clay Clayton]

So a word of warning to anyone who took advantage of the anniversary deposit deal last spring/summer.  
 

We booked a cruise for July 2023 in August of 2022 putting down (we thought) only $25pp. We don’t typically book that far in advance but usually wait for a promo closer to sailing.   Since the final payment for this 2023 cruise is in late January 2023 we figured we would risk the small deposit and keep our fingers crossed that there would be a promo worth more than $25 before the PIF date and we would cancel and rebook.
 

That opportunity came up over the weekend so I put a complimentary hold on a booking (included Silver Spirits and upgrade from V2 to DV2) and notified our TA requesting she cancel the old booking and finalize the new booking.
 

She just called to tell me that she hadn’t done this, as it appears that Viking automatically applied a voucher we had in our account before we booked the cruise in August (this was provided due to missed ports during our Welcome Back Cruise in July 2021) as well as one that was provided after our cruise scheduled for October 2022 was canceled.  She was surprised given the final payment date that Viking had already applied both vouchers.
 

In retrospect after the numerous posts on these boards regarding vouchers, I probably shouldn’t be surprised that the small voucher from the Welcome Back cruise was applied without any notification, but surprises the Viking agent I spoke with for that booking didn’t mention it.

 

I am really flabbergasted that the voucher we didn’t receive until October was applied to the booking made prior to that date without any knowledge or notification to me or our TA. 
 

So if you think you only have $25pp at risk, be sure you don’t forget any vouchers you might have.  

[aungrl]

So what are you going to do, Clay?  Stand pat?  

[Squawkman]

This is another reason I forgo using a TA for OBC and use the same Viking agent for all my bookings. The “default” is to apply any outstanding vouchers of any kind. We always discuss outstanding vouchers and have held back using vouchers when it made sense for us to do so. Whenever we finalize a booking, our agent says on the line until I receive and review the new or revised booking document. If something is incorrect, he fixes it immediately and sends a new document. On at least 2 bookings I found errors that were corrected while we were still on the phone. 

[Clay Clayton]

1 hour ago, aungrl said:

So what are you going to do, Clay?  Stand pat?  

I’ve contacted the social team and TellUs.  At this point not much else to do other than vent on here😂

[aungrl]

1 minute ago, Clay Clayton said:

I’ve contacted the social team and TellUs.  At this point not much else to do other than vent on here😂

Maybe one of those avenues will be useful so that you don't ONLY have to vent.  Good luck!

 

[Clay Clayton]

44 minutes ago, Squawkman said:

This is another reason I forgo using a TA for OBC and use the same Viking agent for all my bookings. The “default” is to apply any outstanding vouchers of any kind. We always discuss outstanding vouchers and have held back using vouchers when it made sense for us to do so. Whenever we finalize a booking, our agent says on the line until I receive and review the new or revised booking document. If something is incorrect, he fixes it immediately and sends a new document. On at least 2 bookings I found errors that were corrected while we were still on the phone. 

Which is what I did in August. I booked it directly as the promo was announced (or I learned of it) on a Friday and it expired on Monday. The invoice I received didn’t refer to the voucher we had at the time and obviously couldn’t reflect the  voucher we didn’t receive for another two months. 

[MikeyB]

This happened to me on a prior booking, however a new guest statement was generated and sent to me by my TA.

Sorry Squawkman, I must disagree with you (again).  It has nothing to do with transferring your booking to a TA.

Clay should have received notice of the old voucher being applied.  That is the fault of Viking.

[Squawkman]

53 minutes ago, MikeyB said:

This happened to me on a prior booking, however a new guest statement was generated and sent to me by my TA.

Sorry Squawkman, I must disagree with you (again).  It has nothing to do with transferring your booking to a TA.

Clay should have received notice of the old voucher being applied.  That is the fault of Viking.

As I mentioned, the default is for any outstanding vouchers to be applied. I needed to be proactive and request the Viking agent not to use the voucher. If the booking is transferred to a TA, I would think that shouldn’t make a difference- but I never did that so I don’t know. I never had any vouchers applied without my knowledge. I do agree that there should be language on the original booking document stating vouchers have been applied. I did 4 Viking cruises (2 river, 2 ocean) since November, 2021, and have 4 more booked over for 2023 and 2024. No outstanding vouchers were applied without my knowledge.

[CDNPolar]

We had a situation from an initial covid cancel where we had 2 future cruises booked with deposits.  On the cancel of the cruise, we did not realize that the vouchers would be applied automatically, but they were.  We did not find this out however until we had to pay for Cruise #1, and what we found was Viking applied the vouchers to Cruise #2 - not the next cruise, but the one further out.

 

At first Viking did NOT want to move the vouchers, but we argued with them to the point where we finally got a person that understood our concerns...

 

1st concern being that they applied to the cruise that was furthest out which did not make sense.  This was a full payment on a cruise and Viking are now telling me that I have to fully pay for the next cruise and they are going to hold my money now for an additional year?  No.  Not happening.

 

2nd concern is that the letter / voucher did not say that they were going to automatically apply the voucher, it indicated that we could use it on any upcoming cruise.

 

It was a frustrating time, but we finally got what we wanted.  They moved the voucher.

 

Sometimes it depends on who you speak to when you call in.

 

On a recent cruise because of a major itinerary change we were given a 10% of value voucher.  We immediately called and indicated that we did NOT want that voucher applied because the rules say that once used it cannot be moved.  These vouchers are apparently sitting on our account and have NOT been applied.

 

In the future, if there is ever a cancellation with Viking that I have the option of a voucher or cash back, I will always take the cash back, regardless of the uplift in the voucher value.  Too many hassles in using vouchers.  This is one area for me that Viking really fails in flexibility and customer service. 

[CDR2001]

We had a similar experience with vouchers given due to cancelled ports. I received an email with a new invoice, showing they were applied to the cruise with $25 deposit. We had another cruise leaving sooner, and wanted the vouchers applied there. A quick call to the agent listed on the email took care of it. A few weeks later, we earned referral credit…and it was automatically applied to the wrong cruise. I called again, and they were moved. I asked why this new automatic voucher application, and she said it’s a policy coming down from management so the vouchers are used and don’t expire. Seems silly to me, as any vouchers that expire don’t hurt Viking. Anyway, I now check the invoice on any and all emails. 

Edited December 21, 2022 by CDR2001

[OneSixtyToOne]

2 hours ago, CDR2001 said:

I called again, and they were moved. I asked why this new automatic voucher application, and she said it’s a policy coming down from management so the vouchers are used and don’t expire.

From a financial standpoint, vouchers will sit on Viking’s books as a liability. The issuance of all the COVID related vouchers probably increases this amount by a fair amount, well above previous levels. I’m sure their bean counters want to clear their books of this liability as soon as possible, for tax reasons or otherwise.

[YoPhilly]

I’m new to Viking and booked a 2024 New Zealand to Australia cruise, with just the $25 pp deposit.  Viking wants full payment 13 months in advance, which is rather extreme.  Is this normal policy, or just for reduced deposits?

[Clay Clayton]

20 minutes ago, YoPhilly said:

I’m new to Viking and booked a 2024 New Zealand to Australia cruise, with just the $25 pp deposit.  Viking wants full payment 13 months in advance, which is rather extreme.  Is this normal policy, or just for reduced deposits?

Pretty typical unless you have another cruise booked in which case you can ask and they will usually shorted to 6 months in advance. 

[CDR2001]

I’m not a fan of the early payment policy, but Viking has a cancellation policy that only costs each passenger $100 if the cruise is cancelled 121 days before the trip begins. There is a date on your invoice. Friends have taken advantage of this policy, it’s cash back. 

[CurlerRob]

1 hour ago, CDR2001 said:

I’m not a fan of the early payment policy, but Viking has a cancellation policy that only costs each passenger $100 if the cruise is cancelled 121 days before the trip begins. There is a date on your invoice. Friends have taken advantage of this policy, it’s cash back. 

Just a note that the $100 penalty is for shorter cruises. Longer hauls up the penalty to $1000 and kick in at 180 days. Be sure to ask in advance and/or check your invoice. 🍺🥌

[Clay Clayton]

Just to update everyone, after emailing TellUs expressing my frustration that our vouchers had been applied without our knowledge, I got an email that they had forwarded my issue to the proper folks and I should receive a call. A few days before Christmas I was called and told that Viking applies the vouchers as a convenience to their customers as others had complained they weren’t able to use them as they had forgotten they had them. (Yeah sure, DMIL has one that is going to expire this summer and gets at least an email a month reminding her!). I pointed out that the larger of our vouchers was applied several months AFTER we had booked the cruise and that it seemed to me that Viking should at least ask or notify the customer and/or the Travel Agent.  The representative said she understood and would have a supervisor review and give me a call back “after Christmas”. 
 

When I hadn’t heard back yesterday (Dec 29th) and since the promo I was trying to use expired on Dec 31st I emailed TellUs them asking again for assistance. They responded that I should get a phone call before noon today. 
 

I was happily surprised to find an email this morning with an updated booking  that included the upgraded stateroom and the silver spirits package. 
😃

[Symmes99]

Congratulations on solving your voucher issue!

I too learned the hard way about vouchers being applied without me knowing about it or even being notified.. I called and got the voucher reinstated. I don’t remember all the details but it worked out ok. 

Fortunately I have no vouchers left so not a concern going forward. 

I did book several cruises on the $25pp deposit program because it was too tempting. I already canceled one, and lost the $50 deposit but it was fun to have that cruise in my future for a while! 

[Clay Clayton]

15 hours ago, Symmes99 said:

Congratulations on solving your voucher issue!

I too learned the hard way about vouchers being applied without me knowing about it or even being notified.. I called and got the voucher reinstated. I don’t remember all the details but it worked out ok. 

Fortunately I have no vouchers left so not a concern going forward. 

I did book several cruises on the $25pp deposit program because it was too tempting. I already canceled one, and lost the $50 deposit but it was fun to have that cruise in my future for a while! 

Presuming that nothing changes 🤞 we won’t have any vouchers either, and I was surprised to learn that I had several referral discounts on my account that were applied.  So final payment ended up being under $700 for me!

[peribit]

On 12/21/2022 at 11:24 AM, CDR2001 said:

I’m not a fan of the early payment policy, but Viking has a cancellation policy that only costs each passenger $100 if the cruise is cancelled 121 days before the trip begins. There is a date on your invoice. Friends have taken advantage of this policy, it’s cash back. 

How does the $25pp deposit work into this $100 admin fee?   Does it mean that it is reduced to $25?

[Clay Clayton]

1 hour ago, peribit said:

How does the $25pp deposit work into this $100 admin fee?   Does it mean that it is reduced to $25?

If you cancel before you’ve paid more than $25 then I would presume so. But since in most cases final payment is due 12 months in advance, I’d you canceled after that you would be subject to the cancelation fee schedule. Again, my presumption. 

[peribit]

52 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

If you cancel before you’ve paid more than $25 then I would presume so. But since in most cases final payment is due 12 months in advance, I’d you canceled after that you would be subject to the cancelation fee schedule. Again, my presumption. 

Is the final payment due 12 months in advance just for the $25 deposit promo?

If I am looking at a cruise for next summer, does it mean that final payment is due upon booking?

[Clay Clayton]

2 hours ago, peribit said:

Is the final payment due 12 months in advance just for the $25 deposit promo?

If I am looking at a cruise for next summer, does it mean that final payment is due upon booking?

Typically final payment is 12 months before the cruise unless you have a cruise already booked in which case you can request and they will usually approve a six month final payment date. 
 

So yes, if you book a cruise today for this coming aummer, it’s likely final payment will be due relatively quickly, usually within a few days but occasionally (and no one knows why) a month or two from now. 

[FetaCheese]

On 12/21/2022 at 1:06 PM, YoPhilly said:

I’m new to Viking and booked a 2024 New Zealand to Australia cruise, with just the $25 pp deposit.  Viking wants full payment 13 months in advance, which is rather extreme.  Is this normal policy, or just for reduced deposits?

I also asked during my recent sales dept call re: final pmt.  Said 6 months out only if you have 1 or more cruises booked.  Agent not too accommodating -- guess they have lots of bookings.

Edited January 1, 2023 by FetaCheese
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