Is this right? Princess advises they use Refundable OBC first before Non-refundable?

[Tripmode33]

Having done 30 Princess cruises, I was sure that where you had both Refundable and Non-refundable OBC on your folio account, they would use up the non-refundable first. If any refundable unspent, you would receive a refund.

However, after two ports were cancelled during our March cruise, we were given refundable OBC for port charges refund. We were careful, as always, to spend our non-refundable OBC.

I am now arguing with Princess re the refund of Refundable credit which we expected.

This is their exact wording on last email:

"Where there is a combination of refundable and non-refundable credits, in all instances when there is both, the system will automatically draw against the refundable first. Only once all the refundable onboard credit is used, does the system then draw on the non-refundable component."

 

Is this correct?

[Cbtours]

14 minutes ago, Tripmode33 said:

Having done 30 Princess cruises, I was sure that where you had both Refundable and Non-refundable OBC on your folio account, they would use up the non-refundable first. If any refundable unspent, you would receive a refund.

However, after two ports were cancelled during our March cruise, we were given refundable OBC for port charges refund. We were careful, as always, to spend our non-refundable OBC.

I am now arguing with Princess re the refund of Refundable credit which we expected.

This is their exact wording on last email:

"Where there is a combination of refundable and non-refundable credits, in all instances when there is both, the system will automatically draw against the refundable first. Only once all the refundable onboard credit is used, does the system then draw on the non-refundable component."

 

Is this correct?

Wow! Didn’t realise that???? On our recent cruise we had a refund due which came through no problem but I didn’t pay attention which any charges were going against.

[Ozwoody]

26 minutes ago, Tripmode33 said:

Having done 30 Princess cruises, I was sure that where you had both Refundable and Non-refundable OBC on your folio account, they would use up the non-refundable first. If any refundable unspent, you would receive a refund.

However, after two ports were cancelled during our March cruise, we were given refundable OBC for port charges refund. We were careful, as always, to spend our non-refundable OBC.

I am now arguing with Princess re the refund of Refundable credit which we expected.

This is their exact wording on last email:

"Where there is a combination of refundable and non-refundable credits, in all instances when there is both, the system will automatically draw against the refundable first. Only once all the refundable onboard credit is used, does the system then draw on the non-refundable component."

 

Is this correct?

 

I think the person who said that to you may have got it back to front.

 

Some people actually purchase OBC, (don't know why?), but there is an option to do so.

I would be bloody upset if they used up my refundable OBC before the non-refundable, then say sorry about that, and kept the unspent non-refundable OBC.

Can't see Princess doing that.

 

I have received a refund on one cruise we did, about two weeks after the cruise.

So if it true, it must be a new policy.

 

Would make me grumpy!

 

 

[mr walker]

43 minutes ago, Ozwoody said:

 

I think the person who said that to you may have got it back to front.

 

Some people actually purchase OBC, (don't know why?), but there is an option to do so.

 

I'm sure you're right & they have it back to front or 'a#se about' as my Dad would have said. 

 

Purchasing OBC can make sense if the onboard charges are not in $A. For example RC, with charges in USD, it can make sense to buy ahead, depending on Fx rate being offered. They don't seem to change the going rate offered too often, so you can come out ahead.

 

For ones that are in $A, it doesn't make sense to me, except perhaps for those who consider that anything they pre-paid is somehow monopoly money, & they are not paying anything for their purchases, as they already paid 😉

[Sparky74]

Some people just like to have everything prepaid and not have a bill at the end of the cruise. 
Some people use prepaid OBC as a way of saving for their holidays. I guess you can’t be tempted to spend your holiday savings on something else if you’ve used it to buy OBC. 

[Aus Traveller]

Agree with the comments above. The policy that has been stated many times in the past is that non-refundable OBC is used first, then refundable. I suggest you chase up this refund that is due to you if you had refundable OBC in your account.

[MicCanberra]

2 hours ago, Tripmode33 said:

Having done 30 Princess cruises, I was sure that where you had both Refundable and Non-refundable OBC on your folio account, they would use up the non-refundable first. If any refundable unspent, you would receive a refund.

However, after two ports were cancelled during our March cruise, we were given refundable OBC for port charges refund. We were careful, as always, to spend our non-refundable OBC.

I am now arguing with Princess re the refund of Refundable credit which we expected.

This is their exact wording on last email:

"Where there is a combination of refundable and non-refundable credits, in all instances when there is both, the system will automatically draw against the refundable first. Only once all the refundable onboard credit is used, does the system then draw on the non-refundable component."

 

Is this correct?

Not in my experience.

[MicCanberra]

1 hour ago, Sparky74 said:

Some people just like to have everything prepaid and not have a bill at the end of the cruise. 
Some people use prepaid OBC as a way of saving for their holidays. I guess you can’t be tempted to spend your holiday savings on something else if you’ve used it to buy OBC. 

There may be many reasons to buy OBC but I think the main one is to prevent bill shock.

[OzKiwiJJ]

According to my folio on Coral Princess right this minute we have used all our non-refundable OBC but still have lots of refundable OBC. That is all excursions that we have paid for but that have not yet been ticketed and debited to our folio. Only the excursions up until Dover have been debited.

[MicCanberra]

I think someone is trying it on, as most have had NR OBC used prior to their R OBC being touched.

[Aus Traveller]

I don't think the person who gave the info is 'trying it on'. I'll bet it is simply inefficiency. In my experience with both Princess and P&O, you can phone three times and get different answers from different reps. I had this last year before I bought the internet package for the world cruise. It took four phone calls before I got a rep who quoted the price that people here on CC said they were paying. All the other reps wanted double the price. Yes - I emphasized that I was eligible for the 50% discount.

 

My advice to the person who was told that refundable OBC is used first, is to phone again.

[Sparky74]

24 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

I don't think the person who gave the info is 'trying it on'. I'll bet it is simply inefficiency. In my experience with both Princess and P&O, you can phone three times and get different answers from different reps. I had this last year before I bought the internet package for the world cruise. It took four phone calls before I got a rep who quoted the price that people here on CC said they were paying. All the other reps wanted double the price. Yes - I emphasized that I was eligible for the 50% discount.

 

My advice to the person who was told that refundable OBC is used first, is to phone again.

Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by ineptitude!

[Aus Traveller]

3 minutes ago, Sparky74 said:

Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by ineptitude!

Yes - or as someone once said to me "If it is a choice between a conspiracy and a stuff-up, go for the stuff-up every time".

[arxcards]

It must have been triggered by a glitch onboard that kicked-off the error to start with. The non-refundable OBC should have been absorbed first by default, so the call centre bunnies are trying to justify the error in a way that they don't have to do any extra work to generate a refund.

[Hamwen3839]

This exact situation happened to us in March when two ports in NZ were cancelled due to weather so 2 excursions needed to be refunded. We were also given “ goodwill” non refundable shipboard credit as well. I asked two staff members at Client Services which was used first, refundable or non refundable and was given two different answers. The more junior Officer got it wrong after I checked with Manager .

Non Refundable is used first. However to be sure I got them to confirm that on my final account in writing before we left the ship and I finally got a refund 6 weeks later through HKSB after completing some paperwork.

[Jean C]

I can recall a situation for a young girl on our first P&O cruise over 10 years ago. She had OBC and had also paid cash onto her account. They used the cash first, meaning her non-refundable OBC was left remaining at the end of the cruise. She went to guest services to withdraw the remaining cash only to find there was none. She was ropable but could do nothing about it. 

[Ondine]

I remember about 2 years ago the statement from the machines onboard Grand Princess told us we had $80 of refundable credit still available so we did not bother to spend it.  Our OBC had been a mixture of refundable and non refundable at around $900 including military/shareholder/refunded port fees etc.  When we got back the statement emailed from Princess claimed the remaining OBC was non refundable.  I complained but they said they calculated it differently and there was nothing I could do.  Unfortunately I did not keep the printout of the onboard statement so couldn't argue.  Lesson learned so I always take a printout from the onboard machines.

[OzKiwiJJ]

17 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

Yes - or as someone once said to me "If it is a choice between a conspiracy and a stuff-up, go for the stuff-up every time".

No, no! Conspiracies are much more fun! 🤣🤣🤣