Beware - Future Cruise Deposits

Princess have made some rule changes to the FCD.

Before April 2017 Future Cruise Deposits could be transferred from a cancelled cruise to a new cruise (providing final payment had not been made).

NOW the FCD as treated as a cash deposit and if you cancel within 181 days (nearly 6 months) then you LOSE that FCD.

The letter acknowledging FCD refers you to the Passage Contract (Yeh, who reads those from start to end).

I think that this new rule should be made clear to all cruisers who are persuaded to part with money as a FCD.

While it's a great scheme, this new rules removes the flexibility of just wanting to change your mind from one cruise to another !!

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Princess have made some rule changes to the FCD.

Before April 2017 Future Cruise Deposits could be transferred from a cancelled cruise to a new cruise (providing final payment had not been made).

NOW the FCD as treated as a cash deposit and if you cancel within 181 days (nearly 6 months) then you LOSE that FCD.

The letter acknowledging FCD refers you to the Passage Contract (Yeh, who reads those from start to end).

I think that this new rule should be made clear to all cruisers who are persuaded to part with money as a FCD.

While it's a great scheme, this new rules removes the flexibility of just wanting to change your mind from one cruise to another !!

Seems fair. Previously, there were posters bragging here about beating the "deposit not refundable" restriction

using FCDs.

I might be dense, but I don't understand. Please clarify ..... "cancel within 181 days (6months)" of what .... making the original booking or the actual embarkation date?

Also, IF one does cancel and "loses" the FCD, is the $100 that was paid for the FCC refunded or is that money lost?

To clarify, within 181 days of embarkation. The money is lost!!

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Simple enough, just don't cancel for any old reason.

But, if I cancel before final payment after having paid a cash deposit, I get my deposit back...right?

So, why would I lose the cash from my FCD?

Or is this a new rule for Australia/Europe??

To clarify, within 181 days of embarkation. The money is lost!!

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What you are stating just does not match the fine print on the FDC and the refund rules stated in the passage contract, which by the way many of us have read. In reviewing the passage contract it clearly states that for sailings of 30 days or less you can cancel 75 days or more before sailing and there is no cancellation fee. For sailings of 30+ days the cut off is 120 days. The way the passage contract reads is that any deposit money is returned. According to the fine print FDC's once applied to a booking have always been considered as money and subject to the terms of the passage contract. I can't seem to find any reference to the 181 days you mention, and no mention of actually losing the $100, unless the cruise booked has a non-refundable deposit.

Rules were changed April 2017. It's not a cancellation fee, it's the fact that the FCD is not refunded if you cancel within that 181 days. It's just happened to me !!

Also, cruises are often cancelled for a variety of reasons, not just for any old reason.

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Rules were changed April 2017. It's not a cancellation fee, it's the fact that the FCD is not refunded if you cancel within that 181 days. It's just happened to me !!

Also, cruises are often cancelled for a variety of reasons, not just for any old reason.

 

 

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What you are saying doesn't make sense. The FCD is good for 2 yrs so it goes back into your account. You don't lose it. If you don't use it within the 2 yrs, it is refundable. If you use a FCD for a cruise that has a non-refundable deposit it makes sense that you would then lose that FCD.

What was the cruise you had booked and how far out did you cancel ? Any other details to help us understand further.

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I canceled a cruise back in May that I'd booked with a fcd. It was a "cancel for any reason" scenario, and Princess gave me the full amount back as another fcd. That included the original fcd.

I'm editing this to include a thought that just occurred to me. My original fcd was bought some time back, before any recent policy changes. That may be why I got it back.

I just cancelled a cruise that was sailing in Early October 2017 and my FCD was placed back in my bank.

Heddyjan's (the OP) profile lists Perth (Australia I assume) as the location so I assume this is an Australia thing. I think we all know cancellation policies for U.S. source bookings are more lenient than from many other countries.

Where did this info come from - there is nothing on the Princess website?

I've seen a post similar to this on a FB group that I belong to. now I don't know the exact situation here but in that case the situation was that the poster had used a FCD to book a cruise that specifically stated deposits were non-refundable. They then cancelled their cruise and threw a fit when they were told their FCD was forfit, apparently they did end up getting it back because they apparently were not told that thy would lose their FCD due to the deposit being non-refundable when they booked.

As far as I am aware this is SOP, when you use a FCD to book a cruise it is treated the same as a cash deposit, the only difference is that your giving princess your money before booking and in return they are giving you OBC when you use the FCD. However if the booking states the deposit is non-refundable then it doesn't matter whether you use "cash" or an FCD. This is not that new as I booked a cruise using an FCD back in early 2016 that was a non-refundable deposit and was warned this would happen, I did end up changing the cruise later in the year and did lose the FCD.

I think there is some confusion where people read that the FCD is refundable, princess means to say that if you don't use it you will get the money back, however people are reading it as if the FCD will be returned to them after being used if they change their mind regardless of the policy on that booking.

Maybe I'm wrong on this, maybe things have changed or maybe people are seeing this because princess has started offering more cruises with non-refundable deposits. Being relatively new to cruising myself I don't know which it is.

I've seen a post similar to this on a FB group that I belong to. now I don't know the exact situation here but in that case the situation was that the poster had used a FCD to book a cruise that specifically stated deposits were non-refundable. They then cancelled their cruise and threw a fit when they were told their FCD was forfit, apparently they did end up getting it back because they apparently were not told that thy would lose their FCD due to the deposit being non-refundable when they booked.

 

As far as I am aware this is SOP, when you use a FCD to book a cruise it is treated the same as a cash deposit, the only difference is that your giving princess your money before booking and in return they are giving you OBC when you use the FCD. However if the booking states the deposit is non-refundable then it doesn't matter whether you use "cash" or an FCD. This is not that new as I booked a cruise using an FCD back in early 2016 that was a non-refundable deposit and was warned this would happen, I did end up changing the cruise later in the year and did lose the FCD.

 

I think there is some confusion where people read that the FCD is refundable, princess means to say that if you don't use it you will get the money back, however people are reading it as if the FCD will be returned to them after being used if they change their mind regardless of the policy on that booking.

 

Maybe I'm wrong on this, maybe things have changed or maybe people are seeing this because princess has started offering more cruises with non-refundable deposits. Being relatively new to cruising myself I don't know which it is.

jpom18 provides the key to this. I just recently (a couple weeks ago) changed from the Jan 18, 2018 Hawaii cruise on the Star to the Jan 22, 2018 Hawaii cruise on the Grand. My TA got me a better price with the Red, White and Blue sale but before booking it, called me to tell me that if I want the better pricing that my FCC that I used to book the cruises would become non-refundable. She gave me the option to book the better price making my FCC unrefundable or the higher price but my FCC would still be refundable if I cancel. So, if your deposit is refundable, you will not lose your FCC.

Rules were changed April 2017. It's not a cancellation fee, it's the fact that the FCD is not refunded if you cancel within that 181 days. It's just happened to me !!

Also, cruises are often cancelled for a variety of reasons, not just for any old reason.

 

 

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There are loads of people who just book many cruises & cancel them just because the see something else of interest. Not to say it's not OK but maybe Princess doesn't like the book work?

Also- could it be that the FCC's are different for Australia? There are a few other things that differ.

Well, it could be Perth UK. But deposits aren't refundable in the UK either, so if you've used the FCC as your deposit the policy seems consistent.

It makes no sense whatsoever for Princess to say that if you book a cruise with a refundable deposit and use a FCD then you lose that FCD if you cancel 6 months or less prior to embarkation even though you would have gotten your deposit back if you'd paid cash. The FCD is the same as cash, in fact someone posted the fine print from the FCD form and it states; "Once applied to a booking, the FCD is considered money and is subject to the terms and conditions in the Passage contract". This to me indicates that once the FCD is used it is treated like any other deposit, if the booking is refundable then the FCD will be refundable, if the booking is non-refundable then the FCD will be lost.

The OP does not give any details as to where they are or what cruise they were booked on however my thinking is that they may have booked a cruise on a non-fundable deposit then cancelled and lost the FCD. Now they are throwing a fit saying that FCD's are lost if booking are cancelled within 6 months of embarkation, but until someone provides the fine print that proves that I would be hesitant to believe it.

As others have said it is possible that Australia, UK or somewhere else has different rules however I still can't see the FCD's having more restrictions placed upon them then a regular deposit. After all why then would anybody bother with FCD if they knew they would lose that money by cancelling or changing less then 6 months before embarkation when if they just paid the deposit in cash they would be free to cancel or change in the same time frame.

Also, cruises are often cancelled for a variety of reasons, not just for any old reason.

There was a poster here (I'm not making this up) who complained that the reason he

couldn't find a cruise he wanted was because so many people booked up everything

using FCDs as deposits, and then cancelling before final payment.

Hi all

Thought I would comment on this as it has been previously discussed on the Australia/NZ board.

In Australia, a FCD is now treated like a deposit when it comes to cancelling, so when the cancellation penalty time starts, the FCD is treated as such.

In the past I have been able to transfer my FCD before final payment and retain it, now if I want to cancel it needs to be before the penalty date starts.

Here is a shot from our next cruise on the Golden, you can see the 20% starts before the final payment date in July. If I cancel now I will lose 20% including the FCD.

I agree that the rules are different for those in the US and UK, but this is how Princess are doing things here. Confirmed by my Princess Holiday planner.

Just have to be more committed 6 months out:eek:

Ok, that copy and paste didnt work!!

The Final payment date on the cruise is July 8th 2017, but the 20% penalty date started on March 25th 2017.

Hi all

 

Thought I would comment on this as it has been previously discussed on the Australia/NZ board.

In Australia, a FCD is now treated like a deposit when it comes to cancelling, so when the cancellation penalty time starts, the FCD is treated as such.

In the past I have been able to transfer my FCD before final payment and retain it, now if I want to cancel it needs to be before the penalty date starts.

Here is a shot from our next cruise on the Golden, you can see the 20% starts before the final payment date in July. If I cancel now I will lose 20% including the FCD.

I agree that the rules are different for those in the US and UK, but this is how Princess are doing things here. Confirmed by my Princess Holiday planner.

Just have to be more committed 6 months out:eek:

Ok, that copy and paste didnt work!!

 

The Final payment date on the cruise is July 8th 2017, but the 20% penalty date started on March 25th 2017.

Quick question , where did you see those dates. My cruise in March booked through Princess only shows final payment date in my personaliser. Or where should I be looking ? Have you paid extra on top of the FCD for your deposit , for you to lose 20% and the FCD? Losing the FCD before final payment would be bad enough. ( not that you personally are )

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I don't care that the FCD deposit was lost (although aggravating) but I DO care that Princess do not advise passengers of rule changes that affect their deposits. In Australia, when any company that you deal with change their terms and conditions, they have an obligation to notify their customers (passengers) of those changes.

In this case, the conditions were changed without any notification.

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This happened once to me. TA made clear it was a cruise in which the deposit was non-refundable. Cruise cancelled; lost the FCC.

Quick question , where did you see those dates. My cruise in March booked through Princess only shows final payment date in my personaliser. Or where should I be looking ? Have you paid extra on top of the FCD for your deposit , for you to lose 20% and the FCD? Losing the FCD before final payment would be bad enough. ( not that you personally are )

 

 

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Told by my Travel Agent and I confirmed the loss of FCD $100 "deposit" on Passage contract, apparently changed on April 1 2017.

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