Price Drop after VISA Free Cruise Certificate

[dosherpack]

Several months ago we booked a cruise and used a RCCL Visa certificate as partial payment. We upgraded to a balcony and only paid the difference between that and an oceanview. Today I saw a pricedrop of over $100/pp on our cabin. My question is if I will get a credit for the drop or will they also compare what the price of an oceanview is now? I believe I should get the drop on the balcony only since they tapped the credit card company for the value of an oceanview at the time we booked. Does anyone know what they will do?

[danp]

Contact RCCL and ask for the reduction,they may give you OBC.Which ship will you be on?

[dosherpack]

Sailing on Serenade of the Seas April 24.

[PantherFan]

you should receive a credit to your card since it is before final payment and it will be for the room category that you have now not the one you started with.

[QTMichele]

I'm interested in this too as I just earned my "free" cruise for two!!! YIPEE! Oasis, here we come!!!! :D

 

Okay, I've calmed down a little...

 

dosherpack - how did you go about redeeming your certificate? Did you book the cruise and wait to redeem? Did you book yourself in an outside, then upgrade - or just book what you wanted, then asked for the credit? Any details you can give me would be great. :) I want to book Oasis (best bang for the buck at the current prices) soon, but am worried about when to send in the certificate in case we need to change the week, etc. Anyway, THANKS in advance!

[debandbill]

Michelle,

 

I used our freeby for the recent Oasis cruise.

 

If you are booking say...4 - 6 months out or more, I would wait until you are pretty sure of the timing of the cruise. It didn't take but about a week to receive our vouchers from Visa. That way, you are sure to have a certificate that won't expire.

 

Book the cabin you want. Then call and have the certificate applied by the C&A Rewards desk (1-888-305-4626)....then fill them out and mail them to RCI the address on the back of the certificate.

 

The trick is to maximize the credit to the $2500 limit on the mimimum ocean view cabin. Recently, that has not been a problem since the MOVs on Oasis have been more than $1250 pp. I will tell you that timing is everything and also having the Rewards desk confirm the amount of your credit at the time you talk to them. I called to ask about our cruise being eligible to use the certificate and didn't confirm the amount since I knew they were way over the $2500...by the time I called back to confirm the amount, the cabins had dropped below to $1199 pp so I lost $100 in value...only receiving $2398 credit :(. They had a record of my phone call but would not budge on the credit...they said they could not recreate the amount of the MOV on the date I called. I escalated, etc. but decided in the end to just accept it and move on. So confirm, confirm, confirm.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Deb

[QTMichele]

Michelle,

 

I used our freeby for the recent Oasis cruise.

 

If you are booking say...4 - 6 months out or more, I would wait until you are pretty sure of the timing of the cruise. It didn't take but about a week to receive our vouchers from Visa. That way, you are sure to have a certificate that won't expire.

 

Book the cabin you want. Then call and have the certificate applied by the C&A Rewards desk (1-888-305-4626)....then fill them out and mail them to RCI the address on the back of the certificate.

 

The trick is to maximize the credit to the $2500 limit on the mimimum ocean view cabin. Recently, that has not been a problem since the MOVs on Oasis have been more than $1250 pp. I will tell you that timing is everything and also having the Rewards desk confirm the amount of your credit at the time you talk to them. I called to ask about our cruise being eligible to use the certificate and didn't confirm the amount since I knew they were way over the $2500...by the time I called back to confirm the amount, the cabins had dropped below to $1199 pp so I lost $100 in value...only receiving $2398 credit :(. They had a record of my phone call but would not budge on the credit...they said they could not recreate the amount of the MOV on the date I called. I escalated, etc. but decided in the end to just accept it and move on. So confirm, confirm, confirm.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Deb

 

Thanks, Deb! We'll be doing this for Oasis (or Allure) too - cannot wait! I have a question about confirming the OBC value - if you book when the price of the min. ocean view stateroom is, let's say $1250 (to get max value of $2500), how do you go about getting a confirmation since the prices may fluctuate? Do they base this on when they receive the certificate or when you call with the number? I assume it's not based on the date that you book your cabin (we'll be booking a balcony). I agree, $100 or so is still $100, but isn't worth getting too worked up over (but I'd still like to get max value).

 

Thanks again for your advice. :)

[debandbill]

I think different people have gotten the price in different ways because I bet you some people never call the rewards desk..they just mail it in. I'm sure that a lot probably never realize that they have to strategize the credit amount.

 

I know for sure that you can confirm the amount by phone call to that Rewards number and it will stay at that amount..not changing unless you call about a change in the upgraded cabin price. Your email confirmation that day will reflect the price after the credit is made. I would have the rep clarify how the credit works if there is a drop in price on your upgraded cabin. I was still questioning what she was saying about that even after she repeated herself..mine never dropped so moot point.

 

IOW's your credit will be the amount (hopefully the full $2500) on the day you say you want to use it and confirm it with a rep and get an email confirmation. Nothing changes but if you have to call about a price drop on the upgraded cabin make sure it does not affect your credit amount because the minimum OV's have also dropped.

 

Whew...I'm exhausted. I wish the process was a little more straight forward. Obviously the OBC credits are easy...dollar for dollar. It's the free cruises and companion fares that get dicey.

 

Let me know if I have thoroughly confused the issue.

 

Deb

[QTMichele]

Nope, you didn't confuse the issue. :) Those were the main points I had about the free cruises - how to get max value (confirm it) and price drops with booked cabin (check to see if it affects OBC value). I'm hoping that we get full value for the OBC AND I'm hoping that our balcony price DROPS while the min. OV cabin stays the same. This will affect our bottom line in a positive way! :) I'm hoping there is a WOW sale soon - will book for 50% off deposit. :D

 

Thanks again!!!

 

OH... once I book and confirm that the date will definitely work for us, do you know if we can mail in the cert. and get the amount credited even if it's more than 6 months out? I know the cert. expires after 6 months, but am hoping that once you apply it to your cruise it won't matter how far out you use it. Make sense??? I'm more afraid of the points going up for the free cruise before we request our certs since we won't be sailing until spring 2011.

[molly361]

Several months ago we booked a cruise and used a RCCL Visa certificate as partial payment. We upgraded to a balcony and only paid the difference between that and an oceanview. Today I saw a pricedrop of over $100/pp on our cabin. My question is if I will get a credit for the drop or will they also compare what the price of an oceanview is now? I believe I should get the drop on the balcony only since they tapped the credit card company for the value of an oceanview at the time we booked. Does anyone know what they will do?

 

The story that I was told when we called RCL to apply a 15,000 upgrade (still have not sent it in) from interior to ocean (we are getting a balcony) that if the balcony price goes down that they WILL re-evaluate the pricing for the interior and oceanview and adjust the coupon amount. The amount that they noted (hopefully) in the reservation is the max of $300

[molly361]

Nope, you didn't confuse the issue. :) Those were the main points I had about the free cruises - how to get max value (confirm it) and price drops with booked cabin (check to see if it affects OBC value). I'm hoping that we get full value for the OBC AND I'm hoping that our balcony price DROPS while the min. OV cabin stays the same. This will affect our bottom line in a positive way! :) I'm hoping there is a WOW sale soon - will book for 50% off deposit. :D

 

Thanks again!!!

 

OH... once I book and confirm that the date will definitely work for us, do you know if we can mail in the cert. and get the amount credited even if it's more than 6 months out? I know the cert. expires after 6 months, but am hoping that once you apply it to your cruise it won't matter how far out you use it. Make sense??? I'm more afraid of the points going up for the free cruise before we request our certs since we won't be sailing until spring 2011.

 

Yes it has to be applied within 6 months but the actual cruise can be anytime in the future.

[QTMichele]

Thanks, Molly!