Refare, Lose OBC, What about Excursions booked?

[dickinson]

Anyone ever use OBC to book an excursion but then refare and lose the OBC?  What happens to the excursion?  I have one that is sold out so I would hate to lose it but wouldn't mind paying for it if necessary.  My TA doesn't know and said to call Princess.  Right now I would have to wait on hold a long time for Princess.

 

Thanks.

[rocklinmom]

Hmm that is a good question. If you booked the shorex with OBC and then lost that OBC, I would think the shorex reservation would still be intact since the OBC would probably be deducted from your shipboard account once you actually take the excursion. Then you could always purchase OBC in a high enough amount to cover the excursion if necessary. That's why I never book excursions with OBC, too complicated for my taste if changes occur. So you will most likely have to call and ask, and could use the extension for shore excursions. I think it's option number 2 (once you get through the first menu choices, then listen to the Covid-19 message, then get to the second menu).

Edited March 9, 2020 by rocklinmom

[AF-1]

When you re-fared your new cruise under credits; do you see any OBC?.  I just rebooked a cruise and cancelled all my shore excursions and the credits were put back into my account

[argenta01]

I had a cruise booked and also 1 excursion which was paid for with OBC.  We changed cabins and got a new booking number and my reserved excursion was gone and the money back to my OBC.  I had to go in and re-purchase the excursion.

[CineGraphic]

Unless one of us works for Princess, it doesn't matter what we say.

What's more important to you, the savings from re-faring, or the excursion that you may risk losing.

[rocklinmom]

That makes sense...could be the answer

[Times Prince]

You need to clarify what you mean by "refare".  if it involved cancelling a reservation and making a new one then everything associated with the cancelled reservation would be expected to be gone.

 

[rocklinmom]

Yes I do know firsthand that if a reservation is cancelled and rebooked under a new booking number then all purchased shore excursions are lost. They had to be re-purchased. 

[dickinson]

I have done nothing yet. If I do it would be to refare  and NOT cancel and then rebook. I would keep my same booking number.  This is an issue because one excursion is sold out. 
 

It all may be moot because carina virus may cause us to cancel. 

[Coral]

Yes - I refared and lost OBC. The Cruise Personalizer excursion page basically said I had to pay within 24 hours to keep my excursion. I paid immediately. I don't remember if mine was sold out or not though. Also realize re-faring may cause you to lose share holder OBC and you have to re-send in the info.

Edited March 9, 2020 by Coral

[MKKruiser]

Yes, I just had that happen.  I rebooked with a new fare and excursions, specialty dining all gone.  Called princess and was told if just the fare was changed and not considered a new booking all would have been okay. Lost an excursion that no longer is available, but saving $500 rather made up for it.  I know it is difficult but only calling Princess excursions can give you additional info.  What I did not do when I refared was to tell TA about those items to see if there would have been anything he could have done when talking to Princess.

[rocklinmom]

Yes that is exactly what happened to my sister. She was trying to refare her booking with the Best Sale Ever promo  (via her TA). Instead of just refaring her they did a cancel/rebook with new booking number. Still don't know why and boy what a pain to try and repurchase everything. In the end it didn't even matter because she has now cancelled the cruise anyway.

[dickinson]

I did try calling Princess excursions and the recording said more than 100 calls ahead of me. Thatywhy I came here. 
 

Coral had no problem when regarding. Anyone else who refared?  

[NavyVeteran]

2 hours ago, dickinson said:

I did try calling Princess excursions and the recording said more than 100 calls ahead of me. Thatywhy I came here. 
 

Coral had no problem when regarding. Anyone else who refared?  

I don't believe calling Princess will do any good. They will not be able to re-fare you, since you booked through a TA. They can tell you what they think, but that doesn't mean that is what will happen.

 

This will have to be handled by the TA. Tell the TA the potential problem, and ask them to make sure they excursions are not cancelled when they re-fare you. You may want to ask the TA to pay the excursion balance (with your credit card) at the same time of the re-faring.

 

You may also be able to pay for the shore excursion online within 24 hours of making the change. I did not have the same issue of losing OBC, but I did have a possibly similar issue. I was waitlisted for a shore excursion for two on a British Isles cruise in July-August 2021. I did not have to pay anything to be put on the waitlist. When I cleared the waitlist, I received an email from reservations@princesscruises.com with a list of my booked shore excursions, a list of the amount paid to date, and the following statement:

 

"We're delighted you've pre-reserved shore excursions for your upcoming cruise vacation. To ensure your shore excursion reservations are complete full payment for your excursions is required. To confirm your reservations please complete payment through our Cruise Personalizer or by contacting us at 1 800 774 6237 at your earliest convenience. All unpaid shore excursion reservations will automatically be cancelled if not paid in 24 hours."

 

I went online and paid the additional balance. I don't know if the same would happen in your place. I would not wait for an email. As soon as the TA re-refares you (whether or not the TA handles the shore excursion payment), I would immediately go online to check the shore excursions on the Cruise Personalizer. You can check the status of the excursions and pay any amount owed at that time.

 

I don't know if they would handle your case the same way, but I wanted to provide the information on how they handled this case.

[polmcs]

I had this issue last week when I refared. I lost my shareholder OBC (hadn’t spent it yet). I called Princess and they said it was a known issue and it should be back in 24hrs. It didn’t so I called back a few days later and they manually restored it. I did question what would have happened if I had spent it and they said that they weren’t sure.

[dickinson]

I decided to chance it and called my TA.  She tried in her computer but said my EZ Air was not staying with the reservation.  She asked if my air was at a discount.  No.  There was no promotion for air when I booked it as soon as it became available.  She said then maybe this summer clearance promotion won't accept it.  She will check with Princess when she contacts them but with their phone lines jammed who knows when that will be.  I don't expect to be able to take advantage.  BTW she is a top Princess agent so she knows what she is doing.

 

Anyways... at this point I am pessimistic that we will be on our cruise anyway.

[Coral]

5 hours ago, dickinson said:

I did try calling Princess excursions and the recording said more than 100 calls ahead of me. Thatywhy I came here. 
 

Coral had no problem when regarding. Anyone else who refared?  

I am not sure if mine was sold out though.

[dickinson]

9 minutes ago, Coral said:

I am not sure if mine was sold out though.

 

that's ok.  As I said above, my TA (I think we may use the same one) tried but it was not taking my EZ Air booking with it.  She asked if I booked that under a discount.  No I did not.  Probably all moot because this virus will probably have us cancel.  At this point we have til April 2 although that could change and Princess could push it to 60 days.  

[TW6cruiser]

I've had this happen on two separate cruises.   For one cruise, we re-fared very close to sailing.  We lost some OBC but overall it was a win for us.   My cruise personalizer said I had money due on excursions and I was able to pay online.  I had checked the same date that my travel agent re-fared us.  I was concerned as some excursions had sold out and prices had gone up, but my "reservations' for the excursions were there and the lower prices I had originally booked still applied. 

 

Then the second time this happened we re-fared way before final payment but after I had used OBC and some payment for excursions.  The same day my travel agent re-fared us I went online and my cruise personalizer said my excursions were "paid" but I knew I had money due.  I called Princess and they took payment over the phone.  That cruise is in August this Europe so the whole thing may be moot if we cancel....but anyway that was my experience. 

[dickinson]

Thanks. Very helpful information. 

[LeeW]

The funny thing about buying excursions these days is that even though you paid for it, the payment actually appears onboard as an account credit.  Then gets debited when you actually take the tour.  We had several last trip that got cancelled by the cruise line and they didn't have to take any action - the OBC just stayed in the account and wasn't spent.  I don't even try to use OBC in advance any more.

 

Our experience rebooking was that the tours were cancelled and refunded, but we did have a new booking number.  Also had to fill in all the online checkin information again.