FYI for those who have booked future cruises...

[yerdua]

I just checked my 2021 cruise that I booked thru the big box warehouse store and discovered that my refundable deposit had been changed to non refundable! Also, my FCC from a prior price adjusted cruise (not Covid related) had been applied to the port fees, not the cruise fare. Net is the same, but don't know if there would be a problem in the future. Even though the deposit was changed to non refundable, the fare remained at the refundable price, when the HAL website shows a non refundable fare a couple hundred dollars lower. I have the original emails from when I booked showing all the original details. Bottom line, I'm calling them when their lines are open to figure this out while the same promotion is in place. I suggest that everyone who has a cruise booked or transferred to the hotdog store check to make sure nothing has changed on their booking. 

[ger_77]

"The hotdog store" - I love it!!  Seriously I'd be upset if I had paid a refundable deposit and suddenly it shows up as non-refundable.  Please let us know the outcome of your discussion with the agent.

 

Smooth Sailing!  🙂🙂🙂

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, ger_77 said:

"The hotdog store" - I love it!!  Seriously I'd be upset if I had paid a refundable deposit and suddenly it shows up as non-refundable.  Please let us know the outcome of your discussion with the agent.

 

Smooth Sailing!  🙂🙂🙂

Wow, I did not know Nathan's Famous sold cruises along with the hot dogs. 😃

 

I will echo let us know what the outcome of the discussion is.

[AlanF65]

Mine is still refundable ( in hot dogs), maybe they changed the fare by mistake when they or HAL applied the FCC.

A-

 

 

 

[richwmn]

Several years ago I had a reservation with a TA. In talking he said he could get me a better fare, and I told him it was OK unless it dropped my free Hotel Charge. He assured me that I would continue to have hotel charges paid. This was over several conversations. When I boarded the ship I found that the HSC was being applied. I checked with the desk and found that the change in fare lost me the benefit. I called the TA, who apologized and the TA put a credit on my card for the amount of the HSC, so they made it right.

Mistakes happen on an individual basis, what counts is how they are taken care of.

 

[kazu]

25 minutes ago, AlanF65 said:

Mine is still refundable ( in hot dogs), maybe they changed the fare by mistake when they or HAL applied the FCC.

A-

 

 

 

 

Actually, that is easy to do.  I booked a cruise with my PCC and it was to be refundable.  When I got the cruise confirmation by email I discovered it was non refundable.  (Thank heavens I read these things 😉 ) 

 

I called right away and it turns out that there was a coding for refundable and non refundable which was practically identical and difficult to discern.  I got this info from a supervisor which I was escalated to (My PCC was off).   My booking was fixed but it nearly sounds like the coding has not been yet?  Just a possibility.

 

Hopefully this will be rectified for the OP.

[Copper10-8]

6 hours ago, ger_77 said:

"The hotdog store" - I love it!!  Seriously I'd be upset if I had paid a refundable deposit and suddenly it shows up as non-refundable.  Please let us know the outcome of your discussion with the agent.

 

Smooth Sailing!  🙂🙂🙂

 

I prefer this one in Hollyweird, they sell fully refundable dogs w/o the daily hotel charge  

 

[IPB4IGO]

8 hours ago, yerdua said:

I just checked my 2021 cruise that I booked thru the big box warehouse store and discovered that my refundable deposit had been changed to non refundable! Also, my FCC from a prior price adjusted cruise (not Covid related) had been applied to the port fees, not the cruise fare. Net is the same, but don't know if there would be a problem in the future. Even though the deposit was changed to non refundable, the fare remained at the refundable price, when the HAL website shows a non refundable fare a couple hundred dollars lower. I have the original emails from when I booked showing all the original details

Thanks for posting this. I checked, and the same thing had happened to the deposit for my booking with the same agency. I called them, and they called HAL who said it was a system glitch. They are correcting my account and will send me a corrected invoice (although the original invoice was correct). It isn't clear whether they are fixing the system glitch or only my booking.

 

When I asked about the FCC, the agent called HAL again and was told the the FCC that I was notified about on May 7 was "built incorrectly". The HAL supervisor will email me directly when they fix it (they don't know when that will happen), then I will need to call the agent back again to have the FCC applied to this particular cruise.

 

The agent was savvy enough to leave a note in my file reminding the next agent that the Big Box Shop Card will need to be manually brought back up to its original value after the FCC is applied.

 

Fortunately for me, the cruise in question is not until next June.

[PSR]

3 hours ago, kazu said:

Actually, that is easy to do.  I booked a cruise with my PCC and it was to be refundable.  When I got the cruise confirmation by email I discovered it was non refundable.  (Thank heavens I read these things 😉 ) 

 

Hi kazu! Can you tell me where on the HAL booking statement it says a deposit is refundable or non-? I just looked at mine and it doesn't say anything about that, but it does say my 1st cancellation penalty is the deposit amount, so I guess that means it's refundable before that date?

[kazu]

6 minutes ago, PSR said:

 

Hi kazu! Can you tell me where on the HAL booking statement it says a deposit is refundable or non-? I just looked at mine and it doesn't say anything about that, but it does say my 1st cancellation penalty is the deposit amount, so I guess that means it's refundable before that date?

 

When I went to page 2 of my confirmation where the cancellation penalties were, the cancellation penalties were immediate.  That told me it had to be a non refundable deposit or something was very wrong in Denmark 😉. 

Sorry, I should have been a smidge clearer.  The confirmations just say when the penalties start and if they start right away, it’s non-refundable.

[PSR]

3 minutes ago, kazu said:

The confirmations just say when the penalties start and if they start right away, it’s non-refundable

 

Thanks! That's what I thought...now I know where to look in the future.

[Loreto]

11 hours ago, yerdua said:

I just checked my 2021 cruise that I booked thru the big box warehouse store and discovered that my refundable deposit had been changed to non refundable! Also, my FCC from a prior price adjusted cruise (not Covid related) had been applied to the port fees, not the cruise fare. Net is the same, but don't know if there would be a problem in the future. Even though the deposit was changed to non refundable, the fare remained at the refundable price, when the HAL website shows a non refundable fare a couple hundred dollars lower. I have the original emails from when I booked showing all the original details. Bottom line, I'm calling them when their lines are open to figure this out while the same promotion is in place. I suggest that everyone who has a cruise booked or transferred to the hotdog store check to make sure nothing has changed on their booking. 

I appreciate your information!  I checked my invoices at the site and my 2 suites booked for next July and have both been changed to non refundable deposit.  I will be giving them a call.

[yerdua]

10 hours ago, ger_77 said:

"The hotdog store" - I love it!!  Seriously I'd be upset if I had paid a refundable deposit and suddenly it shows up as non-refundable.  Please let us know the outcome of your discussion with the agent.

 

Smooth Sailing!  🙂🙂🙂

Ok. So, if I can relay this properly, my booking was supposedly never changed to a non refundable deposit. It was just the verbiage (in red ink) that somehow had slipped in there. They difference in the cruise fare/ taxes & fees was because the TA's system screwed up the placement of the miscellaneous credit ,ie FCC, that HAL had sent over. The agency sent me a pdf of HAL's booking confirmation and are referring the problem to the proper techies. They said they'd never seen this happen before. Should be cleared up in a couple days. I'll keep checking on it. The odd thing is the original booking confirmation from the TA in April was exactly right. Don't know why it would change at this point because I didn't make any modifications to the booking since it was created.

 

And yes, I love their hotdogs!

Edited June 30, 2020 by yerdua

[bennybear]

So appreciate being alerted to this!   We never book nonrefundable,  and when doing a change in April confirmed this, yet now it is showing that! Eek calling the Big Box! 

[Alberta Quilter]

Now you guys have me worried.  I haven't made any changes to my future bookings but checked on them just now.  I don't see anywhere where it says it is refundable or not.  Where does it show on the confirmation from the Big Box Agency?  

[IPB4IGO]

9 minutes ago, Alberta Quilter said:

Now you guys have me worried.  I haven't made any changes to my future bookings but checked on them just now.  I don't see anywhere where it says it is refundable or not.  Where does it show on the confirmation from the Big Box Agency?  

If it was really a non-refundable deposit it would show up on your confirmation like this:

 

[IPB4IGO]

14 minutes ago, Alberta Quilter said:

Now you guys have me worried.  I haven't made any changes to my future bookings but checked on them just now.  I don't see anywhere where it says it is refundable or not.  Where does it show on the confirmation from the Big Box Agency?  

If it shows up as non-refundable when you look at your account at the Big Box travel site, it would look like this. It apparently is an error in their system that causes a refundable deposit to show as non-refundable on the online site.

Edited June 30, 2020 by IPB4IGO

[Alberta Quilter]

Thank you!  Mine still show as refundable, then.  But I will continue to review that section of the confirmation.

[bennybear]

1 hour ago, IPB4IGO said:

If it shows up as non-refundable when you look at your account at the Big Box travel site, it would look like this. It apparently is an error in their system that causes a refundable deposit to show as non-refundable on the online site.

Will they be fixing this or does each individual need to call?

[IPB4IGO]

1 hour ago, bennybear said:

Will they be fixing this or does each individual need to call?

I don't know.

 

From what HAL told the Big Box agent, it is merely a problem with the notice appearing on the online site, not with the deposit actually becoming non-refundable.

[VacationCharlene]

Thanks for the heads-up.  I went into my account at the Big Hotdog place and there it was..........I will wait a couple days before calling.  Hope they find that switch that shows we are paid in full lol

 

[Loreto]

I called today and the agent said it was a computer glitch that they were aware of.  She sent a notice to her supervisor to send me a new invoice when it is corrected...which could be in a couple of weeks.  I just like to have everything in order and in print for my records. 

[IPB4IGO]

I received a new confirmation today, and it no longer says "non-refundable deposit". I checked online at the agent's site, and it has been corrected as well.

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, IPB4IGO said:

I received a new confirmation today, and it no longer says "non-refundable deposit". I checked online at the agent's site, and it has been corrected as well.

Good, it is nice to know that persistence when you are right often pays off.

[bennybear]

Thanks! Ours is fixed now too!

5 hours ago, IPB4IGO said:

I received a new confirmation today, and it no longer says "non-refundable deposit". I checked online at the agent's site, and it has been corrected as well.