FCC used for deposit

[travelhound]

Has anyone successfully used their FCC to be credited against a deposit on a new cruise? I called Princess yesterday and after spending 15 minutes getting everything booked I was told I needed to give them a credit card for a $400 deposit. When I said I wanted to use part of my FCC he said I couldn't. I spent another 10 minutes on hold as he talked to two supervisors to see if they could do it. His answer was that if I had a future deposit credit I could use it. That's crazy! Anyone been able to use FCC without putting down more money. I'm not giving them more money until I see some actual Caribbean cruises going out and coming back.

[AF-1]

Yes my travel agent used it.  When our Oct 2020 New England cruise cancelled Princess gave us FCC towards another cruise.  We used it for deposit for 2021 New England Cruise;  which will most likely cancel because of no ships allowed to dock in Canada;  will pay it forward towards another cruise to New England and Canada;  most likely in 2022

[franktown]

I wasn't able to.

[jwattle]

We used ours from our cancelled November  2020 Enchanted Princess as deposit and PIF on a future cruise. It has since been cancelled, and the same FCC used as deposit and payment in full on the next replacement cruises.. I have hard of people from "Pause 1" not being able to use theirs.

My advice: call back, unless you were pause one.

Do you still have the email that came to advise you of the conditions of your FCC, or look on the Princess site or let us know the date of your cancelled cruise; it may state under their top "cancelled cruises" banner the terms for your specific FCC ,

Edited February 17, 2021 by jwattle

[travelhound]

Thanks for all of the input. I didn't realize there was a difference in pause 1. That would be us. This is from last March. I'll look up the terms. I thought it just said it could only be used for cruise fare, which I would think a deposit qualifies.

[thinfool]

There have been several changes to the FCC program that Princess offers.

I will say that, prior to Covid, an FCC could never, ever be used for a Deposit.  And, as you were told, an FCD was/is designed to be used as a reduced deposit with the associated OBC.

To you and me, a deposit is money, and either an FCC or an FCD are money towards the cruise you are trying to book.  I think the bean counters have had their way with all of this, hence the confusion and muddled messaging that is out there now.

[Ombud]

Pause 1- didn't satisfy deposit

Pause 3 - satisfied deposit 

[voljeep]

not sure which 'pause' we were in, but we had paid $1,000 toward cruise fare, cruise cancelled by Princess, took double deposit, so we now have $ 2,000 in our account - have had no trouble using this as deposits on future cruises, a couple of which have also been cancelled ( we got no additional bonus FCC as we had NOT put in any NEW money )

 

currently next scheduled cruise is 4/2022 and that $ 2,000 has been applied to that cruise fare and no additional cruise deposit was required

[travelhound]

I think we're screwed then. Our cruise was the second week cancelled last March. Grrr.

[Aulanis]

Our Cruise  10 march  20was cancelled while we were on board.

We have used our FCC  to pay in full for a cruise.

Assume you have read this

https://www.princess.com/plan/impacted-and-cancelled-cruises/

and the FAQ   doesnt say anywhere that it cant be used for deposit

Also says it has a monetary value and is in lieu of a refund.

 

Maybe ask them where it says it cant be used as a deposit.

 

If all fails  and you do pay by cr card  at least if it is cancelled

you can claim back straight away on the card. 

[Aulanis]

Forgot to say - what happens when you book online  - it usually

applies the fcc straight away.

Also you could try through a TA- see what they can come up with.

 

[kamelia]

I have been able to use Future Cruise Credits as deposits for two 2022 cruises, so this information is based on my firsthand experience. 

 

Because of two cancelled cruises, I each had four $100 credits in my Future Cruise Credits account, two marked as "Cash Value Fcc-voy Xxxxx-100%" and two marked as "Used For Goodwill Fccs."  Two of these credits had been from previous Future Cruise Deposits that had been applied to the cancelled bookings, and my Princess Vacation Planner said that they could be reinstated as Future Cruise Deposits, and the other Future Cruise Credits used to reduce the final payment amount due for the cruises I was now booking.  So, I now have two booked cruises and $200 for each of us has been applied to the final payment amount due for each new booking.  Of note: there is no corresponding Onboard Credit as I would have expected if I had used an active Future Cruise Deposit.  YMMV, but I hope this helps shed some light.

[Ombud]

Hence the difference between Pause 1 and later Pauses. 

 

@travelhounddo you have enough FCC to cover the entire cruise fare?? Not the taxes, fees, port charges, insurance. Just the cruise. 

 

[Astro Flyer]

I was in pause #1 & couldn’t use it as a deposit so used FCC to pay the entire cruise fare for my 3 future bookings instead of making a cash deposit.

Edited February 17, 2021 by Astro Flyer

[jwattle]

Also, the "goodwill" portion of FCC's cannot be used for deposits

[travelhound]

I think I see the difference now. Ours are goodwill credits. We got our money back for the cancelled cruise and then got the goodwill FCC as a bonus. It all comes in perfectly when booked online and subtracts from the cruise fair but it still has a $400 deposit. Looks like there's no way around it. The highest level oceanview cabin is exactly the same as our credit. Our daughters is about $75 less, but I don't feel bad about leaving that out there. So, given this is the only Princess cruise during her spring break and it was a good price, I paid the $400. We're only paying port, so our balance is #110. If, God forbid, this doesn't sail, we should be able to get that money back.

 

Thanks again to everyone who helped make it more understandable. None of the documentation says it can't be used for a deposit, but even when the agent asked two different supervisors, they couldn't make it work.

 

We're getting ready for a second spring break without a cruise. Longest stretch ever. Thank goodness for Florida. We'll be going there again this year.

[jagoffee]

Travel hound, since the good will FCCs are not refundable and have no cash value, it does seem logical and fair. Especially since you received a full cash refund.

 

In my case, I took advantage of the double deposit FCC offer.  Therefore I have a mixture of refundable FCC’s and non refundable good will FCCs with expiration dates.  
 

I am a little confused.  Can I used my refundable FCCs has a deposit?  I cannot imagine that it would not be allowed.

 

Thanks

 

 

[voljeep]

3 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

Travel hound, since the good will FCCs are not refundable and have no cash value, it does seem logical and fair. Especially since you received a full cash refund.

 

In my case, I took advantage of the double deposit FCC offer.  Therefore I have a mixture of refundable FCC’s and non refundable good will FCCs with expiration dates.  
 

I am a little confused.  Can I used my refundable FCCs has a deposit?  I cannot imagine that it would not be allowed.

 

Thanks

 

 

see post # 8 above - we go thru a Princess PVP and have had no trouble using our FCC as deposits - even the PVP extending a "courtesy hold' from a couple of days to a couple of months to allow for the FCC to be back into our account after a cancelling

 

j/s

[jagoffee]

1 hour ago, voljeep said:

see post # 8 above - we go thru a Princess PVP and have had no trouble using our FCC as deposits - even the PVP extending a "courtesy hold' from a couple of days to a couple of months to allow for the FCC to be back into our account after a cancelling

 

j/s

Thanks.  I figured that it would be the case.  I was getting a little confused after reading this thread.  I am using a TA, but I am not ready to book a new cruise.
 

 I am hoping that the book by and cruise by dates on some of mine are pushed out.  Ideally I would like to use them for one of the new 2023 releases.  I figure that I  not need to be concerned until cruising restarts.  The worse case is that I lose my Goodwill FCCs.  

[Ombud]

5 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

Thanks.  I figured that it would be the case.  I was getting a little confused after reading this thread.  I am using a TA, but I am not ready to book a new cruise.
 

 I am hoping that the book by and cruise by dates on some of mine are pushed out.  Ideally I would like to use them for one of the new 2023 releases.  I figure that I  not need to be concerned until cruising restarts.  The worse case is that I lose my Goodwill FCCs.  

My PVP pushed mine out to use on a Fall 2022 TA. I'm sure yours can too. 

[Astro Flyer]

37 minutes ago, Ombud said:

My PVP pushed mine out to use on a Fall 2022 TA. I'm sure yours can too. 

The most recent pause on 1/6/21 has a booked by date of 5/1/22 & a sail by date of 12/31/22. Good to know that yours got extended for that cruise & if pauses continue throughout this year hopefully they’ll extend everyone’s date. 🤞

[Ombud]

She takes care of me! FCC are now 'Book By 05/01/22 and Sail By 12/31/22' and Goodwill OBC (715) are now 'Book By 10/01/22' with no sail by date. Obviously will be used on the FCC covered cruises. Gifted OBC have original dates

Edited February 18, 2021 by Ombud

[travelhound]

Ombud...sounds like you have a good PVP. I was going to ask about extending them a bit, but we also have a Royal credit that has to be used. They've already extended that through Sept 2022, so we booked Alaska with them for next summer. After we did that, I really wanted to use this one for spring break next year so I didn't need the extension. I'm glad they're allowing that because they don't have enough sailing dates to fulfill all of those people that have been cancelled in the last year.

 

Since this was basically "free" credits and we got our original money back, I didn't feel too bad about it. It helps make up for waaaay over spending on 11 days in Florida last March. Much more expensive to stay in a hotel than to cruise!

 

 

[hpeabody]

On 2/17/2021 at 2:24 PM, kamelia said:

 

Because of two cancelled cruises, I each had four $100 credits in my Future Cruise Credits account, two marked as "Cash Value Fcc-voy Xxxxx-100%" and two marked as "Used For Goodwill Fccs."  Two of these credits had been from previous Future Cruise Deposits that had been applied to the cancelled bookings

Kamelia's scenario comes closest to mine.  I had 2 cruises cancelled that I had applied FCD's as the deposit.  These were not pause 1 (That's a whole nother story)  In my case much to my amazement they took both of those and applied them as my deposit for World Cruise 2023, U.S. Island Princess, Jan 2023.  No immediate real payment due, another deposit due March 2022.

[tokyo1949]

16 hours ago, Astro Flyer said:

The most recent pause on 1/6/21 has a booked by date of 5/1/22 & a sail by date of 12/31/22. Good to know that yours got extended for that cruise & if pauses continue throughout this year hopefully they’ll extend everyone’s date. 🤞

I used my FCC from last April's cancelled cruise for deposit for this May but now fear that will be cancelled. Booked direct with Princess and had no problem using them