Disappointed 😔

[traceytd]

I was told by a Princess staff member that if you use OBC pre cruise to pay for excursion and cancel, they don’t give you your OBC back. You lose them. I asked her «  if I change my mind and want to book something in the spa instead » she said no, the OBC would be lost.
If you book with a credit card, you get your refund back on your card but OBC doesn’t work like that.

I am disappointed. 

[RJAM3]

16 minutes ago, traceytd said:

I was told by a Princess staff member that if you use OBC pre cruise to pay for excursion and cancel, they don’t give you your OBC back. You lose them. I asked her «  if I change my mind and want to book something in the spa instead » she said no, the OBC would be lost.
If you book with a credit card, you get your refund back on your card but OBC doesn’t work like that.

I am disappointed. 

If the Princess staff is correct it is a real change of policy.  Have always been able to cancel most excursions up to 24 hours ahead and immediately get the OBC back. In fact I canceled a tour in Skagway last week and the OBC was immediately credited I then rebooked a different excursion using the OBC again.

Edited July 19, 2021 by RJAM3

[dog]

13 minutes ago, traceytd said:

I was told by a Princess staff member that if you use OBC pre cruise to pay for excursion and cancel, they don’t give you your OBC back. You lose them. I asked her «  if I change my mind and want to book something in the spa instead » she said no, the OBC would be lost.
If you book with a credit card, you get your refund back on your card but OBC doesn’t work like that.

I am disappointed. 

I have used OBC to book excursions pre cruise and changed my mind got OBC back in my account to use elsewhere 

[traceytd]

Just now, RJAM3 said:

If the Princess staff is correct it is a real change of policy.  Have always been able to cancel most excursions up to 24 hours ahead and immediately get the OBC back. 

I called back and spoke to 2 others that confirmed it. You can cancel up to 5 days prior but don’t get the OBC back. 
 

[jwattle]

They're full of...beans.

16 minutes ago, traceytd said:

I was told by a Princess staff member that if you use OBC pre cruise to pay for excursion and cancel, they don’t give you your OBC back. You lose them. I asked her «  if I change my mind and want to book something in the spa instead » she said no, the OBC would be lost.
If you book with a credit card, you get your refund back on your card but OBC doesn’t work like that.

I am disappointed. 

They're full of...beans. Have done it and cancelled very recently. OBC right back where it belonged. Unless there is something different and new when you're actually onboard. I'd call back and talk to someone else...

[traceytd]

2 minutes ago, dog said:

I have used OBC to book excursions pre cruise and changed my mind got OBC back in my account to use elsewhere 

One of the person I spoke with told me they had to double check with their supervisor.  They put me on hold for about 15 minutes, came back and said the same. You lose them. 
 

[traceytd]

   I’m actually going to call back. This will be the fourth time that I speak to someone in regards to this. I agree with all of you guys I’ve never heard of that before. But three different phone calls and they all told me the same thing. One thing I didn’t think about was to contact my PVP.

This way I can get it in writing. 
   One positive thing I did find out about the excursions, princess offers price match.
“Best price guarantee “

[waltd]

If Princess did change the rules they better put it in writing.  If not there are going to be a lot of angry customers. 

[traceytd]

5 minutes ago, waltd said:

If Princess did change the rules they better put it in writing.  If not there are going to be a lot of angry customers. 

 

i don’t even understand what this means so this is why I called. I was confused.

[dog]

If this is changed then I will only book excursions once I am on-board the ship 

[waltd]

What am I missing. This says nothing about payment with on  board credit just prepaid shore excursions.   Looks the same to me.   And how can you have a shore excursion balance?    If you reserve the shore excursion prior to boarding it has to be paid in full or no shore excursion, right?

Edited July 20, 2021 by waltd

[MustangGT]

11 minutes ago, waltd said:

What am I missing. This says nothing about payment with on  board credit just prepaid shore excursions.   Looks the same to me.   And how can you have a shore excursion balance?    If you reserve the shore excursion prior to boarding it has to be paid in full or no shore excursion, right?

Exactly!

[beaglesandducks]

You can have a credit in shore excursions as if you cancel a different excursion and then book another within a short time frame   If you don't book another excursion they credit your credit card   As to the topic of this thread i have used obc to book excursions and if i cancelled it was returned to my obc account   

[Coral]

I recently cancelled shore excursions and it went back to OBC. I did this 2 weeks ago or so.

[Italy52]

 A week ago I called Princess Shore Excursions and said that I wanted to choose a later start time than what I had on my reservation.  I was told to cancel the reservation and then rebook to get the time I wanted.  Did that with no problem.  My OBC was back in my account and then out again within a few minutes.

[Lucky TGO]

2 hours ago, jwattle said:

They're full of...beans.

They're full of...beans. Have done it and cancelled very recently. OBC right back where it belonged. Unless there is something different and new when you're actually onboard. I'd call back and talk to someone else...

Hi Jo,

Boy did you clean that up (Beans😳😁). Your right call back and talk to someone else.

Tony

[cruzsnooze]

The OP is not in the USA and different policy could apply. 

[Steelers36]

3 hours ago, traceytd said:

 

i don’t even understand what this means so this is why I called. I was confused.

The policy seems to be silent on pre-paid with OBC.  Like others, if Princess is changing past practice and policy they should have red-flagged and announced.  Can't just take OBC from people if it wasn't the case before.

[Mud_Shark]

I did it 10 days ago - no problem.  Cancelled one excursion and re-booked another minutes later.  No issue.

 

I suspect this is simply mis-information or confusion on the part of Princess reps.  If not, this would be a serious change in policy apt to alienate far more customers than the recent reduction in useful Captain's circle benefits.

 

Don

Edited July 20, 2021 by Mud_Shark

[007colocruz]

7 hours ago, cruzsnooze said:

The OP is not in the USA and different policy could apply. 

Canada is the same.

 

I've cancelled and rebooked with OBC many times.

Edited July 20, 2021 by 007colocruz

[dog]

10 hours ago, dog said:

If this is changed then I will only book excursions once I am on-board the ship 

I just cancelled one of our excursions paid with OBC. And booked another with the same OBC 

Canadian booking. 
 

call back and ask again 

[Tyskie]

It's been years since I have booked a Princess excursion with OBC.  

To use the OBC, do you have to call Princess?  I didn't see where you could do it online.

Advise would be appreciated!.  Thank You

 

[skynight]

Here is the cancellation policy. The cancellation policy does not specifically separate OBC pre-payment from credit card pre-payment. My reading is that the policy would be the same for both. For nos. 1 & 2 don't quite understand what a shore excursion balance would be. If you indeed lose your OBC then many would refuse to book prior to the cruise, and I guess Princess has further lost their customer friendly business sense.

"Cancellation of Pre-Paid Shore Excursions:

If you have pre-paid a shore excursion and wish to cancel, the following shall also apply:

If a pre-paid shore excursion is cancelled five (5) days or more prior to sailing a refund of the pre-paid amount will be made in one of the following ways:

1. If there is a shore excursion balance for the guest named on the reservation being cancelled then the pre-paid amount shall be applied to this balance.

   Or,

2. If there is no shore excursion balance for the guest named on the reservation being cancelled then the pre-paid amount will be refunded to the credit card used to pre-pay the shore excursion. All refunds will be processed in due course, but delays should be anticipated. Please allow sufficient time for us to manage this process and know we are doing everything in our power to expedite where possible. We appreciate your patience and understanding.

If a pre-paid shore excursion is not cancelled within the above time frame or is cancelled during the voyage prior to the "Closing Time for Cancellation" listed for the particular excursion you wish to cancel, then the pre-paid amount will be refunded to the guest named on the pre-paid reservation as a shipboard credit on this guest's shipboard folio. Please note this is done regardless of which guest pre-paid for the shore excursion."

[dog]

40 minutes ago, Tyskie said:

It's been years since I have booked a Princess excursion with OBC.  

To use the OBC, do you have to call Princess?  I didn't see where you could do it online.

Advise would be appreciated!.  Thank You

 

Go to your booking in personalizer. Click on excursions link. You can see excursions offered and select them 

goes to payment. Mine offers pay by credit card or OBC. 
I have ability to change and cancel mine online, as well. 
 

should read carefully as some cannot be cancelled  

[CeCe_]

13 hours ago, traceytd said:

I was told by a Princess staff member that if you use OBC pre cruise to pay for excursion and cancel, they don’t give you your OBC back. You lose them. I asked her «  if I change my mind and want to book something in the spa instead » she said no, the OBC would be lost.
If you book with a credit card, you get your refund back on your card but OBC doesn’t work like that.

I am disappointed. 

 

The refund of OBC is a bit shady.  We booked 3 excursions, A, B, C on different three dates.  We used all of our OBC to pay part of excursion A, the rest was cc charge.  Excursions B and C were 100% cc charge.  When we cancelled C, we expected full refund of C to our cc, but Princess gave us partial refund back to our cc, and full OBC refunded.  We had to dispute hard to make thing "right".

Edited July 20, 2021 by CeCe_