Unable to use FCC in time question.

[TinkBellaMom]

I’ll try to make this as short as possible.  We, like many others, had multiple cruises cancelled in recent times.  We are just getting things sorted out.  We have never been on any cruises except Royal, we are Diamond and very close to D+.

We were booked on the Jewel in Jan. and paid in full when it was cancelled.  We ended up with FCC to put towards our Odyssey cruise in 30 days.  However, the final payment came due before the FCC came through.  We have no cruises booked that are not already paid because of past FCC’s.  We have 1 booked, a Baltic in June 2023, but that one falls outside of the sail-by date.  
Royal won’t budge, saying we have to use it or give to a family member.  Period.

Our position is that we have been loyal, never taken our money back in all this time, sometimes leaving thousands on the books.  We have rescheduled all of the cruises and a few extras.  This FCC is a result of Royal canceling a cruise not us.

Not sure if there is something we can do to change things.

Any ideas?

[RosieRoo]

So, we were also on a cancelled back to back on Jewel in January. I refused to take the FCC and made them transfer the money to bookings I already had in place. I know it’s too late now for you to do that. My advice would be to call Crown and Anchor directly and see if they will help you out. I know they are trying to accommodate people on a case to case basis. Good luck. 

[TinkBellaMom]

Thank you for the input.  I tried calling customer service and I got cut-off twice, waited a total of 2 hrs. 45 min. on hold.  I was told no exceptions, one woman told me there was no reason to get a supervisor when I asked because the supervisor would give me the same answer.  I tried C&A, he said no exceptions.  I wrote customer service but they have not responded.  I’ve been completely disappointed in the way I’ve been treated.  

[PTC DAWG]

3 minutes ago, TinkBellaMom said:

Thank you for the input.  I tried calling customer service and I got cut-off twice, waited a total of 2 hrs. 45 min. on hold.  I was told no exceptions, one woman told me there was no reason to get a supervisor when I asked because the supervisor would give me the same answer.  I tried C&A, he said no exceptions.  I wrote customer service but they have not responded.  I’ve been completely disappointed in the way I’ve been treated.  

Did you get a % bump on the FCC'S?  If so, you took a big gamble and lost....I would do my best to find a way to use some of the FCC monies..upgrade in cabin, etc...

Edited February 24, 2022 by PTC DAWG

[RosieRoo]

5 minutes ago, TinkBellaMom said:

Thank you for the input.  I tried calling customer service and I got cut-off twice, waited a total of 2 hrs. 45 min. on hold.  I was told no exceptions, one woman told me there was no reason to get a supervisor when I asked because the supervisor would give me the same answer.  I tried C&A, he said no exceptions.  I wrote customer service but they have not responded.  I’ve been completely disappointed in the way I’ve been treated.  

I’m sorry you haven’t had any luck. After having multiple cruises cancelled during the pandemic there was no way I wanted any more FCC. I called C&A the day after they cancelled the Jewel and had the money moved. It wasn’t easy, but I was determined.  I’m not sure where to tell you to try if you already tried C&A.  They were super helpful when I called them. Is this the number you called (800) 526-9723?

[soremekun]

11 hours ago, TinkBellaMom said:

Royal won’t budge, saying we have to use it or give to a family member.  

Any ideas?

Auntie, is that you?

[PTC DAWG]

3 minutes ago, soremekun said:

Auntie, is that you?

LOL......good one.  

[TinkBellaMom]

16 hours ago, PTC DAWG said:

Did you get a % bump on the FCC'S?  If so, you took a big gamble and lost....I would do my best to find a way to use some of the FCC monies..upgrade in cabin, etc...

I see that I did gamble.  When I originally decided to take it as our Odyssey cruise was a splurge, as balcony rooms were a little pricey, I was planning on applying the FCC to offset the price.  Then it didn’t come thru in time.

I admit I blew it!  We had used previous FCCs very easily.  I even asked if they would take the bonus off and return our actual money, apply it to an acct where we could book excursions or Wi-Fi or Specialty dinners.  They said no.  Lesson learned.

[TinkBellaMom]

16 hours ago, RosieRoo said:

I’m sorry you haven’t had any luck. After having multiple cruises cancelled during the pandemic there was no way I wanted any more FCC. I called C&A the day after they cancelled the Jewel and had the money moved. It wasn’t easy, but I was determined.  I’m not sure where to tell you to try if you already tried C&A.  They were super helpful when I called them. Is this the number you called (800) 526-9723?

Yes that is the number I used.☹️I may take another crack at it today.  What’s the worst that could happen?  They keep my money?😊

side note, we tried for a Royal Up on Odyssey.  Our luggage tags became available today.  So they didn’t except our bid.  If I knew what I know now I might have bid higher.  Trying to look at the bright side, we are healthy enough to travel.

Edited February 25, 2022 by TinkBellaMom

[soremekun]

In cases such as these, do people sell their FCCs for 75% of value so as not to lose everything?

[TinkBellaMom]

Yes, I was told we could gift a family member, wink wink.  He said whatever you can personally work out is your business.  At this point we are hoping to find a solution with Royal.

[Sunshine3601]

1 hour ago, TinkBellaMom said:

Yes that is the number I used.☹️I may take another crack at it today.  What’s the worst that could happen?  They keep my money?😊

side note, we tried for a Royal Up on Odyssey.  Our luggage tags became available today.  So they didn’t except our bid.  If I knew what I know now I might have bid higher.  Trying to look at the bright side, we are healthy enough to travel.

You cannot use fcc for royal up, so that would not have worked anyway.

Call c&a and ask if you can apply your fcc to your odyssey sailing then get cash back from what you paid with your credit card.  

[TinkBellaMom]

23 hours ago, Sunshine3601 said:

You cannot use fcc for royal up, so that would not have worked anyway.

Call c&a and ask if you can apply your fcc to your odyssey sailing then get cash back from what you paid with your credit card.  

I didn’t think to ask to apply to Odyssey sailing and get my money returned to my credit card.  I’ll try that.  Thank you!

[SliceOfLife]

I had issues with FCC's being applied to my current cruise. I had called several times before and they would say it's fixed wait a week to see it reflected on your account. It was a nightmare, I was on hold for over 5 hours, they would come back ask a question and put me back on hold and they eventually hung up on me.  I finally had things taken care of once I went to RCCL's facebook page and went on a rant. 

 

I would try Facebook or Twitter if the option of having your money returned to your credit card doesn't work. 

[Ourusualbeach]

On 2/24/2022 at 3:53 AM, TinkBellaMom said:

I’ll try to make this as short as possible.  We, like many others, had multiple cruises cancelled in recent times.  We are just getting things sorted out.  We have never been on any cruises except Royal, we are Diamond and very close to D+.

We were booked on the Jewel in Jan. and paid in full when it was cancelled.  We ended up with FCC to put towards our Odyssey cruise in 30 days.  However, the final payment came due before the FCC came through.  We have no cruises booked that are not already paid because of past FCC’s.  We have 1 booked, a Baltic in June 2023, but that one falls outside of the sail-by date.  
Royal won’t budge, saying we have to use it or give to a family member.  Period.

Our position is that we have been loyal, never taken our money back in all this time, sometimes leaving thousands on the books.  We have rescheduled all of the cruises and a few extras.  This FCC is a result of Royal canceling a cruise not us.

Not sure if there is something we can do to change things.

Any ideas?

Book a cruise that departs before Sept 30 2022.  Find one that is close in price to your FCC value but uses up all your fcc. Cancel that cruise under CWC and the FCC will be reissued with an expiry date of 12 months from the sailing date of the cancelled cruise. 

Edited February 26, 2022 by Ourusualbeach

[brillohead]

59 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Book a cruise that departs before Sept 30 2022.  Find one that is close in price to your FCC value but uses up all your fcc. Cancel that cruise under CWC and the FCC will be reissued with an expiry date of 12 months from the sailing date of the cancelled cruise. 

I knew Ken would have a solution!!!

Another thing I've done with FCCs is add prepaid gratuities to a booking, then apply the FCC to that sailing. 

 

In my case, my FCC was a small amount (for Hurricane Dorian issues), and one cruise was enough to eat it all up.  In your case, you'd have to piecemeal it (apply to grats for one cruise, get balance reissued, apply that to grats for next cruise, get balance reissued, etc.), but at least it would use up the FCC and save you some money out of pocket.

[Ourusualbeach]

3 minutes ago, brillohead said:

I knew Ken would have a solution!!!

Another thing I've done with FCCs is add prepaid gratuities to a booking, then apply the FCC to that sailing. 

 

In my case, my FCC was a small amount (for Hurricane Dorian issues), and one cruise was enough to eat it all up.  In your case, you'd have to piecemeal it (apply to grats for one cruise, get balance reissued, apply that to grats for next cruise, get balance reissued, etc.), but at least it would use up the FCC and save you some money out of pocket.

Thanks.

 

Adding prepaid gratuities only helps if you have put gown a cash deposit that wasn't fully used up by taxes and fees. The FCC can still only be used against cruisecfare, it's just how the cash portion is allocated.  This was more important in the early days when they wouldn't allow FCC's for the deposit

[brillohead]

1 minute ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Thanks.

 

Adding prepaid gratuities only helps if you have put gown a cash deposit that wasn't fully used up by taxes and fees. The FCC can still only be used against cruisecfare, it's just how the cash portion is allocated.  This was more important in the early days when they wouldn't allow FCC's for the deposit

Good clarification... I wasn't thinking about the fact that the OP's other cruises had been paid via FCCs as well.

Once again, Ken for the win! 

[SRF]

On 2/26/2022 at 9:30 AM, Ourusualbeach said:

Book a cruise that departs before Sept 30 2022.  Find one that is close in price to your FCC value but uses up all your fcc. Cancel that cruise under CWC and the FCC will be reissued with an expiry date of 12 months from the sailing date of the cancelled cruise. 

 

I was wondering if that would work.

 

Or, can you still book a cruise covered by CWC, book, pay with FCC, then cancel and get a refund

[molly361]

Can't they book a cruise for May and then when they announce the protocols say they don't agree with them and get a refund instead of a FCC?

[Ourusualbeach]

30 minutes ago, SRF said:

 

I was wondering if that would work.

 

Or, can you still book a cruise covered by CWC, book, pay with FCC, then cancel and get a refund

Cant get a refund of a FCC except in certain circumstances like before when they introduced the mask everywhere policy.  No luck now.

[Ourusualbeach]

29 minutes ago, molly361 said:

Can't they book a cruise for May and then when they announce the protocols say they don't agree with them and get a refund instead of a FCC?

Since protocols are getting better I'm not sure they are allowing refunds anymore

[cublet]

Hello,

 

I had cruises booked on Anthem ex Soton in August, September & October last year.

 

All the itineraries were cancelled (in my terminology) but most departure dates kept so Royal argued that, as the departure & arrival port were the same, these cruises had not been cancelled.

 

The offer was a refund or OBC for the difference in the original cruise cost paid and the 'new itineraries' cruise cost - substantially lower. A 25% uplift on FCCs was not offered.

 

I had paid for two of these with a mixture of FCC and Cash, one wholly in FCC and two wholly in cash.

 

One of these I asked to be cancelled under CWC and the others to be refunded. This one I cancelled under CWC, Royal are saying they will not issue the new FCC at the original value, ie including the 25% uplift, because I cancelled - a possible loss to me of over £200. My TA is arguing.

 

The others, either paid wholly or in part with an FCC, the original net cost, ie minus the 25% uplift, have been refunded to my credit cards. Whilst it's nice to have the cash, I am now £800 down due to the loss of the uplift on FCCs from as far back as 2020. I didn't expect the refund to be back to the year dot, but a refund of new monies paid in 2021. (Being a very retired bean-counter I do understand that Royal, having got its credit lines in place, saved 20% in crystallising its FCC liabilities.)

 

The cruises paid wholly in new money have been refunded to my CC.

 

And, not for the first time, I am trying to keep hold of some NextCruise Booking- On-Board Onboard Credit that was on one of them that the Miami muppets we are having to deal with say is not transferable (again).

 

I am looking forward to an uncomplicated 2023 when I sail with Cunard and P&O.

 

Regards,

 

Cublet

[joyandjerry]

I had a very positive experience with the phone rep several weeks ago. I was put on hold for about 20 minutes, but then she called me back later in the day with all rectified. My issue was that the FCC would not arrive in time for the final payment on the next cruise. She moved the date of final pay to two weeks prior to sailing, and put in a request to expedite the FCC, which they did.

 

Good luck to the OP, and blessed cruising to all!

[SRF]

It seems the itineraries were CHANGED.  The ship still sailed.

 

Itineraries are not guaranteed.

 

So you DID cancel the cruises, and are subject to the rules based on your cancelling the cruise.