New for Future Cruise Deposit

[startedwithamouse]

11 hours ago, CaribbeanIsland said:

It would benefit Princess to keep the program as it is as they get money to hold until people cruise.

 

Not everyone lives near a cruise port.

But it's much better for Princess to have several thousand dollars in a shorter amount of time (the year). 

[startedwithamouse]

5 hours ago, Redwing55 said:

That's disappointing.  I'd be OK if they would offer an option to extend it if requested.  But refunding it after 12 months?  Seems short.  Selfishly, if they continue with the 1 year, they could add it as a perk for Platinums.  

 

Still, I wonder why after all these years and cycles, they determined that this is a good time to modify this program.

Says they expire after 12 months, who says a refund is coming that quickly?

[Steelers36]

13 hours ago, phabric said:

Yesterday on Carmen Roig’s webinar, she announced effective April (I think April 5) that FCD will only be good for 1 year.  If you have FCD before that date, your FCD will still be good for 2 years.

[jagoffee]

2 hours ago, Mingus said:

The new guarantee fares are what used to be the basic fares, i.e. basic fares have increased to allow for refundable deposits.

How do you know?  Did you have a cruise booked an noticed that the fare went up exactly $100 when Princess made the change? 

 

Wait until Princess implements a policy like the Celebrity policy.  A non refundable deposit is the norm, you have to pay a clearly defined extra amount to make the deposit refundable.  You can move the non refundable deposit to another cruise for a $100 penalty per person.  

 

 

[Steelers36]

6 hours ago, dreaminofcruisin said:

Hmmmm....after all these years to change it from 2 years to 1 year seems very odd. I wonder if this is just the first step before they go away all together? 🤷‍♀️

Maybe Princess doesn't like giving away all the OBC?

Not really "all these years".  Not so long ago, it was 4 years and reduced to 2 years.

[Steelers36]

14 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

How do you know?  Did you have a cruise booked an noticed that the fare went up exactly $100 when Princess made the change? 

 

Wait until Princess implements a policy like the Celebrity policy.  A non refundable deposit is the norm, you have to pay a clearly defined extra amount to make the deposit refundable.  You can move the non refundable deposit to another cruise for a $100 penalty per person.  

 

 

Princess IS doing similar for an unknown number of voyages already.  The lowest fare in each category (also called "lead in fare" and we know as typically the "F" category) is converted to a Non-Ref deposit and you need to book at least one level up to get Ref deposit.  That fare difference is looking like $100 on 2/3 cruises price-checked.  The other thing is no cabin selection for the bottom category - GTY only.  If you book the "E" (such as IE or BE), then you are selecting from what used to be "F" cabins.  And there is a penalty of $100 if guest decides to move to another voyage. 

 

I also saw noted on the cruise selection pages of Princess.com that the Plus fare was also noted as a Non-Ref deposit and had to be booking Premium fare to get Ref deposit in the lowest category.  However, checking on a 3rd party booking engine, the only Non-Ref fare code (this was last week) was for the Standard fare of the lead-in category (IF/BF, for example).

 

 

[Steelers36]

2 hours ago, Mingus said:

The new guarantee fares are what used to be the basic fares, i.e. basic fares have increased to allow for refundable deposits.

You may have things correct in your head, but perhaps not translated well above with full info.  Princess has been selling Standard, Plus and Premier for a while now.  I presume by "basic", you mean Standard and I think they did use "Basic" before. 

 

Not all Standard fares are Non-Refundable.  From xE through xA (xD thru xA for mini-suites), the deposits are Refundable, so it is just the "lead-in", or bottom category, that is now only Non-Refundable deposit.  In so doing, an IE is now $100 more than the IF, for example, and based on checking out a couple of voyages being sold using the new scheme. 

 

There was always a price increase before when booking IE over IF... and more increases as move up through the letters to the IA (replace with B for Balconies and same idea).  That said, the price differential between F and E and between E and D was always pretty consistent, with some extra bump when moving from a B to an A (a more recent trend). 

 

So, now you see $100 price difference between F and E.  If the difference before was $25/$30, it is a significant change.  That said, I have no idea for voyages I looked at if Princess reduced the F rate somewhat and increased the E rate somewhat, or change only one of them.  The range of increase from E to D and D to C returns to a consistent amount and less than $100. 

 

When Princess sold both Ref and Non-Ref fares for the same voyage (pre-Covid), generally the Non-Ref fare cost was less for the voyage than the Ref fare. 

 

Personally, I would not book the Non-Ref fare and also don't happen to book F category anyway as we don't want to be extreme forward cabin position.  I wouldn't think Princess just increased all cabins by $100, except the lead-in, but again I have no data to prove how it was implemented (i.e. before/after pricing).

 

 

[Guest ldtr]

55 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

How do you know?  Did you have a cruise booked an noticed that the fare went up exactly $100 when Princess made the change? 

 

Wait until Princess implements a policy like the Celebrity policy.  A non refundable deposit is the norm, you have to pay a clearly defined extra amount to make the deposit refundable.  You can move the non refundable deposit to another cruise for a $100 penalty per person.  

 

 

With the Sun Princess, the focus on Packages, and some other changes Princess certainly seems  to be starting to move more in the direction of Celebrities business practices.

[LibertyBella]

The move to non-refundable deposits, or even non-refundable full payment at a discount price, has been in place with many hotels for a number of years.  I even have to provide a credit card now for booking restaurants in popular areas (no-shows or last-minute cancellations are charged).

 

Perhaps the cruise industry, which has been stating very publicly that they are a better deal than resort hotel vacations, are finally realizing they have been perhaps a bit too lenient with their travelers.

 

Do we have to like it?  No, but we have to realize that effective business practices help the industry survive, and perhaps even thrive.  This will be my 50th year of cruising, and I have seen many changes, but I will never stop cruising until I am too feeble to function.  BTW, I am leaving in five days for my next cruise, so I really should stop reading the CC website and get packing!

 

 

[rnr4thatsme]

So with Princess FCD, you get immediate OBC?   What happens if you don’t use the FCD and it gets refunded?

[Ken the cruiser]

20 minutes ago, rnr4thatsme said:

So with Princess FCD, you get immediate OBC?   What happens if you don’t use the FCD and it gets refunded?

You do? We didn’t know that. 🤔

[Guest ldtr]

26 minutes ago, rnr4thatsme said:

So with Princess FCD, you get immediate OBC?   What happens if you don’t use the FCD and it gets refunded?

The OBC is gone.  You only get it for the cruise you apply the FCD to.  No use of FCD, no OBC. You just get your $100 refunded.

[Thrak]

16 hours ago, LibertyBella said:

BTW, I am leaving in five days for my next cruise, so I really should stop reading the CC website and get packing!

 

Don't forget to purchase more FCD as any purchased on your cruise will still have the 2 year expiration period. I think I would probably buy 4 or 5 for each of us. Unfortunately, we don't cruise again until the end of October. (I have suggested a few of the drop and go rates such as 14 or 15 day Hawaiian cruises but my wife isn't going for it. D'Oh!)

[Ombud]

Well that answers the question about how many to buy on my April, May, and June cruises = 0.  As in none. I'm booked out until April 2024

[Ombud]

On 3/24/2023 at 6:33 AM, phabric said:

Yesterday on Carmen Roig’s webinar, she announced effective April (I think April 5) that FCD will only be good for 1 year.  If you have FCD before that date, your FCD will still be good for 2 years.

Can you share a link?

[phabric]

I posted on #11 what was showed on the webinar.

 

I found Carmen Roig on Facebook and follow her when she posts a new webinar 

[phabric]

Here is Carmen Roig on Facebookbook 

Edited March 26, 2023 by phabric