Can my travel partner use my HIA excursion credit?

[ExpatBride]

I have the HIA package but I'm not interested in any of the excursions in Norway – I live in Denmark and this will be my fourth fjords cruise.

 

However, my SO is an avid kayaker and there's a kayaking excursion in two of the ports. Does anyone know if I can book one of the excursions online using my HIA credit and then swap the name on the reservation once I'm onboard?

 

 

Edited June 1, 2023 by ExpatBride

[pmjnh]

Are you sharing a cabin? My understanding is that everyone in your cabin has to purchase HIA package. If that is the case, wouldn't your SO have their own package? Or are you suggesting that you give one of your excursions to him/her as an extra?

Edited June 1, 2023 by pmjnh

[REOVA]

Depends on the credit terms.  If its $200 per person, you each have to use up your own, if it's $300 per cabin, its available to anyone in the cabin. But HAL usually promotes per person as they know its use it or lose it. 

[alwaysfrantic]

Can you book it in your name, both show up to check in, you give your name, then you just wander away and your partner heads out with the group. 

[ExpatBride]

1 hour ago, pmjnh said:

Are you sharing a cabin? My understanding is that everyone in your cabin has to purchase HIA package. If that is the case, wouldn't your SO have their own package? Or are you suggesting that you give one of your excursions to him/her as an extra?

 

Yes. We both have the HIA package but I'm not interested in any of the excursions and he'd like to go on two of the kayaking ones. It seems silly to pay for the second excursion when I have a $100 credit that I won't be using.

[CruiserBruce]

52 minutes ago, ExpatBride said:

 

Yes. We both have the HIA package but I'm not interested in any of the excursions and he'd like to go on two of the kayaking ones. It seems silly to pay for the second excursion when I have a $100 credit that I won't be using.

In this situation, I don't believe you can share it.

[Ottawa traveller]

6 hours ago, alwaysfrantic said:

Can you book it in your name, both show up to check in, you give your name, then you just wander away and your partner heads out with the group. 

On my recent Japan cruise, the local tour providers scanned your room key or the HAL App at the bus door as you got on the bus.  The above suggestion would not have worked.

[ExpatBride]

3 minutes ago, Ottawa traveller said:

On my recent Japan cruise, the local tour providers scanned your room key or the HAL App at the bus door as you got on the bus.  The above suggestion would not have worked.

Unless we swap room keys or he signs into my app 🤔

Edited June 1, 2023 by ExpatBride

[VMax1700]

10 minutes ago, ExpatBride said:

Unless we swap room keys or he signs into my app 🤔

Then you would have to go off the ship with him and return with him for the security scan.

[ExpatBride]

Just now, VMax1700 said:

Then you would have to go off the ship with him and return with him for the security scan.

Not if he takes both keys 😅 But that's a good point, thank you. 

 

I think I'll just ask at the excursions desk when we board. It's not a big deal, it's just if there were an easy way to arrange it, it would be nice for him to do both excursions instead of "wasting" my credit. 

[VMax1700]

2 minutes ago, ExpatBride said:

Not if he takes both keys 

If he takes both keys then you will not be able to purchase a coffee/drink etc while he has the key. 

Or go in and out of your room.

Not a biggie, but just bear it in mind.

Edited June 1, 2023 by VMax1700

[alyssamma]

20 minutes ago, Ottawa traveller said:

On my recent Japan cruise, the local tour providers scanned your room key or the HAL App at the bus door as you got on the bus.  The above suggestion would not have worked.

Wonder if that's a Japan thing...I've never had any tour provider scan my room key ever. Even ship tours. And that is for all cruise lines.

[Cruise Suzy]

1 minute ago, alyssamma said:

Wonder if that's a Japan thing...I've never had any tour provider scan my room key ever.

Ever since the restart after COVID shutdown, every ship's excursion we've taken has scanned our room keys. Those that had Navigator on their smartphones, used that instead of their room keys. There are no more paper tickets.

[Ottawa traveller]

8 minutes ago, alyssamma said:

Wonder if that's a Japan thing...I've never had any tour provider scan my room key ever. Even ship tours. And that is for all cruise lines.

It was done that way in Alaska last summer. Our meeting point was at the bus we were to go on and the local provider scanned the app or room key. 

[alyssamma]

3 minutes ago, Cruise Suzy said:

Ever since the restart after COVID shutdown, every ship's excursion we've taken has scanned our room keys. Those that had Navigator on their smartphones, used that instead of their room keys. There are no more paper tickets.

Just got off a HAL cruise last week. Took 2 ship excursions. No one looked at my keys. Not only did I have paper (placed in my room), but it was on the app. Regardless, they only took my room number and name.

 

I've taken maybe a dozen cruises since the restart, and again, no one has ever asked for my key.

[alyssamma]

1 minute ago, Ottawa traveller said:

It was done that way in Alaska last summer. Our meeting point was at the bus we were to go on and the local provider scanned the app or room key. 

The *app* I can understand.

[Roz]

It has to be app or room key.

[ExpatBride]

3 minutes ago, Roz said:

It has to be app or room key.

So then he could just sign into my app account? I have a gender-neutral name that's not well-known in the Nordics, and he speaks with an American accent, so I don't think it would raise any eyebrows.

[alyssamma]

8 minutes ago, ExpatBride said:

So then he could just sign into my app account? I have a gender-neutral name that's not well-known in the Nordics, and he speaks with an American accent, so I don't think it would raise any eyebrows.

Again, not doubting the others, but I just returned last week from a cruise in Norway. No provider scanned anything of mine. I went to the theater on the ship where they asked my room number and name. Then they gave me a sticker, and put me in a group. When I left the ship, the tour provider saw the sticker and put me in the correct line.

[ACorgan]

19 minutes ago, ExpatBride said:

So then he could just sign into my app account? I have a gender-neutral name that's not well-known in the Nordics, and he speaks with an American accent, so I don't think it would raise any eyebrows.

Would you even need him to sign in? If it’s just to see the ticket in the app, could you just screenshot it and send him the photo to pull up? 

[ExpatBride]

2 minutes ago, ACorgan said:

Would you even need him to sign in? If it’s just to see the ticket in the app, could you just screenshot it and send him the photo to pull up? 

 

That would be even better!

[Cruise Suzy]

36 minutes ago, alyssamma said:

I went to the theater on the ship where they asked my room number and name. Then they gave me a sticker, and put me in a group. When I left the ship, the tour provider saw the sticker and put me in the correct line.

 

All our excursions met on the pier or at the end of it. Maybe that's the difference. NO stickers.

[kazu]

39 minutes ago, ACorgan said:

Would you even need him to sign in? If it’s just to see the ticket in the app, could you just screenshot it and send him the photo to pull up? 

 

I just used a screen shot on the Koningsdam rather than play around with the app.  I didn’t have an issue doing that.  

Cards were scanned to get on and off the ship but that was separate from the shore excursion process.

[3rdGenCunarder]

1 hour ago, Cruise Suzy said:

 

All our excursions met on the pier or at the end of it. Maybe that's the difference. NO stickers.

 

Yes, that's probably the difference. My excursions last winter (Eurodam) all met on the pier and vendors scanned phones. I learned later (here, not on board) that I could have had them scan my key card. I wish I had known that back then, as I didn't want to take my phone to the beach.

 

And if you can find the shorex people in their VERY short working hours, you can request to have a ticket printed. 

[Lido deck main]

4 hours ago, ExpatBride said:

So then he could just sign into my app account? I have a gender-neutral name that's not well-known in the Nordics, and he speaks with an American accent, so I don't think it would raise any eyebrows.

That would work our last cruise 74 days we did both, some tours in theatre to get sticker or in some of the ports were scanned going onto the bus, we use our phone and used the APP, It's all about the numbers I.e. 30 people signed up, 30 on the bus.