Carnival Future Cruise Credit Validity

[plettza]

Back in 2020, I had a few Carnival Cruises booked and either fully paid for or deposits placed.  I have about $2400 in FCC.  When the cruises were cancelled, Carnival gave the option of a full 100% refund OR retaining the monies paid and $900 onboard credit to use on future sailings.

 

I got a call from a Carnival personal cruise planner.  I asked her how much credit I had and she gave me an approximate figure as shown above.  However, to use my FCC, I would need to book and sail by end of March next year; she claimed I would lose it after that point.  She also said I have already lost the $900 onboard credit which Carnival offered at the time.

 

Considering Carnival resumed sailing in Australia back in October last year (2022) which doesn't give much opportunity to sail, how can Carnival simply claim that the money I paid for my cruises will simply expire when they didn't deliver the service?

 

ACCC doesn't have any specific information and other searches just bring up results from 2021.  Carnival's help pages relate to its US operations and the personal cruise planner I presume is based in the US and may not be familiar with Carnival Australia's obligation in relation to Australian consumer law.

 

Is anyone dealing with this predicament and what advice do people recommend?

 

Edited June 8, 2023 by plettza

[ELep]

I have not had to deal with this myself. What is your concern? March 2024 will be 18 months of sailing in Australia since the restart. It's not an unreasonable amount of time to give to use a credit.  Are you unable to sail by March 2024?

[Relaxing Robbies]

The Future Cruise Credits always had “Book by” and “Sail by” dates. When cruising in Australia took a long time to restart those dates were extended several times. The information was always available on the Carnival Australia website, and there were many posts on facebook by travel agents warning people to make bookings or lose their onboard credit offers and future cruise credits.

 

I kept good records of all my covid cancellations and credits to be used, and made sure that I noted the expiry dates. We have 2 cruises booked with Carnival for this year using ours and had no trouble with them being honoured and the $900 onboard credit applied.

 

The expiry period to book a cruise and get the $900 onboard credit is long gone. You still have time to book a cruise and use the actual future cruise credit, so check out the available cruises, choose one that sails by the required date, and enjoy your cruise.

[arxcards]

We had one of these cancelled in 2020, which became 2022. We could have taken the refund, but also chose to kick the booking down the road and pick-up a very generous OBC of $900. 

 

The plan was to keep the OBC alive was to keep rebooking, or it would have been better to take a refund on the spot. Our 2020 to 2022 cancellation was rebooked around a year ago for this December while keeping a cheap fare and $900 OBC. I don't recall the "expiry" date, but I knew that it was all being issued with the intent of allowing enough time to plan an alternative.

 

If you are unable to find a cruise within the next 9 months, are you able to get your paid monies refunded if you request it tomorrow?

[plettza]

On 6/8/2023 at 9:09 PM, arxcards said:

If you are unable to find a cruise within the next 9 months, are you able to get your paid monies refunded if you request it tomorrow?

 

Sorry for the belated reply.  I'll check with Carnival but I might try and book something just to use up the credit.