Booking Onboard and OBC when Price Adjusting ....

[kickboxrca]

Is it just me?  I've cruised on HAL 15 times and I swear that when I book onboard, that the OBC associated with the onboard booking (not other promotions) stick when I call for a price adjustment.

 

Just spent 45 minutes on the phone with HAL for the Cyber Monday deal - I know that I lose all of the perks that were associated with the original booking (if there was OBC, HIA, crew appreciation, etc), but I have always been able to keep the OBC associated with booking onboard.  Today I was told nope - it's like rebooking - so I would lose everything. I asked for this to be put in writing - but of course, they refused.

 

Also - they told me I booked with a PCC and then abruptly transferred me to voicemail of someone I know I've never talked to before to address this ...

 

Do you think they'll call me back within the cyber Monday deal time? Am I crazy thinking this OBC should stay?

 

TIA!!!

[mobilemac]

My experience is that calling for a price adjustment basically means cancelling and rebooking for a lower price.  Then the question becomes ... does the lower price make up for the bennies you will lose from your cancelled booking.  Example ... I just rebooked to take advantage of the Black Friday sale price and "free" gratuities.  Making this change meant I lost the $400 OBCs I'd gotten when I originally booked on board, but the value of the included gratuities exceeded the $400 OBCs.  The only OBCs {I think) that always stay with you are any bennies from your cruise agent and the CCL stock ownership OBCs.  

[cbr663]

I had a similar experience earlier this year.  We booked a cruise while onboard in May and about a month after HAL changed the itinerary and wanted to transfer the onboard booking to another cruise rather than cancel altogether.  HAL allowed us to do it but reduced the amount of OBC associated with the FCD that was associated with the original onboard booking.  HAL couldn't provide me with a satisfactory reason why they did this.  

 

HAL also made significant changes to the second cruise and I ended up cancelling that one.  No way I was going to try and rebook another again.  Right now my account does show that the FCD from the cruise purchased onboard is available for me to use.  

 

I returned from a cruise last weekend and this is one area that I provided feedback on.  HAL is making it very difficult to book a cruise with what appears to be arbitrary decisions being made during the booking process.

[kazu]

I join with the others.  I have some OBC from the Mariner early booking deal and had to do some serious math when the price of my cruise went down.  I knew I would lose the EBB perks and the OBC.

 

It turned out it wasn’t worth it to change and I left my cruise as is - at least, for now 😉