Princess Barclays Credit Card

[roomba920]

Last December I booked a cruise with Princess for 2025. Then in January I redeemed 20,000 points with my Princess Barclays Credit Card for $200 of OBC.

The OBC was forwarded to Princess, and applied to my existing booking.

However, this week the cruise I booked dropped in price for "new bookings only". When I called Princess to request the lower price be applied to my booking, they refused. The only alternative I had was to cancel my booking, and book again.

The Barclay website states that a Princess representative can transfer my redeemed OBC from one booking to another, yet my agent at Princess says he

can't transfer my $200 of OBC to my new booking without written consent from Barclay via an email.

I'm in communication with Barclay, and they insist just as strongly that the Princess agent can do this without a letter from them.

Meanwhile, I'm stuck in the middle, and my $200 of OBC is sitting in a booking that needs to be canceled, so I can have my deposit refunded.

If I want to take advantage of another sale, I don't want to go through this again.

 

Does anyone else here have a Princess Barclays Credit Card that can shed light on this process? Thank you.

Edited February 7 by roomba920

[Yehootu]

10 hours ago, roomba920 said:

Last December I booked a cruise with Princess for 2025. Then in January I redeemed 20,000 points with my Princess Barclays Credit Card for $200 of OBC.

The OBC was forwarded to Princess, and applied to my existing booking.

However, this week the cruise I booked dropped in price for "new bookings only". When I called Princess to request the lower price be applied to my booking, they refused. The only alternative I had was to cancel my booking, and book again.

The Barclay website states that a Princess representative can transfer my redeemed OBC from one booking to another, yet my agent at Princess says he

can't transfer my $200 of OBC to my new booking without written consent from Barclay via an email.

I'm in communication with Barclay, and they insist just as strongly that the Princess agent can do this without a letter from them.

Meanwhile, I'm stuck in the middle, and my $200 of OBC is sitting in a booking that needs to be canceled, so I can have my deposit refunded.

If I want to take advantage of another sale, I don't want to go through this again.

 

Does anyone else here have a Princess Barclays Credit Card that can shed light on this process? Thank you.

Haven"t had to deal with this and hope Barclays will correct. What I do is redeem my points for Princess Digital gift cards. That way I can deposit once on board. I'd keep calling Barclays until you get someone that will give you  the letter Princess wants. 

[rheathslc]

4 hours ago, Yehootu said:

Haven"t had to deal with this and hope Barclays will correct. What I do is redeem my points for Princess Digital gift cards. That way I can deposit once on board. I'd keep calling Barclays until you get someone that will give you  the letter Princess wants. 

Was going to say the same thing. I use my points for the digital gift cards which I feel gives me a bit more direct control. 

@roomba920 I hope you get this sorted without too big of a headache. Always frustrating when the two parties don't agree on the process and/or the service reps don't have all the knowledge and training they need which I suspect is more likely the case here.

[Rick&Jeannie]

3 hours ago, rheathslc said:

Always frustrating when the two parties don't agree on the process and/or the service reps don't have all the knowledge and training they need which I suspect is more likely the case here.

And most likely on the Princess side!

[roomba920]

4 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

And most likely on the Princess side!

Exactly, it was. I finally got this resolved. I had been in online communication with Barclay support and they repeated to me several times that this issue could only be resolved by Princess....without the need of written approval by Barclay. I copied the transcript of those messages and emailed them to my Princess cruise agent, and finally he relented and transferred the redemption of onboard credit. Which I suspect he could've done all along. Now I'm worried that if another sale comes along, like free gratuities for "new bookings only", that to take advantage of it, I'll have to go through this all over again. Thanks for your suggestions. Live and learn. I won't redeem any more points now until around the time of final payment.

Edited February 8 by roomba920

[TW6cruiser]

12 hours ago, Yehootu said:

Haven"t had to deal with this and hope Barclays will correct. What I do is redeem my points for Princess Digital gift cards. That way I can deposit once on board. I'd keep calling Barclays until you get someone that will give you  the letter Princess wants. 

How do digital gift cards work?  Do you show the email to customer service when you board and then it becomes new OBC?

[rheathslc]

21 minutes ago, TW6cruiser said:

How do digital gift cards work?  Do you show the email to customer service when you board and then it becomes new OBC?

Just due to timing I've only ever added it onboard once I had a folio balance that exceeded my gift card amount so I don't know from personal experience if it can be added as OBC or just as payment toward a balance. I do think my TA told me they should be able to add it as obc. Maybe someone else can confirm for sure. But I just had a screen grab of the gc info on my phone for them to add it to my folio.

 

You don't actually get an email with the gift card number and pin. Just an email notification that you redeemed the points. Then you have to login to your Barclay's account and go to your redemption history and click on the record to open the gift card info. There is a little warning when you redeem the points for a digital gc specifically that the information won't be emailed. A little convoluted if you ask me especially for a digital gift card. But I just save that screen as a pdf and also make sure to get a screen grab.

 

You can also use those gift cards to make payment toward your balance due which I have done several times. If you booked directly through Princess you can enter the gc info in Cruise Personalizer. If you booked through a TA they can also use it to make payment toward your balance. I just. I've done both. Those cannot be used to pay for spa reservations or any other extras that you would add through Cruise Personalizer though which is a bummer. 

Edited February 8 by rheathslc

[Yehootu]

Great explanation ^^^^^^^^^^^^

I print mine out and take them to GS and have them added to my account as OBC. The balance is refunded to you in a check.

[roomba920]

22 hours ago, Yehootu said:

Great explanation ^^^^^^^^^^^^

I print mine out and take them to GS and have them added to my account as OBC. The balance is refunded to you in a check.

Barclays offers digital gift cards for Holland America from my Princess card (both owned by Carnival). I was able to add them on the HA website, and convert them to OBC.

Edited February 9 by roomba920