Done Posted October 18, 2021 Report Share Posted October 18, 2021 This may sound like a complaint but is intended to help others who have similar plans as to how the apply accumulated FCCs. My wife and I have FCCs from previous cruises RCCL canceled. We applied several of the FCCs to the first of 2 back to back cruises we booked for August, 2022 and we still had 2 FCCs that exceeds the combined balance we owe for both of the back to back cruises. My plan was to apply my FCC to pay off the first B2B cruise balance and then take the remainder of that FCC plus my wife's FCC to pay the balance of the 2nd B2B cruise. We would still have an FCC coming to us to apply to a yet as booked future cruise. WHOA!!! Not so fast says RCCL. The FCCs are not applicable to taxes, fees, port expenses or gratuities. Even with the $$$ deposit we made when booking we still have a balance on the first B2B cruise we have to pay out of pocket not covered by the FCC. In addition, the balance remaining on the applied FCC will not be credited via a future FCC until AFTER we sail on the first cruise. The other wrinkle we encountered is the FCC is only applicable to the person's portion of the cruise fare named on the FCC. We cannot apply the FCC towards the combined cruise fare for both of us. This one did irritate me a bit as a credit card payment for total balance is apparently divided into the different accounting buckets behind the scene. I figured (incorrectly) the total balance owed was a shared balance and not distinctly separated sums. In the end we will get all the monies granted to us via the FCCs but not without out of pocket disbursements. To be fair the taxes, fees and gratuities from the canceled cruises were refunded as credits back to our original form of payment. bryresangel 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokeybandit Posted October 18, 2021 Report Share Posted October 18, 2021 It is a common mistake, but the email you get with your FCC says as much Future Cruise Credits are per person, per booking, and valid only for the person noted above. FCCs are redeemable towards cruise fare only and are not valid on Complimentary cruises, Incentive bookings, and Charter sailings. All guests are responsible for taxes and fees, where applicable. ChessE4, CruisingOz, bryresangel and 1 other 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted October 18, 2021 Report Share Posted October 18, 2021 FCC have never been able to cover port fees and taxes. That's well known. Residual FCC is issued within a few weeks now. The old rules were that you had to sail and complete a cruise before residual FCC would become available. That is no longer the case. A new FCC with a new certificate number will be issued. The last time I did this was in July and the new FCC for the residual was issued in 11 days well before departure date. FCC is now shareable. Once the primary guest amount has been satisfied the balance can cover another person on the reservation. I have personally seen this one work - this week. Of course the port fees and taxes rule applies, FCC never covers that. FCC can also be used to make the deposit now. An old rule required a booking to be made by using a new deposit before FCC could be applied. New rules are that FCC can be used to create a booking except port fees and taxes which will require new payment with credit card to cover. You have to call them or use a travel agent to accomplish this, if you DIY then you have to use a credit card for a deposit when booking on the Royal website and you supply an FCC during the booking process. Sharla, bryresangel and CruisingOz 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokeybandit Posted October 18, 2021 Report Share Posted October 18, 2021 19 minutes ago, twangster said: FCC can also be used to make the deposit now. An old rule required a booking to be made by using a new deposit before FCC could be applied. I was able to create a new booking with FCC as the deposit back in February Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GKMCruising Posted October 18, 2021 Report Share Posted October 18, 2021 51 minutes ago, rcrabb said: The other wrinkle we encountered is the FCC is only applicable to the person's portion of the cruise fare named on the FCC. We cannot apply the FCC towards the combined cruise fare for both of us. This one did irritate me a bit as a credit card payment for total balance is apparently divided into the different accounting buckets behind the scene. Yeah, we ran into this on our last cruise - they had split the FCC between myself, my wife, and our daughter, despite the fact that we paid no fare initially for our daughter as we caught a Kids Sail Free offer. We *were* able to explain the situation to someone and get the rest of her FCC unlocked for use on the sailing even though it was technically over the amount of her fare, but as always, YMMV. EDIT: Looks like @twangster beat me to the punch on the fact that FCCs can be used for other people on the reservation now. Glad to know that's new policy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaryCS62 Posted October 18, 2021 Report Share Posted October 18, 2021 We had 2 cancelled cruises (4 people, 2 rooms each one), and our FCC has been an adventure, to say the least. I was the primary person in one room (DH the 2nd) & one DD was primary in the other room on one cruise, & other was primary on the 2nd. To make it more fun, we used FCC from the first cancelled one (July 2020) to pay for the 2nd cancelled one (except for the down payment) from March 2021. I have 1 FCC certificate, & the other 3 people have 2 each. None of them match what our actual cost (original, + 25%) actually should be. And, the total is short about $70. My DH has spreadsheets, had our TA trying to fix, then she sent it off to Royal to see if they could fix it. Next cruise in 83 days, and we want to use some of what we've got to pay it off, but if we don't have the correct numbers before we use any of them, I'm afraid they will never get them right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharla Posted October 18, 2021 Report Share Posted October 18, 2021 Right- they refund the taxes/ gratuities/ travel protection to everyone, and then give 125% of the cruise fare (or 100% if canceled under Cruise with Confidence). If your cruise fare is $1000, then taxes/ gratuities are $200 you will get a refund of $200 and then an FCC of $1250. The FCC may vary per person depending on if it's a BOGO or KSF sale too. Then that FCC can't be used toward the taxes/ gratuities/ travel protection, only toward the cruise fare. If you have extra FCC, consider using that for an upgraded room. cdixon22, BrianB and Neesa 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAAAYTOOO Posted October 18, 2021 Report Share Posted October 18, 2021 They’ve certainly eased the FCC requirements from the original “rules”. It used to be much more difficult to use, reuse and otherwise configure FCCs. Sharla, CruisingOz, BrianB and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted October 18, 2021 Report Share Posted October 18, 2021 56 minutes ago, smokeybandit said: I was able to create a new booking with FCC as the deposit back in February Cool. I couldn't. It charged the deposit to CC then a month later the FCC was applied to the booking. Then two months later they audited the FCC and revoked it. It had a long history and quite a storied past. CruisingOz, Neesa and WAAAYTOOO 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokeybandit Posted October 18, 2021 Report Share Posted October 18, 2021 4 minutes ago, twangster said: Cool. I couldn't. It charged the deposit to CC then a month later the FCC was applied to the booking. Then two months later they audited the FCC and revoked it. It had a long history and quite a storied past. They (this was booked directly with RC) put a long term hold on the reservation until the expected FCC delivery date. Then once I got the FCC I called them back up and applied it as the deposit (and towards the balance). WAAAYTOOO 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linda R Posted October 18, 2021 Report Share Posted October 18, 2021 You always will get your taxes and fees refunded. And then you need to pay them when rebooking another cruise. The main person on the reservation always has more FCC credit. They are the one who usually pays full price, the second person is where your discount applies. And, Yes we were able to combine our FCC's to use on cruises, didn't matter what name they were under. Any balance was credited back in few days or few weeks. Never heard of having to wait until you take the cruise to get them back? I have 10 cruises booked and would never be able to keep track if that was the case, or the FCC's would expire. And I may be reading your original post incorrectly? ChessE4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianB Posted October 18, 2021 Report Share Posted October 18, 2021 I think my record for using…and re-using…and re-re-using an FCC is five times. After the initial cruise was cancelled, I booked the next available, which got cancelled…and so on. It was rough keeping track of that first poor little FCC as each new cancellation resulted in a new FCC being issued with a different certificate number. It felt like the FCC had entered the witness protection program. But then after a while I had quite a few of them and it became easier to track them. Thankfully, they relaxed the rules using FCCs and I was finally able to bundle them and apply them in groups. Neesa and Linda R 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Done Posted October 20, 2021 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2021 On 10/18/2021 at 1:19 PM, twangster said: cut... Residual FCC is issued within a few weeks now. The old rules were that you had to sail and complete a cruise before residual FCC would become available. That is no longer the case. A new FCC with a new certificate number will be issued. The last time I did this was in July and the new FCC for the residual was issued in 11 days well before departure date. FCC is now shareable. Once the primary guest amount has been satisfied the balance can cover another person on the reservation. I have personally seen this one work - this week. Of course the port fees and taxes rule applies, FCC never covers that. cut... I just received a new FCC for the balance not applied using the initial FCC. The email they send stating unused FCC funds are held until the cruise has been taken is obviously out of date. This good news for us. We will be able to apply 100% of the FCC funds we have to our 3 booked cruises in 2022. twangster 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted October 20, 2021 Report Share Posted October 20, 2021 49 minutes ago, rcrabb said: I just received a new FCC for the balance not applied using the initial FCC. The email they send stating unused FCC funds are held until the cruise has been taken is obviously out of date. This good news for us. We will be able to apply 100% of the FCC funds we have to our 3 booked cruises in 2022. Woohoo! CruisingOz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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