Trip Cancellation after full payment

[coloradocruisers101]

Need advise! I booked and paid for my mom and my stepdad's cruise on 10/14/2013. I also paid for their airline tickets with the trip protection on both the flight and the cruise. She is very sick and cannot travel. She is 78 years old. Has anyone had any experience cancelling the entire vacation either good or not so good? I appreciate any feed back.

[FritzG]

If you have insurance you should be ok. You'll have forms that the dr. will have to fill out, but the insurance should cover it. What insurance do you have? It is the Princess insurance or another company?

Edited September 5, 2013 by FritzG

[Hlitner]

Need advise! I booked and paid for my mom and my stepdad's cruise on 10/14/2013. I also paid for their airline tickets with the trip protection on both the flight and the cruise. She is very sick and cannot travel. She is 78 years old. Has anyone had any experience cancelling the entire vacation either good or not so good? I appreciate any feed back.

 

We had to cancel a cruise because of sickness in the family and recovered all of our money (air and cruise). But we had purchased our insurance directly from CSI and would never consider buying the policies sold by the cruise lines (or many TAs). So your situation is going to depend on what insurance you purchased and the terms of that specific policy. As a starting point you are going to need documentation from her physician that she is not able to travel. Once you have that document (most physicians will write a letter explaining their decision) then you can file a claim. It is probably smart to immediately contact your trip insurance company to get their claim forms and specific instructions.

 

Hank

[coloradocruisers101]

I purchased the standard trip protection direct from Princess. In the future, I will do more research on different options. It appears I did not purchase from United. They can fly within one year, and if not, I lose the money. Don't understand why airlines cannot change names on reservations with proper ID. (passport)

[coiran]

If you booked the entire package with Princess their insurance should cover everything.

[Loonbeam]

They can. They choose not to for financial reasons.

 

I purchased the standard trip protection direct from Princess. In the future, I will do more research on different options. It appears I did not purchase from United. They can fly within one year, and if not, I lose the money. Don't understand why airlines cannot change names on reservations with proper ID. (passport)

[ar1950]

Need advise! I booked and paid for my mom and my stepdad's cruise on 10/14/2013. I also paid for their airline tickets with the trip protection on both the flight and the cruise. She is very sick and cannot travel. She is 78 years old. Has anyone had any experience cancelling the entire vacation either good or not so good? I appreciate any feed back.

 

We had to cancel our cruise in February because of medical issues. Princess refunded the portion of the fare that was still refundable and the insurance (Princess' Platinum) paid for the rest. Refunds from cruise line refunded to credit card, check for the remainder came from the insurance company about two and a half weeks after the paper work was sent to them. Everything refunded except the cost of the insurance of course.

 

Airfare was done with Southwest points so the points went back to our account. Loonbeam is correct about airlines not transferring the ticket fares. They have made it a profit opportunity if the fare is not used within the one year time frame.

[recia]

We canceled our Ruby Princess cruise this August due to illness. Travel insurance was through Insuremytrip with Insure assist. No problems getting cruise, air and prepaid hotel reimbursed. Even though the air is sitting in a ecertificate, insurance provided a form to sign to forfeit our rights and say we would not use it, and we got the full amount refunded.

[Happy2cruise]

We had to cancel a due to an unforeseen illness and insurance reimbursed us the cruise and air fare. No problems at all. Just had to fill out forms and provide documentation/verification from physicians. Refund was issued with 2 weeks. We always use insurance brought thru tripinsurancestore.com:)

[coloradocruisers101]

Thanks for the responses. Lesson learned, that's for sure...:)

[PatriciaF]

Check for any coverage you may have from the credit card you used to purchase the airfare--it may refund some depending on the card.

 

We had to cancel a trip after I fell and shattered my wrist two days before sailing. Had Princess insurance--we received a check for full payment (except insurance) from the travel agency in less than two weeks.

 

We were also using SW points, so they just went back into our account.

[avcruz]

They can. They choose not to for financial reasons.

 

They cannot. An airline ticket is considered a legal contract between the airline and the ticketed passenger and as such can't be transferred or endorsed over to another person.

[CI66774]

I purchased insurance through a large online travel agency (has warehouse stores) and fell ill the day of the cruise. Received everything back except cost of insurance.

[MitzyA]

I just had to cancel a cruise with Princess for my 96 yr. old father and my sister who was traveling with him. He has prostate cancer and the doctor said he couldn't travel at this time because of new complications. Dad had purchased Princess Vacation Protection (Platinum, he's Elite) and also booked air through Princess. When I completed the claim for insurance I had to phone our Princess Vacation Planner for the figures to claim. It was then I was informed that United Airlines had retained $250 per air ticket for cancellation fees and the remaining $417 per ticket balance has been issued as a credit towards future travel with United. And it has to be used within 12 months or lost forever. I discussed this with my Princess representative and was advised I may want to phone United and "plea" for a refund. It's doubtful my Dad will ever travel again, so may as well consider that the over $1200 he paid for 2 airfares is gone. Even if United were kind and elected to refund...how? Dad paid for the cruise and air with one credit card direct to Princess.

 

I phoned Princess for a second time today and spoke with a Supervisor who said the same. It's pretty much been left up to me to "plea" the case with United. I can't believe they promote buying air direct through them, but are quick to pass the buck on this, when it should be very left easy for the customer to make one simple claim that takes care of everything.

[MitzyA]

I just had to cancel a cruise with Princess for my 96 yr. old father and my sister who was traveling with him. He has prostate cancer and the doctor said he couldn't travel at this time because of new complications. Dad had purchased Princess Vacation Protection (Platinum, he's Elite) and also booked air through Princess. When I completed the claim for insurance I had to phone our Princess Vacation Planner for the figures to claim. It was then I was informed that United Airlines had retained $250 per air ticket for cancellation fees and the remaining $417 per ticket balance has been issued as a credit towards future travel with United. And it has to be used within 12 months or lost forever. I discussed this with my Princess representative and was advised I may want to phone United and "plea" for a refund. It's doubtful my Dad will ever travel again, so may as well consider that the over $1200 he paid for 2 airfares is gone. Even if United were kind and elected to refund...how? Dad paid for the cruise and air with one credit card direct to Princess.

 

I phoned Princess for a second time today and spoke with a Supervisor who said the same. It's pretty much been left up to me to "plea" the case with United. I can't believe they promote buying air direct through them, but are quick to pass the buck on this, when it should be very left easy for the customer to make one simple claim that takes care of everything.

 

12/19/2013 UPDATE:

 

I did "plea my case" with United Airlines. There's a refund request form on the United website, along with a variety of pop down reasons. The reason I chose was medical, and in the comments box I explained my Dad's age and the doubt that he would ever use the ticket credit. UAL responded once and asked for a Doctor's statement (they didn't accept the Dr. statement that was onthe form for the cruise insurance). Dad's physician did write a statement for UAL, which I submitted.

 

It took about 1-2 weeks for processing, and surprised me when we received an email from UAL that the refund had been approved and credit would be made to the credit card used to purchase the tickets. We waited nearly a month for this credit to show up on Dad's credit card. It never did. This is where it gets really messy, so I won't bore with all the inside/outside details.

 

UAL did indeed credit the refund (over a $1200), but the card used to purchase the tickets was a Princess corporate credit card that's used to purchase batches of passenger tickets at one time. I discussed this matter with the UAL Refunds Department and they were the ones who told me Princess had received the refund.

 

Now I was left with "plea my case" with Princess to recover the refunded air ticket money from them.

 

I put all of this into writing and sent the letter to my Personal Cruise Planner at Princess. He can't help much, but forwarded my letter to Customer Relations. I didn't so much as receive an acknowledgement from Customer Relations they'd seen my letter. After 9 days of nothing, let's just say I raised this issue to a level within the company that Customer Relations would prefer not to hear from, and advised my Personal Cruise Planner that I'd done this. I really don't know whether the Planner had influence or someone up above directed Customer Relations to do something, but I received a phone call within 2 hours from a Post-Cruise Customer Relations person who was personally handling the issue.

 

One day later I received a second phone call from the same person notifying me they'd found the refunded ticket(s) on their account and in turn will be refunding the credit card used to make final payment on the cruise.

 

So -- yes, you can get a ticket refund from at least United Airlines if you apply for it, and submit a valid document detailing why you should get the refund. However (a big however) be prepared to find this refund at Princess and demand they return the money, if United tells you it's been approved and refunded.

[jdm]

Several years ago we had to cancel a cruise one week prior to sailing due to medical emergency surgery. We had purchased insurance independently through Travelguard and received full refund for cruise, air, pre cruise hotel. Not a hassle at all.

[tonit964]

I'm so very sorry your mom is ill.

Thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery and she is able to cruise again soon! :)

[LoveThisCruisingThing]

Need advise! I booked and paid for my mom and my stepdad's cruise on 10/14/2013. I also paid for their airline tickets with the trip protection on both the flight and the cruise. She is very sick and cannot travel. She is 78 years old. Has anyone had any experience cancelling the entire vacation either good or not so good? I appreciate any feed back.

 

I had to cancel after final payment. I have the insurance through Princess. All but $320 was return to my credit card. The $320 is a future cruise credit. But my TA called princess and they switched it to my July cruise. Sorry about your mom.

Edited December 20, 2013 by LoveThisCruisingThing

[spyro1952]

I've had to cancel two long cruises because my mother was ill. Both were after final payment. We had the Platinum upgrade and received everything back except for the cost of the insurance. Both were booked with Princess air and the airfare and the cruise were not separated, Berkley care (the actual Princess carrier) paid the whole thing. You shouldn't need to deal with Princess at all, just put a claim into the insurance company. They are pretty quick as long as you have all the paper work filled out correctly and all the needed signatures.

I don't know why, if the OP had Princess insurance, why they dealt with Princess rather than dealing directly with the insurance company to get their air refunded along with the cruise fare.