Cancellation Refunds – Post Your Experience

[BeignetBoy]

1 hour ago, O2B@Cagain said:

We were booked on the Star Pride TA March 30. We waited for them to cancel, knowing that they would. We just got our refund- 100% for money paid to Windstar- deposit, fare, and one excursion. I'd rather be on the ship...😥

 

Thanks... I don't know what happened here, but hopefully it get's resolved soon.  We were booked on the Wind Surf TA, scheduled to depart on 4/4.

[BeignetBoy]

More information on the missing $1700 from Windstar.  My TA contacted them and they agreed that I was correct and that they didn't refund the correct amount.  They blamed it on a computer glitch and said that I'd get the balance in 14 days.  I wonder if they would have caught it if I had not noticed their error.  I urge everyone to double check the amounts received vs what they paid.

 

[RemPuck]

Not quite cancellations, but close.
 
Feedback from our TA was that it would take "about a month" for the FCC to be issued.  It's May 8th and nothing yet.
 

 
RemPuck

Update: per my TA, Windstar is now saying FCCs are taking about 10 weeks from the time of cancellation. Our trip was cancelled on April 1st... we’re looking at mid June for the first FCC.

I don’t want to think about time to an actual refund if we ask for it then.




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[Petoonya]

My TA is giving me what I consider to be a meager amount cruise credit ($100) on a cruise that is meager overall. It's a 17 day hugely discounted. I know that Windstar is also meager on giving travel agents commissions and for many years my agent has been wonderful. I can do much better at a big box store with Windstar. With the way things are in the world having a personal agent to fight for you when things go wrong makes all the difference in the world. This thread is reminding me of that.

[Spanky My]

Our  June 9th cruise  from Puerto Vallarta to San Diego was cancelled  a couple of  months ago. Still have not received a refund . We decided with the cruise industry in uncharted waters to go for the refund instead of the FCC in case Windstar goes bankrupt.

 

I hope Windstar makes it thru this as they are a good  cruising experience..At the right time and the covid 19 situation gets under control we will book again at that time  .

[RemPuck]

On 5/12/2020 at 6:22 PM, RemPuck said:

 

Update: per my TA, Windstar is now saying FCCs are taking about 10 weeks from the time of cancellation. Our trip was cancelled on April 1st... we’re looking at mid June for the first FCC.

I don’t want to think about time to an actual refund if we ask for it then.




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We actually received our FCC certificates today (4 June).

 

Timeline:

Cruise scheduled for 2 August.

Cruise cancelled by Windstar 1 April (just before the penalty phase kicked in)

FCC received 4 June (about 65 days)

 

Per the FCC notice, if we request a refund, it will be processed in 4-6 weeks from the point it's received.  We're still debating.

 

On one hand, many other lines are quoting "up to 90 days" to get a refund, so the 4-6 weeks seems like a good deal.  However, it took us more than 60 days to get to the point of being eligible to request a refund; another 30-40 days to actually see the money is just like everyone else.

 

 

[Spanky My]

Good Luck Rempuck getting a refund from Windstar in 4-6 weeks if that is what you decide.  Mine has been 9 weeks and still has not come. My TA contacted them and said it is still being processed .

[aquidneck1]

We cancelled our 2021 January Windstar cruise and received the refund for the deposit less the $50.00PP cancellation penalty within a few weeks.  They did put the cancellation penalty into a FCC which was nice.  

 

Since then, they have cancelled the cruise but they will not refund the cancellation penalty.  They indicated that it will only be held as an FCC.  

[Spanky My]

Still have not received my refund from Windstar after a couple of months  .. They are taking their sweet time obviously. I hope others are having better luck than me. 

 

This should be a lesson to folks planning on paying for a cruise at this point ahead of time given COV19 .. 

[Spanky My]

FINALLY got my refund. Those that are hoping for a quick return plan on 60-90 days . 

[r&rd]

I finally got my airfare change fee refund today for my cruise cancelled in December. Several problems at first and then delays when accounting moved to working from home and then more recently accounting was moved to Denver. Hopefully those requesting refunds now have less difficulty getting refunds.

[Cometman]

November cruise cancelled in May. Notice included a link to sy you received the notice. I called on Friday and was told, they still need to issues to 125% cruise voucher in the next month or so.....and if we want a refund it will take another few weeks after that.

The way it stands now we will not be cruising until at least mid 2021....

[ridethetide]

2 hours ago, Cometman said:

November cruise cancelled in May. Notice included a link to sy you received the notice. I called on Friday and was told, they still need to issues to 125% cruise voucher in the next month or so.....and if we want a refund it will take another few weeks after that.

The way it stands now we will not be cruising until at least mid 2021....

We are crossing our fingers for Alaska in July 2021. We've had two cancellations in the last eight months, one for delay of the Star Breeze and the other for COVID-19.

 

[Cometman]

Just got my cruise voucher- asked for a refund. It says 4-6 weeks to get that.

[Spanky My]

Maybe things have gotten better but 4-6 weeks is what they told us which was wishful thinking.  It took close to 2 1/2 months. to get our refund .So Good luck   !

[milepig]

We got our FCC yesterday - about a 2 month wait.

 

This was a bit of an odd situation as it involved multiple cancellations.

 

Cruise one (Alaska) was cleared a long time ago, and we got the expected 10% additional in our FCC

Cruise two (Japan) is the FCC we'd been waiting for, the only thing we had into that was the original FCC credit and we hadn't made any other payments other than the original $100.

The FCC from cruise two was the same as the original FCC from Alaska plus the $100 - no additional 10%, but I wasn't really expecting one since we had no new money into it.

 

Does this sound right?

 

 

[Cometman]

Just got our refund- 3 weeks after the voucher.

[tc54edge]

Our group of four was scheduled for the April 9-19, 2021 Grand Japan sailing aboard the "refurbished" Star Breeze.  We received our cancellation email on May 19, 2020...a full eleven months prior to embarkation. We didn't receive our Future Cruise Credit Certificate until August 12, 2020...3 months later. On August 25, 2020 my travel agent received an email from Windstar indicating I needed to call them and give them credit card info for the refund. I did the very next day...response was another 7 to 14 business days for processing. We finally received our refund on August 29, 2020.

 

Never have I seen service such as this. Deplorable...

[GottaKnowWhen]

We were scheduled for a cruise starting 11-20-2020. That was cancelled when Windstar announced a general shutdown through the rest of the year. Today we heard from our TA, she sent a copy of the FCC notice she received on our booking. Don’t know how long a Refund would have taken, but the FCC turnaround was quite swift. And they applied the 125% calculation to everything we had paid, no exclusion for taxes etc. Unlike other companies.

[SailingSteve77]

We were booked on the Star Breeze, Athens - San Juan in November and our cruise was canceled along with pretty much everyone else in 2020.  We received our FCC's within two weeks.  Very impressed and we're looking forward to hopefully cruise on WS in 2021.

[TransOceanCruiser]

Was booked on the Star Breeze, Lisbon - San Juan on 11/30. Received my refund on my credit card less than 2 weeks after I received the FCC certificates via email. Fast processing I'd say. 

[patty1955]

We were booked on the Star Breeze, Transpacific 8/2020 which was canceled in Feb. We quickly got a full refund and a FCC of $1000, which we thought was very generous. 

Fast forward to this week. After waiting months to book it, our dream cruise (Alaska to Japan) disappeared from the schedule. We decided to book a Papeete to San Diego cruise while it was available and transfer the booking if the other become available. I called on Tuesday to make the booking. After explaining what I wanted, I told her about the FCC. She told me we didn't get both a refund and a FCC; we would have received one or the other. When I told her that wasn't my understanding, she put me on hold for about 15 minutes. While on hold, I pulled up everything I had regarding the cancellation, the FCC and all the dates. When she came back she told me that the problem had been that the FCC expires Feb. 2022 and since the new cruise is in April 2022, it wasn't allowing her to apply it to the new cruise. As "a courtesy" they would extend the date to allow us to use it. The FCC says "Expiration date: February 28, 2022". It doesn't say "sail by date". I thought to argue but decided against it since at this point it doesn't make a difference.

I guess my point is, you might want to use your FCC for a cruise dated before the expiration date.

[Host Jazzbeau]

My April 15, 2021 cruise (Spanish Serenade on Star Legend, Lisbon to Barcelona) was cancelled on Dec. 11.  I was told I would have a choice of 125% FCC or 100% cash refund.  My TA immediately asked for the cash, but was told we had to wait for them to issue the FCC certificates, then we could ask for the cash.  The certificates came today [conveniently a Friday at 4:45 pm], and I filled out the cash requests on Windstar's website within 1/2 hour.  I'll post an update when I see the $$$ [or other news].

 

The question my TA and I are debating:  is this just 'bureaucracy strikes' [my benevolent interpretation] or 'keeping your money as long as we can' [my TA – who is now much less likely to book Windstar on behalf of many many clients].  That matter is probably moot anyway as comparison of deck plans shows me that while Windstar has interesting itineraries, its ships are notably devoid of balconies compared to almost everybody else.

[GottaKnowWhen]

I haven’t asked for a cash refund from Windstar yet, but my experience has been positive. I had a November 2020 cruise booked. Cancelled, took 125% FCC. Booked January 2021. The FCC showed up on my invoice from the TA as a Coupon for $xxxx which was applied to the higher cost of the new cruise. The January 2021 was cancelled, I opted for 125% FCC. (At this point I had the original FCC plus 125% of the price difference between November 2020 and January 2021.) I then booked a similar trip for January 2022. The 2022 price was way higher than the equivalent 2021 cruise would have been. My TA asked for and received a price adjustment; I still owed the price difference between 2021 and the discounted 2022 fare. The invoice showed Coupons representing the accumulated 125% FCC. I still have a net of about $350 value in unused FCC. I was told I could use that for drinks excursions etc. onboard, and/or against a future cruise. 

All in all, they seem quite reasonable and flexible in their policies. I just hope we can eventually actually sail on one of their ships.

Stan

[TakingFlight]

On 12/18/2020 at 9:58 PM, Host Jazzbeau said:

My April 15, 2021 cruise (Spanish Serenade on Star Legend, Lisbon to Barcelona) was cancelled on Dec. 11.  I was told I would have a choice of 125% FCC or 100% cash refund.  My TA immediately asked for the cash, but was told we had to wait for them to issue the FCC certificates, then we could ask for the cash.

The question my TA and I are debating:  is this just 'bureaucracy strikes' [my benevolent interpretation] or 'keeping your money as long as we can'

Windstar’s “FCC then cash” policy if WS cancels a cruise is clearly spelled out in their Travel Advisory policy on the website. If you cancelled first you could have received the cash refund right away. Do you know if WS had this policy in place when you booked the cruise? Probably not, but it’s been in place for awhile. I have a cruise booked that will probably be cancelled and I have a running dialogue with myself as to whether or not I should proactively cancel. There are pros and cons to each scenario for me.