Refunds from Oceania

[Zesty Italian]

On 4/6/2020 at 9:45 PM, workstocruise said:

Zesty Italian-  

 

could you tell me how many weeks it took to get your refund?  Both of them.

So sorry I didn't see this.  I believe it was about 3 weeks.  The 2 refunds came the same day.  I do have to disagree with Flatbush.  We still have not received our last $1000.  Our TA contacted O days ago and was told they'd look into it.  It was a simple payment on one credit card with none of the other credits or things talked about.  Still no money.

 

I also agree with those who are upset at Flatbush's tone and telling people what they can write.  No argument that FF is experienced and has a lot of useful knowledge, but only wants to see things useful to him.  I was told not to fill up his email with useless info or repeats.  So we can only post things he wants to see?  Do not mean to get in an argument, but simply ignore things that bother you.  It may be useful to others to see a specific person form their cruise's experience.

[vlthom]

On 4/1/2020 at 5:41 PM, vlthom said:

Once I know what’s what, I’ll report back.  Our TA spoke with a rep but they had to send an inquiry to Accounting, so it may take some time.  Again, I am hoping that it is just a simple error; however, my husband’s point was that these mistakes never are in our favor for some reason.  

 

Okay, I promised to report back when I had more information.  As of this morning, I received a new statement of the charges being refunded to my credit card.  The new version shows 100% refund and is broken into various pieces, as discussed elsewhere in this thread.  As of this morning, the smaller pieces have hit my credit card.  The large one remains, but because Oceania has provided the statement indicating the full refund has been processed, I trust that it will hit my card within the next few days.  It is quite possible that the delay on this final piece is with the CC (Chase) rather than Oceania as they may hold credits of this size for some period.  That's unknown to me.

 

For those of you wanting to know how many days it has taken for the refund to occur, our cruises were cancelled on March 13th.  On that date, our TA asked that we designate whether we wanted a FCC or refund and that we needed to decide by March 20th.  On that date, Oceania was to begin processing refunds or FCC's.  We were to sail on April 4 to May 2.  As of last night (April 7), credits began to appear on my credit card.  So, the turnaround has been fairly quick, compared to the 90 days that many of you have been promised.  

[Flatbush Flyer]

28 minutes ago, vlthom said:

 

Okay, I promised to report back when I had more information.  As of this morning, I received a new statement of the charges being refunded to my credit card.  The new version shows 100% refund and is broken into various pieces, as discussed elsewhere in this thread.  As of this morning, the smaller pieces have hit my credit card.  The large one remains, but because Oceania has provided the statement indicating the full refund has been processed, I trust that it will hit my card within the next few days.  It is quite possible that the delay on this final piece is with the CC (Chase) rather than Oceania as they may hold credits of this size for some period.  That's unknown to me.

 

For those of you wanting to know how many days it has taken for the refund to occur, our cruises were cancelled on March 13th.  On that date, our TA asked that we designate whether we wanted a FCC or refund and that we needed to decide by March 20th.  On that date, Oceania was to begin processing refunds or FCC's.  We were to sail on April 4 to May 2.  As of last night (April 7), credits began to appear on my credit card.  So, the turnaround has been fairly quick, compared to the 90 days that many of you have been promised.  

Now, this is very specific info that is extremely helpful because it builds on his/her previous posts by adding info as it becomes available  - much more so than saying something like "I'm missing $1,000" and providing little other detail that can help do a proper "rule out." 

[YoHoHo]

43 minutes ago, vlthom said:

For those of you wanting to know how many days it has taken for the refund to occur, our cruises were cancelled on March 13th.  On that date, our TA asked that we designate whether we wanted a FCC or refund and that we needed to decide by March 20th.  On that date, Oceania was to begin processing refunds or FCC's.  We were to sail on April 4 to May 2.  As of last night (April 7), credits began to appear on my credit card.  So, the turnaround has been fairly quick, compared to the 90 days that many of you have been promised.  

Thanks for the follow-up with details, vithom.

Just for my understanding, would you please clarify the date your TA requested the refund, not sure if it was the 13th or the 20th (or maybe in between). TIA

[vlthom]

4 minutes ago, YoHoHo said:

Thanks for the follow-up with details, vithom.

Just for my understanding, would you please clarify the date your TA requested the refund, not sure if it was the 13th or the 20th (or maybe in between). TIA

 

I'm not exactly sure when the TA notified Oceania, but it was soon after the 13th.  I did not delay in letting her know that my preference was for the refund rather than the FCC being offered.  I believe that I informed her of my preference on the 13th.  She had indicated to me at the time though, that nothing would happen in terms of processing the refund before March 20th.  That was the date that Oceania would start processing the refunds for the cancelled French Polynesia cruises.  So, this timeline would apply to the handful of cruises aboard the Regatta in March/April.  These cruises were cancelled just ahead of the worldwide cessation of operations.  

[Flatbush Flyer]

4 hours ago, bbqoug said:

I appreciate others who have posted their refund experience so far so here is mine:

 

Our April 1 cruise was cancelled on March 13 and we requested the 100% refund on March 15.

 

This morning my credit card account shows 2 refunds that total $725 less than what we paid. Hopefully the $725 shows up in another refund over the next week or so. The date on the refunds show as April 3 although they just showed up in our account this morning.

 

Also, we cancelled an excursion on Feb 28 and received a refund this morning for $31 less than what we paid. I know this refund is for the excursion since it was charged on a different credit card than the cruise itself.

I will also wait a while for the rest of the money to show up before inquiring about this one.

 

My guess is that the amounts yet to be refunded are the tax portion which may have to be refunded by a different department.

For the excursion: Had you made previous excursion purchases for that cruise (beyond O Life assigned ones) that were cancelled by O separately while the cruise was still going to happen (i.e., port change, etc) ?

 

It's a long shot but (and it happened to us), check your visa statements for Oceania refunds from weeks/months ago. Our recent 100% cancelled cruise refund was missing $300+ from the total for excursions on the original invoice. Several month ago, there was itinerary changes resulting in some cancelled tours. And yes, that earlier $300+ CC credit we had received balanced everything on the most recent CC credit for excursions.

 

Another possibility is that the total of your O Life + purchased excursions originally qualified for YWYW but cancelling that single excursion removed your YWYW 25% discount(?). That could easily have altered your original balance due for purchased tours by 25%. This could affect pieces of or the overall refund amount now.

 

Finally, as aforementioned, some folks' cruises cancelled by Oceania may have been "booked onboard" which netted them bonus SBC on the cruise where the booking was made. Such SBC is recoupable by O if the cruise is cancelled (definitely if you did the cancelling). 

 

Just some thoughts. But, as aforementioned, it is very hard to "rule out" incorrect causes for discrepancies without complete info.

[Paulchili]

On our upcoming cruise (May 13) which is still not cancelled but I am sure it will be, we have O Life excursions plus 3 paid excursions.

I am thinking of cancelling those 3 paid excursions now and then cancel the cruise when O cancels it.

I am wondering if that will make things easier or complicate the refunds process.

Any thoughts?

[bbqoug]

1 hour ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

For the excursion: Had you made previous excursion purchases for that cruise (beyond O Life assigned ones) that were cancelled by O separately while the cruise was still going to happen (i.e., port change, etc) ?

 

It's a long shot but (and it happened to us), check your visa statements for Oceania refunds from weeks/months ago. Our recent 100% cancelled cruise refund was missing $300+ from the total for excursions on the original invoice. Several month ago, there was itinerary changes resulting in some cancelled tours. And yes, that earlier $300+ CC credit we had received balanced everything on the most recent CC credit for excursions.

 

Another possibility is that the total of your O Life + purchased excursions originally qualified for YWYW but cancelling that single excursion removed your YWYW 25% discount(?). That could easily have altered your original balance due for purchased tours by 25%. This could affect pieces of or the overall refund amount now.

 

Finally, as aforementioned, some folks' cruises cancelled by Oceania may have been "booked onboard" which netted them bonus SBC on the cruise where the booking was made. Such SBC is recoupable by O if the cruise is cancelled (definitely if you did the cancelling). 

 

Just some thoughts. But, as aforementioned, it is very hard to "rule out" incorrect causes for discrepancies without complete info.

The excursion was the only one we booked through Oceania, and up until O cancelled the cruise our itinerary hadn't changed at all.

I looked through all of my transactions since cancelling the excursion and there are no refunds from O.

 

I'm not too worried about it at this point. If a week goes by and the rest owed to us for the cruise especially hasn't shown up then I will contact our TA & ask her to check with Oceania.

 

Edited April 8, 2020 by bbqoug

[LHT28]

33 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

On our upcoming cruise (May 13) which is still not cancelled but I am sure it will be, we have O Life excursions plus 3 paid excursions.

I am thinking of cancelling those 3 paid excursions now and then cancel the cruise when O cancels it.

I am wondering if that will make things easier or complicate the refunds process.

Any thoughts?

Might be  another dept to wait on the refund  if you wait until O cancels

 i would cancel the excursions now  & be done with it  😉

JMO

[YoHoHo]

59 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

On our upcoming cruise (May 13) which is still not cancelled but I am sure it will be, we have O Life excursions plus 3 paid excursions.

I am thinking of cancelling those 3 paid excursions now and then cancel the cruise when O cancels it.

I am wondering if that will make things easier or complicate the refunds process.

Any thoughts?

 

26 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Might be  another dept to wait on the refund  if you wait until O cancels

 i would cancel the excursions now  & be done with it  😉

JMO

I agree with LHT28. One less thing plus it will come in sooner. Don't know if it will make any difference to the timing of the cruise payment refund but I don't see this hurting as they seem to refund each dept separately anyway

 

[Paulchili]

Thank you both - I think I will cancel those excursions now.

[Flatbush Flyer]

1 hour ago, Paulchili said:

On our upcoming cruise (May 13) which is still not cancelled but I am sure it will be, we have O Life excursions plus 3 paid excursions.

I am thinking of cancelling those 3 paid excursions now and then cancel the cruise when O cancels it.

I am wondering if that will make things easier or complicate the refunds process.

Any thoughts?

The only "problem" I see is that, should you cancel excursions now, there will be one more version of your invoice, the components of which may get lost somewhere by somebody.

[workstocruise]

Thank you Vlthom. Your explanation of when you received your refund was perfect and helped a lot.

[Paulchili]

3 hours ago, YoHoHo said:

Iagree with LHT28. One less thing plus it will come in sooner. Don't know if it will make any difference to the timing of the cruise payment refund but I don't see this hurting as they seem to refund each dept separately anyway

 

3 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

The only "problem" I see is that, should you cancel excursions now, there will be one more version of your invoice, the components of which may get lost somewhere by somebody.

Well, the problem is solved - my extra excursions were booked with OBC (which I had forgotten about).

So, no cancellation needed and no refund coming for those. 😞

[vlthom]

On 4/8/2020 at 1:06 PM, vlthom said:

 

Okay, I promised to report back when I had more information.  As of this morning, I received a new statement of the charges being refunded to my credit card.  The new version shows 100% refund and is broken into various pieces, as discussed elsewhere in this thread.  As of this morning, the smaller pieces have hit my credit card.  The large one remains, but because Oceania has provided the statement indicating the full refund has been processed, I trust that it will hit my card within the next few days.  It is quite possible that the delay on this final piece is with the CC (Chase) rather than Oceania as they may hold credits of this size for some period.  That's unknown to me.

 

For those of you wanting to know how many days it has taken for the refund to occur, our cruises were cancelled on March 13th.  On that date, our TA asked that we designate whether we wanted a FCC or refund and that we needed to decide by March 20th.  On that date, Oceania was to begin processing refunds or FCC's.  We were to sail on April 4 to May 2.  As of last night (April 7), credits began to appear on my credit card.  So, the turnaround has been fairly quick, compared to the 90 days that many of you have been promised.  

 

Unfortunately, there's an addendum to my story.........as of today, I still have not received the majority of my refund.  Oceania claims to have processed it back on April 1; however, my credit card company claims that nothing has been submitted beyond two very small credits that were supposedly processed after the larger transaction.  So, there's more than $16K now in dispute.

 

[Paulchili]

30 minutes ago, vlthom said:

 

Unfortunately, there's an addendum to my story.........as of today, I still have not received the majority of my refund.  Oceania claims to have processed it back on April 1; however, my credit card company claims that nothing has been submitted beyond two very small credits that were supposedly processed after the larger transaction.  So, there's more than $16K now in dispute.

 

In the mean time I would dispute that 16K with your CC company.

Let Oceania explain to them what they did with that money - CC has more pull than you do 🙂

[vlthom]

1 minute ago, Paulchili said:

In the mean time I would dispute that 16K with your CC company.

Let Oceania explain to them what they did with that money - CC has more pull than you do 🙂

 

I am trying to do just that; however, it's difficult as well.  Chase employees seem to be working from home.  After waiting on hold endlessly so that I could speak with someone, I finally reached an agent who told me that the transaction that Oceania claimed to have made was nowhere to be found.  She asked if I wanted  to dispute the original charge.  And I replied affirmatively but told her that the amount was somewhat less than the original charge (due to the smaller refunds that I did receive).  At that point, she was typing and then disconnected.  So, I will have to call them again and wait on hold in order to complete this process, adding to my frustration, naturally.  

[Paulchili]

6 minutes ago, vlthom said:

o, I will have to call them again and wait on hold in order to complete this process, adding to my frustration, naturally.

Oh boy!

Good luck - it is important.

[vlthom]

Just now, Paulchili said:

Oh boy!

Good luck - it is important.

 

thanks.....unfortunately, one of the artifacts of COVID-19 is that nothing seems to run smoothly or quickly.

[Paulchili]

1 minute ago, vlthom said:

 

thanks.....unfortunately, one of the artifacts of COVID-19 is that nothing seems to run smoothly or quickly.

Everything & everyone is overwhelmed.

[Flatbush Flyer]

1 hour ago, vlthom said:

 

I am trying to do just that; however, it's difficult as well.  Chase employees seem to be working from home.  After waiting on hold endlessly so that I could speak with someone, I finally reached an agent who told me that the transaction that Oceania claimed to have made was nowhere to be found.  She asked if I wanted  to dispute the original charge.  And I replied affirmatively but told her that the amount was somewhat less than the original charge (due to the smaller refunds that I did receive).  At that point, she was typing and then disconnected.  So, I will have to call them again and wait on hold in order to complete this process, adding to my frustration, naturally.  

We're going through this with Philippine Airlines. We cancelled our DIY air tix on February 23 by phone to PAL when O cancelled our upcoming ATW May two segments on Insignia. Within 24 hrs, we received a note from PAL that our refund had been approved and a BizTix refund had been "processed" though we'd lose a $250 pp cancel fee. The note also said to allow for at least 30 banking days before it would appear on the credit card.

Apparently, "processing" may only mean "handling" while funds transfer to the CC company is a whole other thing.

 

As for Chase: right now it can take an hour to get to a person (and use a land line if you have less than optimum cell service). But, do dispute the unreimbursed amount. Once you adequately explain the issue, the agent will give you the "dispute team" direct telephone number. Yes, that may take a second hour wait. But, that agent will give you a case number an send you the dispute forms/instructions by message exchange in your Chase account on their website.

 

FWIW: we had multiple refunds for two affected O cruises (February and May). Several credits on multiple Chase credit cards for each cruise appeared within a week of the February itinerary change decision and the May cruise cancellation decision. We got everything we were promised.

Edited April 16, 2020 by Flatbush Flyer

[Zesty Italian]

We are still waiting for the $1000 rest of our refund.  O gave us 2 refunds which I've mentioned before that were not the total paid.  We had our TA called them several times now and all we have heard is "they are busy and things take longer."  I completely understand that, but how is it more efficient to send 3 refunds rather than total?  We are willing to be patient if I know it's actually coming.  Feel uneasy that O hasn't told us what the breakdown is and we got the first refund quickly, but now it's been weeks.  Anyone else waited awhile and gotten the elusive third refund?

[vlthom]

40 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

We're going through this with Philippine Airlines. We cancelled our DIY air tix on February 23 by phone to PAL when O cancelled our upcoming ATW May two segments on Insignia. Within 24 hrs, we received a note from PAL that our refund had been approved and a BizTix refund had been "processed" though we'd lose a $250 pp cancel fee. The note also said to allow for at least 30 banking days before it would appear on the credit card.

Apparently, "processing" may only mean "handling" while funds transfer to the CC company is a whole other thing.

 

As for Chase: right now it can take an hour to get to a person (and use a land line if you have less than optimum cell service). But, do dispute the unreimbursed amount. Once you adequately explain the issue, the agent will give you the "dispute team" direct telephone number. Yes, that may take a second hour wait. But, that agent will give you a case number an send you the dispute forms/instructions by message exchange in your Chase account on their website.

 

FWIW: we had multiple refunds for two affected O cruises (February and May). Several credits on multiple Chase credit cards for each cruise appeared within a week of the February itinerary change decision and the May cruise cancellation decision. We got everything we were promised.

 

Thanks, FBF.....nothing is running smoothly these days.  I will try Chase again tomorrow and hopefully will not lose connection with them like I did today.  The agent that I spoke with today was willing to set up the dispute but somehow we got disconnected from one another while she was typing.  Based upon how poorly her voice was coming thru, my guess is that she was working from home.  I will definitely ask for the number of the "dispute team", as you suggested.  

 

By the way, were you on Riviera this past Fall, sailing from Reykjavik to NYC?  I think thought that I saw mention of this in some prior post a while back.  If so, I think that I may have met you in Martini's and you gave us a great restaurant suggestion for our pre-theater meal in NYC.  If I am correctly connecting you to the conversation, then thank you for the recommendation -- we loved Becco's.  If not....then forget this paragraph! 

[Flatbush Flyer]

10 minutes ago, vlthom said:

By the way, were you on Riviera this past Fall, sailing from Reykjavik to NYC?  I think thought that I saw mention of this in some prior post a while back.  If so, I think that I may have met you in Martini's and you gave us a great restaurant suggestion for our pre-theater meal in NYC.  If I am correctly connecting you to the conversation, then thank you for the recommendation -- we loved Becco's.  If not....then forget this paragraph! 

If I also mentioned Carmine's near Shubert Alley, it was definitely me. Yes, Becco - though tight tables, good food and reasonably priced wines.

[vlthom]

14 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

If I also mentioned Carmine's near Shubert Alley, it was definitely me. Yes, Becco - though tight tables, good food and reasonably priced wines.

Yes, you also mentioned Carmine’s.  We wound up at Becco’s and enjoyed it immensely.  You are right about it being tight.  But the food was good and the people at neighboring tables were enjoyable conversationalists.  Thanks again.