Refund Status for canceled cruises: Retitled after merges

[CJinSF]

To everyone who was on a voyage already underway when Princess paused operations, you may have submitted reimbursement requests for airfare, excess baggage, or other costs of getting home. Be aware of the following situation.

 

Now that I've been waiting 81 days for my refunds, FCC, and reimbursement from the Pacific Princess voyage that departed FTL on Jan 5 and LA on Jan 20, I sent emails to multiple members of the Princess executive team recently. This got me a callback from Kimberly Baldwin with Customer Relations, who told me she was speaking for the executive team. After the usual apologies, excuses, and promises that everything was in process, we discussed my specific refund and reimbursement requests. She told me they had NO RECORD of my request to be reimbursed for airfare and baggage.

 

That's right, after my receiving an email confirmation that my request had been received (on March 22!), and after being told by more than one Princess staffer that my airfare reimbursement was in process along with the other amounts I'm due, today I was told they had no record of it, and could I please send it again.

 

So if you, too, have a reimbursement coming, I highly recommend you send your request again now, with a note of the date when it was first submitted. Send it to customerrelations@princesscruises.com with your booking number in the subject line.

 

BTW, I firmly believe all these refunds are being deliberately slow walked by Princess to improve their cash flow. Meanwhile, they continue to sell cruises in order to bring more cash in the door. It's a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme.

 

If this weren't the case, they would simply have hired temporary help instead of laying off huge portions of their workforce and cutting their call center hours. Or contracted with an outside firm to handle this process their own systems weren't set up for. 

[hsmom]

Our 3/29 Regal cruise was canceled by Princess and we chose option 2 the first day.

Our FCC showed up in our accounts mid May.

May 25th we filed a dispute with our Sears CC. They gave us the temporary credit.

June 6th we received our refund from Princess.

Thank you all for the support and information.

[TNTLAMB]

13 minutes ago, CJinSF said:

.....If this weren't the case, they would simply have hired temporary help instead of laying off huge portions of their workforce and cutting their call center hours. Or contracted with an outside firm to handle this process their own systems weren't set up for. 

Are you aware of what lead to the cancellations? Or the continuing problems because of it Hire and train temps? How and where from? Which contracting firm?  Sounds like a great solution. How do you implement?  California is still in Phase 2 of reopening. They can't even bring in all of their existing staff let alone more. Washington isn't much better and Florida just entered Phase 2.

[Aeronaut767]

So Pause 1 cancellations and immediately requested option 2.  All of our shore excursions were with an off ship company and got the refunds in 6 days, as it should be.

FCC 25% posted to our accounts April 28.

 

Full refund to credit cards on June 06.

 

Sail date on the Sky May 06.

 

The lack communication and refund process took way to long for Princess or any service based Corporation.  However we have our money back which is good.

[cherylandtk]

4 hours ago, voljeep said:

does your TA have any inside info about the next wave of cancellations, specifically the November Caribbean sailings ?

 

I believe all remaining Sept and October sailings will be cancelled, just a matter of cash-flow when ...

Haven’t asked her, but I will next time we talk.  
 

[CJinSF]

11 minutes ago, TNTLAMB said:

Are you aware of what lead to the cancellations? Or the continuing problems because of it Hire and train temps? How and where from? Which contracting firm?  Sounds like a great solution. How do you implement?  California is still in Phase 2 of reopening. They can't even bring in all of their existing staff let alone more. Washington isn't much better and Florida just entered Phase 2.

 

Of course I'm aware. No one has to be brought anywhere to solve problems like this. All the needed information is available electronically and could be handled by remote workers, trained remotely. I've had an executive assistant for 10 years who lives in another state and I've never met in person. Same thing for hiring a contracting firm. This is exactly how businesses have been continuing to operate worldwide for the past 3 months. It's how Princess has continued to sell cruises all this time.

 

All it takes is the willingness to spend the money to make it happen. And that's exactly where the problem lies. Princess has chosen not to spend their money, and to instead keep as much of OUR money as they can. Carnival Corp, who of course owns Princess, is already under investigation by the Federal Maritime Commission and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure for delayed refunds (and other bad corporate behavior).

[Coral]

35 minutes ago, TNTLAMB said:

Are you aware of what lead to the cancellations? Or the continuing problems because of it Hire and train temps? How and where from? Which contracting firm?  Sounds like a great solution. How do you implement?  California is still in Phase 2 of reopening. They can't even bring in all of their existing staff let alone more. Washington isn't much better and Florida just entered Phase 2.

The vast majority of the employees in the offices were not laid off or furloughed until May 30th. They could have processed a whole lot more between March 12 and May 30th than what they did.

 

People can work from home. There are VPNs which make it seem like "people are physically on campus" computer wise. Princess had a lot of people working from home even before this. They had the technology.

 

Airlines and other companies processed refunds. Maybe took a few days longer due to volume but not 90 days.

Edited June 10, 2020 by Coral

[TNTLAMB]

7 minutes ago, Coral said:

The vast majority of the employees in the offices were not laid off or furloughed until May 30th. They could have processed a whole lot more between March 12 and May 30th than what they did.

 

People can work from home. There are VPNs which make it seem like "people are physically on campus" computer wise. Princess had a lot of people working from home even before this. They had the technology.

 

Airlines and other companies processed refunds. Maybe took a few days longer due to volume but not 90 days.

Yup, Had Princess not given multiple options and tried to do the right thing by giving additional FCC it would be done.

 

 

[voljeep]

4 minutes ago, TNTLAMB said:

Yup, Had Princess not given multiple options and tried to do the right thing by giving additional FCC it would be done.

 

 

Perfect, just Perfect - Can you imagine if Princess had simply stated, that's what travel insurance is for - deal with it … 

[Coral]

19 minutes ago, TNTLAMB said:

Yup, Had Princess not given multiple options and tried to do the right thing by giving additional FCC it would be done.

 

 

Honestly - giving options benefited THEM (Princess) because the people who took just the FCC, Princess was able to keep their money and continuing operating.

 

I was perfectly ok with just a straight refund. I probably will not use my FCC.

[Coral]

14 minutes ago, voljeep said:

Perfect, just Perfect - Can you imagine if Princess had simply stated, that's what travel insurance is for - deal with it … 

I had travel insurance. I planned on using it.

 

[SIMMY67]

3 hours ago, DavidandHeather said:

 

We have similar feelings, some communication would help a lot and possibly restore patience and understanding.

Since we were to be on the same cruise, I'll be interested to see how your refund goes.  As for patience?????  Understanding????????

[ceilidh1]

1 hour ago, voljeep said:

Perfect, just Perfect - Can you imagine if Princess had simply stated, that's what travel insurance is for - deal with it … 

Actually, that would have been fine with me. My travel insurance had me 100% covered. Unfortunately, that fell by the wayside as Princess offered refunds/FCCs. 

[DavidandHeather]

32 minutes ago, SIMMY67 said:

Since we were to be on the same cruise, I'll be interested to see how your refund goes.  As for patience?????  Understanding????????

 

Our patience and understanding has long gone, we cancelled on 24rh March ahead of princess pulling the plug on this cruise.79 days tomorrow and 2 weeks since our case was elevated whatever that means, certainly no communication as of yet. Giving them.a call tomorrow and if no progress or more excuses we will be initiating a Visa charge back, all the documentation is ready to send to our bank.

[Cruisin_Vol_Fan]

Happy 90 Days post-cancellation! Still no sign of any sort of refund. 

Cancelled March 24

Cruise Date May 11 (Pacific Princess LA-Vancouver)

 

Definitely not thrilled...

[jrblach]

we cancelled 97 day jan 2021 world cruise in mid april. got refund to credit card early june.

[hpeabody]

1 hour ago, Cruisin_Vol_Fan said:

Happy 90 Days post-cancellation! Still no sign of any sort of refund. 

Cancelled March 24

Cruise Date May 11 (Pacific Princess LA-Vancouver)

 

Definitely not thrilled...

Hey,  after us!  The little Pacific Princess was in the middle of the Indian Ocean when our 111 day World Cruise that began in January was abruptly ended (was due to end cruise May 11 in LA) and we made a u-turn past Sri Lanka and were put off the ship in Fremantle, Australia March 21st to make our way home.  AFIK, NONE of us about 600 passengers has received the promised refunds (in the tens of thousands of dollars) and bonus FCC to date and we have had ZERO communication from Princess.

[Cruzinnana47]

Cancelled 5/9/20 cruise on the Royal on 3/11, the day before Princess cancelled (Pause 1).  On 3/13, we returned the form indicating our choice as Option 1 (150% FCC), for which we were emailed a confirmation receipt the same day.  After several calls over the past 3 months, we were informed today that our refund was processed 6/9 (this was not Option 1).  Rep. offered to send an email to appropriate dept. to change back to Opt. 1....told them forget it, we'll accept the refund--don't want any more screw-ups.  BTW, Princess rep. at first didn't think we were entitled to any FCC--told her to check--as part of Pause 1, we should be given 25% FCC in our account in addition to the refund.

 

I agree with a previous poster--it's not so much the time this has taken, but the lack of transparency and continual changing of the rules by Princess, without sufficient communication.

Edited June 11, 2020 by Cruzinnana47

[ceilidh1]

I can hardly believe that I'm posting this...just checked my Princess account (AGAIN) and my FCCs are finally there. They are correct and include the base cruise fare plus a separate bonus FCC. No sign of any money in my accounts so now I'm not sure what to do in terms of the credit card disputes. I disputed the full amounts as I didn't expect to get the option 1 FCC. Do I just let that continue or do I contact my bank and explain that I now have a partial credit in the form of FCC? I'm still out around $4,000 even with the FCC but I don't want to give Princess an excuse to say they don't owe me the amount that is being disputed!

[trvlwrld]

We have the exact same scenario as you...I’m going to just let it ride and see what plays out...eventually something will happen

[mthomp5]

1 hour ago, ceilidh1 said:

I can hardly believe that I'm posting this...just checked my Princess account (AGAIN) and my FCCs are finally there. They are correct and include the base cruise fare plus a separate bonus FCC. No sign of any money in my accounts so now I'm not sure what to do in terms of the credit card disputes. I disputed the full amounts as I didn't expect to get the option 1 FCC. Do I just let that continue or do I contact my bank and explain that I now have a partial credit in the form of FCC? I'm still out around $4,000 even with the FCC but I don't want to give Princess an excuse to say they don't owe me the amount that is being disputed!

Can you call your bank to revise the disputed amount?  Or would that make it more complicated?

[ceilidh1]

7 minutes ago, mthomp5 said:

Can you call your bank to revise the disputed amount?  Or would that make it more complicated?

I'm sure I could...just don't want to get the timing wrong if they are going to take back the FCC due to the dispute. I think I will call and talk to my bank, explain everything and see what they suggest. Maybe it stays as the full dispute and then Princess can tell them that they have given a certain amount as an FCC. Who knows. I do know that things should not have been this hard for customers...

[mthomp5]

7 minutes ago, ceilidh1 said:

I'm sure I could...just don't want to get the timing wrong if they are going to take back the FCC due to the dispute. I think I will call and talk to my bank, explain everything and see what they suggest. Maybe it stays as the full dispute and then Princess can tell them that they have given a certain amount as an FCC. Who knows. I do know that things should not have been this hard for customers...

I see what you mean.  Yeah, it would be safer to leave it at the higher amount and Princess can refund the correct amount.  Agree...They have made this really complicated.  

[caribill]

10 hours ago, voljeep said:

Perfect, just Perfect - Can you imagine if Princess had simply stated, that's what travel insurance is for - deal with it … 

 

Travel insurance is not for when the cruise company cancels a cruise unless the company is going out of business.

 

People should not have to pay extra to buy insurance to protect against the cruise company cancelling a cruise.

[dog]

2 hours ago, ceilidh1 said:

I can hardly believe that I'm posting this...just checked my Princess account (AGAIN) and my FCCs are finally there. They are correct and include the base cruise fare plus a separate bonus FCC. No sign of any money in my accounts so now I'm not sure what to do in terms of the credit card disputes. I disputed the full amounts as I didn't expect to get the option 1 FCC. Do I just let that continue or do I contact my bank and explain that I now have a partial credit in the form of FCC? I'm still out around $4,000 even with the FCC but I don't want to give Princess an excuse to say they don't owe me the amount that is being disputed!

 

I suggest contacting credit card and asking status of your dispute. Once you file a dispute you leave it up to them to straighten it out. 
contacting Princess at this time may confuse things even more.