Refund Status for canceled cruises: Retitled after merges

[Aulanis]

7 hours ago, hpeabody said:

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.

 

I think your case is the worse I have read on here. All the mid cruise cancellations seem to have fared badly but  I would have expected those on a world cruise would have been treated a lot better.

Hope it is resolved soon for you.

Edited June 11, 2020 by Aulanis

[Aulanis]

4 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

Congratulations!  I am sure your posts have helped many on here and at last it seems you are almost there.  I dont think I have seen any posts where Princess have taken back FCCs  as a result of making a dispute and this has been raised a number of times.

Edited June 11, 2020 by Aulanis

[azbirdmom]

12 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!

 

Congratulations!  I understand your dilemma and it might be best to let it play out, unless you no longer want the FCCs for the fare and would prefer a refund.

 

I just checked and nothing yet for our May 9th cruise.  Still happy that we got 80% of our refund almost immediately but will be even happier when we get the remaining amount + 25% FCCs.

[cherylandtk]

13 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.

I am so happy for you!  I suspect the cash refund portion will show up in about a week if the recent trends continue to hold true.  I would not do anything about your dispute until the money comes back from Princess. Then you simply contact the bank and state that $$$ credited on <date> satisfies your dispute and you consider the matter complete.

 

Now Princess can move on to me and Holly and the rest of us in the corner.  Still crickets here in the corner; no email, no FCC, no refund...88 days.

[SunLakesBob]

We are only 72 days, but it feels like a lifetime with NO communication from Princess despite emails and phone calls

[teddie2]

12 minutes ago, SunLakesBob said:

We are only 72 days, but it feels like a lifetime with NO communication from Princess despite emails and phone calls

yup!! very frustrating.. I am happy for those who have gotten their refunds but it frustrates me even more to see that others are getting refunded and I have not yet :(

[ALWAYS CRUZIN]

5 minutes ago, teddie2 said:

yup!! very frustrating.. I am happy for those who have gotten their refunds but it frustrates me even more to see that others are getting refunded and I have not yet 😞

83 days for us and it was correct.

[SunLakesBob]

8 minutes ago, ALWAYS CRUZIN said:

83 days for us and it was correct.

does disputing the charge with the CC help? If so, when?

[ceilidh1]

39 minutes ago, SunLakesBob said:

does disputing the charge with the CC help? If so, when?

I am curious about this too. I disputed my charges on May 25th and, up until that point had received nothing. No FCC and no refund. I had called the week prior to ask about status and was told that because I had cancelled 2 days prior to Princess, my booking would not even be looked at until after all of the Princess cancellations had been completed (the previous time I asked, I was told that mine had been processed on April 29th - go figure). The not knowing and the conflicting info were what prompted me to dispute. Last night, my FCCs showed up in my personaliser. Still no refund, but at least evidence that something is happening. Did the dispute prompt them to open up my booking, or was this the timeframe it would have happened anyway? Who knows. For me, it was more about the peace of mind that one way or another I would get some money back.

 

This was for a March 14th sailing, cancelled by me on March 10th. So 92 total days until FCC showed up. Still waiting on $$ from Princess but have temp credits from bank.

[trvlwrld]

Called Princess today—-got the normal run around—-told my refund would be $2300 total.  I explained that I calculated almost double that amount when you added air fare.  Her response was “sorry, didn’t see that on your booking—-oh, there it is”.  Each time I asked about something else like taxes, insurance, transfers, she said the same thing.  I have now figured out that they absolutely have NO idea what they are doing.  If you have received your credit card refund, you should feel really really lucky!!!   Transparency isn’t an issue because they have no clue what needs to be done.  Makes me wonder if trusting them with my safety on a future cruise is a wise decision?  Princess has some major problems that they need to address.  Sweeping all this under the rug for a few FCC’s is not the answer!  

 

 

 

[DavidandHeather]

6 minutes ago, trvlwrld said:

Called Princess today—-got the normal run around—-told my refund would be $2300 total.  I explained that I calculated almost double that amount when you added air fare.  Her response was “sorry, didn’t see that on your booking—-oh, there it is”.  Each time I asked about something else like taxes, insurance, transfers, she said the same thing.  I have now figured out that they absolutely have NO idea what they are doing.  If you have received your credit card refund, you should feel really really lucky!!!   Transparency isn’t an issue because they have no clue what needs to be done.  Makes me wonder if trusting them with my safety on a future cruise is a wise decision?  Princess has some major problems that they need to address.  Sweeping all this under the rug for a few FCC’s is not the answer!  

 

 

 

 

Had the runaround too, far from.happy and the promised call back from a manager in the UK didnt happed, called again this evening and was answered in the US and more questions and doubts raised with none answered by princess. Giving it until Monday when I am.next off work and if nothing has changed or progressed I will instruct my bank to initiate a Visa charge back. It will be 83 days on Monday more than sufficient time to at least get an explanation or even an acknowledgement, had nothing other than cancellation notice dated 24th March. They keep asking for our patience and understanding but it's now long gone.

[jimmieg]

On 6/10/2020 at 10:44 AM, CHB007 said:

Our credit from Princess of a little over $6k showed up on to our Costco Citi Card balance on June 2 (Posted in May).  Did a chat with Costco Citi Card rep that day to request the credit back to our registered checking account that we pay the Citi cc bill with.  We were told the same as you , it would be 3-5 days to process.  Called today since it has not happened yet, and has been over 7 days, and over 5 business days.  The rep today said our credit refund was at the supervisor approval level due to the large credit amount , and that can step itself can take up to 3 days.  Just FYI that it may take longer than the time they originally stated.  7-10 Days might be more appropriate.  

Thanks for the heads-up.  Find it odd, but waited this long, anyway.  They may want to reverse the reward that was originally credited last year?

Wonder if the lag-time on the refund date and posting was on Princess or Citi?  Usually "pending" amounts are shown quickly.

 

[CHB007]

57 minutes ago, jimmieg said:

Thanks for the heads-up.  Find it odd, but waited this long, anyway.  They may want to reverse the reward that was originally credited last year?

Wonder if the lag-time on the refund date and posting was on Princess or Citi?  Usually "pending" amounts are shown quickly.

 

Did not ask about the reward for using for travel, thought I would "play dumb" and let them figure it out, but that may be part of the delay to put the balance into my checking account, still not there as of today.  I think everyone is seeing a lag of a few days in the time from when it posts from Princess to showing up in the account balance.

[PurpleTraveller]

I had my May 4 Sapphire Princess cruise cancelled by Princess in Phase 1 on March 12. On June 2 I received my FCC and FCD was returned. On June 10 I received my full refund in my bank account. All amounts are correct. It took a while but it came through eventually! Hope all of you who are are still waiting (and I know there are an awful lot of you) get your refunds and FCC soon! 😊

 

[Fredette]

On 6/4/2020 at 11:42 PM, SunLakesBob said:

Is Princess refunding based on cancelation date or cruise date?

Cruise date.  Which is unfair when I cancelled when I was still in the 100% window, independent of any "pauses" but I got lumped in with "pause 2" and have to wait until Princess "get around to it".

I paid in full in January for a July cruise (will never go with ***** again as they have been useless in this process - actually worse than useless, because I booked with an American travel agent, my Australian account doesn't show the cruise, nor will Princess Australia deal with me) and so Princess are breaching their contract by insisting I wait until - when?

[voljeep]

2 minutes ago, Fredette said:

because I booked with an American travel agent, my Australian account doesn't show the cruise, nor will Princess Australia deal with me)

huh, why did you book it that way ???

[Fredette]

45 minutes ago, voljeep said:

huh, why did you book it that way ???

I booked it because they had a good rate, but the service in this situation has been below par.

I understand that a lot of agents weren't working (although why they couldn't work from home to service their clients I don't understand) but there was apparently no-one there for a couple of weeks - it looked as if the company had folded for a while.

[Grayce]

I was part of the phase 2 pause. I had a May 17 Alaska cruise cancelled by Princess. I put in my request for a refund the very first day (April 14) and I did get an email confirmation. I have been checking my Princess account daily to see if the FCD I used to book with, was put back into my account. Just today I see that it is back, which gives me hope they are beginning to  process my refund. I did check my credit card and there isn't a refund yet.

[npcl]

3 hours ago, Fredette said:

Cruise date.  Which is unfair when I cancelled when I was still in the 100% window, independent of any "pauses" but I got lumped in with "pause 2" and have to wait until Princess "get around to it".

I paid in full in January for a July cruise (will never go with ***** again as they have been useless in this process - actually worse than useless, because I booked with an American travel agent, my Australian account doesn't show the cruise, nor will Princess Australia deal with me) and so Princess are breaching their contract by insisting I wait until - when?

Booking under US TA means booking under US rules.  There are no U.S. regulations that define when a travel company must process a refund. In the US you can dispute your credit card and get your money back that way.  Do not know if you have that option in Australia.

[Fredette]

8 minutes ago, npcl said:

Booking under US TA means booking under US rules.  There are no U.S. regulations that define when a travel company must process a refund. In the US you can dispute your credit card and get your money back that way.  Do not know if you have that option in Australia.

Interestingly enough, the US TA provided us with a link to the booking terms, which take us back to the Australian Princess site, so the cruise was actually booked under Australian rules as they have not provided us with any other terms and conditions.  Usual business practice provides for REASONABLE time frames.  As my refund was requested independantly of any "pause arrangements" then it should have been processed in a reasonable time frame.  No court would consider three months (and counting) reasonable, when all they had to do was to refund cash, no calculations required.

[tpbrownec]

On 6/10/2020 at 4:38 PM, hpeabody said:

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.

Hey, same thing here.  We also on that ship.  Clearly Princess is not refunding based on cruise date since ours was Jan 2020.  Nor on end date since we were forced to disembark on March 21. They owe me the balance in my on-board folio account (a few thousand since all the shore excursions were cancelled). Plus reimbursement for baggage fees since we clealry had more luggage than the standard for air (Princess paid directly for airfare form Australia to LA).  Plus, of course, the refund (option 2).

 

When I spoke to them last week, they said that the Pacific Princess would be processed LAST since it was the last ship to return to port with passengers aboard.

[Jandaville]

4 hours ago, PurpleTraveller said:

I had my May 4 Sapphire Princess cruise cancelled by Princess in Phase 1 on March 12. On June 2 I received my FCC and FCD was returned. On June 10 I received my full refund in my bank account. All amounts are correct. It took a while but it came through eventually! Hope all of you who are are still waiting (and I know there are an awful lot of you) get your refunds and FCC soon! 😊

 

Thanks for the post. It does give me hope that our May 12th World Cruise from Sydney may get refunded before the end of June. People seem to have been waiting around the 90 day mark for refunds. If only Princess could be more transparent and perhaps put on their website what cruise date they are currently processing and maybe how many refunds they are dealing with both in total and daily but I'm an optimist.

 

In my working life I thought that it required up to 10 times more resources to attract a new customer than retain an old one but maybe that is a lesson Princess management have not learnt yet!

 

[Carnevale]

10 hours ago, ceilidh1 said:

I am curious about this too. I disputed my charges on May 25th and, up until that point had received nothing. No FCC and no refund. I had called the week prior to ask about status and was told that because I had cancelled 2 days prior to Princess, my booking would not even be looked at until after all of the Princess cancellations had been completed (the previous time I asked, I was told that mine had been processed on April 29th - go figure). The not knowing and the conflicting info were what prompted me to dispute. Last night, my FCCs showed up in my personaliser. Still no refund, but at least evidence that something is happening. Did the dispute prompt them to open up my booking, or was this the timeframe it would have happened anyway? Who knows. For me, it was more about the peace of mind that one way or another I would get some money back.

 

This was for a March 14th sailing, cancelled by me on March 10th. So 92 total days until FCC showed up. Still waiting on $$ from Princess but have temp credits from bank.

I am doubtful that cc disputes prompt any action on a refund.  I say this as in early May I disputed 3 cc payments (deposit, FP, and excursions) following the March 12 cancelation of our April cruise (option 2 with FCC applied much earlier).  By late May the last of the 3 amounts was refunded as a result of the dispute then this week Princess refunded our deposit and FP.  So, right now we have a double credit for most of what we were owed ( I am now waiting a little to see if Visa sorts this out before I do another long wait on hold trying to reach their dispute centre by phone).  If the cc dispute had prompted anything within Princess I don’t think this would have happened as if they had paid any attention to dispute I don’t think they would have issued a refund.

 

Just a guess and I hope your situation is all resolved soon.

[ceilidh1]

53 minutes ago, Carnevale said:

I am doubtful that cc disputes prompt any action on a refund.  I say this as in early May I disputed 3 cc payments (deposit, FP, and excursions) following the March 12 cancelation of our April cruise (option 2 with FCC applied much earlier).  By late May the last of the 3 amounts was refunded as a result of the dispute then this week Princess refunded our deposit and FP.  So, right now we have a double credit for most of what we were owed ( I am now waiting a little to see if Visa sorts this out before I do another long wait on hold trying to reach their dispute centre by phone).  If the cc dispute had prompted anything within Princess I don’t think this would have happened as if they had paid any attention to dispute I don’t think they would have issued a refund.

 

Just a guess and I hope your situation is all resolved soon.

I suspect that you are correct. I wonder if disputes are resolved in favour of the customer simply due to the fact that Princess is not responding to the banks? You would think that, if they had responded, then they would have records of the fact that the money was being refunded by the credit card company and thus would not double refund? Having said that, it seems as if the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing right now. I am still baffled at how they could have messed this all up so very badly on all counts.

[Conal4749]

We cancelled March 6th, for a May 16 cruise on the Regal.  This was when their first offer to cancel with no penalties was offered.  There had been no cancelled cruises yet.  We are still waiting for our refund.  Today I was told it was in a que (whatever that means).  97 days and still waiting.  😡