Refund Status for canceled cruises: Retitled after merges

[hpeabody]

5 hours ago, cherylandtk said:

My guess is that bookings with more ‘complicated’ calculations will be handled last. Such as the many folks who were on interrupted cruises that have additional costs to return home along with OBC owed and days of cruise lost calculations.

THIS IS THE GROUP I BELONG IN

 

2 hours ago, ceilidh1 said:

Just got off the latest webinar. Once again confirmed that ALL FCCs from pause 1 were complete, providing the choice of option 1/2 was received prior to April 30th. They stated that if you had not yet received it and had submitted your form to contact your TA or Princess. Any pause 1 forms submitted after April 30th would not be processed until after May 31st.

 

 

 

I also disagree that ALL FCCs from Pause 1 were complete (If that is where we fit in???)  We are the forgotten group that is never mentioned in anything Princess. We, the World Cruise group that departed in January for a 111 day cruise. We are probably per booking owed more $$$ than several typical bookings combined.  In essence we are now lending institutions for Princess.  I have not heard of 1 person from the World Cruise receiving refund or FCC. And for me ZERO, ZIP, NADA, NO communication from Princess regarding the refund/fcc they promised.  I also saw the very disturbing post elsewhere about us being "In Transit" and being put at the back of the now long and very dynamic cancellation list.  No, this was not a post by Princess, but makes me angry if it is true.  It seems we are not the only ones not "complete"  Maybe these webinar presenters need more fact verification before something goes into the presentation.  On a positive note, not part of the refund/fcc promise, I received a check from Bottomline for travel home expenses this week (This is a separate request)  That took 38 business days, nearly 2 calendar months.

Edited May 21, 2020 by hpeabody

[Cuedon]

Yep. I'm waiting on at least 4 sets of FCCs from Phase 1 Option 2s still. Maybe more, depending on what the cut off dates are.) Oh well.

[Aulanis]

1 hour ago, cltnccruisers said:

I've never gotten any response other than automated from email - always had better luck calling.  

 

Well you are the lucky one.  You have to bear in mind that you have a toll free number In the UK we dont, so you ring the office and after about an hours someone might answer

BUT it handles the calls for ALL carnival lines. More often than not it used to go dead when they tried to put you through to Princess. However now almost all operatives are working from home so you cant ring them and they cant ring you

Our Princes   website is different  it has virtually no information other than sales  now and again  again the update the "News" 

I believe you also have a chat line as well as the  toll free number which of course is absent from our website.

In addition  ABTA  has decided to assist their members  of which Princess is one that they do not have to  answer calls  and the response time to written or emailed queries has been extended from 28 DAYS  to 56 DAYS.

This is what my extremely helpful and knowledgeable operative has on her email.

I am out of the office from 14/05/2020 15:45 until 20/05/2020 07:00. 
Hi
I am currently out of the office and will respond to your message upon my return. If you enquiry is urgent, please email pcuk.guestrelations@princesscruises.co.uk
Please note that my hours are 08:30 - 17:00 Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

 

and

Please note that the Guest Relations Team are working through significant volumes, whilst also working remotely from the office.  This means my colleagues and I are not set up to make or receive telephone calls. Please therefore ensure that all correspondence is via email and in the event that you receive my out of office please forward your email to PCUK.GuestRelations@princesscruises.co.uk.  We are working hard to respond to all correspondence as quickly as possible and in line with the ABTA revised guidelines of 56 days. I apologise if I am unable to come back to you immediately, however please be assured a response will be provided as soon as possible.  Thank you for your patience during this challenging time

 

So just think how lucky you are and think again how great Princess are at handling this.

1 hour ago, cltnccruisers said:

Just wondering, but do the US, UK and Canada possibly us different websites and processes?  If so, that could have some bearing on all this.

Yes - as above

Edited May 21, 2020 by Aulanis
messed it up LOL

[ceilidh1]

2 minutes ago, Aulanis said:

 

Well you are the lucky one.  You have to bear in mind that you have a toll free number

In the UK we dont, so you ring the office and after about an hours someone might answer

BUT it handles the calls for ALL carnival lines. More often than not it used to go dead

when they tried to put you through to Princess. However now almost all operatives are working from home but you cant ring them and they cant ring you

Our Princes is different  it has virtually no information other than sales related and

now and  again the update the "News"  I believe  you have a chat line as well as the 

toll free number which of course is absent from our website.

In addition  ABTA  has decided to assist their members  of which Princess is one that

they do not have to  answer calls  and the responce time to written or emailed

queries has been extended from 28 DAYS  to 56 DAYS.

This is what my extremely helpful and knowledgeable operative has on her email.

I am out of the office from 14/05/2020 15:45 until 20/05/2020 07:00. 
Hi
I am currently out of the office and will respond to your message upon my return. If you enquiry is urgent, please email pcuk.guestrelations@princesscruises.co.uk
Please note that my hours are 08:30 - 17:00 Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

 

and

Please note that the Guest Relations Team are working through significant volumes, whilst also working remotely from the office.  This means my colleagues and I are not set up to make or receive telephone calls. Please therefore ensure that all correspondence is via email and in the event that you receive my out of office please forward your email to PCUK.GuestRelations@princesscruises.co.uk.  We are working hard to respond to all correspondence as quickly as possible and in line with the ABTA revised guidelines of 56 days. I apologise if I am unable to come back to you immediately, however please be assured a response will be provided as soon as possible.  Thank you for your patience during this challenging time

 

So just think how lucky you are and think again how great Princess are at handling this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are you able to call the 1-800-774-6237 number or will they just not deal with you? Might be worth a try if you haven't already?

[Aulanis]

5 minutes ago, ceilidh1 said:

Are you able to call the 1-800-774-6237 number or will they just not deal with you? Might be worth a try if you haven't already?

Thank you-I looked into that  but whilst I might be able ring it  but it is charged

as an international call.   Its just a shmbles over here. Email form our TA says he

cant even phone them now.  Could be if its a pokey  little office  they cant  have

more than e few working there.    If it doesnt improve soon I will eventually boil

over and send emails to Ms Swartz office and tell them what I think. 

[Aulanis]

Just googled this again and  there are a few  posts on various sites like

"I rang BT up, they confirmed the number will still run charged the international rate even if its toll free.
55p per minute from BT landline"

 

I dont know if skype calls still are an option - will get my son to research that.

[cltnccruisers]

19 minutes ago, Aulanis said:

 

Well you are the lucky one.  You have to bear in mind that you have a toll free number In the UK we dont, so you ring the office and after about an hours someone might answer

B

21 minutes ago, Aulanis said:

 

Well you are the lucky one.  You have to bear in mind that you have a toll free number In the UK we dont, so you ring the office and after about an hours someone might answer

BUT it handles the calls for ALL carnival lines. More often than not it used to go dead when they tried to put you through to Princess. However now almost all operatives are working from home so you cant ring them and they cant ring you

Our Princes   website is different  it has virtually no information other than sales  now and again  again the update the "News" 

I believe you also have a chat line as well as the  toll free number which of course is absent from our website.

In addition  ABTA  has decided to assist their members  of which Princess is one that they do not have to  answer calls  and the response time to written or emailed queries has been extended from 28 DAYS  to 56 DAYS.

This is what my extremely helpful and knowledgeable operative has on her email.

I am out of the office from 14/05/2020 15:45 until 20/05/2020 07:00. 
Hi
I am currently out of the office and will respond to your message upon my return. If you enquiry is urgent, please email pcuk.guestrelations@princesscruises.co.uk
Please note that my hours are 08:30 - 17:00 Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

 

and

Please note that the Guest Relations Team are working through significant volumes, whilst also working remotely from the office.  This means my colleagues and I are not set up to make or receive telephone calls. Please therefore ensure that all correspondence is via email and in the event that you receive my out of office please forward your email to PCUK.GuestRelations@princesscruises.co.uk.  We are working hard to respond to all correspondence as quickly as possible and in line with the ABTA revised guidelines of 56 days. I apologise if I am unable to come back to you immediately, however please be assured a response will be provided as soon as possible.  Thank you for your patience during this challenging time

 

So just think how lucky you are and think again how great Princess are at handling this.

Yes - as above

I was pretty sure about the websites but I had no idea your infrastructure and support were so horrible.  It can only be exacerbated in these times.  Still happy with how Princess is handling this over here - can't help that.

 

Yes - as above

 

[ceilidh1]

9 minutes ago, Aulanis said:

Thank you-I looked into that  but whilst I might be able ring it  but it is charged

as an international call.   Its just a shmbles over here. Email form our TA says he

cant even phone them now.  Could be if its a pokey  little office  they cant  have

more than e few working there.    If it doesnt improve soon I will eventually boil

over and send emails to Ms Swartz office and tell them what I think. 

UGH - that sucks!

 

[cltnccruisers]

4 minutes ago, Aulanis said:

Just googled this again and  there are a few  posts on various sites like

"I rang BT up, they confirmed the number will still run charged the international rate even if its toll free.
55p per minute from BT landline"

 

I dont know if skype calls still are an option - will get my son to research that.

That's a thought.  We use skype between US and UK for work every day.

[Astro Flyer]

57 minutes ago, LidoLiz said:

After cancelling our March 21 Caribbean cruise on March 8,  I received my Princess compensation booking receipt on March 12 (selected Option 2).

I called Princess last night to check the status -- they told me that they didn't receive my option request (even though they had replied to it), and that I had been "defaulted" to Option 1.

The Princess agent on the phone switched it back to Option 2, but I don't know if this re-sets the clock. She said "you should be getting something very soon."

....but who knows?

We had the same didn’t receive your request excuse 60 days after we requested Option 1 on 3/12 & received confirmations from them on that date.
 

My TA contacted her Princess marketing sales manager who only said to request again by 5/31 despite Princess mishandling our request. She also said that the 60 days timeframe wouldn’t start again however after so much misinformation from Princess we’ve lost trust in them to honor their commitments & instead have disputed our chargecard payment & have received a conditional credit. Princess has 6 weeks to dispute our claim however taking our money, canceling our cruises & not providing as promised (FCC & refunds) would be the definition of a canceled service & we expect to receive refunds for our payments.

 

Happy that some are finally getting refunds & FCC from Princess but after patiently waiting for them to do anything they’ve lost our trust...certainly not what this Princess loyalist hoped would ever happen.

[DuaneO]

For the record, our cruise was canceled 13Mar2020 LA port to Hawaii via the Sun Princess 15 days.    
 

We filed for the refund/FCC option.  The next day — 100% credit card/100% FCC...

 

Approx 32 days later we received our FCC’s 100%.  We booked a replacement cruise.   The rep told us approx 60 days for the refund to occur.

 

We received an email from Princess 01May,  letting us know they are extended out staff, system wise.  All due to the length of time due to the CV19 issues. and they are trying to get returns out ASAP.  
 

Our 60th day was 13May.  Nothing showed up money wise... Did I get concern; yes a bit... but i realized it’s difficult time for all of us.  And I figured if 90 days occur... well then I’m going to look at a legal solution.

 

So today I checked my credit card statement, and surprise on 15May,  they Princess full paid back everything.  This included, Insurance, port fee/tax, booking and the tips...Including the extra items of coffee card and water too.  We are full recovered!

 

Basically 62 days.  No complaint, no issues,  they met their commit.  So I hope for all of you the same resolution.

 

As far as I’m concerned, Princess is being honorable in there intention to recover the refunds.  Thank you to Princess.

 

I hope this helps everyone.

[nho9504]

4 hours ago, ceilidh1 said:

Just got off the latest webinar. Once again confirmed that ALL FCCs from pause 1 were complete, providing the choice of option 1/2 was received prior to April 30th. They stated that if you had not yet received it and had submitted your form to contact your TA or Princess. Any pause 1 forms submitted after April 30th would not be processed until after May 31st.

 

Additionally, they are no longer going by sailing date for refunds as this was causing further delays. Instead they are using a combination or cancellation date, sailing date, and circumstances of refund (I assume that means easy as opposed to complex).

 

An email will be going to anyone that cancelled cruises that would have been in pause 3 (forget the specific timeframe for cancellation) to include them in the double deposit offer if not paid in full and refund has not been received.

 

Does this mean that everyone who meet the criteria should have seen the FCC in the account by now, as today is May 21st.

 

We have not seen the 25% FCC in our accounts, only the FCDs refunded.  We submitted our choice on Mar 16 and got a Refund Receipt Confirmation email a few hours later.

 

So we have to contact Princess?!  A phone rep WEEKS ago have confirmed they have received the Option 2 form ... 

 

 

[Coral]

Just now, nho9504 said:

 

Does this mean that everyone who meet the criteria should have seen the FCC in the account by now, as today is May 21st.

 

We have not seen the 25% FCC in our accounts, only the FCDs refunded.  We submitted our choice on Mar 16 and got a Refund Receipt Confirmation email a few hours later.

 

So we have to contact Princess?!  A phone rep WEEKS ago have confirmed they have received the Option 2 form ... 

 

 

Mine is not there either. I contacted Princess a few days ago and they had no idea why and told me to wait.

[nho9504]

3 hours ago, ceilidh1 said:

@remydiva @azbirdmom Like you, I am part of pause 1 and received no FCC or refund yet. I just called (as the webinar said). The reservation agent confirmed that I was listed as option 1 request. She was also able to see that the original FCC amount was on the account, even though I am not able to see or access it. The original amount was for the cancellation fee as I cancelled 2 days prior to Princess cancelling. Nothing had been done on the booking since then. She passed me on to customer relations. They told me that the "compassionate" considerations (this is apparently what they are calling those of us who cancelled prior to Princess but included in the pauses) were processed separately from the others. Not surprised to hear this. She then confirmed that nothing had been done on my booking and said that it should have been processed as it was among the first of the cancelled voyages. I told her that I had an email from customer relations stating it had been processed April 29th. She went back through the notes and found the email but said it was incorrect - it had not been processed, only documented. She said she suspected it had been missed and promised to email the correct department and call me before end of day tomorrow to let me know the status. I doubt very much I will receive the call. Just another layer of frustration.

 

Note - they never said on the webinar that REFUNDS had been completed for pause 1, only FCCs. I know that neither of you implied that, but just clarifying for other posters.

 

I just called.  The rep said NOTHING other than the FCD has been in the account.  She has NOT seen the FCC, let alone the refund.  She did see Option 2 is in file.  She asked me, "So you opted for 100% refund and still want some future cruise credit?"

What the crap this is?   Our cruise was Apr 11, isn't that in the period that Opt 2 gets 25% FCC while Opt 1 50% FCC + 100% FCC on the cruise fare?  

 

So the webinar is another lie to the travel agents because reading the posts I know we are not alone in the group who have submitted the form shortly after the pause, still have not received ANYTHING - and a Princess rep also does not see ANYTHING in the FCC.

 

When asked when the clock started for the 60 days mark - cancellation date?  form submission date?  Sailing date?  The rep wobbled among all 3 - in short, she had no clue because the goal post being given to her is constantly changing! 

 

The ONLY real info I got on this call is,  our booking has Option 2 attached.  That has been confirmed multiple times over a month ago! 

 

Whoever gave the instruction to tell people to contact TA or to call Princess if still not seeing their FCCs but have submitted the forms, obviously is NOT kept up to date on what is going on in his or her own company!  

 

The latest "you are in queue" letter from the CEO is nothing but an insult to people who are being fed lies after lies,  in my opinion.

[ceilidh1]

Here is the recording to the webinar. The question regarding pause 1 FCC is at 47:27.

 

 

Edited May 22, 2020 by ceilidh1
forgot link

[nho9504]

6 minutes ago, ceilidh1 said:

Here is the recording to the webinar. The question regarding pause 1 FCC is at 47:27.

 

 

 

Thanks for posting that.

 

Did you choose Opt 2 (making reservation of new cruise) when you call?  When chose option 3,  I always got the recording of how busy they are and for those whose cruises after Mar 31st, please call back other time - essentially the old recording from 2.5 months ago before the 1st pause was announced! 

 

 

[ceilidh1]

12 minutes ago, nho9504 said:

 

Thanks for posting that.

 

Did you choose Opt 2 (making reservation of new cruise) when you call?  When chose option 3,  I always got the recording of how busy they are and for those whose cruises after Mar 31st, please call back other time - essentially the old recording from 2.5 months ago before the 1st pause was announced! 

 

 

I select option 3 and just stay on the line. Not sure why that message hasn't been updated but I have never had a problem getting through. I was on hold about 10-15 minutes today and then another 10 minutes holding for customer relations. I think that's the key - ask to speak to someone in customer relations as they are the ones that supposedly can pass it along to the correct department. The reps can only tell you what they see on the booking - they don't have power to actually "do" anything to it. Not that I am any further along than I was on March 12th but at least the customer relations person actually admitted nothing had been done rather than try to fob me off!

[nho9504]

19 minutes ago, ceilidh1 said:

I select option 3 and just stay on the line. Not sure why that message hasn't been updated but I have never had a problem getting through. I was on hold about 10-15 minutes today and then another 10 minutes holding for customer relations. I think that's the key - ask to speak to someone in customer relations as they are the ones that supposedly can pass it along to the correct department. The reps can only tell you what they see on the booking - they don't have power to actually "do" anything to it. Not that I am any further along than I was on March 12th but at least the customer relations person actually admitted nothing had been done rather than try to fob me off!

 

The Option 3 would just loop back to the menu. and then for a second time option 3 I sometimes got auto hang up on after waiting for 10 - 15 min.  Tonight I finally got a human who is not knowledgeable anyway.  I will try tomorrow day time if I remember this, and ask to speak to guest relations dept. 

 

All I want to find out is, at which stage our refund is at,  so I know whether to call our bank's award travel booking dept - because if Princess not issues refund yet,  they could not return back the points used to pay for the cruise!

 

On an unrelated but positive news from part of this trip - out of the blue, Chase Travel sent us an email on refunding the points used to pay for 2 Swiss airlines intra-europe tickets that I have already written it off because Swiss airlines and its parent company, Luthansa groups, have flat out said they would not refund any canceled flights, other than providing rebooking accommodation which is rather restrictive even if you could use it...

I have thought all along that Princess refund would be fairly straight forward (only cruise fare, nothing else) while the Swiss airlines would be a total loss...  because there is no mechanism we could make Swiss airlines to pay...

 

Frankly the biggest issue I have with Princess is its opaque handling of the whole process.   It acts as if we are all idiots who would believe anything they say. 

It completely changes our opinion on the company, even though we have had over 35 cruises with them,  2/3 of all the cruises we have taken.  Going forward we dont even know if we would cruise again because we value our lives more than the pleasure from cruising!  If we cruise again,  Princess certainly would not be our first or second or even third choice. 

Edited May 22, 2020 by nho9504

[cruzsnooze]

There's something that wasn't clear to me while I watched the webinar.  Can I apply the FCC to a cruise I booked prior to the cancelling of the cruise that created the FCC. Anyone get a clear understanding of that? Of course that assumes I get the darn FCC already.

Edited May 22, 2020 by cruzsnooze

[ceilidh1]

2 minutes ago, cruzsnooze said:

There's something that wasn't clear to me while I watched the webinar.  Can I apply the FCC to a cruise I booked prior to the cancelling of the cruise that created the FCC. Anyone get a clear understanding of that?

You can but it will require a call to get it applied as the date on the FCC needs to changed. I think you will need to be persistent on it as it is possible some of the reps might not be aware. Marsha specifically addresses this in the webinar.

[cruzsnooze]

10 minutes ago, ceilidh1 said:

You can but it will require a call to get it applied as the date on the FCC needs to changed. I think you will need to be persistent on it as it is possible some of the reps might not be aware. Marsha specifically addresses this in the webinar.

That's what was unclear, whether it had to be a new booking to use the FCC.  I have one cruise I didn't cancel and opted for the 125% thinking I'd apply that FCC since it would be so large.  In fact the FCC will exceed the cruise by about $3000 so I realize I'll have to book something else. Right now I'm kinda unhappy with Princess and after using up my FCC's will probably look to Viking Ocean for future cruises unless Princess restores my confidence. 

[Coral]

56 minutes ago, ceilidh1 said:

Here is the recording to the webinar. The question regarding pause 1 FCC is at 47:27.

 

 

So I watched this. No wonder there are so many issues with comments like "we sent the wrong forms", "we changed it so before you didn't have to fill out a form but now you have to", "we changed the rules", "Pause 2 and 3 FCC can be used as a deposit but Pause 1 can't be".

 

The part I loved the most was "We turned off automation of refunds and decided to do it manually to include the FCC". Honestly - they couldn't figure out a way to do automation and then later apply FCCs but they chose to hold up the entire refund system when people probably would have preferred to wait for their FCC.

 

I really feel sorry for travel consultants who are dealing with this. I feel sorry for people answering the phones at Princess.

[mthomp5]

4 hours ago, ceilidh1 said:

@remydiva @azbirdmom Like you, I am part of pause 1 and received no FCC or refund yet. I just called (as the webinar said). The reservation agent confirmed that I was listed as option 1 request. She was also able to see that the original FCC amount was on the account, even though I am not able to see or access it. The original amount was for the cancellation fee as I cancelled 2 days prior to Princess cancelling. Nothing had been done on the booking since then. She passed me on to customer relations. They told me that the "compassionate" considerations (this is apparently what they are calling those of us who cancelled prior to Princess but included in the pauses) were processed separately from the others. Not surprised to hear this. She then confirmed that nothing had been done on my booking and said that it should have been processed as it was among the first of the cancelled voyages. I told her that I had an email from customer relations stating it had been processed April 29th. She went back through the notes and found the email but said it was incorrect - it had not been processed, only documented. She said she suspected it had been missed and promised to email the correct department and call me before end of day tomorrow to let me know the status. I doubt very much I will receive the call. Just another layer of frustration.

 

Note - they never said on the webinar that REFUNDS had been completed for pause 1, only FCCs. I know that neither of you implied that, but just clarifying for other posters.

Thanks for the updates.  I’m also one of those in the “compassionate consideration” group.  My mom had Princess cancel for any reason but they denied her claim because Princess said they were issuing refunds.  So she really should get her refund from Princess.  I’m hoping we didn’t slip through the cracks.  

 

The last time I spoke with Customer Relations, they said to give it 60 days from sail date (3/28), so give it until 5/31 and call her then if we didn’t see anything.  I wish on the webinars, they had updates for those of us in this “compassionate consideration” category.

[remydiva]

4 minutes ago, mthomp5 said:

Thanks for the updates.  I’m also one of those in the “compassionate consideration” group.  My mom had Princess cancel for any reason but they denied her claim because Princess said they were issuing refunds.  So she really should get her refund from Princess.  I’m hoping we didn’t slip through the cracks.  

 

The last time I spoke with Customer Relations, they said to give it 60 days from sail date (3/28), so give it until 5/31 and call her then if we didn’t see anything.  I wish on the webinars, they had updates for those of us in this “compassionate consideration” category.

We too are in the ‘compassionate’ pile and also had AON cancel for any reason insurance . Filed claim , and were told princess would do the refund.

aNd here we wait. Mar 12 claim for April 19 cruise. 

[redtop101]

This is the e-mail reply I got from my TA today following my inquiry yesterday. This is now 68 days after choosing Option 1 on March 17th.

 

"Good morning, per the conversation with the cruise line rep, due to the mass cancellations and refunds being processed, the cruise line has extended their wait time to approx 90 business days. Once your future cruise credits are applied they will be emailed to you for your use. In Regards to your refunds unfortunately we cannot expedite the process however it will be beneficial to check with your bank and or credit card companies to see when it is processed."

I just wonder if this was just a blanket brush-off and goes against the recent  notice from Jan Swartz claiming that extra staff have been added and procedures have been modified to increase capacity.