Cancelled Cruises Refund Tracker/Discussion (merged topics)

[JuliaMS]

I talked to someone today that seemed to know what she was talking about. My cruise 3/14 was canceled on 3/13. She said she could see that my refund had been processed and was waiting in a queue to “be pushed out” to the credit card company. The numbers she gave me added up right. She said they are processing the refunds in order of sailing and that my sailing should be pushed out this week. She said they had been pushing them out every day but it was bogging the system down so now they are doing it once a week. 
 

I could have all been a very practiced load of *@$% but she sounded like she knew what she was talking about and was convincing. I got her thru the department where you can request a copy of your portfolio after sailing. 

Edited April 13, 2020 by JuliaMS

[thon]

I asked for a full refund immediately upon receiving their 13 March email cancelling my cruise.  Still nothing.

[mnocket]

I'm truly sorry to say this, but those of you who are waiting for refunds should probably be asking IF not WHEN you'll get your refund.

 

This is a MUST READ ARTICLE for those people who are awaiting a refund or holding FCCs

• RCL only had $234.7 MM in cash available while current liabilities that need to paid in cash soon was is about $4.4 B
• Cruise liners typically fund their working capital needs through both commercial paper and deferred revenue or customer deposits
• As can be seen, as of the 10-K, the majority of the customer deposits have been spent, hence the low amount of cash on the balance sheet.

Now please keep in mind that this article is written by someone who is short RCL.  Further, RCL did recently increase and fully draw down its line of credit to the tune of $2.2B.  Still, the company remains in desperate need of cash.  The possibility of Bankruptcy should not be overlooked.  Given that a multi-year recovery of the cruise industry is now the most likely outcome, there's no guarantee that RCL would use bankruptcy to reorganize and continue operations...... they may opt to liquidate assets and cease operations altogether.  Let's hope it doesn't come to that

[TeaBag]

Nothing here either.  Not even the taxes on the second one cancelled (B2B).

[BP99]

Hi,

You should all read:

Cancelled Cruises Refund Tracker

mnocket replied to Argo.'s topic in Celebrity Cruises

 

Especially mnocket reply

[hcat]

Lets stick to the tracker thread..

[JuliaMS]

3 minutes ago, BP99 said:

Hi,

You should all read:

Cancelled Cruises Refund Tracker

mnocket replied to Argo.'s topic in Celebrity Cruises

 

Especially mnocket reply

The point of this post was no discussion. Just post when you see the refund. That thread is 15 pages of discussion. 

Edited April 13, 2020 by JuliaMS

[twentyknots]

If RCL goes bankrupt than my travel insurance will have to pay.

[hcat]

WOW, if true.

Customer Deposits for future cruises should never be used until final payment, esp those that are fully refundable.  If that is how they do business, slippery slope at best!  In my world, deposits are held in escrow  until the deal closes unless released.

 

Personally, we are not waiting until our November sail date for my pending deposit refund if we can help it.  We will file the dispute tom am! ( 30 days have passed)

 

After that we will give them 30 days for the next refund to processed....

 

and  then will work on trading in our fcc certif for cash ( that one's a tough climb)

Edited April 13, 2020 by hcat

[Baron Barracuda]

51 minutes ago, mnocket said:

I'm truly sorry to say this, but those of you who are waiting for refunds should probably be asking IF not WHEN you'll get your refund.

 

This is a MUST READ ARTICLE for those people who are awaiting a refund or holding FCCs

• RCL only had $234.7 MM in cash available while current liabilities that need to paid in cash soon was is about $4.4 B
• Cruise liners typically fund their working capital needs through both commercial paper and deferred revenue or customer deposits
• As can be seen, as of the 10-K, the majority of the customer deposits have been spent, hence the low amount of cash on the balance sheet.

Now please keep in mind that this article is written by someone who is short RCL.  Further, RCL did recently increase and fully draw down its line of credit to the tune of $2.2B.  Still, the company remains in desperate need of cash.  The possibility of Bankruptcy should not be overlooked.  Given that a multi-year recovery of the cruise industry is now the most likely outcome, there's no guarantee that RCL would use bankruptcy to reorganize and continue operations...... they may opt to liquidate assets and cease operations altogether.  Let's hope it doesn't come to that

As of 3/26 RCL had $3.6B in cash and untapped lines of credit.  Believe that their cash burn rate was recently estimated at $140MM / month.  That would imply they're ok well into next year.

[Milwaukee Eight]

13 minutes ago, twentyknots said:

If RCL goes bankrupt than my travel insurance will have to pay.

I not sure that is covered loss. 

[hcat]

A bit off topic and I am  uninformed....but  can someone explain why  cruise lines  are foreign  registered business entities with  foreign flagged ships? 

 

Taxes, liability,  insurance costs,ship and safety regulation, corporate oversight????

Just wondering???

[paulapatti4]

We were scheduled for 3/14 Summit sailing that cancelled 3/13/20. Started the refund process on 3/17. Sent request to Celebrity and from reading the boards determined I better go thru TA( large on-line agency in New England). Sent emails as they are working from home, not taking calls. Received a form from TA to fill out acknowledging we were forfeiting the FCC. Completed and haven't heard a word in 3 weeks. Initiated dispute with my credit card last week. Today received an email from Celebrity with a FCC minus the penalty amount for cancelling the cruise.🤦‍♀️

I'm at a loss of words...I was clear with both Celebrity and TA that I wanted refund and signed a form acknowledging I was not taking the larger dollar amount of FCC. All cruises were cancelled as of 3/14 (and I was in San Juan on 3/13) the penalty for cancelling is a new wrinkle in the process.

Just sent off another email to TA to request an explanation. Not sure if I can continue the dispute process with my credit card now that Celebrity issues FCC.

 

 

Paula

[jc719]

My experience & timeline...

 

Infinity FLL-BCN TATL Apr 25.  Booked & paid in full 2/14 thru big-box (C****o) online TA.  Charged to my Chase Sapphire card.  It appeared on my statement 3/9 and payment due 4/6.  Bought outbound air thru Celebrity on 2/16.  

Celebrity cancelled on 3/24, offering 125% FCC or 100% refund.  I completed TA's online refund request form on 3/24, selecting the refund.  I received email response from TA indicating that the cancel was processed and I would receive a full refund (of the expected amount).

On 3/26, I disputed the cruise and air charges with Chase.  Submitted online (no call required), selecting the option "I canceled a one-time purchase and haven't received a credit."  On 3/27, temporary credits were posted and they were deducted from my 4/6 balance. 

On 3/30, I called TA and she called Celebrity while I waited and indicated that it would be processed by Celebrity within 15 days (4/15).

On 4/10, I noticed that the air reservations disappeared from my planner and from the airline.  I called Celebrity to check status.  She said the cancel request was made on 4/3 and was in process, due by 5/2.  (Not sure what happened between my cancel date 3/24 and Celebrity's 4/3.)

On 4/12, I received a message from Chase that the credit had been issued in my expected amount (cruise + taxes + air) and the dispute closed.  So everything's settled and all's as well as can be expected.  I have no idea whether my 4/10 call accelerated my credit posting 2 days later.

The only costs I'm out were for return air that was booked with UA points and cost $75/person to restore, and my TA's TravelGuard policy premium that I got back as a voucher good for 2 years.

The cruise still remains on my Celebrity planner (without the air).

[JuliaMS]

13 minutes ago, paulapatti4 said:

We were scheduled for 3/14 Summit sailing that cancelled 3/13/20. Started the refund process on 3/17. Sent request to Celebrity and from reading the boards determined I better go thru TA( large on-line agency in New England). Sent emails as they are working from home, not taking calls. Received a form from TA to fill out acknowledging we were forfeiting the FCC. Completed and haven't heard a word in 3 weeks. Initiated dispute with my credit card last week. Today received an email from Celebrity with a FCC minus the penalty amount for cancelling the cruise.🤦‍♀️

I'm at a loss of words...I was clear with both Celebrity and TA that I wanted refund and signed a form acknowledging I was not taking the larger dollar amount of FCC. All cruises were cancelled as of 3/14 (and I was in San Juan on 3/13) the penalty for cancelling is a new wrinkle in the process.

Just sent off another email to TA to request an explanation. Not sure if I can continue the dispute process with my credit card now that Celebrity issues FCC.

 

 

Paula

I was supposed to be on the same cruise. The e-mail with the link to request the refund instead of FCC said if you get the FCC you can change your mind later and request the refund up to a specific date. I believe it was Dec 2021. We had 3 other friends on the same cruise and all requested refunds as soon as we got the email with the link. We have not seen the refunds yet either but when I talked to them today she said it had been processed and was in a queue. she confirmed the amounts for me. 

[MAXII]

On 4/11/2020 at 9:23 AM, MAXII said:

Thanks! I am now at 33 days waiting for a 50% refund & 50% FCC for a May 11th cruise cancelled March 9th.  I've just sent an email to the address & yesterday tweeted CelebrityCruise.  I plan to wait a few more days before filing a dispute with my CC depending if/what responses I get.  I'll report back.

 

No response to email or tweet to X but it has only been a few days, however my TA got back to me within a few hours of my email to her.  Celebrity's response to her was that they are still working on finalizing the refunds/future cruise credits for the May 11, 2020 sailing.  They advised that it could be up to 60 days from the date of cancellation before passengers receive refunds or future cruise credits.     

 - 

[jc719]

Yes, I received a refund.  I described my timeline in post #109 in the Tracker thread.

[paulapatti4]

Thanks Julie MS. It is just frustrating that we did request cash refund to both Celebrity and TA as well as completing the template they sent us and don't understand why they would send FCC.

And there is no reason to charge us a penalty for cruise cancellation-the cruise line cancelled on us.

 

In the scheme of things we are fortunate. With the continued stay at home orders I'll have time to devote on the refund process,looks like many more hours will be needed.

 

Paula

[downsmead]

Apparently it is a ‘glitch’ in Celebrity’s system which is taking off the cancellation charges! Someone posted on one of the threads on the X forum, and also on our roll call. They were supposedly halting payments / FCCs until they got the glitch sorted out 🤷‍♀️.It was described as a ‘critical system error and was being escalated’.

Edited April 13, 2020 by downsmead

[doodlefan]

Put in for a refund on March 15th right after X cancelled our March 27th cruise.  2 rooms, nothing received for either and no confirmation of the refund form I filled out.

 

[Cruising89143]

9 hours ago, doodlefan said:

2 rooms for March 27th Silhouette.  Asked for full refund on March 15th (2 days after they cancelled it), Nothing yet for either room, no taxes, port fees, nothing.

 

Also this would be a great idea to start a new thread with a poll asking for those who have requested a full refund, have you  received it or not.  Then we would see how many have actually had a full refund and how many are still waiting.  From my readings some have received taxes and port fees only if they are also getting a FCC, so far I have seen VERY few, actually only a couple who have received their 100% refund yet.

I asked for a refund on the 15th also for our B2B of which would have ended this Wednesday. I have been in contact with RCCL’s executive office. To date nothing but promises but the date and information continues to change. After reading the other cruise boards it’s not just X doing this but X has my money. All of the cruise lines are using our money for as long as possible. On Wednesday I will be contacting Chase for the next steps. I will have given them thirty days. Enough! 

[Jim_Iain]

4 hours ago, cjcruiser27 said:

Did you need to fax them copies of anything?  I sent an email yesterday regarding it all and I have not heard from them as of yet.  Maybe I should call.

No..   I just included reservation number and the date I cancelled.     The charges I was disputing were the Upgrade bids that they awarded me the day of the cancellation.   When I received my FCC it did not include the Upgrades. 

 

Beware that the credit card have a time limit to dispute of 60 days from when the charge first appeared on your credit card bill.

Some credit cards may have different time limits I am not aware of.

[GottaKnowWhen]

2 hours ago, hcat said:

A bit off topic and I am  uninformed....but  can someone explain why  cruise lines  are foreign  registered business entities with  foreign flagged ships? 

 

Taxes, liability,  insurance costs,ship and safety regulation, corporate oversight????

Just wondering???

I don’t claim to know the full story, but:

  a. Taxes. 
  b. Labor laws. Think not only minimum wage laws, 40-hour week laws, but also, for U.S. companies to use non-citizens they must get special worker visas for those workers. Or they could try to hire U.S.citizens, but how many would be willing to actually do the work?
 

Safety regulations not an issue, there is international standardization and then local governments, including the US, do health and safety inspections on any ships that use their ports.

[Wine-O]

2 hours ago, jc719 said:

 

The only costs I'm out were for return air that was booked with UA points and cost $75/person to restore, and my TA's TravelGuard policy premium that I got back as a voucher good for 2 years.

The cruise still remains on my Celebrity planner (without the air).

 

Call UA.  They charged me $125 to restore 40K miles back into my account.  They recently changed their policy.  I got a voucher for the $125 good for 2 years, and my wife got her $125 restored to the credit card.  🍷

[hcat]

Thanks..sev reasons come into play.

Yes,  I forgot about labor issues.  In Hawaii   we went on  an excursion  and were joined by some employees of the  cuise line with American  regis ships  that cruised Hawaii, and chatted with them.  They did make more $  than  crew on our ship but had their own gripes.  The best part from Passenger perspective was they could do a Hawaii Island cruise without a foreign stop..wonder if those ships are still sailing??

 

We have been looking at some U.S. River Cruises..U.S.  company..possibly for the future...very interesting itins!