Cancelled Cruises Refund Tracker/Discussion (merged topics)

[als1428]

On May 27th I wrote about my situation obtaining a refund on a cancelled Royal Caribbean Canada/New England cruise. As promised I am updating this problem. Today, May 29th, I finally received notification from Bank of America that my refund HAS BEEN received. I’m thankful to both Bank of America and Royal Caribbean for all their efforts. A huge concern has been lifted and that old expression “Better Late Than Never” has never been more appropriate.

[Luvcrusn]

We were aboard our March 13 sailing when we received a note at our cabin door  dated March 14 the cruise would be returning to port. We were promised a 100% refund and a 50% FCC. We received the FCC email a few weeks later. Today,  May 29th, the refund FINALLY arrived on our credit card for cruise fare.

[Roger88]

1 hour ago, als1428 said:

On May 27th I wrote about my situation obtaining a refund on a cancelled Royal Caribbean Canada/New England cruise. As promised I am updating this problem. Today, May 29th, I finally received notification from Bank of America that my refund HAS BEEN received. I’m thankful to both Bank of America and Royal Caribbean for all their efforts. A huge concern has been lifted and that old expression “Better Late Than Never” has never been more appropriate.

Just a little clarification, isnt Bank of America is the new CHASE bank? I rememeber in 2008 in CA all banks of America has been replaced by CHASE. I wonder what bank you are talking about exactly. Maybe I just lost time or getting confused with things but in any case it would be almost impossible to track such operation if the initial bank has been changed. Does anyone know about it? 

[Edwardk1982]

Bank of America still exists. I believe it is the second largest bank in the US or at least one of the big four.  They actually purchased Merrill Lynch and Countrywide a while back. 

[Vagabond Knight]

To those of you who are incredulous over not having been reimbursed (or fully reimbursed) for April cruises... believe it or not, some are still waiting on funds from cancelled MARCH cruises.  😢  I'm not sure any of us will ever understand the process being used to prioritize who gets what funds back when.  It sometimes seems like they just throw the names in a hat and pull them out randomly, then use a random number generator to decide how much of what's owed they're going to refund to that person at that time.

[Luvcrusn]

2 hours ago, Roger88 said:

Just a little clarification, isnt Bank of America is the new CHASE bank? I rememeber in 2008 in CA all banks of America has been replaced by CHASE. I wonder what bank you are talking about exactly. Maybe I just lost time or getting confused with things but in any case it would be almost impossible to track such operation if the initial bank has been changed. Does anyone know about it? 

You are confused. I received my refund to BoA this morning as well. 

[als1428]

In the U.S. both are large separate financial institutions. They both trade on the New York Stock exchange under symbols “BAC” for Bank of America and “JPM” for J.P. Morgan Chase. In my case I used my Bank of America Master Card when I paid the balance of my cruise.

Edited May 29, 2020 by als1428

[SallyKB]

We should have been cruising tomorrow 🤨 We were informed at the end of April that it was cancelled and submitted the form for a full refund. We received this 2 weeks ago, so well before the cruise should have left. I realise not everyone has been so lucky with their refunds but we were very impressed with Celebrity!

Edited May 29, 2020 by SallyKB
poor grammar!

[downsmead]

5 hours ago, SallyKB said:

We should have been cruising tomorrow 🤨 We were informed at the end of April that it was cancelled and submitted the form for a full refund. We received this 2 weeks ago, so well before the cruise should have left. I realise not everyone has been so lucky with their refunds but we were very impressed with Celebrity!

I am pleased for you, but as shown above there are still many people that had cruises in March and April cancelled and are still waiting refunds (us included). It doesn’t make any sense at all 🤷‍♀️.

Edited May 29, 2020 by downsmead

[twentyknots]

11 hours ago, downsmead said:

I am pleased for you, but as shown above there are still many people that had cruises in March and April cancelled and are still waiting refunds (us included). It doesn’t make any sense at all 🤷‍♀️.

No it doesn't and every day I look at my BofA credit card statement and see that the remainder of my refund has not arrived is another day that adds to my frustration with Celebrity.  I realize this virus has been tough on many, especially the cruise industry, but eventually we will return to cruising and I suspect a good number of us will have a hard time forgetting how Celebrity treated us.

[yorky]

1 hour ago, twentyknots said:

No it doesn't and every day I look at my BofA credit card statement and see that the remainder of my refund has not arrived is another day that adds to my frustration with Celebrity.  I realize this virus has been tough on many, especially the cruise industry, but eventually we will return to cruising and I suspect a good number of us will have a hard time forgetting how Celebrity treated us.

It’s not been great but I guess that given the vast majority of cruise lines seem to have the same complaints it’s just something people will need to move on from or limit themselves to one or two lines that dealt with it better. But in a way that’s just cutting your nose off to spite your face.

[hcat]

Hopefully, the industry will respond to unfavorable reviews on  customer service/ refund/billing  issues,.  They  may actually  revert to treating  customers better in order to fill  cabins in the long run, after the pent up demand tapers off.

 

 If  not,  they may find themselves with lower budget party cruisers who apparently don't care too  much about  customer service,  luxury and top level amenities.

[JulesH]

CHECK YOUR REFUND TOTALS CAREFULLY. After about 5 months of delay, I finally got a refund for the cruise Celebrity cancelled (April 1 sailing on Apex). THEY SHORTED ME BY $800. This is based on the totals taken directly from my credit card where the cruise was charged and then refunded. They are not allowed to charge you for insurance when they were the ones who cancelled, but even if they were, this does not account for the $800 difference.

 

Sadly, I have no respect left for this cruise line, even though I'm a shareholder as well as a formerly loyal customer. If you got a refund from them, I advise checking carefully to make sure they are not doing this across the board and hoping that a certain percentage of people will not catch it.

[JulesH]

On 5/21/2020 at 8:53 AM, twentyknots said:

TA called C on our behalf checking on the missing $1080.  The customer service rep said she had no idea what the $1080 represented but 1/2 half of it or $540 was processed and should hit credit card soon.  The remaining $540 would probably follow in a few weeks.  This is definitely a strange way to process refunds.  It's been about 60 days since we requested a refund.  I'd say that many here who believe they're using new money to make refunds are correct.

 

Sadly, I'm starting to think that RCCL is issuing refunds that are short by just a small enough amount that they hope many peope won't catch the difference. It makes no sense from any standpoint whatsoever (accounting, prioritization of certain customers, etc.) to issue partial refunds. That just gums up the accounting...which may be the whole point. 

[harz99]

46 minutes ago, JulesH said:

 

Sadly, I'm starting to think that RCCL is issuing refunds that are short by just a small enough amount that they hope many peope won't catch the difference. It makes no sense from any standpoint whatsoever (accounting, prioritization of certain customers, etc.) to issue partial refunds. That just gums up the accounting...which may be the whole point. 

I may be wrong, but it appears to me as though monies received by RCCL companies are immediately allocated to and split around various specific profit centres and codes, so rather than being returned centrally in one go they refunds are coming individually from each profit centre, hence the jumbled way the customer receives their refund, and probably why portions "go missing". All down to their rubbish IT and Accounting systems.

[GeorgiaPeach51]

On 5/23/2020 at 1:59 PM, GeorgiaPeach51 said:

 

Holey Moley, it took 1 hour 33 minutes on hold and three different reps, but I finally got the answer that they send "some" refunds to our cc company on May 13.  Because we booked with an online big box she said she didn't have access to the specific amounts because it is password protected by the big box.  They have not shown up on our online statement.  She said that they often end up on the next billing cycle for the cc company.

 

So, our next call is to Visa.

 

My takeaways:

1.  When they tell you they don't have access to your account, don't take no for an answer and ask to be transferred to someone who does have access.

2.  Be prepared for a long wait.  I talked to the first rep, 18 minutes on hold, asked to be transferred.  Sat on hold about 25 minutes.  That rep said he had no access because we booked with a TA, not Celebrity.  He transferred me and I sat on hold almost an hour, to the final person who at least had some info.

3.  I agree with Jim, above, you will need to be dogged.

 

I'll post again when we finally see some $$$. Good luck!  I figured if I waited long enough I'd have more success.  Not so much.

Follow up....we did get the refund, finally, for our April 15 cx cruise on the Silhouette. It was in four different credits,  the final total was correct.  Thanks for the helpful suggestions!  Now we are in pursuit of a Cunard credit of about $4000.  Cunard is spectacularly silent and uncommunicative. 
 

Good luck to those of you still waiting for your money.  

[hcat]

Glad your X refund came through!

 

 They must be subjected to various audits from time to time...must be a total mess!

 

We used to trust X with multiple  deposits on account for future  cruises. Not any more!

Edited May 30, 2020 by hcat

[goofysmom99]

On 14 May, I received taxes and roughly 75% of fare for 17 Apr Silhouette TA.  Yesterday a credit for $20.79 showed up.  Don't know whether to consider that a hopeful or pitiful sign.  Still short over $800.  BTW, I've never called X but my TA evidently did; she emailed me that X is aware of the additional amount due.

[TeaBag]

11 hours ago, JulesH said:

CHECK YOUR REFUND TOTALS CAREFULLY. After about 5 months of delay, I finally got a refund for the cruise Celebrity cancelled (April 1 sailing on Apex). THEY SHORTED ME BY $800. This is based on the totals taken directly from my credit card where the cruise was charged and then refunded. They are not allowed to charge you for insurance when they were the ones who cancelled, but even if they were, this does not account for the $800 difference.

 

Sadly, I have no respect left for this cruise line, even though I'm a shareholder as well as a formerly loyal customer. If you got a refund from them, I advise checking carefully to make sure they are not doing this across the board and hoping that a certain percentage of people will not catch it.

5 months?  is the $800 what you paid for insurance?

[Vagabond Knight]

At long last, the remaining $739 came through this weekend for our cancelled (by Celebrity) March cruise, including the $200 original deposit that was made on the Celebrity Bank of America Visa that I closed last year.  

 

Cruise refund requested - March 17

Excursion reimbursement - March 24 (2 deposits)

Partial reimbursement of other funds (still owed $739 after this) - April 29 (4 deposits)  

Partial reimbursement of other funds - May 30 (1 deposit of $539)

Final reimbursement of original cruise deposit - May 31 (1 deposit of $200)

 

From refund request to final reimbursement was 75 days.

 

Our TA requested cancellation of our Allianz trip insurance policy on March 20 and we received the full refund on April 6.

Edited May 31, 2020 by SunsetPoint

[JulesH]

11 hours ago, TeaBag said:

5 months?  is the $800 what you paid for insurance?

No, as I already stated in the post to which you're responding, the insurance only accounts for a small part of the $800 (to be more specific, only about 1/4 of it). Five months may be a bit of an overstatement but my memory is that they cancelled the cruise in late January. Maybe it's more like three months, but when they originally told me I'd get my refund in 10 days, three months seemed way too long. PLUS I was also assured that every cent would be refunded, including the amount I paid for insurance. From reading other posts, it appears they are doing these incremental refunds in many cases. 

[RSWBADGER]

On 5/29/2020 at 7:28 AM, Roger88 said:

Just a little clarification, isnt Bank of America is the new CHASE bank? I rememeber in 2008 in CA all banks of America has been replaced by CHASE. I wonder what bank you are talking about exactly. Maybe I just lost time or getting confused with things but in any case it would be almost impossible to track such operation if the initial bank has been changed. Does anyone know about it? 

 

You are confusing Bank One with Bank of America.

"Bank One Corporation was the sixth-largest bank in the United States. It traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol ONE. The company merged with JPMorgan Chase & Co. on July 1, 2004."

[Blue_Flame]

3 hours ago, SunsetPoint said:

At long last, the remaining $739 came through this weekend for our cancelled (by Celebrity) March cruise, including the $200 original deposit that was made on the Celebrity Bank of America Visa that I closed last year. 

We, too, are waiting on a $300 refund to a Celebrity Bank of America Visa that is closed.

 

How did you find out about the refund to the closed card? Since we no longer have online access to that closed account, I am calling the bank every day or two to find out if there is a credit balance. Is that how you discovered your credit posted or were you notified another way?

 

And now that your credit posted, have you been able to reach out to BofA for them to issue you a check?

 

[Vagabond Knight]

36 minutes ago, Blue_Flame said:

We, too, are waiting on a $300 refund to a Celebrity Bank of America Visa that is closed.

 

How did you find out about the refund to the closed card? Since we no longer have online access to that closed account, I am calling the bank every day or two to find out if there is a credit balance. Is that how you discovered your credit posted or were you notified another way?

 

And now that your credit posted, have you been able to reach out to BofA for them to issue you a check?

 

 

If you still have other accounts at BoA, such as checking/savings, the closed account will once again show up in your online banking once the refund has been issued.  Then you just call the bank and have them move it to your other account.

[Blue_Flame]

25 minutes ago, SunsetPoint said:

 

If you still have other accounts at BoA, such as checking/savings, the closed account will once again show up in your online banking once the refund has been issued.  Then you just call the bank and have them move it to your other account.

Perfect! Thank you for your reply.