Why does it take so long to get FCC and $$$$ back?

[CruiseBabys]

I hope & pray everyday that Princess would send us some updates... anything!   

[voljeep]

10 minutes ago, CruiseBabys said:

I hope & pray everyday that Princess would send us some updates... anything!   

deleted ... but really wanted to post ...

[sawtooth]

I did today call AMEX.  They are now handling the whole thing.

I had plenty of documentation to support the request.

Although I did book through a TA, AMEX will be dealing with Princess direct.

I am relieved  because I was tired of time and energy spent on phone calls and emails.

I understand that Princess is dealing with a tsunami of calls and stress, but I am happy it is now in the hands of my credit card company and they took it off my bill.

See post 37 for details.

[SportsFanatic]

On 3/23/2020 at 11:30 AM, ALWAYS CRUZIN said:

Many need to just chill out a bit about the refunds. . All the cruise lines are under a major cancellation that requirer refunds in one or both back to how you paid and or FCC. Booking and paying is almost instant by your TA or while booking with someone at the cruise line. This is much different. It is not one on one. The procedure they MUST follow will take time for each booking. Booking one on one is fast. Now you are in with many thousands that will receive refunds and or FCC. It is totally understandable that it will take them a lot longer to do this and hopefully do it correctly and no mistakes for thousands. That is asking a lot of anyone.

 Yes and I definitely understand that they have a lot of refunds to process but I do want to mention that when I canceled Disney,  I got my money back within four days and I’m sure Disney has a Lot of refunds going on also. I am now been waiting three weeks for princess to refund mine.  That’s a long time to hang onto somebody’s money when I desperately need it back 

[dog]

9 hours ago, sawtooth said:

I cancelled my ezair on a May 2020 cruise on 2/272020.  Paid a 770 penalty.

I then rebooked my May 2020 cruise for May 2021.  It is paid in full.

I am still waiting for my ezair refund of 3,541.

Tomorrow will be 1 month.

I can't get a straight answer from the TA or Princess.

I did my part and rebooked a cruise.  Not getting any FCC or anything else.  Just want my air refund.

Glad you followed through. Same with me. I was very reassured by Amex. 

[ceilidh1]

1 hour ago, sawtooth said:

I did today call AMEX.  They are now handling the whole thing.

I had plenty of documentation to support the request.

Although I did book through a TA, AMEX will be dealing with Princess direct.

I am relieved  because I was tired of time and energy spent on phone calls and emails.

I understand that Princess is dealing with a tsunami of calls and stress, but I am happy it is now in the hands of my credit card company and they took it off my bill.

See post 37 for details.

Keep us updated of how it works out!

[bstrauss3]

You develop computer systems to handle normal operations and provide tools to handle unusual situations manually.

 

It makes no sense to write automation to handle something that happens even a couple times a year.

 

 

This is not normal and not something that they likely automated. Even if they have it partly automated (cruises are cancelled occasionally for technical reasons), the cash refund is unusual and the extra FCC is too.

 What

 

Expect that everybody who can operate the back-end system is working like a dog.

 

Either that or they are writing the automation and it has to be tested up, down, left, right and sideways. What we in the business call the happy path is easy. It's 80 or 90% of the cases and it's simple, straight forward and ... well happy.  The 10% of special cases will kill you.  Often what you do is automate the happy path and write a tool to manually handle the remaining 10 or 20%. For that, see prior comment.

[dog]

I cancelled my cruise March 6 th. Just read over my email from my TA. Princess will refund tax ( up to 14 business days) got this on my credit card March 6 th. Princess will put your FCC. Option 1 in your Circle Account ( will take up to 10 days). 100percent of FCC can be seen by Princess agent but not by me. She did not know why. 
this agent said I was not getting the  extra FCC for Option 1. I am looking for the chart that proves this wrong. I have found the link to the paragraph that this offer goes back to cancellation on/ after Feb 4 th, but I rem a chart was posted

[Coral]

10 minutes ago, dog said:

I cancelled my cruise March 6 th. Just read over my email from my TA. Princess will refund tax ( up to 14 business days) got this on my credit card March 6 th. Princess will put your FCC. Option 1 in your Circle Account ( will take up to 10 days). 100percent of FCC can be seen by Princess agent but not by me. She did not know why. 
this agent said I was not getting the  extra FCC for Option 1. I am looking for the chart that proves this wrong. I have found the link to the paragraph that this offer goes back to cancellation on/ after Feb 4 th, but I rem a chart was posted

Dog - it was in this letter:

 

https://www.princess.com/news/notices_and_advisories/notices/global-ship-operations-pause.html  

 

 In addition, Princess will honor this offer for those guests who had made final payment and cancelled their booking on or after February 4, 2020. The future cruise credit can be used on any voyage departing through May 1, 2022.

 

It basically means the chart (link in letter) that is also listed in this letter applies to you but you have to fill it out.

Edited March 26, 2020 by Coral

[dog]

Thanks, yes I sent that to my TA and she clarified it with Pry I qualify for Option 1. This chart in link says departure March 12....... but someone on here posted a similar chart showing earlier then this date that is what I am looking for.  Anyway it is in the hands of my TA and Princess. I am really not expecting any compensation at this point. If I get some I am grateful. Thanks everyone for finding link. 

[Coral]

5 minutes ago, dog said:

Thanks, yes I sent that to my TA and she clarified it with Pry I qualify for Option 1. This chart in link says departure March 12....... but someone on here posted a similar chart showing earlier then this date that is what I am looking for.  Anyway it is in the hands of my TA and Princess. I am really not expecting any compensation at this point. If I get some I am grateful. Thanks everyone for finding link. 

I cancelled March 6th and was told by Princess - I qualify for options 1 and 2. My cruise was in April.

 

Was your cruise March 7th? I am trying to remember.

Edited March 26, 2020 by Coral

[azbirdmom]

38 minutes ago, dog said:

I cancelled my cruise March 6 th. Just read over my email from my TA. Princess will refund tax ( up to 14 business days) got this on my credit card March 6 th. Princess will put your FCC. Option 1 in your Circle Account ( will take up to 10 days). 100percent of FCC can be seen by Princess agent but not by me. She did not know why. 
this agent said I was not getting the  extra FCC for Option 1. I am looking for the chart that proves this wrong. I have found the link to the paragraph that this offer goes back to cancellation on/ after Feb 4 th, but I rem a chart was posted

 

The only chart I recall is the one that was in this original PDF file from March 12th which has since been updated.  Not sure if this is what you are looking for but I thought I'd post it in case it is useful.

voluntary-60-day-pause-of-global-ship-operations.pdf

[dog]

4 minutes ago, azbirdmom said:

 

The only chart I recall is the one that was in this original PDF file from March 12th which has since been updated.  Not sure if this is what you are looking for but I thought I'd post it in case it is useful.

voluntary-60-day-pause-of-global-ship-operations.pdf 169.38 kB · 1 download

Thanks. I have that chart. 
coral it was March 7 th. 

[Newbie777]

But it is now March 26th.  No matter how the refunds are handled, whether electronically or manually, you would think at least one person on this board would have seen their cash refund by now...

[dearinger]

I contacted USAA this morning and asked if I had the ability to dispute the ez-air charges (I used my debit card) and they said absolutely. I was honestly hesitant to do it but the USAA rep said that I should never wait more than 7 days (not sure if that is reasonable in this case) and she found the EZ-Air charge and reversed it. She verified it on the Princess page and I was done. She said they have received hundreds of Cruise dispute credits and this was their new norm. I didn’t dispute the cruise cost as that was less than the airfare and I made several payments over the last year. 
 

Maybe I’m impatient and should have just waited the sixty days but I’m stuck working from home and don’t have anything else to focus on, ha!

[npcl]

5 hours ago, bstrauss3 said:

You develop computer systems to handle normal operations and provide tools to handle unusual situations manually.

 

It makes no sense to write automation to handle something that happens even a couple times a year.

 

 

This is not normal and not something that they likely automated. Even if they have it partly automated (cruises are cancelled occasionally for technical reasons), the cash refund is unusual and the extra FCC is too.

 What

 

Expect that everybody who can operate the back-end system is working like a dog.

 

Either that or they are writing the automation and it has to be tested up, down, left, right and sideways. What we in the business call the happy path is easy. It's 80 or 90% of the cases and it's simple, straight forward and ... well happy.  The 10% of special cases will kill you.  Often what you do is automate the happy path and write a tool to manually handle the remaining 10 or 20%. For that, see prior comment.

However, those of us that canceled cruises prior to the final payment date, all in line with the well tested and automated portion on the system are not receiving refunds either.  So the issue is not just one of automation.

[kruisey]

None of you have thought you may not be getting your refunds because Princess  might have run out of money.?

[npcl]

2 minutes ago, kruisey said:

None of you have thought you may not be getting your refunds because Princess  might have run out of money.?

At this point I would not say run out of money, but clearly they are in cash management mode.  If they were successful in converting a fair number of cancellations to FCCs, with their credit line and the fact that their short term debt is not due until November, they should have case for several months.

[dog]

But where are the FCC s?  Can’t use them yet anyway so atleast start refunds with those 

[Doubt It]

They want to steal your $ to prop  up their sinking ships.

 

It is your $, not theirs. Arrogance in the extreme.

 

[always_cruisin]

Princess held a webinar today for TAs and said refunds/fccs/etc are taking up to 60 days. 

 

 

[Noble724]

Thanks to all for your responses.  I just wanted to get an estimated timeframe for a FCC/refund from Princess.  I know that these are challenging times and I have no problem waiting.  Be safe...

[Tophat4321]

I talked with my CC company.. If Princess doesn't deliver on what what I  purchased I will get credit back to account. Hope your credit card has this protection.

[ICANDIGIT]

Our FCC has not shown up. I accepted option 1 for the extra FCC. We have never had FCC before and not sure how it works.  We booked a cruise in December and even though it does not show up on our My Princess, our Princess cruise planner assures me that it was there.  I still had to pay a deposit then and was told that it would be returned when the FCC was credited to the cruise. Does the FCC go into affect when final payment is due? Any help would be appreciated.

[Noble724]

ICANDIGIT:  I don't think you were given the correct information.  Once your credit card is on the reservation, the FCC will be used to pay the difference.  If your FCC exceeds the amount of your cruise (taking your CC deposit into account), a new FCC will be issued for any remaining funds.  Your CC will not be refunded.  I'm sorry that you were told something different.