Royal Caribbean Choice Air - Refunded Air for Cancelled Cruises?

[logan25]

I am considering whether to book my air directly with the cruise line.  Can anyone report whether they received a total refund of their Choice Air cost if Royal Caribbean cancelled their cruise?

 

I am booked on a cruise departing late November 2020.  None of us knows what will happen during the intervening 7+ months.  But I don't want to be stuck with the cost of airfare I can't expect to be refunded.  Or fighting with the airlines for such, only to come away from a credit for future travel.

[Bo1953]

Is the airfare purchased refundable or non-refundable?

 

This is an essential piece of information you have not disclosed.

 

Did you purchase travel insurance?

 

bon voyage

Edited April 2, 2020 by Bo1953

[logan25]

Choice Air is supposed to include protections.  That is one of their "selling points".  Regardless of Travel Protections, does Royal Caribbean refund for airfare booked through them, associated with a cruise Royal Caribbean cancels?

[mchell810]

5 hours ago, logan25 said:

Choice Air is supposed to include protections.  That is one of their "selling points".  Regardless of Travel Protections, does Royal Caribbean refund for airfare booked through them, associated with a cruise Royal Caribbean cancels?

 

I don't have personal experience but some people have reported on the Celebrity board that they were given a credit, but not a refund.  Since Celebrity is one of the Royal Caribbean companies you may want to do some research; I can't recall the exact threads.  Try searching for Choice Air and/or Flights by Celebrity. 

Edited April 2, 2020 by mchell810

[waterbug123]

There seem to be a lot of anecdotal reports indicating that the cruise line is telling pax to contact the airline for a credit.  This is likely because they did not book refundable air, and while the cruise line used to refund it anyway, it seems they are not now.  My guess, and it is only a guess is that in the past if the line canceled the cruise, they would refund non-refundable airfare and just eat the cost as a goodwill gesture, but they can no longer afford to do that.  Hence, telling all the people who booked non-refundable air to contact the airline directly to get their future air credit.   Probably the only way to really be sure you'll get your airfare back if the cruise is canceled is to book airfare directly with the airline, AND book a fully refundable fare.  Of course, that is VERY expensive, but you can't have your cake and eat it too.

[Bo1953]

3 hours ago, waterbug123 said:

There seem to be a lot of anecdotal reports indicating that the cruise line is telling pax to contact the airline for a credit.  This is likely because they did not book refundable air, and while the cruise line used to refund it anyway, it seems they are not now.  My guess, and it is only a guess is that in the past if the line canceled the cruise, they would refund non-refundable airfare and just eat the cost as a goodwill gesture, but they can no longer afford to do that.  Hence, telling all the people who booked non-refundable air to contact the airline directly to get their future air credit.   Probably the only way to really be sure you'll get your airfare back if the cruise is canceled is to book airfare directly with the airline, AND book a fully refundable fare.  Of course, that is VERY expensive, but you can't have your cake and eat it too.

Yes, this makes the point clearer, what happened before may not happen now.

 

I did ask the OP if their airfare was refundable or not and the response was evasive, which is fine.

 

YMMV in this case is never more applicable than in these days....

 

bon voyage

[Bo1953]

23 hours ago, logan25 said:

Choice Air is supposed to include protections.  That is one of their "selling points".  Regardless of Travel Protections, does Royal Caribbean refund for airfare booked through them, associated with a cruise Royal Caribbean cancels?

The 'protections' are, essentially, getting you to the ship, when possible, if your booked flight(s) through them are delayed or other unforeseen mishap and I do not believe includes any protection for pricing, except for 'fully' refundable fares.

 

Again, for airfare it is totally dependent on if the airfare purchased is refundable vs non-refundable...

 

Unless you have more concrete info on this, we would be interested, for sure.

 

bon voyage

[logan25]

Royal Caribbean agent says a cancelled cruise would be handled as refund or FCC, and Choice Air would be refunded.  However, does the agent really know the answer or is he predicting based on his own opinions?

Edited April 3, 2020 by logan25

[Bo1953]

... thus asking here will result in our "opinion" as to what will, should or can happen, too.

 

Not being in a position to review or set their policy, we can only suggest, anecdotally, a policy.

 

bon voyage

[ptrpanpens]

I booked refundable air on Azamara and was told in writing that the air would be fully refunded to my credit card with no penalty fee. I have not seen the refund yet, however, I cancelled the air on March 11 and was told to expect the refund to take 30 days.

 

Since Azamara also uses choice air and is a RCCL company, I would expect they would follow the same conditions. We’ll see...

[klfrodo]

3 hours ago, ptrpanpens said:

 refundable air

HUGE difference

Refundable vs, Non-refundable

[logan25]

20 hours ago, Bo1953 said:

... thus asking here will result in our "opinion" as to what will, should or can happen, too.

 

Not being in a position to review or set their policy, we can only suggest, anecdotally, a policy.

 

bon voyage

 

Respectfully, I am not asking for your opinion.  My original post requests "reports" of events not opinions.

Edited April 4, 2020 by logan25

[Bo1953]

Yes and you have received many "reports" here, so far, since posting the thread.

 

bon voyage

[FlyerTalker]

22 minutes ago, logan25 said:

Respectfully, I am not asking for your opinion.  My original post requests "reports" of events not opinions.

 

You are looking for a definitive answer, wrapped in the guise of "reports".  Your postings don't include critical information regarding the specific details of what you have already reserved, what you have already paid for, and the specific rules of the air ticket you have (or reservation made).

 

Then you post an answer that you received from RC, and you want to know if the agent really knows the answer.

 

Finally, whatever happened to someone else only has relevance if your reservation/ticket is in the same circumstance with the same rules and conditions.

 

But I'm sure those reports will be coming in fast and furious.

[waterbug123]

23 hours ago, logan25 said:

 

Respectfully, I am not asking for your opinion.  My original post requests "reports" of events not opinions.

 

Any anything someone posts here carries about as much weight as what a phone rep from the cruise line tells you verbally.  You're frustrated because a phone rep told you something that doesn't jive with their written policy, but you somehow think an anonymous person on Cruise Critic telling you what happened to them, under circumstances that may be entirely different from yours, will somehow protect you? 

See my answer above.  If you truly want a guarantee that you can cancel and get refund, book a refundable fare directly through the airline so that there is no middle man.  Be prepared to pay for that guarantee in the form of a very expensive ticket.

[Edgewater601]

I booked a refundable air ticket via Choice Air on Delta for a Celebrity cruise.  I cancelled the cruise and air on April 8, 2020.  It is now July 18, 2020, and I have yet to receive my air refund.  Choice Air agrees the ticket was refundable and that I am owed a refund.  Four calls later to Choice Air and I am still waiting.  I will never book through Choice Air again but only directly through the airline.  I realize this is an unprecedented situation but when I hear of others getting their refunds quickly and I am still waiting it is ridiculous.

[Ashland]

2 hours ago, Edgewater601 said:

I booked a refundable air ticket via Choice Air on Delta for a Celebrity cruise.  I cancelled the cruise and air on April 8, 2020.  It is now July 18, 2020, and I have yet to receive my air refund.  Choice Air agrees the ticket was refundable and that I am owed a refund.  Four calls later to Choice Air and I am still waiting.  I will never book through Choice Air again but only directly through the airline.  I realize this is an unprecedented situation but when I hear of others getting their refunds quickly and I am still waiting it is ridiculous.

You cancelled or the cruiseline cancelled ?

[Edgewater601]

11 hours ago, Ashland said:

You cancelled or the cruiseline cancelled ?

As indicated in my post "I cancelled the cruise and air on April 8, 2020."  I cancelled myself before final payment so I didn't have any more money tied up.  Just waiting on my refundable air ticket via Flights by Celebrity since that time.

[mchell810]

1 hour ago, Edgewater601 said:

As indicated in my post "I cancelled the cruise and air on April 8, 2020."  I cancelled myself before final payment so I didn't have any more money tied up.  Just waiting on my refundable air ticket via Flights by Celebrity since that time.

 

If I were you I'd dispute the charge with my credit card company.  It's been more than 90 days, Celebrity has had plenty of time to make the refund. 

[Bo1953]

On 7/19/2020 at 12:28 AM, Edgewater601 said:

I booked a refundable air ticket via Choice Air on Delta for a Celebrity cruise.  I cancelled the cruise and air on April 8, 2020.  It is now July 18, 2020, and I have yet to receive my air refund.  Choice Air agrees the ticket was refundable and that I am owed a refund.  Four calls later to Choice Air and I am still waiting.  I will never book through Choice Air again but only directly through the airline.  I realize this is an unprecedented situation but when I hear of others getting their refunds quickly and I am still waiting it is ridiculous.

You may also want to consider reaching out to DL to see if they have refunded to X yet, then you will know where the bottleneck is for sure.

 

bon voyage

[Edgewater601]

Thanks you for your responses.  I did call Delta and they would not comment on a Choice Air flight--said I needed to work through Choice Air.  I thought of a credit card dispute but know that it will be like starting all over again in the time it will take, but that will definitely be my last resort.  I called Choice Air/Flights by Celebrity again today.  When they gave me the song and dance about expediting and it would be another three weeks, I asked for a manager.  I had been given that same story on three other occasions.  After relaying my sad story again to a manager with a little bit of "Not playing this game any longer, I want my refund now," they promised to have my refund to me within days.  We will see.  I am thinking the squeaky wheel is the only way to get any action.  Time will tell.