FCC for Dorian and then COVID cruise not Extended Past October 2020

[SoccerMom#3]

I'm so frustrated at Royal Caribbean, I could spit nails. Our September  2019 Harmony cruise was canceled due to Hurricane Dorian so we used the Future Cruise Credit (FCC) to book the May 3, 2020 Harmony cruise.  Due to COVID-19 this cruise was cancelled too.  Of course i'm glad both cruises were cancelled and applaud Royal for doing that.  BUT, Royal is saying our FCC expires October 2020 since that is when the original FCC expires.  They refuse to extend the FCC to December 2021 which is what they are doing for those who booked the May cruise without FCC.  

 

After 4 hours on the phone with 4 different people, all I get is "that's the policy."  But these are extraordinary times that should result in adjustments to policies.  My request to extend the FCC costs Royal nothing.  In fact it costs me more since I can't cruise now for what I paid in May 2018 for a September 2019.  

 

I've been Royal Loyal for 25+ years.  I'm not Royal Loyal now.

 

Ok vent over...thanks for listening

[RosieRoo]

I am in the same boat.  Used FCC to book my March 22 Anthem sailing which was cancelled by RCCL.  Now I will have $1620 FCC which expires in November of 2020 and another FCC for $2088 which expires at the end of 2021.  And who knows what happened to my $300 OBC.  

[Ourusualbeach]

24 minutes ago, SoccerMom#3 said:

I'm so frustrated at Royal Caribbean, I could spit nails. Our September  2019 Harmony cruise was canceled due to Hurricane Dorian so we used the Future Cruise Credit (FCC) to book the May 3, 2020 Harmony cruise.  Due to COVID-19 this cruise was cancelled too.  Of course i'm glad both cruises were cancelled and applaud Royal for doing that.  BUT, Royal is saying our FCC expires October 2020 since that is when the original FCC expires.  They refuse to extend the FCC to December 2021 which is what they are doing for those who booked the May cruise without FCC.  

 

After 4 hours on the phone with 4 different people, all I get is "that's the policy."  But these are extraordinary times that should result in adjustments to policies.  My request to extend the FCC costs Royal nothing.  In fact it costs me more since I can't cruise now for what I paid in May 2018 for a September 2019.  

 

I've been Royal Loyal for 25+ years.  I'm not Royal Loyal now.

 

Ok vent over...thanks for listening

The original FCC from Dorian has an APPLY by date why the FCC from the cancelled cruise has a SAIL by date.  As long as you apply the Dorian certificate to a cruise by Oct 31 the actual sailing date can be further out.  Just went through this for a client.

[SoccerMom#3]

1 hour ago, Ourusualbeach said:

The original FCC from Dorian has an APPLY by date why the FCC from the cancelled cruise has a SAIL by date.  As long as you apply the Dorian certificate to a cruise by Oct 31 the actual sailing date can be further out.  Just went through this for a client.

I asked each person I talked to if the October 31, 2020 date was a book by or sail by date and they all told me sail by.  Sounds like I need to call again.,  If it's book by I can live with that.  I just can't sail by this October especially since it's unknown when they'll be able to sail again.

[SoccerMom#3]

1 hour ago, RosieRoo said:

I am in the same boat.  Used FCC to book my March 22 Anthem sailing which was cancelled by RCCL.  Now I will have $1620 FCC which expires in November of 2020 and another FCC for $2088 which expires at the end of 2021.  And who knows what happened to my $300 OBC.  

I feel for you. It's so frustrating.

[Ourusualbeach]

1 minute ago, SoccerMom#3 said:

I asked each person I talked to if the October 31, 2020 date was a book by or sail by date and they all told me sail by.  Sounds like I need to call again.,  If it's book by I can live with that.  I just can't sail by this October especially since it's unknown when they'll be able to sail again.

I think in reading the fine print on them it does say Sail By but in actuality it has been an apply by date. 

[kands6191]

I just went through this yesterday as well.  Our Mar 16 Independence sailing was cancelled.  I had used an FCC for partial payment.  I had received that FCC because I sailed on the Enchantment in 2019 shortly before refurbishment and the air conditioning was barely working for the aft cabins.  I was in an aft JS to accommodate myself, my daughter, and son's girlfriend.  It was so hot we were literally dripping with sweat and could barely sleep the first night.  The head steward acknowledged that it had been broken for the past month and that everyone had been complaining.  When you walked down the hall towards the back of the ship you could just feel the wall of heat.  He gave us a box fan which helped but since we were using both the couch and the bed, we could only point it at one or the other.  The Hotel Director gave us a 40% FCC as compensation.  It said we must sail by July 6, 2020.  So they got another cruise out of the three of us, except we booked three separate cabins this time.  My son had decided to propose on this cruise so we spent a lot on Cruise Planner items as well, over $2700.

 

I called RCCL Guest Experience Management yesterday to ask about how the original FCC would be handled since all I read about on CC was the Cruise with Confidence FCC.  She said management made the decision that they would extend the expiration date on FCC's (no matter how you were issued it) to 10/31/20.  I said it would be nice if they would extend it to 12/31/2021 to match the rest of the purchase price but she said no.  

 

As the previous poster said, it doesn't cost RCCL anything to extend our FCC's.  We chose our original sailing date to comply with the expiration date of the FCC.  While my husband and I are a little more flexible financially and with PTO, our kids are not.  When this cruise was cancelled we were 12 hours away from leaving for Florida.  Because this was a big event for my son, we decided to jump in the car and make it a driving vacation so he could still get engaged in a special way.  One in our group is in college and can't sail past the second week of August so our time to use this FCC is even further limited, and that's assuming they can all get the time off.  

 

For those of us who are willing to take a FCC for the cancelled cruise, who are willing to keep our money committed to RCCL and not ask for a cash refund at this time, I think they need to seriously reconsider their policy about our existing FCC's and allow us the same extension to the end of 2021.  I hope they are listening.

[not-enough-cruising]

Reason # 183 I take the cash refund when the line cancels, no T&C on cash. 

[LuCruise]

Also in a similar situation and have a question.

We used partial FCC from Dorian on our March cruise, which was cancelled.

We used the rest of FCC from Dorian on an August cruise.  

Expiry for the Dorian cruise was Aug 2020, but I hear when re-issued, it will be Oct 2020....to use it by that date (no restriction on the date of the cruise).

 

We got another FCC for the March cruise under cruise with confidence.

I have a feeling we will be cancelling August (or Royal cancels), which would be under cruise with confidence. 

For these FCC....they need to be applied to a cruise sailing on or before Dec 31 2021.

 

So my question is....can you use more than one FCC to pay off a single cruise? Or can you only apply 1 FCC per person per cruise?  Hoping we can basically pay off say our Dec cruise with our outstanding FCCs.

Edited April 4, 2020 by LuCruise

[SoccerMom#3]

1 hour ago, not-enough-cruising said:

Reason # 183 I take the cash refund when the line cancels, no T&C on cash. 

I asked for a cash refund both for the September Hurricane Dorian cancelled cruise and the May cancelled cruise and both times I was told only FCC.  I agree... a cash refund would have been much better.

[gatour]

In this case RCCL should give and extend the credit to2021.

[SoccerMom#3]

My daughter, who is sailing with us, posted on a Royal Caribbean social media page (it starts with an F 🙂 ).  A customer service rep direct messaged her Friday and said they would look into my daughter's request to have the FCC extended to December 2021.  Today she heard back and the customer service rep said no extension...FCC only good through October 2020.

 

Until RCCL is sailing again, I won't rebook even with FCC so potentially I will only have a few months, not 6 months to make a decision. Every other travel company we are dealing with has extended their rebook time till summer 2021 and some have extended until 12/22.  Royal Caribbean has no compassion and no business sense.

[Ourusualbeach]

8 minutes ago, SoccerMom#3 said:

My daughter, who is sailing with us, posted on a Royal Caribbean social media page (it starts with an F 🙂 ).  A customer service rep direct messaged her Friday and said they would look into my daughter's request to have the FCC extended to December 2021.  Today she heard back and the customer service rep said no extension...FCC only good through October 2020.

 

Until RCCL is sailing again, I won't rebook even with FCC so potentially I will only have a few months, not 6 months to make a decision. Every other travel company we are dealing with has extended their rebook time till summer 2021 and some have extended until 12/22.  Royal Caribbean has no compassion and no business sense.

Have you specifically asked if the Dorian certificate is an APPLY by date or a SAIL by date.  I specifically asked one of the STAR reps (who are a lot more knowledgable, they are the travel agent reps) about these exact same FCC's and was told it is an APPLY by date unlike the cruise with confidence FCC's which are sail bu dates

Edited April 5, 2020 by Ourusualbeach

[SoccerMom#3]

3 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Have you specifically asked if the Dorian certificate is an APPLY by date or a SAIL by date.  I specifically asked one of the STAR reps (who are a lot more knowledgable, they are the travel agent reps) about these exact same FCC's and was told it is an APPLY by date unlike the cruise with confidence FCC's which are sail bu dates

Each of the 4 reps I've talked to has told me it is a sail by, not apply by, date.  I'll call again tomorrow and press them on this distinction since I also want it in writing,  I don't have the patience to make the phone call today.  

[Ourusualbeach]

7 minutes ago, SoccerMom#3 said:

Each of the 4 reps I've talked to has told me it is a sail by, not apply by, date.  I'll call again tomorrow and press them on this distinction since I also want it in writing,  I don't have the patience to make the phone call today.  

Ask for resolutions or better yet, Post cruise.  They are the ones that deal with FCC's.  1.800.256.6649

[SoccerMom#3]

Just now, Ourusualbeach said:

Ask for resolutions or better yet, Post cruise.  They are the ones that deal with FCC's.  1.800.256.6649

Thank you so much for this info. 

[Ourusualbeach]

1 minute ago, SoccerMom#3 said:

Thank you so much for this info. 

I truly hope they can help.

[RosieRoo]

37 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Have you specifically asked if the Dorian certificate is an APPLY by date or a SAIL by date.  I specifically asked one of the STAR reps (who are a lot more knowledgable, they are the travel agent reps) about these exact same FCC's and was told it is an APPLY by date unlike the cruise with confidence FCC's which are sail bu dates

The FCC that I have (Not from Dorian) which was applied to my March sailing that Royal cancelled says right on the bottom “sail by November 14, 2020” so that is going to be $1620 that has to be sailed by November. That’s not going to be easy to do since none of us even know when cruising will start up again. 

[Ourusualbeach]

19 minutes ago, RosieRoo said:

The FCC that I have (Not from Dorian) which was applied to my March sailing that Royal cancelled says right on the bottom “sail by November 14, 2020” so that is going to be $1620 that has to be sailed by November. That’s not going to be easy to do since none of us even know when cruising will start up again. 

All the FCC's say "sail by"  How they have actually applied them is entirely different

[RosieRoo]

4 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

All the FCC's say "sail by"  How they have actually applied them is entirely different

Hopefully they will be more lenient with their terms considering the circumstance. 
 

Also, thanks for all the good information you’ve been providing. It’s much appreciated. 

Edited April 5, 2020 by RosieRoo

[TYMAN]

On 4/4/2020 at 10:11 AM, LuCruise said:

So my question is....can you use more than one FCC to pay off a single cruise? Or can you only apply 1 FCC per person per cruise?  Hoping we can basically pay off say our Dec cruise with our outstanding FCCs.

I would like to know this answer too......can you use multiple FCC's to pay off one cruise? Ken? 

Edited April 5, 2020 by TYMAN

[crusinthrough]

18 minutes ago, TYMAN said:

On 4/4/2020 at 8:51 AM, SoccerMom#3 said:

I asked for a cash refund both for the September Hurricane Dorian cancelled cruise and the May cancelled cruise and both times I was told only FCC.  I agree... a cash refund would have been much better.

Did you cancel before RC cancelled?  if not,  you are eligible for a cash refund for a May 3rd cruise. 

 

[crusinthrough]

21 minutes ago, TYMAN said:

I would like to know this answer too......can you use multiple FCC's to pay off one cruise? Ken? 

 One FCC per person per cruise.  

[TYMAN]

1 minute ago, crusinthrough said:

 One FCC per person per cruise.  

Okay, so two of my cruises got cancelled, so that means I need to book two more cruises for my FCC's? One FCC for each cruise? Dern. 😉 

[SoccerMom#3]

4 minutes ago, crusinthrough said:

 

I waited until Royal cancelled since I figured they would give a better deal.  Nowhere in the email they sent canceling the cruise does it say if FCC was used to book the cruise, then the original FCC would be refunded at 100% and expire October 2020.  The email  says over and over again FCC will be 125% and expire December 2021.  

 

I truly appreciate everyone's advice, support and commiserating with me.  I'm glad to know others don't think I'm being unreasonable.