Oceania Refunds - Has anyone actually received any cash yet?

[bigedwin]

1 hour ago, Paulchili said:

I wonder how she pays her bills 🙂

Travel agents get a commission from the cruiseline directly. We do not pay them for their work.

So if the trip is cancelled and the customer gets a refund most cruise lines will not pay the commission to the TA.

 

So the statement “how she pays her bills” 

She pays her bills with the commissions given by the cruise lines and travel companies AFTER the customer completed their travel.

 

 

 

[Petoonya]

1 hour ago, Paulchili said:

I wonder how she pays her bills 🙂

Well, no income for the remainder of 2020 anyway. She's lived in Marin a long time so hopefully her home is paid off 😉 She's a wonderful lady. I was blessed to find her.

Edited April 14, 2020 by Petoonya

[ORV]

20 minutes ago, Petoonya said:

Well, no income for the remainder of 2020 anyway. She's lived in Marin a long time so hopefully her home is paid off 😉 She's a wonderful lady. I was blessed to find her.

Hmm, mine and a few others here have a TA in Marin county. She's the best, I'm betting it's the same one. 

[LHT28]

36 minutes ago, bigedwin said:

Travel agents get a commission from the cruiseline directly. We do not pay them for their work.

So if the trip is cancelled and the customer gets a refund most cruise lines will not pay the commission to the TA.

 

So the statement “how she pays her bills” 

She pays her bills with the commissions given by the cruise lines and travel companies AFTER the customer completed their travel.

 

 

 

We all know they get paid by commission

If there are no cruises   then no commission    so back to the  question?

 

[Petoonya]

1 minute ago, ORV said:

Hmm, mine and a few others here have a TA in Marin county. She's the best, I'm betting it's the same one. 

Hmm....she IS the best 🙂

[Paulchili]

55 minutes ago, bigedwin said:

So if the trip is cancelled and the customer gets a refund most cruise lines will not pay the commission to the TA.

What if the customer chooses FCC - do they get a commission?

[basor]

1 hour ago, Paulchili said:

What if the customer chooses FCC - do they get a commission?

When you book a new cruise with the FCC , they get a commission on the new cruise but not the canceled cruise.  Also, several cruise lines are taking commissions back for cruises they had paid the commission but the cruise line or cruiser cancels.  We have a wonderful TA but I know she is working very hard on her clients behalf while losing money....we sent her a nice note with a gift card to let her know we appreciate everything she is doing on our behalf.

[Jay23]

I am pleased to tell you all that we have received our deposit money , in total, on our Credit Crard just 24 days after our T A cancelled our August cruise.  We were told it could be up to 90 days before the credit was received .  Obviously we cancelled well within the 120 days cut of time

 

We are very satisfied with this service.   

 

Stay safe please.     J

 

[royallondon]

That’s good news Jay23 and excellent service in the circumstances.  Difficult times.

Interestingly, we have an O cruise booked for September (final balance due May) and rang out TA to see what would happen if we were to cancel due to all the uncertainty.  We were told we would lose the total deposit paid.  Has anyone else had a similar experience?

 

keep well.

 

[Jay23]

RoyaIlondon ..........I understand that some TA"s are getting the deposit from Oceania but retaining it.  We had no such shinigans with our excellent TA.     I suggest that you draw your TA's attention to the Ts &Cs pertaining to the time scale for  the return of monies paid .   Check the Ts & Cs yourself too...Good Luck  J

Edited April 15, 2020 by Jay23

[royallondon]

Yes, I did check the T&C’s out but this is where the waters get muddy (and for others too I fear).

 

’O’s’ T&C reflects a refund of deposit but the TA’s reflect loss of deposit.  This backs up your feedback that some TA’s may retain the refund.  One for me to pick up again once I’ve received my Az refund from the same TA.

 

Thank you.

[LJRVancouver]

I hope this is correct that Oceania will honour TA commission for cancelled cruises. 

https://www.cruisetradenews.com/coronavirus-cruise-travel-agent-commissions-protect/

 

Think I did find it on another Oceania site but difficult to find again - O not making it easy to find info on their site

 

 

[basor]

7 minutes ago, LJRVancouver said:

I hope this is correct that Oceania will honour TA commission for cancelled cruises. 

https://www.cruisetradenews.com/coronavirus-cruise-travel-agent-commissions-protect/

 

Think I did find it on another Oceania site but difficult to find again - O not making it easy to find info on their site

 

 

I am afraid you are confusing NCL with NCLH......this article does not mention anything about Oceania

[LHT28]

32 minutes ago, basor said:

I am afraid you are confusing NCL with NCLH......this article does not mention anything about Oceania

maybe you need  stronger glasses 😉

 

"Norwegian Cruise Line

NCL joined Royal Caribbean as one of the latest US cruise lines to suspend sailings amid the outbreak.

Guests who are currently booked on voyages with embarkation dates from 13 March to 11 April 2020 on NCL, Oceania Cruises or Regent Seven Seas have been asked to contact their travel agent or cruise line.

All guests on impacted voyages will receive a 125 per cent refund of the fare paid in the form of a future cruise credit, which can be applied toward any future cruise through 31 December 2022.

Guests who do not wish to have the credit can instead choose to have a 100 per cent fare refund, which they will receive within 90 days of making the request.

Travel agent commissions on cancelled cruises will be protected, the line also confirmed.

Guests on voyages currently underway will conclude and passengers will be disembarked and assisted with travel arrangements."

 

Now  whether  it is  for more recently cancelled cruises  or not  I am not sure

 I do recall in one of the letters posted  from Oceania  the commissions were being protected  but that was in the early days of the  cancellations

 

 

[Holiday 24/7]

10 hours ago, Jay23 said:

I am pleased to tell you all that we have received our deposit money , in total, on our Credit Crard just 24 days after our T A cancelled our August cruise.  We were told it could be up to 90 days before the credit was received .  Obviously we cancelled well within the 120 days cut of time

 

We are very satisfied with this service.   

 

Stay safe please.     J

 

You are lucky Jay23.  We were due to travel on Sunday and we have only just had an email from our TA stating that ABTA have changed the advice on refunds and that our TA is following and that we now need to fill in a form that will give us our money back when the credit note they are going to issue us expires at the end of July!  I will be contacting Oceania tomorrow to see if they have refund the monies to the TA.  I had previously advised our TA over three weeks ago that we wanted a cash refund and she advised that she had filled the form in there and then so will be contacting them as well!  This is way outside the 90 days from the date that the cruise was actually cancelled.  If you were due to travel in August and your TA can refund the monies this would suggest they have received the money back from Oceania.  

[LHT28]

Just a question to the  UK  residents

 I know  a lot pay by cash/debit  to their TA   just curious WHY?

Is using a credit card not accepted  by UK TA's?

 

Sorry it is just an odd practice to  me

Here  we pay by CC to the cruise line 

The TA only passes on the details 

 

  I know  Regional differences  apply

[Holiday 24/7]

14 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Just a question to the  UK  residents

 I know  a lot pay by cash/debit  to their TA   just curious WHY?

Is using a credit card not accepted  by UK TA's?

 

Sorry it is just an odd practice to  me

Here  we pay by CC to the cruise line 

The TA only passes on the details 

 

  I know  Regional differences  apply

Yes credit cards are accepted but it is only recently that they have stopped charging us a fee for using a credit card.  Hence why some people will pay by debit card which they didn't charge you for using.  The TA takes the money and then they get an invoice from the cruise line which they pay.  We also have to pay the balance anything from 4 months in advance of the cruise date when I know that the cruise line only wants payment 12 weeks in advance.  So basically by the time I get my money back they will have had my balance payment since mid-December (7.5 months) for a cruise that was cancelled by the cruise line and a holiday we haven't been able to take.  What I don't understand is why people that are travelling after us in August have had there monies back but we are now having to wait another three months.  This is down to our TA and to say that I am disappointed in their service is an understatement, especially as we had another cruise booked with them for September (which we will now be cancelling) and were going to book with them again for end of next year.  We will be taking our business elsewhere in future.

[LHT28]

16 minutes ago, Holiday 24/7 said:

Yes credit cards are accepted but it is only recently that they have stopped charging us a fee for using a credit card.  Hence why some people will pay by debit card which they didn't charge you for using.  The TA takes the money and then they get an invoice from the cruise line which they pay.  We also have to pay the balance anything from 4 months in advance of the cruise date when I know that the cruise line only wants payment 12 weeks in advance.  So basically by the time I get my money back they will have had my balance payment since mid-December (7.5 months) for a cruise that was cancelled by the cruise line and a holiday we haven't been able to take.  What I don't understand is why people that are travelling after us in August have had there monies back but we are now having to wait another three months. 

Thanks  for the explanation 

I see on other forums people mentioning that their  TA company  is holding back the refunds or not answering calls  etc...

 

Maybe the other people paid by CC  so a faster return on the refund???

Good luck

[Medeba]

19 hours ago, royallondon said:

Yes, I did check the T&C’s out but this is where the waters get muddy (and for others too I fear).

 

’O’s’ T&C reflects a refund of deposit but the TA’s reflect loss of deposit.  This backs up your feedback that some TA’s may retain the refund.  One for me to pick up again once I’ve received my Az refund from the same TA.

 

Thank you.

I was concerned about this too but when I contacted my TA about refunding an Oceania deposit for a cruise in December they told me that they had notified Oceania of the cancellation and that I would receive a refund in 6 to 8 weeks.  Given Jay23's experience I'm hoping I'll get my refund sooner than the timescale I was given.  My cruise is no longer showing in my Oceania account which leads me to believe that the refund is being/has been processed by Oceania.

[royallondon]

Thank you for this Medeba.  It gives me more leverage to get a more sympathetic response when I contact them.

[Medeba]

1 hour ago, royallondon said:

Thank you for this Medeba.  It gives me more leverage to get a more sympathetic response when I contact them.

Royallondon.  If you would like any further information on this subject, I will send you a personal message but you will need to activate your messenger function in your account settings.

[royallondon]

I’ve tried to activate this Medeba but struggling!

From what I can see, this function is no longer available?.

[LHT28]

2 hours ago, Medeba said:

 you will need to activate your messenger function in your account settings.

the function was never available on CC

You would need to exchange emails to communicate

[Medeba]

43 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

the function was never available on CC

You would need to exchange emails to communicate

Thanks.  I didn't know that.  CC should remove that function from the website.  It would be a useful tool to negate the need to post emails on the site which I'm reluctant to do.

[LHT28]

13 minutes ago, Medeba said:

Thanks.  I didn't know that.  CC should remove that function from the website.  It would be a useful tool to negate the need to post emails on the site which I'm reluctant to do.

I agree  & it has been suggested to them 😉