Regent Refund Experience (please limit to received refunds)

[CruiserFromMaine]

21 hours ago, Pcardad said:

Someone told me the 90 days was 90 BUSINESS days - I am seeking clarification

60 business days is about 90 total days. Maybe that’s been the source of confusion.
 

90 business days is 18 weeks, about 4.5 months. I certainly hope that is wrong and is contrary to everything I’ve read up until now.  

[Wendy The Wanderer]

5 hours ago, CruiserFromMaine said:

60 business days is about 90 total days. Maybe that’s been the source of confusion.
 

90 business days is 18 weeks, about 4.5 months. I certainly hope that is wrong and is contrary to everything I’ve read up until now.  

 

Yes indeed, I hope it's not 90 business days!  Anyone know that for sure?

[rcandkc]

29 minutes ago, Wendy The Wanderer said:

 

Yes indeed, I hope it's not 90 business days!  Anyone know that for sure?

When I look it up it says 180 days for Canadians. 

Edited May 24, 2020 by rcandkc
Edit

[Wendy The Wanderer]

20 minutes ago, rcandkc said:

When I look it up it says 180 days for Canadians. 

 

You're joking, right?

[rcandkc]

Just now, Wendy The Wanderer said:

 

You're joking, right?

No, I looked it up for Canadians and it described immigration and irs rules.  Guess I found phony info. 

[Wendy The Wanderer]

18 minutes ago, rcandkc said:

No, I looked it up for Canadians and it described immigration and irs rules.  Guess I found phony info. 

 

Oh, yes it's 180 days that we can be in the U.S. in a given year, either calendar or seasonal, you're right.  I thought you were talking about the issue of 60 or 90 days for a refund, lol!

 

(BTW, it's officially it's 6 months less a day, which usually amounts to 180 or 181 days.)

Edited May 24, 2020 by Wendy The Wanderer

[rcandkc]

5 minutes ago, Wendy The Wanderer said:

 

Oh, yes it's 180 days that we can be in the U.S. in a given year, either calendar or seasonal, you're right.  I thought you were talking about the issue of 60 or 90 days for a refund, lol!

 

(BTW, it's officially it's 6 months less a day, which usually amounts to 180 or 181 days.)

Oh geez..I got way off track😀.  I remember reading some discussion about how long Canadians could stay in US considering border closing. I’m sorry. 

[mrlevin]

Wendy, I heard that they were handing out extended visas at Trinity Bellwoods Park over the weekend, drew quite a crowd. /s

 

Marc

[Wendy The Wanderer]

2 hours ago, mrlevin said:

Wendy, I heard that they were handing out extended visas at Trinity Bellwoods Park over the weekend, drew quite a crowd. /s

 

Marc

 

Yes, it's made all the news.  It used to be our main park, where we walked the dog.  But our son says it's become a place with the "yute" of the city tend to congregate, and those darned millennials.  

 

Unfortunately our mayor was also photographed there, with his mask pulled down around his neck.  Very bad optics for him right now.

 

We'll see how they did today.  Weather is still glorious and warm.  Tomorrow it will be almost hot, but Monday isn't a holiday like it is in the States.  Still lots of jobless around, of course, so we'll see.

[paratrooper69]

The

Date: 26MAR2020 Dear James Hatt, Your Request for the booking 2221490 has been submitted. Regent Seven Seas Cruises will begin the process to initiate a refund. If we have questions about your refund request, we will contact you with the email address or phone number provided in the request form. Refund requests will be validated, and refunds will be processed within 90 days of the request. Sincerely, Regent Seven Seas Cruises Please note that this email address does not accept replies.

confirmation email clearly stated 90 days for refund processing.  Today, it is 60 days for us and no joy, although it  is a bank holiday.  Hopefully, we will see something soon.

 

[Travelcat2]

Regent has been clear that refunds will be done within 90 days.  The only people that I am aware of that received misinformation are the passengers that were onboard a Regent ship when the edict came down to stop  cruising.  The onboard staff was giving information based on typical refunds and were not up to speed.  If every passenger knew that it could take up to 90 days, they may be less concerned.   If we did not opt for FCC's, we would expect our refund by May 13th (approximately).

[flossie009]

3 hours ago, Travelcat2 said:

Regent has been clear that refunds will be done within 90 days.  The only people that I am aware of that received misinformation are the passengers that were onboard a Regent ship when the edict came down to stop  cruising.

No, we were not on board but were initially told 10-14 days. This was later extended to 90 days (despite the Regent UK Booking Conditions clearly stating that refunds will be made within 14 days)

 

4 hours ago, Travelcat2 said:

If we did not opt for FCC's, we would expect our refund by May 13th (approximately)

Not sure why you would expect to only wait up to 60 days for a refund. Optimistic?

[Travelcat2]

38 minutes ago, flossie009 said:

No, we were not on board but were initially told 10-14 days. This was later extended to 90 days (despite the Regent UK Booking Conditions clearly stating that refunds will be made within 14 days)

 

Not sure why you would expect to only wait up to 60 days for a refund. Optimistic?

 

Nope - just miscounted.  It seems like a year since March.

 

Who told you 10-14 days.  We were told 90 days in March.

[forgap]

I think the issue is that, despite being told in writing that the refunds will take 90 days, most posters believe this is entirely too long.  It is clearly an issue of managing cash flow rather than any other excuse mentioned in this thread,  

[piscean]

Our cruise was cancelled in March. On the 21st March the following was in reply to my enquiry to Regent UK.

We have cancelled your booking and  will process the refund to your Travel Agent  shortly .

no mention of 90 days!

the following is in their reply to my email on the 15th May

 

I believe they are now beginning to process April refunds this week and this is being done on a cruise by cruise basis and in date order. 

Looking at the spreadsheet I don’t see evidence of this

 

[flossie009]

6 hours ago, Travelcat2 said:

Who told you 10-14 days

This information came from Regent immediately after the cancellation of the first segment of our March 27 cruise. (Having re-checked my emails at the time they actually stated 14 working days).

Just under four weeks later, when chasing the refund, I was told that the wait time was now up to 90 days.

 

When the second segment of the cruise was eventually cancelled we were told up-front up to 90 days for the refund but, as most agree, this seems overly long despite the present difficulties.

[DeepFreeze63]

Point of Information:

Regent canceled our cruise on May 20th. I cancelled our related, independent excursion with TripAdvisor ("Viator") on May 21st - REFUND made by TripAdvisor to my credit card on May 21st!

Of course Regent refunds could occur quickly if Regent wanted them to - 10 to 14 business days is a reasonable MAXIMUM for any established business.

[Pcardad]

It is possible Regent may address this issue shortly...and maybe even here.

[SusieQft]

Based on the comment by @Eager2Travel in post #160 of the  "Will there be any further Regents cruises in 2020?" thread (which has veered into a robust discussion of refunds), I sorted the first tab of the spreadsheet by sailing date instead of the date refund was requested.  It appears more orderly, and it does indeed look like they are going by sailing date instead of the refund request date.  We have no input from anyone sailing before April who has not received their refund, and only one sailing after March has reported a refund of the full cruise fare.   

 

I hope this does not mean that the "90 days" is from the date the refund was requested, not from the originally scheduled sailing date.

 

@SkystheLimit@SkystheLimit cancelled voluntarily (i.e. Regent had not cancelled) and requested a refund one day before the 50% penalty date, so it sounds like they put him in the "Deposit Only" queue even though he was paid in full.  Either that or we all wish our TAs were as effective advocates.  Sorting the Deposit Only tab of the spreadsheet by sailing date did not reveal a similar pattern to the first tab.

[SusieQft]

2 hours ago, Pcardad said:

It is possible Regent may address this issue shortly...and maybe even here.

That would be great.  It would be nice if they clarified the order in which they are issuing refunds.

 

Also, it would be good if they could verify that the 90 day promise applies to the date the refund was requested, not the original sailing date.  And that they meant 90 calendar days, not 90 working days.  But if it is the very unfortunate case that they try to shift it to 90 working days, how many working days are in a week?  And if less than 5, how can they possibly justify that given the huge refund backlog?

[wristband]

All excellent question Susie.  Another: why hasn't Regent publicly addressed such obvious and reasonable concerns many have voiced about the internal decision making process on refunds?

 

I get it - its an "ongoing process" with that is a "challenge" to administer.  But Regent's "process" must have oversight to monitor payments and methods to ensure accuracy and orderliness.  A simple Q: which refund payments are prioritized over others and why are they moved to the front of the line?  

 

Less happy talk please, no more "90 days or so." Communicating in an unvarnished manner won't disrupt internal procedures.  It would be welcomed by and reassuring to Regent customers puzzled about the way the company is issuing refunds. 

[CruisetheCs]

 

Regent could easily clarify the refund process and update info on a timely basis.  All it would take would be a few minutes of time and probably save innumerable phone calls and a lot of angst from those waiting for refunds. 

 

Regent's failure to communicate clearly about refunds and to provide some kind of updates periodically is not consistent with the image it tries to create of being a luxury cruise line, IMO.  

 

And yes the Regent defenders will likely be telling us how Regent is so busy doing refunds that they can't do anything else.  On another thread the latest defense was that Regent will be criticized no matter what they say so it is fine if they say nothing. Bad communication strategy even if you have something to hide. (For those who think silence is golden, Google some phrase such as "how to handle a PR crisis or problem".)

 

Not sure where to post this link, but it seems relevant to the title of this thread:

The New York Times had a column about travelers' problems with refunds from cancelled trips  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/25/travel/coronavirus-refunds-overseas-adventure-travel.html?searchResultPosition=1

This applies to the United States. Some of the refund rules may or may not encompass cruise line refunds and may differ from one state to another.  

[Travelcat2]

19 hours ago, SusieQft said:

Based on the comment by @Eager2Travel in post #160 of the  "Will there be any further Regents cruises in 2020?" thread (which has veered into a robust discussion of refunds), 

 

Given the highly unusual (and in my opinion, unkind) restrictions placed on the refund threads, the discussion had to go somewhere.  However, it is quite off-topic on the thread about cruises in 2020.  As I mentioned previously, there should be a thread to discuss the "ifs, ands, and buts) of the refund process. However, that would be the third thread about the same subject that could have been covered in one thread - without restrictions.  Truly hope that these types of threads (restricted) are not permitted in the future as there is nothing wrong with discussing on-topic subjects on any thread.

 

piscean - the response that you received from Regent in the U.K. was sent early on in the "new" process.  Perhaps this can be discussed further on a thread about refunds that is not restricted.

 

Edited May 27, 2020 by Travelcat2

[kinghm]

 

Has anyone who was booked Abu Dhabi to Rome on the Voyager (April 16th) that Regent cancelled on March 30th, received a refund yet?  Appears that they moved quickly on the cancelled Feb and March cruises and on future cruises that people are deciding to cancel, but at 58 days since our refund request was acknowledged, I'm losing patience.   Please someone give me a glimmer of hope (assuming that they are refunding first come first serve?????)!!!

[bissel]

Travelcat. UNNetBill’s thread is solely devoted to a narrow informational subject with no discussion about anything but suites. This is what SusieQ’s thread is trying to replicate, much to the desire of cruisers tracking the refund trajectory. Let it be please.