Cruise Refund

[Cruzbear24]

Are any Aussies getting their requested cruise refunds yet? Our March 23rd Ovation cruise was cancelled by RCI mid March, I requested a full refund within hours of notification but have heard nothing since. 

[Pushka]

Refunds on the Celebrity board seem to be taking in excess of 45 days and very inconsistently so. Some are tired of waiting and have sought a credit card dispute. Amex are rather excellent at looking after their card holders. 

[GUT2407]

When they cancelled our Easer cruise money was already getting tight, so we opted for the refund, that was early March and they said 4 to 6 weeks for the refund, so far nothing.

[MMDown Under]

Princess has a thread with four pages where passengers have listed whether they have received  a refund and how long since they requested a refund. 

[icat2000]

I heard the waiting time for Princess was 60 days. I've got a couple of future cruise credits that are tied on a cruise booking for August. I'm going to cancel that cruise. Peter is adamant he never wants to go on another cruise. So I might just ask for a refund of the future cruise deposits too. 

[Cruzbear24]

Thank you all. I have been following the refund threads on the Royal forum but it seems to be all Americans that are receiving refunds. I just wondered if any Aussies had seen theirs yet.

[peter1956]

Nothing for us either. But no stress I hope that it will eventually happen 🙂

 

[Relaxing Robbies]

Nothing for us yet for our cancelled Sydney to Hawaii Carnival Spirit cruise which was due to depart 24th March.

[BRANDEE]

There is no consistency on how Princess is refunding monies.  On Tuesday, I received the refund of our Mar 8th interrupted cruise. It was credited to our cc.  I used a TA and in USA.  My brother on same cruise and same TA, nothing.  His last name starts with D, mine N..so not alphabetical..lol  Some other passengers from Australia, Scotland, Canada also received refunds, so not by country. No refund of money or fcc for the Mar 21 cancelled cruise, I was told 60 days from date of "option" request  and also told 60 days from cruise sale date.  Again, no consistency at all.

[Chiliburn]

6 hours ago, Cruzbear24 said:

Thank you all. I have been following the refund threads on the Royal forum but it seems to be all Americans that are receiving refunds. I just wondered if any Aussies had seen theirs yet.

There’s a lot of unhappy people out there.

RC is trying to borrow another $8B to keep the wolf from the door. 
I am going to be cautious about paying any money to them.

[icat2000]

2 hours ago, Chiliburn said:

There’s a lot of unhappy people out there.

RC is trying to borrow another $8B to keep the wolf from the door. 
I am going to be cautious about paying any money to them.

I wonder if they are slow because they have cashflow problems. There is no reason why any refund should take more than 2 weeks. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

7 hours ago, BRANDEE said:

There is no consistency on how Princess is refunding monies.  On Tuesday, I received the refund of our Mar 8th interrupted cruise. It was credited to our cc.  I used a TA and in USA.  My brother on same cruise and same TA, nothing.  His last name starts with D, mine N..so not alphabetical..lol  Some other passengers from Australia, Scotland, Canada also received refunds, so not by country. No refund of money or fcc for the Mar 21 cancelled cruise, I was told 60 days from date of "option" request  and also told 60 days from cruise sale date.  Again, no consistency at all.

From what I've read the refund process has two major players.

1. The cruise line.

2. The bank or credit card company that payment was originally made from.

The delays are not totally from the cruise line, and different banks/credit cards may take longer than others.

[MMDown Under]

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

From what I've read the refund process has two major players.

1. The cruise line.

2. The bank or credit card company that payment was originally made from.

The delays are not totally from the cruise line, and different banks/credit cards may take longer than others.

If the cruise lines are telling customers up to 90 days for a refund, surely banks/credit card delays can't be on top of this. 

How can cruise lines expect customers to make bookings on future cruises, if they haven't refunded them cancelled cruises first?

Edited May 4, 2020 by MMDown Under

[jland]

The TA we booked with, the company who are the 1st to cruise, told us it would take them 12 weeks to refund our money once they had received it from Cunard. Amazing, as you can imagine we are delighted with their speedy service, not.

[OzKiwiJJ]

21 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

If the cruise lines are telling customers up to 90 days for a refund, surely banks/credit card delays can't be on top of this. 

How can cruise lines expect customers to make bookings on future cruises, if they haven't refunded them cancelled cruises first?

It is possible bank/credit card delays could be on top of the cruise line proceeding time. Ever noticed how long it takes for a credit card hold to come off?

 

Also bear in mind the sheer volume of refunds the cruise lines are processing. 

[GUT2407]

Every day they delay is money in their pocket and that applies to every step along the refund process.

[MicCanberra]

20 hours ago, Cruzbear24 said:

Are any Aussies getting their requested cruise refunds yet? Our March 23rd Ovation cruise was cancelled by RCI mid March, I requested a full refund within hours of notification but have heard nothing since. 

Wait for 90 days after the cruise was supposed to go (not when it was cancelled) and then see how you go.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

1 hour ago, GUT2407 said:

Every day they delay is money in their pocket and that applies to every step along the refund process.

If the money has left our shores and is sitting in Miami or Monaco , they will also wait until the exchange rates goes in their  favour, before they pay out .

[jland]

3 hours ago, Kiwi Kruzer said:

If the money has left our shores and is sitting in Miami or Monaco , they will also wait until the exchange rates goes in their  favour, before they pay out .

If exchange rates come into it then Cunard should pay up quick smart. I believe they are based in England, the £ is very strong against the aus$ almost $2 to the £.

[Pushka]

I imagine all cruiselines are waiting for others to pay for their future cruise then pay out outstanding refunds. And not cancelling cruises that have absolutely  no chance of going until after final payment. 

[The_Big_M]

I've heard of some local RCI refunds being paid out. But not sure of which order it is, cause there are some waiting very long times too.

[bazzaw]

I had heard nothing from my TA regarding 3 Cunard cruises - the first departure 06 May was cancelled in mid February , the second departure 09 May cancelled only recently and the third departure 02 Jun also cancelled only recently - until this week when  I finally received "official" notification from the TA that all three cruises (with official cruise numbers) had been cancelled and they were sending an application for refund to Cunard for all of them. Some of the wording on  their website about Covid19 cancellations and also in the email that I got from them has led me to believe that they have a "standard procedure" dealing with applications for cancellation of a cruise and subsequent refund - and they were simply following this procedure as though nothing else extraordinary had happened. However their Terms and Conditions on their website only outline what is to happen if the Customer cancels the cruise - doesn't say much about when the TA or a cruiseline cancels a cruise. This drama REALLY has taught me a few things!!!!!

[icat2000]

5 hours ago, bazzaw said:

I had heard nothing from my TA regarding 3 Cunard cruises - the first departure 06 May was cancelled in mid February , the second departure 09 May cancelled only recently and the third departure 02 Jun also cancelled only recently - until this week when  I finally received "official" notification from the TA that all three cruises (with official cruise numbers) had been cancelled and they were sending an application for refund to Cunard for all of them. Some of the wording on  their website about Covid19 cancellations and also in the email that I got from them has led me to believe that they have a "standard procedure" dealing with applications for cancellation of a cruise and subsequent refund - and they were simply following this procedure as though nothing else extraordinary had happened. However their Terms and Conditions on their website only outline what is to happen if the Customer cancels the cruise - doesn't say much about when the TA or a cruiseline cancels a cruise. This drama REALLY has taught me a few things!!!!!

And I bet that TA already got paid their commission on those cruises too!!!

[icat2000]

Its a really sad state of affairs because if any cruiseline goes belly up the poor old passenger who waiting for refunds joins the cue of a long list of unsecured creditors.

[Ondine]

1 minute ago, icat2000 said:

Its a really sad state of affairs because if any cruiseline goes belly up the poor old passenger who waiting for refunds joins the cue of a long list of unsecured creditors.

 

This is the reason that I chose FCCs for the cruise that Princess cancelled on me.  I figured that if they went broke then I wouldn't get my cash back anyway and getting FCCs was less messy than having the refund go through the TA and waiting for them to refund me.  In fact I paid the deposit and then passed the booking over to a TA so it would have been even more messy.

 

Still waiting - put in for refund on 18 March for cruise that should have been on 23 March.  Hopefully it will come through in time to apply to a cruise booked next Feb assuming that goes ahead.