HAL is dirty and crooked

[kazu]

1 minute ago, npcl said:

Have not have any issues with US lines.

 

I have had flights cancelled with United, Delta, Alaska, Hawaiian air. In all cases as soon as I got notified of a major change in the flight I contacted each airline.  Had no problems getting refunds.  Longest wait for a refund showing up on my credit card was 15 days.

 

Glad for you - I’m dealing with Air Canada (who will only give a voucher and has been supported by the supervising agency), Iberia (Spain) and Lufthansa.

I did the same but Iberia says 2 - 3 weeks and since I am on week 2, I have some concerns, Lufthansa 2 -3 months (and why they say they to take the voucher which for me, is useless as it expires April 30th).

[npcl]

1 minute ago, rhinomike said:

To my understanding they have not cancelled all of their cruises they are cancelling them one by one. Right after final payment dates. So yeah. That is shady business. 
 

 

They actually have announced a wide range of cancellations. Some up to the end of the year, depending upon area or ship.

[Nymich]

It is funny to hear people sticking up for HAL and their rude lack of communication.  NOBODY who paid in full for March cruises that HAL had to be forced to cancel has received their refund.

What happened to the OP is terrible but HAL has lost so much credibility that I am sure few are surprised.

[Storylady]

2 hours ago, npcl said:

Have not have any issues with US lines.

 

I have had flights cancelled with United, Delta, Alaska, Hawaiian air. In all cases as soon as I got notified of a major change in the flight I contacted each airline.  Had no problems getting refunds.  Longest wait for a refund showing up on my credit card was 15 days.

Good for you! We had two United flights and they wanted me to take a voucher that expires April 30th. My husband insisted on a refund and we yet to see it. Same problem with British Airways which is only giving vouchers. 

[Boatdrill]

2 hours ago, rhinomike said:

Absolutely HAL waited to cancel our cruise until the day after final payment was due. You think it was a coincidence?  Yeah right. Our cruise is three months away. They knew what was going on.  
 

Late payers........  that’s just a few people. They knew what they were doing. 3000 people on that cruise and now they get to hold their money for 3 to 6 months.  Very shady. No way to stick up for them. Nice try.  

I understand you're entrenched in your fox hole, as that's where you're most comfortable. Nothing I say will bring you out.  

But what explanation do you have for the fact that cruises were also cancelled at the same time as yours, with final payment deadlines that hadn't come yet ?   HAL cancelled cruises based on departure dates within a specific time frame, not final payment dates.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

[npcl]

32 minutes ago, Storylady said:

Good for you! We had two United flights and they wanted me to take a voucher that expires April 30th. My husband insisted on a refund and we yet to see it. Same problem with British Airways which is only giving vouchers. 

Did they make a significant change to the flight or cancel it, or did you cancel prior to getting such a notification?  In all of my flights I waited until I got notification of either a cancellation or a significant change to the flight before I called.

 

I assume that you canceled   via customer service. You can also request a refund via their web site.

 

If it has been longer than 10 days I would call and ask customer service the status, you can also request to be transferred to the refunds department.

 

I do have some flights where part of the payment was with vouchers and part in cash.  The cash portion went back to my CC. The voucher portion was refunded with new vouchers had a two year expiration date.

Edited May 8, 2020 by npcl

[rhinomike]

1 hour ago, Boatdrill said:

I understand you're entrenched in your fox hole, as that's where you're most comfortable. Nothing I say will bring you out.  

But what explanation do you have for the fact that cruises were also cancelled at the same time as yours, with final payment deadlines that hadn't come yet ?   HAL cancelled cruises based on departure dates within a specific time frame, not final payment dates.   . 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you know that happened?  Because I have been reading they are cancelling cruises weekly.  Not all at once

Edited May 8, 2020 by rhinomike

[Storylady]

1 hour ago, npcl said:

Did they make a significant change to the flight or cancel it, or did you cancel prior to getting such a notification?  In all of my flights I waited until I got notification of either a cancellation or a significant change to the flight before I called.

 

I assume that you canceled   via customer service. You can also request a refund via their web site.

 

If it has been longer than 10 days I would call and ask customer service the status, you can also request to be transferred to the refunds department.

 

I do have some flights where part of the payment was with vouchers and part in cash.  The cash portion went back to my CC. The voucher portion was refunded with new vouchers had a two year expiration date.

We cancelled as it was our flight from Ft. Lauderdale home after the World Cruise. We have received an e-mail, but so far no refund. I really think that everyone expecting to get their money ASAP is probably a pipe dream. It is going to take time.

Edited May 8, 2020 by Storylady

[cruiser4801]

Disgusting that HAL is doing this.

 

I am a Four Star Mariner (45 points away from 5 Stars) and I am not booking with HAL for a long time after learning of this.

 

I am in the same situation as all of you are with NCL, which canceled my March cruise and have not yet refunded our monies.  

 

It's not the social distancing that will keep passengers away from causing.  

 

It's the way customers have been treated by the cruise line with cancelation refunds that will keep many passengers away from cruising for a long time.

 

Frankly, based on their actions, I truly hope allot of the cruise lines go out of business.

 

As for my refund, the credit card will be out of the money of they reverse the conditional credit.

[prescottbob]

Goodness.

 

Be well.

Bob

[kazu]

14 hours ago, rhinomike said:

To my understanding they have not cancelled all of their cruises they are cancelling them one by one. Right after final payment dates. So yeah. That is shady business. 
 

 

 

Not true.  It might have happened for some cruises as they were figuring things out but they have notified for all cruises to Alaska,  Europe, Canada/New England, Grand Africa, for 2020.  Many of those are not near final payment.

 

This came out last week:

 

[rafinmd]

17 hours ago, rhinomike said:

To my understanding they have not cancelled all of their cruises they are cancelling them one by one. Right after final payment dates. So yeah. That is shady business. 
 

 

Absolutely FALSE.  My cruise had a final payment date of JUNE 19 and HAL cancelled it.  It was actually to be the last in a sequence of 3 cruises (Cunard, Crystal, HAL) and to date only HAL has cancelled before the final payment date.

 

Roy

[bennybear]

@kazu   You may want to check the Facebook group air passenger rights for Canadians,  they are helping people get refunds instead of vouchers for cancelled flights.  Dr Gabor Lukacs is an advocate for consumers and is legally challenging the Canadian Transport Agency on this issue.  

 

We received a refund in two weeks for British airways for a flight they cancelled,  but we had to call in to do it as they only offered vouchers online. 

 

[kazu]

Just now, bennybear said:

@kazu   You may want to check the Facebook group air passenger rights for Canadians,  they are helping people get refunds instead of vouchers for cancelled flights.  Dr Gabor Lukacs is an advocate for consumers and is legally challenging the Canadian Transport Agency on this issue.  

 

We received a refund in two weeks for British airways for a flight they cancelled,  but we had to call in to do it as they only offered vouchers online. 

 

 

Thanks.  I will check the FB group.  Much appreciated.  Kind of aggravating that CTA supported Air Canada in this move.  There’s better protection in Europe than here despite all our so called new passenger rights.

I also had to call the other 2 airlines in order to get a refund but it’s happening.

[bennybear]

@kazu you are most welcome, hope it helps.  Dr Lukacs and this group have been fighting this legislation before it was proposed as it was so airline supportive rather than consumer.   Now it is glaring how poorly it was written.   It would have been much better if they had modelled it on the European laws for sure. 

Edited May 9, 2020 by bennybear

[kazu]

2 minutes ago, bennybear said:

@kazu you are most welcome, hope it helps.  Dr Lukacs and this group have been fighting this legislation before it was proposed as it was so airline supportive rather than consumer.   Now it is glaring how poorly it was written.   It would have been much better if they had modelled it on the European laws for sure. 

 

I completely agree with you.  The European airlines are refunding - you just have to be able to get through 😉 And, their line is the voucher is faster, refunds take time.  Thanks but cash is king 😉 

[bennybear]

Cash for sure in these times!  Just a thought,  Air Canada is subject to EU rules if the flight is FROM the EU, though sadly not to.   KLM has only been offering vouchers, upsetting to some for sure,  we know people out a substantial sum for business class.  

[kazu]

6 minutes ago, bennybear said:

Cash for sure in these times!  Just a thought,  Air Canada is subject to EU rules if the flight is FROM the EU, though sadly not to.   KLM has only been offering vouchers, upsetting to some for sure,  we know people out a substantial sum for business class.  

 

Another great thought, but sadly, my flight was to Fort Lauderdale.  My Air Canada flight coming home from Frankfurt was with Aeroplan so that cancellation was easy.  I really appreciate your ideas and help 🙂 

[bennybear]

You’re most welcome!  I appreciate all you do on these boards and helping others is the purpose of cruise critic IMO.  I hope one day our paths cross. 

[strickerj]

32 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

I completely agree with you.  The European airlines are refunding - you just have to be able to get through 😉 And, their line is the voucher is faster, refunds take time.  Thanks but cash is king 😉 

According to several posts on Flyertalk, even some EU airlines (Air France/KLM and Lufthansa in particular) aren't refunding either, and in the case of AF/KLM, AmEx France has actually cut a deal with them to deny chargebacks. In Canada, CTA has sided with the airlines as mentioned here, but their guidelines are non-binding.

 

It turns out, perhaps contrary to expectations, the U.S. has been the one to side with the passengers on this - U.S. DOT sent a reminder on April 3 that airlines that have canceled flights still owe full refunds, and that includes flights to/from the U.S. by foreign airlines. (See section 2 in this article: https://airpassengerrights.ca/en/covid19/coronavirus-how-to-get-a-refund.) You might want to invoke that as I'm sure the airlines are counting on most passengers not knowing about it. I've put in a request for a refund since Air Canada has suspended service to my city entirely, and if they refuse, I'll go the chargeback route.

[Nymich]

On 5/7/2020 at 5:27 PM, rhinomike said:

So HAL waited until the day after final payment was due on our cruise for August and then cancelled it. Then proceeds to tell you it will take 90 days to get your refund. That is dirty, wrong and bad business.  We called them the day before and they assured us our cruise was a go so we allowed the final payment. Then the next day I get an email saying our cruise is cancelled. They took $20k from me and will keep it for 90 days along with everyone else on that ship.  I know exactly what they are doing and it is wrong. My cruise was cancelled on two other lines and they didn’t pull this kind of shady stuff. HAL will never get another penny of my money. I am sure the cheerleaders will defend them but how do you defend this?  They are getting desperate. Anybody that chooses a FCC you maywant to think again. I think they are in trouble to pull this kind of shady stuff. 

It appears your legitimate post has been hijacked by people talking about the airlines.

[kazu]

24 minutes ago, strickerj said:

According to several posts on Flyertalk, even some EU airlines (Air France/KLM and Lufthansa in particular) aren't refunding either, and in the case of AF/KLM, AmEx France has actually cut a deal with them to deny chargebacks. In Canada, CTA has sided with the airlines as mentioned here, but their guidelines are non-binding.

 

One of my flights was with Lufthansa.  I waited until they cancelled and then phoned.  After I refused the voucher (and assured the CSR we would fly Lufthansa when we are back) they agreed to refund me.  

So many different experiences and it seems we have to fight for refunds with them all.  Now to see if they come.

[strickerj]

7 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

One of my flights was with Lufthansa.  I waited until they cancelled and then phoned.  After I refused the voucher (and assured the CSR we would fly Lufthansa when we are back) they agreed to refund me.  

So many different experiences and it seems we have to fight for refunds with them all.  Now to see if they come.

Glad it worked out! I'm not too worried about HAL since my travel insurance will reimburse me if the provider fails due to insolvency, but I am concerned about AC since they'll claim I was "made whole" already with the voucher in lieu of a refund.

[Tennessee Titan]

33 minutes ago, Nymich said:

It appears your legitimate post has been hijacked by people talking about the airlines.

Hear! Hear!. Airline refunds are a TOTALLY different animal than those from cruise lines....

[Nymich]

1 hour ago, Tennessee Titan said:

Hear! Hear!. Airline refunds are a TOTALLY different animal than those from cruise lines....

Yes and they have done a FAR better job at communicating compared to HAL.