Disappointed but we understand, maybe?

[bjlaac]

Let me open by saying my wife and I have been cruising over 40 years and probably well over 60 cruises completed.  In recent years we have primarily been sailing NCL for various reasons, to the tune of becoming Platinum a few years ago.  Last October we took a two week cruise out of NY and as a result of a price drop before sailing,  received a future cruise credit for $550.   When we returned home we booked three cruises on three cruise lines (including NCL in October) for sailings in 2020. 

 

You can all imagine what happened next, our 1st scheduled cruise became the first Covid 19 casualty in the US in February.  As the domino's began to fall each cruise was subsequently cancelled including the October 2020 NCL sailing.  It became our surprise the past few months when we tried to book a future cruise with NCL when we were informed that our $550 credit still needed to be used on a sailing within one year from issue which effectively meant October 2020.  So here's the catch 22, all sailings through October 2020 are cancelled but you must still use your voucher by October 2020! Duh!

 

Calls to NCl, our travel agent and customers relations yielded basically the same answer, NCL poilcy is not to extend expiration dates on cruise credits.  We get it, the cruise industry has lost billions of dollars and can't just give money away, but really?  This is how you are treating returning customers?  This is how you expect to regain your market shares?

 

We settled on comparable cruise where the cost was substantially cheaper than NCL (Royal Carribbean) if anyone needs to know, without vouchers or credits, and understand business is business so we understand your position NCL, but should we?

Edited October 1, 2020 by bjlaac
clarification

[pmatawan]

If I were a Class Action Lawyer........

[Summerstravel]

Can you schedule the cruise now for a later date using the FCC? 

[Trimone]

NCL have acted appallingly throughout this Covid-19 outbreak, refunds in 90 days? Practically forced to take FCC, continued taking bookings with clear knowledge the cruise wouldn’t take place.

They have acted like we call in the trade as one hit wonders, grabbing every penny and not looking for long term loyalty, a sales team that tells lies.

Not a good business plan for the long term, your best asset in any company is good staff, NCL don’t seem to have any! 

[bjlaac]

10 hours ago, Summerstravel said:

Can you schedule the cruise now for a later date using the FCC? 

 

The cruise has to sail before the credit expires which is basically October 2020

[Trimone]

7 minutes ago, bjlaac said:

 

The cruise has to sail before the credit expires which is basically October 2020

Disgraceful 

[sanger727]

I'm curious why you got FCC as for a price drop before final payment date in the first place. They should have simply subtracted that from your final payment amount. 

[JamieLogical]

At least you got your $550 FFC back, even if you can't use it. We are still fighting for $690 of FCC we had applied to our March 2020 sailing (which was obviously canceled) that still hasn't been credited back to us at all.

[seaman11]

I had a bad experience with ncl and missing fcc's , so i agree it left a bad taste in my mouth about NCL. 

[bjlaac]

7 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

At least you got your $550 FFC back, even if you can't use it. We are still fighting for $690 of FCC we had applied to our March 2020 sailing (which was obviously canceled) that still hasn't been credited back to us at all.

 

7 hours ago, sanger727 said:

I'm curious why you got FCC as for a price drop before final payment date in the first place. They should have simply subtracted that from your final payment amount. 

That's not the way it played out.  About a month before sailing there was a price drop which was well after final payment,  NCL offered several options including a future cruise credit of $550.  The only catch was it had to be used on a sailing that was no more than a year later. 

 

We got the credit in 2019 with the restriction we had to book a cruise that effectively sailed before the end of October 2020, which we did, only to have that cruise cancelled due to covid.  So we have a credit that we would have used but can't because nothing is sailing until at least November of 2020 after the credit expires.

[sammee]

I'm not new to cruising, but attempted NCL for the first time. The way they handled this crap show is ridiculous. I ended up going the dispute route. Still not finished with it. Received the notice that I won and get to keep the money after the dispute was appealed. Now I'm missing money in the account. Once my bank figures out their errors, I can put this thing to bed. (Just hope their error wasn't an approval, yikes)

[wurm914]

Ridiculous business decision on NCL's part.   Makes me worried whether NCL will still be around when Covid finally abates.

 

deb 😞

[Love my butler]

On 9/30/2020 at 6:07 PM, pmatawan said:

If I were a Class Action Lawyer........

You can't squeeze blood from a turnip.  NCL is currently a turnip and probably will be a dried up old turnip in a year or less.

[rachiem]

In the UK NCL won't offer a price drop. Our cruise in Mch (which got cancelled) went down by £1200 and they told me "tough" pay the full price or loose your deposit, which was £1700 and tied up in flights and hotels too. 

When the cruise was cancelled the week before sailing I was obviously very disappointed but have since rebooked with Celebrity for 2022 at a much cheaper price.

[ziggyuk]

4 hours ago, rachiem said:

In the UK NCL won't offer a price drop. Our cruise in Mch (which got cancelled) went down by £1200 and they told me "tough" pay the full price or loose your deposit, which was £1700 and tied up in flights and hotels too. 

When the cruise was cancelled the week before sailing I was obviously very disappointed but have since rebooked with Celebrity for 2022 at a much cheaper price.

 

You can price drop in exactly the say way as the US but in the UK, as you say we loose the deposit which is normally just £50pp, I did a price drop last year because the saving was much more than the £100 deposit (£50pp) we were loosing.

You had a huge deposit which is not normal, I guess it was due to the flights/hotels?

 

Normally they will only take £50 pp even if you have paid more, 2 cruse next at $500 for example. My last cruise has 2 cruise next attached and even though they cancelled the cruise, they still took £100 of the deposit which left one of my cruise next vouchers £100 short. 

Ridiculously when they finally refunded the £100 it was on a separate cruise next voucher and although you can normally only apply 2 vouchers, I now have three applied against my next cruise as it was the only way they could put things right and boy did it take an age to fix.

 

 

Edited October 2, 2020 by ziggyuk

[rachiem]

29 minutes ago, ziggyuk said:

 

You can price drop in exactly the say way as the US but in the UK, as you say we loose the deposit which is normally just £50pp, I did a price drop last year because the saving was much more than the £100 deposit (£50pp) we were loosing.

You had a huge deposit which is not normal, I guess it was due to the flights/hotels?

 

Normally they will only take £50 pp even if you have paid more, 2 cruse next at $500 for example. My last cruise has 2 cruise next attached and even though they cancelled the cruise, they still took £100 of the deposit which left one of my cruise next vouchers £100 short. 

Ridiculously when they finally refunded the £100 it was on a separate cruise next voucher and although you can normally only apply 2 vouchers, I now have three applied against my next cruise as it was the only way they could put things right and boy did it take an age to fix.

 

29 minutes ago, ziggyuk said:

Yes, I had a larger deposit as it was booked 18 months before  (they weren't offering the cheaper deposit at that time) the flights and hotels were paid upfront too. All through a UK tour operator (who I would never use again as they wanted to charge administration fees to change my room type or rebook)

I'll book directly next time

 

 

[tgloersen]

This is why I took 100% cash back, FCC's are nothing but trouble on a piece of paper.

[ABoatNerd]

18 hours ago, tgloersen said:

This is why I took 100% cash back, FCC's are nothing but trouble on a piece of paper.

 

Precisely. Cash is king and gives the consumer the power.

Many ruing the decision to take FCC's.

 

The cruise lines have a bad habit of not providing cash - issue aboard, you get a FCC.  Versus, hotels and other businesses which will give cash back or a free hotel night etc.

That is one of the reasons our household has moved away from cruising and into customized land vacations with guides and private car and driver. Simply a better experience and more realistic.

For example, we had a Globus tour scheduled for September, they were on the ball and the cash refund for the deposit was in my account in 41 days. There were regular email updates from the President of Globus, a class act for sure.

 

Compare that to the cruise lines, appalling customer service, outright lying and deliberately selling product they could not deliver.