Current cancellations- time to get a refund in this current Covid world

[A Tucson Guy]

I did a search for current posts regards the time to get your refund after you cancel and could not find any current posts. We canceled a week ago our Dubai to Mubai cruise and it was quite a task to get SS to agree with their own "Cruise with Confidence" policy. They finally agreed and we are supposed to get a refund minus $200 admin fee. In the last couple of months has anybody canceled and received their refund. I am looking for a time frame in the current world of how long it took. I want to book another cruise next year but I don't want to do anything until I get my money back.

Thanks.

[carefreecruise]

We canceled three and I believe they reFunded within their stated timeframe of 90 days. I think one took two additional weeks but all was refunded as per their terms and conditions. 

[A Tucson Guy]

Thanks.

[Gourmet Gal]

90 Days!!!  I canceled a cruise last year before SS cancelled the cruise because of Covid and received my refund in less than one week.

[Observer]

I cancelled several months ago and the refund came within two or three weeks.

[Capri73]

Tucson Guy. We just cancelled a cruise but rebooked for next year.We have a large credit that only goes into next summer.

FYI  The cancellation goes from $200  for the trip booked to $250 pp .Yes you can apply it to another trip but do you want another $500 in reserve? Do not know if this has an expiration time but it probably does.

Tauck has been the worse to work with.We have a credit with them that they refuse to refund.They are holding our money now since 2019 when we booked the trip.I will never use them again.  We  will try and use our credit  before it expires next year..We had travel insurance but would not honor Covid.

I am just telling people this so they know to read all the fine print when booking in the future.

Hope this is helpful.

[A Tucson Guy]

1 hour ago, Capri73 said:

Tucson Guy. We just cancelled a cruise but rebooked for next year.We have a large credit that only goes into next summer.

FYI  The cancellation goes from $200  for the trip booked to $250 pp .Yes you can apply it to another trip but do you want another $500 in reserve? Do not know if this has an expiration time but it probably does.

Tauck has been the worse to work with.We have a credit with them that they refuse to refund.They are holding our money now since 2019 when we booked the trip.I will never use them again.  We  will try and use our credit  before it expires next year..We had travel insurance but would not honor Covid.

I am just telling people this so they know to read all the fine print when booking in the future.

Hope this is helpful.

Gracias!!

[5waldos]

We are now on week 9 waiting for a refund. And because we asked about dropping the included airfare our cancellation fee went from $200 to $250 pp. I was not pleased as the information we got was incorrect. Yes we have a $500 credit but after the major problems we had getting anything like accurate information it is unlikely that we will be booking again. 

[RJ2002]

Here is an interesting comparison.

 

We received notice from Silversea on 23 September that they were cancelling our February 2022 Moon cruise, and the deposit was refunded to our credit card just 4 days later.

 

We voluntarily cancelled our November 2021 Shadow cruise on 3 September, and are still waiting on that refund.

[Stumblefoot]

3 hours ago, RJ2002 said:

We received notice from Silversea on 23 September that they were cancelling our February 2022 Moon cruise, and the deposit was refunded to our credit card just 4 days later.

I think we were scheduled to be on the same voyage as you.  Wouldn’t you know it, we have yet to receive the FCC.  Go figure.

[ronrick1943]

We had to cancel a cruise on Silversea, paid a deposit—they held then$250.00pp (as a credit) and refunded the deposit within 3 days.

[janecambridge]

Cruise cancelled on September 14th.
Officially told on September 30th, full refund within 45 days. .watch this space. 

[A Tucson Guy]

I canceled my Dubai to Mumbai- Nov. cruise 9-15-21. Refund was confirmed by SS in an email. No refund yet. I am within my 120 day credit card dispute period. I am waiting until 10-31-21 and if no refund, I will just dispute it with the credit card company. It is time to give me my money back. SSD should be able to refund with in 30 days!!

[crusinbanjo]

22 hours ago, A Tucson Guy said:

I canceled my Dubai to Mumbai- Nov. cruise 9-15-21. Refund was confirmed by SS in an email. No refund yet. I am within my 120 day credit card dispute period. I am waiting until 10-31-21 and if no refund, I will just dispute it with the credit card company. It is time to give me my money back. SSD should be able to refund with in 30 days!!

If you are not getting anywhere with the cruise lines or air carriers that is the right move.  Although the CC companies have made it more difficult to dispute, they do get results.  And, BTW, chargebacks from CC companies reflect badly on any company, so they are more inclined to settle with you before getting a chargeback.

[5waldos]

Ah- a call and then email to the proper person at Silversea (the supervisor of the agent I had problems with) got me an immediate refund on the remaining deposit and a reversal of the altered cancellation policy. My faith in Silversea has been somewhat restored! 

[Emtbsam]

It took two months for us to get a full refund on a cruise where Silversea gave passengers the option to cancel due to a major itinerary change.  Our TA had to go to bat for us to move it along.  I wish I could say that Amex handled sending us the money in a timely manner, but that is a whole other story.

[A Tucson Guy]

I have asked my TA to bug SS and still no answer or refund. My cut off is 11-1-21 to dispute the charge so I hope SS will do the right thing. Maybe I should request an extra 10% for not meeting my deadline, just like SS will not give you the 10% early booking if you don't meet their deadline. What's fair is fair!!

[A Tucson Guy]

I just received my $24K back for the cancelled Nov. 17 cruise. It took five weeks and I find that more than acceptable.

[ronrick1943]

In reality Covid is becoming an excuse——not just in the cruise industry, but all over.  If they issue a charge your credit card in a day our so—they can give a credit in the same amount of time.

Edited October 25, 2021 by ronrick1943

[cruiseej]

4 hours ago, ronrick1943 said:

If they issue a charge your credit card in a day our so—they can give a credit in the same amount of time.

 

No, I think that's an incorrect assertion. Refunds are much more complicated. Not the specific issuance of a credit to a credit card account, but the calculations and checks of all the factors involved. Some cruise bookings may have one or more future cruise credits, one or more future cruise deposits, multiple partial payments on multiple credit cards, airline tickets, land hotel reservations, and more -- and this all has to be backed out precisely where it came from in order to refund the correct cash to the correct place. There are probably multiple levels of checks to make sure each refund component is correctly calculated, and all credits are properly reversed. While some bookings might be quite simple, others are not, and they probably all go through the same procedure for them to assure accuracy. This is not rocket science, and it shouldn't take months, but it is more complicated than just clicking a button to refund a payment. Also consider that when they cancel all the cruises for a ship for 4-6 months, they are generating thousands of cancellations at a time; in the past, they probably processed only a few dozen cancellations per week.

[ronrick1943]

Of course everyone is entitled to their opinion, as I am—-with today’s technology it’s pretty simple to figure FF, cash, air and hotels.  Yes with many cancellations it does take extra time, but not 6 months.  Just my opinion.

[Lois R]

14 hours ago, ronrick1943 said:

In reality Covid is becoming an excuse——not just in the cruise industry, but all over.  If they issue a charge your credit card in a day our so—they can give a credit in the same amount of time.

What cruiseej said.......I echo it......

 

Even in "normal times", credits always take longer than charges.  Not saying it is fair or right, but I worked in accounts receivable for many years......I took your $$$ and posted payments on a regular basis.  I also issued credits back to customers as well.  Don't ask all those little details but credits always took more time....refunds are in that category.....no, it didn't take 6 months but sometimes the credit card company just took their sweet time......I didn't do the credit card portion myself. It is a server......so credits are definitely more detailed than charges.

[ronrick1943]

I agree, but 6 months—-never and you wouldn’t stand for it if a store took that long to refund.  Saying that, I canceled a SS cruise a few weeks ago—paid deposit only, once canceled I got the credit on my card from SS in 4 days.  Was I surprise - yes I was but it shows no need for months.

[cruiseej]

2 hours ago, ronrick1943 said:

Yes with many cancellations it does take extra time, but not 6 months.

 

Sorry, did I miss something? Where did 6 months come into this discussion? I would agree, and I think everyone would agree, that 6 months is way too long for a refund. But even at the start of the pandemic when the cruise lines were in full scramble mode, it wasn't taking 6 months.

 

You wrote above: "If they issue a charge your credit card in a day our so—they can give a credit in the same amount of time." That was the statement I was disagreeing with. Expecting them to process refunds in "a day or so" isn't generally realistic, for the reasons I stated above. But within 3-5 weeks is a timeframe I think is reasonable, and from most reports, it seems they generally fall in to that range.  

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

4 hours ago, Lois R said:

What cruiseej said.......I echo it......

 

Even in "normal times", credits always take longer than charges.  Not saying it is fair or right, but I worked in accounts receivable for many years......I took your $$$ and posted payments on a regular basis.  I also issued credits back to customers as well.  Don't ask all those little details but credits always took more time....refunds are in that category.....no, it didn't take 6 months but sometimes the credit card company just took their sweet time......I didn't do the credit card portion myself. It is a server......so credits are definitely more detailed than charges.

When I was CFO, my staff could take payments on their own.  But I had to sign off on every disbursement.

We were small enough that there was just the Bursar, the Business Manager and me.  But a large corporation must have many more layers of approval.  That's just 'best practices.'