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Viking Future Cruise Voucher

Tidalmist

By Tidalmist,
in Viking Ocean

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Tidalmist

Tidalmist

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We just got off the Oceania Marina and found the required testing and plf completion daunting to say the least. We had a Viking trans Atlantic booked for March 2022. We decided to cancel and book another cruise which would occur in early 2023. We were advised that we would be required to pay a new deposit of 1 thousand and then we would receive credits from the cancelled cruise which could be applied to our new booking. Well, the email with the future cruise voucher arrived on Friday evening and stated that should we apply these credits then cancel the amounts could not be applied to another booking. So if something happened we would lose our money.

Had we known this we would just have cancelled and received our funds back less the 100 per person. I spoke to an agent this morning and a supervisor who were both of no assistance. It leaves a really bad taste about this cruise with Viking.

Has anyone out their had similar issues with Viking ?

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Heidi13

Heidi13

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1 hour ago, Tidalmist said:

We just got off the Oceania Marina and found the required testing and plf completion daunting to say the least. We had a Viking trans Atlantic booked for March 2022. We decided to cancel and book another cruise which would occur in early 2023. We were advised that we would be required to pay a new deposit of 1 thousand and then we would receive credits from the cancelled cruise which could be applied to our new booking. Well, the email with the future cruise voucher arrived on Friday evening and stated that should we apply these credits then cancel the amounts could not be applied to another booking. So if something happened we would lose our money.

Had we known this we would just have cancelled and received our funds back less the 100 per person. I spoke to an agent this morning and a supervisor who were both of no assistance. It leaves a really bad taste about this cruise with Viking.

Has anyone out their had similar issues with Viking ?

 

We cancelled the Dec 4th Hawaiian Sojurn back in October and had no surprises when our TA contacted Viking.

 

Prior to calling Viking, I had a lengthy call with our TA to review the latest guidelines around accepting FCV and how they can be used. We developed a list of questions to be asked, as the terms of the FCV's have changed since the beginning of COVID.

 

Your Travel Agent should have known this and advised you accordingly. If you didn't use a TA, you could easily have been an informed consumer, as the information is readily available on many of these discussion threads on Cruise Critic.

 

We applied the FCV's to a Trans-Atlantic prior to the World Cruise and accept the potential risks. If we cancel the cruise we may lose the value of the FCV. However, that is a risk we accepted when we did not lose money, in accordance with Viking's cancellation terms. Since that is a financial risk, we also purchase travel insurance.

 

If Viking cancels the cruise, the FCV's will be returned to our account, but if we cancel, depending on the reason, Viking may re-instate the vouchers, otherwise we initiate an insurance claim.

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CaroTravel

CaroTravel

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Posted

I am also concerned with how to protect our Travel Voucher from lost of funds, if we book and then we had to cancel or Viking canceled.  On the back of our voucher it states "the value of this Travel Voucher is not insurable" ...and am I to assume that is with Trip Mate (Vikings insurance). So when we book, we have better hope we can make the trip or we are out the the funds.  Any suggestions on which insurance company will insure you for the loss of your voucher if that was to happen?

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Tidalmist

Tidalmist

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18 hours ago, CaroTravel said:

I am also concerned with how to protect our Travel Voucher from lost of funds, if we book and then we had to cancel or Viking canceled.  On the back of our voucher it states "the value of this Travel Voucher is not insurable" ...and am I to assume that is with Trip Mate (Vikings insurance). So when we book, we have better hope we can make the trip or we are out the the funds.  Any suggestions on which insurance company will insure you for the loss of your voucher if that was to happen?

Sorry, can’t help you there, as I am a Canadian.

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  • 2 weeks later...
lovemycruisetoo

lovemycruisetoo

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We were on the Dec 4th Hawaiian Sojourn and when we decided not to do the Mexican Riviera I called Viking and instead of canceling, I just moved the money to an Amsterdam to Basel river cruise (with same booking number). Today with the lockdowns in The Netherlands and increasing Covid in Europe and final coming up February, I called Viking and just moved my same booking number to the Canadian Discovery in May 2023.  It was easy and no loss of money or FCC to deal with. If, when the time comes to pay final and worried, I’ll just call Viking. 

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KBs mum

KBs mum

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Posted (edited)
14 hours ago, lovemycruisetoo said:

We were on the Dec 4th Hawaiian Sojourn and when we decided not to do the Mexican Riviera I called Viking and instead of canceling, I just moved the money to an Amsterdam to Basel river cruise (with same booking number). Today with the lockdowns in The Netherlands and increasing Covid in Europe and final coming up February, I called Viking and just moved my same booking number to the Canadian Discovery in May 2023.  It was easy and no loss of money or FCC to deal with. If, when the time comes to pay final and worried, I’ll just call Viking. 

We did likewise, Australia - New Zealand cruise swapped to England-Norway. 

 

The deposit (25%) for Norway is less than the Australia cruise, Viking offered to give us a refund of the difference. We left it as was so we owe less final 100 days out

Edited by KBs mum
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jonthomas

jonthomas

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21 hours ago, lovemycruisetoo said:

We were on the Dec 4th Hawaiian Sojourn and when we decided not to do the Mexican Riviera I called Viking and instead of canceling, I just moved the money to an Amsterdam to Basel river cruise (with same booking number). Today with the lockdowns in The Netherlands and increasing Covid in Europe and final coming up February, I called Viking and just moved my same booking number to the Canadian Discovery in May 2023.  It was easy and no loss of money or FCC to deal with. If, when the time comes to pay final and worried, I’ll just call Viking. 

 

yes moving is an option but only before final pay...

 

we have just cancelled a cruise for Jan2, because of the dire warnings of our govt. will receive a FCV to use in two years, but only because we booked under a risk free guarantee, if the next cruise booked is not under the risk free guarantee, all will be lost...

 

so once I receive the FCV in a couple of weeks, I  will be booking a cruise for 2023 and applying it and hoping they have the promotion of the risk free guarantee....as who knows how long the war over covid will last....or better yet the war over how we adapt to covid....

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lovemycruisetoo

lovemycruisetoo

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20 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

However, if you have third-party insurance you should be clear on how many times you can move the insurance.  Each company and/or policy will have different rules about this. 

I called insurance agent and was told they might not move it a second time.  I would just chalk up the loss of the cost of only 157 since I only cover minimum for medical and then closer to final I up it. Surprisingly I received an email that they moved the dates with no problem. 
 

Thanks for the heads up Peregrina651😉

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lovemycruisetoo

lovemycruisetoo

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25 minutes ago, Squawkman said:

Risk free guarantees are no longer offered for cruises embarking in 2023 and 2024 - only those embarking in 2022?.

I originally booked in Aug 2021 and changed in November 2021 so looking at the RFG at the time of booking, there is no mention of sailings only in 2022 and not 2023/24.  I have attached it so please feel free to let me know if I’m missing something as we would be first timers on Viking. As I read it wouldn’t I just lose $100.00 pp under their standard cancellation policy canceled before final payment? TIA

05851992-01E7-4098-BC50-7C2614D3303A.png

Edited by lovemycruisetoo
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Heidi13

Heidi13

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This is the same RFG version we received for the Trans-Atlantic we booked. You must advise Viking at least 14-days before, if you wish to cancel. The FCV are valid for 2-years from date of issue, and can be used on any "New" booking.

 

If you cancelled in Jan 2022, you must book before Jan 2024, but at that time Viking will have itineraries posted for 2025, 2026 & possibly 2027.

 

You also have the option of Viking's standard cancellation policy terms & conditions. Assuming your cruise is not a Grand Voyage/World Cruise, you can cancel more than 120 days out, and get all monies returned except $100 pp.

 

If you opt for the RFG, you get all monies paid to Viking in FCV.

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Peregrina651 "Live from...." Rare

Peregrina651

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3 hours ago, lovemycruisetoo said:

We didn’t cancel or asked to get FCV or a refund.  All I did was just move our dates to a new itinerary as not to pay cancellation fees. 

 

I think what Sqawkman is saying that as of 12/1/21 that ability to just move a booking with no penalty is going away.  Something folks should be aware of so that they can clarify before trying to move a booking.  

 

I booked our next cruise today on board the Orion.  There's no Risk-Free Guarantee document attached to our guest invoice. 

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seaquay

seaquay

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We decided to cancel our upcoming cruise, too much uncertainty over the ports we would go to and if we would be allowed off in bubble only etc.  Also, with Omicron being so rampant we felt the chances of somebody on the ship coming down were covid was not a chance we were willing to take.  when you add  the equation both the UK and Europe possibly putting in further restrictions after Christmas the chances of having a stressful vacation started to look less likely.  Yes we could have waited until 14 days out to see if the cruise was cancelled but the lack of communication to UK passengers about what was happening with passengers who had to quarantine, shore excursions etc meant we have lost confidence in our cruise.

 

In this case insurance would not cover us.

 

Our options were only a FCC or to rebook, and having been advised about FCC by our Viking agent I posted this as I am sure there may be others in the same situation.

Edited by seaquay
typo
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KBs mum

KBs mum

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3 hours ago, seaquay said:

If you are into U.K. something to think about

 

I was told by my Viking agent that if I take a FCC it is not covered by ATOL, however if you transfer your booking to a new cruise you are.  

Not having anything else to do at the moment, I went on to the ATOL website, there Is a grey area around voucher coverage, screenshot below. 

If I'm reading it correctly, the value of an unused voucher (if issued because of Covid) is not covered, but if it is used to pay for a holiday, that holiday is covered. 

The grey area is, is a future cruise voucher actually refund credit note. 

 

Screenshot_20211223_132922_com.android.chrome.thumb.jpg.cc750457f57558710db492068ad8deaa.jpg

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Squawkman

Squawkman

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11 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

I think what Sqawkman is saying that as of 12/1/21 that ability to just move a booking with no penalty is going away.  Something folks should be aware of so that they can clarify before trying to move a booking.  

 

I booked our next cruise today on board the Orion.  There's no Risk-Free Guarantee document attached to our guest invoice. 

That is correct. With Viking's "Welcome Home" program, you can get $200 shipboard credit per person if you book within 14 days of disembarkation. We disembarked 11/19, but we waited until 12/3 to book as we wanted to see what the December additions/changes/new offers might be. Turns out there was nothing new to change our plan, so we would have had the RFG had we booked while it was still November. We're not concerned as it is a long time until we need tp pay the balance.

 

May I ask what the incentives are now to book on board?

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jonthomas

jonthomas

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I spoke to a Viking rep yesterday, there IS a RFG for the month of Dec, but he does not know about Jan.

We will be getting our voucher in a couple of weeks and will look for a RFG before we use it for another booking.

It seems we may have  a yearly covid surge like the one we are experiencing right now, it makes it perilous to book anything without the RFG. 

Our cruise was to be Jan 2. We cancelled. If we had not, not sure what would have happened. We did have an antigen test booked at the airport but because of the great surge, it now takes several days to get results. We would not have had them in time to board the plane. With the one day restriction for non US,  people are now losing their ability to get on a cruise and with that all the funds they invested.

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