Does X email you when refund or FCC are provided?

[mayleeman]

Title says it all. I am tired of checking my cc accts! (Talking about cancellation of booking, not cruise planner changes.)

Edited December 30, 2021 by mayleeman

[rpht]

We booked a cruise while onboard the Edge in late October. When we got home we decided to cancel it and book something else. We did that around the 10th of November and we got an email with the FCC from our non-refundable deposit around 12/16. Hope that helps----my TA had told us it would take a month or two to get it.

[davekathy]

1 hour ago, mayleeman said:

Title says it all. I am tired of checking my cc accts! (Talking about cancellation of booking, not cruise planner changes.)

We requested refunds only for our cancelled cruises and nothing from Celebrity when the refunds were credited back to my credit card. 

[Fouremco]

In my experience, refunds come in dribs and drabs and are never subject to email or other notification. FCCs, on the other hand, are sent by email. I track both using a spreadsheet, but there's no avoiding having to check your credit card account to verify arrival.

[PaperSniper4]

Forgetting about the FCC for now, how long is it taking for folks to see any CASH refunded to their credit card? I read on another forum that was happening much earlier than they saw the FCC. In my case I canceled a cruise very soon after the final payment, and will get a large amount refunded to my credit card. The FCC is only a few hundred dollars, and I am fine waiting for months to see that.....

 

....BUT, I'd sure like to see that refund to me credit card ASAP!😉

 

Doug

[Veinless]

5 minutes ago, PaperSniper4 said:

Forgetting about the FCC for now, how long is it taking for folks to see any CASH refunded to their credit card? I read on another forum that was happening much earlier than they saw the FCC. In my case I canceled a cruise very soon after the final payment, and will get a large amount refunded to my credit card. The FCC is only a few hundred dollars, and I am fine waiting for months to see that.....

 

....BUT, I'd sure like to see that refund to me credit card ASAP!😉

 

Doug

How did you manage to get a refund after final payment? We’re hoping to do the same. 

[PaperSniper4]

6 minutes ago, Veinless said:

How did you manage to get a refund after final payment? We’re hoping to do the same. 

I probably ought not to have posted my question here at Celebrity since I actually canceled a Princess cruise over the (2021) Christmas weekend. However, I was curious about Celebrity's cancellation procedures since I have a few Celebrity cruises on the calendar right now....never hurts to get educated!😉

 

With Princess, I had bought their Vacation Protection insurance this summer several months prior to the final payment being due. I did that to start the "60 day / pre-existing medical" clause. That insurance included a CFAR provision that would issue a FCC for any portion of our final payment that could not be refunded ($$$) to our credit card. The amount that would be refunded was subject to Princess' Standard Cancellation Penalties policy. I'm pretty sure Celebrity has similar insurance or the Book With Confidence program that work with cfar occurrences. The sooner I cancelled after making the final payment the more would be refunded to my credit card, and the less to a FCC.

 

So, to answer your question: I had insurance that included a CFAR option plus I canceled very early after making my final payment in order to maximize money back to my credit card, and minimize my FCC (which I may not even be able to use).

 

Doug

[davekathy]

1 hour ago, Veinless said:

How did you manage to get a refund after final payment? We’re hoping to do the same. 

We did when Celebrity canceled our March 2020 cruises. Once we were notified by Celebrity, I requested the cash refunds. Finial payment was made December 2019.  

[Jim_Iain]

I've never received an email advising that a refund had been issued.  I had to check my credit card until it showed.

[ISABELLA]

In 2020 it took almost 3 mo to get refund credited. 

 

[jg51]

18 hours ago, Veinless said:

How did you manage to get a refund after final payment? We’re hoping to do the same. 

 

17 hours ago, davekathy said:

We did when Celebrity canceled our March 2020 cruises. Once we were notified by Celebrity, I requested the cash refunds. Finial payment was made December 2019.  

.

Hello, "Veinless."

Besides davekathy's situation (in which "X" canceled a cruise), there is this possibility:

One could make "final payment" (payment in full of the balance due) at some point before -- even long before -- the cruise line's due date.  Then, if necessary, one could cancel one's booking (before that due date) and expect to receive a full refund.

.

[adolfo2]

Not only is there NO NOTIFICATION from Cel/Royal that a refund was posted BUT there is NO ACCOUNTING of the myriad of several, nonsensical transactions. 

[Banjo]

Back in March, 2020 I cancelled a trans-Atlantic cruise scheduled the following month in April. I booked it back in October 2019 on a Celebrity Cruise and transferred it to my TA. With the booking I was given cruise credit and used that to book some tours.

 

My credit card did not start to show credit till September, 2020 (after several calls to my TA) and came back piece-meal with credits on my credit card showing up on different days. No notification on what credit was for what.

 

I did put a deposit for a Asia cruise in July of 2020 for a April 2021 cruise. One day in October 2020 I see a full credit on my credit card with no email notification. Few days later I found out the cruise was cancelled.

 

I have not cruised since that October, 2019 cruise. I am looking at a 10 day Constellation Caribbean cruise for March (really aching for a cruise) but I don't plan to book it till the end of February to see how this whole Covid thing works out. 

 

 

[mayleeman]

On 12/31/2021 at 11:22 AM, Jim_Iain said:

I've never received an email advising that a refund had been issued.  I had to check my credit card until it showed.

Thanks, Jim. Did you ever have a refund issued where the credit card # had been changed in the interim? We had to have ours replaced by the credit card company due to some fraud. Same bank. X said no problem, but after 2 months we haven't even gotten our Cruise Planner purchases back.

[Moonarino]

13 hours ago, mayleeman said:

Thanks, Jim. Did you ever have a refund issued where the credit card # had been changed in the interim? We had to have ours replaced by the credit card company due to some fraud. Same bank. X said no problem, but after 2 months we haven't even gotten our Cruise Planner purchases back.

We cancelled our paid-in-full cruise on Apex about 3 months ago, and about a month later booked another with the FCCs. The FCCs were for fare; we were issued cash refunds for taxes and port fees. The credit card account we used for part of that was since closed. We were given NO option to change the account that the refund would go to. About 6 weeks after the refunds were supposedly issued, we're still waiting for the credit card company to send us a check for the amount that was refunded to a closed account. (Discover, FYI.)

 

Edit: And BTW, we hever once got any word at all from X about any of that.

Edited January 2, 2022 by Moonarino

[mayleeman]

@Moonarino Wow, that is a good example of how the cruise companies' accounting systems are so incredibly stupid! Thanks!

[Moonarino]

2 minutes ago, mayleeman said:

@Moonarino Wow, that is a good example of how the cruise companies' accounting systems are so incredibly stupid! Thanks!

And then of course, most credit card companies will send those checks out at their own leisure -- pocketing investment returns from our money at some point. Not that I'm cynical or anything.

[Arizona Wildcat]

1 hour ago, Moonarino said:

And then of course, most credit card companies will send those checks out at their own leisure -- pocketing investment returns from our money at some point. Not that I'm cynical or anything.

Let me defend the cruise line.  They legally can only refund a payment to the exact card you used to pay. 

For example my wife and I have Visa cards with different numbers.  If I want a refund on a purchase made with my card; a merchant is not supposed to use my wife's card #.

Your credit card company is then supposed to automatically transfer any credits - and are supposed to send you statements of any activity  - to your new account for at least 6-12 months.  (Do not have the exact duration handy).  Visa has handled this well twice when cards were changed. 

If you want a check from the credit card company they require at least a phone call and sometimes a written request.

[Moonarino]

24 minutes ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

... If you want a check from the credit card company they require at least a phone call and sometimes a written request.

Not in my experience, not all anyway. I've had refunds issued to closed accounts before and didn't have to ask for money that was owed to me.

[prish]

2 hours ago, Moonarino said:

We cancelled our paid-in-full cruise on Apex about 3 months ago, and about a month later booked another with the FCCs. The FCCs were for fare; we were issued cash refunds for taxes and port fees. The credit card account we used for part of that was since closed. We were given NO option to change the account that the refund would go to. About 6 weeks after the refunds were supposedly issued, we're still waiting for the credit card company to send us a check for the amount that was refunded to a closed account. (Discover, FYI.)

 

Edit: And BTW, we hever once got any word at all from X about any of that.

Moonarino, how long did it take for the FCC to be issued? We cancelled a fully paid Apex cruise a month ago and our TA said 4-5 weeks, nothing as yet. I want to call my big box TA this week to ask for an update.

 

Any way we can escalate this with our cc company? When our first Apex cruise in May 2020 was cancelled and refunds were taking forever, we escalated with them and got our money credited to our card within a week. But now it’s an FCC, so don’t know if this is even possible. Any advice will be highly appreciated, thanks 😊 

[Moonarino]

35 minutes ago, prish said:

Moonarino, how long did it take for the FCC to be issued? We cancelled a fully paid Apex cruise a month ago and our TA said 4-5 weeks, nothing as yet. I want to call my big box TA this week to ask for an update.

 

Any way we can escalate this with our cc company? When our first Apex cruise in May 2020 was cancelled and refunds were taking forever, we escalated with them and got our money credited to our card within a week. But now it’s an FCC, so don’t know if this is even possible. Any advice will be highly appreciated, thanks 😊 

It took a little over 5 weeks, from mid-October to late November. Holidays I'm sure will extend it. As for the cc company, if it's FCCs and not cash refund I'm sure they can't help at all.

 

I did get one email notification from Celebrity -- about an excursion cancellation. It was weird. They were informing me that one excursion had been cancelled (bought via OBC) but not other excursions or anything else. Why in the world they would send me a single email about one cancellation out of several reservations I'd made (dining, WiFi and 2-3 excursions) but then nothing else for anything else, I have no idea. Like I said, it was just weird.

[prish]

Thanks Moonarino, guess we just have to wait. Will call our TA in the next day or so to check what’s happening, though they probably won’t have much information. 
 

How long are the FCCs valid, I’ll have to book something sooner rather than later. Am hoping they’ll extend the validity, especially since there are so many cancellations due to Omicron. Ideally I’d prefer something for 2023, fingers crossed…