Converting FCC to cash refund

[firstimerhaven]

We have a FCC from a March 2020 cruise that got cancelled.  Because we cancelled prior to NCL cancelling, we were only offered a FCC, not a refund, so we took that, but our FCC expires this year and we still don't feel comfortable going, especially with all the recent cancellations.  We recently found out that NCL has a new policy that may allow us to convert the FCC to a cash refund so we filled out the form.  Today I got an email saying that the request is "preliminarily approved" but still needs to go through one more layer of approvals.  So my question is, has anyone done this and not gotten the final approval?  If the final approval doesn't come in the next 10 days, I will need to book a new cruise for 2022 or lose the FCC. 

[onegunro]

Following! I've done the same and am waiting to hear from NCL whether I'm accepted or not. I would love to hear if anyone has been successful or not doing this.

[Tom O]

I did the same thing after 3 cruises canceled. I had to call cancel the cruise for this year it took them some time to change fcc and discounts back to dollar amount in my account. Filed claim receive email it was going for final approve never heard back called couple times spoke to a supervisor who assured me there would not be any problem getting a full refund.took over 90 days for it to show up on my credit card statement. Good luck

[CruisingBliss13]

I’m in the same situation. Received the initial letter saying I preliminarily meet the refund criteria.  I have no idea when the final review might happen, and am nervous about the FCC expiration at the end of January.  I’m ok with the 90 days for refund, (what’s 90 more days after 2 years!) but just want to know now that it’s all approved.  

[bigrednole]

I am just thinking fiscally here and know they made this announcement recently. I think they will be reviewing, determine how many people are seeking it, and how it will affect the quarter's financial targets. I think most will get approved but actual refunds occur when cash flow is viable.

[rachiem]

On 1/21/2022 at 5:51 PM, firstimerhaven said:

We have a FCC from a March 2020 cruise that got cancelled.  Because we cancelled prior to NCL cancelling, we were only offered a FCC, not a refund, so we took that, but our FCC expires this year and we still don't feel comfortable going, especially with all the recent cancellations.  We recently found out that NCL has a new policy that may allow us to convert the FCC to a cash refund so we filled out the form.  Today I got an email saying that the request is "preliminarily approved" but still needs to go through one more layer of approvals.  So my question is, has anyone done this and not gotten the final approval?  If the final approval doesn't come in the next 10 days, I will need to book a new cruise for 2022 or lose the FCC. 

Do you have a link to this form? I suppose I'd need to go back to my TA to process it.

I didn't know you could do this and was about to wave goodbye to £200

[nalrudaini]

That's interesting.  I was booked on an August 2020 sailing, that I cancelled just before final payment (because at that time it was still on).  I received FCC, that was set to expire on 31 December 2021.  I contacted NCL (myself and through my TA) asking for a refund and was shot down.  Then I asked for an extension to my FCC, and was told no.

 

I ended up making a reservation for August of this year, which I have a slim chance of making.  I figured that I would use the FCC before expiration, and figure out what to do with it later.

[TeresaJ]

We were successful in converting our FCC to a cash refund. I was also told we were prelimarily approved right away but had to wait it out for about 2 5 months from initial request until our credit card was refunded.

 

We were on a March 2020 cruise as well and finally glad to have our money back after almost 2 years of NCL holding onto it.

 

Initially I was worried about the expiration date of using the FCC and they told me if the refund request is not approved, we would have to submit something to get our FCC back. Happy it all turned out!

 

Good luck!

[BEACHBARB]

7 hours ago, rachiem said:

Do you have a link to this form? I suppose I'd need to go back to my TA to process it.

I didn't know you could do this and was about to wave goodbye to £200

Following - is it just the normal "contact us" or a special form??  Thanks.

[CruisingBliss13]

It’s the Case submission link as mentioned on this page: 

 

https://www.ncl.com/ca/en/cruise-faq/future-cruise-credit-refund-requests

 

It also explains the criteria that must be met in order to qualify. 

[CruisingBliss13]

7 hours ago, TeresaJ said:

We were successful in converting our FCC to a cash refund. I was also told we were prelimarily approved right away but had to wait it out for about 2 5 months from initial request until our credit card was refunded.

 

We were on a March 2020 cruise as well and finally glad to have our money back after almost 2 years of NCL holding onto it.

 

Initially I was worried about the expiration date of using the FCC and they told me if the refund request is not approved, we would have to submit something to get our FCC back. Happy it all turned out!

 

Good luck!

This is good to hear - I am not sure if I’ll get final approval before Jan 31st but they did say that now that I have the initial approval I shouldn’t use the FCC or it will mess it up (and they acknowledged that my refund request was prior to the expiry of the FCC).  

[BulldustHHH]

I wasn't even aware NCL was offering a refund for FCC. Was this even in an email?

 

Anywho, as I have a partial usage of the FCC on a 28 April 2022 booking, I would have to cancel that and then apply for a refund. Then receive a response before next week's FCC drop dead date. Meanwhile living in Western Australia I have no idea when I can travel and actually get back into the state... needless to say I have no control over government travel policy.

 

I was trying to talk through my options on the phone but the NCL front line staffer didn't seem overly knowledgeable (Sydney).

 

I guess my best option now is to apply all the credit either to the 28 April cruise or a later one, and then cancel if I can't (or don't want to) go, in exchange for a refreshed FCC... I assume they wouldn't cancel FCC that would've expired, had it not been allocated?

 

I amnot talking about small potatoes here, as this was a full cruise fare from April 2020 on the Bliss.

[BulldustHHH]

A manager called me back and stated that applying the FCC to a future cruise and then cancelling (for whatever reason, other than NCL cancelling) would make me lose the FCC. So I immediately cancelled the 28 April booking and am awaiting confirmation of the FCC refund to be able to apply for the full FCC for cash refund.

 

Hope I sleep for the next couple days while NCL holds over seven grand (Aussie pesos, but still) in limbo.

 

Personally, I find the way NCL has handled the FCC situation appalling, especially for Aussies who had no option to sail at all for almost two years now.

Edited January 24, 2022 by BulldustHHH

[CruisingBliss13]

My travel agent advised me that we were eligible to request a refund.  We held off at first because I really did want to cruise this year - but it’s just so uncertain, so I told her I’d like to request the refund.  I had to do it myself but she explained it to me.  I never received an email from NCL about it, but that may be because I booked with the TA.  
 

fyi - we cancelled Dec 28, had FCC back in accounts Dec 31st and submitted request. Heard back Jan 12th re preliminary approval.  
 

good luck! 

[whitingvo]

How long after you submitted your request did you get a response from NCL.  I submitted last week and got an email the next day that they received my request and will respond within 30 days. I've waited 2 years, what's another 30 days....but still. 

[TeresaJ]

On 1/24/2022 at 12:16 AM, BulldustHHH said:

I wasn't even aware NCL was offering a refund for FCC. Was this even in an email?

 

I found it buried on their website last fall. Thought about it for awhile then submitted my request early November. They definitely were not advertising this at all.

 

Good luck!

[BulldustHHH]

On 1/25/2022 at 11:47 AM, CruisingBliss13 said:

 I never received an email from NCL about it, but that may be because I booked with the TA.

It seems no one got an email about it. I can only imagine the outcry when many cruisers find their hard earned has been stolen by NCL. And no, I don't think that terminology is overly harsh. In Australia, especially Western Australia, we didn't really have any way to travel out of the country and be confident of being able return home for a couple of years. And NCL has no cruises here until the end of 2022 at the earliest. So yes, taking our money at this point, is fairly described as theft. It would certainly not fly under Australian Consumer laws.

Edited January 27, 2022 by BulldustHHH

[Math teacher]

Wish there would have been an email regarding this option. I am only finding out about it today....on the last available booking day. Humpf. We have a lot of $ tied up with them....and there is an even longer story about them charging us double and the headache and 6 months it took to straighten that out!....(although, never 100% fixed!) We went with booking the last possible cruise in 22 to Australia....hoping it all works out in the end......but would rather have had our money back for now.

[BulldustHHH]

10 hours ago, Math teacher said:

We went with booking the last possible cruise in 22 to Australia

Ballsy move. Australia will probably one of the last countries to allow cruising again. End of 2022 should be reasonably safe though. The cruise season doesn't traditionally start until later in the year (being summer down here), so hopefully they get things sorted in the middle of the year.

[BulldustHHH]

Got the refund request in... added wrinkle is the fact that the original credit card no longer exists, as I changed to another one with the same bank. The bank sent me an official letter to attach to the refund request stating the account change ... provided it in a few hours *shock* I know right, good service from a bank. Will wonders never cease? Got the auto-reply from NCL stating the request has been received. Now to play the waiting game.

[whitingvo]

3 hours ago, BulldustHHH said:

Got the refund request in... added wrinkle is the fact that the original credit card no longer exists, as I changed to another one with the same bank. The bank sent me an official letter to attach to the refund request stating the account change ... provided it in a few hours *shock* I know right, good service from a bank. Will wonders never cease? Got the auto-reply from NCL stating the request has been received. Now to play the waiting game.

Are you currently booked on a cruise?  Will be interesting to see how they handle since FCCs have to be booked by today (1/31).  I'm not big on dumping on how a company handles a unique/impossible situation, but NCL has not handled this well IMHO.  Communication has been lacking. 

[BulldustHHH]

NCL apparently has seen the error of their ways and sent out a generic letter extending the FCC to 31/12/2022. This is the text:

 

Dear Valued Guest,
Great news! We've extended your Future Cruise Credit expiration date from January 31, 2022 to
December 31, 2022 - giving you an extra 11 months! Redeem your credit today and set sail on the
vacation of a lifetime. As a highly-valued guest of Norwegian, we want to be sure that you take full
advantage of all the valuable offers available to you.
With amazing deals on unforgettable vacations all over the world, there's never been a better time to
book a cruise with Norwegian.
Then some blurb about redeeming your FCC.

[whitingvo]

9 hours ago, BulldustHHH said:

NCL apparently has seen the error of their ways and sent out a generic letter extending the FCC to 31/12/2022. This is the text:

 

Dear Valued Guest,
Great news! We've extended your Future Cruise Credit expiration date from January 31, 2022 to
December 31, 2022 - giving you an extra 11 months! Redeem your credit today and set sail on the
vacation of a lifetime. As a highly-valued guest of Norwegian, we want to be sure that you take full
advantage of all the valuable offers available to you.
With amazing deals on unforgettable vacations all over the world, there's never been a better time to
book a cruise with Norwegian.
Then some blurb about redeeming your FCC.

Yeah, got this as well.  At this point, 2 years later, just not interested.  Still awaiting any response on the FCC refund request.  I get that they probably have a lot of these coming in, but the fact that you can't call to check on the status is a bit infuriating. 

[BulldustHHH]

I got the preliminary approval email for refund a couple days back, so hopefully it is the works. No doubt it will be a month or two before it is returned. Hopefully they paid attention to my comments regarding changed credit card accounts (same bank) along with the official letter from my bank stating the same.

[whitingvo]

9 hours ago, BulldustHHH said:

I got the preliminary approval email for refund a couple days back, so hopefully it is the works. No doubt it will be a month or two before it is returned. Hopefully they paid attention to my comments regarding changed credit card accounts (same bank) along with the official letter from my bank stating the same.

May I ask how long you waited for the approval email after you submitted your request?