Wanting to book, but apprehensive due to financials. Should I be?

[dcsam]

How financially secure is Crystal under new ownership?  We’d like to book a July, Alaska cruise, but I’m hesitant.  How confident do you long-time Crystal cruisers feel about their financial stability?  
Thank you. 
 

[Texas Tillie]

I suppose we don’t know what the owners are willing to endure, but they are long time travel industry experts, so I can’t imagine they went into the purchase and restart with rose colored glasses. Certainly wouldn’t be afraid to put my money on the line for service just 8 months away. My understanding, if you put it on a credit card, especially American Express, but also Visa and Master Card, and the vendor defaults, you are covered when it’s only 8 months out. 

[travelberlin]

1 hour ago, dcsam said:

How financially secure is Crystal under new ownership?  We’d like to book a July, Alaska cruise, but I’m hesitant.  How confident do you long-time Crystal cruisers feel about their financial stability?  
Thank you. 
 

We do not know how financially secure is Crystal under new ownership. It is also difficult to give you an advice if you should book or not for July next year. I can only tell you that I have some Crystal cruises booked even for 2025. Is there a risk for me? Yes, because two years is a long time to foreseen what could happen not only in terms of financial viability or the new company. I also have a cruise booked for July next year but with the Symphony in Europe. I guess that I have decided to trust the new owners in order to experience again Crystal cruises. 

 

Ivi

[Keith1010]

2 hours ago, dcsam said:

How financially secure is Crystal under new ownership?  We’d like to book a July, Alaska cruise, but I’m hesitant.  How confident do you long-time Crystal cruisers feel about their financial stability?  
Thank you. 
 

It is understandable that one would be a little gun shy given what happened with the parent company of Crystal.

 

All I can say is this is a different parent and one that is highly diversified. This is their website and I do like the fact that in addition to the owners vast experience in luxury travel that this company has holdings in a wide range of companies.

 

https://www.heritagemonaco.com

 

I have certainly learned a lot from the previous owner.  I use a credit card company that came through in the last two go arounds (last two because we had the 2020 temporary shutdown and money back on canceled cruises with certain Card Companies was a nightmare) and of course the bankruptcy of the former parent of Crystal.

 

I am careful about when making final payments. Should I need to cancel a cruise unlike before I will avoid rolling large sums of money from one cruise to another and I will make final payment closer to when it is due instead of very far in advance. In fact, there is no early payment discount plus reservations can only be made for on board services 60 days in advance and even final payments are not due as early as they used to have been.

 

So between all of this I feel very good.  Does that mean nothing can go wrong.  Well in life anything could go wrong but I feel good enough that I have a "boat-load" of cruises broked with Crystal in 2023, 2024 and 2025.

 

Now this is me. I do not give financial advice to others but just sharing that I feel as good as I could feel about this for me to make the bookings.

 

Keith

[History&Wine]

Someone who should know (Vince I think?) posted the limit for a credit card to refund a booking with a company that went under.  I forgot the figure, but I think (again, not sure) it was greater than eight months.  Check with your credit card company. 

[Texas Tillie]

20 minutes ago, History&Wine said:

Someone who should know (Vince I think?) posted the limit for a credit card to refund a booking with a company that went under.  I forgot the figure, but I think (again, not sure) it was greater than eight months.  Check with your credit card company. 

When I said 8 months, that’s the interval between now and the cruise the OP is thinking of booking. I believe most credit cards will cover 540 days, so basically almost a year and a half. 

[BWIVince]

1 hour ago, History&Wine said:

Someone who should know (Vince I think?) posted the limit for a credit card to refund a booking with a company that went under.  I forgot the figure, but I think (again, not sure) it was greater than eight months.  Check with your credit card company. 

 

100% -- check with your credit card company -- there are some subtle variances by issuer and market or product.  As a general rule of thumb though, the 540 days that Patty quoted is a great guideline.

 

As to the general topic -- I don't think A&K is any less financially stable than any other travel supplier, but you just never know what is going to happen.  I mean, Genting is hardly a poor company (yesterday, today or tomorrow), and look where we're at.

 

Since the pandemic started, I haven't booked any travel with ANY supplier -- regardless of how strong people perceive them to be -- outside of my chargeback protections from my credit card company. I also generally use my AmEx because they uniquely have control over both ends of the chargeback process (unlike Visa and Mastercard), making it cleaner and generally easier to dispute a charge.  

 

That way, I don't really have to worry about what happens to any cruise line or hotel, from a deposit security perspective.  Now if A&K was some fly-by-night upstart, I'd probably put them in a different risk profile, but they're pretty well established.  But again, so is Genting, which goes to my point about anything can happen.

 

Vince

[Stickman1990]

3 hours ago, History&Wine said:

Someone who should know (Vince I think?) posted the limit for a credit card to refund a booking with a company that went under.  I forgot the figure, but I think (again, not sure) it was greater than eight months.  Check with your credit card company. 

There are major differences in the way Amex handle chargebacks and the period they will go back versus Visa and Mastercard - Amex is far more generous and there is no 8 month rule with them 

 

Personally I’d use Amex whenever possible 

 

As for the discussion on financial stability of various companies - the simple answer is who really knows the funding and stability of private companies such as Heritage and A&K?
 

The one thing I’d warn of with any company is understand what company you’re dealing with - that’s where the liability ends - not with the personal wealth of shareholders or parent companies or those with holdings in other companies - that’s exactly why companies are set up to protect investors and unless you hold a parental guarantee (which are not granted likely and likely will never be granted to consumer clients) then your relationship is wholly and solely with the legal entity you contract with 

[Embowaf]

A big part of the issue with the previous situation was the combination of Crystal going under and the impact of the pandemic which caused a lot of people to cancel cruises and roll over credit to new bookings instead of getting a full refund, pushing the funds outside of the chargeback window for most people. We have all learned... do not do this.

That perfect storm is unlikely to happen again any time soon. But your financial decisions are your own and there's always going to be some level of risk here (or elsewhere).

[Host Jazzbeau]

In the luxury cruising context, the question should be: compared to what?  Seabourn, shouldering its part of the vast CCL debt?  Silversea, shouldering its part of the vast RCG debt?  Regent, shouldering its part of the vast NCL debt?  Because of the way A&K obtained Crystal, it is actually one of the financially soundest luxury cruise lines going.