Jandaville

The status of our 3 cancelled 2020 cruises:

1. Fully paid May cruise booked through Princess treated as a 75% cancellation fee with 25% refunded in cash and the cancellation fee showing as FCCs but we asked for cash on 31 March.
2. Deposit paid only July cruise booked through Princess treated as 10% cancellation fee with 5% refunded in cash and the other 5% not showing up anywhere but we want cash.
3. Deposit paid only September booked through TA has been fully refund - the last cruise we booked, the last cancelled and the scheduled departure date 2 weeks away.

How is it possible to get a response to an email from Princess? In the past 6 months I have had only 1 response to about a dozen emails and that was to say they had forwarded my request onto someone (who never responded). It just seems to be a black hole when asking for any assistance via an email to Princess.

In some previous posts I have read that emailing the President Jan Swartz works - does it? I haven't tried that yet but surely there is someone at Princess who cares.

1 hour ago, badgerbill said:

Alas we got the FCC's instead of what we requested too....blah........I let our TA consultant know to see if she can come up with a solution other than spending what will feel like the rest of my life on hold in queue with Princess Australia.  If I come up with any solution will post back here.   cheers Shiona

Today I did finally get through to an interested person at Princess who suggested sending an email to solutions@princess.com.au which I will do over the weekend. It will be interesting to see if I get a reply or just the usual stuff like I received from the customer relations email I sent in June namely

Hello and thank you for your email to the Princess Cruises Customer Relations Department. Due to the current unprecedented and evolving worldwide situation, we are experiencing a higher than normal volume. 

Please accept this response as an acknowledgement and confirmation that your email has been received. It will be reviewed and responded to in the order in which it was received.  Please note that we are unable to process postal communications at this time. 

For those inquiring about voyage refunds, they are being handled manually and accurately in sailing date order priority.  We are committed to providing our guests with the highest level of service.

 We appreciate your patience and look forward to serving you in the near future. 

The person I talked to did say that they have now process over 90% of the refunds so that's positive and hopefully Princess can devote some time now to resolving the issues

1 hour ago, azbirdmom said:

Interesting that the email says that the FCCs can be used "...on a voyage through May 2022" yet the FCCs in the personalizer are labled as "Book by 05/01/22 and sail by 05/01/22".  Whoops.

Another mixed message.

We got some FCCs even although we asked for cash refunds (and got an email reply from them confirming it ). This is my next battle with Princess although it is very hard to find someone at Princess Australia who cares but guess we have a year or two to engage with them. We are both in our 70's and in the COVID high risk group. We are not sure when our next cruise may be and would appreciate not being tied to an FCC expiry date.

19 hours ago, SFERgirl said:

YES - Similar position - confirmed in writing my request for refund (not FCC)  on 20th June.... but today received FCC in Our Princess accounts !!!!! Just two days ago I enlisted(Australian)  bank for chargeback on Credit Card under "Merchant promised refund but not received" clause. I'm going to let them sort it out. As an aside, I was thankful to learn that even though it had been about 120 days since the credit card charge, they would take on the case., had always thought it needed to be within about 60 (but perhaps that is for the "Goods not received" category). Our cruise was to be May 2020, which Princess cancelled end of March, if that helps the timeline for those of you still waiting.

 

Unfortunately I paid for the full fare via a bank transfer otherwise I would have filed a charge back like you have done. Never again it will always be paid using the credit card even with the 1.1% service fee.

Does anyone know if to get a cash refund on a customer cancelled cruise booking that was done before Princess officially cancelled the cruise that Princess first raises a FCC then pays it from there.

The FCCs they have given us do not even include the extra 25% that they were promised not that we want any FCCs.

Today (26th July) we had FCCs for our May cancelled cruise on both our Captain Circle accounts even though we asked for a full cash refund. Our full cash refund option was confirmed (we have the March 31st automatic confirmation email) with their customer support line on Friday (24th July) and on a previous phone call in June. On our Friday phone call we were told she had checked and that we will probably need to wait for another 2 weeks.

Not sure that there is anyone at Princess that knows how their "system" works and there doesn't seem to be anyone you can ask. Guess will just wait another fortnight and see what happens - nothing I suspect!

It's great to be a Princess Elite customer - such service!

Our TA informed us yesterday that they have our refunded deposit for the Sep 18th Around Australia cruise. We booked this cruise in Feb using a local TA as we could not get through to Princess on their website or using the cruise holiday planner. Although the cruise is not "officially" cancelled by Princess and still shows as one of the 38 cruises they are selling in the Australia/NZ region until the end of 2020. We asked the TA to cancel in mid June before the final payment was due as we don't believe that this cruise or any of the other 37 cruises will happen this year. The TA has been brilliant and we will definitely use her again.

Still waiting on resolution for our partially refunded May 12th Half World cruise (full amount paid) and anything on our July 15th Around UK cruise (only deposit paid) from Princess but we do now realise that the order of the Princess refund process seems haphazard at best.

Maybe next week but we remain ever hopeful and patient.

11 hours ago, JerrySueW said:

We cancelled an April cruise on March 11 - the day before Princess cancelled. At that time, the cancellation fee (50%) was applied to a future cruise per a Princess offer. We subsequently requested Option 2 and when the refund was finally processed (June 18), it did not include the 50% which had been previously applied as FCC. (The 25% FCC for Option 2 had already been added to our account.) So, TA called and was told that Princess would correct the error and we should receive the refund in 7-14 days because "they are all caught up on the refunds." Coming up on day 14 this week. You might want to call and see if they same thing happened on your account.

Thanks for your comments and your situation sounds very similar to ours. I will wait for 14 days and see what happens before I try to get someone at Princess who is willing to investigate. We do have 2 more cancelled cruises for Princess to process so are in for a long haul but luckily these cruises only have deposits paid and not the full amount.

In the meantime I'm happy to prune the roses and get some spring bulbs planted and try to not think of Princess in our winter sunshine.

2 hours ago, Aulanis said:

 

Tricky times that 1 cancellaton period, but I am not sure what you are saying.

You cancelled on the 9th  when cancellation fees would be 50% ? YES

Cruise planner actually cancelled on  13th  which was the date Princess cancelled in 1st phase?  when you could  maybe have had  a full cash refund. CORRECT

However you asked for it to be backdated to 9th   which they did  and that would mean you would have got 50% cash  only.

They then introduced a "compassionate" refund  stage which  would have given  50% cash plus 50%   as FCC.    If it was  not rolled back you would have got  25% cash & 75% FCC which it looks like you have got.

Maybe try and contact others on your cruise and see what they got if they didnt cancel early and what they were offered  when  pause 1 kicked in.

Also check again with Princess as the rep on the phone may not be aware the full details of your case and may only be going off  what would happen in a normal   phase 1 cancellation when Princess cancelled first.

On 12 March Princess issued the 60 Day Pause which ran to the day before our 12May cruise was due to start

60 Day Pause.pdf

Then on 31 March they officially cancelled our 12 May cruise and offered the full refund which the CHP said we would be entitled to after we filled out their website form and selected option 2.

Unfortunately trying to contact anyone at Princess who can help is very difficult but will persist.

Finally received something from Princess after 115 days. It was not what we expected (A$37K) but a start (A$11K). It was paid by cheque drawn on an Australian bank by Carnival Australia on 2 July and not credited to our bank account as originally advised.

The amount refunded is the amount expected if Princess withhold a 75% cancellation fee at the time that our incompetent Princess cruise holiday planner cancelled the booking (13 March). We did ask for the cancellation on 9 March as the 75% cancellation fee kicked in on 10 March and he assured us that it was being backdated. On 31 March we did fill out the online form to request a full cash refund (Option 2) on our cruise holiday planner's instructions after Princess formally cancelled our cruise and that was automatically acknowledged. In a call to Princess last week it was acknowledged that we asked for the full cash refund.

So not sure where we stand but definitely don't want any FCCs. We are both in our 70s and whilst we would like to cruise again we want to see how the cruise industry reacts in the future and would like the time to consider future travel plans.

So we will continue to be patient but it looks like we are in the land of Princess frustration for a while longer, but maybe resolution next week - ever hopeful

4 hours ago, Gordoncruises said:

Me neither, i was book ed on that too.

Don't feel too bad as there are plenty of cruisers who don't seem to have received refunds going back to March. We are waiting on refunds for May 12th and July 15th cruises both cancelled in March (and since cancelled officially by Princess) and they have A$40K of our money. It does seem they are refunding smaller amounts for much later cruises and FCCs (they are just IOUs and will only cost them if you use them by their time frame).

Personally have lost faith in Princess to give any honesty in how refunds are processed. But ever hopeful and check my bank accounts every day hoping to be surprised.

1 hour ago, Pea said:

Whoo Hoo!  We received our entire refund yesterday.  Cruise, taxes, pre-paid gratuities and EZ Air.  Took exactly 8 weeks.  So relieved!  It does seem like things are moving much quicker now.  Good luck everyone!

This was for the July 15th REGAL Princess British Isles cruise.  

We cancelled that cruise too so gives some hope that our refund may be soon but Princess do seem to have problems with communications to Australia and FX rates it would seem. Our 12th May cancelled cruise is still in limbo (wait time now 119 days and disembarkation date was today) and our third cancelled cruise is still "officially" leaving Sydney on Sep 18th.

Now who believes Princess are processing cruise refunds in sailing departure date order?

Decided to make my second call in 118 days since our first cancellation to Princess Australia. The person was unable to give me a date for our refunds but did say that refund processing had picked up recently. She was able to confirm the amounts for the two cancelled bookings and that they were flagged for a full refund. This was a lot more than my mid May call generated when I was told they knew nothing.

So hopefully there is an end to the refund frustration that we have been experiencing. Whilst we have enjoyed our cruising over the last 20 years the jury is out on whether we will ever do another cruise. Needless to say the cruise lines will have to up their game!

31 minutes ago, mackley1956 said:

Lots of discussion about refunds on this thread -- I'll add my two cents worth. We were on the Sea Princess on the "Around Australia" cruise that was terminated after a few days at sea (left Sydney March 10, cancelled around March 15). I have called Princess several times checking on the status and have received virtually no useful information from the people answering the phone. My sense is that, through no fault of their own, the people manning the phones are pretty much in the dark and don't have enough information/tools to help people calling about this. I've been pretty patient up to now, but am reaching the end of my rope. To date we have received no cash refunds of any kind, but we do now have FCCs (Future Cruise Credits), which is not what we asked for. Yesterday we got an email (someone earlier quoted the same one) with this quote:

 

"We don’t currently have a record of your preference, so we’ve gone ahead and credited your My Princess account with the higher value FCC.

 

If anytime you decide you would prefer the refund plus the lower value FCC, simply contact our customer service team at 1-800-PRINCESS and they will be happy to help arrange that."

 

This is a flat out lie -- we filled out their form online (twice) stating that we preferred the cash refund. I called 1-800-PRINCESS again today and didn't get a whole lot of useful information. The agent did gather some more information from me and sent an email to whichever department is handling this -- I'm not confident anything will happen anytime soon. I was able to get an actual email address from her for customer relations so I could send my own information to them, which I did, including copies of all of the reply emails I got when I filled out the form.

 

As someone else in this thread stated, it has been over 90 days since our cruise was terminated, and we have nothing yet. Given the above I feel like the process has started all over again -- hope it doesn't take another 90 days before we see something. I really don't want to be angry at Princess about this -- we have really enjoyed their cruises and planned to take other trips with them, but this is beyond frustrating at this point. Sorry for sounding like a whiny baby about this, but I guess I needed to vent a little bit. 😀

As a previous subscriber says "Welcome to the home of the frustrated" and I see nothing wrong with venting a bit - it is good for the soul. I do also appreciated the posts that announce that they have received their refunds as it does give you a bit of hope.

You can always be assured by the words of Princess namely "BE PATIENT" and they "UNDERSTAND YOUR FRUSTRATION"

3 hours ago, Bluesky014 said:

Cruise date 21/3/20 cancelled a week before sailing by Princess. FCC’s given early May. Refund received by TA on the 12/6/20 and showing on our credit card today. We have to wait another 14 days for the bank to credit this back to our bank account. We also received FCC’s 3 weeks ago for a cruise we cancelled a week before the first Princess pause, which they included in the refunds - this also includes the amount we paid via Ez Air for non refundable flights with Virgin Airlines. I know it has taken a while for this to happen, but appreciate the work that Princess (and our TA) have had to do. Now we just have to wait to be able to cruise again - and this could be quite a wait as our Prime Minister (Australia) has announced today that international travel is likely to not take place for another 12 months.

But they are still allowing cruise companies to take bookings from 18th September 2020 - just another case of mixed messages.

1 minute ago, trvlwrld said:

I really don’t understand why refunds are being given to so many people from May-June-July-August,etc when those of us in Match and April have received nothing!!!

One word GREED

My thoughts are that most of the later cruises are just for smaller deposits and not full payments (US$27.5K in our case)

12th May 2020 Sydney World Cruise on Sea Princess

Has anyone received a refund for this cruise?

We have noticed that people receiving refunds for August cruises but we are at the over 100 days since cancellation and so far no contact or interest from Princess. All they can say is BE PATIENT and we UNDERSTAND YOUR FRUSTRATION. And they are stlll saying that they are refunding in sailing date order. Our 51 nights cruise was due to disembark in Dover this coming Thursday and we will glad when this is over as it is so far proving a very profitable cruise for Princess.

4 hours ago, dog said:

Can you dispute it? 

Most of the payment was via bank transfer. The 10% amount paid by CC cannot be disputed as my CC provider says that whilst Princess are offering refunds I have to wait ( or as Princess would say BE PATIENT as they are working very hard to get the refunds done).

I have one outstanding email at Princess where the person seems to show some concern and is trying to follow it up. Unfortunately all refund processing is happening in the USA so time differences and as they said in their last communication they are dealing with 13 FXs - I will gladly do the maths for them.  Princess do hold all the aces and they know it.

I have been waiting for over 3 months now for Princess to refund nearly A$40K (that's US$27.5K) and all Princess can say to me is

BE PATIENT

I think I have been patient as calls, emails and a letter to the Carnival Australia President don't seem to work It is pleasing to know that Princess

UNDERSTAND THE FRUSTRATION

All I can say to Princess is that it is no way to run a business especially in these unprecedented times.

Back in mid March I cancelled 2 cruises with Princess sailing May and July. Both cruises were not "officially" cancelled at that stage but have been since. I also cancelled domestic airfares with Qantas booked with cash and points.

I got a full refund of cash and points from Qantas within 3 days. Guess what? Yep still waiting for the Princess refunds and we are at the 90 day mark.

4 hours ago, PurpleTraveller said:

I had my May 4 Sapphire Princess cruise cancelled by Princess in Phase 1 on March 12. On June 2 I received my FCC and FCD was returned. On June 10 I received my full refund in my bank account. All amounts are correct. It took a while but it came through eventually! Hope all of you who are are still waiting (and I know there are an awful lot of you) get your refunds and FCC soon! 😊

 

Thanks for the post. It does give me hope that our May 12th World Cruise from Sydney may get refunded before the end of June. People seem to have been waiting around the 90 day mark for refunds. If only Princess could be more transparent and perhaps put on their website what cruise date they are currently processing and maybe how many refunds they are dealing with both in total and daily but I'm an optimist.

In my working life I thought that it required up to 10 times more resources to attract a new customer than retain an old one but maybe that is a lesson Princess management have not learnt yet!

57 minutes ago, stellacruises said:

Yes.  Unfortunately it does.  The charge shows up under the TA name not Princess.  I will not make that mistake again with any cruise line.

It doesn't matter. As fellow Australian I asked my bank about charge back for a cruise deposit that I paid direct to Princess and whilst Princess are still offering a refund they will not do anything. I have called their customer support line who say that it is all being handled in the USA and they know nothing (remember Manuel from "Fawlty Towers'). I have also sent a letter to Carnival Australia regarding refunds without receiving a response. So I have to agree that Princess are an exemplary company in how not to treat customers.

We are Princess Elite passengers and have had some great cruising experiences. We had 3 cruises booked with Princess for 2020 - 2 have been cancelled (awaiting refunds for full payment and a deposit) and 1 will be cancelled (deposit only paid). BUT we live in hope!

We are Australian cruisers and have cruised with cruise companies under the Carnival Corporation banner for the last 20 years. We had 3 cruise booked with Princess Cruises this year of which 2 have been officially cancelled (May, July) but we are sure the 3rd (Sep) will be.

Spoke to Princess last week and whilst the person I spoke to was very pleasant she could not give me any idea of when we may get anything. Apparently all refunds are being handled in the USA and the Australian operation has no idea of how processing is being done.

If Princess still maintain that they are processing by cruise departure date order why can they not just post on their website what date they up to - this would save a lot of discussion on the various forums and save a lot of unnecessary communication with Princess. It may help Princess regain some of the lost loyalty that they had. Most fair and reasonable people accept that nobody can plan for the Covid-19 pandemic but transparency and better communication will help.