Summary:-
Oct 2019 - Booked B2B Med Cruises directly with RC.
May 2020 - RC cancel Med cruises & issue FCC’s.
Dec 2020 - My Friend organises a 60th birthday cruise for March 2022. I use my FCC’s to reserve 2 cabins. I give the FCC’s to my friends TA whom is organising the group booking.
Sept 2021 - RC cancels March 2022 cruise.
Oct 2021 - I contact TA & request to FCC’s to be transferred to my July 2022 cruises. The TA claims unless I transfer the July 2022 cruises to her she can’t apply the FCC’s to them. Hence, I request her to remove my FCC’s from the booking. She advises, It’ll cost me $100 per FCC to do so. I contact RC & they advise that because the group booking was cancelled by RC they’ll be able to access the booking to transfer the FCC’s after 45 days.
Dec 2021 - RC advise the group booking is locked & they can’t access my FCC’s, it may take them 2 weeks to gain access.
Jan 2022 - RC advise they are looking for a solution it may take another couple of weeks.
Feb 2022 - RC advise they are escalating the problem.
March 2022 - RC advise they are manually going to override the computer system & apply the FCC’s to my July 2022 cruise.
April 2022 - RC advise contractually they can’t access the group booking. They emailed the TA & advised her to release the FCC’s. At the same time I emailed the TA requesting the release of FCC’s. I also emailed Michael Bayley & detailed what is going on & the scam that is unfolding. Makenna Harris responded & claimed to be working on a resolution. MH then advised that as the cruise is a group booking, legally RC have no way in transferring my FCC’s. I reminded MH that RC has my cash & not the TA. The FCC’s are owned by me & my wife & not the TA. Legally RC has a contract with me & my wife. The group booking was cancelled by RC back in September 2021 & the planned cruise date was the 18th March 2022. So as of todays date the cruise doesn’t exist it never happened. So where are my FCC’s!
I then contacted NSW Fair Trading & they advised me to get the following information so action can be taken:-
1. What is the group booking Reservation ID
2. What is the name of the ship
3. What is the sail date
4. What is the departure port
5. What cabins have been booked
Well… the silence is deafening from MH & RC.
Does anybody see the scam unfolding here? I do!
Who knows how to resolve this problem?