CHB007

1 hour ago, jimmieg said:

It showed on app on June 9 and I called Citi and requested full credit to my bank.  

Called today for progress report.  

My update on this is similar, The money finally showed up this morning in my checking account, but it also was not the entire amount I requested on June 2 when it first appeared on my Costco Citi Card balance.  They deducted last month's payment and all credit card charges up to the date it was approved, which was supposed to be last Friday, the last day of the three day high level manager approval window.  Maybe that is the ploy, refund less if it takes longer and the negative balance is used up more.  Not really an issue, I would have had to pay the larger balance anyway, but a little irritating that they were not more forthright on the duration of the process.  Just glad this is finally all complete and I have the money in hand.  It took 70 days for Princess and another 14 days from Citi Card.  Pandemic = Patience Required

23 hours ago, jimmieg said:

Thanks for the heads-up.  Find it odd, but waited this long, anyway.  They may want to reverse the reward that was originally credited last year?

OK, Called Citi again today and got a rep that was fantastic and filled me in on the real story about negative balance refunds back to checking accounts.  The original 3-5 days I was told was wrong.  That is the case if the amount is less than about $500 (his estimation), there is no review or approval, and it automatically happens in that 3-5 day timeframe.  For my amount (Almost $6k), it requires review and approval by a supervisory manager, two levels up.  I do not know the amount for the first level supervisor approval threshold, somewhere over the $500 estimate but obviously less than $6k.  Today is my 3rd day for the supervisory manager to approve, but as is the case with a lot of things, Covid-19 has impacted their workforce.  After I do get approved, which apparently is not always a certainty, it should then happen in 3-5 days, so my total timeframe might be 13-15 days from my initial request.

On the reward question, I looked at my account and that was deducted from my award balance as soon as it hit as a credit, so that is not the hold-up, the amount of the transfer is the only issue.

57 minutes ago, jimmieg said:

Thanks for the heads-up.  Find it odd, but waited this long, anyway.  They may want to reverse the reward that was originally credited last year?

Wonder if the lag-time on the refund date and posting was on Princess or Citi?  Usually "pending" amounts are shown quickly.

 

Did not ask about the reward for using for travel, thought I would "play dumb" and let them figure it out, but that may be part of the delay to put the balance into my checking account, still not there as of today.  I think everyone is seeing a lag of a few days in the time from when it posts from Princess to showing up in the account balance.

On 6/9/2020 at 10:31 AM, jimmieg said:

Requested most efficient credit back to my bank from Citi.

They advised they will make direct deposit back to my bank in 3-5 days as refund must be reviewed because it is a large amount.

Our credit from Princess of a little over $6k showed up on to our Costco Citi Card balance on June 2 (Posted in May).  Did a chat with Costco Citi Card rep that day to request the credit back to our registered checking account that we pay the Citi cc bill with.  We were told the same as you , it would be 3-5 days to process.  Called today since it has not happened yet, and has been over 7 days, and over 5 business days.  The rep today said our credit refund was at the supervisor approval level due to the large credit amount , and that can step itself can take up to 3 days.  Just FYI that it may take longer than the time they originally stated.  7-10 Days might be more appropriate.  

We originally cancelled our 4/11 transatlantic cruise in the Sky Princess on March 9 under the 50% cancellation policy through our Big Box TA.  Then Princess cancelled this cruise on March 12, so we chose Option 2 on the Princess Cancellation Form on March 16.  Like a few others posting here, the email compensation receipt received back from Princess on that submittal did not include our Ship, Sale Date or Booking Number.

At that time, I was not sure it was properly submitted, and not sure if we needed to go through our Big Box TA  to cancel, not Princess directly.  Due to call volume issues, we did not get through to the Big Box TA until March 25.  But it was beneficial, as the TA  got Princess to re-instate our expired Future Cruise Deposits, and they are now good until April 2022 on our online Princess account.  We understand this is not the case any longer.  We were told by the TA that Princess stated it would take up to 60 days for our refund.  This time, our compensation receipt showed all of the correct information.  

Our 25% Voyage Goodwill FCC under Option 2 showed up on our Princess Online Account(s) a few days after the second cancellation submittal through the TA, although it is dated  as being  "Earned" on April 23,  go figure.....

Like many others, we were anxiously waiting on our 100% refund back to the credit card (Costco Visa) and monitoring this thread.  We received several of the generic Princess emails asking for patience on the refund.

Yesterday, I received another Princess Email stating that our FCC was now available, even though it was posted to our account in March, but dated as April.  Of course, that email also included a lot of sales information about booking another cruise.

This morning, we were pleasantly surprised to see that our credit card had been credited for the 100% of the correct amount, including EZAir, taxes, etc., minus the reinstated Future Cruise Deposits, This transaction was dated as posting to the card on May 29.   Today was 69 days from the second cancellation submitted through the TA.  I was going to dispute  the charges if we had not received our refund by the end of day tomorrow, which would have been 70 days.

I am not sure if the email on the availability of our FCC that we received yesterday was any indication that our refund was also processed to our credit card, or just coincidence.

We made no calls in to Princess, but were getting close if needed to  support our potential dispute ...... Good Luck to everyone

10 minutes ago, cherylandtk said:

If you can find something different, I will happily stand corrected.

Interesting.  Never thought there might be  different policies.  To check for my own knowledge and education, I went back into the reservation system again just now and did the same mock reservations.  I selected the Platinum coverage (we are elite) and clicked on the "View Details" for the coverage, and it showed the same information as you see for the coverages on an existing reservation, and the first item on the page is the CFAR policy details,  which are:

Any Reason Cruise Credits
Reimbursement provided in the form of future travel credits if cancellation reason doesn't qualify for a cash refund.

Always willing to learn, glad I checked it out just to make sure.  Seems to be the same coverage unless I missed something.  That is what is good about these forums, always learning or verifying information.

3 hours ago, cherylandtk said:

You are incorrect. Princess insurance is not available to anyone booking after final payment date.

Not true at all.....

If you book a cruise after the traditional final payment date, you have pay the entire payment when the reservation is made so you have to purchase the insurance as part of the cruise fare now, and pay everything now, there is no separate deposit and then final payment.   I did the "mock" reservation today as if I was booking today, and it allowed me to add the insurance in the Options section for putting together the reservation for total pricing since it was a new reservation.  Your statement is true for reservations made earlier, where you make a deposit, and then at some time later, make the final payment.  After final payment date for a specific cruise, everything on new reservations becomes the "final payment", 100% due upon making the reservation. 

We do this all the time, we don't typically book until after the traditional final payment date to take advantage of pricing sales trying to fill the cruise.  On new reservations, you still always have the opportunity to purchase the protection no matter how close to the cruise you purchase the cabin, as long as the cruise is still open for new reservations.

I have attached a screen print of the "mock" reservation I made today as the example, note the Hold Until Date of March 6 for my April 11 cruise, note on the right side the inclusion of the Vacation Protection in the amount of $387.66.

Not trying to argue the point, but it was valid and correct, you can add princess Vacation Protection on "new reservations" that are made after the final payment date has passed.  You are correct in that you can't add it onto an existing reservation after final payment date on reservations initially made before the final payment date.

4 minutes ago, 2wheelin said:

I agree that full cancellation penalties could be relaxed to maybe withholding at least double the cost of CFAR insurance from full refund. This would still put some responsibility on the consumer as it should be, unless the cruise line cancels.

The CFAR is something Princess is still offering at the same price I quoted for cabins on my same cruise for anyone who purchases them today, so Princess is obviously willing to take the same liability today for the same cost of benefit on new reservations.  If that is the case, not sure why should I pay more than I would if I reserved today and purchased the protection under this extreme situation of a possible pandemic.  Ordinarily, I might agree, but not with this situation.  We always get travel insurance, just not always  CFAR unless we get it through Princess for certain cruises closer to home.

I did not cancel my cruise and then now asking for a refund, and my cruise has not yet departed, so my car is not quite wrecked yet........

10 minutes ago, jat1977 said:

We were in the same circumstance in that at time of final payment in mid-December, Covid-19 hadn't been announced yet.  If Princess were to offer this an an option --i.e., currently booked passengers can cancel/modify as long as they forfeit the price of Princess Platinum protection--we would likely take advantage of that offer.  I think that would be very fair since as you mentioned, we wouldn't be getting anything better than those who purchased the PP plan earlier.  Indeed, like you, we would still be in a worse position because we also purchased a basic travel insurance policy so we would be out that money too.  But it would still be better than eating the full cost of the cruise.  But there is no way Princess's underwriter would allow that . . .

I don't think that is part of the coverage provided by the Underwriter.  The screenshot I attached shows that it is separate, except for NY and Washington State (See numbered footnotes).  The Cancellation Fee Waiver Program is  shown as a non-insurance benefit provided by Princess Cruises itself.

14 minutes ago, 2wheelin said:

You totally missed their point. It being that if the cruise line allowed anyone to cancel with no penalty, those who had purchased insurance would have paid a premium for it but still be treated the same as you who did not purchase. That is like saying you don’t pay for car insurance but if you get hit you should be totally compensated because it was not foreseeable.

We are Elite and are on the Sky Princess for a 17 nt. TA in April, but got third party insurance for higher medical and medical evacuation coverages and also for coverage for time we have scheduled in Europe after the cruise.  We did not elect to get the CFAR through the third party provider, which was maxed out at 75% benefit.  The COVID-19 was not an issue at that time.  Just for information, our policy is the same underwriter as the Princess Policies.

If I book at this cruise today through the Princess website, for the same perks and cabin class (and cruise fare as I originally paid), I would pay $193.83 pp (roughly 7.25% of the cruise fare) for Platinum coverage through Princess.  I would gladly be open to Princess allowing me to purchase Platinum Protection with CFAR now, AFTER we have already made final payment, under these extreme circumstances.  Our final payment was in December, before this all escalated.   

Would that not be more than fair to everyone?  In that case, I am not getting off for free, I would have paid the same as everyone for princess CFAR protection, (actually more, I would now have two travel protection policies) but now have the option to make better decisions about this cruise and our health.

We are worried that as things develop here  with the Grand, and in Europe overall, people with the CFAR for our cruise may cancel last minute, within the cancellation parameters, and the cruise could not go, albeit a low probability.  There are quite a few empty cabins for the shorter 14 nt. TA only portion of the cruise as of yesterday,  I counted over 100 as being available for reservation through the Princess website.

We used to live in Ponte Vedra Beach and always drove down the day of the cruise. We left around 6 AM and always made it on the ship by noon. There are alternative routes once you get farther south so the risk is minimal for highway related delays.

Now we live in South Carolina so we are forced to drive the day ahead and always stay in Port St. Lucie the night before. Hotels are not usually over priced there and it is less than a 2 hr. Drive to the port.

Wish we still lived in Ponte Vedra. When we drive home now we are only half way when we pass the exit to Ponte Vedra Beach.

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We purchased Vatican Scavi tour tickets a few months ago and when we we received the link for payment from the Vatican we also had issues making payment. Since it was a while ago, I think this is what we had to do from memory that is a little scetchy. I believe that imgot to the payment page it indicated we needed to use either Verified by Visa or MasterCard Secure Code which are both internet purchase security systems that require PIN code entry. I had to figure out which of my credit cards were part of this free system then figure out how to register them. It is the bank issuing the card that offers it. Once I did this everything worked through the Vatican internet purchase system. The registration can be done online once you see which banks offer this service. Look for registration instructions online at Verified by Visa or MasterCard Secure Code. There are ways there to see which banks offer the service.

This may not be the case for your purchase, but pay particular attention to the instructions once you get to the payment page to see if they state something there about using the aforementioned payment systems. There are also some other people's experiences via Google search.

Again, it was a few months ago but I think this is what i had to do to get it to work. I may have also had to try a couple of different browsers in addition to the secure system credit card services.

FYI - I also called my credit card companies before I realized all of this and they did not see any charges being attempted.

Hope this helps.

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Another EZ Air victim here....with Delta

After reading these posts and noticing that the initial leg of our two connection flight to Berlin in August for a Baltic TA cruise was no longer showing up on EZ Air, I checked our itinerary through the Delta website and found that we were totally changed to different flights with different connections, and of course, no longer had any seat assignments for our flights.

There is an earlier departure for the first segment now showing on EZ Air with the remaining two connections exactly the same as our original itinerary. Of course the price is slightly higher than my current reservation.

It was late, and my call to Princess CS was past the hours for talking with an EZ Air rep., so I will have to call back in the morning to see if I can make the one change and keep my pricing intact. The price increase I see through EZ Air is less than $40 total for our two tickets so at worse I will pay the increase if I can't make any progress through the call tomorrow. The CS rep was as helpful as she could be but had no ability to make the changes I wanted to the flights, but did add notes to the booking.

I have used EZ Air on several Transatlantic cruises in the past but never had this happen, only slight changes in times, all of which I received email notifications from, guess who, Delta.

For this change, I did NOT receive any notification, from either Delta or Princess, which to me is the worst of all the issues. Had I not checked myself, I would not have known to look into this situation. I understand that we are not ticketed until payment.

Just for disclosure, I did make one change to my original air booking for a slight price decrease, for which I received a new flight confirmation number and had to reselect seats. This was through EZ Air in cruise personalizer, and I did receive email confirmation from Princess.

I understand that the system is what it is for these severly discounted overseas flights but wholesale changes without notification and/or some flexibility for modification when wholesale changes are made is not acceptable IMO. Almost don't see the point of choosing flights and times if drastic changes can be made at a whim and I am given no choices even if those choices show up on EZ Air when I look.

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