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Cancelled Fascination cruise-will I get my airfare refunded?


Bollycats
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I was on a Fascination cruise that's now been cancelled since Carnival is using the ship for relief efforts in the USVI. I bought our airfare directly from Delta. When I called Carnival to ask if they will refund my air she told me to send a copy of the receipt to a certain department and they would look into it.I haven't heard back yet and need to make some other money decisions very soon. I know we have the option of having Delta turn the tickets into future travel vouchers, but my traveling companion doesn't really travel (we were going on this cruise to attend a wedding) so that would mean the money would be lost . (and it's not our fault Carnival chose to use the ship for other purposes) Does anyone have any kind of experience with this kind of situation? Is it likely Carnival will refund our money or are we out $550 each?

 

Thanks for any advice!

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Pretty sure that if you receive a refund or travel voucher for another flight it will be directly from Delta since you purchased from them. I don’t think Carnival will get involved in your separately purchased flights. They will refund you on your cruise but not on your flights. Contact Delta directly and most likely they will accommodate you. If they don’t help you ask to speak with a supervisor at Delta. Good luck.

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We were on the Liberty out of San Juan a couple years ago when it had a small fire onboard while at St. Thomas. Carnival reimbursed our airfare that was booked thru AA, so I say give them a little time if you can, their “plate” is VERY FULL right now with all the crazy weather related changes this hurricane season.

 

 

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Thanks for the responses. Pyrate13--was your situation this current Fascination cancellation or something in the past? If it's current, then I'll move on and place a claim with my travel insurance company as we don't have another vacation to apply it to for them to pay the change fees.

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I read where Carnival was refunding airfare as well because they cancelled the cruise. I would keep dealing with Carnival. That department is overwhelmed probably with all the cancellations.

 

 

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This ! Carnival has stated they are refunding all non-refundable airfare for cancelled cruises. Just stay on top of it.

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The cancellation email I received from Carnival said all Carnival purchased air would be refunded. It said for guests who purchased independent air that they would work with airlines to avoid change fees or Carnival would reimburse up to $200 for the change fees. No mention of refunding nonrefundable tickets if we're not switching to another vacation. That's why I'm asking if anyone has ever had an independently booked airline ticket refunded by them. Thanks everyone!

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The cancellation email I received from Carnival said all Carnival purchased air would be refunded. It said for guests who purchased independent air that they would work with airlines to avoid change fees or Carnival would reimburse up to $200 for the change fees. No mention of refunding nonrefundable tickets if we're not switching to another vacation. That's why I'm asking if anyone has ever had an independently booked airline ticket refunded by them. Thanks everyone!

 

 

This is correct. Per your previous question, yes, ours was the recent cancellation. We were scheduled on the 12/3 cruise. Carnival would not (I did ask) refund airfare if purchased independently but would help with airline change fees. As I mentioned earlier, AA waived the change fees for us.

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OP: Did you purchase travel insurance? If so, they would be my first call as CCL has made it clear that they will help with the independent air purchases on change fees only....if you did not purchase travel insurance to help with this issue then take the future credit from the airlines and look into travel insurance next time to cover airfare if you need to fly or purchase plane tix with the change option...

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Call Delta. They will either refund your money or give you a voucher for future travel. I am actually taking my cruise next month because my vacation to Puerto Rico was cancelled and Delta was very generous in working with me. As for Carnival, I have no idea whether they will help you or not.

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We had a cruise cancelled by Carnival a couple of years ago. At first they would not cover anything for independently booked airfare. After a couple of weeks they said they would refund the change fees up to $200. But not really a refund of those fees. We would get a OBC for those fees if we booked another cruise with them. So you had to wait to get that money back until you were on another cruise. For us this was totally Carnival's fault. They decided about 6 months before sailing to change ships around. Our letter said it was to keep things fresh for the passengers. This was 100% under Carnival's control and we didn't receive much help.

 

We had purchased travel insurance but they would not cover it either. They said the airline hadn't cancelled the flight so we were still able to fly. The insurance would cover the flight change fees but no refund of airfare. We ended up flying to San Juan anyway and went on another cruise from a different cruise line.

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I would try the following steps:

 

  • Follow up with Carnival to see how long you should wait before hearing back if they'll refund you anything (if they said they'll 'consider' a full refund, I'd take them at their word). As several have said, they have been swamped due to all the weather issues since August.
  • Call your travel insurance company and ask them how long you have to submit a claim. As for those indicating that your travel insurance won't cover the airfare, I'm not sure how they would know that unless they knew what type of policy you bought!
  • Depending on these 2 responses, you may want to submit a claim to your insurance company... although they will request that you disclose if any amount was refunded by Carnival, so be careful on your timing there.

 

 

 


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OP: Did you purchase travel insurance? If so, they would be my first call as CCL has made it clear that they will help with the independent air purchases on change fees only....if you did not purchase travel insurance to help with this issue then take the future credit from the airlines and look into travel insurance next time to cover airfare if you need to fly or purchase plane tix with the change option...

 

Carnival made the transition to other cruise very easy. Couldnt reschedule vacation time off so glad we found substitute. Southwest just transfered our paid tickets for new destination, i dont think we could have recieved a refund. Only thing up in air is our hotel in San juan. Not sure if I should file insurance claim or if hotel will make refund even though they are non refundable but cruise was cancelled and we are just not cancelling on a whim. Hopefully we don't have to file claim, but just started to reach out to hotel there. Good luck!

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Thanks for all the replies. Based on this information we decided to book an alternate vacation with another cruise line. I didn't trust travel insurance actually coming through for us and Delta has repeatedly told me no refund. Not real happy with Carnival right now. Moving on to other cruise lines for the future. I still can't get in touch with a hotel in San Juan that is prepaid. No email response and phone rings off the hook. Have to keep trying....

 

Thanks everyone!

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Thanks for all the replies. Based on this information we decided to book an alternate vacation with another cruise line. I didn't trust travel insurance actually coming through for us and Delta has repeatedly told me no refund. Not real happy with Carnival right now. Moving on to other cruise lines for the future. I still can't get in touch with a hotel in San Juan that is prepaid. No email response and phone rings off the hook. Have to keep trying....

 

Thanks everyone!

I hope you will be happy with another cruise line, but I wouldn't expect them to be much different under these circumstances.

I have heard another line that has cancelled cruises not having to do with these hurricanes in the past and they do not help with airfare or airfare changes and they only give you a choice of a few cruises to switch to receive any compensation which is usually some OBC. And these cruises usually aren't near the same time or to the same area of the world.

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Not sure why you seem to feel it is Carnivals fault that you won't get airfare refunded, nor do they have any control over the hotel not responding, but I wish you good luck with whatever line you choose. As the previous poster mentioned, I think you will find that most, if not all, lines would have been similar in this situation.

 

For what it's worth, we were able to switch to another date on the Fascination, got the 25% credit, the $100 OBC and, since the new date was actually cheaper than the original, we also received a $100 refund to our credit card and no change fees for our flights. I'm a happy camper.

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Thanks for all the replies. Based on this information we decided to book an alternate vacation with another cruise line. I didn't trust travel insurance actually coming through for us and Delta has repeatedly told me no refund. Not real happy with Carnival right now. Moving on to other cruise lines for the future. I still can't get in touch with a hotel in San Juan that is prepaid. No email response and phone rings off the hook. Have to keep trying....

 

Thanks everyone!

 

I am assuming you booked a local hotel that does not have a US based Customer Service Center. Are you aware that 80% of the island residents are still without power? If you are booked with a local hotel, I don't think anyone is checking the email for them as they are likely unable to. The employees are probably not back to work yet.

 

Travel Insurance is VERY trustworthy and reliable. I personally used it for a cruise I found myself in emergency surgery the day prior to our scheduled flight to Puerto Rico, instead of completing our packing. I hope whatever cruise line and wherever you decide to travel, you will consider purchasing it going forward. It insures against so many additional things, and your healthcare typically doesn't give you any coverage in foreign countries. Have you asked Delta what the change fee will be to move your flight to another date? Carnival has already confirmed that they would give you up to $200 toward the change fee.

 

Not a cheerleader for Carnival, but I do think it is honorable that they are assisting in the relief efforts. I know I would be disappointed to miss out on the cruise. I also know when booking, they offered to sell you trip insurance. Whether you chose to purchase insurance through the cruise line or another company, or not at all, it was your decision. Trip insurance likely would have reimbursed you by now, and not just for the cruise, but airfare and the hotel...Sucks you didn't trust it. Mother Nature doesn't care about our travel plans. When you choose to go uninsured, it says you can afford to lose the money, aka "self insured". In my opinion, you are failing to be accountable for a decision you made to not buy insurance and are expecting Carnival to do more than they offered or should. It sounds like you're disappointed in your own choice and feel that Carnival should subsidize your bad choice. I sincerely doubt any other other cruise line would insure you against loss in this situation. While the situation definitely stings, I do wish you a wonderful "replacement" trip where ever you decide to go!

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I bought our airfare directly from Delta. When I called Carnival to ask if they will refund my air she told me to send a copy of the receipt to a certain department and they would look into it.I haven't heard back yet and need to make some other money decisions very soon. I know we have the option of having Delta turn the tickets into future travel vouchers, but my traveling companion doesn't really travel (we were going on this cruise to attend a wedding) so that would mean the money would be lost .

 

Thanks for any advice!

 

Did *you* actually book and pay for the airfare? There is an opportunity that if you booked AND paid they will give you the voucher in your name only. I would definitely contact Delta and explore that. Since Carnival will reimburse change fees, if you incur any cost that way, I am sure you would be able to submit your receipts to Carnival. Good luck!

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  • 7 months later...

This is sort of on/off the subject, and I'm sure you have received plenty of good answers, but here is mine as well.

 

 

When I fly, I never take out insurance to cover me. When I fly and cruise, then I always take out insurance to cover both of these. More than one time in my many cruises, the insurance I have taken out,has come in handy to cover the problems that arise.:)

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