Kudos to Royal & Jet Blue's customer service--unexpected response to our problem!

Due to a family medical emergency, we had to cancel our cruise on the FOS leaving in 2 days :loudcry:.

When I called to take care of this, I was told that we would be refunded taxes and port fees, which was exactly what I expected. But since it never hurts to ask, I inquired as to whether any type of exceptions are made when there are extenuating circumstances and explained our situation. The rep said she would check with her supervisor and the resolutions dept. and placed me on hold for a bit. I figured that maybe they would offer to apply a small portion to our next cruise coming up, if anything.

When she returned, I was informed that they were going to refund 100% of our fare as a one-time courtesy! I never expected anything like that.

Next up, the flights. Jet Blue waived all penalties and gave us a voucher for the full amount which is good for a year.

It's nice to have such a wonderful experience with two companies twice in one day...they truly made a bad situation a little better!

Next up, the flights. Jet Blue waived all penalties and gave us a voucher for the full amount which is good for a year.

:confused: I thought that was their normal policy.

:confused: I thought that was their normal policy.

Voucher: yes

Waiving penalties/change fees: no

Most airlines will waive such fees in case of death or serious medical emergency.

Awe what great news! You read so many negative things regarding Royal's customer service so your story was a wonderful departure from all of the negativity.

Good news! (y)

Note to self:

Stop buying insurance

OP. I am sorry you had to cancel your cruise and happy for you that you received a 100% refund.

Your situation does bother me, and should bother everyone else who spends money on insurance.

Anyone who has to cancel a cruise within days of sailing generally has an unfortunate situation. That’s why one buys insurance.

M

Note to self:

Stop buying insurance

Exactly!

OP. I am sorry you had to cancel your cruise and happy for you that you received a 100% refund.

 

Your situation does bother me, and should bother everyone else who spends money on insurance.

 

Anyone who has to cancel a cruise within days of sailing generally has an unfortunate situation. That’s why one buys insurance.

M

Sent from my PH-1 using Forums mobile app

Note to self:

Stop buying insurance

Not sure why you would do that. I certainly won't stop.

OP. I am sorry you had to cancel your cruise and happy for you that you received a 100% refund.

 

Your situation does bother me, and should bother everyone else who spends money on insurance.

 

Anyone who has to cancel a cruise within days of sailing generally has an unfortunate situation. That’s why one buys insurance.

M

We "spend money" on insurance for every cruise, including this one. I'm genuinely puzzled though as to why my story bothers you. Do you have a problem with one mitigating their damages prior to filing an insurance claim? I hope that most people would do that.

Going into this process, I was prepared to submit a claim. However...with my time at a premium these days, I am grateful I don't have to deal with that thanks to some CSRs who made my life a little bit easier.

I started this thread for two reasons:

1. I was blown away by the response I received, and thought others might like to hear a good story about customer service instead of the usual bitching and moaning about poor service and/or incompetent reps.

2. I noticed another recent thread by a person in a similar, albeit more dire situation than ours and they asked if there was any chance that Royal would help them. The overwhelming response in that thread was an emphatic "No!" Well, this proves that that's not the case. I may be the exception to the rule, but it is certainly not written in stone that there is no flexibility when it comes to refunds/penalties. I did not ask for nor expect a full refund; I simply and politely asked if there was any possibility of adjusting the penalty. A full refund is what the company offered. They won't do it every time, and that's why I'll continue to purchase insurance. I'll also remember that although they could have rightly said "We're sorry, but that's the policy," they instead chose another path this time. And I thought I would try to repay the favor by praising them here.

You were very lucky. I had to cancel our cruise 2 weeks before we were scheduled to depart. Due to a very severe eye injury (seeing doctors every other day for almost 2 months).

All I got back what was due to me according to terms of contact.

BUT thank God for travel insurance as I filed a claim and received the balance less than a month later.

Due to a family medical emergency, we had to cancel our cruise on the FOS leaving in 2 days :loudcry:.

 

When I called to take care of this, I was told that we would be refunded taxes and port fees, which was exactly what I expected. But since it never hurts to ask, I inquired as to whether any type of exceptions are made when there are extenuating circumstances and explained our situation. The rep said she would check with her supervisor and the resolutions dept. and placed me on hold for a bit. I figured that maybe they would offer to apply a small portion to our next cruise coming up, if anything.

 

When she returned, I was informed that they were going to refund 100% of our fare as a one-time courtesy! I never expected anything like that.

 

Next up, the flights. Jet Blue waived all penalties and gave us a voucher for the full amount which is good for a year.

 

It's nice to have such a wonderful experience with two companies twice in one day...they truly made a bad situation a little better!

I too think it’s really important to say thank you, because policies aside we always feel so grateful when someone helps us in our time of need no matter who or what helps! My mother said to me once that you never forget what is done and not done for you in time like this. I hope things are better for you all soon.

EDIT - I had read your post (OP) but not all the responses to it. And I’m not kidding when I say that some of the responses make me truly sick to my stomach. And from what I have seen in other threads, those posters have not the first idea that there is any problem with those responses. You posted about a company treating you kindly at a time of a family emergency, at a time in life when we are unprepared and knocked off our feet, and we main things many of them can think of is somehow how it takes away from them? No doubt that they would hate the old lady who lost her home in a flood and got a little help from FEMA and her church to rebuild her home because “how dare they” help the old lady when they had paid for their flood insurance every years and it’s just not fair that she got helped when she wasn’t smart enough to buy insurance?? Geezus, but humans are so small.

Lynn

Exactly. Someone recently posted in another forum about his wife dying days before their cruise and royal said tough luck, chump!

Or the guy crying because his son, who is active duty military, had his leave cancelled, and got deployed.

OP. I am sorry you had to cancel your cruise and happy for you that you received a 100% refund.

 

Your situation does bother me, and should bother everyone else who spends money on insurance.

 

Anyone who has to cancel a cruise within days of sailing generally has an unfortunate situation. That’s why one buys insurance.

M

I buy travel insurance for my own peace of mind

buy WHY would you be bothered?

the op was sharing a grateful moment.

Thank you for sharing OP. Glad your situation was lessened by rcl and JetBlue :)

I believe some of the comments were driven by the fact that the OP did not originally post that he HAD insurance as he stated in a follow up post. If he had stated that in the original post it would have come across as just an expression of gratitude for the service(?) he received.

Well I think that is just lovely! And, maybe they had a waiting list for a cabin on that particular cruise and they were able to sell the cabin on? I don't know if they HAVE waitlists? But if they did...

We "spend money" on insurance for every cruise, including this one. I'm genuinely puzzled though as to why my story bothers you. Do you have a problem with one mitigating their damages prior to filing an insurance claim? I hope that most people would do that.

 

Going into this process, I was prepared to submit a claim. However...with my time at a premium these days, I am grateful I don't have to deal with that thanks to some CSRs who made my life a little bit easier.

 

I started this thread for two reasons:

 

1. I was blown away by the response I received, and thought others might like to hear a good story about customer service instead of the usual bitching and moaning about poor service and/or incompetent reps.

 

2. I noticed another recent thread by a person in a similar, albeit more dire situation than ours and they asked if there was any chance that Royal would help them. The overwhelming response in that thread was an emphatic "No!" Well, this proves that that's not the case. I may be the exception to the rule, but it is certainly not written in stone that there is no flexibility when it comes to refunds/penalties. I did not ask for nor expect a full refund; I simply and politely asked if there was any possibility of adjusting the penalty. A full refund is what the company offered. They won't do it every time, and that's why I'll continue to purchase insurance. I'll also remember that although they could have rightly said "We're sorry, but that's the policy," they instead chose another path this time. And I thought I would try to repay the favor by praising them here.

Thanks for posting a good story

 

EDIT - I had read your post (OP) but not all the responses to it. And I’m not kidding when I say that some of the responses make me truly sick to my stomach. And from what I have seen in other threads, those posters have not the first idea that there is any problem with those responses. You posted about a company treating you kindly at a time of a family emergency, at a time in life when we are unprepared and knocked off our feet, and we main things many of them can think of is somehow how it takes away from them? No doubt that they would hate the old lady who lost her home in a flood and got a little help from FEMA and her church to rebuild her home because “how dare they” help the old lady when they had paid for their flood insurance every years and it’s just not fair that she got helped when she wasn’t smart enough to buy insurance?? Geezus, but humans are so small.

 

Lynn

As was stated by someone else later, OP did not mention in their first post that they had insurance and that Royal just decided to go above and beyond.

Good for them.

Yes, having that information would have made a difference in my initial response.

However, I'll also go out and say that there is a difference between empathy and sympathy.

In your scenario, you mention floods and little ole lady getting help from FEMA.

I pay my taxes so a Federal organization can help people out. I do so willingly.

I have empathy for those who suffer and hope they able to get back on their feet.

However, if you live in a flood zone or an earthquake zone or any other zone where disaster may strike at anytime and you don't have insurance coverage (or knowingly decide to self-insure),, I have no sympathy. I may have empathy for your situation, but no sympathy. You knowingly took the risk.

As was stated by someone else later, OP did not mention in their first post that they had insurance and that Royal just decided to go above and beyond.

Good for them.

Yes, having that information would have made a difference in my initial response.

 

However, I'll also go out and say that there is a difference between empathy and sympathy.

 

In your scenario, you mention floods and little ole lady getting help from FEMA.

I pay my taxes so a Federal organization can help people out. I do so willingly.

I have empathy for those who suffer and hope they able to get back on their feet.

 

However, if you live in a flood zone or an earthquake zone or any other zone where disaster may strike at anytime and you don't have insurance coverage (or knowingly decide to self-insure),, I have no sympathy. I may have empathy for your situation, but no sympathy. You knowingly took the risk.

(Here I refer to the initial OP and situation presented and the many initial responses (what happened long after I posted, I have no idea)

I would not normally have responded to this post, but you directed your comments solidly at me (when I made a general commentary and have no memory of reading anything you wrote, there were so many uncaring responses and I didn’t read all of them) - but now it is only fairly that I respond. I see your attitude as cold-hearted and narrow-minded. Some people don’t have the money for insurance and some don’t even understand flood insurance (and some didn’t have the option, as when we were flooded years ago and could not have purchased it as we were in a zone considered out of the risk area).

When someone’s IQ is higher than average (and some people’s much higher than average), when a person had at least basic life opportunities (to attend school, to live in a safe home, to be able to ride your bike without fear...), when a person had at least a basic education (or much better than that), when a person was taught important life info from their parents and helped along by them ( like someone took them to get a drivers license, or maybe somebody took them to the dentist regularly, or they had all the school clothes they really needed [even if they were hand-me-downs]), then in my opinion that person judging those with less is pretty disgusting. How can such a person know the first thing about what it is like to not understand things at an above average level (and that would be 75% of the population) or what it is like to have the most important thing in your life to be trying to stay safe at home or to not to smell at school because no one washed your dirty clothes for weeks?

So if you don’t feel any sympathy fine, tread not huh?! But in my opinion (and since you offered yours directly to me) a decent and moral person would have sympathy. They would understand that it’s not always so simple. But those with tiny or cruel hearts would not consider any of that. And will never...

You said what you wanted to say to me and I have said what I wanted to say in response. Be adult enough to move along, surely you have better things to do. I do.

People posting here how they were able to get a full refund from Royal even though they had insurance will surely hasten Royal to be less compassionate to others.

It’s definitely not the norm so you are very lucky they refunded you 100%

I believe some of the comments were driven by the fact that the OP did not originally post that he HAD insurance as he stated in a follow up post. If he had stated that in the original post it would have come across as just an expression of gratitude for the service(?) he received.

As was stated by someone else later, OP did not mention in their first post that they had insurance and that Royal just decided to go above and beyond.

Good for them.

Yes, having that information would have made a difference in my initial response.

 

I don't understand how my having insurance or not could have any bearing your reaction. It didn't matter to RCI, as they never asked.

But thanks...

People posting here how they were able to get a full refund from Royal even though they had insurance will surely hasten Royal to be less compassionate to others.

There were at least three people at RCI involved in this, and not one of them asked about insurance, so I don't think it's a very big factor in their decision making.

I still think that it's important to thank them publicly for their assistance.