EZair Flexible Refund After Cancellation/Modification

[billco]

I am wondering others experience on receiving a refund when cancelling or modifying an EZair Flexible air booking between final payment and 45 days before departure. Did it require calls to Princess or a TA or did the refund automatically show up on the CC after several business days? In my case, final payment is 120 days before departure, which is a pretty big window considering how much airfare prices fluctuate. I like to monitor airfares and make changes accordingly, but I wouldn't want to make changes if it took forever to get a refund. I had that experience several years ago, but it was due to a TA mistake.

[Colo Cruiser]

Mine have gone back to the CC.

[omc329]

Just did this 12/4. I waited around two weeks and called my TA. He called princess and came back online and said the good news was that they "found" the cancelled reservation. The bad news was it would be another couple of weeks to refund the credit card. It showed up on the credit card around the 26th or 27th. I don't know if Princess would have automatically 'found' the missing monies at some point, but was glad I called. At least it showed on the credit card before I had to pay the new airline charge on the credit card. 

[palolake]

We rebooked after the 45 day window at a cheaper price.  We kept waiting for our refund and finally called Princess.  They told us, since we had booked with a TA, that the TA had to "release" the refund.  It took one day after she called Princess.  I understand some of the things that Princess won't do if you have a TA but that's ridiculous that they don't automatically issue a refund.

[Coral]

I booked a cruise at final payment date (75 days out approx). I booked air that was more expensive and later booked cheaper air.

 

The refund for my more expensive air never was refunded to the credit card (automatically). About 5 days before the trip, I cancelled the cruise. It wasn't until then that they released the cost of the more expensive air. This was ridiculous! If it hadn't been a very busy time for me, I would have bugged my TA or Princess.

[billco]

Contacted Princess through online chat, which works quite well. I asked how long it takes to refund EZair cancelled or modified booking between Final Payment and 45 day window. Was told "Refunds typically take less than one week to process. After the refund is processed, the credit takes 10 to 15 business days to appear on the passenger's credit card. However, if you're booked through a travel agent, you'll need to double check the refunds with them. 

[cruisequeen4ever]

I’ve had to call Princess every time to get it refunded to my cc. They always have to manually do it. It’s a flawed system. 

[2theship]

While any credit card charges show up immediately, refunds are much slower and it's often not the fault of the merchant. The bank wants to hold on to your money as long as possible.

[LDVinNC]

We rebooked at a lower fare about 10 days ago.  TA said the refund would be by credit card and take 10-15 business days.  Still waiting.

[billco]

After waiting several weeks for my refund I contacted my TA and asked her to find out why I haven't received a refund. She told me Princess never issues a refund until TA contacts them. I received refunds of all modified/cancelled EZair flights to the CCs they were charged on two days after contacting TA.

 

I called Princess Customer Relations at ext. 44411 to complain. She insisted it was a one time error. I relayed what my TA told me. She told me she would relay my feedback at their next meeting and comped me two bottles of wine.

[thegoaliegirl]

In my experience, sometimes the refund happens automatically, other times you need to call to have it manually triggered. Not sure why. If you go to your cruise personalizer and it shows a negative amount, then the credit has not been triggered to go back to the last card used. If it is $0, it has been triggered and will show up on your card shortly.

[billco]

5 minutes ago, thegoaliegirl said:

In my experience, sometimes the refund happens automatically, other times you need to call to have it manually triggered. Not sure why. If you go to your cruise personalizer and it shows a negative amount, then the credit has not been triggered to go back to the last card used. If it is $0, it has been triggered and will show up on your card shortly.

Nothing showed up in my personalizer one way or the other. When I modified, I had to pay the difference. When I cancelled, it didn't show a refund. I had the same issue a few years ago with a different TA when I cancelled an EZair booking. Princess blamed the TA for not processing my refund properly.

 

I currently am served by a respected long time TA who has several clients who post on this forum. In fact, she was recommended by a person who posts frequently. Her comments included:

"Princess does this to everyone, not just you. The money sits on bookings until I call and request the refund."

"Well as you know, they never processed the refunds. They never do, we have to make sure they do it. The money sits on the bookings forever if we don’t know what has been done."

"Next time if you cancel and rebook air after final payment date, please let me know when you do it. There was $935.42 setting on the booking, had you not said something, they would just keep it."

[idahospud]

24 minutes ago, billco said:

I currently am served by a respected long time TA who has several clients who post on this forum. In fact, she was recommended by a person who posts frequently. Her comments included:

"Princess does this to everyone, not just you. The money sits on bookings until I call and request the refund."

"Well as you know, they never processed the refunds. They never do, we have to make sure they do it. The money sits on the bookings forever if we don’t know what has been done."

She's right.

 

We've had several cruises where we've gotten a lower airfare and the money has just sat there and sat there and sat there. My PVP had no idea what would happen to it. I started paying attention and found out it was being put back on the credit card 30 days AFTER I'd sailed. Now that I've become a TA I've found I can call Princess after I've changed to the lower airfare and they will initiate the refund. It gets put back within 10-15 business days. 

 

So whether you work with a PVP, a TA, or book on your own, someone will need to make the call to get the overage back in a timely fashion.

[LDVinNC]

Despite what I said in my earlier post, we got our refund in about 5 business days.  It came so quickly I missed it on my credit card account.