New thread about passengers returning from the Westerdam

[Yodalicious]

Thanks for answering. 
 

[tamadig2001]

Just wondering if anyone has been reimbursed by Holland America for per diem expenses at the hotel in Cambodia and flight cancellation charges, etc. It's been more than seven months and I haven't received anything, despite emails and queries on their Twitter page. Their social media people keep promising to ask their guest relations staff to follow up, but so far no word.

[KirkNC]

55 minutes ago, tamadig2001 said:

Just wondering if anyone has been reimbursed by Holland America for per diem expenses at the hotel in Cambodia and flight cancellation charges, etc. It's been more than seven months and I haven't received anything, despite emails and queries on their Twitter page. Their social media people keep promising to ask their guest relations staff to follow up, but so far no word.

Between the color and the font I find your post very difficult to read, just saying...

[tamadig2001]

47 minutes ago, KirkNC said:

Between the color and the font I find your post very difficult to read, just saying...

 

"Just wondering if anyone has been reimbursed by Holland America for per diem expenses at the hotel in Cambodia and flight cancellation charges, etc. It's been more than seven months and I haven't received anything, despite emails and queries on their Twitter page. Their social media people keep promising to ask their guest relations staff to follow up, but so far no word."

 

I hope you'll find this easier to read.

[DeeDee Groff]

42 minutes ago, tamadig2001 said:

 

"Just wondering if anyone has been reimbursed by Holland America for per diem expenses at the hotel in Cambodia and flight cancellation charges, etc. It's been more than seven months and I haven't received anything, despite emails and queries on their Twitter page. Their social media people keep promising to ask their guest relations staff to follow up, but so far no word."

 

I hope you'll find this easier to read.

 

I choose not to go to the hotel in Phnom Penh so I had no hotel expenses to claim, but I did have flight cancellation charges and rebooked flights for which I sought reimbursement.  I do not have a Twitter account and do not communicate with HAL through email or social media so I cannot relate to your experience in this area.  

 

What helped me was to write a letter to Gus Antorcha, the president of HAL.  I sent the letter with tracking, I checked for delivery, and I received a check in the mail eight business days after the letter was delivered.  I was very careful to be polite and respectful in the wording because I am well aware from various postings on the HAL forum that many posters are extremely annoyed, even angry, with HAL  As my late mother used to say, "you can kill more flies with honey than you can with vinegar."

 

Best of luck to you!

[USN59-79]

Yes, we were fully reimbursed 2 or 3 weeks after I submitted the "Change Fee Reimbursement Form" to HAL Guest Relations in Seattle.  We requested hotel meals of $386.71 (actual meal cost rather than just per diem), hotel laundry of $41.12, a flight from Taipei to Hong Kong for $206.78 (we planned to disembark in Taiwan when the ship said it wouldn't return to Hong Kong) and $1150.20 for the cancelled Bangkok to Seattle flight.  They paid in full to the penny.  I also asked for reimbursement of 6 bottles of an 8 bottle wine package but noted that if they didn't want to reimburse it they could just credit my next cruise with 6 bottles of wine and they replied that they would do that.  We mailed in the form on 5 March with a return receipt requested so I would be sure they had it.  I also included receipts for each of the expenses (except the wine) with the form.  We had booked a back to back to back (42 days) and we also received reimbursement for the 3 cruises and about $3300. in future cruise credits.  I am surprised that a passenger has not yet been reimbursed.

[tamadig2001]

Thank you both for your reply. I sent my claim form attached with the relevant receipts by email twice. Perhaps I should send it to them again by mail. It's not a lot of money, just around US$1150 for the two of us including actual meal costs, our flight from Phnom Penh to Hong Kong and flight change/cancellation charges.  

[ontheweb]

3 hours ago, tamadig2001 said:

Thank you both for your reply. I sent my claim form attached with the relevant receipts by email twice. Perhaps I should send it to them again by mail. It's not a lot of money, just around US$1150 for the two of us including actual meal costs, our flight from Phnom Penh to Hong Kong and flight change/cancellation charges.  

And follow the advice of sending it return receipt requested so you have proof that they did receive it.

[tamadig2001]

9 hours ago, ontheweb said:

And follow the advice of sending it return receipt requested so you have proof that they did receive it.

 

Thank you. Here in Canada this means sending it by registered mail.

[ToBe]

21 hours ago, tamadig2001 said:

Just wondering if anyone has been reimbursed by Holland America for per diem expenses at the hotel in Cambodia and flight cancellation charges, etc. It's been more than seven months and I haven't received anything, despite emails and queries on their Twitter page. Their social media people keep promising to ask their guest relations staff to follow up, but so far no word.

 We received all our expenses back months ago. We had no expenses at the hotel since HAL covered everything the one night we were there.  United and Delta gave us everything back but Emirates did not so HAL did. HAL paid for our flight home. I sent a copy of the ticket we could not use and the note from the credit card saying that they could not refund the expense since the ticket was nonrefundable. 

We had quite an adventure.  I don't twitter.

[tamadig2001]

1 hour ago, ToBe said:

 We received all our expenses back months ago. We had no expenses at the hotel since HAL covered everything the one night we were there.  United and Delta gave us everything back but Emirates did not so HAL did. HAL paid for our flight home. I sent a copy of the ticket we could not use and the note from the credit card saying that they could not refund the expense since the ticket was nonrefundable. 

We had quite an adventure.  I don't twitter.

 

Thank you so much. I am re-sending my claim by regular mail, registered, tomorrow.

[USN59-79]

15 hours ago, tamadig2001 said:

 

Thank you so much. I am re-sending my claim by regular mail, registered, tomorrow.

One thing I didn't mention was that along with the receipts for each expense, I also included a page with a short explanation describing each expense as the form doesn't provide room for that.  That gave the auditor info such as why I was claiming for a cancelled flight from Taipei to Hong Kong, for example.

[tamadig2001]

3 hours ago, USN59-79 said:

One thing I didn't mention was that along with the receipts for each expense, I also included a page with a short explanation describing each expense as the form doesn't provide room for that.  That gave the auditor info such as why I was claiming for a cancelled flight from Taipei to Hong Kong, for example.

 

Thank you. I did that too in my email/letter to explain the ticket reissue and cancellation charges I paid to my frequent flyers program for changing the flight from Narita (Tokyo) to Bangkok and finally cancelling it altogether. I also included a screen shot of the airline's policy taken from the web page. 

[DeeDee Groff]

12 hours ago, USN59-79 said:

One thing I didn't mention was that along with the receipts for each expense, I also included a page with a short explanation describing each expense as the form doesn't provide room for that.  That gave the auditor info such as why I was claiming for a cancelled flight from Taipei to Hong Kong, for example.

 

Same here

[AliceS]

On 9/30/2020 at 10:17 PM, KirkNC said:

Between the color and the font I find your post very difficult to read, just saying...

 

very hard to read

[KirkNC]

4 hours ago, AliceS said:

 

very hard to read

I just skip them.