Covid-19 Cancellation Policies

[banzaii]

Are they all that good / generous?

 

Some of us have quite large sums of money in deposits and payments already made to the cruise lines. 

 

Some lines have reduced the usual 90 days final payment to 60 days.  This is good but should be changed to 30 days to be really allow for an informed choice.

 

Some lines have offered Future Cruise Credit (FCC) for cancellations as close as 24 hours prior to sailing.  This is also good to provide cruisers with confidence to make decisions cliser to sailing. 

 

It may be different for each company and I haven't  been able to research them all but from what I have found.....

 

The problem lies with the inflexibility of FCC!

* FCC is provided to each passenger regardless of who paid for the ticket.

FCC vannot be transferred to another passenger once it has been issued.

* FCC has no value if the original passenger passes away before using it.

* Issuing FCC allows the cruise companies to hold onto your cash and is designed to prevent passengers from pulling out of their cruises early to avoid the severe cancellation penalties.

* FCC has no monetary value should it be applied to another sailing that is subsequently cancelled.  So if you apply it to a sailing later in the year that gets cancelled or you get denied boarding, no refund for the FCC value originally applied and no new FCC for that value either.

 

Caveat emptor!

[MicCanberra]

Cruise lines will do what suits their business best without losing too much future business. That said, people should do what suits them as best as they can given the circumstances that their cruise may be in, cancellation with full refund or possible full refund as FCC.

[kiwichick62]

We are cancelling at the stage of 25% cancellation fee with Princess.  That means we will receive taxes and fees, 75% fare and our EZair flights paid back to my bank account.  The 25% cancellation fee will be saved by Princess as future cruise credits to be used on sailings booked by December 31st.  This has worked out well for us as we were going to cancel anyway and would have lost the 25% fee and our non-refundable EZair booking.

 

 

[MicCanberra]

32 minutes ago, kiwichick62 said:

We are cancelling at the stage of 25% cancellation fee with Princess.  That means we will receive taxes and fees, 75% fare and our EZair flights paid back to my bank account.  The 25% cancellation fee will be saved by Princess as future cruise credits to be used on sailings booked by December 31st.  This has worked out well for us as we were going to cancel anyway and would have lost the 25% fee and our non-refundable EZair booking.

 

 

A good result for you then.

[NSWP]

46 minutes ago, kiwichick62 said:

We are cancelling at the stage of 25% cancellation fee with Princess.  That means we will receive taxes and fees, 75% fare and our EZair flights paid back to my bank account.  The 25% cancellation fee will be saved by Princess as future cruise credits to be used on sailings booked by December 31st.  This has worked out well for us as we were going to cancel anyway and would have lost the 25% fee and our non-refundable EZair booking.

 

 

Good deal. All the best to you over the ditch.

Your lunch is served !! Enjoy !

Edited March 9, 2020 by NSWP

[aussielozzie18]

That is annoying if the FCC is linked to each passenger. I paid for 3 of us.  My treat.  I am holding out for Princess to extend the canx policy and was planning to use the FCC for a cruise just for myself locally next year.  If we rebook for Alaska it will be with another cruise line and after 2021.

Edited March 9, 2020 by aussielozzie18

[bazzaw]

2 hours ago, kiwichick62 said:

We are cancelling at the stage of 25% cancellation fee with Princess.  That means we will receive taxes and fees, 75% fare and our EZair flights paid back to my bank account.  The 25% cancellation fee will be saved by Princess as future cruise credits to be used on sailings booked by December 31st.  This has worked out well for us as we were going to cancel anyway and would have lost the 25% fee and our non-refundable EZair booking.

 

 

Cancelling and getting the money are two different things!!! We had our long cruise cancelled by Cunard with the promise of a full refund - no mention of how or when this refund will come and everything has now gone very quiet on the matter!!

 

[MicCanberra]

23 minutes ago, bazzaw said:

Cancelling and getting the money are two different things!!! We had our long cruise cancelled by Cunard with the promise of a full refund - no mention of how or when this refund will come and everything has now gone very quiet on the matter!!

 

It may take up to 6 weeks  I suppose.

[The_Big_M]

If he went through a travel agent, that is about the minimum wait time for a refund.

 

If he booked directly with Cunard though it should be quicker.

[Aus Traveller]

13 minutes ago, The_Big_M said:

If he went through a travel agent, that is about the minimum wait time for a refund.

 

If he booked directly with Cunard though it should be quicker.

The travel agent we have booked through mentioned a wait of up to ten weeks for refunds. I interpret that as ten weeks +.  I am waiting on hold at the moment and think I will be here for a couple of hours. Luckily I have a cordless phone!🙂

[SuitesRbest]

Hmmm,

2 weeks out from our Pacific Dawn cruise out to Vanuatu and back embarking in Brisbane, wife is very worried about this subject and would love to cancel. Got our whole family going (3 cabins) and considering what has been going on I don't blame her for not wanting to go.

Wondering if anyone Knows what P&O Australia's position is on all of this???

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

P&O Australia just have the usual health advisory notice up on their website but no mention of amended cancellation policies.

[SuitesRbest]

8 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

P&O Australia just have the usual health advisory notice up on their website but no mention of amended cancellation policies.

How typical of P&O Australia, without cruise line bashing!! 

[CruiseCriticAUeditor]

Hi all

I've asked P&O for an update.

 

We are updating all the changing cancellation policies here:

 

Cruise Lines Modify Cancellation Policies For Better Flexibility

 https://www.cruisecritic.com.au/news/5151/

 

We have lots of other corona stories which are being updated 24/7 by our offices in Sydney, UK and US - often faster than the cruise lines themselves. If you get any info that we're missing, please let me know! 

 

Coronavirus: Updated Cruise Ship Policies and Cancellations

https://www.cruisecritic.com.au/news/5016/

 

Coronavirus: Which Cruise Ports are Closed?

https://www.cruisecritic.com.au/news/5097/

 

Cruise Ships Banned From South Pacific Islands Due to Coronavirus Fears

https://www.cruisecritic.com.au/news/5048/

 

Coronavirus: What Cruisers Need to Know

https://www.cruisecritic.com.au/news/5026/

 

 

[Aus Traveller]

39 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

P&O Australia just have the usual health advisory notice up on their website but no mention of amended cancellation policies.

I phoned my TA to cancel a Princess cruise, taking advantage of their cancellation offer. I asked about P&O Australia. The answer was that these cruises just go to South Pacific ports. I got the impression that they are not expecting any cancellation offers from P&O Aust in the near future. That is probably reasonable as their cruises go to either Australian and NZ ports or those in fairly close Pacific ports where there are no reported cases of coronavirus. 

[banzaii]

If they are allowed to call at th hose Sth Pac ports

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, Aus Traveller said:

I phoned my TA to cancel a Princess cruise, taking advantage of their cancellation offer. I asked about P&O Australia. The answer was that these cruises just go to South Pacific ports. I got the impression that they are not expecting any cancellation offers from P&O Aust in the near future. That is probably reasonable as their cruises go to either Australian and NZ ports or those in fairly close Pacific ports where there are no reported cases of coronavirus. 

It's not the ports that are the issue. It's whether a passenger embarks on the cruise not realising they had come in contact with the virus and who develops symptoms on the cruise. P&O have obviously spent the last month or so with their heads buried firmly in the sand so they missed all the news about Diamond Princess (which started in a similar manner). Coronavirus is starting to trickle through Australian cities now and the next few weeks will show how badly it hits us.

[The_Big_M]

7 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

It's not the ports that are the issue. It's whether a passenger embarks on the cruise not realising they had come in contact with the virus and who develops symptoms on the cruise. P&O have obviously spent the last month or so with their heads buried firmly in the sand so they missed all the news about Diamond Princess (which started in a similar manner). Coronavirus is starting to trickle through Australian cities now and the next few weeks will show how badly it hits us.

 

I guess they view that as currently not a reason to allow cancellations though, given there's less disruption currently where they are sailing. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

5 minutes ago, The_Big_M said:

 

I guess they view that as currently not a reason to allow cancellations though, given there's less disruption currently where they are sailing. 

Yes, very few litigious Americans on P&O Australia so less pressure on them to offer cancellation deals.

[MicCanberra]

I am sure that P&O will follow suit (Princess, etc) when their cruises are adversely affected.

[SuitesRbest]

27 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Yes, very few litigious Americans on P&O Australia so less pressure on them to offer cancellation deals.

Correct, we Australian cruisers get totally (for the slightly lessor adverse word) SHAFTED in Australia for the cruise $ not to mention the the perks we miss out on.

[DT1304]

For those that are trying to cancel a cruise with Royal Caribbean, good luck getting hold of them.

 

I have been on hold for almost an hour so far.

 

 

[The_Big_M]

The extra load from these large volunteer cruises has also added a lot to their call volume. 

[MicCanberra]

They have always been slow with calls, worse with emails.

[Pushka]

Kudos to Viking. They have cancelled all river and ocean cruises until 30th April. Two options, full cash refund or FCC for 125% of monies paid. If the FCC is not used within 2 years then you get the 100% refund as cash. Amazing.