Refund Status for canceled cruises: Retitled after merges

[mrstmaxx]

We cancelled the middle of March and just received both our refund to our credit card and the FCC.  So it took about 3 months - maybe a little less.   I know Princess is working as hard as they can

[SunLakesBob]

18 minutes ago, mrstmaxx said:

We cancelled the middle of March and just received both our refund to our credit card and the FCC.  So it took about 3 months - maybe a little less.   I know Princess is working as hard as they can

It is great that you have received your refund. I do have to disagree that Princess is working as hard as they can. A good management team would assure that there is a common message for all representatives would have as to how the refunds are being handled. They would also publish a statement to their customers stating the same information. We are frustrated because of the different messages that we are receiving from Princess. With automation and social messaging it is easy and fast to keep passengers informed, if they wanted to.

[Cruise Raider]

53 minutes ago, LDVinNC said:

 

You only mentioned receiving a conditional credit.  Hence my answer.

 

But, it is confirmed that Princess has paid them the money due and they just haven't gotten to closing out the dispute yet as they have so many refunds and charge backs to deal with at this time.  

 

"While my disputes with the credit card have not yet been closed, I learned that Princess has submitted the money to my CC company a couple of weeks ago."

[ChattTenn]

53 minutes ago, mrstmaxx said:

We cancelled the middle of March and just received both our refund to our credit card and the FCC.  So it took about 3 months - maybe a little less.   I know Princess is working as hard as they can

So glad for you.  What is your sailing date?.

We cancelled on late March for June 13 sailing, it is gong to 70 days and still waiting for a full fare refund.  Princess people can't tell when the refund will be but advise us to wait and wait some more just can't trust that they are working hard and took this long.   So disappoint on them.

[ceilidh1]

22 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

 

But, it is confirmed that Princess has paid them the money due and they just haven't gotten to closing out the dispute yet as they have so many refunds and charge backs to deal with at this time.  

 

"While my disputes with the credit card have not yet been closed, I learned that Princess has submitted the money to my CC company a couple of weeks ago."

Confirmed by Princess or your credit card? I have never heard of a credit card taking a couple of weeks to process...a few days is the norm, even during COVID?

[PLGUN]

Has anyone waited longer than 90 days?  We are at day 86!  Cancelled on 10 March for a cruise that was to depart on 23 May.  Wondering now that the cruise was cancelled by Princess if we have to start over with the dates.  What a mess.

[ceilidh1]

3 minutes ago, PLGUN said:

Has anyone waited longer than 90 days?  We are at day 86!  Cancelled on 10 March for a cruise that was to depart on 23 May.  Wondering now that the cruise was cancelled by Princess if we have to start over with the dates.  What a mess.

Cancelled March 10th for a March 14th sailing, so getting close to the 90 day mark...

[lhall85917]

1 minute ago, PLGUN said:

Has anyone waited longer than 90 days?  We are at day 86!  Cancelled on 10 March for a cruise that was to depart on 23 May.  Wondering now that the cruise was cancelled by Princess if we have to start over with the dates.  What a mess.

Yes, cancelled our Feb 13 Sapphire cruise on Feb 9. Filed a credit card dispute May 9, have temporary credit but not solved yet. We received 50% FCC upon cancellation, received the other 50%  last month after contacting customer relations.

[LDVinNC]

14 minutes ago, ceilidh1 said:

Confirmed by Princess or your credit card? I have never heard of a credit card taking a couple of weeks to process...a few days is the norm, even during COVID?

 

Yep.

[nho9504]

Some of you may remember I posted our cruise was booed with our Chase Ultimate Reward points (essentially a 33.33% discount on the $) thru the Loyalty Travel that handles banks travel award bookings with points.

 

Princess said it released the refund on May 29, as many of you posed.  Well the rep said it was sent on May 28, but posted on May 29.  

 

Called Loyalty Travel where the rep said there was no record showing they had received the refund but she would call Princess to check.  She came back with the same info so she put a notation in our booking (they documented each customer's call, like she saw I had called a week or so ago on the status of refund as the prev rep had notated the account.)   It would have to wait for the accounting dept update the refunds on the continuous refunds they have received from various cruise lines which seem to come more frequently lately.  She did say a lot of people were afraid the cruise lines would go bankrupt and so as their money equivalent points... 

 

Hopefully in next week or week after, we would see our points refunded to the account.  We can now redeem for the same value at 1.5c per point thru grocery spend, dining, and home improvement stores thru Sept 30 - a great opportunity to "cash out" those points because for many people the next trip would be up in the air, who knows when, at least well into 2021.

[lanzie99]

The frustration is very high, lots of emails from Princess but no results. We canceled March 10 for an April 25 sailing. We are getting close to 90 days. We have a travel agent but I think he is overwhelmed too. Filled out all the paperwork and wanted option 2, lower value but complete refund. I will not book a future cruise until this is handled. 90 days is a long time to get your money back when we are all suffering right now. PLEASE PRINCESS, hire more help...keep your Platinum members happy so they will book again with you.

[dog]

2 minutes ago, lanzie99 said:

The frustration is very high, lots of emails from Princess but no results. We canceled March 10 for an April 25 sailing. We are getting close to 90 days. We have a travel agent but I think he is overwhelmed too. Filled out all the paperwork and wanted option 2, lower value but complete refund. I will not book a future cruise until this is handled. 90 days is a long time to get your money back when we are all suffering right now. PLEASE PRINCESS, hire more help...keep your Platinum members happy so they will book again with you.

Credit card dispute?

[lanzie99]

Havent done that yet, I so thought Princess would come through and didn't want to get Capital One involved if I didn't have to. I will wait until the end of June, they I will protest the charge

 

[dog]

2 minutes ago, lanzie99 said:

Havent done that yet, I so thought Princess would come through and didn't want to get Capital One involved if I didn't have to. I will wait until the end of June, they I will protest the charge

 

They keep cancelling more cruises. Still have some on here with March cancellations waiting for refunds. Atleast have TA call again and get status &  call too and keep record of contact Incase you dispute. 

[Newbie777]

2 hours ago, ceilidh1 said:

Cancelled March 10th for a March 14th sailing, so getting close to the 90 day mark...

Our exact same dates.  Cancelled March 10 for a March 14 sailing.  Day 86 and we have our FCC but no $$.  

[SCOOTERNINJA]

24 minutes ago, lanzie99 said:

Havent done that yet, I so thought Princess would come through and didn't want to get Capital One involved if I didn't have to. I will wait until the end of June, they I will protest the charge

 

What is the logic here not to involve Capital One if you have been waiting for almost 90 days?  Did you contact Capital One or otherwise investigate any deadline you might have to file a credit card dispute?

 

I just don't see why some would be so willing to advance interest free loans to a cruise company or otherwise risk their significant payments to the worse case outcomes (bankruptcy, etc..).  But then I suppose some willingly provide the US Treasury with significant interest free loans every year so they can get a 'refund'.

[ceilidh1]

4 minutes ago, Newbie777 said:

Our exact same dates.  Cancelled March 10 for a March 14 sailing.  Day 86 and we have our FCC but no $$.  

I don't even have the FCC. I disputed and now have provisional credits on my two cards used and Paypal has ruled in my favour for shore excursions paid through them. Last time I called (2 weeks ago) customer relations told me nothing had been done on my booking and that I should be patient as I would get it processed eventually. This was after being told by a different rep that it had been processed on April 29th. I had really hoped Princess would come through so I wouldn't have to dispute it (in my entire life, I have NEVER had to dispute a charge for anything). Sadly, they have let me down - not as frustrated about the time it has taken, but super frustrated at the lack of communication, lack of transparency, and inconsistent information. They have 100% control over those three factors and have done nothing to help their brand or their customers in my opinion.

[Chips401]

Refund Came!

 

Just wanted to let people know that today our full refund came on to our Visa. We cancelled March 12th.  We were suppose to sail on April 6th.  We received credit for the full price of cruise and two excursions.  We also have been credited on our account for future cruise credits.

 

There is Hope, just wait it out.

[ceilidh1]

32 minutes ago, lanzie99 said:

Havent done that yet, I so thought Princess would come through and didn't want to get Capital One involved if I didn't have to. I will wait until the end of June, they I will protest the charge

 

I will say that Capital One were super easy to work with (or at least in Canada they were). They gave me a lot of really great info and were helpful and friendly when I spoke to them. They gave me provisional credit within 3 days and will contact me if they need more info from me. At least now I no longer have to deal with Princess agents - the bank will take that on. What I found most interesting was that they consider 15-20 days the reasonable timeframe to be refunded if the merchant has agreed to a refund or for services not received. When I told them Princess was saying up to 60 days and now not even giving a timeframe they initiated the dispute immediately.

[PLGUN]

3 hours ago, PLGUN said:

Has anyone waited longer than 90 days?  We are at day 86!  Cancelled on 10 March for a cruise that was to depart on 23 May.  Wondering now that the cruise was cancelled by Princess if we have to start over with the dates.  What a mess.

More information:  I just got off the phone with our big box travel agency.  Interestingly I got an agent I have talked to several times.  She called Princess for me to see what was up with our +$12,000.00 refund with a $200.00 FCC.  We requested the cancellation on 10 March as I mentioned above.  Today I found out it may take another 90 days from the date of sailing.  According to Princess they are going by cruise date, not submission of refund request date.  I am appalled.  

Edited June 4, 2020 by PLGUN
spelling

[LDVinNC]

1 hour ago, PLGUN said:

More information:  I just got off the phone with our big box travel agency.  Interestingly I got an agent I have talked to several times.  She called Princess for me to see what was up with our +$12,000.00 refund with a $200.00 FCC.  We requested the cancellation on 10 March as I mentioned above.  Today I found out it may take another 90 days from the date of sailing.  According to Princess they are going by cruise date, not submission of refund request date.  I am appalled.  

 

I do not believe they are processing refunds in any particular order, no matter what  they say. 

 

 Got refunds for April 11 and May 9 cruises at the same time. 

[ceilidh1]

2 hours ago, PLGUN said:

More information:  I just got off the phone with our big box travel agency.  Interestingly I got an agent I have talked to several times.  She called Princess for me to see what was up with our +$12,000.00 refund with a $200.00 FCC.  We requested the cancellation on 10 March as I mentioned above.  Today I found out it may take another 90 days from the date of sailing.  According to Princess they are going by cruise date, not submission of refund request date.  I am appalled.  

They are not processing by cruise date, despite what the reps at Princess are saying. This has already been admitted by the VP of Sales on a travel agent webinar. In addition, this email came out to TAs just this week:

 

Reality slows down our refund process, here are some information to tell you why refund has been processed not as fast as expected -

1. Our automated refund system in polar was not designed to give options, so we had to disable this feature and do everything manually.
2. Our system was not set up to process this type of volume – guest choices and the need to manually process have created more difficulties.
3. For each booking we have to calculate the refund amount, create the FCC and protect the commission.
4. We cannot work in “voyage date order” as some bookings are more complicated and so much be researched in order to determine the refund amount.  While this research is conducted, our teams move on to process another booking while they wait for information on the previous booking.  
5. Our finance teams are all working from home which slows communications

 

As I said earlier, communication, consistency, and transparency are key - Princess does not appear to have mastered any of them!

 

[SunLakesBob]

3 hours ago, lanzie99 said:

The frustration is very high, lots of emails from Princess but no results. We canceled March 10 for an April 25 sailing. We are getting close to 90 days. We have a travel agent but I think he is overwhelmed too. Filled out all the paperwork and wanted option 2, lower value but complete refund. I will not book a future cruise until this is handled. 90 days is a long time to get your money back when we are all suffering right now. PLEASE PRINCESS, hire more help...keep your Platinum members happy so they will book again with you.

They are also neglecting their Elite members

[Bgwest]

3 hours ago, SCOOTERNINJA said:

What is the logic here not to involve Capital One if you have been waiting for almost 90 days?  Did you contact Capital One or otherwise investigate any deadline you might have to file a credit card dispute?

 

I just don't see why some would be so willing to advance interest free loans to a cruise company or otherwise risk their significant payments to the worse case outcomes (bankruptcy, etc..).  But then I suppose some willingly provide the US Treasury with significant interest free loans every year so they can get a 'refund'.

Right on schedule. 

[PLGUN]

17 minutes ago, ceilidh1 said:

 

 As I said earlier, communication, consistency, and transparency are key - Princess does not appear to have mastered any of them!

 

Thank you for more details.  I agree about Princess.  Even an email from them would be nice.  Instead I continue to get emails to book cruises and absolutely nothing about refunds.  No way!  I've tried to get through the 132 pages of comments but ....