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Refund Status for canceled cruises: Retitled after merges


lahore
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7 hours ago, Cruise Raider said:

 

Sadly, I think you are spot on!  I have no desire to put my money into a big black hole not knowing if I will ever get it back.  I was willing to wait patiently for 30 days because I think that is reasonable.  I kept seeing the Princess apologists saying, 'give them a break, this is unprecedented ... they are working as hard and as fast as they can'.  But, if that were true, you'd have seen some progress before this week.  I am still so happy to see some movement for refunds starting up, just this week, though.  It was a financial decision but to leave us waiting and wondering for so long, it really damaged their reputation.  To be fair, though, we are all stuck at home with nothing else to do but to just stew about it.  hahaha!!  That one's on me!  

 

And stewing is what I am doing!! I was one of the cheerleaders, but no more!  
We chose Option 1. And while it doesn’t cost Princess a dime at this point to give us the FCCs, they still haven’t done so 70 days since confirmation of our option choice!

They have not issued a refund to our credit card for overcharges on our folio either.

So explain THAT, Princess!

 

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Dear all

 

We cancelled our August cruise from Hong Kong to Australia on March 8 as we could see the writing on the wall that it was not going to be a viable option. We lost a future cruise credit and $100 as we cancelled outside the 181 days. I decided to challenge them on this and was informed by email that they would refund us both the FCC and our $100 to our credit card. Of course the credit card refund did not happen in the 48-72 hours as promised in the email but the FCC did and I have since used it on a future cruise (fingers crossed). However today when checking my credit card there was a lovely $101.10 from Princess Cruises processed. So I can honestly say I was very much doubtful that I would see my refund and although it is small I have got it. So the moral is they are paying up and it may take longer than we are used to or like but just give them a go. Other people I know who booked through TA's for trips here in Australia are having to fight to get their money back and all they do is ignore their customers, or their phone calls and emails. Hope everyone gets a good outcome like I did eventually.

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1 hour ago, MarkieMark16 said:

It’s another “hold your horses cowboy” email from Jan.  Second one this month.  
 

Dear Mark,

We want you to know that we hear you and understand your frustration with the time it is taking to receive your refund. Rest assured we’ve received your request, and it’s in our queue.

As of Friday, May 15 we have refunded millions of dollars of cruises and we continue working through our back log. Our reservation and payment systems were not designed to handle this volume of refunds in a short period of time, and it is taking longer than we wanted. 

As we respect our guest’s money and time, we have increased the number of team members supporting this enormous effort and have made modifications to our systems. These modifications have increased our capacity to process these refunds and we should be issuing at a faster rate beginning this week. 

Thank you for your patience in these extraordinary circumstances. We hope you and your loved ones are staying healthy and safe during this difficult time. 

Sincerely, 

Jan Swartz signature
Jan Swartz

President

 

Yup, I got the same email.  It does appear to be somewhat legit, since there are numerous reports of refunds lately.

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9 hours ago, azbirdmom said:

I don't see this update on their website yet but Princess just updated their FB page with this announcement - sure hope it won't be much longer!  

 

image.png.0b59a9f65cc595994c4b75241e4e3cf4.png

 

 

We just received this via email to our email addresses.

 

I have not checked our Captains Circle accounts for the past 10 days.  Earlier tonight I checked them tonight - saw the $100 FCD is returned to our accounts.  No 25% FCC yet. 

 

Then 2 hours later received an email with identical content as above - Subject line is "an update on your refund".  Of course it has no substance whatsoever - i.e. not really an update.

 

We do not receive the earlier email reported in either this thread or the other refund thread.  This is the only email we received after the initial Refund Request Receipt that came after we submitted our option 2 on March 16, for Apr 11 Sky Princess Transatlantic to St. Petersburg.

 

Since our cruise is booked with Chase Ultimate Reward points,  the original payment card is Chase Reward card (the corporate card of Chase/Expedia), I would not be able to tell when refund would be issued.  However Loyalty Travel reps told me when they receive refunds from cruise lines, there are all specifics attached to the refund notice, and it is very easy to match the customer's account.  So I would just let this work thru the system - and follow up in 2 weeks time.

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8 hours ago, ceilidh1 said:

I say again, the lack of communication, consistency, and transparency has been far more frustrating than the wait for the refund. They STILL maintain they are going by order of sail date, but those of us still waiting on March sailings are proof that is not the case. I have sent emails, reached out on social media, called, and used their chat feature and still have not received anything consistent from them. 


I agree completely with your analysis ceilidh1.  Any company can run into challenges that sometimes, like now, are not of their making.   Regardless of the cause, when customers are heavily impacted by a problem in a negative way a good company will develop a mitigation strategy based on strong, clear communication and as much transparency as possible.  This is where Princess missed the mark and has incurred damage to its reputation.  It is a sign of poor management decision making.  Even the email today (aptly referred to in this thread as the “hold your horses” email) was, IMHO, a strategic mistake.  For the many who are still waiting for refunds, this note didn’t give them enough information.  Had it included something about the timelines and honesty about the approach to the refund process it could have mitigated some of the damage that has been done to Princess’s reputation.

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3 hours ago, MarkieMark16 said:

It’s another “hold your horses cowboy” email from Jan.  Second one this month.  
 

Dear Mark,

We want you to know that we hear you and understand your frustration with the time it is taking to receive your refund. Rest assured we’ve received your request, and it’s in our queue.

As of Friday, May 15 we have refunded millions of dollars of cruises and we continue working through our back log. Our reservation and payment systems were not designed to handle this volume of refunds in a short period of time, and it is taking longer than we wanted. 

As we respect our guest’s money and time, we have increased the number of team members supporting this enormous effort and have made modifications to our systems. These modifications have increased our capacity to process these refunds and we should be issuing at a faster rate beginning this week. 

Thank you for your patience in these extraordinary circumstances. We hope you and your loved ones are staying healthy and safe during this difficult time. 

Sincerely, 

Jan Swartz signature
Jan Swartz

President

 

Yet again, another email I didn't get....

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1 minute ago, Carnevale said:


I agree completely with your analysis ceilidh1.  Any company can run into challenges that sometimes, like now, are not of their making.   Regardless of the cause, when customers are heavily impacted by a problem in a negative way a good company will develop a mitigation strategy based on strong, clear communication and as much transparency as possible.  This is where Princess missed the mark and has incurred damage to its reputation.  It is a sign of poor management decision making.  Even the email today (aptly referred to in this thread as the “hold your horses” email) was, IMHO, a strategic mistake.  For the many who are still waiting for refunds, this note didn’t give them enough information.  Had it included something about the timelines and honesty about the approach to the refund process it could have mitigated some of the damage that has been done to Princess’s reputation.

I didn't even get the email. Or any of the previous communications. All I have received from them is the confirmation of my option 1 choice on March 12th. And many sales emails.

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Just now, ceilidh1 said:

I didn't even get the email. Or any of the previous communications. All I have received from them is the confirmation of my option 1 choice on March 12th. And many sales emails.


I am sorry to hear that.  While I think today’s email with its lack of specificity on the status of the refund process runs the risk of further frustrating those waiting for a refund (as it did for us), it is hard to understand why the strategy at Princess is to send it to some and not all who are waiting for a refund.  I expect that not getting it when others have isn’t a nice place to be.

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We are Australian cruisers and have cruised with cruise companies under the Carnival Corporation banner for the last 20 years. We had 3 cruise booked with Princess Cruises this year of which 2 have been officially cancelled (May, July) but we are sure the 3rd (Sep) will be.

 

Spoke to Princess last week and whilst the person I spoke to was very pleasant she could not give me any idea of when we may get anything. Apparently all refunds are being handled in the USA and the Australian operation has no idea of how processing is being done.

 

If Princess still maintain that they are processing by cruise departure date order why can they not just post on their website what date they up to - this would save a lot of discussion on the various forums and save a lot of unnecessary communication with Princess. It may help Princess regain some of the lost loyalty that they had. Most fair and reasonable people accept that nobody can plan for the Covid-19 pandemic but transparency and better communication will help.

 

Edited by Jandaville
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We were duevtovvsail in May but that became impossible becausen of travel bans so Princess encouraged to rebook for later in this year, now theyve cancelled that too.  Am getting nowhere with a refund.  Do not want fcc as they have proved how greedy and uncaring they really are.  Will never travel with them in the future.  All this tosh about how difficult things are for them cuts no ice with me when they are sitting deliberately on 22k of my hard earned money.

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7 hours ago, suzyed said:

And stewing is what I am doing!! I was one of the cheerleaders, but no more!  
We chose Option 1. And while it doesn’t cost Princess a dime at this point to give us the FCCs, they still haven’t done so 70 days since confirmation of our option choice!

They have not issued a refund to our credit card for overcharges on our folio either.

So explain THAT, Princess!

 

We, like you, were mid-cruise when everything went sideways in March. We, like you, chose Option 1, and have seen nothing. Also, we have $750 of refundable OBC owing and $500 owing for a cabin upgrade for our final 10 days aboard the Crown that we never got to use.

 

Now, I just heard that someone who was on the World Cruise on the Pacific was told by Princess that their FCC/refunds claims were considered "In Transit" claims and would be dealt with last.

 

Perhaps that is what is happening to us? We are now 66+ days from being booted off the ship, and 70+ days from being told that our cruise was ending early.

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11 hours ago, azbirdmom said:

 

If things are as messed up as they have seemed, I would not be surprised if some double payments occurred.  I hope not but it's been a giant mess and stranger things have happened.

All things considered, I don't think it has been that bad.  We got our FCC several weeks ago and expect the refund by the end of May.  In the meantime, everyone we've dealt with at Princess has been friendly, knowledgeable and efficient.  That said, ours was a pretty standard booking.  No B2B, no airfare, no hotel.  The only thing remotely difficult was reconfiguring cabins for the 7 of us in a manner to efficiently use everyone's FCC since it follows the passenger.  The Rep handling that did a great job wit that.  I'm nearing the end of a 40+ year IT career so maybe it's just that I have a little better understanding of the challenges Princess is facing.

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I was booked on the Regal for a March 15th, 7 day cruise out of Ft Lauderdale. I got cancelled automatically when Princess announced the stop in operations on March 12th. I have not gotten a FCC nor credit card refund yet. I should be getting both since I chose option 2. I have gotten a couple of emails from Princess though. This is the latest one. It doesn't really say much and the comment about "refunding millions of dollars" means nothing. If a cruise ship has 3000 rooms and people pay an average of $2000 a room, that is $6M from one ship for one cruise! Doing some really rough math, Princess has 17 ships. If we assume an average of 1500 rooms per ship and from March 12th to July 30 is 20 weeks of cruises cancelled, that means they need to refund 510,000 cabins!

 

 

We want you to know that we hear you and understand your frustration with the time it is taking to receive your refund. Rest assured we’ve received your request, and it’s in our queue.

As of Friday, May 15 we have refunded millions of dollars of cruises and we continue working through our back log. Our reservation and payment systems were not designed to handle this volume of refunds in a short period of time, and it is taking longer than we wanted.

As we respect our guest’s money and time, we have increased the number of team members supporting this enormous effort and have made modifications to our systems. These modifications have increased our capacity to process these refunds and we should be issuing at a faster rate beginning this week.

Thank you for your patience in these extraordinary circumstances. We hope you and your loved ones are staying healthy and safe during this difficult time.

 

Sincerely,

Jan Swartz signature
Jan Swartz

President

 
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45 minutes ago, chrysalis said:

 

Now, I just heard that someone who was on the World Cruise on the Pacific was told by Princess that their FCC/refunds claims were considered "In Transit" claims and would be dealt with last.

 

 

If this is true, what a truly stupid thing to do.  Antagonizing your (likely) most affluent customers?  Geez...

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59 minutes ago, chrysalis said:

 

 

Now, I just heard that someone who was on the World Cruise on the Pacific was told by Princess that their FCC/refunds claims were considered "In Transit" claims and would be dealt with last.

 

Perhaps that is what is happening to us? We are now 66+ days from being booted off the ship, and 70+ days from being told that our cruise was ending early.

Well that is a new excuse !  we  too were in transit 8 days of 28.

so maybe now 60 days from debark  18Mar but 60 working days would be mid June.

For us they are baulking at the Air fair Sydney - London and they dont seem able to get their heads round the percentage applicable  It could be 70 80 or 85%  They had people going   Brisbane - Brisbane    Sydney to Sydney and Sydney to Brizbane.(26d 70%)

We and our TA have been  trying explain for weeks that those who cruised for the shortest number of days should get the highest percentage as they missed more of the cruise than those who had been on the longest. So really it is a case of incompetance from Swartz through to refund team.

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57 minutes ago, fairmontracer said:

I was booked on the Regal for a March 15th, 7 day cruise out of Ft Lauderdale. I got cancelled automatically when Princess announced the stop in operations on March 12th. I have not gotten a FCC nor credit card refund yet. I should be getting both since I chose option 2. I have gotten a couple of emails from Princess though. This is the latest one. It doesn't really say much and the comment about "refunding millions of dollars" means nothing. If a cruise ship has 3000 rooms and people pay an average of $2000 a room, that is $6M from one ship for one cruise! Doing some really rough math, Princess has 17 ships. If we assume an average of 1500 rooms per ship and from March 12th to July 30 is 20 weeks of cruises cancelled, that means they need to refund 510,000 cabins!

 

 

 

Plus every passenger in the cabin has to be calculated separately as charges are put on some not all etc. Why they have to do everyone manually before entering it in the system.

have to check everyone for chargebacks too.

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1 hour ago, chrysalis said:

We, like you, were mid-cruise when everything went sideways in March. We, like you, chose Option 1, and have seen nothing. Also, we have $750 of refundable OBC owing and $500 owing for a cabin upgrade for our final 10 days aboard the Crown that we never got to use.

 

Now, I just heard that someone who was on the World Cruise on the Pacific was told by Princess that their FCC/refunds claims were considered "In Transit" claims and would be dealt with last.

 

Perhaps that is what is happening to us? We are now 66+ days from being booted off the ship, and 70+ days from being told that our cruise was ending early.

May apply to us too, not that anyone told us that. We were on the Coral (32 days) when the “pause” happened and ore cruise ends in early. We couldn’t fly home from Buenos Aries so we had to stay onboard but assured that it was “not a cruise” for the last 18 days. We chose Option 1 and nothing 70 days after we got confirmation of our choice.

plus no refund for overcharges on our folio.

Thank God, I thought to use up ALL my OBC before we left the ship!

 

Edited by suzyed
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57 minutes ago, LDVinNC said:

 

If this is true, what a truly stupid thing to do.  Antagonizing your (likely) most affluent customers?  Geez...

It's really not an unusual procedure to deal with exceptions after the normal (?) situations are complete.  I think that may be what's happening with some of the cases folks have mentioned here.  We ran into the same sort of thing with the IRS several years ago.  THEY input our return incorrectly, effectively doubling our income.  The return didn't balance so they put it aside until tax season was over.  What we don't know with Princess is how they determine what is normal and what is not.  Does the software kick them out or is it manual?

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2 hours ago, fairmontracer said:

 It doesn't really say much and the comment about "refunding millions of dollars" means nothing. If a cruise ship has 3000 rooms and people pay an average of $2000 a room, that is $6M from one ship for one cruise! Doing some really rough math, Princess has 17 ships. If we assume an average of 1500 rooms per ship and from March 12th to July 30 is 20 weeks of cruises cancelled, that means they need to refund 510,000 cabins!

 

 

The CEO of CCL said publicly that 'only' 38% of passengers across all their brands had requested refunds, so the number of people they need to process refunds for should be far less than your estimate.  

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Just received this e.mail from PVP at Princess in response to my request for an update.

 

Given the volume of requests and the care being dedicated to make sure each booking is handled accurately, we appreciate your patience during this time. Refunds will be processed and prioritized by sailing date of the cancelled voyage (earliest ones first) and FCCs will be created in the order of when the guest preference was received. Please know that we are doing everything in our power to expedite where possible.

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24 minutes ago, Paula_MacFan said:

 

The CEO of CCL said publicly that 'only' 38% of passengers across all their brands had requested refunds, so the number of people they need to process refunds for should be far less than your estimate.  

But every persons still needs to be done to refund FCC, FCD, OBC even if only 38% requested cash or CC refunds.

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13 hours ago, MarkieMark16 said:

It’s another “hold your horses cowboy” email from Jan.  Second one this month.  
 

Dear Mark,

We want you to know that we hear you and understand your frustration with the time it is taking to receive your refund. Rest assured we’ve received your request, and it’s in our queue.

As of Friday, May 15 we have refunded millions of dollars of cruises and we continue working through our back log. Our reservation and payment systems were not designed to handle this volume of refunds in a short period of time, and it is taking longer than we wanted. 

As we respect our guest’s money and time, we have increased the number of team members supporting this enormous effort and have made modifications to our systems. These modifications have increased our capacity to process these refunds and we should be issuing at a faster rate beginning this week. 

Thank you for your patience in these extraordinary circumstances. We hope you and your loved ones are staying healthy and safe during this difficult time. 

Sincerely, 

Jan Swartz signature
Jan Swartz

President

 

We received the same two notices. We are still waiting for our refunds for March 08, 2020 and April 04, 2020 cruises.

 

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On 5/20/2020 at 9:28 AM, l1222 said:

Our cruise was scheduled for April 5th.  I made the request for Option 2 on March 12th.  Just now the amount for the cruise + EZ Air has been credited to our account.  This is good news, yes.  We are still owed the funds for 4 excursions.

Excursion credit came through last night, May 20th (it says it was sent on April 21).  FCC is showing accurately on our Princess accounts. So, onward. Hoping to cruise again.

5BD2E04B-F075-4E22-AC7E-AD945B474A97.jpeg

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