Cancelled Cruises Refund Tracker/Discussion (merged topics)

[treehugr]

1 minute ago, Flying Hippo said:

We have an email dated March 13th from Celebrity confirming our option to request a refund. I think the big CC companies must be seeing a lot of these because they (AMEX) were not too surprised when I told them we had very little from the cruise line to confirm any of this. 
do you have any similar communication From X?

What we have is the original email (text as well) notification from X stating our cruise had been cancelled. Funny thing, that notification had no link to process a full refund, even though it clearly stated we could contact to request the refund. We actually got the Celebrity link for refund the next day after we requested from our TA (big box). Friends who utilized same TA, actually got the link directly from Celebrity. It's interesting how fast large travel entities (airlines, hotels, excursions, insurance providers, etc) are processing refunds within a few days, and yet X needs 30, 60, or 90 days to process. We filed a refund request for our cruise insurance refund through arguably the largest travel insurer and had our refund within 48 hours. Unlike X, we got an email confirmation in real time after canceling and an update 24 hours later stating our refund had been processed. 

[treehugr]

10 minutes ago, downsmead said:

One post suggested that if your cruise moved from ‘upcoming’ to ‘past’ cruises, then it was being processed. Our first cancelled cruise was in the first batch cancelled and is now on past cruises (sailing date 1st April),  but no monies back yet. 

@downsmead - couldn't find that post. Was that an assumption someone (X rep possibly?) made, or from someone who got their refund soon after? Anyone else imply the same?

[cjcruiser27]

1 hour ago, Ontario Cruiser said:

Cruise date was April 25th. Non refundable but because Celebrity cancelled the cruise it was refundable.

Which I confirmed when I cancelled Mar 24th 

Ontario Cruiser

I’m dealing with that now. Mine was canceled and within the time bracket stated on their web page. It should be refunded to me.

[Flying Hippo]

47 minutes ago, downsmead said:

Flying hippo - you were lucky to get an email confirmation. Those people that used the online form for a refund, received no confirmation whatsoever. We are going on faith that it went through and is being dealt with 🤷‍♀️. On this basis, there is nothing to present to the cc companies as proof per se. 
One post suggested that if your cruise moved from ‘upcoming’ to ‘past’ cruises, then it was being processed. Our first cancelled cruise was in the first batch cancelled and is now on past cruises (sailing date 1st April),  but no monies back yet. The taxes etc should have been refunded in 10 business days! We are waiting at present to see how long it takes, as we have another cancelled cruise after that one.

To be clear - we did not get any confirmation of receipt for our request for a refund. Rather the letter I mentioned was in regards to the cancellation of our cruise from March 13th. I requested the refund that same day and have never received anything from Celebrity. 
X has stated they see my request for a refund but could never provide anything to me in writing. 

[vkb2751]

1 hour ago, thon said:

Still waiting for my refund - cancelled thru their email sent on March 13.  The very nice and helpful rep I spoke to today (unlike the last most unhelpful one!) told me that my refund has been “created” as 2 separate amounts (down payment and final payments) on 7 April and should reach my CC either this Friday or next Friday.  I wonder if this means they only send out refunds on Fridays?  I’ll wait and see.

 

What was your sailing date? We cancelled thru the link in their email on March 13 for silhouette sailing on 3/27/20 and have received nothing yet. I called yesterday and was told they would process the refund on 4/13 and we will see on our cc 10 days after that!

Edited April 9, 2020 by vkb2751

[thon]

5 minutes ago, vkb2751 said:

 

What was your sailing date? We cancelled thru the link in their email on March 13 for silhouette sailing on 3/27/20 and have received nothing yet. I called yesterday and was told they would process the refund on 4/13 and we will see on our cc 10 days after that!

Hey vkb2751 - we would have been on the same cruise as you!  Maybe we’ll meet some other time.  Seems like everyone gets different answers.

[treehugr]

1 hour ago, Flying Hippo said:

I think the big CC companies must be seeing a lot of these because they (AMEX) were not too surprised when I told them we had very little from the cruise line to confirm any of this. 

 

You might be on to something there. Was just reading on Carnival page (refund tracker) about an individual that had been calling / emailing Carnival for a couple weeks and gotten no reply from them. He filed a dispute with his CC and within 24 hours received an email from them stating a temp credit had been issued and Carnival had already replied to the CC dispute inquiry. 

[Flying Hippo]

8 minutes ago, treehugr said:

You might be on to something there. Was just reading on Carnival page (refund tracker) about an individual that had been calling / emailing Carnival for a couple weeks and gotten no reply from them. He filed a dispute with his CC and within 24 hours received an email from them stating a temp credit had been issued and Carnival had already replied to the CC dispute inquiry. 

Yeah I tried for 3 weeks to get a straight answer on when. I’m understanding it takes times and I respect and appreciate the people working to resolve this. However every time I called or my TA called, the answer was different. 
To quote a movie reference... “Homie don’t play dat!”

Provide my money back to me by a certain date, same way you expect full payment from me by X date, and all is well. Don’t play games. 

[mafig]

2 hours ago, treehugr said:

For anyone who filed a dispute through their CC (most notably those with BofA), did you submit dispute online or via phone? Looking online there appears to be a mechanism to submit on BofA. Like most here, we submitted for a refund via the X link, but to date have received nothing to confirm X receiving our submital, nor anything to suggest our refund is in process in some way. That in mind, what does CC / bank require as proof / confirmation of request for refund? We're trying to be patient, but the thought of X having our money for 2-3 billing cycles is concerning in these uncertain times for cruise lines. If that timeline were to come to fruition, X would have had our money for 6 months, when taking into account when we had to make final payment. 

Dh filed for the refund. 

He said he did see where it could be done on line, but he decided he wanted to speak to a person.  

So the hold time was 30 minutes.

I probably would have waited until 30 days (tomorrow) but there was a post here that there was a 100 day limit for disputing charges with some credit cards, and I did not know if BOA was one of them.

So to answer your question all he provided to BOA was date of charge, and amount and statement from us that the cruise was cancelled.

We received the refund the next day......it was noted as "Resolved"

Good luck!

[treehugr]

16 minutes ago, mafig said:

Dh filed for the refund. 

He said he did see where it could be done on line, but he decided he wanted to speak to a person.  

So the hold time was 30 minutes.

I probably would have waited until 30 days (tomorrow) but there was a post here that there was a 100 day limit for disputing charges with some credit cards, and I did not know if BOA was one of them.

So to answer your question all he provided to BOA was date of charge, and amount and statement from us that the cruise was cancelled.

We received the refund the next day......it was noted as "Resolved"

Good luck!

Thank you so much for your reply and valuable information to better make an informed decision. Someone else posted about the 100 day window, which concerns us as well. I'm going to file tomorrow now that I know what is required is minimal. Might I ask, did you make any attempts to speak with Celebrity prior to filing the CC dispute?

 

[hcat]

When we filed our SUCCESSFUL dispute with BOA they asked for:

 

the  Celeb res no., the original booking date, the ship,  our cancellation date, amount due back and the last contact with X that we made to attempt to resolve our issue.

 

They gave us a dispute # and we mailed out some proof of what we told the  Cred Card agent.  Guess it was not needed b/c the refund was posted to our card almost  right away....

 

 

We are waiting a few more days to file another dispute for a deposit refund of $500  that we requested almost 30 days ago. We have been told of 3 sep amts to expect but nothing has come back yet. Very slow....

 

calling them over and over is  a waste of time but I believe you need to try once.

Good luck

 

[mafig]

56 minutes ago, treehugr said:

. Might I ask, did you make any attempts to speak with Celebrity prior to filing the CC dispute?

 

 

No.  Once I read the post about the 100 days I counted that we were at the 94 day mark and sort of panicked.  I think Hcat also had a BOA charge and had just called and cancelled right before we did.

Yes, we also got a dispute number, but they asked for no additional documentation.  

 

Edited April 9, 2020 by mafig

[downsmead]

3 hours ago, treehugr said:

@downsmead - couldn't find that post. Was that an assumption someone (X rep possibly?) made, or from someone who got their refund soon after? Anyone else imply the same?

I thought I saw it on one of the posts on the forum. Not necessarily on this thread. 

[hcat]

1 hour ago, mafig said:

 

No.  Once I read the post about the 100 days I counted that we were at the 94 day mark and sort of panicked.  I think Hcat also had a BOA charge and had just called and cancelled right before we did.

Yes, we also got a dispute number, but they asked for no additional documentation.  

 

Yes..just call the 800 no on your card statement or back.of your card

 

Takes awhile to actually get a human on the line but once I did they were very helpful ..

[Luvcrusn]

9 hours ago, treehugr said:

What we have is the original email (text as well) notification from X stating our cruise had been cancelled. Funny thing, that notification had no link to process a full refund, even though it clearly stated we could contact to request the refund. We actually got the Celebrity link for refund the next day after we requested from our TA (big box). Friends who utilized same TA, actually got the link directly from Celebrity. It's interesting how fast large travel entities (airlines, hotels, excursions, insurance providers, etc) are processing refunds within a few days, and yet X needs 30, 60, or 90 days to process. We filed a refund request for our cruise insurance refund through arguably the largest travel insurer and had our refund within 48 hours. Unlike X, we got an email confirmation in real time after canceling and an update 24 hours later stating our refund had been processed. 

Our cruise was  cancelled while we were on it! We got a letter on the second SEA day. I wonder what group ours is in for processing?! Getting impatient. 

[Tanker]

On 3/20/2020 at 6:28 PM, Bo1953 said:

Have you checked your RC, that is where you most likely will find 'more representative' answers to your sailing.

 

bon voyage

Maybe dump question; what does "RC" stand for?  I have tried to search and no results.

[treehugr]

8 hours ago, Luvcrusn said:

Our cruise was  cancelled while we were on it! We got a letter on the second SEA day. I wonder what group ours is in for processing?! Getting impatient. 

@Luvcrusn - Stories like yours are part of the reason why we'll be filing the dispute today. If X has yet to refund any monies to you, I would hate to think if and when X would get around to us. Other reason is our window to dispute the charges closes Monday I believe. Hope your refund is coming soon. 

[hcat]

I am reposting a post by Baabdawg which was originally posted on the "How are things  going where you are? "   thread that I have been following ( see top of CC Celeb thread page). Perhaps there may be some hope for refunds of future cruise credits that cannot be used under the over 70 medical note  rule...  We cancelled under cruise with Confidence and the credit was part of the offer ( 50 % of our druise fare) so not sure what happens if we cannot get the note???? The post does not name the credit card involved.

 

 By Baabdawg:

"Well we live in the Vancouver BC area. We had cancelled 2 Celebrity cruises, not knowing they would have been cancelled anyway since  travel out of Vancouver and Canadian ports will remain closed down until at least July.  On March 16th, when we read about the recent changes to Celebrity Cruises protocol regarding the  physician's form that must be signed for passengers over 70yrs with underlying /chronic health conditions to cruise, It  was disappointing. My DH and I spoke to our physician and she said it would be impossible for us to cruise within this protocol. After approaching Celebrity and wanting to cancel a cruise we had booked in January 2020, we expected to receive our full deposit back. Fair enough it was a nonrefundable deposit but the Cruise Line changed the rules and through no fault of our own we would no longer to be able to cruise with them. We did not cancel a cruise, rather we no longer fit within the newly introduced Medical Protocol rules. Celebrity only wanted to offer us Future Cruise Credits. But as we no longer fit their criteria to cruise this was baffling. It has been nothing but a merry go round. After sailing for 20 years primarily with RCCL and Celebrity we feel just terrible. Not meaning to be unkind or a downer to anyone, but Celebrity was very cold and even asked us if we might have a friend who wanted to use our future cruise credits. Anyway we ultimately went to our Credit Card carrier and they issued us a credit for the entire dollar amount of our deposit that Celebrity refused to return to us.

 

Life is tough enough currently and this was a very unpleasant experience for both my husband and myself. "

 

[treehugr]

4 minutes ago, Tanker said:

Maybe dump question; what does "RC" stand for?  I have tried to search and no results.

@Tanker - Not sure but I think he was referring to the "Roll Call" for your cruise. I checked mine and found nothing. 

[Perky1]

34 minutes ago, Tanker said:

Maybe dump question; what does "RC" stand for?  I have tried to search and no results.

Roll call

[treehugr]

17 hours ago, mafig said:

Dh filed for the refund. 

He said he did see where it could be done on line, but he decided he wanted to speak to a person.  

So the hold time was 30 minutes.

I probably would have waited until 30 days (tomorrow) but there was a post here that there was a 100 day limit for disputing charges with some credit cards, and I did not know if BOA was one of them.

So to answer your question all he provided to BOA was date of charge, and amount and statement from us that the cruise was cancelled.

We received the refund the next day......it was noted as "Resolved"

Good luck!

@mafig - We filed our dispute this morning. Got through within 5 minutes, so timing is everything. Told us we would receive paperwork to fill out and attach all pertinent info within 7-10 days. Also stated resolution could take 2 billing cycles, which conflicts with everything we've read here. Hope our process goes as smooth as yours was. 

[treehugr]

1 hour ago, hcat said:

I am reposting a post by Baabdawg which was originally posted on the "How are things  going where you are? "   thread that I have been following ( see top of CC Celeb thread page). Perhaps there may be some hope for refunds of future cruise credits that cannot be used under the over 70 medical note  rule...  We cancelled under cruise with Confidence and the credit was part of the offer ( 50 % of our druise fare) so not sure what happens if we cannot get the note???? The post does not name the credit card involved.

 

 By Baabdawg:

"Well we live in the Vancouver BC area. We had cancelled 2 Celebrity cruises, not knowing they would have been cancelled anyway since  travel out of Vancouver and Canadian ports will remain closed down until at least July.  On March 16th, when we read about the recent changes to Celebrity Cruises protocol regarding the  physician's form that must be signed for passengers over 70yrs with underlying /chronic health conditions to cruise, It  was disappointing. My DH and I spoke to our physician and she said it would be impossible for us to cruise within this protocol. After approaching Celebrity and wanting to cancel a cruise we had booked in January 2020, we expected to receive our full deposit back. Fair enough it was a nonrefundable deposit but the Cruise Line changed the rules and through no fault of our own we would no longer to be able to cruise with them. We did not cancel a cruise, rather we no longer fit within the newly introduced Medical Protocol rules. Celebrity only wanted to offer us Future Cruise Credits. But as we no longer fit their criteria to cruise this was baffling. It has been nothing but a merry go round. After sailing for 20 years primarily with RCCL and Celebrity we feel just terrible. Not meaning to be unkind or a downer to anyone, but Celebrity was very cold and even asked us if we might have a friend who wanted to use our future cruise credits. Anyway we ultimately went to our Credit Card carrier and they issued us a credit for the entire dollar amount of our deposit that Celebrity refused to return to us.

 

Life is tough enough currently and this was a very unpleasant experience for both my husband and myself. "

 

@babbdawg - So sorry you had to go through this, but glad to hear you were able to come to a successful outcome and get your money back. Soon the cat will be out of the bag (if not already) and everyone could be disputing through their CC, rather than deal with long uncertain processing windows and the ever changing terms and conditions being imposed. Filed our dispute this morning through BofA. It will be interesting to see how long the refund takes as opposed to cruise line. 

[Bo1953]

1 hour ago, Tanker said:

Maybe dump question; what does "RC" stand for?  I have tried to search and no results.

Sorry t, as a few other posters have said, it is Roll Call...

 

bon voyage

[librarylady19]

Based on the news of a further ban on cruising, I think it’s important to file for a refund ASAP as the cruise lines are going to be desperate to hold onto our money. 
I called my CC Chase yesterday and was told they have no strict dispute limit and the process can be done online. We were on the Apex 5/3 sailing and I only applied for the refund online on 3/30 (I originally took the FCC option then realized how restrictive it was 😟) but I’m not going to wait for the 30 days to roll around and call celebrity and get the runaround others have been experiencing. 
‘In contrast, I was able to get a full refund from Airbnb for an unneeded precruise stay in London online and completed in 5 days. Was very happy with that!  

[hcat]

Hmm. We were going to wait til next week to file..but maybe  tom am.

 

So many things  are delayed including dh defensive driver certificate for reduced ins costs.. We did the course online a day apart. Mine came right away but his  still not here. 

 

 

Edited April 10, 2020 by hcat