Cancelled Cruises Refund Tracker/Discussion (merged topics)

[curleyjane]

My April 4th  cruise was cancelled by Celebrity on March 13th. I received my FCC on 4/10, Celebrity Air & Taxes, fees and port charges was credited to my  card on 5/6/20. I  called  and asked why I did not get my Cruise Care & Celebrity Transfer money back I paid, she apologized and said I would get it in about 2 weeks. Well, its been almost a month and nothing.

[newcruiserdave]

This is simply unacceptable business practice.  I am tired of hearing excuses. "Oh, but there are so many refunds to issue".   I was able to cancel my flights and was refunded in 3 days.  Same with my trip insurance.  There are at least 7 round trip flights that have to be cancelled for any overseas cruise, and yet the airlines manage to treat their customers well.  This is blatant disregard for their customers.  Celebrity could refund them all in a week if they were willing to reallocate their employees temporarily.  They don't care enough.  And who could ever explain how they give 3-4 partial refunds over weeks instead of the total all together.  All I paid to them was deposit and final payments (no excursions or packages added).  But they send me $250 for each passenger when they could have issued the entire amount with the same amount of work.  This is just dishonest.  I cannot imagine how anyone would consider doing business with a company like this.

[harz99]

6 minutes ago, newcruiserdave said:

This is simply unacceptable business practice.  I am tired of hearing excuses. "Oh, but there are so many refunds to issue".   I was able to cancel my flights and was refunded in 3 days.  Same with my trip insurance.  There are at least 7 round trip flights that have to be cancelled for any overseas cruise, and yet the airlines manage to treat their customers well.  This is blatant disregard for their customers.  Celebrity could refund them all in a week if they were willing to reallocate their employees temporarily.  They don't care enough.  And who could ever explain how they give 3-4 partial refunds over weeks instead of the total all together.  All I paid to them was deposit and final payments (no excursions or packages added).  But they send me $250 for each passenger when they could have issued the entire amount with the same amount of work.  This is just dishonest.  I cannot imagine how anyone would consider doing business with a company like this.

I already gave a possible reason why the refunds are coming out a bit at a time just a few days back up thread...

[hcat]

1 minute ago, harz99 said:

I already gave a possible reason why the refunds are coming out a bit at a time just a few days back up thread...

 

 IMHO...

The   multiple reasons or excuses have been difficult for most to swallow.. Holding  onto other people's money past a reasonable time is not acceptable , esp for a big corporation with many assets and high paid executives!

[Wine-O]

I finally got my airfare refunded this morning.  I think that's only because I got my CC involved.  🍷

[Vagabond Knight]

22 hours ago, Blue_Flame said:

Perfect! Thank you for your reply.

 

Just called to arrange my closed-credit-card-to-checking-acct transfer.  I was told it's an ACH transfer and so the official word is 2-5 business days.  Sigh... so many creative ways for companies/institutions to hang onto your money.  

Edited June 1, 2020 by SunsetPoint

[39august]

I have asked to transfer a credit of $19.200 from BOA Visa to my bank account. That was on May 17. Was told transaction would take 2-5 business days. Called again last Friday, day 9, and was told since the amount was so large, it is being "reviewed" (by whom I wasn't told) and would take 10-15 business days. Hmmm. You don't think it is being "reviewed" just to keep that amount wherever they are making money on it, do you?

[patty1955]

21 minutes ago, 39august said:

I have asked to transfer a credit of $19.200 from BOA Visa to my bank account. That was on May 17. Was told transaction would take 2-5 business days. Called again last Friday, day 9, and was told since the amount was so large, it is being "reviewed" (by whom I wasn't told) and would take 10-15 business days. Hmmm. You don't think it is being "reviewed" just to keep that amount wherever they are making money on it, do you?

Mine went through in 1 day but it was a considerably smaller amount

[agathasmum]

We had back to backs on Millennium 20th and 25th April. As soon as Celebrity cancelled we requested a refund. Original timeframe was 7 business days for taxes and fees to be refunded and 30 business days for everything else. On  May 1st I disputed the transactions with my credit card company. Over a period of 2 weeks from 16th to 30th May I had 6 credits to my account from Celebrity for bizarre amounts, that made no sense, but finally on May 30th added up to our total cruise fare.

 

I am currently on hold with my credit card company to say the dispute has been resolved. I am not sure whether I would have received my refund by now if I hadn't  filed a dispute.

[downsmead]

2 hours ago, harz99 said:

I already gave a possible reason why the refunds are coming out a bit at a time just a few days back up thread...

I am waiting for my cruise fare refund, it is over 65 days now. People have received complete refunds for sailings after my one. I am being patient but it is fast running out. I am planning on giving it this week to see if it appears. 

[luv2cruisemore]

Just received $2062 on my Chase CC of almost $6000 due from our March 20 cancelled cruise. From what I’ve seen, refunds seem to come in odd amounts over time. I was told by X last Wednesday, May 27, that it had been processed and it showed up today. As others have mentioned, the odd amounts don’t make sense. Hopefully, it will total out fine.

[Mr&MrsBee]

Finally after 2  plus hours of being on hold and told they could not help I called Celebrity engagement center and with in 30 minutes the FCC was solved and emailed  to our home.  Faith has been restored in X.

[PhillyTravelBug]

I’m curious to hear if this is a frequent occurrence... I filed for a refund once the most recent wave of cancellations were announced and shocked to see the refund already hit my credit card; however, it’s been these weird incremental credits. I’ve paid $1400 for my cruise and had three credits over the weekend totaling $1000 USD. The charges stopped yesterday. 

Has this happened to anyone else when receiving a credit back? Should I wait the 30-45 days they gave me to see if the credit the other $400 back?

[cruisestitch]

Yes the credits come in incrementally. One of your amounts should match your taxes and fees. But then it’s anyone’s guess. There’s a pot of money for commissionable fare, another fund for non-commisionable fare, another account for prepaid perks, another for CruiseAir, and so on and so on.  You should get the correct total eventually, but expect even more dribs and drabs to arrive in your credit card account.

[mailmama]

My refund showed up on my credit card under 4 installments, however it all did come in exactly correct when added together!

[CruisinNole]

53 minutes ago, Joeghartman said:

I’m curious to hear if this is a frequent occurrence... I filed for a refund once the most recent wave of cancellations were announced and shocked to see the refund already hit my credit card; however, it’s been these weird incremental credits. I’ve paid $1400 for my cruise and had three credits over the weekend totaling $1000 USD. The charges stopped yesterday. 

Has this happened to anyone else when receiving a credit back? Should I wait the 30-45 days they gave me to see if the credit the other $400 back?

I have the same issue with Royal Caribbean. I'm short nearly $400. I called Royal and after 1 1/2 hours, the customer representative told me that she had no idea why I didn't receive my total refund. She processed a request for the balance and told me it would take 30 to 45 business days before I would see the credit. If you don't get the credit soon, I would call.

[GottaKnowWhen]

7 hours ago, 39august said:

I have asked to transfer a credit of $19.200 from BOA Visa to my bank account. That was on May 17. Was told transaction would take 2-5 business days. Called again last Friday, day 9, and was told since the amount was so large, it is being "reviewed" (by whom I wasn't told) and would take 10-15 business days. Hmmm. You don't think it is being "reviewed" just to keep that amount wherever they are making money on it, do you?

9-11 rules on money transfers. $10,000 or more is flagged for review. 

[zanderblue]

On 4/29/2020 at 6:57 AM, zanderblue said:

Here is another data point for you folks waiting for a refund.

Cruise on Equinox due to depart on March 21st. Cancelled by Celebrity on March 13th, I requested cash refund through my TA on March 19th.

3 separate payments back to my CC on April 28th. The payments appear to be for taxes and fees, additional charges and the cruise fare, but it’s not entirely clear from the amounts. 

 

 

 

Hi again,

final update to close this out. I did talk to my TA in early May and she suggested to give Celebrity until end of month. 

A 4th refund for the outstanding  amount came back to my CC a few days ago. 😁

 

We we are now considering lift and shift for our trip next March. 

[Al_W]

Cancelled shore excursions on 27 March - X response "You can expect to receive your refund within 30 – 45 working days of submitting your cancellation request " so the 3 June is cut off and no sign yet!

 

Requested refund for cancelled 15 May cruise on 17 April... TA have been advised me it can take up to 90 days for the refund to get to them from X and then they have to process the refund, so I think it could be August before we see any money for this May cruise 😞

 

 

[phbr]

Our Reflection sailing on May 28th was cancelled by Celebrity around April 16th.

 

We immediately applied for the refund.

 

During a call about another matter with our TA yesterday, he advised that he has frequent dealings with Celebrity over the refund issue, and to quote him.'they are all over the place', its virtually impossible to get hold of anyone in the Finance department.

 

He has heard stories of refunds received with 45 days but it will be at least 90 days after cancellation before most people get the money back and then it could be in instalments.

 

[Donut23]

40 minutes ago, phbr said:

Our Reflection sailing on May 28th was cancelled by Celebrity around April 16th.

 

We immediately applied for the refund.

 

During a call about another matter with our TA yesterday, he advised that he has frequent dealings with Celebrity over the refund issue, and to quote him.'they are all over the place', its virtually impossible to get hold of anyone in the Finance department.

 

He has heard stories of refunds received with 45 days but it will be at least 90 days after cancellation before most people get the money back and then it could be in instalments.

 

 

I’m sorry you are having such a bad experience.  Someone else’s $$$ is nothing to play around with.

 

I only have our reservation and our friend’s to comment on.

 

Both got our $$$ back within days of each other (50 days after cancellation For us in 3 credits to our travel card).

 

Jim (hubby) would call late and rarely waited long and he never mentioned any problems.

 

 

i know they brought on staff to expedite all of this when it became obvious they were overwhelmed.  
 

i wonder if they put the Newbees on the phones before they were ready.

[phbr]

7 minutes ago, Donut23 said:

 

I’m sorry you are having such a bad experience.  Someone else’s $$$ is nothing to play around with.

 

I only have our reservation and our friend’s to comment on.

 

Both got our $$$ back within days of each other (50 days after cancellation For us in 3 credits to our travel card).

 

Jim (hubby) would call late and rarely waited long and he never mentioned any problems.

 

 

i know they brought on staff to expedite all of this when it became obvious they were overwhelmed.  
 

i wonder if they put the Newbees on the phones before they were ready.

One other thing our TA mentioned was a wait time on the phone once you actually get through of up to 3 hours. The staff are all working remotely from their usual workspace, which doesn't help.

Glad you got your refund relatively quickly. 

[hcat]

9 hours ago, GottaKnowWhen said:

9-11 rules on money transfers. $10,000 or more is flagged for review. 

Probably should have transferred it in 3 sep requests.

Could have transferred  $9200 and if that worked well, gone on from there. 

They could have requested that Bofa send a check,   but  that route still took longer than we expected!  Eventually, if you do nothing on a open credit card acct, they will mail you a check....they do not retain neg credit balances for long.

 

Now that we have our refunds, we will  be using  another  credit card with a cash back feature.  We still  have BOA Cruise points. Once all the refunded amts are adjusted, we hope to apply   remaining points to a future cruise to reduce final payment or for OBC. We  hope all the adjustments will come through in several billing cycles.   We may also owe $500 for an advance of a refund...what a mess!

[acctgtogo]

20 hours ago, Mr&MrsBee said:

Finally after 2  plus hours of being on hold and told they could not help I called Celebrity engagement center and with in 30 minutes the FCC was solved and emailed  to our home.  Faith has been restored in X.

 

When you received your FCC - did they send you a code or was there an attachment with the email?  I ask as I was sent an email concerning my FCC and it talked about referring to the "instructions and guidelines" - but there weren't any.  I replied to the email but have not heard back.  Thanks.

[jojo1966]

3 minutes ago, acctgtogo said:

 

When you received your FCC - did they send you a code or was there an attachment with the email?  I ask as I was sent an email concerning my FCC and it talked about referring to the "instructions and guidelines" - but there weren't any.  I replied to the email but have not heard back.  Thanks.

my email simply had a code withing the body of the email - it quoted my name and the value and a code