Azamara refund problems (merged)

[suzyluvs2cruise]

1 minute ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Not only are they not getting commission, but having to pay commission back. My daughter is a self employed travel agent and is working very hard on helping clients get refunds or credits for cancelled holidays of all types, including cruises. She is generally paid her commission just after the final balance is paid, so if the holiday is cancelled by the company or by the client, and the client wants a refund rather than a credit, she has to pay the commission back. That means she’s working hard for minus money. At least the UK governments grant of 80% for three months will help a little.

 

I'm not sure how it works in the UK but here we've been told that TA commissions for RCCL cruises will be paid for both the cancelled and rebooked cruises. When...well that's another question. 

[Grandma Cruising]

Just now, suzyluvs2cruise said:

 

I'm not sure how it works in the UK but here we've been told that TA commissions for RCCL cruises will be paid for both the cancelled and rebooked cruises. When...well that's another question. 

I’ll mention that to her. It’s certainly not the case for lots of land based holidays!

[blag]

3 hours ago, suzyluvs2cruise said:

 

If your cruise is paid in full that's good advice but many of us have cruises with final payments approaching soon. Many of those sailings will not sail and I, for one, don't want to put more $$ out just to have to wait in line for a refund. Yes...we're trying to be patient....but also would appreciate some honesty from the cruise lines in cancelling those cruises they know will not sail. 

The cruise lines will use your money to finance refunds for cruises already cancelled. This is another reason why Azamara will roll out cancellations only a month at a time. 

You pay your balance 90 or more days in advance, the cancellation comes 40-60 days later, and then you wait who knows how much longer for your refund. (Being pessimistic, but I reckon you might wait as long 90 days between claim and full repayment) 

[Baynanno1]

6 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

 

 There is no benefit to cancelling yourself; the deal is always better if you wait for the cruise line to cancel.

 

I beg to differ Host Jazzbeau.

There are numerous posts in various threads on this Forum by people who have cancelled their own future cruises and been fully paid out in relatively short periods of time, as short as 5 days and perhaps as long as 3 weeks.

 

Yet we, who had no say in the matter of having our 17th March cruise cancelled just a week before it was due to sail are still waiting for our refund 63 days later!

 

Also, although we received FCC a month after cancellation for our 28th March cruise, we have not received $$$$ for ports, fees & taxes which are considerable cruising through the Suez Canal.

 

For that cancellation we had the option of full refund or 125%FCC. We chose the FCC because we definitely intend to cruise again with Azamara and we thought that a FCC would help ease their cash flow situation.

[Grandma Cruising]

10 hours ago, suzyluvs2cruise said:

 

I'm not sure how it works in the UK but here we've been told that TA commissions for RCCL cruises will be paid for both the cancelled and rebooked cruises. When...well that's another question. 

I think this only applies where an FCC is given, not where a client asks for and is (eventually) given a refund.

[uktog]

26 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

I think this only applies where an FCC is given, not where a client asks for and is (eventually) given a refund.

Which explains why some agents are not explaining the refund option in full.  It’s understandable on all sides why that’s happening. Self employed people in all walks of life are the hardest hit just now, it goes well beyond the travel industry. 

[BerniceH]

On 5/12/2020 at 7:59 AM, Grandma Cruising said:

Not only are they not getting commission, but having to pay commission back. My daughter is a self employed travel agent and is working very hard on helping clients get refunds or credits for cancelled holidays of all types, including cruises. She is generally paid her commission just after the final balance is paid, so if the holiday is cancelled by the company or by the client, and the client wants a refund rather than a credit, she has to pay the commission back. That means she’s working hard for minus money. At least the UK governments grant of 80% for three months will help a little.

It is interesting that different people are being told different stories regarding commission and laws may be different in other countries.  Our TA told us early on that we will have to pay her commission and gave us a refund figure less the TA commision.  I am ok about it as in my opinion the TA was employed to do a job for me and has done it (and some), but not to pay for a service I have not received i.e. cruise, flights, accommodation etc.  We were booked on a March 28 cruise and an April 14 back to back cruise.  Sadly we are now at day 60 since Azamara cancelled the first cruise and day 49 since they cancelled our second cruise.  At that stage (day 49) we requested our refund (after waiting for our 2nd cruise to be cancelled by Azamara), and not a single $ refunded.  The only correspondence from Azamara was 10 days ago to apologize for the delay and to say that some refunds were taking UP TO 45 days.  Clearly we are well over that now.  It is hard to remain patient.

[Grandma Cruising]

Interesting to hear about how TA commission is treated in different countries. The New Zealand approach seems much fairer than that in the UK.

[combine]

Please note this post is in no way rubbing salt into the wounds of people whose cruise was cancelled before ours and haven't received funds yet, but I think its handy to get updated information and positive news! 

 

Our cruise was cancelled by Azamara on 25March (cruise date 23 April). I requested a cash refund immediately and received an automated reply quoting  30 days. On 1st May another email saying would be 45 days. Someone did post on here (could have been Bonnie.) that this was working days rather than calendar days so my expectations then changed somewhat.

 

Yesterday I received my refund, two amounts, port fees and balance to my original form of payment. There appears to be a difference of £300, which could be a combination of original deposit and or travel agent commission? Maybe this will follow?

 

This has been 33 working days since my original request (excluding Easter) or 49 calendar days. I never made contact  with Azamara again, never contacted my credit card company for charge back, just waited patiently. 

I have another cancellation which is already 13 working days into cancellation period and another cruise in June which hopefully will be cancelled soon as British Airways have cancelled the flights so makes it a tad difficult to get to!

 

Here’s hoping that many of you will be posting good news soon.

 

 

[Baynanno1]

combine I am pleased for you that you have had a positive outcome. It is good to know that someone in the refund department is working.

 

Now, if they could just hook those early cancellations out from the bottom of the ever growing pile . . . . 🙏

 

Our cruise was cancelled 15 days earlier (10 March) and cruise date was 36 days earlier (17 March)  . . . .

 

🤔 😪

[combine]

1 minute ago, Baynanno1 said:

combine I am pleased for you that you have had a positive outcome. It is good to know that someone in the refund department is working.

 

Now, if they could just hook those early cancellations out from the bottom of the ever growing pile . . . . 🙏

 

Our cruise was cancelled 15 days earlier (10 March) and cruise date was 36 days earlier (17 March)  . . . .

 

🤔 😪

Baynanno1 . I hesitated to post as I have been following your  struggles and frustration. But I wanted to report that yes at least someone is working in the refund department and  there is hope. 🤞

[Baynanno1]

11 minutes ago, combine said:

Baynanno1 . I hesitated to post as I have been following your  struggles and frustration. But I wanted to report that yes at least someone is working in the refund department and  there is hope. 🤞

 

It is good to know that someone is out there working, so thanks for adding your experience to the thread. 🙂

[excitedofharpenden]

10 minutes ago, Baynanno1 said:

 

It is good to know that someone is out there working, so thanks for adding your experience to the thread. 🙂

I hope you get it sorted soon because it does look like this one has fallen through the net. 

 

Phil 

[Hamwen3839]

1 hour ago, Baynanno1 said:

 

It is good to know that someone is out there working, so thanks for adding your experience to the thread. 🙂

I think our cancellation has also been lost in all this, Cruise due 24 March from Sydney cancelled by Azamara about the 13th ? March. If there was some order to the refund process it would be far less concerning.

[greeneyedgirl58]

6 hours ago, combine said:

Please note this post is in no way rubbing salt into the wounds of people whose cruise was cancelled before ours and haven't received funds yet, but I think its handy to get updated information and positive news! 

 

Our cruise was cancelled by Azamara on 25March (cruise date 23 April). I requested a cash refund immediately and received an automated reply quoting  30 days. On 1st May another email saying would be 45 days. Someone did post on here (could have been Bonnie.) that this was working days rather than calendar days so my expectations then changed somewhat.

 

Yesterday I received my refund, two amounts, port fees and balance to my original form of payment. There appears to be a difference of £300, which could be a combination of original deposit and or travel agent commission? Maybe this will follow?

 

This has been 33 working days since my original request (excluding Easter) or 49 calendar days. I never made contact  with Azamara again, never contacted my credit card company for charge back, just waited patiently. 

I have another cancellation which is already 13 working days into cancellation period and another cruise in June which hopefully will be cancelled soon as British Airways have cancelled the flights so makes it a tad difficult to get to!

 

Here’s hoping that many of you will be posting good news soon.

 

 

We are in a similar situation. For April 5 sailing received on April 25 two amounts, one was port fees etc., other amount can’t identify as it matches nothing on our original invoice. Total is short around $600 US. Nothing received since (over 2 weeks) When I called Azamara to inquire, they referred me to TA. No response from TA as yet. Very frustrating to say the least. 

[Jimmycruiser]

Just received refund for the September cruise we cancelled on 4/15. Just under 30 days. As previously posted we received refund for August cruise we cancelled on 4/15 after only 8 days. We deal with a large TA so not sure if that makes a difference? Refund was from Azamara credited to our credit card used at booking.

[combine]

Noting that several others have recently received refunds and posted on here , there really does seem to be something going adrift  with some of these refunds. Date order would have seemed the obvious answer but obviously not. Is it country specific?.
 

@Baynanno1 I am so sorry that whilst we have received one of our refunds, you are still having problems. Have any other Australians/New Zealanders received any  cash refunds yet?

 

I am rooting for you as I suspect we all are, that you get an answer soon.

[blag]

26 minutes ago, combine said:

Is it country specific?.

AFAIK there is no evidence to support a refund bias towards one country or another. 

[Ehg]

We were due to take our first Azamara cruise on June 5th. I don't want to rub salt in any wounds either, but like Combine, wanted to show there is movement. The refund was requested on 17th April and we have received a full refund today. I really hope everyone gets their money soon. 🙂

[Grandma Cruising]

48 minutes ago, combine said:

Noting that several others have recently received refunds and posted on here , there really does seem to be something going adrift  with some of these refunds. Date order would have seemed the obvious answer but obviously not. Is it country specific?.
 

@Baynanno1 I am so sorry that whilst we have received one of our refunds, you are still having problems. Have any other Australians/New Zealanders received any  cash refunds yet?

 

I am rooting for you as I suspect we all are, that you get an answer soon.

Yes, quite agree. I really hope you get it sorted out soon, it’s been going on too long.

Edited May 13, 2020 by Grandma Cruising

[Grandma Cruising]

It seems as if, in general, refunds from Azamara are coming more quickly now - maybe they’ve got their act together, with the obvious exception of some early cancellations like that of  Baynanno1.

By way of comparison, we were due to go to Greece on 6th June. We had an email from Jet2 a while ago that our flight there was cancelled and that we could change to a date next year, but that if we wanted a refund we should wait until they got in touch with us. We wanted a refund so did nothing. Today we had an email from them saying they were initiating a refund to our credit card and we could expect it within 28 days. We didn’t need to do anything - no online application, no telephone calls etc. So long as the money arrives within their timescale, this seems to be very good customer service.

Edited May 13, 2020 by Grandma Cruising

[royallondon]

Having been repatriated from Marbella in March by Jet2, I can only echo your comments Grandma Cruising with regard to their exceptional high levels of Customer Service.

Perhaps if any “R” type ships become available in the near future they may consider entering the Cruise market!

 

Refunds appear to be gathering a little momentum.  Let’s hope it continues and that those of us still waiting will soon be rewarded for our patience.  
 

Regards

[suzyluvs2cruise]

37 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

It seems as if, in general, refunds from Azamara are coming more quickly now - maybe they’ve got their act together, with the obvious exception of some early cancellations like that of  Baynanno1.

 

It appears to be the same for Royal Caribbean. We know several who were in the 1st round to be cancelled who have not rec'd refunds yet but many who cancelled later have. Let's hope they catch up and get all refunds done in a timely manner. 

[blag]

3 hours ago, royallondon said:

Refunds appear to be gathering a little momentum.  Let’s hope it continues and that those of us still waiting will soon be rewarded for our patience.

I'd be interested to learn what evidence there is to support this?

(I suppose one could argue that sending coal by barge eventually gets there, and if enough barges are in the water bearing coal, the supply has momentum. But the first barge takes much, much longer to get there than coal carried by train.) 

[diverdan4265]

Hi all just a quick note to advise that we have received our full refunds from Azamara And Royal carribeaan this morning.  These refunds were from the March 27 cruise on quest and  a replacement cruise booked from Sydney in March and then cancelled.  Hopefully this means that all outstanding refunds are being processed.

 

Thank you Azamara and Royal carribean and look forward to cruising hopefully next year.