Regent No More

[CruiserFromMaine]

2 hours ago, Pcardad said:

All these threads about the time it is taking to refund and not a single thread about a failure to refund

Nobody will know until day 91 whether there’s a failure to refund or not. 

 

3 hours ago, Travelcat2 said:

Regent can process refunds rather quickly.

Albeit, this is my first experience with Regent, 90 days is not “Quickly”. Maybe they’ve been more timely in the past. 
 

3 hours ago, Travelcat2 said:

However, they need to break out things like paid excursions (and I think they are doing something with excursions paid with OBC's - not sure), taxes, port fees, etc.

Delta broke out miles and taxes in just a few days and redeposited my miles (waiving the fee for doing so, which required an exception processing) and credited the taxes back to my card.  And I suspect Delta has more refunds to process than Regent. I’m sure the fact I was getting mostly miles back and only a few dollars helped.

 

2 hours ago, Travelcat2 said:

Okay - I know as a fact that there are three people processing claims.

That doesn’t seem like enough people to me.

 

Look, I would have the same concerns if I was waiting on a refund from Crystal or Carnival. But in this case, I’m waiting on Regent. From what I can see on various board here, all lines are moving slowly. Which also leads me to believe it’s not a Regent thing, it’s an industry thing. They are all moving slowly on refunds to come up with cash flow options.  

[Travelcat2]

9 minutes ago, JMARINER said:

Yes. Absolutely I am afraid given the current state of the underlying Regent owner NCLH stock and debt. Is is all doom and gloom? For me not 100%. But no one from the company has put forth anything reassuring  about the future of the product.

 

And there is really not much I or any else can do about the situation but wait and hope.

 

J

 

Interestingly, on another board, a poster that has predicted doom and gloom on CC changed their mind after reading Regent's press release (and they gave the reasons why).  It is also interesting that this person did not post the same information on this thread.

 

CruiserfromMaine - we were posting at the same time. Yes - Regent refunds are generally processed in a timely manner.  Agree that three people are not enough but one person would have to be pulled away from processing to train someone new.  I cannot speak to the Delta situation.  I just know that airlines (and companies like Expedia), were literally impossible to reach after our March 14th cancellation (either by phone or online).  We booked our flights with points and my DH gave up after 2 weeks of trying.

 

 

Edited April 29, 2020 by Travelcat2

[Pcardad]

NCLH stock up over 20% today...that is a pretty clear signal from Wall Street.

 

[greykitty]

NCLH furloughs 20% of employees at least through the end of July.  

 

"The furloughs affect shoreside U.S. workers and some international offices, a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement"

https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2020-04-29/norwegian-cruise-line-to-furlough-about-20-of-employees-through-july-31

 

 

[CruiserFromMaine]

53 minutes ago, Pcardad said:

NCLH stock up over 20% today...that is a pretty clear signal from Wall Street.

Great news!
 

Maybe they’ll be encouraged to hire a couple more refund processors. It’s the timeliness, not the likelihood, that concerns me most. 
 

Here is more info on the stock price, from Bloomberg. 
 

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. is furloughing about 20% of its workforce through the end of July after the coronavirus pandemic prompted the cruise industry to stop sailing.

 

The furloughs affect shoreside U.S. workers and some international offices, according to an emailed statement Wednesday.

 

“The ongoing suspension of cruise voyages is continuing to have a material impact on our business, which requires further measures in order to weather these challenging and unprecedented times as well as ensure our company’s future,” Norwegian said in the statement.

 

Like Carnival Corp. and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., Norwegian stopped new sailings in mid-March amid growing concerns about the safety of cruising during the pandemic.

 

The news was reported earlier by Business Insider, which cited people briefed on the changes.

[Pcardad]

From a perspective of stock price, that is good news.

 

[greykitty]

From a customer service perspective, not such great news. As well as for the livelihoods of those workers.  I see they didn't say anything about preserving benefits through the furlough, but let's hope NCLH does do that. 

 

I dunno - I'm not really seeing all those rays of sunshine.  I think the next few SEC filings from any of the cruise lines will be pretty interesting reading.

[Pcardad]

I am not certain any of those employees were in customer service...more likely they were involved in operations and support of the ships while sailing. Plus cancellation of all drydocks (except Navigator) might have some impact. If the ships aren't doing anything, you don't need all those employees.

 

Carnival just got $6B...they look good. The thing to worry about is if there is no interest in a bond issuance...but they were fighting over Carnival so the interest is there.

 

NCLH was a solid, profitable company 90 days ago. This virus will impact it (and the airlines) but the money guys won't throw the baby out with the bath water. Just because the government will bail out the airlines (who typically run well under 100%) and not the cruise lines (who usually run at 100% doesn't mean someone else won't.

 

If NCLH was going to eat dirt we wouldn't see continued positive stock performance. There are a LOT of buyers for it out there to jump 20% today.

[mrlevin]

Since it looks like NCLH may be here for a while, and the July sailings aren't waitlisted, maybe I should book Master Suite on a couple of sailings and then get 125% FCC. I still owe over $70K on cruise next year so $56K plus 25% should do the trick.  The only dangers are that July sailings don't get cancelled (then I would cancel two days in advance for 100% FCC) or if Regent is out of business by next May or if my cruise got cancelled (e.g., sale of Navigator) and I would end up with a lot of FCC. 

 

pcardad, with your confidence in NCLH surviving and your upcoming group cruise I assume you have already done this.

 

Marc

Edited April 29, 2020 by mrlevin

[Pcardad]

We have been booking steadily since late Feb and paid a number of trips in full this week with the next round early July. If they keep cancelling the trips then the 25% additional FCC will add up to a nice bit. 

 

Disclaimer - Both myself and my clients have been buying NCLH stock as well (they are lot more than me LOL). 

 

PS - They are buying in the hopes of actually traveling, not in the hopes of increasing their credit with Regent. 

Edited April 29, 2020 by Pcardad

[Bellaggio Cruisers]

42 minutes ago, greykitty said:

From a customer service perspective, not such great news. As well as for the livelihoods of those workers.  I see they didn't say anything about preserving benefits through the furlough, but let's hope NCLH does do that. 

 

I dunno - I'm not really seeing all those rays of sunshine.  I think the next few SEC filings from any of the cruise lines will be pretty interesting reading.

Out of curiosity, two quick questions for you.....

How many cruises have you sailed on Regent?

Are you waiting for a refund for a canceled cruise by Regent?

Look forward to your answers. 
sheila

 

 

 

[greykitty]

As mentioned previously, recently retired and now able to look at extensive vacations.  Neighbors recommended Regent.  And, in some ways, I'm exactly what Regent, or any cruise line, is looking for - new blood!  

 

Also, don't think Cruise Critics sets parameters on who can post.  

[Bellaggio Cruisers]

3 minutes ago, greykitty said:

As mentioned previously, recently retired and now able to look at extensive vacations.  Neighbors recommended Regent.  And, in some ways, I'm exactly what Regent, or any cruise line, is looking for - new blood!  

 

Also, don't think Cruise Critics sets parameters on who can post.  

I really appreciate your quick answer.
I look forward to your comments regarding your first Regent sailing! 

I know you will love it as much as the rest of us do. 
Sheila

[greykitty]

I hope so!  But waiting til things settle down before putting too much financial skin in the game at this point.  Decades of life in the Big 4 have made me conservative during 'challenging' times.

 

CC has provided a lot of interesting reading and insight into the 'cultures' of various lines.  

[Pam]

I'm going to thread drift just for a minute, away from RSSC and their refund status.  I recently switched my office phone system from an obscure service to AT&T.  The first person I got in touch with was, I discovered too late, a little new to the company; she sold me what she thought I needed, and immediately shipped the phones, even though we didn't have the necessary wiring and it was going to be at least two/three months before we would be doing the actual switch.  The problem with her doing this was the phones are actually cell phones and they immediately began racking up charges, PLUS somehow they connected those phones to cell number of people who work out on the construction sites and don't even come into the office.  It was a huge, huge mess and we ended up canceling everything and starting from scratch; she left the company in the meantime.  We returned those phones and got refunds for them and the charges they racked up.  In February.  We just, in mid-April, got the last of the charges credited to our phone bill.

 

RSSC isn't the only big corporation who takes 90 days for a refund.  Many times I have been told "this will two to three billing cycles to show on your account".  

 

Okay, back to RSSC.

[pappy1022]

Regent doesn't want to process refunds quickly. They, as well as all other cruise lines, are bleeding cash. They want to slow the bleeding.

The fact that Regent has a plan to cut costs and there is some optimism that cruising MIGHT pick up in the later part of this year is fueling the market optimism for cruise lines. As we have seen in this volatile market, you can't make a judgement based on a good day or a bad day. Carnival went down 33.2% in 1 day recently. Carnival also had to raise cash but paid a steep interest rate 11.5% to get funding. There are also some significant risks for the industry: 

(1) COVID-19 sticks around for a long time and we have a recurrence in the fall; (2) cruisers don't come back as quickly as hoped; (3) cancellations continue to drain cash flow; (4) countries and/or governments close or curtail travel to prevent the spread of illness; (5) other business that are part of the cruising ecosystem, e.g.. airlines, don't recover as quickly. I am not predicting any of this is going to happen and I am not trying to be a "Debbie Downer". All I am saying is that there is significant risk. It won't take much bad news to send the stock market down. The world isn't close to being anywhere near normal and we are all part of the great experiment to move toward the new normal with restrictions being lifted.

[CBWIR]

Tranquilizers and a good gin martini will help. Might be worth a try.

[katykrol]

Here was my experience today with Regent customer service. I was on the 2 day explorer cruise that left Miami March 12th and returned on March 14th. I contacted my travel agent same day we turned around (March 13th) which she immediately contacted Regent and notified them I wanted a full refund. They “received” it on March 17th. I called Regent around approx April 10th, after checking with my ta that I didn’t need to do anything else ( she called them again, yes they had my request for refund, but, you know, it could take up to 90 days).  When I called Regent, they verified what my ta said, I wouldn’t get anything in writing until it was processed.

 

ok, fast forward to today. I’m 7 weeks in and starting to get a bit nervous. I know there has been a lot of here about the affordability, but I was a first time Regent cruiser, saved for a couple of years, and this was a big deal for us. My husband got laid off at the end of March (who knew that oil was going to hit the skids), so getting our refund is not chump change for us right now. 

 

So so I call again. First person I talk to says yes your refund is being processed, it will take 90 days. So I say ok, just making sure I don’t need to do anything else. Nope he says. Ok thank you. So then I think I’d really like to get SOMETHING in writing so I call back and get a new person. I give him my booking number and he says, oh you didn’t ask for a refund but a FCC. I said no sir, I can assure you I didn’t. He said that’s what your booking says. So by now I’m thinking the other guy never even pulled up my booking, just gave me standard company line. So I go through The Whole thing with him and he said I do see notes here can you hold a minute. I said sure. 

 

He he comes back on after about 10 minutes and said, well you should have gotten an email confirming that you wanted a refund. I said I never received an email. He said no that’s what I was researching. We never sent it to you. But because we didn’t receive it back from you, we automatically changed your refund to a fcc. I said well can that be fixed because I definitely don’t want the fcc, I have terminal cancer. He put me back on hold to talk to a supervisor. He came back on and said it had been corrected. I asked for something in writing. He sent me an email confirming what was discussed.

 

the morale of the story is that if I had not been persistent, I never would have received a refund, and would have had a FCC that I probably wouldn’t live to see. I wonder how many people this happened too. 

 

I still think 90 days is unacceptable because if they can process our payments in a timely manner then they should be able to process a refund same way. I have no idea what they mean when they say they are being done manually, but I do know from what the customer service rep said today is that a supervisor has to approve each refund, maybe that’s what’s manual. 

 

Anyway thought I would pass my experience along 

 

[cwn]

2 hours ago, pappy1022 said:

Regent doesn't want to process refunds quickly. They, as well as all other cruise lines, are bleeding cash. They want to slow the bleeding.

The fact that Regent has a plan to cut costs and there is some optimism that cruising MIGHT pick up in the later part of this year is fueling the market optimism for cruise lines. As we have seen in this volatile market, you can't make a judgement based on a good day or a bad day. Carnival went down 33.2% in 1 day recently. Carnival also had to raise cash but paid a steep interest rate 11.5% to get funding. There are also some significant risks for the industry: 

(1) COVID-19 sticks around for a long time and we have a recurrence in the fall; (2) cruisers don't come back as quickly as hoped; (3) cancellations continue to drain cash flow; (4) countries and/or governments close or curtail travel to prevent the spread of illness; (5) other business that are part of the cruising ecosystem, e.g.. airlines, don't recover as quickly. I am not predicting any of this is going to happen and I am not trying to be a "Debbie Downer". All I am saying is that there is significant risk. It won't take much bad news to send the stock market down. The world isn't close to being anywhere near normal and we are all part of the great experiment to move toward the new normal with restrictions being lifted.

 

I agree with you and think your #4 and #5 will be the real wild cards going forward. Not many people are going to want to risk closed ports due a possible covid-19 on a ship or being trapped due to canceled flights 1/2 away around the world.

 

We don't have a Regent cruise until early next year, but we don't have any cash out on it as it was booked with FCC. I hope it will be a go, but a lot of questions have to be answered before we set foot on the ship. There is just to much uncertainty. Hopefully some answers will be coming as we get into the summer and fall and adjust to the new normal. With cruise lines sailing their 1000s crew members back home, office staff furloughed, the airline mess and countries locked down, I don't see cruising fully come back for a while  

 

All the cruise lines are sitting on cruisers money as long as they can. We had two TAs, eastbound and then westbound, booked on the Queen Mary in July and return first of Sept. with a land portion in England for 3 weeks. It was a family trip with son and family. We canceled both cruises 8 weeks ago before the first final payment was due and are waiting for the deposit refunds. Our TA says they are  saying 90 days so about a month to wait.

Edited April 30, 2020 by cwn

[greykitty]

1 hour ago, katykrol said:

 

 

the morale of the story is that if I had not been persistent, I never would have received a refund, and would have had a FCC that I probably wouldn’t live to see. I wonder how many people this happened too. 

 

 

 

I am so sorry that in the midst of everything you're dealing with, you had to take so much time to verify, and correct, a process that should have been straightforward and extremely transparent to the client.  I will keep you, and your family, in my thoughts.

[pappy1022]

I too will keep you in my prayers. I’ve always felt that a mark of a great company is how they handle things when things get tough or dont go as expected. So far, I dont think that Regent has handled things well during this crisis. Some will say that all other cruise lines aren’t doing so well either so why pick on Regent. All I can say is that there is a great opportunity for someone in the industry to rise to the top in customer service and differentiate themselves from the pack. I was hoping that Regent would do that but so far they just remain part of the pack. 

[Pcardad]

Having flown across the world and left on the dock, I can say Regent did a wonderful job taking care of me when things were tough and didn't go as expected. I am glad they remained above the rest of the pack and remained in constant communication with me until our flights were booked and we were safe at home.

 

 

[pappy1022]

That's great that you had a good experience with Regent. That happened to me while travelling with Crystal and they took care of me as well. Given the comments on this cruise board relative to their experiences with Regent during the COVID-19 pandemic, not everyone feels the same way about Regent's support and information during these very tough times. I'm not saying that other luxury cruise lines are at the top of their game during this crisis either. My point is that these are extraordinary times that call for extraordinary customer service that could really differentiate a company.

[greykitty]

Somewhere, I think on this forum, we touched on Johnson & Johnson.  To this day I still have an abiding fondness for the company solely because of the way they handled the Tylenol crisis.  They set the bar for product recall under the scariest of circumstances.  Sure, the cruise lines are all in a bind, and sure the slow walk makes sense from their POV - but good communication can make all the difference in how they are perceived.

 

A customer service plus....my Comcast bill went up.  Yes, I'm old.  So last night I thought I'd see if I could obtain a better rate.  Every dollar counts, at least for so many of us!  Went on the help chat line.  Took maybe three minutes to get to a human agent, and three minutes for her to get me to the correct customer retention area.  Twenty minutes later I had my nice new discount.   Now, talk  about a company that has been facing a challenge, with demand for internet et al at an all time high and having to ut so many of their personnel on work at home status.  And the agents kept thanking me for my patience.  

 

And the other week when the landscaping crew cut my cable line, the on line support service quickly identified that I needed a tech visit, which was free, to correct the issue.  I was informed several time of how they managed COVID-19 concerns, and the technician could not have been more professional, more careful about being masked, as I was as well, and had things fixed quickly.  It's certainly been my month to say nice things about the 'cable company'.

 

PS - due to COVID 19 Comcast does restrict certain in home services, but they were out to ensure I had the internet within 15 hours.

 

[Pcardad]

47 minutes ago, pappy1022 said:

That's great that you had a good experience with Regent. That happened to me while travelling with Crystal and they took care of me as well. Given the comments on this cruise board relative to their experiences with Regent during the COVID-19 pandemic, not everyone feels the same way about Regent's support and information during these very tough times. I'm not saying that other luxury cruise lines are at the top of their game during this crisis either. My point is that these are extraordinary times that call for extraordinary customer service that could really differentiate a company.

My experience was part of the COVID-19 problem and Regent did provide extraordinary customer service. Care for my safety and well-being is far greater than a delay in returning some money.