Cha Ching!!! Cash in hand!!

[Jared Purdy]

I checked my credit card balance today and saw a whopping roughly $24,000CDN overpayment.  I called the credit card company to see if the money came via the third party default claim I filed or if it came via the refund as promised by Paul Gauguin Cruises.   Turns out it came through the default claim I filed.  There is a Santa Claus after all.  If you're out that money from a cancelled cruise, and you're not happy with the FCC scheme PG and Ponant are shoving at you, pursue the third party default route.  Clearly it works.

[ABoatNerd]

Great news.

 

I have made a third party as well.

 

Article about cruise refunds in USA Today

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/cruises/2020/05/01/cruise-refunds-limbo-next-stage-coronavirus-and-cruise-saga/3038568001/

 

 

[ABoatNerd]

Got my deposit returned to my credit card 2 days after submitting paperwork to the credit card company.

 

Ponat will not ever get a booking from this household in the future.

 

Anti-consumer practices combined with arrogance.

[Hutchinj]

Congratulations to you both! Great to hear that at least some folks are getting their money back via credit card disputes.

 

I assume that PG cancelled your cruises?

Edited May 9, 2020 by Hutchinj

[Jared Purdy]

1 hour ago, Hutchinj said:

Congratulations to you both! Great to hear that at least some folks are getting their money back via credit card disputes.

 

I assume that PG cancelled your cruises?

 

No, at the time I cancelled PG had not cancelled the cruise for July 18th.  It was my gut feeling, combined with discussions with my TA that led me to be proactive on cancelling.  However, I was told by my TA that many people for that cruise were cancelling.  

 

At the time, PG/Ponant had instructed my TA to let their customers know who were cancelling that we'd get back 90% of the cruise, and 50% of the air fare, but the balance could be used for a FCC within 12 months.  Within a day, I was informed by my TA that PG said that I would be getting back 90% of the cruise money, 100% of the airfare, and 100% of the three day hotel booking that we had made post-cruise on Moorea.  Within two weeks of that, Ponant instructed PG that there would be no refunds at all, that everything would be a FCC for up to 24 months.  I found out about that policy change before my TA did, and I promptly called them to tell them what I had heard form a sales agent at PG.  That's when I took to Instagram and filed the 3rd party default claim. Within a week or two of that, my TA called me to inform me that PG had reversed their policy again, and decided to give me back 90% of the cruise/airfare/hotel money, but that they'd be keeping 10%, which would be non-refundable.  

 

Ya, quite the merry go-round.  It would have been so much simpler if PG/Ponant  had just stuck to the original promised refund, and they also would have saved themselves from the PR disaster that has befallen them.  I truly wonder how they can recover from this debacle? 

Edited May 9, 2020 by Jared Purdy
typos