Refunds - any received to date?

[PandaBear62]

My cruise (Boston to Montreal in late July) was cancelled and I requested our FCC ($100 deposit) on 4-25 and received it today (credit card refund). But I'm still waiting on my FCC from my cruise in February 2021 which I requested 4-13 and still have not received. 

[crzfanatic]

I finally filed a dispute with my credit card company for our cancelled March 19, 2020 cruise. I feel a bit better now.  They agreed that I had waited long enough. 

[Lido - Lanai]

1 hour ago, crzfanatic said:

I finally filed a dispute with my credit card company for our cancelled March 19, 2020 cruise. I feel a bit better now.  They agreed that I had waited long enough. 

Did you happen to ask your credit card company how much their fee is that they charge HAL for handling the charge back ? The hole just gets deeper and deeper!

[Searanger]

20 hours ago, gigianne said:

I just got off the phone after exercising patience and was told by a very nice lady (who just received lay-off notice for the end of June) that HAL had suspended all refunds around the 14th of March for 60 days.  She was unable to tell me where in the lineup my refund was.   I am now talking to my credit card company.  

 

March 14th was the shut down date.  So if true and it appears it is, HAL has been lying to their clients about refunds being processed over this time period.  WOW......This exposes this corporations vile disregard for there customers.  

Edited May 16, 2020 by Searanger

[lizziebargain]

I just got a charge back from the cc company within 2 days!

[OSUTRIKERS]

Well, retired from career in IT, this refund process really is NOT rocket science.  You have 2 categories: full refund or FCC.  The money bucket is there, you know what has been paid, either for cruise or including air fare.  60 days.. I don’t think so. 
 

now with that being said, I have never done a dispute with CC company. How does that work? If we have paid in full, how do they get money back, when we can’t?   

[nyceve]

1 hour ago, OSUTRIKERS said:

Well, retired from career in IT, this refund process really is NOT rocket science.  You have 2 categories: full refund or FCC.  The money bucket is there, you know what has been paid, either for cruise or including air fare.  60 days.. I don’t think so. 
 

now with that being said, I have never done a dispute with CC company. How does that work? If we have paid in full, how do they get money back, when we can’t?   

 

The cc company issues a provisional credit then contact the vendor (HAL) and asks them to state whether the service was delivered. The vendor has 45 days to respond to cc company, after that the cc company issues a non-provisional credit.  The cc company literally removes the money from the account of the vendor. When I initiated my cc dispute they told me they were being swamped with disputes against cruise ship companies.

[iancal]

I don't doubt that the credit card companies are swamped with cruise line disputes.  It is the prudent financial approach for those who are entitled to refunds.

Edited May 16, 2020 by iancal

[croozer]

I disputed my charge for my March 15 cruise, but in my case I hadn't paid for it yet because it was not due until April 7.  Technically, I cancelled on March 13 (six hours) before HAL did, but they either gave me misinformation or deliberately lied to me about the sailing , so I felt justified in disputing the charge, since I did not want to pay for a cruise I did not get just to receive a FCC that may not eventually be valid.  The credit card company put a conditional credit on that charge, and I paid the rest of my bill.  About five weeks later, the credit was changed to permanent and I'm all set, but I acknowledge this is a very rare situation.

[SJSULIBRARIAN]

Cancelled cruise with HAL on March 18th (before HAL cancelled it) and invoked the PPP (cancel for any reason). The cruise was to leave today actually. Received confirmation of cancellation that day and nothing since. It is 60 days since cancellation.

 

Cancelled cruise with Celebrity (to depart July 31st) before final payment on April 24th and received the deposit refund on my credit card on May 10th.

 

Time to dispute with credit card.

[PShelley]

For what it's worth - - probably not a lot - - but my travel agent told me yesterday that, yes, people who opted for refunds are beginning to receive refunds of cruise fares and taxes but the refunds tend to be coming back incrementally - - in smaller amounts that will ultimately add up to the full amount owed.  He said his agency was being swamped with calls from people confused over getting these oddly random amounts, wondering if there were some mistake, etc., etc.   Though he was speaking generically, he told me not to be surprised if HAL would be refunding in the same, strange, incremental manner - - over as long as 120 days, he added.  It is also likely that credit card companies have also been apprised of the incremental refunds over extended periods in connection with covid, a factor we could assume would understandably impact in any "dispute" process and perhaps cause even further confusion and delay for everyone seeking a refund whether "disputing" or not.  It's hard to be patient under the circumstances, but we should please consider the broader circumstances before acting.

[cccole]

PShelley, I am surprised at HAL refunding in incremental amounts.  It seems like it would be better to make 50% of their customers totally happy than to piss off 100% of their passengers.  I understand the immediate refund of excursions and delaying refunds of actual deposits and/or final payments but doing it incrementally is a bit shocking.  And, it seems that it increases the cost of employees making the refunds.  I'm really surprised by this approach.  Thanks for this info.  Cherie  

[nyceve]

2 hours ago, PShelley said:

For what it's worth - - probably not a lot - - but my travel agent told me yesterday that, yes, people who opted for refunds are beginning to receive refunds of cruise fares and taxes but the refunds tend to be coming back incrementally - - in smaller amounts that will ultimately add up to the full amount owed.  He said his agency was being swamped with calls from people confused over getting these oddly random amounts, wondering if there were some mistake, etc., etc.   Though he was speaking generically, he told me not to be surprised if HAL would be refunding in the same, strange, incremental manner - - over as long as 120 days, he added.  It is also likely that credit card companies have also been apprised of the incremental refunds over extended periods in connection with covid, a factor we could assume would understandably impact in any "dispute" process and perhaps cause even further confusion and delay for everyone seeking a refund whether "disputing" or not.  It's hard to be patient under the circumstances, but we should please consider the broader circumstances before acting.

I  filed a dispute with cc company.  I do not think cc companies will be hoodwinked by this incremental refund nonsense.  We are entitled to 100% back of what we paid, and  this is what CC company will recover for us. All the cc Company does, is remove the funds from the vendor account in this case HAL.

[Triger]

From my understanding and after a long banking career; if one disputes a charge and the Credit Card Company agrees to the "refund", it was off set from charges processed.  In other words what fares paid using a credit card that were due to the cruise line and transferred nightly, so before the transfer is completed any "refunds" and reversals are netted out.  Since the industry is at a standstill there is little $ going from credit card companies to cruise lines making it very difficult for credit card companies to off set refunds; and they can't just take $ out of the cruise lines bank account.  So that's why I believe any dispute may now take more time. A credit card company can't afford to give a cardholder $ if they can't be sure they will recover it from the merchant/cruise line.

 

Ultimately it all relates to cash flow and cash on hand. We know that Carnival Corp. had a cash crunch, therefore Holland America, Princess, Carnival, etc. were all limited in their ability to complete refunds. With CCL having secured new financing they now have cash resources, it's now a matter of staff availability (which is being reduced from layoffs) and time.  Personally we are hoping to get our refunds >$11,000, but we are also prepared for the worst.  

[PShelley]

On 5/16/2020 at 5:14 PM, cccole said:

I understand the immediate refund of excursions and delaying refunds of actual deposits and/or final payments but doing it incrementally is a bit shocking. 

My agency representative was speaking generically, so this “incremental” business may not apply to HAL (if, in truth, to any of the lines), but he tried to explain it in terms of the uneven schedule for monies that have been paid out to the many cruise line contractors to supply a specific cruise would be paid back to the cruise line by those various contractors  - - and ultimately back to us.  Sounds reasonable, if understandably complicated.  And if true, I seriously doubt that credit card companies are ignorant of what’s happening behind the scenes.  If they suspect that refunds will eventually be made (as my agent is convinced they will be) who would expect a credit card dispute to do anything more than add to everybody’s frustration?

[JMAUST]

Had a cruise booked Sydney to Asia in Jan21. I doubt this will a goer so I cancelled my cruise in March and received a full refund to my Credit Card in early May.

 

[Janet76]

"Ultimately it all relates to cash flow and cash on hand. We know that Carnival Corp. had a cash crunch, therefore Holland America, Princess, Carnival, etc. were all limited in their ability to complete refunds."

 

That is correct. CCL don't have enough cash flow to refund us because they used our money to pay bills.  Even with secure debt offering, with future Cruise Industry being uncertain, refund is now in the mercy of GOD.

[summer slope]

We received an email today to tell us the check for our travel expenses when the cruise was stopped will be mailed this week.  It's a small amount but something.  I truly believe they will make everything right.

[fred111]

Today is my 61st day since cancelling.  I called HAL and spoke with a very nice rep.  She confirmed that they had my cancellation but she could not tell me when I would be reimbursed or when I would receive FCC.  She said they were working from home and doing the refunds and FCC by hand.  Needless to say, a refund might be months in the future, or never, so I disputed charges with the CC company today.

 

[Calypso54]

Today is also my 61st day since cancelling. I also called HAL, but unlike 3 weeks ago when the rep could not have been nicer, this rep could have cared less. She was not rude. Just could care less and said they were working on it. She could not say when the tickets would be refunded or the port taxes for the other cruise we took FCC on. Said they were working in order of cancel date, but could not tell me what date they were at now. Called bank and disputed charge.

[StLouisCruisers]

1 hour ago, fred111 said:

Today is my 61st day since cancelling.  I called HAL and spoke with a very nice rep.  She confirmed that they had my cancellation but she could not tell me when I would be reimbursed or when I would receive FCC.  She said they were working from home and doing the refunds and FCC by hand.  Needless to say, a refund might be months in the future, or never, so I disputed charges with the CC company today.

 

 

5 minutes ago, Calypso54 said:

Today is also my 61st day since cancelling. I also called HAL, but unlike 3 weeks ago when the rep could not have been nicer, this rep could have cared less. She was not rude. Just could care less and said they were working on it. She could not say when the tickets would be refunded or the port taxes for the other cruise we took FCC on. Said they were working in order of cancel date, but could not tell me what date they were at now. Called bank and disputed charge.

 

Could you tell me when you disputed the charges, did you include the FCC amount?   And did you cancel the cruises or did HAL?

 

We have a tiny FCC amount and a very large refund amount, and I wondered since we've received no notification at all on the FCC yet, should we include it in our dispute?   We cancelled March 17 (June cruises).

[Calypso54]

HAL cancelled our Apr 5th cruise. We received the email on 14 March. I called on 18 march to see if we could use both cabins we payed for as FCC, but they said only the one in our name, not the one in our grandsons name. (cruise for his graduation) So we emailed the form while on the phone with them. 1 cabin with FCC (my wife & I) and full refund for second cabin(grandson & friend). Said refund in 5-7 days. Called 3 weeks ago and spoke with a very nice rep who said that it was going to be 60 days because they were all working from home. We received our FCC on 7 May like a lot of others, but no refund for the port taxes or other cruise. Then as you saw from my post I called today and it was not the same pleasant professional call as the other two.

[Sunsigngirl]

1 hour ago, StLouisCruisers said:

 

 

Could you tell me when you disputed the charges, did you include the FCC amount?   And did you cancel the cruises or did HAL?

 

We have a tiny FCC amount and a very large refund amount, and I wondered since we've received no notification at all on the FCC yet, should we include it in our dispute?   We cancelled March 17 (June cruises).

Since I cancelled totally, and didn't re-book this time, I didn't ask for the FCC because that needs to be applied to a future sailing. I never did file a dispute since we ended up getting the majority of our money back.  I just now cancelled totally, so don't expect to see anything for quite awhile - and, given their desperate situation, maybe never.  I'm hoping they will weather the storm, but when I look at all the ports that are closed right now, I have to wonder where one could cruise to!

[fred111]

I only filed a dispute on the refund amount.  If I don't get the FCC I will file against my cancel for any reason insurance or dispute the charges with the credit card company.  

[BobbiSox]

My European cruise was cancelled by HAL ONE DAY AFTER they accepted my payment for an upgraded cabin. THEY CALLED ME to offer the $208.00 upgrade to a Neptune Suite, and THE NEXT DAY, they cancelled the cruise. My bank was able to reverse my payment for the upgrade, and I have filed a dispute for a the remainder, but I paid so far in advance, that dispute is still in Limbo.  Will HAL they pay me interest on my money that they have been holding since October 2019 and using for something else? Probably not.