Refunds - any received to date?

[kazu]

11 minutes ago, StartrainDD said:

We have considered HAL to be our favorite cruise line for many years.  I have to tell everyone my patience with HAL is wearing thin.  It may not be "All their fault," but I am still waiting for the refund of taxes, port fees, and return air from Amsterdam for our April 6 cruise that was canceled in Mid March.  Mid March to July 4 is getting close to FOUR MONTHS.  Received the FCC on May 7.

 

Sorry to hear this Arie.  I hope things are straightened our for you two very soon. 🤞

 

I’m waiting for refunds from various sources.  I have HAL’s but no FCC yet.  I know how frustrating it is.

 

Stay safe and hopefully someday we will meet on a cruise again.

[StartrainDD]

1 minute ago, kazu said:

 

Sorry to hear this Arie.  I hope things are straightened our for you two very soon. 🤞

 

I’m waiting for refunds from various sources.  I have HAL’s but no FCC yet.  I know how frustrating it is.

 

Stay safe and hopefully someday we will meet on a cruise again.

Thanks Jacqui!

 

You know, I get it.  CCL, like all the cruise lines, is bleeding money with little/no revenue coming in.

 

But American airlines would have already refunded the air to HAL.  That's my money that CCL corp is sitting on (and yes, I am also a shareholder).  The port taxes and fees were also refunded (or never paid in the first place).  This shouldn't be that difficult and as someone who managed a customer service group for decades this is NOT how to retain a life-long customer.

 

I had two Celebrity cruises canceled and did their "Lift and Shift" to similar 2021 cruises.  And guess what, they get to keep my money 'free' for a year, but now I have two 2021 cruises already paid for so assuming we get some kind of vaccine and things start to get back to normal we will have lots of catching up to do in 2021.

 

2020 - the lost year...

 

Arie

 

 

[SLC1954]

Refund received today from HAL cancelled cruise. Cruise. Was to be on the Oosterdam, scheduled 21 Jun 2020, and Cruise was paid in full.  All funds were returned!

[dmcfad2]

17 hours ago, rschlo said:

This has been an interesting topic. There doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason as to how HAL is approaching the refund process. Some cruises cancelled in March/April haven’t seen a refund and others whose cruises were cancelled after that have there money on the bank. Our cruise which should have sailed April 2 and was cancelled the latter part of March has yet to be refunded. All contacts from customer service say the refund is being processed but can’t tell me when I’ll see it. I’m really frustrated and considering what my next step will be. 

My cruise was March 21 and HAL canceled it on March 13. I opted for FCC and OBC. Still have not seen it. I've written two emails, but no one answers me. 16 weeks/113 days. I'm a loyal HAL customer, but I was told 10-12 weeks and here I sit waiting. I have three cruises booked that I would like to apply FCC to. Sigh.

[dmcfad2]

On 7/3/2020 at 10:20 AM, Tennessee Titan said:

" I thought they came before the cash refunds did but apparently not. "

 

Has ANYONE seen FCC before cash refund? I certainly haven't. Got all my cash back. but only promises (and restrictions) on the FCC! and its use.

BTW: MY experience with CC disputes. Merchant immediately stops processing as soon as a dispute is filed...

One would think FCC would come first. Shouldn't be that difficult. Right now I am out over 20 grand. Sigh.

[thyme2go]

I didn't read the entire thread, but did you check your account and look under the new credits area?   Bottom of the list........that's where our FCC showed up.   No other contact or documentation........just POOF!  and it was there about 75 days after cancellation/sail date.    : )

[Cruisegroover]

I have been led to understand HAL are refunding by cancelled cruise sale date but where are you placed if you cancelled the cruise? I cancelled my cruise in April that was due to sail 4 Jan 21 to South America - 41 nights so a hefty deposit as here in Australia we have an indefinite international travel ban placed on us. QANTAS have even retired all remaining 747s and sent all A380s into storage and don't plan of any international flights until mid next year. So it made sense to get into the cancel queue under those circumstances. I realise its still early days to not overly worried but it would be good to know if we are in the back of the queue or even in the queue.

[HAL4NOW]

7 hours ago, dmcfad2 said:

My cruise was March 21 and HAL canceled it on March 13. I opted for FCC and OBC. Still have not seen it. I've written two emails, but no one answers me. 16 weeks/113 days. I'm a loyal HAL customer, but I was told 10-12 weeks and here I sit waiting. I have three cruises booked that I would like to apply FCC to. Sigh.

What email address are you using? I was told that I would get a response if I used: reservations_submit@hollandamerica.com as the address. I tried it and got an automated response saying it would take 10-14 business days for someone to get back to me. That is considered "expidited". 

[RetiredMustang]

We had booked a Triple Denali cruisetour, roundtrip Seattle, including air, hotels and CPP, which was to start July 26.  When HAL cancelled the 2020 Alaska season in April, we requested the refund option.  Our pre-paid shore excursions were refunded in about 10 days.  The rest, including refunded CPP,  was posted to our credit card account on Friday, July 3.

 

Dave

Edited July 5, 2020 by RetiredMustang

[iancal]

Here is a comparison from another travel vendor.  HAL's refund performance may seem reasonable given the worst performers but here is our experience with one at the other end of the spectrum.

 

We had a credit due from TUI based on a March 19 Mexican hotel reservation..  TUI is a  European  travel company with 19 billion Euro revenues (2019).   They operate an airline, resorts, a huge vacation package travel business, and they send people on cruises.  Probably one of the largest in the world with many subsidiaries.  Until recently they owned Thomson Cruises.

 

We had three communications from them between March 30 and April 30.   The first told us we were getting a credit.  The second in mid April advised us expect the credit shortly  The third April 30 communication was a credit note.

 

 

Edited July 5, 2020 by iancal

[dontworry]

Our Sept 2020 Alaska Cruise on Oosterdam was cancelled by HAL on April 7. Received our deposit refund and FCC on July 1.

[dmcfad2]

12 hours ago, HAL4NOW said:

What email address are you using? I was told that I would get a response if I used: reservations_submit@hollandamerica.com as the address. I tried it and got an automated response saying it would take 10-14 business days for someone to get back to me. That is considered "expidited". 

Yes. I used that one. I got the same automated response. That was on 6/11. I have since sent another with the same auto response. Thanks. 

Edited July 5, 2020 by dmcfad2

[shudie]

Our deposit is now in our bank account from July 2nd (cancelled August 9 and August 19 cruises on March 9th). 

[Zukini]

We were notified of the cancellation of our June 21st cruise on April 14th, and applied for the refund option the same day. We were told through chat that our refund was processed on June 23rd, and the refund actually posted to our credit card on July 1st.

Edited July 6, 2020 by Zukini

[fabuloso]

On 7/4/2020 at 7:43 PM, Cruisegroover said:

I have been led to understand HAL are refunding by cancelled cruise sale date but where are you placed if you cancelled the cruise? I cancelled my cruise in April that was due to sail 4 Jan 21 to South America - 41 nights so a hefty deposit as here in Australia we have an indefinite international travel ban placed on us. QANTAS have even retired all remaining 747s and sent all A380s into storage and don't plan of any international flights until mid next year. So it made sense to get into the cancel queue under those circumstances. I realise its still early days to not overly worried but it would be good to know if we are in the back of the queue or even in the 

 

At this point, I firmly believe HAL is just saying anything whether it is true or not.

 

I did not cancel my March 14th cruise.  HAL cancelled it on March 13th at 5 PM, P.S.T.  24 hours before we left.

 

I am now at 3 months and 23 days since the cruise line cancelled.  No refund.  No sign of a refund.  I'm in a "queue", but they dont know where I am in the "queue".  They are sorry, but they just don't know when but hey!  "We thank you for your patience"!

 

No one at HAL knows anything or they are just lying or incredibly disorganized and flying by the seat of their pants with no plan in place.

 

I get it.  This was an out of the ordinary incident.  But one would think that in 4-6 weeks, you could get your act together and come up with some kind of organized plan.

 

 

[SFO Peter]

Refund timing influenced by cruise date on next cruise booked?

HAL may be giving us money to "recycle" back to HAL.

We had cancellation Mar 15.   Received full refund for entire cruise by May.   We do have a cruise booked Nov 17.

I wonder whether that is the reason we got the refund before many others.   We still have not received any FCC as promised.

It has been more than 110 days. So we wait...

 

[Horizon chaser 1957]

We have EVERYTHING back from HAL from the early end of the 2020 GWV. (Except our luggage, which is currently at anchorage in Singapore.) Worth noting, though, our FCC wasn’t there until our TA called them to see if we could book a cruise, and suddenly voila! there it was!

We were planning on carrying on to Europe after the GWV ended. As a comparison, we are still waiting for refunds from four airlines, a European river cruise company, two African Safari operators, and a prepaid excursion in Indonesia. HAL and British Airways are the ONLY travel companies that have actually come through so far.

[lizziebargain]

We had 3 cabins booked on the Maasdam on May 18 and we all went the credit card dispute route. Saved us all a lot of aggravation and we have had our money back for over a month and can use as we choose. Clearly I am not as patient as many of you! 

[SFO Peter]

From reading previous postings I think that HAL GWV cruisers received "prompt treatment".

HAL cherish your business!

 

[Wayfairers]

We were booked on 4 cruises in 2020, one in April, May, August and October.  We cancelled the first 3 in March and the last one in May.  We got all excursion refunds the day after canceling and cruise refunds June 18.  Our money HAL is holding as FCC hasn’t shown on our HAL accounts yet.  They eventually cancelled all 4 cruises.  My TA says HAL is having to process our FCC by hand since we applied all FCC from the first three cruises to the October cruise when we booked it.  
 

I really wished we had waited until HAL cancelled the first 2 cruises so we would have had the option of a full refund.  Unfortunately, the April and May cruises were on the front end of a 3 month land trip and the April cruise was our transportation to Europe.  We were bumping up against hotel refund deadlines for the land trip and tour refund deadlines for the cruise so decided rather than lose thousands of dollars we would cancel the trip.  I spent 2 solid days making cancellations but we did get all those refunds back within a month except for HAL.  I understand they have a lot of refunds to dole out, but this shows their computer program handling refunds is in serious need of an upgrade.  Other large companies (hotels.com, VRBO, booking.com, Viator, tours by locals) all refunded our payments within a few days. 

[seaoma]

My cruise was canceled when HAL announced their 30 day pause on March 14.

Our sail date was March 28, so obviously we were paid in full.

We chose the FCC and HAL notified us May 7 that our FCC was ready and I did verify that on the website (Thanks to the CruiseCritic poster for telling me HAL had added this feature to my account on the website.)

I noticed, today, that HAL had credited my card with my Port Taxes and Fees on June 4. I did not receive any communication from HAL that they had done so.

 

My ordeal was painless just because I didn't have much money at stake. I feel for those of you that are waiting on many thousands of dollars. I just hope you won't have to wait much longer.

[dmcfad2]

On 7/4/2020 at 7:29 PM, thyme2go said:

I didn't read the entire thread, but did you check your account and look under the new credits area?   Bottom of the list........that's where our FCC showed up.   No other contact or documentation........just POOF!  and it was there about 75 days after cancellation/sail date.    : )

Yes, I have checked that. I check every day. Thank you. 🙂

[Wayfairers]

37 minutes ago, dmcfad2 said:

Yes, I have checked that. I check every day. Thank you. 🙂

Oh you are better than I am.....I used to check every day....now it is a couple of times per week.

[Midwest Sunseeker]

We received a full refund from Holland on July 4, 2020.  We had requested the refund online on April 17, 2020 for our June 21, 2020 Alaska cruise/tour on the Noordam.  Thank you to all who posted.  We miss visiting with  fellow cruise travelers.  Stay safe and well.

[fabuloso]

So yesterday, on HAL's twitter, I had a lengthy discussion about being "patient" with another person about the HAL refund process.

 

Within 1 hour, HAL's social media team responded and asked for my booking number.  This morning, less than 24 hours later, I received an apology through email for all the misinformation, for the length of time and because my refund has been ready, but they've been waiting on accounting to "trigger" it.

 

Per the email, they have notified accounting to get on it, as it was processed on June 3rd and I should have received it by now.

 

I really hate this.  I want to have positive thoughts.  I dont want to be complaining.  I don't know whether to believe it or not, based on all the things I have already been told.  I just wanted my refund or not to be left completely in the dark.

 

3 months, 25 days.