Speedy refund from Princess

[Bowm54]

I cancelled 2 upcoming cruises last Monday the 19th. The refunds are in my bank account today just 5 days later.

Can’t fault that.

Edited October 24, 2020 by Bowm54

[sewgood]

I will probably (98% sure) have to cancel a European one for next September.

We are holding out until Jan/Feb next year to see how that vacine is going and if Australians will be allowed out of the country.

I don't think "I have a cruise in Europe" will be a valid enough reason to be let out of the country.

Thanks for posting as it gives me hope we wont have to wait months to get our deposits back.

[Rassa]

Princess sent me a refund about a month ago for a cancelled Jan 2021 cruise and it took about 5 days also.

It seems they are catching up with refunds etc.

 

 

[Aus Traveller]

As Rassa said, Princess had caught up with their refunds. In addition, cancellations now are probably much simpler to process without the complications of different types of credits - refund and/or FCC plus, in some cases, out-of-pocket expenses for cancelled cruises. With the passenger cancelling, processing the refund would be much simpler.

[getting older slowly]

Still waiting fro deposit  for   2 cruises B2B which one should have been on now....

.  cancelled   beginning of August......  One day......

 

Don

 

 

[NSWP]

5 hours ago, Rassa said:

Princess sent me a refund about a month ago for a cancelled Jan 2021 cruise and it took about 5 days also.

It seems they are catching up with refunds etc.

 

 

Excellent, Princess, the premier cruise line. Carnival Corp still has money.

Edited October 24, 2020 by NSWP

[Rassa]

47 minutes ago, NSWP said:

Excellent, Princess, the premier cruise line. Carnival Corp still has money.

 

No the money is just going round and round.   Received email from Princess offering me 10% off if I paid in full for my next booked cruises - I didn't bite.

[banzaii]

By contrast, I am still out after 100 days with RCCL.

[MMDown Under]

5 hours ago, Rassa said:

 

No the money is just going round and round.   Received email from Princess offering me 10% off if I paid in full for my next booked cruises - I didn't bite.

I read somewhere that TAs retain their commission if cruise had been paid in full, prior to cancellation of the cruise. 

In future we'll be able to substitute  "like a cruise company, in lieu of like a used car salesman".

[V_icki_e]

It's been 5 weeks or so since the Sea and Sun Princess were sold and cruises cancelled.  Has anyone had their FCC or out of pocket expenses refunded yet?  

 

[Ondine]

I finally got the refund of $600 Taxes and Fees today from a cruise that should have taken place on 23rd March 2020.  Exactly 7 months later.  Not completely Princess's fault.  FCCs showed up in my account on June 1st but the cash component was sent from Princess to the TA at end of July and they have only just forwarded it to me.  Lovely lady at Princess confirmed to me last week when it was sent to TA and so I was able to politely argue with them that time was up.

 

Still waiting for Cunard.  Not getting anywhere with them but it is only a deposit of $680.

 

For cancelled cruises on the Aria P&O have told me early January for refund, credits not offered.

Edited October 25, 2020 by Ondine

[Aus Traveller]

8 minutes ago, Ondine said:

I finally got the refund of $600 Taxes and Fees today from a cruise that should have taken place on 23rd March 2020.  Exactly 7 months later.  Not completely Princess's fault.  FCCs showed up in my account on June 1st but the cash component was sent from Princess to the TA at end of July and they have only just forwarded it to me.  Lovely lady at Princess confirmed to me last week when it was sent to TA and so I was able to politely argue with them that time was up.

 

Still waiting for Cunard.  Not getting anywhere with them but it is only a deposit of $680.

 

For cancelled cruises on the Aria P&O have told me early January for refund, credits not offered.

I found P&O were not as good for refunds as Princess - the only two cruise lines we had cruises booked with.

 

With Princess, everything was refunded and we were credited with some FCC.

 

With P&O, our $600 deposit for a cruise in May 2020 was going to be lost until our TA went to bat for us. We have now been promised a FCC, but last time I checked it hadn't been processed. I will have to check if that has come onto our account.

[NSWP]

There is so much pressure on people trying to get these refunds back from the cruiselines.  It should not be like that, they should should cough up immediately, it is your money not the Cruiseline's or the Travel Agent's.  It appears to me on the sidelines here that in many instances TA's are also hanging on to the funds for far too long.

Edited October 25, 2020 by NSWP

[MicCanberra]

It seems some are processed quicker than others.

[Aus Traveller]

2 hours ago, NSWP said:

There is so much pressure on people trying to get these refunds back from the cruiselines.  It should not be like that, they should should cough up immediately, it is your money not the Cruiseline's or the Travel Agent's.  It appears to me on the sidelines here that in many instances TA's are also hanging on to the funds for far too long.

I can see the point made by Princess regarding slow refunds, that each one had to be looked at individually and handled manually in their financial system because of the differences between individual cases. Refunds are now coming quickly because they are 'normal' cancellations that their financial system us set up to process.

 

I agree with your comment that some TAs are holding the money. Mine held a substantial amount for the refund of the full payment for the Tahiti/Hawaii cruise. There was a period of a few weeks where Princess said they had refunded to the TA, but the TA said the money wasn't available to refund. It did happen eventually. I suppose having the funds for a few weeks might have helped the TA's bottom line whereas I wasn't going to get any interest on it when it was deposited into my credit card account.

[MMDown Under]

1 hour ago, Aus Traveller said:

I can see the point made by Princess regarding slow refunds, that each one had to be looked at individually and handled manually in their financial system because of the differences between individual cases. Refunds are now coming quickly because they are 'normal' cancellations that their financial system us set up to process.

 

I agree with your comment that some TAs are holding the money. Mine held a substantial amount for the refund of the full payment for the Tahiti/Hawaii cruise. There was a period of a few weeks where Princess said they had refunded to the TA, but the TA said the money wasn't available to refund. It did happen eventually. I suppose having the funds for a few weeks might have helped the TA's bottom line whereas I wasn't going to get any interest on it when it was deposited into my credit card account.

The trouble with TAs holding money refunded by the cruise line is that this adds to passengers' stress.  Thoughts of what if the TA goes under, will I get my substantial refund?  In the future, passengers may prefer to make their bookings direct with the cruise line.  

[The_Big_M]

On 10/24/2020 at 9:46 PM, banzaii said:

By contrast, I am still out after 100 days with RCCL.

 

Yep, the Royal treatment.

 

I don't believe anyone has a reasonable turnaround time for refund from that group.

[By The Bay]

18 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

I found P&O were not as good for refunds as Princess - the only two cruise lines we had cruises booked with.

 

With Princess, everything was refunded and we were credited with some FCC.

 

With P&O, our $600 deposit for a cruise in May 2020 was going to be lost until our TA went to bat for us. We have now been promised a FCC, but last time I checked it hadn't been processed. I will have to check if that has come onto our account.

My experience with P&O was different. We received a full refund of our fare within a month. They also re-reimbursed our out of pocket expenses, including travel insurance. 😁 Conversely, Princess took 4 months. 😒

[Ondine]

18 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

The trouble with TAs holding money refunded by the cruise line is that this adds to passengers' stress.  Thoughts of what if the TA goes under, will I get my substantial refund?  In the future, passengers may prefer to make their bookings direct with the cruise line.  

 

Totally agree.  You get caught with the cruise company not being able to talk to you and the TA being very unhelpful because there is no incentive for them, especially if the person you always dealt with is no longer with the company.

 

Good news for me.  My Cunard deposit showed up in my bank account today.  No notification from Cunard though.

 

So that is 2 payments in a week.  Yippee.  Slowly getting there.  Just need the cruise companies to stay solvent and for the government to let them sail so as to use my FCCs.