Still no refunds...Alaska sailings for May 2021?

[xxHadleyxx]

Our family had 3 cabins booked for Alaska leaving 30 May 2021 (out of Vancouver).

 

This was cancelled based on press releases from RCI back in February (for obvious reasons with Canadian port closures). 

 

Here we are 12 days from the originally planned sailing date and still no refunds or FCC (one of 3 cabins would prefer an FCC). 

Our travel agent has called many times and is always told it is not officially cancelled in the system yet so the refunds cannot be processed but it will happen "soon" or in "2-3 days" (same story since early April, prior to that it was that it would process "in April"  We have also called, and after some pushing to get them to speak to us instead of our TA been given the same answer (at least five calls from us...including today). 

 

I find it horrible that RCI is holding this money so long...it hardly seems legal.  Are others having to wait until less than two weeks prior to the booked sailing that was cancelled before seeing any money back?   Any ideas on what else to do to get RCI to do the right thing and refund? 

[Ourusualbeach]

10 minutes ago, xxHadleyxx said:

Any ideas on what else to do to get RCI to do the right thing and refund? 

When they decide to issue them they will be issued.  Unless there is a problem that they can find they cannot/won’t speed up the processing on one reservation. 

Edited May 19, 2021 by Ourusualbeach

[Jimbo]

Wow, that is unbelievable. We had a Princess 10 Alaska Cruise booked for  September 2021.

As soon it was annouced, no sailings over 7 days allowed. It was only about 5 days later Our travel agent emailed us that the cruise was canceled and our deposit will be refunded.

It was only 2 days after that our refund was credited to our credit card.

What a difference in customer service for the 2 cruiselines.

 

Must go along with Royal's thinking that all this Covid stuff is just going to go away by itself,  and that  they would wake up and the sailing would go off on schedule.

Edited May 19, 2021 by Jimbo

[xxHadleyxx]

4 hours ago, Jimbo said:

Wow, that is unbelievable. We had a Princess 10 Alaska Cruise booked for  September 2021.

As soon it was annouced, no sailings over 7 days allowed. It was only about 5 days later Our travel agent emailed us that the cruise was canceled and our deposit will be refunded.

It was only 2 days after that our refund was credited to our credit card.

What a difference in customer service for the 2 cruiselines.

 

Must go along with Royal's thinking that all this Covid stuff is just going to go away by itself,  and that  they would wake up and the sailing would go off on schedule.

We had six or seven RCI cruises cancelled over the past year and a half.  The others (including two cancelled after this one) we got refunds in 2-4 weeks.  But they keep saying Alaska is different.  It's very weird and I'm trying to get a feel for if we're outliers or other Alaska cancellations have had the same issues and how to go about fixing this.  TBH we're darned tempted to just context the charges with the credit card at this point.

[xxHadleyxx]

4 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

When they decide to issue them they will be issued.  Unless there is a problem that they can find they cannot/won’t speed up the processing on one reservation. 

So you think we should just wait patiently for an indefinite time while the cruise line holds about ten thousand dollars for a sailing cancelled over three months ago?

This isn't the very start of the pandemic when everyone was taken by surprise and needed to develop procedures and plans.   Not is it a reasonable after cancellation to allow for processing.  

Should we shrug it off for another three months?   A year?   I mean, really..

[BirdTravels]

We took the lift and shift of our May 2021 Quantum cruise to a May 2022 Quantum cruise with a better room. Given that the 2022 prices had jump up a bunch, it was a great deal. 

[SpainAlien]

I am still waiting for a refund in my May 23rd sailing on Harmony from Barcelona that was cancelled 9th March.  I am so cross that it is taking so long I am going to cancel my September booking with them. This is not good customer service

 

[Ourusualbeach]

6 hours ago, xxHadleyxx said:

So you think we should just wait patiently for an indefinite time while the cruise line holds about ten thousand dollars for a sailing cancelled over three months ago?

This isn't the very start of the pandemic when everyone was taken by surprise and needed to develop procedures and plans.   Not is it a reasonable after cancellation to allow for processing.  

Should we shrug it off for another three months?   A year?   I mean, really..

I did not say what I think should happen, I gave you my experiences with dealing with this same issue with dozens of these situations for both myself and clients. 

Edited May 20, 2021 by Ourusualbeach

[xxHadleyxx]

8 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

We took the lift and shift of our May 2021 Quantum cruise to a May 2022 Quantum cruise with a better room. Given that the 2022 prices had jump up a bunch, it was a great deal. 

unfortunately we have other plans for May 2022 which prevent us from doing the same (this was originally a 2020 sailing as is).  I am g lad you were able to get a good solution using that option.  it is a great one if schedules allow for it.

[xxHadleyxx]

6 hours ago, SpainAlien said:

I am still waiting for a refund in my May 23rd sailing on Harmony from Barcelona that was cancelled 9th March.  I am so cross that it is taking so long I am going to cancel my September booking with them. This is not good customer service

 

ugh.  So we are not alone.  I am so sorry.

2 hours ago, TMFTL said:

I had same cruise canceled as well as many others.  Still waiting for refunds for all.

 

Stopped booking cruises until this is all sorted out. 

 

If RCI files for bankruptcy, we will never see any of our money.

yeah.  I feel the same.  my husband is not there quite yet though.  we still have 5 more sailings booked (one this fall and 4 next year)....which I would feel OK about if the refunds and FCC were being handled well...but s is, I would prefer RCI not be holding any of our money at this point.  I suspect they are big enough and hold enough reserves to "weather this storm" but not if they cannot treat customers well in the meantime. We also had a DCL cruise cancelled which was handled quickly and painlesssly.  Their product is a lot more expensive, but dang their customer service was there when we needed it...that is worth a lot.

[xxHadleyxx]

2 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

I did not say what I think should happen, I gave you my experiences with dealing with this same issue with dozens of these situations for both myself and clients. 

sorry I misunderstood your initial post.

So, in your experience...have you had any cruises not refunded this close to sail date (or after sale date)?

[Ourusualbeach]

6 minutes ago, xxHadleyxx said:

sorry I misunderstood your initial post.

So, in your experience...have you had any cruises not refunded this close to sail date (or after sale date)?

I have had to wait a couple months after sail date for some to be refunded.  There are so many variable at play with their system and refunds that as frustrating as it is there is not one clear concise answer or timeline.

 

The only thing that I can offer is that every one has eventually received the refund.

 

I have found that once the delay has hit 90 days they are more willing to start looking into it and sometimes they do find an issue where for a variety of reasons the refund gets stuck in an endless loop of getting requested/rejected and then they can intervene to get it processed.  I've even had refunds on the same ship and sail date (party of 4, two cabins) processed a month apart.  Their system sucks is the bottom line.

[zap99]

3 hours ago, TMFTL said:

I had same cruise canceled as well as many others.  Still waiting for refunds for all.

 

Stopped booking cruises until this is all sorted out. 

 

If RCI files for bankruptcy, we will never see any of our money.

Different company but same group. We were booked with Celebrity for Alaska in June. In February they gave us the option to cancel. We did and the money was back on our card in 3 days.

[not-enough-cruising]

10 hours ago, xxHadleyxx said:

So you think we should just wait patiently for an indefinite time while the cruise line holds about ten thousand dollars for a sailing cancelled over three months ago?

This isn't the very start of the pandemic when everyone was taken by surprise and needed to develop procedures and plans.   Not is it a reasonable after cancellation to allow for processing.  

Should we shrug it off for another three months?   A year?   I mean, really..

At this point, I would have called my credit card company and files a formal protest to the charge. 
American Express has been excellent at getting the money returned to my account on a couple occasions the last year.