Refunds - how long have you waited?

[Dvrgrl38]

We just cancelled last Friday due to a positive Covid case, we used the POM cancellation.  We are receiving FCC for everything except purchased extra meals and purchases onboard credit.  
we are not able to get cash refunds for port fees, gratuity, or taxes.  We have gone round and round with customer service.  
we are also not able to do a courtesy hold for longer than 2 days.  They will re-do the hold every 2 days so the room will not get booked, but that means if the pricing changes we will have to pay the new price.

 

our experience with the POM FCC has been nothing but horrible, they are completely rigid and no matter how many managers we talk to will not even off a true 2 week courtesy hold.  All we are asking is a 2 week courtesy hold until our fcc comes in, we want to rebook for March 6, so we can’t hold it with a deposit, the full amount is due to hold it.

 

[Dvrgrl38]

On 1/18/2022 at 10:18 AM, Cruise Gopher said:

I can confirm if the reason for your cancellation was due to testing positive for Covid within 14 days of cruise then they DO refund all port fees, taxes, dining service charge, beverage package service charge. The cancellation invoice will show the total amount the customer won’t get a refund to their credit card.

This has been the exact opposite of our experience, no matter how many managers we speak to.  The only things getting refunded (as opposed to fcc) are extra meal packages purchased separately and on board credit purchased separately.  We have specifically asked about port fees, taxes, gratuity’s.  It’s all in their terms of service as well, those will be returned as fcc.

[Cruise Gopher]

1 hour ago, Dvrgrl38 said:

We just cancelled last Friday due to a positive Covid case, we used the POM cancellation.  We are receiving FCC for everything except purchased extra meals and purchases onboard credit.  
we are not able to get cash refunds for port fees, gratuity, or taxes.  We have gone round and round with customer service.  
we are also not able to do a courtesy hold for longer than 2 days.  They will re-do the hold every 2 days so the room will not get booked, but that means if the pricing changes we will have to pay the new price.

 

our experience with the POM FCC has been nothing but horrible, they are completely rigid and no matter how many managers we talk to will not even off a true 2 week courtesy hold.  All we are asking is a 2 week courtesy hold until our fcc comes in, we want to rebook for March 6, so we can’t hold it with a deposit, the full amount is due to hold it.

 

 

1 hour ago, Dvrgrl38 said:

This has been the exact opposite of our experience, no matter how many managers we speak to.  The only things getting refunded (as opposed to fcc) are extra meal packages purchased separately and on board credit purchased separately.  We have specifically asked about port fees, taxes, gratuity’s.  It’s all in their terms of service as well, those will be returned as fcc.

 

My highlighting in your quote above.... you used the POM reason for cancellation.  That is why you are getting everything back as FCC.  Had you used the cancel reason of "Tested Positive for Covid 19 within 14 days prior to sailing" then you would have gotten all the pre-cruise purchases, taxes, pre-paid service charges, port fees, bev package gratuities etc refunded to your original form of payment automatically. 

 

There are different drop down menu options that NCL (or your Travel Agent) can choose from when they go in to cancel the reservation.  One of them is the "Tested Positive for Covid 19 within 14 days prior to sailing".

 

You could try to dispute things with NCL to get them to change it to the other cancel reason, but it sounds like you're already moving forward with the FCC route and booking another cruise anyways.

 

 

[Cruise Gopher]

On 1/25/2022 at 8:27 AM, Rob-Bob said:

Well the 3/20/22 Jewel cruise no longer shows up on my NCL page.  Still no notification from NCL.

 

Jewel on 3/20/2022 has been canceled.  See attached letter.

 

Since it's no longer showing up it might be in process of generating the FCC which you could then in theory convert to a refund to your credit card since NCL canceled the sailing.

 

N. JWL 3.20.22 Cancelation.pdf

Edited January 26, 2022 by Cruise Gopher

[Rob-Bob]

1 hour ago, Cruise Gopher said:

 

Jewel on 3/20/2022 has been canceled.  See attached letter.

 

Since it's no longer showing up it might be in process of generating the FCC which you could then in theory convert to a refund to your credit card since NCL canceled the sailing.

 

N. JWL 3.20.22 Cancelation.pdf 117.11 kB · 0 downloads

How did you get this letter?  Was it e-mailed to you?

 

We have not received this letter.

[Middleager]

4 hours ago, Cruise Gopher said:

 

Jewel on 3/20/2022 has been canceled.  See attached letter.

 

Since it's no longer showing up it might be in process of generating the FCC which you could then in theory convert to a refund to your credit card since NCL canceled the sailing.

 

N. JWL 3.20.22 Cancelation.pdf 117.11 kB · 1 download

We also didn't receive this letter of any notification from NCL with the Jewel 2022.3.20 cancellation.  We were informed by our TA.  We got a CF and a FCC returned, but not the rest to CC yet, and didn't get the 10% discount coupon yet.

 

--

Earlier we used POM to cancel a cruise with our children on 2022.1.9 Breakaway.  Our daughter tested positive with Antigen at home.  She went to try for PCR test, and after 4hr wait, she was told to go home because ON just announced PCR test is now only for frontline health workers.  If you have symptoms, assume you have Covid, and isolate.  We could not cancel with the reason of Covid positive.

 

For those two bookings, we had our TA to request refund for our pre-paid gratuities first.  After a day, did the POM cancel.  NCL erroneously refunded less than 1/2 of the pre-paid gratuities to CC's, and the balance Cad$177 as CruiseFirst certs.  Those are obviously wrong amounts for CF certs and our TA has contacted NCL several times, but no refunds yet.

[Cruise Gopher]

3 hours ago, Rob-Bob said:

How did you get this letter?  Was it e-mailed to you?

 

We have not received this letter.

I downloaded it off the NCL TA website. Did you say you booked this cruise like just a few hours before they canceled it? If so, it’s likely that your reservation was still too new and it didn’t get included when this cancelation letter and email were sent out to impacted guests. 

[Rob-Bob]

3 hours ago, Cruise Gopher said:

I downloaded it off the NCL TA website. Did you say you booked this cruise like just a few hours before they canceled it? If so, it’s likely that your reservation was still too new and it didn’t get included when this cancelation letter and email were sent out to impacted guests. 

No, we booked in February 2021 but just made final payment (CC not FCC) on the date they cancelled.

[RocketMan275]

On 1/20/2022 at 7:16 AM, RocketMan275 said:

Thanks for asking.  No luck as of this AM (Thursday, Jan 20).

I directed my TA to cancel on 20 Dec.  NCL removed the reservation from my Account almost immediately.  I contacted TA on 11 Jan.  She followed up with NCL and was told 'by the end of the week'.  I emailed TA again this morning that I had not received the refund.  

 

BTW, this is a very good TA.  Always dealing with the same person.  

still no refund as of 27 Jan.  Over five weeks waiting.

[RocketMan275]

On 1/20/2022 at 7:16 AM, RocketMan275 said:

Thanks for asking.  No luck as of this AM (Thursday, Jan 20).

I directed my TA to cancel on 20 Dec.  NCL removed the reservation from my Account almost immediately.  I contacted TA on 11 Jan.  She followed up with NCL and was told 'by the end of the week'.  I emailed TA again this morning that I had not received the refund.  

 

BTW, this is a very good TA.  Always dealing with the same person.  

Making progress.

Received one refund and one refund of drink package.

Still one refund to go.

[jetact]

On 1/26/2022 at 10:29 AM, Cruise Gopher said:

 

Jewel on 3/20/2022 has been canceled.  See attached letter.

 

Since it's no longer showing up it might be in process of generating the FCC which you could then in theory convert to a refund to your credit card since NCL canceled the sailing.

 

N. JWL 3.20.22 Cancelation.pdf 117.11 kB · 3 downloads

I wonder why they are only giving 10% discount on a future cruise? Our cruise on 1/16/22 on the Breakaway was cancelled and we got 20% on out letter. I did get my full refund credited to the card I used to pay for it. The only problem is that I dont use that card much as its my NCL card and I pay it off right after charges so I now have a -8,819.00 balance on the card. I guess I should book another cruise to bring that negative balance down. 

[graphicguy]

8 months for a refund for one.  The 2nd one, which had been booked the same time as the first, NCL screwed me out of a refund and made it an FCC, instead.  This, after they begged me not to cancel a sailing, that they ended up cancelling themselves.

[julig22]

21 minutes ago, jetact said:

I wonder why they are only giving 10% discount on a future cruise? Our cruise on 1/16/22 on the Breakaway was cancelled and we got 20% on out letter. I did get my full refund credited to the card I used to pay for it. The only problem is that I dont use that card much as its my NCL card and I pay it off right after charges so I now have a -8,819.00 balance on the card. I guess I should book another cruise to bring that negative balance down. 

20% because it was cancelled on short notice.

You can get a check from your cc for the excess balance, just have to ask.  If your account is inactive for more than a few months they will probably send you a check anyway.

[Cruise Gopher]

14 hours ago, jetact said:

I wonder why they are only giving 10% discount on a future cruise? Our cruise on 1/16/22 on the Breakaway was cancelled and we got 20% on out letter. I did get my full refund credited to the card I used to pay for it. The only problem is that I dont use that card much as its my NCL card and I pay it off right after charges so I now have a -8,819.00 balance on the card. I guess I should book another cruise to bring that negative balance down. 

Just call your credit card company and ask for a credit balance refund. They will either direct deposit it to your bank account or mail you a check. It’s a very common process. 

[RocketMan275]

On 2/2/2022 at 6:29 AM, RocketMan275 said:

Making progress.

Received one refund and one refund of drink package.

Still one refund to go.

Received the last refund last night.  I suspect the reason this refund took longer was that it was on a credit card that had been cancelled.  It took about a week longer to get this refund on the replacement card.  These two reservations were cancelled on 20 Dec.  Fortunately, I had a good TA to deal with NCL.

[deliver42]

My refund took about 2 weeks.

[Snowrose]

They told us it could be months, because so many people were cancelling. We got our smaller FCCs back in 3 days. Our larger amounts were back within a week.

[whitingvo]

Wife spoke to someone at NCL last night.  The guy she spoke with said they were investigating all requests.  We submitted ours on the 20th of Jan.  Guessing another 2 weeks before we hear anything. Glad some of you are getting yours refunded.  

[mrbucky]

On 1/12/2022 at 8:08 AM, mrbucky said:

Received letter October 18, 2021.  States that "you will receive 25% monetary refund that will be issued within 30 business days from the sail date to the original form of payment."  Sail date was November 24, 2021.  Still no refund.  Today is Jan. 12, 2022.

And still waiting.  March 21 today.  They must hire enough staff to give people the run-around, that they could have refunded and saved money.

     They asked me to send them the letter that states "you will received a 25% refund" because they said they had no record of that.

Edited March 21, 2022 by mrbucky