Holland America COVID Isolation Cost Failure to Reimburse

[we135b]

5 hours ago, flgus said:

Similar thing with me.  Have sent reimbursement package in 3 times and it has never made it into my file.  Phone reps ask me if I need another form ….  
 

I did get the cruise credit, but it will expire before I get reimbursed, I’m certainly not going to book anything until this is resolved.

Sorry about your situation but misery loves company so thanks. Adversity like this reveals the true colors of a company. We represent a minority of their customer base and they probably feel like they can afford to lose us. I just hope their prospective customers understand what they're getting into.

[we135b]

23 minutes ago, we135b said:

Sorry about your situation but misery loves company so thanks. Adversity like this reveals the true colors of a company. We represent a minority of their customer base and they probably feel like they can afford to lose us. I just hope their prospective customers understand what they're getting into.

I think the best we can do at this point is to share our experiences with all who care as a way of holding the company accountable to their commitments. Otherwise, they can afford to ignore all of the unusual cases like ours knowing the number of people they alienate will be low.

[mcrcruiser]

Seems to me that working out a problem by any cruise line should  be attainable . We wish you all the luck 

[we135b]

2 hours ago, mcrcruiser said:

Seems to me that working out a problem by any cruise line should  be attainable . We wish you all the luck 

Thanks for the positive thoughts. I’m hoping you’re right. 

[terrydtx]

My wife got Covid on the Oosterdam last August and spent the last 5 days in isolation plus 3 nights in a hotel in Venice. We got the same letter about getting a per diem FCC for the missed 5 days and reimbursement for the hotel and food.  When we finally got home my TA filed with our travel insurance company for the missed 5 days and all of our out-of-pocket expenses. The travel insurance reimbursed us for the 5 days of isolation on the ship for both my wife and I plus the expenses for food and hotel in Venice. The only expense not covered was the $42 for a bottle of cough syrup for my wife on the ship. We were totally satisfied with the insurance settlement.

 

On January 31st, this year, we received an email from HAL saying that we had been given a FCC for the missed 5 days for my wife and the 3 days of hotel cost in Venice. The total FCC was over $3600, but had to be used by January 31st, 2024, so, we used it to book a 7-day cruise in November on the Koingsdam. The FCC covered the cost with HIA, so we are looking at this as a free cruise from HAL, and it restored our faith in them enough that we also booked a NE/Canada Volendam cruise for August 2024. The unexpected, and unasked for FCC kept us as a customer of HAL.

 

BTW for the OP, since it was my wife who was in covid isolation the FCC showed up in HER HAL account, not mine. When we looked in her account the reimbursement for the hotel in Venice was posted to her account on Dec 20th over a month before we got the email about the credit.

Edited April 15, 2023 by terrydtx

[Tangocherie]

It took me over 6 months after many emails and phone calls to get my reimbursement. Submitted my request in May 2022 and received the check in December! Hang in there. 

[CafeBruno]

Don't give up hope, I believe you will eventually get your reimbursement. 

 

My wife and I caught Covid on a HAL Alaska Land & Sea trip, and I submitted my reimbursement form to HAL on June 26, 2022. HAL emailed me in September 2022 stating my claim had been approved and a reimbursement check would follow soon. I didn't receive the check until March 20, 2023 - that's just shy of 9 months from the day I submitted the forms to HAL. Before finally receiving the check, I contacted HAL numerous times, including with the Office of the President, and like you were only given vague assurance that it would be paid but they couldn't tell me when. It's incredibly frustrating, especially hearing that some people received their reimbursements in "only" 3-4 months, while others like you and I have to wait 9 months or more. 

 

Anyway I don't know if it will help speed things up, but I do recommend you start emailing the Office of the President if you haven't done so already. No idea if that helped me or not but I don't think it can hurt. Best of luck to you. 

officeofthepresident@hollandamerica.com

 

 

[syesmar]

Can you imagine when marketing the Worry-Free Promise, HAL having a footnote, “Note: it may take around a year to reimburse you, and cause you to lose so much confidence that you don’t actually use the FCCs, but we will eventually get around to it!” Is that “Cruising with Confidence?” 

I am glad to hear reports of passengers finally getting their reimbursements. I remember during the re-start so many passengers reporting a lack of information on some ships, while others were efficient. You would think fleet-wide, they would have had at least a standard information sheet with clear details of what to expect once isolation or quarantine was entered.

 

@we135b  I hope things work out for you soon!🙏

[we135b]

8 minutes ago, syesmar said:

Can you imagine when marketing the Worry-Free Promise, HAL having a footnote, “Note: it may take around a year to reimburse you, and cause you to lose so much confidence that you don’t actually use the FCCs, but we will eventually get around to it!” Is that “Cruising with Confidence?” 

I am glad to hear reports of passengers finally getting their reimbursements. I remember during the re-start so many passengers reporting a lack of information on some ships, while others were efficient. You would think fleet-wide, they would have had at least a standard information sheet with clear details of what to expect once isolation or quarantine was entered.

 

@we135b  I hope things work out for you soon!🙏

Haha!!! I wish they'd been up front with their actual policy, at least. I think they were very careful about documenting their commitments. I received a very clear process document but only after I contracted COVID. It sounded so supportive, it never occurred to me to do anything other than what they recommended. Had I know they had no plan to reimburse, I would have done things very differently, that is, things that would not amass a $4000 hotel bill. Back when I sailed, the thought of being somewhat protected from financial catastrophe was comforting. I never imagined that a big company like HAL would be so dishonest. Lesson learned.

[we135b]

1 hour ago, CafeBruno said:

Don't give up hope, I believe you will eventually get your reimbursement. 

 

My wife and I caught Covid on a HAL Alaska Land & Sea trip, and I submitted my reimbursement form to HAL on June 26, 2022. HAL emailed me in September 2022 stating my claim had been approved and a reimbursement check would follow soon. I didn't receive the check until March 20, 2023 - that's just shy of 9 months from the day I submitted the forms to HAL. Before finally receiving the check, I contacted HAL numerous times, including with the Office of the President, and like you were only given vague assurance that it would be paid but they couldn't tell me when. It's incredibly frustrating, especially hearing that some people received their reimbursements in "only" 3-4 months, while others like you and I have to wait 9 months or more. 

 

Anyway I don't know if it will help speed things up, but I do recommend you start emailing the Office of the President if you haven't done so already. No idea if that helped me or not but I don't think it can hurt. Best of luck to you. 

officeofthepresident@hollandamerica.com

 

 

Wow. That's great news for you and for my confidence that I'll one day be reimbursed. Lol. We were the lucky few caught in the short window of time after the hotels billed HAL directly and before the isolation restrictions were loosened so you would think they could afford to pay these debts. Thanks for the feedback and advice. These are the responses I was hoping to hear so I didn't feel like I was completely alone on this.

[we135b]

4 hours ago, Tangocherie said:

It took me over 6 months after many emails and phone calls to get my reimbursement. Submitted my request in May 2022 and received the check in December! Hang in there. 

Thanks very much for the vote of confidence. I will keep my hope alive. The stress and frustration has been difficult but will have been worth the effort if I ever get my reimbursement.

[we135b]

11 hours ago, terrydtx said:

My wife got Covid on the Oosterdam last August and spent the last 5 days in isolation plus 3 nights in a hotel in Venice. We got the same letter about getting a per diem FCC for the missed 5 days and reimbursement for the hotel and food.  When we finally got home my TA filed with our travel insurance company for the missed 5 days and all of our out-of-pocket expenses. The travel insurance reimbursed us for the 5 days of isolation on the ship for both my wife and I plus the expenses for food and hotel in Venice. The only expense not covered was the $42 for a bottle of cough syrup for my wife on the ship. We were totally satisfied with the insurance settlement.

 

On January 31st, this year, we received an email from HAL saying that we had been given a FCC for the missed 5 days for my wife and the 3 days of hotel cost in Venice. The total FCC was over $3600, but had to be used by January 31st, 2024, so, we used it to book a 7-day cruise in November on the Koingsdam. The FCC covered the cost with HIA, so we are looking at this as a free cruise from HAL, and it restored our faith in them enough that we also booked a NE/Canada Volendam cruise for August 2024. The unexpected, and unasked for FCC kept us as a customer of HAL.

 

BTW for the OP, since it was my wife who was in covid isolation the FCC showed up in HER HAL account, not mine. When we looked in her account the reimbursement for the hotel in Venice was posted to her account on Dec 20th over a month before we got the email about the credit.

I just checked our accounts and no luck but a good thought. I'm glad to hear things worked out for you. The amount of stress and frustration that HAL has given me will make going back to them a very difficult. I'm really loving this community. It's been very nice hearing other's stories. So, thanks.

[00649]

 Cruise lines are bleeding red, Carnival was the worst performer on the S&P 500  index last qrt.They can say they have full ships but when so many are on cruises that they havent paid for the future doesnt look good for cruise lines.

[we135b]

2 hours ago, 00649 said:

 Cruise lines are bleeding red, Carnival was the worst performer on the S&P 500  index last qrt.They can say they have full ships but when so many are on cruises that they havent paid for the future doesnt look good for cruise lines.

Very true. A lot of people cashing in their FCCs.

[eggemon]

Getting refunds, credits, etc., is definitely a struggle… but it is not hopeless…

 

Our story: We planned an Alaska/Yukon/Denali land-sea cruise tour for 2020. Due to COVID, that was cancelled and we rebooked for 2021. That was cancelled as well, and we rebooked for 2022.

 

Off we go, finally, in 2022… only to come down with COVID at the very end of the land portion of our HAL trip. We quarantined, following HAL’s guidance, then (fortunately) were able to proceed with the non-HAL part of our vacation after that – so we just missed out on the cruise itself.

 

Our reimbursements were slowed in part due to my delay in submitting the requests, and I cannot fault anyone else for that.

 

When we did file, our travel insurance proved to be nearly worthless – it paid for a flight we needed to take in lieu of the cruise, but covered almost nothing else.

 

As for HAL, they told us we would get credit for our cruise in a few weeks, but, in fact, it was early March (approximately 8 months post-cruise) before we received credit. I was also VERY disappointed that the future cruise credits they provided expire in March 2024, which means that they can only be used for Alaska in 2023 – and it came so late that we could not book exactly what we wanted. (However, we were ultimately able to find something that fit well enough, so we will be taking our Alaska cruise this summer.)

 

I will note that HAL did refund our shore excursions immediately (while we were in quarantine, in fact!). However, we STILL have not received the Mariner credit for the days we were on the trip. (Inconsistency abounds...)

 

And then we have our other COVID-related expenses – including the expensive quarantine lodging that HAL promotes. We waited to file our claim with HAL until the travel insurance was resolved, per HAL’s direction. But here we are, still awaiting whatever payment HAL will grant us. We believe we are due a few thousand dollars (based on their published policy) but we will see what HAL decides to reimburse.

 

I an truly sympathetic to HAL’s situation – a lot of requests, coming at a time when revenues were lower due to pandemic conditions and cautious travelers. BUT, those of us who DID travel felt confident in doing so, in part, due to HAL’s commitment to cover the unexpected expenses if we did come down with COVID. I am hopeful they will come through for us, eventually, but sure wish it did not take so long.

 

 

Gary

[we135b]

9 hours ago, eggemon said:

Getting refunds, credits, etc., is definitely a struggle… but it is not hopeless…

 

Our story: We planned an Alaska/Yukon/Denali land-sea cruise tour for 2020. Due to COVID, that was cancelled and we rebooked for 2021. That was cancelled as well, and we rebooked for 2022.

 

Off we go, finally, in 2022… only to come down with COVID at the very end of the land portion of our HAL trip. We quarantined, following HAL’s guidance, then (fortunately) were able to proceed with the non-HAL part of our vacation after that – so we just missed out on the cruise itself.

 

Our reimbursements were slowed in part due to my delay in submitting the requests, and I cannot fault anyone else for that.

 

When we did file, our travel insurance proved to be nearly worthless – it paid for a flight we needed to take in lieu of the cruise, but covered almost nothing else.

 

As for HAL, they told us we would get credit for our cruise in a few weeks, but, in fact, it was early March (approximately 8 months post-cruise) before we received credit. I was also VERY disappointed that the future cruise credits they provided expire in March 2024, which means that they can only be used for Alaska in 2023 – and it came so late that we could not book exactly what we wanted. (However, we were ultimately able to find something that fit well enough, so we will be taking our Alaska cruise this summer.)

 

I will note that HAL did refund our shore excursions immediately (while we were in quarantine, in fact!). However, we STILL have not received the Mariner credit for the days we were on the trip. (Inconsistency abounds...)

 

And then we have our other COVID-related expenses – including the expensive quarantine lodging that HAL promotes. We waited to file our claim with HAL until the travel insurance was resolved, per HAL’s direction. But here we are, still awaiting whatever payment HAL will grant us. We believe we are due a few thousand dollars (based on their published policy) but we will see what HAL decides to reimburse.

 

I an truly sympathetic to HAL’s situation – a lot of requests, coming at a time when revenues were lower due to pandemic conditions and cautious travelers. BUT, those of us who DID travel felt confident in doing so, in part, due to HAL’s commitment to cover the unexpected expenses if we did come down with COVID. I am hopeful they will come through for us, eventually, but sure wish it did not take so long.

 

 

Gary

Sounds like a similar story. I wish I had your graciousness such that I can have sympathy for HAL's situation. To add insult to injury to my story, HAL directed me to the Delta hotel in Vancouver (an unspectacular business hotel) and after my stay, when it was too late to do otherwise, said that they would be reimbursing only $3000 of the $4000 hotel bill because it exceeded their conveniently arbitrary and undocumented limit. Of course, they made this experience so painful that I would love to see any amount of money at this point. Thanks for the positive thoughts. I guess we need to remember that while we'll have to negotiate around these sort of companies, we are still very lucky to be able participate in this lifestyle. Best of luck on your reimbursement.

[BSinPNS]

Positive news for a change.  DW came down with COVID on our Oosterdam Antarctica trip in January.  She received the standard letter from the ship promising a FCC equal to the amount of the per diem for the five days she was isolated.  After reading this thread, I was not optimistic we would ever see it, certainly not without a lot of follow-up.  Final payment was rapidly approaching for our July cruise.  Our TA checked with HAL and said I would need to contact Guest Relations to get the credit since it wasn't on DW’s Mariner account.  I was pleasantly surprised to talk to an agent overseas (Philippines) within a minute after getting through the phone tree selections.  After a few minutes search, she was able to locate the data and said that she would process my request.  (I was speechless and thanked her profusely.)  A few hours later I received an email stating the amount that would be applied to DW's Mariner account within 24-48 hours.  My TA checked after 36 hours and her HAL contact applied it to our July cruise and paid the rest with my card.  The amount was the total cruise cost (not including port fees, etc.) divided by 22 days and multiplied by the five days she was isolated.  So, a very happy ending.  I wonder if part of the problem may be in individual ship's providing data to Seattle.   

[we135b]

44 minutes ago, BSinPNS said:

Positive news for a change.  DW came down with COVID on our Oosterdam Antarctica trip in January.  She received the standard letter from the ship promising a FCC equal to the amount of the per diem for the five days she was isolated.  After reading this thread, I was not optimistic we would ever see it, certainly not without a lot of follow-up.  Final payment was rapidly approaching for our July cruise.  Our TA checked with HAL and said I would need to contact Guest Relations to get the credit since it wasn't on DW’s Mariner account.  I was pleasantly surprised to talk to an agent overseas (Philippines) within a minute after getting through the phone tree selections.  After a few minutes search, she was able to locate the data and said that she would process my request.  (I was speechless and thanked her profusely.)  A few hours later I received an email stating the amount that would be applied to DW's Mariner account within 24-48 hours.  My TA checked after 36 hours and her HAL contact applied it to our July cruise and paid the rest with my card.  The amount was the total cruise cost (not including port fees, etc.) divided by 22 days and multiplied by the five days she was isolated.  So, a very happy ending.  I wonder if part of the problem may be in individual ship's providing data to Seattle.   

That's interesting. Sounds like they paid for both the cruise as well as the isolation in FCC(?). I'm expecting cash as my relationship with HAL may be irreparable. Glad to hear some people are getting reimbursed. Gives me hope but also makes me wonder what is different about my case.

[BSinPNS]

The letter we received on board following isolation only offered Future Cruise Credit.  The FCC has an expiration date of one year from the time it was issued.  The FCC was applied to our future cruise with final payment due this week.  

[flgus]

My letter from HA promised both a cruise credit for lost days and payment for isolation cost ashore. That was in May 22.

[iceman93]

On 4/16/2023 at 11:40 AM, eggemon said:

I an truly sympathetic to HAL’s situation – a lot of requests, coming at a time when revenues were lower due to pandemic conditions and cautious travelers. BUT, those of us who DID travel felt confident in doing so, in part, due to HAL’s commitment to cover the unexpected expenses if we did come down with COVID. I am hopeful they will come through for us, eventually, but sure wish it did not take so long.

Honestly, this is the root of the problem.  HAL came up with their "worry-free promise" to get folks back to booking cruises.  If they didn't do a proper financial analysis to see what this was going to cost them, shame on them.

 

One of the reasons I became loyal to HAL was because of the premium experience they offered, to include customer service at all points in the process.  Yes, everyone is having trouble hiring and retaining good staff these days, but HAL is allowing their brand to be dragged down rather than putting in the effort to show that they are actually better than the competition.

[blkadr08]

This has to be hurting HAL’s bottom line.  Like many others here, we have been promised (in writing) close to $7000 in reimbursement for the isolation in May 2022, but, because HA has been so completely non-responsive about this, we refuse to cruise on any Carnival line ship until this is resolved .  We cruise every summer, and have booked cruises on both NCL and Windstar already out of our Holland America cruise fund ( yes, we really have one - We are 4 Star HA Cruisers).  Really sad, because we love HA otherwise and wouldn’t have considered another line, but for this problem.

[we135b]

11 hours ago, blkadr08 said:

This has to be hurting HAL’s bottom line.  Like many others here, we have been promised (in writing) close to $7000 in reimbursement for the isolation in May 2022, but, because HA has been so completely non-responsive about this, we refuse to cruise on any Carnival line ship until this is resolved .  We cruise every summer, and have booked cruises on both NCL and Windstar already out of our Holland America cruise fund ( yes, we really have one - We are 4 Star HA Cruisers).  Really sad, because we love HA otherwise and wouldn’t have considered another line, but for this problem.

Sorry to hear. I agree completely. They've not been up front about this either. Nine months on, it's clear that they've been either not able or not willing to meet their commitments. I would have preferred the truth that they were unable to pay rather than the repeated empty promises month after month. As it is, the sight of a HAL advertisement or commercial evokes nothing but this aggravating memory so there's no way I could sail with them. I've switched over to RCCL and will try others. Celebrity is a new favorite of mine.

[BillGray]

On 4/15/2023 at 3:20 PM, Tangocherie said:

It took me over 6 months after many emails and phone calls to get my reimbursement. Submitted my request in May 2022 and received the check in December! Hang in there. 

Thanks for some degree of encouragement.  My wife and I have been waiting for six months for our quarantine reimbursement.

 

[BillGray]

12 hours ago, we135b said:

Sorry to hear. I agree completely. They've not been up front about this either. Nine months on, it's clear that they've been either not able or not willing to meet their commitments. I would have preferred the truth that they were unable to pay rather than the repeated empty promises month after month. As it is, the sight of a HAL advertisement or commercial evokes nothing but this aggravating memory so there's no way I could sail with them. I've switched over to RCCL and will try others. Celebrity is a new favorite of mine.

Ditto for my wife and I.  We have been waiting for six months for a $4500 quarantine reimbursement that HAL has said will be mailed to us.