Holland America COVID Isolation Cost Failure to Reimburse

[we135b]

53 minutes ago, cartervan said:

Oh wow--I should have realized that we were not the only ones dealing with all this COVID reimbursement hassle!  We also were on an Alaska Land/Sea cruise in July of 22, and, just like another person's story, got as far as Denali before my husband tested positive for COVID.  After two days in isolation at the lodge we were bussed back to Anchorage where we were put up in a (supposedly $400 a night) hotel room with kitchenette but no nearby restaurants in an industrial part of town, and told to order food from Walmart. However, HAL gave us the (apparently standard) letter saying we would be reimbursed for meals and for the cost of the room. Since we did have travel insurance, we first applied for what they were supposed to pay.  I won't go into all the painful details of the year-long struggle with insurance (which turned out to be worthless--our lawyer says it's a clear case of fraud) and with HAL.  No reimbursement yet. We have twice mailed in all the required paper work. ( The first time HAL says they never received it). After I pushed for it, we did get Cruise Credit posted to our account, and so booked another cruise for February to cash in on that.  However, in our continuing efforts to get what was promised us, HAL suddenly decided that only half of our Cruise Credit was owed to us and added another $900 or so to what we owe for our February cruise!! Hours and hours on the phone. Dozens of e-mails and letters. Unbelievable! 

Ugh. That's so painful to hear. Before I got reimbursed recently (15 months later), I had begun the process for small claims court (magistrate court). You might consider either filing suit with HAL or your insurance company. For my state, CA, the process was very simple. I was to send a letter to my state's HAL office and send a form into the courts and that's it. There is some nominal court fee and lawyers are not allowed to get involved on either side of the dispute in CA so, no cost there. The case of suing HAL was tricky for me. I couldn't find any documentation where they committed to reimbursement prior to purchasing my cruise which is probably no coincidence. So, my plan was to sue them for promising reimbursement and failing to do so when I could have found a much cheaper accommodations (I could have stayed in AirBNB's for almost nothing). I was going to sue them for the difference. The case with the insurance company seems straightforward if they are not honoring their contract. While I'm happy to finally get reimbursed, I feel like HAL really let us down, This is not how an honest company does business. Best of luck to you.

Edited October 22, 2023 by we135b

[we135b]

39 minutes ago, Vict0riann said:

We are still waiting for our payment, too, from our September 2022 Alaska cruise.  It's not a lot, the ship made arrangements for us to rent a car and drive home to isolate, so car rental and ferry.  Our PCC did manage to get our FCC expedited some months later, but we've heard nothing more.  

I mentioned to a previous responder, that it's possible that the company might have changed internal  policy or something that's freed up their reimbursement budget (of course, I have no idea what I'm talking about. lol). so it might not be a bad idea to remind them that they owe you via email or phone. Good luck. There is still hope.

[BillGray]

It took a long time, but we did finally get the reimbursements meal and lodging from HAL.  The action occurred after I sent a letter explaining our situation to the President of HAL.  Someone in his office researched and found that though the reimbursements had been approved,  they had never been forwarded for reimbursement.  The president even offered us a couple of free exclusive meals on our next cruise.

[we135b]

6 hours ago, BillGray said:

It took a long time, but we did finally get the reimbursements meal and lodging from HAL.  The action occurred after I sent a letter explaining our situation to the President of HAL.  Someone in his office researched and found that though the reimbursements had been approved,  they had never been forwarded for reimbursement.  The president even offered us a couple of free exclusive meals on our next cruise.

That’s great. Glad they came through. Seems like there might be some sort of performance issues with customer service if the leadership is going to respond like that.