Refund Shenanigans

[[email protected]]

My cruise was scheduled for May 15, and the port of origin was Spain with stops in France and Italy..  Those ports were closed due to COVID-19 and RC was not going to be able to fulfill this trip. Rather than wait for the refund, which was inevitable, on 4/3, I submitted a request to my agent for the 125% credit, which I had seen ads on around March 31.  Then, it was announced a couple of days later that my trip was cancelled and I would be eligible for a refund.  I asked my agent to change the request to get the refund instead.  After much back and forth with RC, the refund request was denied, as they said I had already signed up for the 125% cruise credit.  When I received my credit however, it was for 100%, not 125%,  I asked my agent to check on this.  She said that RC told her they had a few issues like that, give it 30 days.  Well it has now been 60 days and my agent just came back to me saying that my request for the 125% credit was denied as the program did not start until after my request on 4/3.  I know that is not true because I would have waited a little longer to submit a request for a refund rather than a credit.  I had more money invested in the airline tickets and had already received a full refund for the trip.  My husband and I had started a tradition of an annual cruise with RC - this was our 5th cruise and it was a Med cruise.  I feel like I have been treated unfairly in this circumstance and at this point, do not know of how to get any redress on this.  Any ideas?     

[Dad2Cue]

2 hours ago, [email protected] said:

I had more money invested in the airline tickets and had already received a full refund for the trip.  My husband and I had started a tradition of an annual cruise with RC - this was our 5th cruise and it was a Med cruise.  I feel like I have been treated unfairly in this circumstance and at this point, do not know of how to get any redress on this.  Any ideas?     

I cancelled a trans Atlantic cruise to England back in late March.  At the time, it was becoming clear that all my flights and hotels reservations were being disrupted but Royal hadn't cancelled the cruise yet.  Royal handled my 100% FCC relatively quickly but I probably should have waited another week to allow Royal to cancel the cruise.  My FCC has bounced around to future cruises but I finally parked it on a cruise in August 2021--- I should have waited before applying the FCC but live and learn I guess.   In retrospect, the extra 25% would had been nice but a refund would have been better.   My only hope is that Royal starts to cancel future cruises before the final payment date because I will have another decision coming on October 3rd.

My airline tickets were another matter.  Just yesterday, I received notice from my credit card company that they have resolved my dispute in my favor and the temporary credits have been made permanent.  At least your experience with the airline was positive.  A couple of hotel credits trickled in quickly so that was good.  Now I need to go to work on my England rail passes that are still valid until January 2021 but it doesn't appear that I will have much use for those.  I can only hope they are refundable or that the expiration date can be extended thru the end of 2021.

[PPPJJ-GCVAB]

So, I believe the original Cruise with Confidence offer came out around March 6, 2020 and only offered 100%FCC for cruise fare plus cash refund of taxes and gratuities...travel insurance would not be refunded.  Also the offer stated Non-refundable deposits would be refunded.  So in essence we would lose nothing but the travel Insurance (which I did call that company directly and got NOWHERE!!!)    The only time I saw a 125% FCC offer was when Royal themselves cancelled cruises and as far as mine was concerned I knew we were not eligible as we had already cancelled (Our cruise was not cancelled until April 4!).

My cruise was scheduled to depart April 13, 2020.  I had booked directly with Royal groups dept because I had 30 people (12 rooms) all set to cruise!!  On March 8, I called and cancelled using the CWC offer.  Because our cruise date was just outside of the 30 day window...Royal refunded 25% of our cruise fare in cash and set our FCC at 75%.  Within a month we all got back our deposits, taxes,  pre-paid gratuities, and our full airfares (I had used Air2Sea with Royal to book all of our flights).   Oh and our cruise planner refunds came back a little behind schedule but after a couple of calls that was fixed!    On July 16 we received our FCC $$$ and I applied them to our re-booked cruise for April 2021.  I am now facing a few glitches with the application of the credits but being able to work directly with Royal helps and I am sure all will work out as planned.

Yes, I spent many hours on the phone between March and July wondering when the FCCs would arrive, etc...and when I say many I MEAN MANY, MANY, MANY!!!!!!!      

[Jill]

Unfortunately you canceled the cruise and therefore only eligible for 100% FCC. If you had waited until RC canceled, that’s when the options of refund or 125% FCC were available. You can convert a 125% FCC back to a refund up until December 31, 2021. 

[twangster]

Rule #1 is always wait for the cruise line (or airline) to cancel.  As soon as you choose to cancel you limit your options.

[Hagar]

Oh no, NOT shenanigans!

"Oh dear, oh my, Lippy"    

 

(Seriously no disrespect to the "OP" ...just tickled my funny bone ;>)

[sk8erguy1978]

As stated, since you cancelled you received a FCC for 100% of fare, that was your CWC, prior it would have been subjected to cancellation or change fees. 125% is if they cancel on you, not if they cancel after you.

Sorry if you might have misunderstood the policy, stinks. Let your agent get to the bottom of everything.

I cancelled a cruise before it ended up being cancelled. I did so because I didn't want to make full payment. So I lost out on a possible 125% and 100% fine with that.

 

Edited August 3, 2020 by sk8erguy1978
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