Money back from FCC that was used for another cancelled cruise ?

[Traveler]

This week we were supposed to take the first cruise after a long period of time . My spouse and I are all the time  envy with people living near a cruise which allow them  to take a cruise without need to fly, we always said we are waiting that it will be the same for us and what do you know, the time  arrived (due to the C19 unfortunately ). As the Haifa cruise was just opened for booking I jumped on it and booked the first cruise using some FCC plus  extra money for a 5 day cruise in a JS. Later we added another cruise (earlier one , a 3 nights weekend cruise). Everything was ready,  shore excursions, dining packages,  how to get there (its 50 minutes train ride for us or 90 minutes +/- car ride) were to park  and pre cruise diet (at least I said I will do one).

We did not took into consideration the vaccine issue although I wondered how RCL going to handle it as I did not thought anyone in the health ministry office will approve to admit the vaccine to the RCL crew  , mainly afraid the political impact ("why do you give the vaccine to a commercial company  and not for our friends in other countries ?"). How it end you already know , the situation in the south (which was long ended as anticipate) was used as an excuse (bad excuse , almost like saying lets cancel cruises from cape liberty during June to  November as there is a chance of hurricanes in Florida ...), 

RCL sent the cancelation email with the options (125 % , full money back or some ODBC if we will take the Jewel OTS from Cyprus). I quickly went  and canceled all the cruise planner items and later went and asked for the money back option. I thought I will get the money back plus a new FCC for the portion we paid with the old FCC we had from 2020 April cruise. Yesterday I saw in my bank account/CC statement that I got some money back from RCL (after around 8 days which I think is very nice consider it had to go via my international CC) , Strange enough there were many lines there (all saying RCL) with different amounts . It was very hard to understand what's going on as the total amount was more than I expected. I even thought that they cancel another cruise for us. After a while , tracking back my old CC payments and using some formulas I figured out that they decided to give us the FCC (without 125%) which was used as money back and not a new FCC . Not sure if it is the current policy and anyone else encounter it but that what happened. I am not complaining for losing the extra 25% as I am still waiting to see how fast the cruise industry will recover (including international travelers)  and I am OK with reducing the amount of money we let RCL hold for us. Well lets hope our next cruise try will go better

[Matt]

It is not uncommon to get a bunch of refunds, rather than just one.  It seems they refund out every line item, rather than the lump sum.  It definitely makes figuring it all out much more difficult, especially if you have more than one cancelled cruise.

[Traveler]

8 minutes ago, Matt said:

It is not uncommon to get a bunch of refunds, rather than just one.  It seems they refund out every line item, rather than the lump sum.  It definitely makes figuring it all out much more difficult, especially if you have more than one cancelled cruise.

Agree, but what usually I do is to compare it to the CP purchases and the money we paid for the cruise itself , what I did not knew is that they will pay us back the FCC also which complicate the calculation , I thought if you are using FCC from a pervious cancelled cruise they are creating a new FCC for the same amount .

[Matt]

7 minutes ago, Traveler said:

what I did not knew is that they will pay us back the FCC also which complicate the calculation , I thought if you are using FCC from a pervious cancelled cruise they are creating a new FCC for the same amount .

Agreed.

Their refund policy can sometimes be a mess. I saw plenty of people who got too much of a FCC, and then months later it was corrected.

[JeffB]

I had a very similar experience with Celebrity in that on a refunded booking, I received 4 credits to the card the original booking was charged to. None of these included fees and taxes - these were refunded separately in a 5th credit!!!  I was not dealing with any OBC's or advance payments for tours or services. I was able to obtain an explanation from a very well informed CSR - he explained refunds are divided, as @Matt notes above, by line item (except the fees and taxes that are usually refunded separately). This is a company accounting method that divides your payment for the cruise between several lines - you never see these; I think your TA can see them by going on to the reservation system that you don't have access to. He gets lots of calls on this so, he's gotten good at explaining them. He used a calculator to demonstrate how I received a full refund on my original fare. 

Refunds of a cancelled cruise that has had an FCC applied to it as a partial payment, as I understand it, will not be refunded, @Traveler's post not withstanding (???) It goes into your account and has to be used before it expires so, check carefully on the expiration date if this is the case for you.

[Traveler]

12 minutes ago, JeffB said:

Refunds of a cancelled cruise that has had an FCC applied to it as a partial payment, as I understand it, will not be refunded

That's what I thought ,  but after summing all the lines and all the money I got back I found out three lines which if I deduct the 125% are the exact amount (to the dollar)  of money of the FCC I used ... (lets say I put a 1000 FCC on this cruise I got 800 back) . When I summed all up it was the cruise planner + the money I paid for the cruise + the FCC (-the 0.25 extra) I used for the cruise.  Not sure if its a new policy , an old policy which I was not aware of or some glitch , not that I complaining.

[JeffB]

???? Just don't ask RCL. I suspect it's a mistake. Take it and run.