strickerj

11 minutes ago, masterdrago said:

DW is the same way about flying. Totally white knuckled on the several commercials we took last year. She had the best time ever on the 2 we took in the 14 days. Best was around Denali - way spectacular. We did have to cancel one due to RCI screwing up our time. She had absolutely no issues with the float planes and ski-planes at all. ...

Thanks, that does look like fun! My parents had the glacier landing flight booked in Denali but it got canceled due to weather - much to my mom's relief, I think! On a spur of the moment, we've decided to book a cruise to Progreso and Cozumel this fall, and assuming it isn't canceled, I'm thinking taking the flight to Chichen Itza (on a lightweight but conventional-gear aircraft) might be a good stepping stone to the one in Alaska. (My wife was an anthropology major and really wants to see the Mayan sites, and you don't get much time there on the bus tour.)

I've rebooked my canceled Holland America cruise for next year (we'd be in Ketchikan today, in fact), and while HAL had a flight in/boat back (or vice versa) combo excursion listed then, I don't see it now. I'm hesitant to book just the flight in case it gets canceled due to weather and I end up with no shore excursion at all. Plus my wife and mother in law will take the Misty Fjords cruise only since there's no way I'm convincing them to get on a floatplane. I'm thinking I might just go with them on that and save the flight for Juneau, but I hate the idea of missing out...

On 5/11/2020 at 4:03 PM, strickerj said:

Same here, got all but one shore excursion refunded yesterday for our canceled 5/24 Alaska cruise and got FCC for 2 of the 3 passengers, but no refund of the port taxes & fees. 

Just got the last outstanding shore excursion refund, so that just leaves port taxes and fees now.

I agree the response from HAL (and Carnival Corp in general) has been pretty poor, but if Ashford resigned or got canned, where would they find someone else both capable and willing to take his job in the midst of this crisis? I'm not sure if anyone else would be any better.

29 minutes ago, Elaine5715 said:

In my state, it is dependent on politics...  We have multiple counties with no infections and a Governor who is running for VP 

I was about to say same here, but I see we're from the same state. 🙂 I've been saying this for months - It never made sense to close down the entire state when the outbreaks were confined to a few metro areas (where people were just ignoring the orders anyway because they weren't really enforced).

Same here, got all but one shore excursion refunded yesterday for our canceled 5/24 Alaska cruise and got FCC for 2 of the 3 passengers, but no refund of the port taxes & fees. 

On 5/7/2020 at 6:28 PM, strickerj said:

I just got notification of my FCC from my canceled 5/24 cruise, but only for one passenger's fare rather than both. Anyone else have the same experience? I guess I'll give them a call and inquire tomorrow.

Still nothing on the second passenger's FCC, but I did get all but one shore excursion refunded yesterday - as I mentioned upthread, my wife and my stateroom is on a different reservation from her mother's, and it's one of hers that didn't get refunded, so I'm hoping that's still coming. (Though all 3 of our excursions for the other ports were refunded, so I don't know.) I'll continue to hold off on contacting them since I know they're swamped, and I don't feel like waiting on hold for hours.

27 minutes ago, kwb101 said:

Much as I like working with the folks at this TA, it seems pretty crummy to handle the FCC this way, and remove not only the commission for them, but the discount to us. In addition, the price of the trip I booked increased about 25% from the same one this year, so the FCC barely covered the increased price. Looks like no one will come out even, let alone ahead.

If I'm understanding correctly, the TA won't get a commission on the original cruise since it was canceled, but also won't get a commission on the rebooked cruise because the FCC was processed as a discount (making the fare effectively zero) instead of a form of payment? If so, then not only is the cruise line benefitting from effectively interest free loans (by providing refunds in the form of credits rather than cash), but they're also stiffing TAs out of commissions. Hopefully this is all just an unintended consequence of the FCC processing rather than intentional.

58 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

...

Also, what's with the shaming of people who want their hard-earned money back?  You are sympathetic toward a multi-million dollar industry that wants to hold your money with no reliable communication for months on end, but if an individual who may need their money back at this unprecedented time has the nerve to complain, they are told that they can "afford" the loss? 

Absolutely agreed... FWIW, I can afford to not have my refund right away, but that doesn't mean I don't still want it, or want to know when it's coming. I do need it if I'm going to rebook for next year - I sure don't want to pay for the same trip twice. 🙂

7 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

One of my flights was with Lufthansa.  I waited until they cancelled and then phoned.  After I refused the voucher (and assured the CSR we would fly Lufthansa when we are back) they agreed to refund me.  

So many different experiences and it seems we have to fight for refunds with them all.  Now to see if they come.

Glad it worked out! I'm not too worried about HAL since my travel insurance will reimburse me if the provider fails due to insolvency, but I am concerned about AC since they'll claim I was "made whole" already with the voucher in lieu of a refund.

32 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

I completely agree with you.  The European airlines are refunding - you just have to be able to get through 😉 And, their line is the voucher is faster, refunds take time.  Thanks but cash is king 😉 

According to several posts on Flyertalk, even some EU airlines (Air France/KLM and Lufthansa in particular) aren't refunding either, and in the case of AF/KLM, AmEx France has actually cut a deal with them to deny chargebacks. In Canada, CTA has sided with the airlines as mentioned here, but their guidelines are non-binding.

It turns out, perhaps contrary to expectations, the U.S. has been the one to side with the passengers on this - U.S. DOT sent a reminder on April 3 that airlines that have canceled flights still owe full refunds, and that includes flights to/from the U.S. by foreign airlines. (See section 2 in this article: https://airpassengerrights.ca/en/covid19/coronavirus-how-to-get-a-refund.) You might want to invoke that as I'm sure the airlines are counting on most passengers not knowing about it. I've put in a request for a refund since Air Canada has suspended service to my city entirely, and if they refuse, I'll go the chargeback route.

7 minutes ago, phil_daly said:

The 1027.12 was the fare for 2 people ($513.56 each). Taxes were for 2 ($112.0 each). Upgrade was $99.0 each. Apologies for

not being specific.

No problem... Yeah I'm not sure what's going on there. Your FCC is much more than 125% of the base fare ($513.56 x 1.25 = $641.95) and even more than the fare with the upgrade ($612.56 x 1.25 = $765.70), and they definitely shouldn't have counted the taxes since those will be refunded. I can't find any combination of those numbers with or without the 25% bonus that equals $847.50. That's weird.

4 minutes ago, Double D Cruisers said:

My husband received an e-mail this afternoon saying his FCC and was ready to use, 1/2 of the total fare.  I thought it was weird, but about an hour later I received an e-mail as well for my half of the fare.  We have to contact our PCC to have the FCC applied to our upcoming cruise.

Hopefully it's just a little behind then, thanks!

5 minutes ago, phil_daly said:

My wife and I were on the 3/14 Mexico sailing and it was cancelled by HAL the day before. OK, we understand why

and we hadn't left home yet.

 

We did buy some extras before sailing and these were refunded to the credit card promptly. I "spoke" with a HAL

chat-bot ~2 days ago about FCC etc as it was very close to the 60-day limit and I'd seen nothing. Today, I got an

email that FCC was available!

 

So, here's the breakdown. (Base?) cruise fare was $1027.12 and taxes/fees were $224.0. We later purchased

an upgrade for $99 pp. The total of all those is (1027.12 + 224.0 + 99.0 + 99.0) = $1449.12.

 

Our FCC was $847.50 plus $250 OBC each. The only way I can come near that number is:

 

 125% base fare = 1027.12 * 1.25 = 1283.90, then add on the taxes/fees and the upgrade (+224 + 198) to get

$1705.9 and divide that by 2 to get $852.95 (close enough).

 

Does that sound right?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

Are those fares per person? Mine was exactly 125% of the base fare without taxes and port fees. I don't know how the upgrade would have been counted.

2 minutes ago, FlaMariner said:

 

Check the other person's email....My wife and I were under one booking but we each got the email with the FCC for each of us.

Yeah, nothing in her email, just mine. 😞

Same, I got a confirmation page but no email, and I also got my FCC today but no cash refunds yet.

Got mine too, but only for 125% of one passenger's fare, not both... Anyone else experienced this?

I just got notification of my FCC from my canceled 5/24 cruise, but only for one passenger's fare rather than both. Anyone else have the same experience? I guess I'll give them a call and inquire tomorrow.

1 hour ago, AlanF65 said:

My May 18th 2020 sailing FCC showed up about 20 minutes ago

 

 

I just got mine for my May 24 Noordam cruise, but only for one passenger's fare rather than both...

4 minutes ago, Crazy For Cats said:

With the new cancellations yesterday I reached out to my PCC to replace our March 7 day cruise with a 12 day cruise.  When booking it she realized that the FCC was available to use.  I’m still waiting on the refunds for port taxes and insurance but did consider it a positive step.

Thanks for that! So I guess it's possible my FCC has been processed (even though my refund of the shore excursions hasn't) but I'd have to just keep calling them to find out... that's kind of what I was hoping to avoid, lol.

20 minutes ago, Mud_Shark said:

I don't have any stats, but it feels like since the start of the complete shutdown - no one is getting a refund.  It has been 8 weeks since the shutdown.  If the company is working manually through a large number of refunds, you would think several thousand customers would have been refunded by now.  Yes, there would still be a backlog, but the pipeline should be flowing to some degree.  I get the feeling it is not flowing at all.

 

Don

Yep. We get that there are a lot of them and they have to be processed manually, but we'd all feel better if there were at least some reports that refunds have been received. When there are none, then it feels like refunds aren't actually being processed at all because the company doesn't have the money.

56 minutes ago, Ellen495 said:

I've never enjoyed cruising (you ask - why am I on this forum?). Well we were very excited about our Alaskan Cruise which we thought would be THE way to see Alaska after 7 days land on our own (No cruise tour company helping). We booked everything and looked forward to HAL cruising even though it's not our normal thing. We've also thought that river cruises (never done them) could be an option one day. But cruising the islands - no way for us. We like to choose an island, find a beautiful place to stay, and explore. We deliberately avoid cruise landing days to go to certain ports. We did Croatia, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Italy, Spain, England, Moscow (that's not really seeing Russia of course) on our own. Loved our wonderful trips. 

 

Will we come back to cruising? We still want to do Alaska on a cruise and would choose HAL again. But not until a full year goes by with the cruise companies showing they made changes and have safe ways to do this. I won't be one of the early returners -though I wish EVERYONE well who chooses to do so.

24 minutes ago, Kfrech said:

 

I could have written these very same words. We've only cruised 3 times, but were very much looking forward to our Alaskan cruise in June. We would much rather explore on our own. I really have no desire to cruise again anytime soon.

 

Same here. I've actually never been on one, but it seems like the best way to see the panhandle of Alaska considering the lack of road access, and the more I read CruiseCritic, the more I've become intrigued by cruising to other destinations. I like road trips too but being able to travel while sleeping (as on cruises or long distance trains) is a real time-saver. So I'm still holding out hope for Alaska for next year and will keep cruising if that experience is to my liking.

I'm looking at the same itinerary, and the days of the week are the same (both depart/arrive on Sunday with the ports of call in the same order, just alternating weeks, so Noordam is northbound while NA is southbound, and vice versa).

We chose the Noordam departure on 5/30 purely for scheduling reasons (priced lower than the June/July sailings but late enough that we can get to Eielson Visitor in Denali afterwards, and also not conflicting with Memorial Day weekend).

13 hours ago, Crazy For Cats said:

I got some good news tonight.  Since the August cruise we wanted to book is cancelled I reached out to our PCC to book a 12 day March cruise.  Our FCC was posted to our mariner numbers today!  Our balance due, after also using a FCD, is 190.  
 

The FCC was from our March 18 sailing that was cancelled on March 13.

Did you get a notification that your FCC was posted or did you happen to call in and find out? (I haven't heard anything yet and I don't want to harass them about it if I don't have to.)

1 hour ago, Ellen495 said:

And Norwegian may be going bankrupt. What if HAL does? Then you'd never get the money. 

HAL is under the umbrella of Carnival, so I assume HAL couldn't just pack up and leave us hanging as long as CCL is solvent? (I'll be the first to admit I know very little about bankruptcy law.)

FWIW, I don't have Cancel for Any Reason insurance, but my policy does cover travel providers unable to deliver due to insolvency, so I think I'm set as long as my insurance company doesn't go bankrupt.

1 hour ago, mskitty1 said:

Finally got through to Generali Travel Insurance today after waiting (again) for almost 30 minutes.  Was told that YES I did need a Voucher # before I can apply the $$$ to a future cruise.  This process should take 10 business days--for me it has been 17 business days and still NO voucher.  I demanded to speak with a Supervisor which did NOT happen since it was a Saturday.  Agent says that sent an email to the supervisor and I should hear by next Wednesday.  UGH!!!! This is getting frustrating!  I have also send emails to any email address that I can find for Customer Service.  The saga continues....

That's weird... I've gotten nothing since the email that my request for a voucher was approved on 4/14 (13 business days ago) which didn't have the voucher number in it. I didn't even notice it says you need a voucher number until you replied to this thread. Looks like this is going to be a hassle for me too...