Refund timing?

[strickerj]

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.

[ABoatNerd]

Folks, stop waiting for NCL/HAL.

 

Initiate a "third party dispute" with your credit card company.

 

Get your cash back.

 

You should not be the banker to a cruise line.

 

Stand up for yourself.

 

There are other travel options than cruise lines - explore them and move on.

[Ellen495]

40 minutes ago, ABoatNerd said:

Folks, stop waiting for NCL/HAL.

 

Initiate a "third party dispute" with your credit card company.

 

Get your cash back.

 

You should not be the banker to a cruise line.

 

Stand up for yourself.

 

There are other travel options than cruise lines - explore them and move on.

I so agree!

[VMax1700]

If you look at the latest Travel Advisory on the HAL site it mentions....

 

Please note: Refunds are being processed by sailing date of the cancelled voyages with the earliest departures being refunded first. We ask for your continued patience in affording us the time to work through the refunds properly. Because we are not able to use our usual automated process, our team is manually handling a large volume of requests while working from home. 

 

[TN Fem]

1 hour ago, VMax1700 said:

If you look at the latest Travel Advisory on the HAL site it mentions....

 

Please note: Refunds are being processed by sailing date of the cancelled voyages with the earliest departures being refunded first. We ask for your continued patience in affording us the time to work through the refunds properly. Because we are not able to use our usual automated process, our team is manually handling a large volume of requests while working from home. 

 

We are still waiting on our March 14th refund which was was canceled on March 13th so much be one of the "earlier" sailings. We are on day 55. 

[jeremystevens]

On 3/14/2020 at 1:34 AM, Kfrech said:

I cancelled through the Big Box TA last Sunday for an Alaskan cruise in mid June. Since I was 97 days out, I opted for a full refund. I received an email confirmation from the big box TA immediately, however, when I log into HAL's website, my booking shows that it's still active. I have not received any monies yet.

 

 

Similar experience for me. I opted for a full refund mid-April, no refund yet and my cruise (due to depart 3rd June) is still showing as live via my HAL login.

[ABoatNerd]

10 hours ago, Ellen495 said:

I so agree!

 

Ellen. Exactly. What is the fixation with cruising and the need to prop up mega corporations?

 

I have cruised since 1987 but have moved on to include custom land tours and escorted tours and fly/train trips. There is a big world to see in the future - and cruising is only one small way to see the world.

 

Get your refund via your credit card company and explore other travel options.

 

Remember, the cruise lines have been working hard for years to downgrade their product and charge people more. People who keep booking in this paradigm are affectionately called "obedient consumers".

[CJcruzer]

from my experience of our April 11 Westerdam Japan sailing, which was cancelled Feb 20th- our cancelled cruise remained on our Mariner account for wuite somet8me.

 

At that time, refunds were processed very quickly, but don’t forget, there were only March 2 sailings, April 2 sail8ngs - to cancel and refund.   

 

Perhaps a month later we received our future cruise credit details via our TA - and I verified that it had been calculated properly.Shortly after, the booking disappeared from our Mariner account.  

 

It appears HAL keeps the booking recorded against your Mariner account until all refunds/future credits have been calculated and customer notified.   However, as more sailings have been cancelled - the process time for all this is now taking longer.  Don’t be surprised if your HAL cancelled cruise appears on r3cord for quite some time.

 

IF you cancel a cruise on your own (which I have cancelled our January 2021 cruise as it was a lengthy one) - that came off my Mariner account quickly.  However, still awaiting. deposit refund (30-60 days quoted from cancellation date of April 29).

 

Also to repeat, I was told that for HAL cancelled cruises, refunds/FCC’s will be processed by sail date.  Any other cancellations (cruise, excursions, wine packages,  specialty dining etc) should be slotted in to be refunded according to the date you personally cancelled that item.   

 

Carol

 

 

[Ellen495]

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.

[kstrittm]

1 minute ago, CJcruzer said:

from my experience of our April 11 Westerdam Japan sailing, which was cancelled Feb 20th- our cancelled cruise remained on our Mariner account for wuite somet8me.

 

At that time, refunds were processed very quickly, but don’t forget, there were only March 2 sailings, April 2 sail8ngs - to cancel and refund.   

 

Perhaps a month later we received our future cruise credit details via our TA - and I verified that it had been calculated properly.Shortly after, the booking disappeared from our Mariner account.  

 

It appears HAL keeps the booking recorded against your Mariner account until all refunds/future credits have been calculated and customer notified.   However, as more sailings have been cancelled - the process time for all this is now taking longer.  Don’t be surprised if your HAL cancelled cruise appears on r3cord for quite some time.

 

IF you cancel a cruise on your own (which I have cancelled our January 2021 cruise as it was a lengthy one) - that came off my Mariner account quickly.  However, still awaiting. deposit refund (30-60 days quoted from cancellation date of April 29).

 

Also to repeat, I was told that for HAL cancelled cruises, refunds/FCC’s will be processed by sail date.  Any other cancellations (cruise, excursions, wine packages,  specialty dining etc) should be slotted in to be refunded according to the date you personally cancelled that item.   

 

Carol

 

 

HAL does not keep the booking online...  I canceled 3 cruises in March, and my HAL account shows all are gone.  Of course, I have not received any of the deposits!  

[CJcruzer]

2 minutes ago, kstrittm said:

HAL does not keep the booking online...  I canceled 3 cruises in March, and my HAL account shows all are gone.  Of course, I have not received any of the deposits!  

 

If you read my post closely, I mentioned this was my experience ONLY for the HAL cancelled cruise,

 

My own cancellation which I initiated through my TA for Jan 2021 came off the site immediately.

 

So from those experiences, I only infer that possibly HAL keeps the ones onsite yet, for the cruises they have cancelled, due to shortened sailing season/COVID 19.

 

Carol

[Kfrech]

29 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.

 

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.

 

[strickerj]

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.

Edited May 7, 2020 by strickerj

[wesport]

Refunds used to be 90 days. Now I would expect 120 to 180 days

[Mud_Shark]

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

[IPB4IGO]

8 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

 

My thought exactly. Unless they get caught up by that time, I am canceling our next cruise before the June 28 final payment date. Waiting for a refund on my $798 deposit is one thing. Tying up another $6,000 indefinitely is another.

[strickerj]

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.

[kelmac]

15 hours ago, ABoatNerd said:

Folks, stop waiting for NCL/HAL.

 

Initiate a "third party dispute" with your credit card company.

 

Get your cash back.

 

You should not be the banker to a cruise line.

 

Stand up for yourself.

 

There are other travel options than cruise lines - explore them and move on.

How do you dispute a charge that was made last year in May and final payment Dec 1st?  Not within the 60 day window of time allotted for challenges. 

[kelmac]

1 hour ago, strickerj said:

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.

I agree 100%.  It's not about needing extra time to process a refund;  in 30 days of April they didn't process a single refund.  It's about holding on to cash and developing a strategy as to where the money should go.  Celebrity has worked through many of their March cancellations and has refunded loads of their customers.  

[summer slope]

Received, today, the refund for onboard purchases on our March 11 cruise.  Hopefully cruise refund and FCC will show up soon.

Edited May 7, 2020 by summer slope

[wesport]

Norwegian just announced they can last 18 months without sailing. Of course, no mention of customer refunds.

[IPB4IGO]

47 minutes ago, kelmac said:

How do you dispute a charge that was made last year in May and final payment Dec 1st?  Not within the 60 day window of time allotted for challenges. 

I guess it varies by credit card issuer. As a test, I just started a dispute on a transaction from May 2019 on my Citi Costco Visa card, and it let me. I know that I submitted a dispute on a charge older than 60 days a few months ago.

[nyceve]

1 hour ago, kelmac said:

How do you dispute a charge that was made last year in May and final payment Dec 1st?  Not within the 60 day window of time allotted for challenges. 

Just initiate it. Let the cc company tell you it is too late.  I doubt that will happen becuase when I called my cc Compnay, they told me they are being inundated with cruise refunds.

 

[Tennessee Titan]

The other side of cc dispute. Once one is initiated, you go to the back of the cruise line's line.....

[funintehsun]

I wouldn't mind being at the end of HAL's line as long as I got my credit from the CC right away.

 

When you dispute a charge with your card issuer, the bank will provisionally credit your account for the disputed amount while they investigate.  This will usually happen in a few days to a few weeks max.  If you had a large payment coming up, you no longer have to make that payment.  In my case, I charged my cruise in January and paid the cc in full in February.  However, I had car insurance and several other large bills in April that were wiped out (at least provisionally) because I disputed the charge from HAL.

 

The investigation is supposed to take 45-60 days although it could take longer with everything happening now.  During that time, you get to keep the provisional credit.  At the end of the investigation the cc will either side with you or the merchant and notify you of their decision.  If they side with you effectively nothing happens.  You already received the credit, so nothing needs to be done.  If they side with the merchant, they will reinstate the charge.  Considering that cruises are not sailing, I find it difficult to believe that the card issuer will side with the merchant.

 

If you are stuck waiting for a refund and paid with a credit card, please contact your card issuer about initiating a dispute.  Please do not wait and please don't let anyone on this board shame you out of doing it.

 

For me, the lack of transparency and the ever growing time frame for the refund sealed it for me. It was initially 7-10 days for the refund and then became "up to 60 days" which morphed into "at least 60 days".  That became at least 60 days from your sail date.  Now folks on here are talking 90, 120, or even 180 days.