Cancelled Cruises Refund Tracker/Discussion (merged topics)

[vkb2751]

15 minutes ago, CHOPPERTESTER said:

For a 27 March 2020 Silhouette 9 Night direct booking, not through a TA.

Move up bid charged to credit card on 12 March. I assume the call went out to get as much cash as you can.

Cruise cancelled by Celebrity on 13 March.

Called for 100% refund on 16 March.

 

Got restaurant charge back on credit card 1 April with no sign of move up charge, cabin or port fees/taxes.

Phoned Celebrity and told refund request was acknowledged in their system 20 March and to give it until 19 April.

 

Called on 21 April and told refund was posted to credit card on 19 April.

Refund showed up on credit card on 23 April with a post date of 20 April so some delay on credit card side. So it seems to be a pay no earlier than 30 calendar days approach by Celebrity from when the refund request is acknowledged in Celebrity’s system.

All was refunded, move up charge, cabin & port fees/taxes in five separate transactions all on 20 April. Only problem is they shorted me an amount equivalent to the restaurant refund they gave me on 1 April.

 

Will wait a few days then call to get that sorted out.

Hope this helps those that were on our planned 27 March cruise.

 

We were on the same 3/27 cruise and requested refund on 3/13 as soon as celebrity cancelled the sailing. I called yesterday and was told that refund has not been processed and couldn’t give me any idea of when it would be processed. Also, I was told it would be sent to accounting after processing and could take 45 additional days for actual refund to be issued!

 

can anyone figure out how and in what order the refunds are being issued?

[helen haywood]

Throw a dart at a board...

[BEAV]

6 minutes ago, helen haywood said:

Throw a dart at a board...

 

+1

 

People’s refund experiences are all over the map. Too much to see any clear pattern. 

[Kartgv]

Deposit refunds hit our credit card today.   Cancellation was on 4/6 for a mid-September cruise.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 24, 2020 by Kartgv

[prish]

1 minute ago, BEAV said:

 

+1

 

People’s refund experiences are all over the map. Too much to see any clear pattern. 

Helen and BEAV, you’re right, it’s all over the place, there seems to be no clear order or pattern to the refunds.

 

BEAV, I tried again with to file an online dispute with Chase but again I only got an 800 number to call. One good thing though, in the process of trying I found the form they were supposed to send me, so will fill it and mail it to them this weekend. 
 

BTW, can I call Celebrity to ask about the refund even though I’m with a TA, I seem to have read something to this effect earlier on this thread. 
 

 

[marieps]

1 hour ago, JuliaMS said:

 So you were not at final payment date yet? Just Deposit refunded?

That's correct, Julia.  I cancelled 5 days before final payment.

[BEAV]

3 minutes ago, prish said:

BEAV, I tried again with to file an online dispute with Chase but again I only got an 800 number to call. One good thing though, in the process of trying I found the form they were supposed to send me, so will fill it and mail it to them this weekend. 

 

Sorry you’ve had trouble, but glad you persevered and found the form.

 

Keep the faith! 😉

 

[marieps]

I was also on the 3/27 Silhouette.  I changed my mind from a cash refund to FCC, which I received via email in about ten days.  I had received my Bev pkg upgrade $$ on my credit card only days after X cancelled us.  I thought I was supposed to get taxes/port fees refunded on my Visa Card.  Nothing on that yet.

[vkb2751]

11 minutes ago, prish said:

Helen and BEAV, you’re right, it’s all over the place, there seems to be . 

 

BTW, can I call Celebrity to ask about the refund even though I’m with a TA, I seem to have read something to this effect earlier on this thread. 
 

 

 

Yes you can call celebrity for your refund. We are booked with TA but have called celebrity regarding refund status.

[prish]

4 minutes ago, vkb2751 said:

 

Yes you can call celebrity for your refund. We are booked with TA but have called celebrity regarding refund status.

Thank you, may try first thing Monday morning...

 

BEAV, will definitely keep faith and hope for the best...👍

[Shadow9612]

10 hours ago, Fouremco said:

The actual time required to process the refund would indeed be shorter in the example you cite, but with the current volume, it is still going to take a long time to reach the front of the line to get processed. 

But, in this example (refundable deposit only, before final payment), why can't it be an automated refund directly to the same credit card as soon as the agent on the phone (for example) clicks "cancel".

 

Presumably,  the stateroom is released immediately (so someone else can book it), so why can't the refund be done?

 

[omeinv]

Here's my (almost) complete refund chronology:

 

I was scheduled to cruise on the Eclipse, departing San Antonio Chile for San Diego< CA on March 15.  I was in Santiago, when the cruise was cancelled, the afternoon of March 14. 

 

On March 15, I submitted the request for a refund, using the link in the email from Celebrity.  Like most, if not all, I did not get the confirmation email referenced on the cancellation form. However, I saved the acknowledgement form, so I wasn't worried.  The acknowledgement did anticipate a 30 day interval for the refund. 

 

Also on March 15, I sent an Email to Celebrity, along with my receipt for the return air from Santiago to Denver, as they offered $300.00 toward that.  Of course the total cost was more, so I've submitted a trip cancellation claim for the difference through my travel insurance policy. 

 

My cruise total was $3899.29.  $100.00 initial deposit, $3298.00 remaining cruise fare, $276.29 Taxes and Fees, and $225.00 pre-paid gratuities. 

 

On April 2, I received a call from Celebrity, asking which credit card I wanted the $300.00 airfare reimbursement to go to. 

 

On April 10, I had occasion to talk with one of the people I regularly deal with at Celebrity, so I asked her to check on my refund.  She could see it had been processed on April 4, and internally the amounts were broken down as: $3534.29, $217.50, $47.50 and $100.00.  The only amount that has an obvious correlation to an amount I paid was the $100.00 which equaled my initial deposit.  The April 4 date would appear to be the date it was forwarded for internal approval at Celebrity.  She was also able to see the $300.00 airfare reimbursement was working its way through the system.   I was told that the refunds are processing weekly, and of all days they were going out in batches on Sundays.

 

Tonight, my card was credited in the following amounts: $2569.13, $276.29, $276.29. $276.29 (yes, that amount three separate times), and $225.00.  This totals $3623.00.  This means at the moment, I'm $276.29 short of the correct amount.  Chase (my card issuer) doesn't update accounts on Saturdays, but I'm about certain that on Sunday the final $276.29 will credit to my account.  Although the charge showed up tonight (April 24) Chase dated it August 19, which was last Sunday, seemingly lending some credence to the batches being processed on Sundays.  The amount of $225.00 is obviously my gratuities.  The $276.29 is of course equal to the amount of the taxes and fees.  Why the large refund amount is lower, and the $276.29 is credited repeatedly making up the difference, I have no idea. 

 

Obviously I've not received the $300.00 airfare reimbursement yet, but I'm looking at that as a completely separate issue.

 

As for the 30 day time frame, I'd count it as 34 days from the request to Celebrity sending it to Chase.  If one wanted to be completely fair, 33 days, since I put the request in later in the day on March 15.  It would be 25 business days from request to Chase getting it, and coincidentally exactly 30 business days for the money to get to my account. 

 

It should go without saying, but I filed no dispute with my credit card company, nor took any other action to try to accelerate the refund process.

 

Given the deluge of cancellations and resultant refunds Celebrity has had, I'm completely happy with the timeliness.  On a side note, my travel insurance company (AIG) says on their claims website they aspire to a 10-15 day turn around.  After filing my claim, they updated their site only to indicate that due to the COVID-19, they're tremendously behind, so Celebrity beat them, on response time. 

 

I'm hoping all the detail here may help others that are waiting; although it's pretty clear that we'll likely not ever know how the refunds move through the systems involved.  

 

Harris

Denver, CO

 

 

 

Edited April 25, 2020 by omeinv
Make it more boring

[BEAV]

My guess, and only a guess, is the refund amount you don’t recognize are the port charges. As I understand it, port charges are different (separate) from the gov’t taxes and fees. But they are opaque to us, the customer, as they’re bundled together with the cruise fare. 

 

For example, we see a cruise fare of $3000, plus $200 for gov’t taxes and fees. 

But in reality the $3,000 cruise fare might be $2700, with $300 in port charges bundled and “presented” to us as $3000. Travel Agents make commission on the $2700, but not the $300 (or the gov’t taxes and fees). But the refund amounts are broken down for accounting purposes.

 

Hopefully, one of the TA’s here will confirm if this is correct, or that i’m way off base! 

[Mr. Click]

Canceled our famly Alaska cruise that was supposed to sail on July 3 when final payment was due the end of March. Just now saw the deposit refund posted to my Chase Visa account. So 28 days is not too terrible.

[downsmead]

It seems that return of deposits is taking less time than return of a full payment, which makes sense I suppose.

[Jimmys Chippy]

Cruise cancelled by Celebrity and we requested a refund. Got confirmation email this morning showing cancellation penalty of 90%. Looks like another day of chasing a problem. 

[downsmead]

On the cancellation invoice there is a line that says to ignore the cancellation column.

Edited April 25, 2020 by downsmead

[Jimmys Chippy]

8 minutes ago, downsmead said:

On the cancellation invoice there is a line that says to ignore the cancellation column.

Thanks for the reply. That final line does not appear on my cancellation invoice.

[downsmead]

2 minutes ago, Jimmys Chippy said:

Thanks for the reply. That final line does not appear on my cancellation invoice.

😔

[ladylemondrop]

We booked through a Travel Agent, who have not been helpful or communicating at all, so I tried contacting Celebrity directly, they would not discuss with me at all as I have a TA... The online form for refunds does not include our sailing date (3rd April) We are just in limbo! 

[NewWestwardbound]

2 hours ago, Jimmys Chippy said:

Thanks for the reply. That final line does not appear on my cancellation invoice.

 

I know it won't help, but I was on the same cruise as you (I have replied on the Roll Call), and that line does appear on my cancellation invoice, dated 24 Apr. Bizarre. 

[harz99]

This thread is fast becoming jumbled up with North American cruisers under one set of conditions versus UK and rest of Europe under a different  set of conditions, and for more complication deposit only refunds versus fully paid cruise cancellations. It really needs splitting down into 2 at the very least, NA and rest of world, but preferably into 4 by booking region, then deposit only and fully paid cruises only.

 

[hcat]

Hoping we can sort through for posts about issues that are like our own, rather than starting  new threads. Some of us have deposit refund requests AND cancellation refund requests pending,

 

For our US  $500 deposit  cancellation  for APEX.Nov 2019..

 

 April 1, 2019.... ..cruise booked and charged to our BofA card by X on April 2, 2020

 

March 14, 2020. ......Cancelled  by tel call to Celeb, advised 30 days for refund. 

 

April 8, 2020........ Call to X..refund still processing but we were given the sep  refund amounts that would total $500.

 

 April 14, 2020....... no refund yet, filed dispute with BofA.....mailed  requested documentation..temp credit issued to our card. We requested they mail a refund check but was, apparently still under review.

 

April 25, 2020......$500 credit from Celeb. Hoping the Bofa refund check comes soon...last on took about 10 days,

 

 

[jeremybe]

Feb 15 Millenium sailing - Received Airfare credit over a month ago for supplemental charges - Received 50% FCC a month ago - Still waiting on refund - Spoke with Celebrity yesterday - April 6 Refund was "processed" - Since then there has been no action and its awaiting accountings backlog - Was told it could take an additional 30 days...

[bookitdanno]

On March 27 I cancelled our cruise scheduled for November of 2020.

Yesterday I received a complete refund of the $900 deposit.

Took 28 days.

Thank you Celebrity!!!!!