Whats happening? SB refunds and payments Covid19

[Rambo_Trout]

On 3/31/2020 at 6:02 AM, Paulchili said:

I am confused. You cancelled a cruise that has not yet been cancelled by SB and you expect a refund and not FCC?

Are you waiting for a refund of a deposit or are you after final payment?

 

We cancelled a couple of days before SB  yet, because it was close to the departure date, we agreed a full refund plus 25% FCC.

[Paulchili]

22 minutes ago, Rambo_Trout said:

 

We cancelled a couple of days before SB  yet, because it was close to the departure date, we agreed a full refund plus 25% FCC.

That sounds like a sweetheart deal. Do you have a status with SB?

We were not so lucky.

We too cancelled before SB did although more than just a couple of days. All we got was 100% FCC - no refund or even 125% FCC

[Rambo_Trout]

On 4/5/2020 at 4:45 PM, ON cruiser said:

It usually is a mug's game trying to predict the future ("man plans, God laughs") but, since I am, despite being asymptomatic, staying indoors and following the directives to self-isolate on this lovely sunny Sunday afternoon, I might as well take a stab at it. It's my guess that cruise prices will be very low once (whenever) cruise lines begin operations. There will not be enough demand to fill the ships, keeping in mind new-builds coming on stream (some of which may be moth-balled, if doing that is viable).

 

Right now, amongst the general public, and even amongst some  former cruise enthusiasts (like my wife), cruising has developed a bad reputation. People see the headlines about the Zaandam, and the various Princess ships, and see cruise ships as floating petrie dishes. They will remember ports suddenly closing and, in some cases (on HAL's and other world cruises) elderly passengers having to get off a long way from home, being subjected to long flights. This is all the antithesis of good publicity.

 

My take is that many people will, for a while until the industry demonstrates concrete steps which reassure, avoid cruising as a holiday of choice--even assuming that people can afford a holiday, given so many have lost their employment or a significant portion of their savings in the market collapse. Many will thus feel "less rich". Now, things may come roaring back, and I sure hope they do (as I look away from my stock market losses--"I don't see you!") but, as Oscar Wilde once said, "a pessimist is seldom disappointed".  Truthfully, once all the quarantines are lifted, I think it will be a slow road back to normalcy.

 

All this will lead, when cruise lines begin operations, to some fantastic discounts--just as there were after past crises (9/11; the market collapse of 2008-09), etc.  Anyway, that is my prediction, for what it may be worth (precious little, possibly).

Our son had a fantastic, and very cheap holiday in the Maldives, after the tsunami struck them.

Maybe history will repeat itself with cruises.

[wesport]

There were some really good deals after the Costa Condordia sank off Italy.  I think it was the Concordia. 

[Rambo_Trout]

1 hour ago, Paulchili said:

That sounds like a sweetheart deal. Do you have a status with SB?

We were not so lucky.

We too cancelled before SB did although more than just a couple of days. All we got was 100% FCC - no refund or even 125% FCC

This was to be only our third SB cruise.

Our TA is the largest SB Agent over several years, so that probably had something to do with it.

As you may have seen me post before, SB quoted 14 working days for a refund, today it is 50 calendar days since their promise.

[zimflyer]

8 hours ago, TRIPACIAN said:

We are also booked on the same 49 day cruise you mentioned.  We have fully paid and don’t plan on canceling the reservations!  If the cruise sails and we can get to Athens we will be on the ship.  The itinerary will probably change but we don’t care we just want to cruise!!!   If the cruise is canceled we will do as you suggested, spend time in hotels in Poland and Greece.  

Same as our thoughts... lets hope we get to meet and toast an actual cruise at last !

[TRIPACIAN]

12 hours ago, zimflyer said:

Same as our thoughts... lets hope we get to meet and toast an actual cruise at last !

Let’s plan now on meeting in the Palm Court for cocktails before dinner on the 20th, now that is positive thinking!!!

Edited April 19, 2020 by TRIPACIAN
Sp

[Mahogany]

20 hours ago, Paulchili said:

That sounds like a sweetheart deal. Do you have a status with SB?

We were not so lucky.

We too cancelled before SB did although more than just a couple of days. All we got was 100% FCC - no refund or even 125% FCC

Me too. I cancelled on March 11 for a March 15 sailing; Seabourn cancelled March 14. No special for me, just 100% FCC. I don't like to hear about special treatment for some. And I am Gold status.

[Paulchili]

23 minutes ago, Mahogany said:

Me too. I cancelled on March 11 for a March 15 sailing; Seabourn cancelled March 14. No special for me, just 100% FCC. I don't like to hear about special treatment for some. And I am Gold status.

That does sound unfair - cancelling a cruise 1 day before boarding date and not allowing you any other options - especially as a Gold.

[zimflyer]

11 hours ago, Paulchili said:

That does sound unfair - cancelling a cruise 1 day before boarding date and not allowing you any other options - especially as a Gold.

These guys are digging their own grave, just at a time when exceptional service would differentiate them as being a cut above, PLUS give us the full confidence to book future itineraries now...

 

Who teaches Corporations the value of true customer service these days...? It seems it is lip service, marketing sop, and it's not just CCL, or cruise lines, or airlines, we are patsies once we have paid.

[Paulchili]

On March 3rd I filed a “Change Fee Reimbursement” form for compensation for airline change fees. As I have heard nothing from SB I sent an email asking whether they have received that form and what is the status of it.

Today I got a reply instructing me how to file that claim. Fortunately I still had all the forms filled out as I had sent them as an attachment to the email back on March 3rd. I had informed them that I had already filed this claim on March 3rd. All I had to do today is to resubmit it and luckily had saved all the forms without having to rework the entire process.

What does that say about the competence of the people working on these refunds?

Edited April 21, 2020 by Paulchili

[tv24]

3 hours ago, Paulchili said:

On March 3rd I filed a “Change Fee Reimbursement” form for compensation for airline change fees. As I have heard nothing from SB I sent an email asking whether they have received that form and what is the status of it.

Today I got a reply instructing me how to file that claim. Fortunately I still had all the forms filled out as I had sent them as an attachment to the email back on March 3rd. I had informed them that I had already filed this claim on March 3rd. All I had to do today is to resubmit it and luckily had saved all the forms without having to rework the entire process.

What does that say about the competence of the people working on these refunds?

Paul, I'm sorry.  This is just plain sad.  Not feeling much love for the cruise lines these days.

[Paulchili]

30 minutes ago, tv24 said:

Paul, I'm sorry.  This is just plain sad.  Not feeling much love for the cruise lines these days.

Agreed.

But can you imagine being owed $160,000 as Floris mentioned in another thread. That would surely keep me up at night.

[rallydave]

Point  of reference, it is now 4 weeks since I cancelled under Book with Confidence.  As we were in 12% penalty we get FCC and cash refund.  The Seabourn book with confidence details clearly say that my FCC will be automatically delivered in approximately 2 weeks.  Well approx 2 weeks is NOT 4 weeks in my book so I had my TA contact Seabourn for a status.  Got the status back and they say we will get our FCC by the end of this week and for my cash refund it will be complete on May 23.  It was originally promised in 30 business days so approx double the original estimate.

 

Needless to say I am NOT holding my breath to those statuses especially based on what others are saying about delays.  Will update as soon as the miracle occcurs.

[Isklaar]

On 4/18/2020 at 7:12 PM, Rambo_Trout said:

 

We cancelled a couple of days before SB  yet, because it was close to the departure date, we agreed a full refund plus 25% FCC.

 

Rambo_Trout can you just clarify this for me please? I have friends who are Diamond with SB, who use the same TA as you (as do I), had to cancel short notice and were offered either 125% FCC or 100% monetary refund,  and I'm keen to understand exactly what SB offered you.

Do you mean they offered you a full cash refund plus 25% FCC or do you mean that they offered 125% FCC (rather than actual money back)? 

 

 

[Isklaar]

On a general note, I'm hoping that those of you who are awaiting refunds from SB don't have to wait much longer.  Reading your posts has been rather disconcerting. 

We only have a couple of thousand £s in future cruise deposits held by  SB but we're now getting twitchy. 

Edited April 21, 2020 by Isklaar

[Rambo_Trout]

34 minutes ago, Isklaar said:

 

Rambo_Trout can you just clarify this for me please? I have friends who are Diamond with SB, who use the same TA as you (as do I), had to cancel short notice and were offered either 125% FCC or 100% monetary refund,  and I'm keen to understand exactly what SB offered you.

Do you mean they offered you a full cash refund plus 25% FCC or do you mean that they offered 125% FCC (rather than actual money back)? 

 

 

 

I have been promised, in writing, 100 % Refund plus 25% Future Cruise Credit for a cruise booked with 12 months from the date of Seabourn's e-mail (9th March), but sailing anytime.

I gather that there were a few different offers around that date, due to all of the uncertainty.

Today is Day 54 since our cancellation, but no Refund or FCC showing up just yet.

[Isklaar]

6 minutes ago, Rambo_Trout said:

 

I have been promised, in writing, 100 % Refund plus 25% Future Cruise Credit for a cruise booked with 12 months from the date of Seabourn's e-mail (9th March), but sailing anytime.

I gather that there were a few different offers around that date, due to all of the uncertainty.

Today is Day 54 since our cancellation, but no Refund or FCC showing up just yet.

Thanks for your quick reply and explanation. Hopefully this is resolved quickly for you.

[Rambo_Trout]

37 minutes ago, Isklaar said:

Thanks for your quick reply and explanation. Hopefully this is resolved quickly for you.

 

Cheers Isklaar,

 

I have just have a reply from my TA, giving SB's response.

Basically, SB are saying 60 days from the date of cancellation (for me, was 14 working days initially), so the 9th May is my magic date 🤞.

 

Good luck with yours!

 

Kevin

[rallydave]

13 minutes ago, Rambo_Trout said:

 

Cheers Isklaar,

 

I have just have a reply from my TA, giving SB's response.

Basically, SB are saying 60 days from the date of cancellation (for me, was 14 working days initially), so the 9th May is my magic date 🤞.

 

Good luck with yours!

 

Kevin

At least the dates are becoming somewhat consistant.  Was originally promised refund in 30 days but, yesterday' TA emailed me a new date exactly 60 days from my cancellation date.  Nice to see the promises getting into alignment.

 

Good luck all

[marazul]

AN HONEST REPLY:

 

I thought you would like to see an honest reply about refunds.  We had tickets for a guided tour of the Palau de la Musica in Barcelona this past weekend.  Here is their refreshingly candid statement:

 

Good afternoon,

We will proceed with the refund of your purchase as soon as our accountants are back to work, and we are back in a normal situation.

Thank you for your patience.

Kind regards,

 

I still don't know when (or if) I will get a refund, but it is good to get a straight answer.  

Now, if the cruise lines would only tell us the straight story instead of sending the usual cheerful and constantly changing statements ....  Like for the cruise we were supposed to start tomorrow....  😉

 

[Paulchili]

21 minutes ago, marazul said:

AN HONEST REPLY:

 

I thought you would like to see an honest reply about refunds.  We had tickets for a guided tour of the Palau de la Musica in Barcelona this past weekend.  Here is their refreshingly candid statement:

 

Good afternoon,

We will proceed with the refund of your purchase as soon as our accountants are back to work, and we are back in a normal situation.

Thank you for your patience.

Kind regards,

They have not been that honest with me.

We had 3 tickets for a concert there for May 12th. 

As we are no longer going to Barcelona I had asked for a refund as most of their concerts show as cancelled. They kept insisting that OUR show is still happening in two separate emails.

I emailed them their website page showing that the Palau was closed till further notice. Then they finally gave in and promised a refund but I am not holding my breath.

Edited April 21, 2020 by Paulchili

[marazul]

paulchili-

I think they found guided tours easier to cancel and refund than performances. They would not refund performances while there was still a chance they would be open that day.  That is no different than the refund policy in any other venue - refunds if they cancel, but no refund if you don't show up.  The "indefinite" closing situation has changed that. I got that letter yesterday, so maybe it will be the same response for concerts from now on. 

[tv24]

14 hours ago, Paulchili said:

Agreed.

But can you imagine being owed $160,000 as Floris mentioned in another thread. That would surely keep me up at night.

Yes, a big chunk of change.  I hope he gets it back.

[zelker]

9 hours ago, Rambo_Trout said:

I have just have a reply from my TA, giving SB's response.  Basically, SB are saying 60 days from the date of cancellation (for me, was 14 working days initially), so the 9th May is my magic date 🤞.

 

8 hours ago, rallydave said:

At least the dates are becoming somewhat consistant.  Was originally promised refund in 30 days but, yesterday' TA emailed me a new date exactly 60 days from my cancellation date.  Nice to see the promises getting into alignment.

 

For what it's worth … I talked to Seabourn yesterday (about something else not cancellation-related), but while I had her on the phone I asked her to confirm that they still showed I had requested a refund of our last two FCDs.  She said yes, confirmed the original date I called to cancel, then said that they are being told to quote 60 days for ALL refunds (but, her words, she hoped it would be less).  Then she also told me that if I don't see credits for the FCDs and cancelled cruise on our credit card after 60 days have expired from the date they were cancelled to call them and ask them to expedite the refund.  She apologized but said until it's been 60 days they (the agents) can't do anything else.  She was very nice about it and I thanked her for the info.  I also talked to Chase Visa last week, explained what was going on, and they told me that until it's been longer than the "promised refund date" (60 days from date of cancellation), they can't do anything on their end.  We're fine waiting  because, well, what other choice do we have, and frankly it's not worth it to get worked up day after day like some on CC seem to be.