Oceania Refunds - Has anyone actually received any cash yet?

[Flatbush Flyer]

20 minutes ago, HOLIDAYREADER said:

Two points; we have been 'bugging' our TA from day 1. Oceania SAY they have refunded our money but we haven't seen it yet. In our contract with them they state that if they cancel the cruise they will refund within 14 days but they haven't refunded within 90 days- they didn't even inform us that the cruise was cancelled. I don't consider they have done 'their part'. Reading these posts those people who are satisfied with the refund process are those who have now got their money back, mostly much more quickly than we have, but thanks for the empathy.

 

You've been misinformed and/or misled by your TA or perhaps you just don't understand the nature of the TA as a "middleman."

If you are using a TA, anything related to the basic cruise financial agreement you ultimately have with Oceania passes through that TA. 

Changes to itineraries, requirements for visas, cancellations are all sent to the TA who then forwards them to you. 

Apparently, just like Oceania had sent your TA the refund that TA is sitting on, Oceania also probably informed them of the cancellation. But, the TA may not have informed you.

I think the next conversation should be with the TA management.

 

[Paulchili]

35 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

I think the next conversation should be with the TA management

....and the next step after that should be to look for a new TA.

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, HOLIDAYREADER said:

Two points; we have been 'bugging' our TA from day 1. Oceania SAY they have refunded our money but we haven't seen it yet. In our contract with them they state that if they cancel the cruise they will refund within 14 days but they haven't refunded within 90 days- they didn't even inform us that the cruise was cancelled. I don't consider they have done 'their part'. Reading these posts those people who are satisfied with the refund process are those who have now got their money back, mostly much more quickly than we have, but thanks for the empathy.

 

2 points

If you use a TA they usually O will send any communication to them

I believe the 14 days  time limit is under normal circumstances  I do not believe the past several months have been anything close to normal

YMMV

[royallondon]

In the UK looking for a new TA is the easy part.  Looking for a better one I suspect will be the difficult part.  
 

Too many other boards also have references to frustrations with their TA for it to be confined to just one brand.

 

Regards

 

 

[Benita]

We cancelled our transatlantic for November,2020  on June 9. Deposit was refunded on June 18. 

[HOLIDAYREADER]

On 6/20/2020 at 8:28 AM, royallondon said:

In the UK looking for a new TA is the easy part.  Looking for a better one I suspect will be the difficult part.  
 

Too many other boards also have references to frustrations with their TA for it to be confined to just one brand.

 

Regards

 

 

Also, I think that we are not always told the whole story. After emailing Oceania directly and waiting for 10 days for a response, we were told that the refund had been 'processed to your travel agent on the 8^th of June'. This morning, exactly two weeks later we were told that the money had only been received by the travel agent today and that 'processed' was a misleading term. We are now 101 days since our cruise was cancelled by Oceania  and they have been holding nearly $20,000 dollars of our money since October 2019.

[RachelG]

Got my money back from Oceania on 6/18 for a cruise I cancelled on 6/15. Pretty impressive turn around.  Of course, I was the one doing the cancelling.  They cancelled the cruise a few days later, so they still have my deposit but it converts to FCC which is fine with me.  The money back was for stuff I prepaid for.

Edited June 22, 2020 by RachelG

[DollFish]

We just back most of our payment. The credit card company said Oceania. They paid us the deposit separately and the final payment less $850 which I assume was the commission. I have mixed feelings there as the travel agent needs to eat also but Oceania cancelled the cruise. I would think ethically Oceania cancelled the cruise and the travel agent shouldn’t be stuck (not knowing their contract with Oceania) but then again if a house sale falls through the real estate broker doesn’t get their commission. Maybe they are trying to claw back the commission first?

[LHT28]

3 hours ago, DollFish said:

We just back most of our payment. The credit card company said Oceania. They paid us the deposit separately and the final payment less $850 which I assume was the commission. I have mixed feelings there as the travel agent needs to eat also but Oceania cancelled the cruise.

I do not know the current situation with commissions  but when all this  began they   said they were protecting the agents commissions on cruises cancelled by Oceania

 You could ask your TA to clarify

[Flatbush Flyer]

3 hours ago, DollFish said:

We just back most of our payment. The credit card company said Oceania. They paid us the deposit separately and the final payment less $850 which I assume was the commission. I have mixed feelings there as the travel agent needs to eat also but Oceania cancelled the cruise. I would think ethically Oceania cancelled the cruise and the travel agent shouldn’t be stuck (not knowing their contract with Oceania) but then again if a house sale falls through the real estate broker doesn’t get their commission. Maybe they are trying to claw back the commission first?

We had two refund scenarios including one cruise cancelled by O (multi-segments on Insignia in May/June this year). Both had TAs in the picture. For the 100% refund, it was 100% of what we paid. The other cruise was a modified Nautica cruise in February with a 50% refund. And we got 50% of what we paid. BTW, both included 25% FCCs.

So, TA commission not a factor.

[jo-b]

On 6/18/2020 at 3:54 PM, Glenndale said:

As of yesterday my TA had not received any money, and as of yesterday Oceania couldn’t specify when they would refund.

 

 

Any joy yet getting the refund? 

[Glenndale]

37 minutes ago, jo-b said:

 

Any joy yet getting the refund? 

No not as yet, I launched a section 75 on Thursday and check my CC account daily.

Hopefully I will hear something by next week. 🤞🏻

As soon as I get my refund I will post on here.

Would have loved to have transferred to next years TA but with all the uncertainty it didn't seem sensible.

Hope you are both keeping well 🙂

[ORV]

17 hours ago, DollFish said:

We just back most of our payment. The credit card company said Oceania. They paid us the deposit separately and the final payment less $850 which I assume was the commission. I have mixed feelings there as the travel agent needs to eat also but Oceania cancelled the cruise. I would think ethically Oceania cancelled the cruise and the travel agent shouldn’t be stuck (not knowing their contract with Oceania) but then again if a house sale falls through the real estate broker doesn’t get their commission. Maybe they are trying to claw back the commission first?

Protecting the commission does not mean that the customer is stuck paying it. Perhaps it's non commissionable amounts such as taxes and port fees that are broken out separately. Others in this thread have reported that situation and it comes in at a different time than the bulk of the refund. 

[1985rz1]

The refunds for our July, 2020, UK/Ireland cruise hit our credit card today.  It's  for the full cruise and excursion amounts.  We applied for the refund when Oceania cancelled the cruise just about a month ago.  We're both pleased and surprised by the time it took to process.

[Paulchili]

12 minutes ago, 1985rz1 said:

The refunds for our July, 2020, UK/Ireland cruise hit our credit card today.  It's  for the full cruise and excursion amounts.  We applied for the refund when Oceania cancelled the cruise just about a month ago.  We're both pleased and surprised by the time it took to process.

Good news

[piscean]

Holiday reader and others that are using a TA in Chorley....I’m still waiting over 100 days and have been advised that they have received the refunds but have no remittance in order to pay me. Also they are still waiting on other suppliers!

I have requested a section 75 card chargeback and have reported the TA to the 

https://www.coronavirus-business-complaint.service.gov.uk/

 

[Paulchili]

40 minutes ago, piscean said:

Holiday reader and others that are using a TA in Chorley....I’m still waiting over 100 days and have been advised that they have received the refunds but have no remittance in order to pay me. Also they are still waiting on other suppliers!

I have requested a section 75 card chargeback and have reported the TA to the 

https://www.coronavirus-business-complaint.service.gov.uk/

 

Please let us know what happens with the TA after being reported

Good luck.

Edited June 24, 2020 by Paulchili

[HOLIDAYREADER]

1 hour ago, piscean said:

Holiday reader and others that are using a TA in Chorley....I’m still waiting over 100 days and have been advised that they have received the refunds but have no remittance in order to pay me. Also they are still waiting on other suppliers!

I have requested a section 75 card chargeback and have reported the TA to the 

https://www.coronavirus-business-complaint.service.gov.uk/

 

Hi Piscean. We rang the TA on Monday and were told that the money from Oceania had just reached them that morning! We have been told that we are on the list for processing this week and that the payment should be authorised on this Friday's payment schedule. We are keeping our fingers crossed🤞. We are at 103 days since the cruise was cancelled although we were told that Oceania were taking the date as from 31st March and not 13th which was the actual date. It seems strange that cruises recently cancelled are getting paid back so quickly; a big difference in people's experiences.

[piscean]

On 6/24/2020 at 9:42 PM, HOLIDAYREADER said:

Hi Piscean. We rang the TA on Monday and were told that the money from Oceania had just reached them that morning! We have been told that we are on the list for processing this week and that the payment should be authorised on this Friday's payment schedule. We are keeping our fingers crossed🤞. We are at 103 days since the cruise was cancelled although we were told that Oceania were taking the date as from 31st March and not 13th which was the actual date. It seems strange that cruises recently cancelled are getting paid back so quickly; a big difference in people's experiences.

hello HolidayReader

It will be interesting to learn if they do indeed credit your card today. Best of luck.

We are still getting excuses but our CC provider is finally on the case...because of Covid 19 it’s taken 7 weeks to get a response.

Paulchili

hello...yes I’ll let you know.

[Janet-]

We received the full refund on 11 June for our 2 May cruise which was cancelled by O in March.

Nothing yet for the follow on cruise departing 14 May.

It's making me so annoyed when I read that others have been refunded much later sailings.

Why is O treating it's European customers differently than those from USA? I was willing to allow them some easing  from their contracted 2 week refund clause  due to the present situation, but now I just feel like a second class customer and it is rapidly changing the way I feel about O.

[HOLIDAYREADER]

2 hours ago, Janet- said:

We received the full refund on 11 June for our 2 May cruise which was cancelled by O in March.

Nothing yet for the follow on cruise departing 14 May.

It's making me so annoyed when I read that others have been refunded much later sailings.

Why is O treating it's European customers differently than those from USA? I was willing to allow them some easing  from their contracted 2 week refund clause  due to the present situation, but now I just feel like a second class customer and it is rapidly changing the way I feel about O.

Hi Janet and Piscean. We still haven't received our refund for our April 14th cruise cancelled by Oceania in March. It does seem unfair that the European customers are being treated very badly, I am wondering if they have taken a decision to protect their American customer base. We have been told that the money had reached our Chorley TA on Monday and it would be paid on Friday but no sign of it yet. Back on the phone to the accounts department on Monday I guess! We have held off with our credit card as we have another unrelated claim ongoing which is taking ages too and were hoping that we could avoid going that route again. We will not be using Oceania again.

[LHT28]

4 hours ago, Janet- said:

It's making me so annoyed when I read that others have been refunded much later sailings.

Why is O treating it's European customers differently than those from USA? I was willing to allow them some easing  from their contracted 2 week refund clause  due to the present situation, but now I just feel like a second class customer and it is rapidly changing the way I feel about O.

Just curious if you booked direct with Oceania  or used  a TA in the UK?

[HOLIDAYREADER]

39 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Just curious if you booked direct with Oceania  or used  a TA in the UK?

We used a travel agent in the UK which is common practice here.

[LHT28]

11 minutes ago, HOLIDAYREADER said:

We used a travel agent in the UK which is common practice here.

I was asking Janet

 

Yes common practice there 

Also seems common in the UK you pay the TA then have to wait for THEM to refund you & not direct from the cruise line

There  seems to be  where the sticky wicket comes into play

 

Makes you wonder if the  TA is banking your money for extra interest  until you  really kick up a fuss ??

 

[Glenndale]

20 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

I was asking Janet

 

Yes common practice there 

Also seems common in the UK you pay the TA then have to wait for THEM to refund you & not direct from the cruise line

There  seems to be  where the sticky wicket comes into play

 

Makes you wonder if the  TA is banking your money for extra interest  until you  really kick up a fuss ??

 

There is definitely a common thread.

Oceania is refunding block amounts covering lots of bookings to the TA. The TA then has to distribute these amounts to its customers.

I'm not sure how these payments from O to the TA are made up, whether it is one cruise at a time or a mixture of cruises.

Unfortunately the redistribution then falls to the accounts department of the TA which is slowed down by the lack of personnel, many of whom will have been furloughed.

Still waiting for my March 30th TA to be refunded....