What if I cancel a future booked cruise?

[beaujolais]

Have now had confirmation from Regent that our deposit is now held as a Future Cruise Credit

Have also recently cancelled cruises with Silversea and Saga but no sign of any money yet

Edited April 9, 2020 by beaujolais
edit

[flossie009]

1 hour ago, machotspur said:

Do it before 90 days though, because after then you are unable to have the air element included.   

Is that 90 days before the flight date?

What about reimbursement of hotel costs & pre-/post- activities if booked through Regent (UK)?

I wish Regent(UK) would put all these "small print" nuances on the website.

[flossie009]

1 hour ago, swansong said:

Perhaps I am misunderstanding but I thought Regent’s reassurance programme allowed for cancelling up to December in exchange for FCCs.

Yes, the Regent Reassurance facility is very useful but, as someone else in the UK noted, you have to be careful with timing in order to recover air costs (even though they are 'included' in the price)

The other problem with FCCs is the effect it will have on UK TA discounts. TA discounts are based on the commissionable element of the cruise fare. As I understand it FCCs are not commissionable so any % discount will not be applied to the FCC on the new booking 😕. With this unexpected pandemic, we all have to share some of the pain.

 

1 hour ago, swansong said:

Another issue is that if you had booked on board you are allowed one change of booking without penalty even after that date.

With an 'on-board' booking I thought the change in booking had to be made before final payment date, so not particularly useful for booked cruises with final payment dates in the coming weeks. 

Also the new booking will be on the standard UK Ts&Cs with a higher deposit required and no further flexibility (unless booked by the end of May when Regent Reassurance will be available) 

However we are glad our future Regent bookings were made 'on-board' as we therefore have far less deposit money at risk.

Our next decision point will be towards the end of May when final payment is due for a cruise in September. Still a number of weeks away so we will see how the worldwide situation develops and weigh up the risks nearer the time. 

 

 

[machotspur]

3 minutes ago, flossie009 said:

Is that 90 days before the flight date?

What about reimbursement of hotel costs & pre-/post- activities if booked through Regent (UK)?

I wish Regent(UK) would put all these "small print" nuances on the website.

 

Your frustration is well founded. I have spent considerable time researching this with my TA & Regent over the past few days and I believe I have got the bottom of it. Pay attention now  😉....

 

Our booking is a usual Regent Long Haul all inclusive package - includes Economy Flights,  Pre Cruise Hotel, an inclusive 3 night pre cruise land tour, airport transfers etc.

We have upgraded the flight to First Class, so in addition to the base all inclusive fare, an additional £1,999 per person is added to the booking cost.    

 

With the Regent Reassurance programme they are giving :- a 100% Future Cruise Credit (excluding air and Concierge Collection arrangements if applicable) . The implications of this is that if one cancels the cruise after the flights have been ticketed one only receives a FCC excluding all flight costs. (The ticketing of flights - in the UK at least - typically takes place at around 70 days. For simplicity I have put in my mind 90 days - the usual cruise cancellation threshold).

 

So - if I was to leave the cancellation until after flight ticketing, the 'excluding flight costs' that I would lose under the Reassurance rules would be the 2 x £1,999 upgrade cost + 2 x Economy fares (an as yet unknown figure !). 

 

To avoid this loss there are two ways around it, both requiring one to cancel before flight ticketing. :-

 

1. Enact the Regent Reassurance facility prior to flights being ticketed (as I have said I would do this at 90 days out to be sure). You would need to pay 100% of the full cost to qualify for the Reassurance facility, after which you would then be eligible for a FCC including air costs.

 

2. Make the booking 'ex flights' prior to cancellation. You can do this at any time before the flights are ticketed and Regent don't charge an admin fee for this. Once the booking has been converted to 'ex flights' you then need to pay 100% of the new 'ex flights'  invoice to enable you to qualify for the Reassurance. In this case the 100% payment you are making is less than option 1, and therefore the subsequent FCC is correspondingly lower.

 

I will be using Option 2 because I have a £3,998 flight upgrade cost, which under this option won't be included in the 100% payment I make, and therefore stays in my account rather than Regent's as a FCC.

 

Regarding your question - Is that 90 days before the flight date?.

In truth it's not a precise date. Regent tell me they ticket the flights 'around 70 days before departure'. As I have in my mind 90 days to give a bit of 'wiggle room' and because it's a figure I am familiar with.

 

As always there is the caveat that all of this probably applies to UK bookings only. 

 

Hope this makes sense.  

      

 

  

 

 

 

 

  

[wishIweretravelling]

6 hours ago, swansong said:

Perhaps I am misunderstanding but I thought Regent’s reassurance programme allowed for cancelling up to December in exchange for FCCs.

 

 

 That only applies to fully paid cruises, not to deposits.

 

One thing to watch out for: the 15% penalty period. It often starts before the full payment date. If you're going to cancel a deposited cruise, make sure you do so before the 15% kicks in. 

Edited April 9, 2020 by wishIweretravelling

[Travelcat2]

50 minutes ago, wishIweretravelling said:

 

 That only applies to fully paid cruises, not to deposits.

 

One thing to watch out for: the 15% penalty period. It often starts before the full payment date. If you're going to cancel a deposited cruise, make sure you do so before the 15% kicks in. 

 

Good points.  The explanation above was well written and thought out but I wonder how much of that is applicable to the U.K. only.

[Belfast Taxman]

13 minutes ago, Travelcat2 said:

 

Good points.  The explanation above was well written and thought out but I wonder how much of that is applicable to the U.K. only.

jackie

you are right and it is important on this forum which is global to note that the recent posts on this thread are only fully applicable to UK bookings.

we are due to make final payment next month for our August cruise. Like Flossie009, I think we will wait and see to the last moment possible. One of the difficulties is getting to talk at any length with TA’s and Regent Uk.

Edited April 9, 2020 by Belfast Taxman

[machotspur]

11 minutes ago, Belfast Taxman said:

jackie

you are right and it is important on this forum which is global to note that the recent posts on this thread are only fully applicable to UK bookings.

we are due to make final payment next month for our August cruise. Like Flossie009, I think we will wait and see to the last moment possible. One of the difficulties is getting to talk at any length with TA’s and Regent Uk.

 

As you have noted the majority of recent posts were from concerned UK residents. This is the primary reason why I posted as invariably posts can often be more applicable to US guests. 

I did however feel that the the caveat I gave on the final line gave non UK readers a clear 'heads up' that this may not apply to them. I will try and make it clearer next time.

 

To reassure you on one point. Much of the information I posted came from an email obtained by my TA a couple of days ago, from the Regent UK Head of Reservations. The whole thing took just 48 hours to ask the questions & get the answers.

Whilst i'm pretty confident as to the validity of what i've posted, i'd encourage you to keep trying the TA/Agent as in my case at least they still appear to be functioning (almost) normally (unless it is getting a refund of course 😠). 

 

Like you we will probably wait until the final cut off date - 90 days or so - before making a final decision on our December 2020 cruise.     

[Belfast Taxman]

Machotspur - thanks for sharing all your UK research - really useful posts for us Brits.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Yes, I think it's good to distinguish threads pertaining to cruises booked within North America as opposed to bookings from the U.K., Europe or Australia as well.

 

I understand that in the U.K. there are legislated protections that we don't have in Canada, but there's a trade-off.  We don't lose our deposits, and we don't have increased penalties kick in before the final payment date.

 

 

[1982CruzStart]

On 4/6/2020 at 2:25 PM, runnerswife said:

Ok, I made the decision to deviate on a November flight.  That's fine with me that Regent charges the air

deviation, and I accept that.  I think I do have the right to think it's not fair. Stay healthy. 

Thank you and you stay healthy as well. BTW we also deviated a flight on cruise late in 2020 that we had to cancel so we are in the same boat of losing that money.