No Communication from Viking About Promised Refund for Cancelled LA to London World Cruise

[JLH312]

Has anyone received their promised refund from Viking for the cancelled half of the 2020 LA to London World Cruise on the Viking Sun?  Hundreds of us left the ship in Bali on March 8.  There has been absolutely no communication from Viking about when to expect the refund.  On April 9 my TA was told seven to 14 business days.  Today Viking Guest Relations told me at least 30 days from today.  I'm suddenly worried.  Viking Customer Relations keeps "kicking the can" down the road--asking for patience. This was probably their most expensive cruise booking so I would have thought they would have given those passengers priority.  

[Cape Hernlopen]

We are in our mid 70's and had fully paid for the Bangkok to Bali October 10, 2020 cruise on Viking Orion. We like both Viking and Oceania for our cruise experiences. My wife was nervous about the two sixteen hour + flights and lack of quality medical facilities in Southeast Asia and had some concern about being on a cruise ship with 900 other passengers.  We decided to cancel the October 2020 cruise since we were within our $200 cancellation period.  We contacted our travel agent on April 7 and she contacted Viking.  The full refund (minus $200 fee) appeared in our checking account on Friday,  April 17 - - less than 10 business days!  I was very impressed with Viking's professional and very prompt handling of the transaction.  After all of this craziness passes we will certainly sail with Viking again.

Joel Barry

[Heidi13]

5 hours ago, JLH312 said:

Has anyone received their promised refund from Viking for the cancelled half of the 2020 LA to London World Cruise on the Viking Sun?  Hundreds of us left the ship in Bali on March 8.  There has been absolutely no communication from Viking about when to expect the refund.  On April 9 my TA was told seven to 14 business days.  Today Viking Guest Relations told me at least 30 days from today.  I'm suddenly worried.  Viking Customer Relations keeps "kicking the can" down the road--asking for patience. This was probably their most expensive cruise booking so I would have thought they would have given those passengers priority.  

 

Perhaps we need a little perspective.

 

We were also World Wonders pax going from L/A to London. Due to the COVID-19 issues, Viking provided a very generous offer to let World Wonders pax disembark in Bali, even offering to provide a refund for the unused days. The refund offer was not a requirement of the contract we signed. Based on the information provided onboard, they also made flight arrangements for everyone that opted to disembark.

 

In Bali, many hundreds did disembark, but most of them were segmenters, who were originally scheduled to disembark in Hong Kong, which was subsequently changed to Bali. When we set sail from Bali, we still had 261 pax and < 400 World Wonders joined in L/A, so when factoring in the Ultimates, only about 150 World Wonders opted to disembark early.

 

In addition to processing pax refunds, Viking are currently trying to get many crew members home.

 

Since we remained aboard until Viking had to cancel the cruise, we are entitled to a refund by the contract. However, we are prepared to cut them some slack, as while we are now home safe, they are still working to get crew home safely.

 

When considering priorities, I don't believe that the amount paid should be a deciding factor in processing refunds. I would think that those pax who had cruises cancelled have priority over those that opted to disembark before the end of the cruise.

[duquephart]

"In addition to processing pax refunds, Viking are currently trying to get many crew members home."

Aren't these two totally unrelated functions?

[Heidi13]

Might be separate departments, but the big decisions are all made at the top. Another thing I learned in the past 4 months is the crew multi-task and are re-assigned where needs arise. If this is the culture aboard ship, I expect that culture started ashore.

[zitsky]

9 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

Might be separate departments, but the big decisions are all made at the top. Another thing I learned in the past 4 months is the crew multi-task and are re-assigned where needs arise. If this is the culture aboard ship, I expect that culture started ashore.

 

Do they reassign the executive's too?  LOL.

[Clay Clayton]

When I asked about our refund from our half-transatlantic for our unused three days, I was told that the refund could be 10-12 weeks away. That would be the end of June. 😢

[Clay Clayton]

We received a credit on our credit card today reflective of 3/14ths of our cruise fare from our shortened transatlantic on Sky. So from disembarkation to refund was 37 business days (52 calendar). 
 

Unfortunately they did not include the balance of our refundable onboard credit so I’ve sent another email. 😢

[Redtravel]

The 7-10 business days was what Viking originally told me when we requested a cash refund for a June 2020 cruise that Viking canceled.  That was end of a March. Just got a credit yesterday.   Some people post getting refunds quickly. Some, like me, wait, call, wait, get frustrated, etc.  we were getting nervous after reading the news about cruise lines having financial problems.  Happy that we got our refund. Good luck getting yours. 

[zitsky]

35 minutes ago, Redtravel said:

The 7-10 business days was what Viking originally told me when we requested a cash refund for a June 2020 cruise that Viking canceled.  That was end of a March. Just got a credit yesterday.   Some people post getting refunds quickly. Some, like me, wait, call, wait, get frustrated, etc.  we were getting nervous after reading the news about cruise lines having financial problems.  Happy that we got our refund. Good luck getting yours. 

 

Refund.  Was that a future cruise credit or refund back to credit card?

[Redtravel]

Refund cash.  Not fcc.  Since Viking canceled, we were given the choice of 100% refund to our credit card or 125% fcc .  We chose the cash refund.  While we have loved cruising with Viking on past river cruises and were really excited our taking Viking ocean, we are being cautious for now.  The price to rebook the same cruise, Into the Midnight Sun was much higher than what we had originally booked.  We felt that the original price was high and really weren’t willing to post more money at this time. Future is iffy.  We do hope that cruising survives.