Cancellation charge!

[sam49]

We had a cruise booked for May 2020 which was cancelled by Celebrity on March 25th.  Along with everyone else we were given the opportunity to have a 125% FCC or a full refund in 30 days and we went for the refund.

 

After 30 days no refund ,so I queried this and was told it would be 45 days, which is understandable given the current crisis.  However the 45 days have passed and we have now been told it will be another 10 days.  

 

The thing that is concerning me most is that we have received an email showing we have to pay a 90% cancellation charge when Celebrity cancelled the cruise!

 

I cant get hold of anyone to talk to and when you email they simply ignore the question and just say the refund will come in due course.

 

Any advice /tips? I am getting really worried now.

[realnice46]

3 minutes ago, sam49 said:

We had a cruise booked for May 2020 which was cancelled by Celebrity on March 25th.  Along with everyone else we were given the opportunity to have a 125% FCC or a full refund in 30 days and we went for the refund.

 

After 30 days no refund ,so I queried this and was told it would be 45 days, which is understandable given the current crisis.  However the 45 days have passed and we have now been told it will be another 10 days.  

 

The thing that is concerning me most is that we have received an email showing we have to pay a 90% cancellation charge when Celebrity cancelled the cruise!

 

I cant get hold of anyone to talk to and when you email they simply ignore the question and just say the refund will come in due course.

 

Any advice /tips? I am getting really worried now.

Not sure if you have called them, if not try that. There will be a considerable wait time. I called a few days ago about price drop and was on golf for 1 Hr 40 minutes but finally connected to agent. I have never found the email to be very helpful.

[39august]

Please explain the "90% cancellation charge". What is that about?   So are you saying you are only to get 10% of what you paid as refund? 

[jelayne]

Sounds like a computer glitch to me.  At least in the US there is no time period in the cancellation schedule that has a 90% penalty; it is 25% 50%, 75% & 100%.  

[NinaBlue22]

1 minute ago, jelayne said:

Sounds like a computer glitch to me.  At least in the US there is no time period in the cancellation schedule that has a 90% penalty; it is 25% 50%, 75% & 100%.  

But if Celebrity cancels the cruise, there should be no cancellation charge. 

[sam49]

19 minutes ago, 39august said:

Please explain the "90% cancellation charge". What is that about?   So are you saying you are only to get 10% of what you paid as refund? 

 

I have been sent an invoice which shows the total cost of the cruise (which has all been paid).  There is then a line saying 90% cancellation charge and a deduction of 90% of the payment. So showing a refund of 10%

[sam49]

4 minutes ago, NinaBlue22 said:

But if Celebrity cancels the cruise, there should be no cancellation charge. 

 

Yes this is exactly what I am saying but cannot get any sense from Celebrity.  I am beginning to think they are in financial difficulties

[yorky]

13 minutes ago, sam49 said:

 

I have been sent an invoice which shows the total cost of the cruise (which has all been paid).  There is then a line saying 90% cancellation charge and a deduction of 90% of the payment. So showing a refund of 10%

Well that’s certainly a first on here, makes no sense. Must be a mistake on their part.

From the UK site.

 

5 days or less before departure    100% 

6 to 14 days before departure    90% 

15 - 28 days before departure    75% 

29 - 56 days before departure    50% 

 

Clearly the cruise was not cancelled by anyone two weeks before departure.

Edited April 29, 2020 by yorky

[GeorgesGal]

Is the invoice you mentioned from your travel agent or from Celebrity?  That could make a difference, but if it is a TA who is charging the 90% cancellation automatically, you'd better take that matter up with them.  That would be unconscionable under the circumstances!

[bEwAbG]

Likely some sort of automated response that will be worked out by the human who processes the refund.  One option is to wait until the refund comes through, and, if it's not for the full amount, call them.  Just know that the refund will come in separate amounts, so it will likely make you panic when you see the first one. 

 

I keep talking myself out of saying you should call them.  On the one hand,  it wouldn't hurt to know what their system shows in case they think you're the one who cancelled first.  On the other, someone intervening at that point could potentially screw something else up and make the refund take that much longer.  I don't think calling them is really going to speed anything up but it might give you some peace of mind for the time being.

[jelayne]

Just a guess,  this is a May cruise and the UK cancellation table shows 90% charge between 6-14 days before sailing, it could be that the cruise status wasn't changed in the computer until between the 6-14 before cancellation window.   That change to cancel may have triggered a automatic invoice and refund.

We cancelled a cruise under CWC on March 12 but it wasn't processed until March 20 and it still showed as active in our account until March 27.

I would call, and wait on hold until I spoke to a person.

[autumn lass]

If you have a Captains Club number have you tried emailing them, I did last week about cancelling my cruise in August as I wasn’t sure my TA was auctioning my request and final payment was due next month. We can’t go as I’m on shielding list. Someone from the Captains Club rang me the next day. 
 

Hope you can get it resolved, we are still waiting our refund from our Celebrity cancelled April Apex cruise. 

[1025cruise]

Unfortunately, the systems aren't quite capable of handling this. Since the cruise was cancelled within the period, there's a penalty, by the system. The reality is that you will get your full fare back.

[BEAV]

5 hours ago, jelayne said:

Just a guess,  this is a May cruise and the UK cancellation table shows 90% charge between 6-14 days before sailing, it could be that the cruise status wasn't changed in the computer until between the 6-14 before cancellation window.   That change to cancel may have triggered a automatic invoice and refund.

We cancelled a cruise under CWC on March 12 but it wasn't processed until March 20 and it still showed as active in our account until March 27.

I would call, and wait on hold until I spoke to a person.

 

A few days ago I recall reading of the same issue from another UK resident on one of the gazillion million trillion threads/posts  about refunds. Celebrity said to ignore the invoice, as that is the standard cancel charge under normal circumstances. So it's just another case like Celebrity sending out luggage tags a month after they cancelled the sailing. Ignore it. 

[mrsbiccode]

We are in the U.K. and received a cancellation invoice for our April 5th cruise - this was on 10th April and appeared to show a 100% cancellation penalty, but the final line did suggest that the full amount would be refunded to us.  I am pleased to say that today the credits, totalling the correct full amount, are now showing on our credit card - entries are dated 27th April but only showed this morning.  So patience paid off in the end although it has been a tense time.  We did not file a dispute with our credit card.  Hope this helps.

[sam49]

Thank you for everyone who replied.  Finally managed to contact Celebrity and a refund is pending, however apparently they cannot give me an exact date.

 

 

They didn't seem to know what the cancellation charge was for, but hopefully as other posters have said this is something that is automatically produced when a cancellation is applied to your account.