If we take a FCC for a cancelled cruise, are we giving up our rights to ever get our money back?

[cruiseej]

We were booked on, and fully paid for, a Silver Wind cruise in Antarctica this winter that is among the 8 months of Wind cruises that Silversea canceled today due to their delay in the retrofit of the ship until next spring. We're weighing whether to rebook for December 2021 (when we hope it will be safe to cruise) or getting our money back. I've read a lot about Future Cruise Credits over the past few months, but I hope someone can remind me of the policy: if we take the 110% FCC Silversea is offering for our canceled cruise and use it book a cruise for next year, and then we don't want to take the cruise for any reason (e.g. lack of a vaccine or other COVID concerns, or family health issues, or whatever), can we get our money back if we cancel more than 120 days before the cruise? Or once you take the FCC, do you lose the ability to get a cash refund?

 

With all the uncertainties in the world right now, it's a tough call to leave $50,000+ on the table for a December 2021 cruise; a lot can happen over the next 12 months! But if we can do that and still have the ability to cancel 120 days in advance of the cruise and get our money back, we're inclined to do so -- even though Silversea is offering us only 110% FCC instead of 125% most cancelled cruises have been getting. But if taking their FCC offer means we'd forever sign away our rights to cancel the future cruise we book and get a refund, that seems like a huge risk to take for the bonus 10% FCC. Would we be better to ignore the 10% bonus, ask for a refund, and then make a new booking with the protection that we could cancel for a refund?

 

[Randyk47]

In my opinion under the present circumstances I’d say yes.   Speaking for myself only I’d rather have the money than some hopeful chance that the business will survive.  I have maybe one or two gift cards from bankrupt stores and they are not worth the plastic they are printed on.   Show me the money!  😀

Edited July 30, 2020 by Randyk47

[cruiseej]

I understand weighing the risk of the cruise line going under. If one feels cruising will resume this fall or winter, the odds are all the major cruise lines will survive. If one feels cruising will resume next spring or summer, the indications are that most of the cruise lines have put together enough funding to be able to survive. If one feels cruising may not resume until late next year, it starts becoming more questionable whether companies will survive. So depending on your views about what it will take to get people wanting to travel again, you can assess the risk of whether to leave tens of thousands of dollars on on deposit for a future trip. 

 

But that's not my question. My question is whether accepting a FCC for a cancelled cruise trades away one's ability to get cash back. Specifically: My fully paid December 2020 cruise was cancelled. Silversea is offering a 110% FC C. Let's say I take that and apply it to a cruise for December 2021. In April 2021 we decide to cancel the cruise. Can we get back the cash we originally paid, or will Silversea only restore the FCC? And if we cannot travel by the time the FCC expires, do we lose everything we paid?

[Stumblefoot]

1 minute ago, cruiseej said:

My question is whether accepting a FCC for a cancelled cruise trades away one's ability to get cash back. 

If I were you, I’d be asking your question directly to the company and getting their response in writing as opposed to posing the question to participants here, some of whom haven’t taken a SS cruise in years.

[cruiseej]

2 minutes ago, Stumblefoot said:

If I were you, I’d be asking your question directly to the company and getting their response in writing as opposed to posing the question to participants here, some of whom haven’t taken a SS cruise in years.

 

I'll reach out to our TA about this (Silversea likely won't talk to us directly). I just thought with so many people having had cruises cancelled over the past five months and accepting FCC's that this scenario would have been well-understood by now. 

[Silver Spectre]

7 minutes ago, cruiseej said:

 

I'll reach out to our TA about this (Silversea likely won't talk to us directly). I just thought with so many people having had cruises cancelled over the past five months and accepting FCC's that this scenario would have been well-understood by now. 

My advice, for what it’s worth, is take the money. Unless you are aware of a US equivalent of our ATOL protection (and that only applies to a package, flight plus cruise etc), which I am not, then you are exposed with a FCC. At no point has SS stated that it can be reversed back into a refund.

Edited July 30, 2020 by Silver Spectre

[Tothesunset]

Look at it this way: if you take the refund then you have the money to do with whatever you please; if you use the FCC you save 10% on that cruise fare at the risk of never seeing a penny of it. Times are so uncertain that planning future cruises, indeed whether cruising even survives, is not an act of rational decision making based on experience and knowledge, rather it is a pure gamble based on guesswork and wishful thinking. 

 

In your position I'd want the money back. 

[dbbsteve]

I was in the same situation a few months earlier and had a July 2020 Wind cruise cancelled by Silversea.  I made enquiries to Silversea through my TA.  I was, like you, keen to make another booking as soon as possible with their FCC offer.

While Silversea did not directly address the question, they drew my attention to the following terms and conditions (for 2021 sailings)-which is still on their website:

 

“The FCC can be moved voyage to voyage towards any other 2020 voyage”

“Once applied toward future cruise(s), the Cruise Credit will be rendered null and void”
Quote:
“If you cancel the new booking say in Jan 2021 with reference from your example, it will be as per our standard Terms and Conditions as of now. You may refer Here for the latest update on our “Cruise with Confidence” policy.

My interpretation and that of my TA was that if you cancel the 2021 booking (or try to change to another sailing), the FCC is no longer valid because it is "null and void" and you would likely lose all your money, meaning the cruise you booked becomes binding and non-refundable.  There is not even mention of getting another FCC back because it is not movable voyage to voyage.

The alternative is if you are absolutely certain that you will sail on Silversea in the next two years you can get the 125% (or 110%) credit and use $1,000 of the FCC to pay the deposit.  I have confirmed with Silversea that part of the FCC can be used as a deposit, and you also get all future cruise / early booking bonus.  

 

Quote:

"For Future Cruise Credits received as a result of recent cruise cancellations, it will be accepted as the deposit (minimum US1,000) for the Double Bonus promotion" 

 

You can keep the rest of the FCC to see if the situation will improve, and only make final payments with the FCC at the last possible moment.  If you cancel the booked cruise you will lose $1,000 pp instead of the entire FCC.

I am sure if Silversea cancels the cruise some kind of arrangement will be made.

 

I decided (reluctantly) to take the cash refund.

 

Please let me know if this is incorrect or there are new developments.

[hamrag]

7 hours ago, cruiseej said:

....My question is whether accepting a FCC for a cancelled cruise trades away one's ability to get cash back. Specifically: My fully paid December 2020 cruise was cancelled. Silversea is offering a 110% FC C. Let's say I take that and apply it to a cruise for December 2021. In April 2021 we decide to cancel the cruise. Can we get back the cash we originally paid, or will Silversea only restore the FCC? And if we cannot travel by the time the FCC expires, do we lose everything we paid?

 

The moment you accept an FCC, that becomes the 'currency' given for that cancelled cruise and cannot be changed to cash! Whilst no-one has posted specific SC experience, please note the holding company is Royal Caribbean and there are various RC and Celebrity threads on this very subject, confirming that the cash option is no longer available once the FCC is accepted.

 

If it were me, I'd be having the cash back and declining their poor FCC offer.

Edited July 30, 2020 by hamrag

[taxatty]

On 7/29/2020 at 8:27 PM, cruiseej said:

With all the uncertainties in the world right now, it's a tough call to leave $50,000+ on the table for a December 2021 cruise; a lot can happen over the next 12 months! 

As others have suggested--don't. It's one thing to potentially lose a $1000 deposit, but it's another to potentially lose a huge amount like that in a gamble to save some $.

 

 

[cruiseej]

We did decide to turn down the FCC offer for our canceled Antarctica cruise this December. We booked for the same cruise next year, and because we didn't accept the FCC, our money is fully refundable. Fortunately, Silversea applied a different 10% discount to our 2021 booking, so we got the best of both worlds (the 10% savings plus the ability to cancel until next August and get money back). For now, we're cautiously optimistic that a cruise in December 2021 will be possible, but there's obviously a lot that will need to happen. Fingers crossed, we'll wait and see how things in the world develop.