UNFAIR Lift and Shift Practice

[Dave & Mel]

I found that RCI has a Lift and Shift policy for cruises canceled by COVID. But I was surprised that the earliest cruises eligible were ones cancelled on 20 May 2020 or after. I was a little surprised to see this cutoff date because my cruise was cancelled by RCI on 13 March 2020 for the same reason. I requested that RCI grandfather my cruise into this program because like I said, RCI cancelled my cruise for the same reason, COVID-19. 

They refused to allow me to use the Lift and Shift! I am not trying to get something that no one else has, I just want the same as others received! I believe this is UNFAIR! 

[Mapleleafforever]

4 minutes ago, Dave & Mel said:

I found that RCI has a Lift and Shift policy for cruises canceled by COVID. But I was surprised that the earliest cruises eligible were ones cancelled on 20 May 2020 or after. I was a little surprised to see this cutoff date because my cruise was cancelled by RCI on 13 March 2020 for the same reason. I requested that RCI grandfather my cruise into this program because like I said, RCI cancelled my cruise for the same reason, COVID-19. 

They refused to allow me to use the Lift and Shift! I am not trying to get something that no one else has, I just want the same as others received! I believe this is UNFAIR! 

Did you take the refund or FCC for your canceled March cruise?

[Dave & Mel]

3 minutes ago, Mapleleafforever said:

Did you take the refund or FCC for your canceled March cruise?

I took the FCC, but I am now asking for a full refund.

 

[Mapleleafforever]

Just now, Dave & Mel said:

I took the FCC, but I am now asking for a full refund.

 

Ah there you go, just book another cruise using your FCC and mentally consider it a L&S. Too late to ask for refund sadly. 

[Dave & Mel]

1 minute ago, Mapleleafforever said:

Ah there you go, just book another cruise using your FCC and mentally consider it a L&S. Too late to ask for refund sadly. 

First of all, unfortunately, I can't get a deal like I had for my April cruise. I have a letter from RCI that says I have until Dec 31st to change my mind and get a full refund.

[Mapleleafforever]

Just now, Dave & Mel said:

First of all, unfortunately, I can't get a deal like I had for my April cruise. I have a letter from RCI that says I have until Dec 31st to change my mind and get a full refund.

Yeah, prices jacked across the board pretty much now from what I've seen. We have a JS booked for Indy in Jan and we can L&S to Odyssey for 2022 and the mock booking of that cruise is 3x more than what we paid for our original cruise......we're probably gonna wait for them to cancel and take the refund though......I'm on the fence but my wife wants the refund. 

 

My advice, change to the refund before they change their mind. 

 

 

[not-enough-cruising]

NOT unfair. Their company, their rules. 

[firefly333]

16 minutes ago, Dave & Mel said:

First of all, unfortunately, I can't get a deal like I had for my April cruise. I have a letter from RCI that says I have until Dec 31st to change my mind and get a full refund.

There were some good covid rates for april. I had one myself. Best thing now is to find the best deal on a cheaper ship that you can lift and shift. 

 

Lots lost $18 drink packages besides losing covid pricing in april. At least we got 125% fcc out of it. If now you want a refund good luck finding a good rate. Carnival offered $600 obc and has driven up their prices higher than rcl. Could be true of other lines who now have higher prices.

 

Biker and some indicate they think prices might drop last minute if you wait to book. I'm hoping for a price drop on my carnival cruise I booked at higher than anything I'd pay without the $600 I just booked. Higher than what I'm paying on rcl for similar.

 

Or as you have asked now for refund, wait until all these incentives to book are gone, and see if prices come down. That's what I'm hoping for. Demand might be way down after people see covid rules. Wait for 2022 and beyond, might be better prices.

Edited August 26, 2020 by firefly333

[Iamcruzin]

1 hour ago, firefly333 said:

. Best thing now is to find the best deal on a cheaper ship that you can lift and shift. 

 

 

The point of the tread is that they wouldn't allow lift and shift since the original cruise was not eligible due to the fact that the original cruise was canceled before L&S started. I say take the refund and run.

Edited August 26, 2020 by Iamcruzin

[Iamcruzin]

1 hour ago, not-enough-cruising said:

NOT unfair. Their company, their rules. 

Not unfair but stupid. Now they will be issuing a refund and the OP can go to whatever brand is offering a better deal or use the refund for another type of vacation. 

Edited August 26, 2020 by Iamcruzin

[bigrednole]

When your cruise was canceled, there was no clue of how bad this would be. Then, you were offered FCC or refund. You got lucky and had a very good rate. But due to the extended cancellations, people getting 125% FCC, the demand for 2021 cruises has gone up along with prices to consume those 125% FCCs. There aren't many options available to you other than use the FCC you have or get a refund like you said. L&S is not an option because it was not offered then. Its not much of an option now either because you could book for Nov with FCC, then do a L&S. But, that would only be valid Oct-Dec. 

 

What truly isn't fair is the decision on which businesses survive and which go under.

[firefly333]

25 minutes ago, Iamcruzin said:

The point of the tread is that they wouldn't allow lift and shift since the original cruise was not eligible due to the fact that the original cruise was canceled before L&S started. I say take the refund and run.

Exactly. I too had  great rate I got for april I lost. I too was sad to lose a great rate. Even at 125% fcc there was nothing at the time I could book at the fcc amount I got. 

 

I took the refund on the may cruise I had cancelled. Too many rules on fcc were getting changed, but I booked some and only took one fcc from a last minute covid deal.

 

But I took the refund on the next canc. One fcc enough for me to deal with. 

 

Given the choice of paying more or not cruising I will book again. I completely understand how the op feels as I too had a great rate. I had like 5 discounts applied to the april cruise that was cancelled including a last minute $50 pp off the covid highly discounted rate.

 

I was mad at how hard they made it to use the fcc, and at the 3rd change opted to take a refund on 2nd fcc I could have gotten. Also not happy about not being able to match the last minute april rate I got, but at some pt you have to do the best you can and get over it. Cancelled in March a long time ago. I too complained months ago even the 125% wasnt enough to book a equal cruise ... biker keeps saying get the refund and wait for last minute again. I had intended to take the 2nd fcc, but opted for the refund myself. Took biker's advice. 

 

No doubt there were some good last minute covid rates last april before we really knew how bad covid was going to be and cruises closed down. At some pt though op needs to decide what to do. Take refund and wait until prices drop is ok too. I'm just saying due to 125% fccs out there, they may have a longer wait depending on if they want to cruise soon again for some lines, though I read msc has some close in deals. MSC no help to me going out of Galveston... but I too was mad losing my april rate, but at some pt gotta accept it. 

[parrotfeathers]

People that got that $18 drink package didn't get a L&S on that either.  Or maybe they did?

Edited August 26, 2020 by parrotfeathers

[KelJ]

4 minutes ago, parrotfeathers said:

People that got that $18 drink package didn't get a L&S on that either.  Or maybe they did?

 

Nope

[HicksRA]

Ex Post Facto as used in the law. You can’t enforce a law or procedure For something that happened before it was a law/procedure. 

[Ashland]

3 hours ago, Dave & Mel said:

I found that RCI has a Lift and Shift policy for cruises canceled by COVID. But I was surprised that the earliest cruises eligible were ones cancelled on 20 May 2020 or after. I was a little surprised to see this cutoff date because my cruise was cancelled by RCI on 13 March 2020 for the same reason. I requested that RCI grandfather my cruise into this program because like I said, RCI cancelled my cruise for the same reason, COVID-19. 

They refused to allow me to use the Lift and Shift! I am not trying to get something that no one else has, I just want the same as others received! I believe this is UNFAIR! 

Sorry not quite right on your dates. Our May 8, 2020 was cancelled by RCI.  

We opted to take the 125% FCC.

We moved it to May 10, 2021 and then recently did a L/S to April 24, 2022. We upgraded from a JS to GS (extended family group of 10, so three cabins) and shortly after that we did a price reduction. We'll now all get another FCC for the additional amount after we sail. This has worked out well for us as the prices were so much higher...so glad we were priced protected including our KSF promo.

[not-enough-cruising]

2 hours ago, Iamcruzin said:

Not unfair but stupid. Now they will be issuing a refund and the OP can go to whatever brand is offering a better deal or use the refund for another type of vacation. 

No, not stupid, RCCL will sell that cabin at a higher price next year. 

[ONECRUISER]

3 hours ago, firefly333 said:

There were some good covid rates for april. I had one myself. Best thing now is to find the best deal on a cheaper ship that you can lift and shift. 

 

Lots lost $18 drink packages besides losing covid pricing in april. At least we got 125% fcc out of it. If now you want a refund good luck finding a good rate. Carnival offered $600 obc and has driven up their prices higher than rcl. Could be true of other lines who now have higher prices.

 

Biker and some indicate they think prices might drop last minute if you wait to book. I'm hoping for a price drop on my carnival cruise I booked at higher than anything I'd pay without the $600 I just booked. Higher than what I'm paying on rcl for similar.

 

Or as you have asked now for refund, wait until all these incentives to book are gone, and see if prices come down. That's what I'm hoping for. Demand might be way down after people see covid rules. Wait for 2022 and beyond, might be better prices.

Agree, from April-July I made a killing Booking 12 new Cruises and over $5K in reductions on existing with sailings Mar2021-Nov2021. Now those are prices 2-4 times higher as these ships fill up

Edited August 26, 2020 by ONECRUISER

[A&L_Ont]

3 hours ago, Mapleleafforever said:

My advice, change to the refund before they change their mind. 

 

2 hours ago, Iamcruzin said:

The point of the tread is that they wouldn't allow lift and shift since the original cruise was not eligible due to the fact that the original cruise was canceled before L&S started. I say take the refund and run.

I agree. Take the refund.  Cash in hand is king. 

[katiel53]

I guess I don't understand your thinking in that the L&S wasn't available when your cruise was cancelled.  If you bought a car and two months later it went on sale for some reason, do you think the dealer is going to give you back the difference in what you paid as opposed to the new rate?  

 

There are many of us who didn't get the opportunity to L&S, but we realize that it wasn't available when we had our cruise cancelled.  We also lost the $18 drink package for a couple of cruises.  

 

We don't always get what we want and this happens to be a few of the them.  I understand your disappointment, but I seriously doubt the cruise line knew this was going to be a long drawn out problem.  

[dodgestang]

4 hours ago, Dave & Mel said:

I took the FCC, but I am now asking for a full refund.

 

Discussion doesn't make sense to me.

 

The FCC was for 125% so you took that and could easily book another cruise with it.

Now you are asking for full refund of your 100% paid cruise

And complaining you can use lift and shift.

 

I can only assume the following happened....you took your 125%, looked at cruises, found out that demand pushed prices up a bit and you may have to out of pocket a little more, so you decided to just cancel it all, take the refund and worry about it later.  Then they started lift and shift.

 

I can tell you since I have lift/shifted 2 cruises....there are still price changes in play.  I lucked out...and my lift and shifts into the same room on different sailings netted small decreases....but in both cases the customer service operator was attempting to set my expectation while doing the lift and shifts that port fees might change so it might not all work out exactly......

 

That's just me making assumptions...not an assault.

[atanac]

I personally feel that as soon as these cruise lines burn through the obsessively cruising public

together with those with FCC's they are going to have a lot of empty cabins to fill.

 

If you're a civilian who has never taken a cruise or perhaps has done it once the fear generated

by passengers quarantined will certainly put the brakes on choosing this type of vacation for

sometime.

 

A good example is the issue Boeing now faces with their grounded 737-Max airplane. When this

plane finally gets clearance to fly again I believe people will be asking what type of airplane are

they flying on. I for one won't ever fly one of these if I have any other option.

[Merion_Mom]

13 minutes ago, atanac said:

I personally feel that as soon as these cruise lines burn through the obsessively cruising public

together with those with FCC's they are going to have a lot of empty cabins to fill.

 

If you're a civilian who has never taken a cruise or perhaps has done it once the fear generated

by passengers quarantined will certainly put the brakes on choosing this type of vacation for

sometime.

 

A good example is the issue Boeing now faces with their grounded 737-Max airplane. When this

plane finally gets clearance to fly again I believe people will be asking what type of airplane are

they flying on. I for one won't ever fly one of these if I have any other option.

 

Most people pay zero attention to the plane when they are booking a flight.

[Ashland]

1 hour ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

Most people pay zero attention to the plane when they are booking a flight.

Ummm...I actually do because of seating and configuration.

[atanac]

1 hour ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

Most people pay zero attention to the plane when they are booking a flight.

I  always check for the same reasons the above poster mentioned. Plus there has never

been this level of publicity about a perceived "dangerous" airplane. It is the same with

cruise ships...occasional norovirus outbreaks can't compare with how cruise travel has

been raked over the coals as a result of this pandemic.