FCC chosen for canceled sailing, trying to understand the refund received

[BrentD]

We were booked on the May 8th sailing of the Mardi Gras that was canceled about a month ago. We chose to take the FCC and $300 OBC option in lieu of a full refund because we plan to continue cruising eventually. The way I understood it is even if you chose the FCC option instead of the refund, you would still be refunded your taxes, port fees and prepaid gratuities and any extras you already booked. I paid our deposit via credit card, and all other monies were paid with Carnival gift cards.

 

Given the many stories about refunds taking months, I was surprised to get a notification from FedEx on Monday that a package from Carnival was coming. With the methods we used to pay, I expected a gift card for around $450 for our port fees, taxes and prepaid gratuities. However, I also noticed a refund of $198 on our credit card, which happens to be the exact amount of our deposit. Today the gift card came and it was for $552 and not the expected $450ish. We had paid a total of $948 toward our sailing by the time it was canceled. 
 

So I’m extremely confused now because it seems they refunded more than what it should have been since I chose the FCC, but it is also very short of our full amount paid if we were somehow switched to the full refund. We also had $100 OBC on the cruise, which would make up for the extra $100 on the gift card, but I don’t think they refund OBC. And even if they did that doesn’t explain the refund of our deposit to our credit card. 
 

Any insight on this?

[Saint Greg]

I can tell you how my gift card refunds have been. I’ve been through 7 of them in the past year. 
 

Usually pretty quick after the cruise is canceled I get a gift card for any funshop purchases I made. 

The amount of the FCC has been the amount of the cancellation fee had I canceled it myself. So closer to the cruise, higher the FCC. 
 

The remainder comes in gift cards. And usually I have to give carnival a kick in the pants to get those gift cards out. Most of the time those gift cards have come directly to me via FedEx, but I have had 1 e-gift card, one time they sent them to my travel agent, and one time they put the money back on old gift cards. Fortunately I had the card numbers because I emailed them to my travel agent for payment.

 

So let’s say I had a 1,500 cruise. I bought internet for $100 and cheers for $450. And the cancelation fee is $750. A couple weeks after cancellation I would get a card for $450 and a card for $100. A couple months later I’ll call to check on the rest of it. They tell me I have a $750 FCC and $750 in gift cards on the way.

 

The fact that you got a credit card refund for your deposit amount likely means you made your deposit with that credit card.

 

 

Edited February 25, 2021 by Saint Greg

[BrentD]

7 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

I can tell you how my gift card refunds have been. I’ve been through 7 of them in the past year. 
 

Usually pretty quick after the cruise is canceled I get a gift card for any funshop purchases I made. 

The amount of the FCC has been the amount of the cancellation fee had I canceled it myself. So closer to the cruise, higher the FCC. 
 

The remainder comes in gift cards. And usually I have to give carnival a kick in the pants to get those gift cards out. Most of the time those gift cards have come directly to me via FedEx, but I have had 1 e-gift card, one time they sent them to my travel agent, and one time they put the money back on old gift cards. Fortunately I had the card numbers because I emailed them to my travel agent for payment.

 

So let’s say I had a 1,500 cruise. I bought internet for $100 and cheers for $450. And the cancelation fee is $750. A couple weeks after cancellation I would get a card for $450 and a card for $100. A couple months later I’ll call to check on the rest of it. They tell me I have a $750 FCC and $750 in gift cards on the way.

 

The fact that you got a credit card refund for your deposit amount likely means you made your deposit with that credit card.

 

 

Ok, but based on their own explanation in the fine print of the cancellation email with the FCC offer, none of your scenario should be happening that way. Particularly the part you mentioned about the customary cancellation fee amount being refunded to you. According to their documentation, the only money not applied to the FCC should be any Fun Shop purchases along with the sailing’s taxes, port fees and prepaid gratuities, which should all be refunded to my original form of payment.  Everything else should apply to the FCC. But they clearly did not do that.
 

It seems to me like they are treating it as if I selected the full refund option instead of the FCC option and still got the numbers wrong. Had we chosen to cancel ourselves at the same point, there would have been a FCC applied in the amount of $98 (two $99 deposits minus $50/pp service fee), which also doesn’t add up since we are roughly $200 short on what was refunded if they screwed up and did a refund instead of FCC. 

Edited February 25, 2021 by BrentD

[Jamesatgsu]

I made payments using multiple cards, yet they refunded my wife's card for all of it.  🤔 Fun shop purchases are refunded separately, so hard to explain the gift card difference. 

 

BTW, it should be $600 obc for you. 

[Saint Greg]

2 hours ago, BrentD said:

Ok, but based on their own explanation in the fine print of the cancellation email with the FCC offer, none of your scenario should be happening that way. Particularly the part you mentioned about the customary cancellation fee amount being refunded to you. According to their documentation, the only money not applied to the FCC should be any Fun Shop purchases along with the sailing’s taxes, port fees and prepaid gratuities, which should all be refunded to my original form of payment.  Everything else should apply to the FCC. But they clearly did not do that.
 

It seems to me like they are treating it as if I selected the full refund option instead of the FCC option and still got the numbers wrong. Had we chosen to cancel ourselves at the same point, there would have been a FCC applied in the amount of $98 (two $99 deposits minus $50/pp service fee), which also doesn’t add up since we are roughly $200 short on what was refunded if they screwed up and did a refund instead of FCC. 

For some reason they have an unwritten set of rules for cruises booked with gift cards. I know it’s weird but I like that they don’t put the entire thing on an FCC. I Just applied a $500 FCC to a cruise I owed $552 on. If it were a $1500 FCC I wouldn’t have been able to do that. The other gift cards I can use for deposits on cruises.  You can still apply it all to one cruise if you want to...but I like the flexibility.

 

 

Edited February 25, 2021 by Saint Greg

[BrentD]

52 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

For some reason they have an unwritten set of rules for cruises booked with gift cards. I know it’s weird but I like that they don’t put the entire thing on an FCC. I Just applied a $500 FCC to a cruise I owed $552 on. If it were a $1500 FCC I wouldn’t have been able to do that. The other gift cards I can use for deposits on cruises.  You can still apply it all to one cruise if you want to...but I like the flexibility.

I'm good either way they do it, but at this point it doesn't add up either way. So that's mainly what I'm trying to figure out.  The numbers are wrong if they did a full refund OR if they did a FCC as best I can tell. There shouldn't have been any refund of my deposit back to my card based on the stated terms of taking the FCC. I do see in the fine print now that "FCC is based on the cancellation fees retained by Carnival for this voyage"....which would imply that a $50 fee per person could possibly be retained by Carnival since that's what it would have been had we canceled ourselves, but it's odd that they would keep that sine the cancellation was their call. 

Edited February 25, 2021 by BrentD

[BrentD]

1 hour ago, Jamesatgsu said:

BTW, it should be $600 obc for you. 

Why would it be $600? The terms of the FCC state that it's $300 OBC per stateroom on your future cruise if you take the FCC. 

[d12j28]

16 minutes ago, BrentD said:

Why would it be $600? The terms of the FCC state that it's $300 OBC per stateroom on your future cruise if you take the FCC. 

6 day or longer cruises get $600 in OBC. 

[BrentD]

Here's the complete math and timeline...

 

Cruise rate (for 2):          $1964.00

Taxes, Fees & Port:          $255.00

Prepaid gratuities:           $195.86

TOTAL:                            $2415.14

 

Payments made by time of cancellation:     $198 deposit on credit card;  $750 via Carnival gift cards. Total of $948

 

Carnival cancelled our sailing on January 22nd. On January 26th I chose the 100% Future Cruise Credit option, which includes $600 OBC per stateroom on my next cruise booked by 9/30/2021 for any sailing departing by 4/30/2023. Terms stated that taxes, fees, port fees, and prepaid gratuities would be refunded to my original form of payment, with the rest of the paid balance being applied to a FCC. Question remains whether or not they deduct the customary $50 per person service fee for cancellation. By my math, based on their written terms, I should receive a gift card only for $497.14 for the taxes, fees, port charges and prepaid gratuities, POSSIBLY $397.14 if the $50/pp cancellation service fee applies. My FCC should be $450.86 *or* $350.86, again depending on the service fee question.

 

On Monday, 2/22, I received a $198 refund to my credit card, which was presumably for my deposit. That should never have been issued since I took the FCC.  On Wednesday, 2/25, I received a $552 gift card from Carnival. That adds up to $750, which leaves me $198 shy of the $948 total we had already paid at the time they cancelled our sailing. 

Edited February 25, 2021 by BrentD

[BrentD]

3 minutes ago, d12j28 said:

6 day or longer cruises get $600 in OBC. 

You are absolutely right. I don't know why I kept looking at the 5 days or less column. Too many numbers floating in my head trying to make sense of all of this at the moment.

[Saint Greg]

16 minutes ago, BrentD said:

Here's the complete math and timeline...

 

Cruise rate (for 2):          $1964.00

Taxes, Fees & Port:          $255.00

Prepaid gratuities:           $195.86

TOTAL:                            $2415.14

 

Payments made by time of cancellation:     $198 deposit on credit card;  $750 via Carnival gift cards. Total of $948

 

Carnival cancelled our sailing on January 22nd. On January 26th I chose the 100% Future Cruise Credit option, which includes $600 OBC per stateroom on my next cruise booked by 9/30/2021 for any sailing departing by 4/30/2023. Terms stated that taxes, fees, port fees, and prepaid gratuities would be refunded to my original form of payment, with the rest of the paid balance being applied to a FCC. Question remains whether or not they deduct the customary $50 per person service fee for cancellation. By my math, based on their written terms, I should receive a gift card only for $497.14 for the taxes, fees, port charges and prepaid gratuities, POSSIBLY $397.14 if the $50/pp cancellation service fee applies. My FCC should be $450.86 *or* $350.86, again depending on the service fee question.

 

On Monday, 2/22, I received a $198 refund to my credit card, which was presumably for my deposit. That should never have been issued since I took the FCC.  On Wednesday, 2/25, I received a $552 gift card from Carnival. That adds up to $750, which leaves me $198 shy of the $948 total we had already paid at the time they cancelled our sailing. 

You need to call carnival but I would bet you have a $198 FCC + $600 OBC available.

[rwilk1129]

I agree , call Carnival. They can tell you how much FCC they are holding for you. I had similar situation having paid with credit card and gift cards. They gave credit to credit card for deposit and sent a gift card for an odd amount leaving a $500 FCC that only they can see. I had paid in full so all amounts did balance out. By the way we are in FL and gift card was delivered to home up north.  My sister found it under our doormat under the snow. I had expected them to refund txs/port fees to the gift card I had originally used.(I had been checking the balance on my used card and it never changed) Glad my sister found that card when she checked on our house.

[BrentD]

15 minutes ago, rwilk1129 said:

I agree , call Carnival. They can tell you how much FCC they are holding for you. I had similar situation having paid with credit card and gift cards. They gave credit to credit card for deposit and sent a gift card for an odd amount leaving a $500 FCC that only they can see. I had paid in full so all amounts did balance out. By the way we are in FL and gift card was delivered to home up north.  My sister found it under our doormat under the snow. I had expected them to refund txs/port fees to the gift card I had originally used.(I had been checking the balance on my used card and it never changed) Glad my sister found that card when she checked on our house.

Yeah, FedEx guy stuck it under our doormat as well. Luckily, we have cameras that alerted us to the fact, and I also get emails from FedEx when things are arriving.  I mean, I'm fine with however they divvy it up as long as we get the promised $600 OBC. And as one poster mentioned, the more of it that is on the gift card, the easier it is to use it on the future cruise since FCC's can't be used for deposits and some other stipulations. So I'm not really upset or anything, just trying to understand their logic since it doesn't seem to go by their terms as they wrote them.

 

I'm thankful they put it all on a new gift card rather than reloading the ones I used. I kept most, but not ALL of the used cards just in case. Since I booked the cruise literally a week or two before the whole industry shut down, I saw fairly quickly that people were saying Carnival wanted to put refunds back to the original cards, so I kept all of the cards I used from that point forward. 

[jamie717]

I've had 4 cruises canceled, booked through two different TA's, opted for FCC for all 4, paid with gift cards for all with the exception of down payments, have only received 665.77 of 1500.00 credit card down payments, rebooked 3 cruises, spent hours on calls with TA's trying to figure out where the money came from (which booking) and where it's going and have finally decided to just trust in Carnival that they will eventually apply all funds to my bookings and make it right in the end.  I've already spent way too much time trying to make the math work!

[BrentD]

1 hour ago, jamie717 said:

I've had 4 cruises canceled, booked through two different TA's, opted for FCC for all 4, paid with gift cards for all with the exception of down payments, have only received 665.77 of 1500.00 credit card down payments, rebooked 3 cruises, spent hours on calls with TA's trying to figure out where the money came from (which booking) and where it's going and have finally decided to just trust in Carnival that they will eventually apply all funds to my bookings and make it right in the end.  I've already spent way too much time trying to make the math work!

I'm inclined to agree with that line of thinking. Our original booking had $100 OBC.  Any new one we take will be $600 OBC. So the way I see it, even if that still-missing $198 mysteriously never reappears, I'm still $300 ahead of where we were. Obviously I'd rather be completely whole if I can be.

[Roger88]

I would really avoid canceling a cruise or even purchasing a cruise that might get cancelled. We live in a very unpredictable time. Please be carefull people. Stay safe 

[BrentD]

5 minutes ago, Roger88 said:

I would really avoid canceling a cruise or even purchasing a cruise that might get cancelled. We live in a very unpredictable time. Please be carefull people. Stay safe 

Unfortunately, I booked the one that got cancelled about 2 weeks before the world shut down. Don't plan on rebooking anything until next year at the earliest. So it is what it is at this point.

[Saint Greg]

18 hours ago, Roger88 said:

I would really avoid canceling a cruise or even purchasing a cruise that might get cancelled. We live in a very unpredictable time. Please be carefull people. Stay safe 

In his case he has gift cards. No real loss unless we get to final payment day and he has to reach into his pocket. I built up some FCC’s last year and this year and I’m using existing gift cards for deposits but I’m booking cruises in 2022 and 2023.