Wow...it took Seabourn 85 days to return my deposit for a December cruise, and only after I instituted credit card chargebacks.

I also had some communication, refund, and reimbursement issues with NCL change management a few years ago when NCL Epic extended their dry dock by a day. Thankfully my TA did some of the running for me but I didn't get the full promised reimbursement even two months after the cruise. I personally wouldn't book NCL in times of uncertainty based on that experience and haven't seen/heard anything complimenting their change procedures other than their website will show "My booking" post final payment COVID cancelled refund amounts. I heard it tends to come in dribbles and many many lots, though, with a 90 day estimate. Seems like it requires decent patience and still results in calls to TA/NCL to find out where the rest is.

The innocent should probably check the refund threads on cruise critic to gauge how much work it might be if things don't go well, especially since sailings are still on pause. I'm guessing refundable bookings outside final payment had some refund automation in place.

Why is it always the NCL Epic?!?! my experience with NCL also involved NCL Epic... most of the complaints I’ve heard from friends and other cruisers also involved the Epic.. they should just rename that ship to NCL Epic Fail.

Well, in anecdotes, my partner's parents + extended family were on NCL Star when it has azipod issues and lost power https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/crui...tml?styleid=24 It was supposed to go to the Great Barrier Reef. Azipod and power issues happen, though the change management & notifications seemed lacking. Viking Seas lost propulsion on Sky and Jupiter, has a less common early full payment policy, and has been pretty decent comparatively about proactively cancelling due to coronavirus & prompt refunds.

I do know some NCL loyalty members and can see why the many evening entertainment options would appeal, especially when things are business like old usual. I just personally wouldn't choose to deal with their change management team and current chances are good that such customer service will be required for closer in sailings.

NCL cancelled most sailings until October 2020 earlier this week https://www.ncl.com/suspended-sailings

It truly depends WHEN you cancel the cruise - at the every early going the refunds were processed the same way as in the past, business as usual type of process.

Once the voluntary suspension of operation has been announced, all auto-refund is being suspended, each refund has to be manually reviewed before approval. Our fully paid for Apr 11 Transatlantic and Russia Princess cruise was canceled by the 1st pause of operation announced on Mar 12, It was not until May 29 Princess issued full refund.

Then it was until 2nd week of June when Chase Travel / Connexions refunded the points to my husband's UR account. All the while, there was ZERO communication from either the cruise line or Chase Travel.

I strongly suspect that if not for the back and forth complaints thru Chase SM, primarily due to Chase erased ALL the records of the travel reservations paid by UR points from the UR account when it did the update to add the Pay Yourself Back feature, that finally an SM rep decided to escalate the issue to the Chase Travel Center on the missing records,in particular the not yet refunded cruise booking, that we finally received the points back. Before that we were told by Chase Travel / Connexions to wait 60 to 90 days AFTER cruise line refunded the payment to their payment cards!

You actually had UR points redeposited in your account? That is a new one, for the UR thread always mentions redepositing of points as an impossibility. Rather, the money is typically refunded to one. (And, this is what happened to me when a Connexions trip with fully refundable airfare was cancelled by me.)

Looks like we got our answer. All cruises, except those small river cruises, starting or terminating in the United States are canceled from now to September 15.

The cruise was paid for with UR pts at the 1.5x value ratio. I dont see how we could get cash refund instead of the UR pts refund. I also never see anybody booked a trip with the UR pts has gotten a cash refund instead of the UR pts paid.

Was your fully refundable trip paid by UR pts? If so this would be the first time I read about refund on trip paid with UR pts got refunded in cash. Never read about such until you mentioned yours.

What I have read so far is, Chase Travel / Expedia would not refund points unless the travel providers refund them the $ to their payment cards. The cardholders sometimes are forced to take flight credit vouchers, sometimes dont even have such option.

NEVER EVER there is report that someone gets his canceled trip paid with UR pts but got cash refunded to his bank account or credit card.

If a trip is paid by split payments, i.e. UR pts then bal by credit card, usually the UR pts refunded immediately but the cash payment portion takes another 30 to 60 days to return to the cardmember's payment card.

No idea where you have read about people getting cash back instead of UR pts when they paid their trips with UR pts.

We dont need any official announcement from CDC, CLIA already announced several days ago that the pause in US would go thru Sept.

With the spiking of new cases in FL and TX, and some counties (Palm Beach for one) already run out ICU beds, I seriously doubt any cruise would restart by Sept 15. Princess and Holland America KNEW this and they have paused almost all their cruises thru the end of the year, except some Australia / New Zealand and Asian cruises which are paused thru Sept. That was announced back in May.

I guess we are either reading different posts or interpreting the same ones differently. It happens.

In my case, using UR redemption and Connexions as the TA, I booked a fully-refundable ticket with Cathay. When I had to cancel the trip, I contacted Connexions and I ended up with a cash refund. This was not optimal for me, because I believed that I could get better value for the points vs. cash, perhaps finding a great deal with UA saver.

When you said Connexions as TA - was this BEFORE Chase discontinued the contract with Connexions except for booking cruises, between 2018 and 2019?

Chase has switched to use Expedia for almost 2 years by now. Expedia was not able to handle the cruise booking hence back in the switch time in 2018, UR reps were told NOT to book any cruise for 2019 sailing. Eventually Connexions was retained for cruise booking while Expedia would handle everything else - incl international flights. I am not aware that Connexions can still handle UR bookings on flights.

Can't remember exactly when I cancelled or made the reservation, but I made it through JP Morgan Travel/Connexions.

OK - that is completely different animal. You confuse the 2 entities.

JPM is not normally referred to as Chase in FT forum. Here when people talk about Chase Travel, they refer to the regular credit cards UR Travel Portal, and that is totally different / separate from JPM.- even their names are different. Chase Travel versus JP Morgan Travel, although the whole company's name is JP Morgan Chase.

JPM travel is indeed still handled by Connexions but Chase UR Travel is handled by Expedia.

In fact the cruise booking confirmation email sent by Connexions still used the JPM toll free number as the contact number, at Jan. When I called that number I got JPM and the rep said Sapphire Reserve is handled by Chase Travel (of course). She transferred me to the Chase Travel dept where the answering rep gave me yet another toll free number which was not found anywhere on UR Travel portal site.
Subsequent confirmation email from Connexions on that cruise booking which had a voluntarily itinerary change to disembark a day early, shows the correct toll free number to use for Chase Travel bookings (again, only cruises are handled by Connexions, everything else is handled by Expedia).

Glad that Connexions is still the vendor for JPM Travel. Still for travel other than just for cruises? Thanks for that.