Risks of taking a credit instead of refund
 

The cruise lines are reportedly leaning hard on passengers with cancelled bookings to not take refunds and are offering future cruise credits instead. The lines are enticing passengers with 25% premiums and on-board credits. This article is a good look at why you should take the money and not a future credit.

https://thepointsguy.com/news/why-yo...nceled-cruise/

The article suggests your cash refund can be put to better use for other types of travel or towards future cruises. Totally unaware that the companies mentioned have not been promptly paying cash refunds.

FCC from a bankrupt company doesn't do much good. No thanks.

Cash is cash.

Credits are limited by all sorts of rules. There is no advantage to the consumer from a credit unless the cruise line offers a substantial premium for those willing to accept it (25% or more). The cruise line may fail and then you are an unsecured creditor who may see a few cents on the dollar a few years from now. Perhaps it will not operate what you want to where you want to go and offer the hard and soft product you want. Perhaps you will want to do something else with the cash.

Letting the cruise line keep your cash is a 0% loan. You can do better with a statement savings account!

I doubt FCC is high on the list of any Bankruptcy court to pay, there probably won't be any cents on the dollar left to pay FCC after paying all the other creditors.
Take the cash.

In addition to all above comments (many of the wiser on Cruisecritic have long said FCC holders are future creditors), those who are rebooking have found future cruise fares are higher for the same itinerary, so the 25% or whatever incentive is all clawed back (and then some)..

I have a few old onboard future cruise deposits I'll be moving out of 2021 when things settle down and probably not booking anything firm for a few years. It can always be moved back to a solid booking if something appeals. It was easy for me to decide refund rather than FCC even if the cruise line is operating in a few years. "Making" 25% on something you can't easily pull out of for one to two years "investment" isn't my idea of a good investment in this price range. Good luck trying to get FCC converted to a cash refund later this year if the company shows significant instability since it is taking the initial cancellation batch well over 30 business days to see a refund.

Even we opted to take 100% refund, since Mar 16, on an Apr 11 cruise canceled by Princess (the first voluntary suspension thru May 11, now extended to June 30), we are still waiting for the refund, AND the 25% reduced FCC for those who opted for full refund according to Cruise Critic forum. Those who opted for full FCC seem to get their FCCs much faster, for the same sailings...

Last I checked cruise critic forum a few days ago, none of the posters who opted for 100% refund have even seen their additional "incentive" FCC... let alone the $ refund, even for the canceled sailings in late March. Some posters have tens of thousands dollars at stake.

The cruise lines simply are hoarding cash for their survivals instead of paying back customers own money.

How confident are you of ever seeing that money?

We had a Viking river cruise scheduled for 5/2 which was cancelled in April and have already received our cash refund back to our CC.

While I do have faith in Viking surviving the pandemic, I have to admit that I am going to leave crowded environments out of my itinerary for the foreseeable future until better treatments are available to tackle the Covid mess.

I feel more confident to get back our money on the canceled cruise than the canceled intra-EU flights by Swiss Airlines. We had post cruise intra-EU flights from St. Petersburg to Nice via Zurich, then Nice back to Zurich. LX canceled the flights but of course LH group will not refund with Germany backs it by way of asking EU to bend the EU261 rules. Now 12 more countries joined in to ask EU261 suspended... So we basically write it off on the LX tickets.

But we believe we will see the money just that it will take much longer than normal time. On top of that we booked the cruise used Chase Ultimate Reward points, which means our payment is 33% off than if it is paid with our own credit card. It was a good move until of course the Pandemic happens. Had I paid with our own credit card I would have disputed the charge by now.

Princess said it would take 60 days from time the option choice was submitted, but based on the Cruise Critic DPs, it would probably be 90 days instead. I feel bad for those who have tied up tens of thousands - those people understandably are far more nervous, especially many people are not that comfortable to resume cruise any time soon. Frankly unless there are proven vaccines available, personally we think cruises are completely out.

Even before all of this, it has always taken much longer to get cash back. We got our FCC from Princess but are still waiting for the refund of taxes, fees, and airfare. We haven't even gotten our FCC from Celebrity.

I have some AirNZ domestic non-refundable ticket credits being held from flights AirNZ cancelled. I may not be able to make use of it in the next two years. I'd actually prefer to donate the credit to a NZ charity/good works at this point except it is non-transferrable. AirNZ Chief Revenue Officer has been fairly transparent and accessible on twitter so I'll prob. pm. NZ will go to level 2 which allows travel at some point and may have a travel bubble with AU later this year.

That's +1 for Viking. Viking Ocean cancelled their cruises fairly early and ships are registered in Norway instead flag of convenience, afaik. Will need to look up how their staff was repatriated and treated during this. I'm not really into cancel culture but I do vote with my money. The very early payment in full (not sure if that is still a thing) is a bit annoying for a cruise booked far out and they seem to have gotten better at disaster recovery due to necessity.

I am waiting on Celebrity to refund for a 4/1 cruise which was submitted for refund 3/17. Original estimate was 30 days but Cruise Critic roll call member called and was told some time in May? No communication from Celebrity on the revised cruise date. I'll probably call them next week to get the revised v2 date.

When was your canceled cruise? Did you opt for Option 1, i.e. 100% FCC with higher incentive FCC?

Just spent some time went over the last 5 or 6 pages on the Princess refund thread on Cruise Critics. It seems nobody opted for 100% refund on the first pause of operation has received any money, i,e, from Mar 12 onward. Many reports on successful chargebacks with different banks. Had I not booked with Chase UR points I would have filed charge back after 30 days no words from Princess. I really feel Princess has a PR disaster - Firstly almost all Sick Ships are Princess ships, from the Diamond to the Ruby which is now under criminal investigation, to Grand to Regal... RCL and Celebrity have not had these many cases at least not that I have read. Secondly they are extremely opaque and virtually no communication even to their own phone reps. The yard post of their refund process is constantly changed, as to when the clock starts on the 60 days ... Why they still play this stupid game when everyone can see that they are hoarding precious cash ? Be honest and tell the passengers that it will take longer than originally said, but we will get to it, eventually, once CCL's new financing is in place... Instead it is lies after lies after lies...

I cancelled a December cruise with Seabourn about six weeks ago. My TA said that Seabourn was saying that the refund would take two months. I have travel insurance with an independent company that covers financial default of the carrier. I also have Chase "insurance" as the deposit was charged to Chase cards.

My analysis is that there is no injury at this point under which an insurer would process a claim for damages. Seabourn is not in financial default and they have indicated a willingness to refund the money. So, I have not filed a claim.

Any thoughts about this analysis?

You have asked for your refund. We all know that CCL (which owns Seabourn) is in some financial turmoil at the present time, but it seems to have gotten enough financing to survive. However, it is going to be a slow refund process.

I had a Hilton reservation cancelled in the middle of March for $108 which is still going through the refund process 2 months later. So I think that everyone is slow on the rebound.

If you are concerned, I would probably give it to June before using an alternative method to recover your funds.

Our canceled Princess cruise was scheduled to start yesterday. We got the 150% FCC two or three weeks ago - we're just waiting for the taxes, airfare, and the original (now expired) FCD to be refunded.

Celebrity is slower, as we haven't even gotten the 125% FCC yet. That cruise was scheduled to depart two weeks ago.

Both cruises were canceled around the same time in March.

Do you mind to give the ship's name? or itinerary?

Seems the most recent FCC posted even for the Option 1, was only up to early April. Nobody who opts for Option 2 has ever seen their 25% incentive FCC posted, for cruises after Mar 12, the start of the first pause.
There is really no any discernible order to guess if there are any pecking orders.

As time went by more and more people turned to dispute with their banks on the charges - some of the amount tied up seem rather large per posted info, as in the amount of over several Tens of Thousands. So far all disputes are settled in cardmenbers favor. I suspect Princess would not contest those disputes as it has no ground to do so. However this also means whatever tactics it tried to conserve cash, does not work well because cash still being withdrawn, plus the penalty to pay on disputes, plus it may cause it to put up more collateral to payment processors as NCL alluded to in its latest 8K filing. In other words, tying up more cash, at the payment processor level.

You cannot use credit card dispute for service not rendered because you cancel the cruise, not the cruise line.

Chase "insurance" does not apply to your situation whatsoever. You may want to check the conditions on the Chase "insurance" on what are covered events - none apply to your scenario. Besides, financial default has specifically taken out from the covered event.

Your other insurance would not kick in until Seabourn default. That is probably your ONLY protection on the refund not materializes if it comes to that.

Also Seabourn is NOT making any refund on its canceled cruise - FCC is the only option. Wow.

Both Princess and Holland America at least offer the option to get 100% refund, with Holland America hides this option very well, and there is a June 1st deadline to submit your request.
Seabourn just flat out does not offer any refund. This makes Viking stands out in the luxury market going forward...

CCL itself, actually has issued refunds on canceled March and may even into April, sailings already.

I guess each brand under CCL is on its own when it comes to managing their cash needs. Seaboun obviously is the one has the most shortage of cash. Or it thinks its passengers would file credit card disputes anyway so not even bothers to play games.

While two months seems unreasonable, the fact is that six weeks have already gone by. At this point, it is unlikely that Seabourn will become insolvent in the next two weeks (and even if it did and sought bankruptcy protection, you would be covered through yout credit card). I would wait the two weeks. At eight weeks, go ahead and file a chargeback with your credit card and supply the documentation including the commitment to process a refund within 8 weeks. No reason to let it go longer than 8 weeks and it ought to all result in a temporary credit within 1-2 days and a permanent credit in short order.

Thanks for your insights. FYI, Seabourn has offered refunds, and has given a 60-day wait period on this. For what it is worth, there is a thread in Cruise Critic’s Seabourn forum in which someone has created a spreadsheet tracking refund times.

They should, because if they dont, guests on canceled cruises would simply file credit card charge backs. Banks seem to be at the positions of cardholders can file within 60 days after the service NOT rendered as scheduled. Many thought it was 60 days from transactions. Not so. I have seen successful disputes on travels paid in as early as last Oct thru Dec, for canceled travel in May and June. So 9 months since transactions.

Pleased and relieved to say that Oceania has kept their word and refunded the cash portion within 90 days though more than 60 . The bulk is still FCC as they refused to refund all in cash . Thanks too to our diligent TA .
We are supposed to be grateful to them for condescendingly giving the token cash after causing us loads of grief . Too much to explain / type . We are ( still ) cruising the same itinerary in the same category top suite sometime in late 2021 .
This , FYI , is contrary to what the President / CEO emailed when he claimed that our welfare is their utmost priority !!