Coronavirus - Travel impacts II

[JoeWras]

I'm pretty much sour on all large upfront fee travel right now. Also sour on insurance.

May have to find another way to Blow That Dough, if there is any left. I'll consult Robbie as needed.

 

[Sunset]

Your travel agent is supposed to pass your CC info to the cruise line and they are supposed to charge you directly. If you ever have a travel agent that charges your card instead of having the travel provider charge it, that's a huge red flag. All that is just to say that yes, it is indeed Princess who charged your card and who now has your money.

It is also true that once you book through a travel agent, you can't call the cruise line directly and speak to someone there. The booking belongs to the TA and they are the only ones that the cruise line will speak with. I'm surprised that they were willing to discuss their cancellation policy with you at all.

So what should you do now? I'd go ahead and file the dispute with your credit card. Make sure you have a copy of the policy that was in effect at the time you cancelled and be prepared to send that in. You may not win this dispute though, especially if Princess has not cancelled the cruise and they're following their current policy for refunds, so you might end up having to wait out the 60 days anyway.

The risk of filing a dispute on a charge that's already been promised for refund is that you can get a double refund as the CC company refunds and then the cruise line refunds and the notifications going back and forth end up crossing. If that happens, the CC company can freeze your card while they untangle things on their end, and it will take them a lot longer than you will think it should. Also, some companies refuse all future business from people who file CC disputes. I don't know if Carnival/Princess is one of them, but I have definitely heard of rental car companies that will put you on a "do not rent" list if you dispute what they consider to be valid charges. A potential ban on future cruising might not be that big a negative for you, so consider it or not as you wish.

Thanks for you excellent explanation.

I have used the "wayback machine" to see and print a copy of the cancellation policy the day before I cancelled, while it does not mention CC refund time limits, it does say their FCC (which I'm not concerned about too much) will show up in 10 days. Of course it has not.

If I get a double refund, of course I'll notify the CC and Princess to take back the correct amount, so that does not worry me too much as I have lots of credit cards I can use, if one is frozen.

Being banned by Princess, would suck if the entire CCL company banned me, but we could still live with the other choices for cruise lines.

I do imagine, since the dispute is not the entire refund, it will complicate things a bit and I'll need to watch the dollar amounts carefully.

AirBnb which must also be getting slammed with cancellations processed my refund in 2 days.

So I've decided, to dispute the charge, as Princess has processed my cancellation (it shows to Princess rep as cancelled) 16 days ago, and they are holding onto my money far beyond normal processing times.

I'll wait until next week, in case my refund shows up in the next few days.

 

[Teacher Terry]

As much as we love cruises not sure if I will ever go on another.

 

[Trooper]

For myself, I was tremendously impressed by Tauck. We've never gone on a trip with them, but had one set up for May in Italy. As soon as they put Italy on the Level 3 list (no unnecessary travel) about a month ago, I called them to cancel. The response was "Of course. We'll issue a 100% refund immediately". I was also very impressed by Delta, which did exactly the same thing.

Thanks excellent, braumeister. I'm surprised that Delta provided a cash refund - had your flight been cancelled at the point you called them?

I'm so hesitant to call an airline right now - just can't bear the long wait times (real or imagined).

 

[fh2000]

As much as we love cruises not sure if I will ever go on another.

We were on Zaandam few months ago crossing thru Panama Canal. The staff told us their next 6 months assignment is to Southern America. I saw the news that they went to Argentina then found some people with COVID-19 and 4 deaths to-date. Now, it is still waiting at Florida coast waiting to have the passengers offloaded. I wish the 4 young musicians (3 violinists and 1 pianist) whom we enjoyed their classical music performance so much, can be safely go on land soon.

 

[NW-Bound]

The Zaandam was finally allowed to dock at Port Everglades. It was denied docking at all South American ports along the way from Buenos Aires. Earlier, there was even some fear that it could have been denied the transit through the Panama canal. How could it infect Panamians just going through the canal? The world is now seized with illogical fear.

Ships are also denied docking at Australian ports and turned away. There are 21 ships around the Australian coast, with tens of thousand of passengers.

 

[tulak]

I’m still waiting for Norwegian to cancel my May flights so I can get a refund. I also have a few EU flights booked. I should check if any of those have been cancelled.

I was supposed to be in Lausanne on May 11th to watch a couple of international hockey games (IIHF). They cancelled the tournament for this year over a week ago, but they haven’t decided how/if they are going to process refunds. I went ahead and disputed the charge on my credit card. I guess I’ll see how this pans out.

 

[fh2000]

The Zaandam was finally allowed to dock at Port Everglades. It was denied docking at all South American ports along the way from Buenos Aires. Earlier, there was even some fear that it could have been denied the transit through the Panama canal. How could it infect Panamians just going through the canal? The world is now seized with illogical fear.

Ships are also denied docking at Australian ports and turned away. There are 21 ships around the Australian coast, with tens of thousand of passengers.

There are places when the channel was so narrow the ship is just 2 feet from the channel bank. Captain would announce to the passengers they can reach out and touch the cement wall.

I know. Pure fear.

 

[athena53]

I'm so hesitant to call an airline right now - just can't bear the long wait times (real or imagined).

I was on hold to Delta for half an hour on Monday. Not great but manageable. Still waiting on the promised refunds, though.

 

[braumeister]

Thanks excellent, braumeister. I'm surprised that Delta provided a cash refund - had your flight been cancelled at the point you called them?

I'm so hesitant to call an airline right now - just can't bear the long wait times (real or imagined).

I really don't know if it had been cancelled. But they had put Italy on the Level 3 list, so I simply went online at Delta.com to cancel it. Got an email right away that they were processing it. I've always considered Delta a great airline to do business with.

 

[Dtail]

Just called AA. Got through after 3 minutes wait time. They conformed the flight to DR was cancelled.
Explained to me how to get the refund on line. It took 2 minutes per person and now have a 1200 refund coming in 7 business days.
Couldn't have been easier and I made it clear to compliment the rep.

 

[Chuckanut]

I cancelled several reservations we had made for Yosemite in April. Still waiting for the refund on 3 of the 4 rooms. The website says refunds will be made in 7 business days. I imagine the concessionaire is holding on to every dollar for as long as they can.

 

[Trooper]

We have an American flight to Florida departing next Thursday. According to FlightAware, it was cancelled 7 out of the last 10 days. How/when will we know our flight has been cancelled? Should I call AA now? I would rather have a refund than a credit.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

We have an American flight to Florida departing next Thursday. According to FlightAware, it was cancelled 7 out of the last 10 days. How/when will we know our flight has been cancelled? Should I call AA now? I would rather have a refund than a credit.

Probably not a bad idea. With the increasing number of travel restrictions, I think the cancellations will only increase.

 

[foxfirev5]

Good news. Delta is extending E Credits up to 2 years - May 31 2022.
https://www.delta.com/us/en/advisories/coronavirus-travel/overview

We were looking at burning a trip in the fall just to use our current credit by 12/31. Now it looks like we got a reprieve. However we do have another trip in the hopper for November. I guess we'll take it one trip at a time. No more long term travel plans for us.

 

[Independent]

Good news. Delta is extending E Credits up to 2 years - May 31 2022.
https://www.delta.com/us/en/advisories/coronavirus-travel/overview

We were looking at burning a trip in the fall just to use our current credit by 12/31. Now it looks like we got a reprieve. However we do have another trip in the hopper for November. I guess we'll take it one trip at a time. No more long term travel plans for us.

Thanks.
I thought I'd probably lose my credit. Another year helps a lot.

 

[Rianne]

I'm starting to feel very sad that we won't be able to travel anytime soon...maybe years? But grateful for the travel we had. Memories. But, if we wear our handy dandy N99 masks, why not? Gloves and masks, we can go anywhere, right?

 

[Ready]

I'm starting to feel very sad that we won't be able to travel anytime soon...maybe years? But grateful for the travel we had. Memories. But, if we wear our handy dandy N99 masks, why not? Gloves and masks, we can go anywhere, right?

There is nothing preventing you from traveling with your masks now. Roads are open. Planes are flying. Many hotels are still open for business.

But once you travel to your destination, what do you plan on doing? Restaurants are closed. Stores are closed. Parks are closed. No movies, no museums, no public attractions of any kind. And will you feel comfortable staying in a hotel where hundreds of other people have stayed in the same room? How much fun is travel right now under these conditions? Even if you had the virus and recovered and are now theoretically immune, it still would be a lousy time to travel with everything being closed. Why waste the money?

 

[Teacher Terry]

R, it is sad. It was very depressing to cancel the hotels for our month trip to Europe in August. We won’t be traveling for a long time.

 

[Sunset]

There is nothing preventing you from traveling with your masks now. Roads are open. Planes are flying. Many hotels are still open for business.

But once you travel to your destination, what do you plan on doing? Restaurants are closed. Stores are closed. Parks are closed. No movies, no museums, no public attractions of any kind. And will you feel comfortable staying in a hotel where hundreds of other people have stayed in the same room? How much fun is travel right now under these conditions? Even if you had the virus and recovered and are now theoretically immune, it still would be a lousy time to travel with everything being closed. Why waste the money?

Plus, in many places, once you arrive you have to stay in your hotel room for the first 14 days.

 

[Souschef]

We had no airline problems, as we were sailing out of LA. My sis and BIL were down in FL when they got the notice their cruise was cancelled. They have already received their refund from Princess. I am still waiting, but it has only been 30 days.

 

[sengsational]

Good news. Delta is extending E Credits up to 2 years - May 31 2022.

I would have been a lot less militant with that rescheduling deadline. Many airlines seem to have arbitrarily picked 12/31/2020, which was way too restrictive for me. Even so, why wouldn't you get the money back if you could? If you got a super good price on your ticket, maybe you don't think you could re-book the same itinerary for the same price. But with soft demand due to lingering virus concerns, I'd imagine prices would fall.

But once you travel to your destination, what do you plan on doing?

Agreed. The only option I see is if you had an RV and you wanted to boondock and spend time in the wilderness.

 

[Sunset]

We had no airline problems, as we were sailing out of LA. My sis and BIL were down in FL when they got the notice their cruise was cancelled. They have already received their refund from Princess. I am still waiting, but it has only been 30 days.

I cancelled my cruise 3 days before Princess changed their policy on March 20th to allow themselves 60-70 days to refund money. They told me it's retroactive

So today I filed a dispute with my CC company for the last payment I made which is about 90% of the refund amount, as 18 days have gone by.

Not paying a refund after cancelling in a reasonable time is one of the choices when disputing.

My AirBnB reservation refunded to the CC within a few days.

 

[Sunset]

I would have been a lot less militant with that rescheduling deadline. Many airlines seem to have arbitrarily picked 12/31/2020, which was way too restrictive for me. Even so, why wouldn't you get the money back if you could? If you got a super good price on your ticket, maybe you don't think you could re-book the same itinerary for the same price. But with soft demand due to lingering virus concerns, I'd imagine prices would fall.

.....

I just cancelled my AA trip, I can see on my account within an hour, my miles were put back , the representative told me they would be refunding my CC the $380 within 7 days.
The automatic email that came to me said it was a credit, but I'm thinking they just didn't update the form email, I'll see what happens in a while.

 

[ugeauxgirl]

My parents just cancelled the family vacation to lake Powell in June. They want to reschedule for next year which is fine. We're wondering if we should keep the tickets (to Vegas and back). Plenty of stuff to do in many directions. It's hard to know what life will look like in June. If everyone is still in lockdown, I guess the airlines will cancel them...