Coronavirus - Travel impacts II

[Chuckanut]

My latest fiasco involving a refund is this...

The NP concessionaire claims they refunded my deposit to my CC a few days after I cancelled the reservation. However, the bank that issued the CC has no record of receiving the refund. So... Another disputed charge.

I try to be nice to the employees as I see them as another victim of the the incompetence of company management. There are so many obvious screw ups in how my reservations were handled starting with their computer simply losing them. Poof! They're gone! Along with my deposit.

 

[Sunset]

Well my refund from Princess took a bizarre turn.

I was trying to get a refund of approx $5K.
Since Costco had told me 110 days ago, it would take 3-10 biz days for the refund, after about a month I disputed the last payment with my CC. To at least ensure I got about $4.6K back.

I have been waiting but nothing.

Yesterday I phone Costco, after 1.5 hours on the phone with the TA, who then phones Princess, the Costco agent tells me she is ending her shift and will go home. She assures me someone else from Costco will phone me to follow up.

A few hours later, the phone rings and it is Costco. New TA tells me when I disputed the charge, Princess got their booking screwed up, and thought I owed them $300

Supposedly Princess accounting will wipe the $300 false charge, and then they can work on refunding me.

I'm supposed to get another phone call from Costco on Friday

 

[ivinsfan]

My latest fiasco involving a refund is this...

The NP concessionaire claims they refunded my deposit to my CC a few days after I cancelled the reservation. However, the bank that issued the CC has no record of receiving the refund. So... Another disputed charge.

I try to be nice to the employees as I see them as another victim of the the incompetence of company management. There are so many obvious screw ups in how my reservations were handled starting with their computer simply losing them. Poof! They're gone! Along with my deposit.

These NP people somehow got a sweetheart deal operating park properties and obviously have a monopoly. The almost never rehab or upgrade things, charge an arm and a leg and make a ton of money..they don't care much about anything else.

I dealt with them once over 10 years ago and that will be the one and only for me. good luck you'll need it.

 

[Chuckanut]

These NP people somehow got a sweetheart operating park properties and obviously have a monopoly. The almost never rehab or upgrade things, charge an arm and a leg and make a ton of money..they don't care much about anything else.

I dealt with them once over 10 years ago and that will be the one on only for me. good luck you'll need it.

The sad thing is that in some National Parks if you don't want to stay a long drive away and have to wait in line at the Entrance Station every morning, you have no choice but to book an in-the-park room.

 

[Gearhead Jim]

My latest fiasco involving a refund is this...

The NP concessionaire claims they refunded my deposit to my CC a few days after I cancelled the reservation. However, the bank that issued the CC has no record of receiving the refund. So... Another disputed charge.

I try to be nice to the employees as I see them as another victim of the the incompetence of company management. There are so many obvious screw ups in how my reservations were handled starting with their computer simply losing them. Poof! They're gone! Along with my deposit.

I have found two different ways to book a reservation at a NP hotel.
One way is through the hotel itself, by phone or their website, which is indeed run by a concessionaire. We've had good experiences doing that, including changing or cancelling reservations (pre-covid). The "shabby property-high prices" problem is still there, but that's another story.

The other way is through an organization which has an official sounding name and official looking website, but is actually just an outside booking agency. Their work had the reputation of something between gross incompetence and outright thievery. Not sure if they still exist. Hopefully, you aren't dealing with them.

 

[Chuckanut]

The other way is through an organization which has an official sounding name and official looking website, but is actually just an outside booking agency. Their work had the reputation of something between gross incompetence and outright thievery. Not sure if they still exist. Hopefully, you aren't dealing with them.

No. I booked through their official website.

One of the problems is that they had computer problems and somehow my reservations were altered or deleted in some way. However my latest complaint is about a reservation is simply that it was properly cancelled but the refund they claim to have sent never showed up on my CC statement. Not so good.

 

[tulak]

Well, it looks like I'm not fully whole from my cancelled trip to Europe in May. I had bought tickets for hockey world championship last November. It took IIHF a long time to cancel the event and even longer to decide to reimburse ticket holders. I decided to dispute the charge in early April. Apparently I waited too long, because my dispute was resolved with:

We needed your letter within 60 days from the date of the first statement on which the disputed transaction appeared. We are unable to issue credit because you contacted us after this time frame. Please contact the merchant directly if you wish to pursue this dispute further.

This is using the Citi Costco card. Not sure if I would have had better luck with another credit card. I know by law, you only have 60 days to dispute a charge, so no fault on Citi's part, even though it would be nice if they didn't wait 3 months to respond, especially since they weren't going to do anything anyways. Of course, by law, they have up to 90 days to respond. Well played Citi. Not impressed.

Fortunately, IIHF and the ticketing agency is working on reimbursing ticket holders, so I should eventually get this money back. But they are taking their sweet time.

 

[tmm99]

Were your flights to/from the U.S? If so, you can file a complaint with the Dept of Transportation. I've read that Air Canada is denying refunds, which is apparently allowed in Canada, but is a violation in the U.S. and they have to follow U.S. regulations for flights that land or take off here. They don't seem to care right now, but if enough complaints stack up at the DoT they'll be facing fines and other penalties, and that might shake loose some refunds for passengers with U.S. destinations.

Nah, no US involved. It's from Toronto to Japan. The credit is valid for 2 years.

 

[ivinsfan]

Well, it looks like I'm not fully whole from my cancelled trip to Europe in May. I had bought tickets for hockey world championship last November. It took IIHF a long time to cancel the event and even longer to decide to reimburse ticket holders. I decided to dispute the charge in early April. Apparently I waited too long, because my dispute was resolved with:



This is using the Citi Costco card. Not sure if I would have had better luck with another credit card. I know by law, you only have 60 days to dispute a charge, so no fault on Citi's part, even though it would be nice if they didn't wait 3 months to respond, especially since they weren't going to do anything anyways. Of course, by law, they have up to 90 days to respond. Well played Citi. Not impressed.

Fortunately, IIHF and the ticketing agency is working on reimbursing ticket holders, so I should eventually get this money back. But they are taking their sweet time.

they are saying the issue is now between you and the venue that cancelled the event...I don't think that is unreasonable...you are talking 6 months after you made the charge.

 

[tulak]

they are saying the issue is now between you and the venue that cancelled the event...I don't think that is unreasonable...you are talking 6 months after you made the charge.

Yep, and I think that’s fair. But why take the full 90 days to tell me? Why not immediately deny the dispute if it’s 60 days after the billing statement with the charge?

Maybe they had to review the charge before denying it, but I would think this is something that could be automated.

I am curious to know if anyone has success disputing a transaction after 60 days or is this strictly enforced by all credit card companies?

 

[ivinsfan]

Yep, and I think that’s fair. But why take the full 90 days to tell me? Why not immediately deny the dispute if it’s 60 days after the billing statement with the charge?

Maybe they had to review the charge before denying it, but I would think this is something that could be automated.

I am curious to know if anyone has success disputing a transaction after 60 days or is this strictly enforced by all credit card companies?

I imagine disputed charges are many and they aren't running at normal capacity..just ask people trying to get money back from Costco travel...

maybe their computers are smoking.. you should get your money back anyway, that's the important thing.

 

[braumeister]

I imagine disputed charges are many and they aren't running at normal capacity.

Yes, many companies are still running on reduced staffs with a lot of the employees (who are left) working from home. They can't possibly be as efficient in processing things like refunds as they used to be.

I had to wait nearly three months for a refund recently, but it eventually showed up.

 

[SpinDoctorTX]

I try to be nice to the employees as I see them as another victim of the the incompetence of company management. There are so many obvious screw ups in how my reservations were handled starting with their computer simply losing them. Poof! They're gone! Along with my deposit.

I'm that way with CSAs- I was on the floor with them for a long time. It's a very stressful job for no a big salary. I'm usually really nice but persistent. DH, however, can be a real bear when he's frustrated, so they are a little afraid of him. My problems are usually resolved to my satisfaction in a month or two. Wishing all of us good luck!

Well played Citi. Not impressed.

We complained in late April or May for a trip booked in February. Chase likes us a lot. and they usually resolve things in our favor. I hope it sticks.

We'll never go through a reseller again for travel.

 

[samm]

I just got a letter from Overseas Adventure Travel- I'm getting a credit of $5,800 (a bit more than I expected) plus an additional $500 "just because", all valid through 2022. I know that their domiciliary state requires cash refunds and I could insist, and that I'm gambling that they'll still be around, but I'm taking it.

Why take a gamble that has "negative expected value"?

I would take the Money! A friend got tricked once to voluntarily accept a voucher that was worthless before redeemed.

 

[harllee]

For those of you accepting a voucher rather than cash--aren't you afraid the business issuing the voucher will go bankrupt?

 

[explanade]

For those of you accepting a voucher rather than cash--aren't you afraid the business issuing the voucher will go bankrupt?

That may be but in many cases, I didn't have a choice as many were nonrefundable hotel bookings.

I'm also having problems with European airlines, none of whom are refunding money.

 

[ivinsfan]

For those of you accepting a voucher rather than cash--aren't you afraid the business issuing the voucher will go bankrupt?

Or maybe they won't feel like overseas travel for a very long time. No doubt everyone, everywhere is not going to be 100% made right over Corona travel issues..that isn't feasible.

 

[athena53]

For those of you accepting a voucher rather than cash--aren't you afraid the business issuing the voucher will go bankrupt?

Yes, especially in the case of Overseas Adventure Travel- I figure airlines will merge rather than disappear and the merged entity will probably honor the IOU eventually.

I REALLY like OAT. It's owned by the couple who founded it and it's one of the two companies that I consider most ethical and most in sync with my travel values (the other being UnCruise). I really want them to pull through this and I'm willing to take a chance on them.

 

[EveryLady]

I should really take the time to write a complimentary note about booking.com. We had nonrefundable reservations for an Icelandic hotel that the hotel declined to refund. Held off on accepting their one-year voucher offer. Iceland pushed back its reopening date to after the reservation date.

Booking.com reached out to us. Offered to process a refund. Asked for some basic payment documentation. Contacted the hotel. Got the refund within days and let me put it on my credit-card-of-choice. I did have to contact Booking.com a couple of times with questions. Superb customer service.

Icelandic Air still is processing the air refund. It initially said might take to the end of the summer. No problem. The airline just sent a long e-mail apologizing for the delay that explained its manual process. Icelandic Air had been prioritizing refunds by date of application but now is changing to date of flight.

 

[tulak]

I'm also having problems with European airlines, none of whom are refunding money.

I've had the opposite experience. All of my European airline flights were reimbursed, even though it did take a little while for some of them.

The quickest were British Airways and LOT. I booked these flights using Chase points and called Chase to get reimbursed. No issues, immediate credit back (points in this case).

The longest were Norwegian Air and EasyJet. Both of these took 2-3 months to get a refund. These were all for flights in May.

 

[braumeister]

I've had the opposite experience. All of my European airline flights were reimbursed, even though it did take a little while for some of them.

Consider yourself lucky. Lufthansa wouldn't even consider giving me a refund beyond their measly 5%.

 

[tulak]

Consider yourself lucky. Lufthansa wouldn't even consider giving me a refund beyond their measly 5%.

I thought the EU was requiring all airlines to refund plane tickets for cancelled flights? Or was the flight not cancelled?

And yes, I do feel lucky that I got all my money back. I wasn’t counting on that, especially with Norwegian.

 

[braumeister]

I thought the EU was requiring all airlines to refund plane tickets for cancelled flights? Or was the flight not cancelled?

I don't know if it was cancelled, but probably not. It was a flight from Venice to Munich, a followup to our planned two weeks in Italy. I canceled it in March when our Italian trip was canceled. So I can't really blame Lufthansa; they were following their standard rules. It was just very frustrating. Same thing for a hotel we had booked in Germany (prepaid).

But if nothing else, I learned a valuable lesson for the future about always making reservations that can definitely be canceled without prejudice.

 

[tulak]

That is unfortunate. I was “lucky” that all of my flights were cancelled. Even though I would have preferred to take the trip!

I hope you’re not out too much. In my case, the flights were cheap and even if I wasn’t refunded, it wouldn’t have been a big deal.

I’m not sure if I would pay more for refundable tickets, but this experience has definitely made me biased towards companies that treat their customers better.

 

[braumeister]

The truth is that I feel incredibly lucky. We did three bucket list trips last year (talk about blowing the dough!). A week in Norway to see the Northern Lights, a month in Ireland, and two weeks in Antarctica. They were all incredible (obviously) and had been on my list for many, many years. We were able to get good deals on all of them, and had so many fabulous experiences.

I had been a little concerned about doing three big trips in the same year, but since we were able to get good deals we went ahead anyway. This year we had planned the Italy/Germany trip, but then COVID19 struck and I feel so fortunate that we were able to do the other three last year. Italy and Germany will still be there when we're able to travel normally again.