Tag Archives: refunds

Royal Caribbean Cancels Cruises Onboard Radiance of the Seas

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Royal Caribbean International is cancelling a second sailing onboard the Radiance of the Seas.

Facing propulsion problems, the 2001-built vessel remained docked in Seward since Sep. 1 and is no longer going to sail as scheduled on Sep. 8.

“As you may know, Radiance of the Seas’ propulsion system experienced a technical issue. Our crew started working on restoring the system immediately and we deployed the best experts,” Royal Caribbean said in a statement sent to booked guests.

“Despite our efforts, we were unable to complete the needed repairs to make it in time to Vancouver. As a result, we’ll be cancelling our Radiance of the Seas September 8th, 2023 sailing,” the company added.

Spending the summer in Alaska, the 2,000-guest vessel was scheduled to offer a seven-night cruise on that date.

Sailing from Vancouver to Seward, the open-jaw itinerary included visits to Juneau, Sitka, Skagway and Icy Strait Point, in addition to scenic cruising at the Hubbard Glacier.

“We know how much time and effort go into planning your cruise, and we’re truly sorry for this disappointing news,” Royal Caribbean said.

Affected passengers will receive a full refund of the fare paid for the cruise, in addition to a 100 per cent Future Cruise Credit (FCC) to be used towards a future sailing departing within one year.

The reimbursement will be processed within 14 business days, Royal Caribbean said and will include taxes and fees, pre-paid packages and gratuities, amenities, shore excursions and any flights purchased through the company.

Royal Caribbean will also reimburse guests for non-refundable pre-purchased travel fees incurred, including flight, hotel, train ticket or rental car. The company is set to cover up to $250 per guest for domestic changes or up to $500 per guest for international changes.

Citing propulsion problems, Royal Caribbean had already cancelled the Sep. 1 sailing onboard the Radiance of the Seas.

Iata: ‘Widespread use’ of vouchers will accelerate cash burn

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Iata: ‘Widespread use’ of vouchers will accelerate cash burn

The International Air Transport Association (Iata) has highlighted how the extensive use of refund vouchers will accelerate cash burn for airlines.

The association warned that the “widespread use” of vouchers in Europe is “one of the difficulties airlines will be facing as they are slowly moving towards restarting their operations”.

With the grounding of fleets in mid-March, as the pandemic crisis began to hit revenues, airlines opted to provide vouchers to passengers rather than immediate refunds.

“This proved useful in slowing down their cash burn and helped prevent bankruptcies,” reported Iata Economics in its latest Chart of the Week.

“However, airlines’ liability to transport these passengers was only deferred but did not disappear.

“A month after the easing of travel restrictions on intra-EU routes, we can already observe that passengers have used a large number of vouchers to pay for their travel.

“This means that airlines now incur the cost of transporting these passengers – against no or limited new revenues.

“Whilst the issuance of vouchers helped decelerate cash burn a few weeks ago, their use will now accelerate cash burn in the coming months.”

Iata also said the booking behaviour of passengers has changed “dramatically”, with 41% of global travellers booking up to three days before travel in June, compared to 18% last year.

“This makes it difficult for airlines to plan and optimise their schedules, crew and fleet,” said the association.

In April, Alexandre de Juniac, Iata’s director-general and chief executive, said airlines owed $35 billion for cancelled flights, so the use of refund vouchers would buy the industry “vital time to breathe”.

Last week, the Iata Economics chart showed how intra-Europe routes were leading the initial recovery in international flights after border restrictions were eased.

Most passengers were travelling to visit friends and family or going on holiday, rather than going on business trips.

P&O Cruises pledges to speed up refund payments

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P&O Cruises Announces Huge New Ship Coming in 2022!

The boss of P&O Cruises has pledged new technology and resources to speed up the payment of refunds for cancelled cruises.

President Paul Ludlow took to social media to outline measures the company is making to speed up the refund process.

The Facebook posting, which came after parent company Carnival UK confirmed staff consultation on redundancies after a pause in operations, had attracted 1,700 views as of Thursday morning.

Ludlow said he was “very aware of how imperative it is that those of you who opted for a refund, instead of an enhanced Future Cruise Credit, receive your money back as swiftly as possible”.

He added: “We are proud to be a travel company which is able to offer refunds but the impact of Covid-19 upon our business, your businesses, and all of our lives has been devastating, and therefore the complexity and scale of this task has been unprecedented for us.

“At P&O Cruises, we have had to adapt our ways of working very quickly as we set up new systems and all our colleagues began working from home.

“I understand that some of you see us as a big business ‘holding on to your money’ as some of our guests have been commenting publicly, but I assure you I am very aware of the financial constraints everyone is under at the moment and we are not delaying this intentionally.”

The first cruises were cancelled due to Covid-19 in the middle of March “and whilst we expected to process the first refunds sooner, we revised that to ‘up to 60 days’ when we realised the impact the pandemic was having on our wider business and teams,” Ludlow said.

“I know that ‘up to 60 days’ is not ideal and it is certainly not the service you would normally expect from us but sadly ‘normal’ has taken on a new meaning.

“In the past few weeks, despite the challenges, we have been able to put new technology and systems and also an additional resource in place which will result in more refunds being processed more quickly and I hope this will improve the situation daily. We will also be contacting all of you who have requested a refund.”

The line’s systems are also being amended to allow enhanced 125% FCCs to be able to be redeemed online without the need to call, with more details expected at the end of May.

Customers now have until the end of December 2021 to put their FCC against a booking for any holiday on sale during that period.

FCCs may now be used to upgrade or for a second cabin for any booking in 2021 or 2022 departure period currently on sale and may also be gifted or transferred to someone else.

“This option too will apply to further out departures as and when they go on sale, until as stated above, the end of December 2021,” Ludlow said.