Started October 12, 2018, Copyright 19952023 The Independent Traveler, Inc. Copyright 2000 - 2022 Travelers United | All Rights Reserved, US cities with easy downtown-to-airport transit connections, Please remove the pre-departure test of vaccinated travelers returning to USA, Stop Carnival Cruise Lines from illegally contaminating our oceans and air. Ditto if you purchased travel insurance through a third-party travel insurance company. I hope that Chase let's me see the actual response from Crystal- that might give me a clue as to what the problem is. I am being told that because I used FCC to book the Italycruise that I only have until 12/22 to use the FCC. Im singularly unimpressed. That triggered a debt default of $2.78 billion. Details per Confirmation # I am a financial creditor--because they owe me money. News on the go with access to our mobile apps including immersive storytelling. It's a member organization so if you are a member business, they will help your client settle. Welcome to Cruise Critic SteamboatWillie118. But the other commissioners have agreed with the reports conclusions and, after a period of public comment, the commission will make a final ruling on implementation. And, perhaps most important, refunds will be given (again, if applicable) using whatever monetary form you used to pay. I need to receive this refund as soon as possible or at a minimum know when I might receive this. When calling they say it is pending. Still other travelers money was held hostage by the cruise lines precarious finances. We booked our 1st cruise ever with Crystal Cruises. And BWIVincent- I will do the best I can to be absolutely clear but honestly- how much clearer can I be than you (Crystal) canceled my river cruise and now I want my money back? of Economic Opportunity, Crystal Cruises said that all 238 employees at Crystal's Miami headquarters had been let go, with the last employees leaving Feb. 9. King Day of Service with a great tour of civil rights landmarks. CRYSTAL CRUISES REFUSES TO REFUND DEPOSITS - SOME ADVICE - Crystal Cruises - Cruise Critic Community. Any former passengers with an existing claim against Crystal, those with reservations that havent been honored, and those with future reservations who think that the cruise line might come back to life, need to understand that it wont happen. (Complaints about individual cruises go to complaints@FMC.gov.). Just heard that Crystal is declining the refund on our river cruise due to sail on April 25. Getting your bank to refund your cash is often more difficult to obtain than obtaining a credit card chargeback. With a considerable balance in trust to repay Crystal customers for canceled cruises, as stated by Mr. Anderson, at least initially its unlikely that Moecher, acting on behalf of Crystals creditors, will fight the credit card chargebacks. And to repeat what has previously been mentioned, they are suspending payments to financial creditors, not to passengers. Adds Perl, With future cruise credits, it is uncertain if they are going to get their money back. #1 - 2256286 (myself & spouse) It did not seem like a clear-cut situation in terms of what was going to happen in the future. *In Canada, trademark(s) of the International Association of Better Business Bureaus, used under License. We emailed Crystal Cruises on the same day, April 2nd, asking for a 100% refund, Crystal Cruises Covid-19 related cancellation policy. Some consumers who have contacted us have $20,000 in future cruise vouchers. Great suggestion, will do! Each credit card company will make their own decisions based on customer requests.. Today is Day 104, still no refund. I gave Crystal 3 weeks and then I contacted the credit card company. I am now on day 120--and still no refund. If they violate that role while being wildly profitable, thats just as bad to me (and maybe worse) than the merchant that fails to deliver services during a crisis. Former Crystal president Jack Anderson said that Visa, Mastercard, and American Express were aggregately holding funds in excess of $100 million in trust for Crystal ticket refunds for their credit card customers. We booked a cruise with Crystal Cruise in April to tour Europe. The rule in the act says consumers have 60 days from the date the charge appears on their credit card to file dispute. For other methods of payment, obtaining a refund for your Crystal tickets may be more difficult. Followers. Understandably, our cruise was cancelled on April 2nd. Crystal said that after every refund is processed it will return to its published refund policy. The Mole has evolved over 20 years to facilitate interesting and relevant curated, easy to digest, content of all types, from a variety of channels, for travel industry professionals. There are a few people reporting here on CC that they have already received their actual refund- not a provisional one from the credit card company. Still, industry precedent is that some consumers have a good chance of getting their money back, Pestronk says. All Rights Reserved. Unfortunately, those customers will likely have a much more difficult task to obtain their ticket refunds from Crystal than the 75 percent of Crystal customers who paid by credit card. One year ago our cruise was canceled due to the COVID pandemic. SteamboatWillie118, March 9, 2021 in Crystal Cruises. We had already paid in full, so were relieved that Crystal Cruises promised customers a 100% refund within 90 days. But Chase refunded my final payment amount and I got it credited back to my account fairly quickly. After reading both of these posts, I opened a new CC topic to discuss FCC problems. State Department issued a DO NOT TRAVEL warning for Austria as well as Austria locking down due to COVID variant. Ten days later, Crystal cancelled the cruise. The point is: with deposits for travel, you can almost NEVER apply the dispute rule of 60 or 120 days after the charge, since travel is booked sometimes years ahead of time, especially for longer cruises. For example, if your sailing date was March 15, 2022, you have 120 days from that date to file your claim. None of us agreed to 90+ day wait for our refunds when we made our deposits. If you took the deal with Crystal, what you have now is a useless voucher. I suspect different banks may handle that differently if Crystal pressed a dispute of a chargeback. Unfortunately, in the case of Crystal, they seem to have very limited assets to liquidate to pay their bills. $10,592. I dont understand why anyone would give new bookings to Crystal (I know they are not taking new deposits) and possibly be throwing good money after bad. Her varied media career has taken her from McPherson, Kan., to Kansas City, Mo., San Bernardino, Salinas and L.A. Hamm has twice received individual Lowell Thomas Awards, and the Travel section has been recognized seven times during her tenure as editor. Crystal know this --they rely on passionate cruisers.It is like a Pontzi scheme, they take deposits on future cruises and slowly use these for the refunds that they should have refunded months ago. In my example, the merchant always had a 90 day window from day 1, though they could have set a longer window. We called customer service at XXX-XXX-XXXX and spoke with Associate Sheri who explained that because we were within (7) days of travel she could not assist us. Write to catharine@catharinehamm.com. This has been going back and forth for MONTHS and I just received this information yesterday. The total was $15,580.00 for 2 bookings w/2 passengers ***** Crystal cancelled our cruise & offered an alternate sailing which we declined due to concerns & CDC guidance around COVID. Some travel insurance policies have bankruptcy coverage. If your dispute falls within those dates (or before disembarkationdate and less than 540 days since charged) -- be sure to fight for your dispute if you get pushback. The line said it has refunded a total of $164 million to date and said it will complete 80% of outstanding commission payments by the end of April. We waited until Crystal cancelled our cruise (2 April 2020). But if Crystal just doesn't have the money, how can they refund you ? The 60-day limit for protection by a card company generally starts when the charge is made, but not every card company counts that in quite the same way. Crystal Cruises said it has refunded approximately 80% of fares owed for canceled 2020 cruises and more than 75% when including 2021 sailings through April. Having paid more than $20,000 . It MAY work to shortcut steps, but it can also come back to bite you in the rear and cost you big bucks or extra weeks/months. This is why I keep calling out the parts that are cardholder responsibilities. "We will be processing your refund." I have not been able to reconcile this amount to the cost of the trip and have asked their in-house sale rep for such a reconciliation many times, without success. Looking back I wish I would do it much sooner. I am at approx 150 days with another line. We fulfilled our obligations by paying the deposits and balance on time, but Crystal Cruises is not fulfilling theirs. *Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. I don't recall any "agreement" made between Crystal and their customers regarding this. It has been a year since I was told this and still have not received a refund. You will be able to leave a comment after signing in, By The booking number is XXXXXXX. The merchant actually pays for that service through their fees, so theyre doing their part to protect me even when they fail. I pay for every travel purchase, as well as my purchases of goods and services generally, by credit card. Discover the worldin comforton Viking ocean cruises to Scandinavia, Mediterranean, Asia, Australia, the Americas or around https://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Crystal-Cruises-says-it-has-repaid-80-percent-of-2020-refunds. At a minimum, cruise lines should commit that when a ship does not sail, customers will have choices in terms of compensation including the right to a full refund. CC Help Jenn )., Thats the word from the Federal Maritime Commission, a small federal agency that focuses on vessels and the ocean. Our booking number is BK XXXXXXX. See details. I am frustrated and throughly disappointed on how this entire situation unfolded. Here are the reasons I did not wait too long. Catharine Hamm is the former Travel editor for the Los Angeles Times and became a special contributor in June 2020. Its estimated that as many as 25 percent of Crystal customers paid for their cruise reservations by means other than credit cards. I'm sure Crystal is not the only company that is acting like this, but I think it is very unfortunate that Crystal is acting like an insolvent company without taking on the responsibilities of bankruptcy/reorganization proceedings. Crystals website now links directly to crystalcruiseclaims.com, which allows customers and travel agents to file a refund request. -Credit card company will only allow you to dispute (and charge back) charges that are within some defined time-frame (defined by the credit card companies and somewhat ill-defined since it has been modifying that policy without letting the customers knowthat's a topic for another discussion), so sooner you file for the dispute, more likely the charges are still not "too old.". I don't think it's that nefarious -- they should be receiving tens of thousands of chargebacks at this point, and the first means to triage that stuff (ESPECIALLY when you're short staffed, which I had the fun of experiencing in 2020) is to filter off the requests that come through with the wrong reason codes (which unfortunately happens a lot, because the bank CS agents may not be as careful or trained as they could be). I also endorse the suggestion to dispute the charges with the credit card company. It has been almost one year. Crystal acknowledged it would process the credit to our Amex, the original form of payment. My question is: Why,as a fully booked passenger on the Italy cruise, am I not afforded all the options the other passengers are receiving only because I used the FCC? I am not sure how there could possibly be an expectation to make our final payment (or how. If you are receiving this message, simply enter your email address to sign in or register if you are not. An assignee was appointed to take ownership of, sell, and disperse Crystal assets. Such a shame as they had a good product. Powered by Invision Community. LauraS Initially Crystal refused to provide a refund, only offering 'future cruise credit' with no incentive/bonus to bank the funds vs. taking a refund. If you purchased a travel insurance policy for your cruise, check to see if it has that covered. I have very limited vision into how much this varies because all the contract terms I've been privy to have had a lot in common and this could vary wildly by merchant company I imagine, but my clients have a 180 day window in which to set that refund period. Getting your money back if you have made a deposit or payment with Crystal Cruises for a future sailing may be trickydespite an estimated more than $100 million being held in secured reserve funds by various credit card companies. Travelers Unitedis a nonprofit tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization. We had disputed the charge with Chase, and they will continue the dispute. But as long as it is in progress I will assume that the resolution will be in my favor. Gentings shipbuilding unit based in Germany, MV Werften, announced it was insolvent in early January after rescue negotiations with the German government failed. All were hailed as best in their class. Great. If I don't cruise before 12/21 I forfeit the 25% bonus and need to cruise by 12/22 when all other passengers have the ability to use both until 12/23. Call Us; Text Us; Live Chat; Specials; How It Works; Groups; About; As they canceled sailings due to the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, all cruise lines urged customers to take future cruise credits, in lieu of refunds. Hence, Crystal is not only out of business, but they have few assets to pay bills. They might come in handy in the future. If Crystal is insolvent then to trade is a criminal offence. Your credit card company may be a friend, said Sam Kemmis, a travel rewards expert with NerdWallet.com, a personal finance website. Obtaining a refund for a bankrupt cruise line is no different than getting a refund from a bankrupt resort or airline. If Chase refiles it with the right code and points out the cruise is cancelled, that will also help the Chase agent shut down any further Crystal disputes too. 301 Route 17 N, Suite 1150, Rutherford, NJ CC Help Jenn My travel agent rang me today, she told me Crystal were querying the payments Amex had refunded One was for a cancelled river cruise and the other 6th April symphony cruise, both cancelled by Crystal. Stop Carnival Cruise Lines from illegally contaminating our oceans and air. I don't have a lot of faith in their "refund pending" email- an automatic response to all cancelations I suspect. I told my TAI will not request a refund (they said I was not able to receive because I used a FCC) but I believe I am entitled to all the other benefits all the others booked on the cruise were offered. I do not know any way a consumer is going to get the value of the vouchers unless it goes to bankruptcy court.. It took them only 5 days after I filed. I have never previously filed a complaint with you, but really need your prompt assistance with obtaining the money due me. See reviews and photos of the Fishing and Scalloping Trips in Crystal River. A lot of times this is just a matter of making things manageable -- they tell the banks that didn't file it properly to do their own work, get their stuff together, and resubmit it right so the merchant can address it efficiently. We paid Crystal Cruise Lines a net $12,414.00 in full by January 14, 2020 for a 12 day cruise Reservation/Booking number XXXXXXX to begin on 10/12/2020 and end on 10/23/2020. I also think it makes no sense to ask for FCC, even with the 25 % bonus, since we have no idea at this time when cruises with Crystal will begin again. That includes Crystal Cruises, part. This will ensure you fulfill the policys timing requirements. Windstar Knows the Way to the Middle East: How to Sell the Red Sea & Persian Gulf. If you choose to do business with this business, please let the business know that you contacted BBB for a BBB Business Profile. Started October 12, 2018, Copyright 19952023 The Independent Traveler, Inc. The CC dispute is intended to be for when a vendor does not live up to their obligations, not as an alternative path. Last month I was involved in several disputes on behalf of clients where the cardholder was trying to jump a 90-day refundwindow, and all we had to do was provide the card issuer with a copy of the notice the cardholder was given showing the 90 day window and the chargeback was declined. Refunds were promised within 90 days which did not occur. It is now mid September and we're told they are waiting for someone to hit the send button. It turned out to be a good premonition for us, says Perl. 5waldos, January 31, 2022 in Crystal Cruises. An yet there are still people making deposits for bookings in 2021, 22 and 23. Unfortunately, due to COVID, we postponed to January 2022. Theres also no direct transfer requirement the banks must fulfill. i strongly believe that filing a dispute with acredit company is the only way to get a refund from Crystal now. If Crystal is insolvent then it is illegal for them to trade. 19.2 FLIGHTS. I hope everyone with an outstanding Crystal reservation is able to get a full refund. As it relates to refunds, we continue working through our queue to address each guest's claim in the order it is received. My opinion is a credit card reserve account is for the benefit of the credit card company and not for the benefit of consumers, Pestronk says. 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April to tour Europe insurance policy for your Crystal tickets may be more difficult 15. 9, 2021 in Crystal Cruises REFUSES to refund deposits - some -. Italycruise that i only have until 12/22 to use the FCC apps including immersive storytelling bookings in 2021, and... Wait too long resolution will be able to get the value of Fishing. Always had a good chance of getting their money back, Pestronk says to trade is that some have. Get a refund request and they will continue the dispute with an outstanding Crystal reservation is to! Is that some consumers who have contacted us have $ 20,000 in future cruise credits it. Business Profile at a minimum know when i might receive this need your prompt assistance with obtaining money. See if it has that covered & Persian Gulf based on customer requests Today! # i am at approx 150 days with another line leave a comment after in! 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