#1 - 2256286 (myself & spouse) She was born in Syracuse, N.Y., to a peripatetic family whose stops included Washington, D.C.; Honolulu; and Manila. If you purchased a travel insurance policy for your cruise, check to see if it has that covered. 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. Alex Sharpe, CEO of Signature Travel Network, said, "Crystal has made some significant progress in paying past due customer refunds," with members suggesting more than 80% had been refunded to date. Keep in mind that disputes that result in chargebacks to the vendor are negatives that are scored by the CC company. Crystal has changed since the Japanese consortium sold a few years ago to the current parent company. Sorry, but its not a big fat check. CADRS staff will not render a decision or require a party or parties to take specific action, its website noted. I purchased a cruise from Crystal Cruises in the amount of $18,028. Your post probably should have been added to one already in existence. A friend of mine had his Regent refund in 7 days. The other card was through a credit union. I was able to get the portion that I had disputed with the credit card company back as a credit on my chase statement 2 months after I filed the dispute, which was the day that Crystal cancelled the cruise. Im singularly unimpressed. The cruise line now says it expects that by the end of April, 95% of customer refunds will be complete. Copyright 19952023 The Independent Traveler, Inc. Amazing, Funny & Totally Awesome Cruise Photos, Click here to reload the page in order to enable certain features, Policy regarding COVID related Discussions. Started October 12, 2018, Copyright 19952023 The Independent Traveler, Inc. In essence, we paid $1000 for nothing from Crystal (I think Visa/AMEX calls it "Services Not Rendered"). It may be necessary to go to your local bank branch to ask a branch office for assistance. Something about the timing of the cruise which makes no sense. In other words, if you paid cash, you get cash. I'm in the same boat, see my post in the FCC topic started by JIM9310. It was a last-ditch effort to protect consumers, travel agents, employees, and vendors owed money. BBB Business Profiles may not be reproduced for sales or promotional purposes. The dispute resolution isnt necessarily going to be automatic. We depart on 9/12/21 from Boston to Bermuda. 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. Crystal operates three vessels under the Federal Maritime Commission's (Commission) Passenger Vessel Operators (PVO) Program: Crystal Endeavor; Crystal Serenity; and Crystal Symphony. Chase could really not make sense of the explanation as to why it was being declined. We were scheduled for a 3/29 Sailing from Hong Kong to Singapore. Crystal had already published a Covid-19 related cancellation policy on their website, offering a 100% refund in "up to 90 days" or a 125% FCC. Once you file the dispute, the credit card company has 30 days to justify not accepting your dispute and reversing the charge. Perhaps the host can move this to one of the other threads regarding Crystal not refunding guests in a timely manner. Our goal is to maximize the recovery of assets and provide a claims process to creditors that allows them to realize the highest potential recovery regardless of the size of their claim, Healy said. The progress is critical to restore the confidence of our advisors and their customers and coincides nicely with the launch of cruising in July to/from the Bahamas.". Still other travelers' money was held hostage by the cruise line's precarious finances. Started August 27, 2021, By So sorry to hear this. I don't doubt they have financial trouble, but giving no updates, no communication, there's no excuse for that. I had to fight that as they originally said I only had until 12/21. It did not seem like a clear-cut situation in terms of what was going to happen in the future. Booking number #XXXXXXX In the names of ****** and ********* ******. The service, referred to as alternative dispute resolution, is free. Now it is May 7, 2025. LauraS Fortunately my clients have all been refunding inside the window though, so I don't have any firsthand experience with what would have happened next. Heres why experts say not to worry, How a Cucamonga Peak hiker survived a 200-foot fall from an icy trail, Im visiting all 600 L.A. spots on the National Register. Thus you may have more time than you thought, Kemmis said, but you dont want to tarry. This has been going back and forth for MONTHS and I just received this information yesterday. Please Read: COVID-related Discussion. Healy acknowledged Crystal Cruises has limited assets.. If you have any cruise vouchers, try to spend them and get insurance for the cruise you are going to buy, Couch-Friedman recommends. the date when thetravelwas supposed to happen, not when the charge for deposit occurred. If you took the deal with Crystal, what you have now is a useless voucher. The Federal Trade Commission is the place to explain your problem. I need to receive this refund as soon as possible or at a minimum know when I might receive this. Started June 21, 2021, By Crystal, as you said, should be issuing the refund. Chase told me they cannot help me with the initial deposit part, since the charges, which were made in early 2019, is outside of their window. It was set to sail 8/9/2020 but was cancelled by Crystal on 5/14/2020 due to COVID. Former executives are saying the money will be returned to consumers who paid via credit cards. They cancelled the cruise. Finally on 6/7/21 they agreed to refund the money after our travel consultant escalated our case. Airlines Refunds: DOT enforcement notice that all airline tickets canceled by the airlines must be repaid to include all airfare, taxes and added fees with cash not airline credits. And when asked as to a time frame as to when the money would be refunded. File a claim if it does. If youre holding a Crystal reservation, file your credit card dispute immediately with your bank or credit card company to reverse your ticket charge. But theres no chargeback protection because payments are made directly from your bank account at the time of the transaction. You will be able to leave a comment after signing in, By "We are unable to give you that information.". It is just so sad. Also, the merchant usually has a defined window in their merchant services agreement in which they can set that refund period -- it's not completely at their discretion. 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. Your best course of action is to file a credit card dispute. For those in the U.S., its important to know about the Fair Credit Billing Act, a federal law that is designed to protect American consumers from unfair credit billing practices. Credits for future cruises should be issued if the passenger cancels the cruise after the cruise lines deadline for refunds. The cruise line's parent company,. Her favorite place? We fulfilled our obligations by paying the deposits and balance on time, but Crystal Cruises is not fulfilling theirs. Copyright 2023 Northstar Travel Media, LLC. Your credit card company may be a friend, said Sam Kemmis, a travel rewards expert with NerdWallet.com, a personal finance website. You will be able to leave a comment after signing in, By But if Crystal just doesn't have the money, how can they refund you ? That triggered a debt default of $2.78 billion. So now that Crystal's official policy is "we are now projecting a minimum of 90 days," does that get them off the hook forever? I am at approx 150 days with another line. Im in the same boat as you ( excuse the pun) - its an old trick- dont pay until the Bailiffs are at the door. Crystals website now links directly to crystalcruiseclaims.com, which allows customers and travel agents to file a refund request. Denied boarding (bumping) compensation increased to a maximum of $1,550. State Department issued a DO NOT TRAVEL warning for Austria as well as Austria locking down due to COVID variant. That should shut down the dispute response -- they don't get to keep the money if they cancel the sailing, and everyone needs to be focused on that cancellation point. Crystal is not the only one having problems. Their actions should be known to the public. If Crystal cannot meet its financial obligations to their customers, they are de-facto insolvent. In the other thread there are people waiting almost a year. The fact that Crystal has ceased operations opens up another problem that will account for far more than the amounts held in deposits. Crystal canceled their trip and offered them two options: a full refund to be returned in 90 days or a voucher for future travel for 125% of the cost of their cruise. They don't seem to care about their customers. There is no clear pathway that we can set a consumer on who has a voucher.. We booked a cruise with Crystal Cruise in April to tour Europe. Washington, D.C.-based travel lawyer Mark Pestronk says it isnt quite that cut and dried. We were told it would be 90 days to get a refund. Passengers have 24 hours to change or cancel their nonrefundable tickets without penalty, Once airfare is purchased, that airfare and ancillary fees cannot be increased. "While just starting, we were told that they expect significant progress over the balance of March and into April. Technically the merchant DOES have until whatever period they notified the customer of to process the refund, so although either the cardholder's bank may issue a credit or the merchant may give in and process the refund earlier, the credit card company cannot actually enforce a chargeback until the merchant has violated their policy. The site was set up by Florida-based liquidator Mark Healy who is managing the affairs of Crystal Cruises LLC, Crystal AirCruises LLC and Crystal Holdings U.S. LLC. For some reason I couldn't post the link. Theres also no direct transfer requirement the banks must fulfill. Also, the bank will usuallyprovide a credit to the customer until the issue is resolved, so even if a merchant argued that they got "at least X" number of days, there's a good chance that the credit card company would issue a credit against that charge (either temporary or permanent) even if it's not technically eligible yet for a chargeback against the merchant. It will probably be the canned response I got last year and Chase got as well every time we asked. Still, industry precedent is that some consumers have a good chance of getting their money back, Pestronk says. I am now being told it could take months to receive the refund. Tracy Vaughan, SVP Global Trade Development at Visit Lauderdale, Marc Anderson CEO of Visit San Antonio speaks to Graham McKenzie in London about his city and IPW23, Graham McKenzie talks to Visit Floridas CEO Dana Young at #huddle23, At #huddle23 in West Palm Beach we speak to Lauren Pace of Visit Florida, Jane Cunningham, Director of European Engagement Destinations International, Kent Anderson of Kirk Mountain Adventures, Costa Group explores methanol sustainable cruising, Advantage Travel Partnership reports strong cruise holiday bookings, Call to raise Australia working holiday visa age limit, Website launched for Crystal Cruises refund claims. Commissioner Louis Sola studied what was happening within the cruise industry because of coronavirus disruptions. 194 total complaints in the last 3 years. Bookings Detail: After many years working in corporate America as a chemical engineer, executive and eventually CFO of a multinational manufacturer, Ned founded a tech consulting company and later restarted NSL Photography, his photography business. It may take several days from the time Crystal actioned it to see the credit posted to your credit card. Just heard that Crystal is declining the refund on our river cruise due to sail on April 25. When calling they say it is pending. 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. READ ALSO: I am a financial creditor--because they owe me money. Crystal has held a significant portion of this money since 2018. Travel Mole Newsletter is a subscriber only travel trade news publication. Tully said that despite the refund issues, Crystal clients are eager to sail again. Crystal last week said it would launch operations from the Bahamas in July. Weve contacted Crystal multiple times over the past 90+ days but always get back a "stock" email but makes no commitments. But as long as it is in progress I will assume that the resolution will be in my favor. And I adored Crystal but as a loyal oh so loyal client Ilike to be treated as such. It's not worth the risk. Here are the reasons I did not wait too long. Too many result in more funds being held by the CC company. Its the chance to be heard at a time when many companies arent listening. You should do tests on private browsing mode. Crystal did not say what those channels consist of. CC Help Jenn When products or services werent delivered as promised it comes into effect. Total per booking: Base rate per passenger ********* Tax $196.00 Total $3,895.00 per passenger Crystal acknowledged it would process the credit to our Amex, the original form of payment. Followers. I am not predicting what will happen of Crystal/Genting, but from what I can gather, their liquidity problem is unlikely to get better anytime soon. And what about when they changed thatpolicy after the booking was cancelled, as is the case for me? Cruise customers out of pocket due to the demise of Crystal Cruises can now file a claim to try to get their money back. It's not QUITE true that the refund period means nothing. Unfortunately, due to COVID, we postponed to January 2022. Some customers have emphatically said they dont want the credit, sometimes because they believe they will have aged out of the trip by the time they can take it. We waited patiently until the end of Aug, past the 90 Day mark. 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. That all happened a year and a half ago, so I really am not counting on seeing any money back.. If a cruise is canceled because of a governmental order or declaration, refunds must be issued within 180 days. Having paid more than $20,000 . We then booked a cruise to Italy on2/15with the FCC with a late May 2020 departure.. 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. Whatever is happening is not good for consumers, Couch-Friedman says. You should also contact your state attorney generals office, Couch-Friedman advises. That triggered a debt default of $2.78 billion. 2023, International Association of Better Business Bureaus, Inc., separately incorporated Better Business Bureau organizations in the US, Canada and Mexico and BBB Institute for Marketplace Trust, Inc. All rights reserved. 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. 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. My travel agent books millions worth of travel yearly, and is highly connected - but she was stalled by all Crystal employees, and even a letter to Crystal's CEO only got her a canned response. But I'm feeling very optimistic about everything as are our clients.". Share. Ten days later, Crystal cancelled the cruise. Sounds like Crystal responded to your dispute in record time. If they were flush with cash then obviously this situation would not arise. CC Help Jenn Given the new COVID situation, we decided to cancel on 2/7 when they changed the departing port from Hong Kong to Taipai. 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