To bring the video up, click on the link:
https://boo-k.com/cruise-ship-and-travel-news-a-giant-ponzi-scheme-cruise-refund-problems-are-mounting/
Honestly, if you have prepaid for a cruise right now, you’re so stupid you deserve to lose your money. There’s no chance that any cruises are happening this year. Maybe 2022, *if* any cruise companies survive...
The answer is simple: cash flow and float.Cruise lines know that if you cancel before they do, then you forfeit non-refundable deposits.
If they wait until after the final payment date to cancel, then you either have to cancel and give up the deposit, or make your final payment and tie up the money.
Once the cruise line eventually cancels the cruise, it could take up to six weeks to get a refund.
Bottom line: they get an interest-free two month loan from you, the customer, by not canceling the cruise until after the final payment date.
To make matters worse, I'm reading that the refunds are not coming in the same increments as the purchases.
The refunds are being separated into cabin purchase, excursion purchases, dining/drink package purchases, port fees, and other prepaid packages.
It's causing the customers to have to piece together their refunds to make sure they're being totally refunded the cost of their cruises. The cruise lines are stringing out the refunds piecemeal to hold onto the money for as long as legally possible.
-PJ
Clever trick. You buy an $8000 cruise and it’s cancelled. You get a seeming good deal, a $10000 credit. But the same cruise that was $8000 is now $14000. You have to pay up front, they cancel again and now you’re in for another 4k and you can’t get your original 8k back because all you have is a credit. They will get sued, but how enforceable will that be? And, did you read the fine print on the contract? Probably not. I’ll bet you are just out the money.
Now, why are they doing that? My guess is they have already spent the money and those ships are burning through actual cash every day whether they are earning money or not. If that cash stops, likely, countries will start impounding the ships. The cruise companies are most likely in the condition where they either steal your money, which there’s nothing you can do about, or they go bankrupt. So, they’re taking your money.
The cruise business only worked under certain circumstances, which were perfect for decades. But times have changed and likely, the cruise business as we have known it is now not a viable business model. If inflation kicks in like in the late seventies under Carter...*cough, Biden* you will pay your X-thousand dollars and then owe another several grand by the time you sail, or no sailing for you. That’s because the real costs went up. And, there will be a fine print clause nobody reads saying you’ll owe the extra. People will get mad, but the reality is, the cruise lines have to do what the cruise lines have to do. And, they’ll probably mostly be gone in five years no matter what.
It would be a damn shame if their moorling lines came loose in the middle of the next stormy night.
They don’t give refunds.
They give credits.
Don’t believe all this crap! We had 7 cruises cancelled and got ALL of our money back within a couple of months.
We had a cruise booked with NCL in May 2020 and when it cancelled they said they would only give us a credit because of the way we booked it. I ended up disputing the charge with AMEX and got the money back.
I know they had a lot going on but after that if we ever consider another cruise it won’t be with them.
These are usually people who did not use a credit card...my refunds were back on my card in days...
The Cruise lines are hoping to resume some operations this Spring and Summer.