When we need to issue a refund and the credit card account used for form of payment has been closed, we have the credit card company send the customer a check.

It know it can be done because I had to do it for my sister in law.

I agree… and disagree with your comments:

“I would have also asked your travel agent to intervene on your behalf. Agents are paid a generous commission to book cruises, so they’re supposed to help you with issues like long overdue refunds.”

Having someone in your corner, who deals with the cruise lines on a regular basis and knows how to get things done, is absolutely a benefit. And one more reason why passengers should work with an experienced travel agent rather than book and deal with the cruise line directly.

However, it is absolutely not true that the cruise lines are paying a generous commission. That is a fallicy, and as someone as involved as you are in the travel business, I’d expect you to know better and not populate that myth.

Most of the survivors in the greatly dwindling travel industry are still here because we love what we do. And most of us are only barely compensated, especially in relation to how hard we work for our clients.

Wanna correct that generous commission line??

Thanks.

Cindy Clifford
Gotta Go Cruises

I think this is the proper venue given then generally recognized difficulties in getting refunds for travel purchased.

The fact that a refund should be sent back to the original credit card doesn’t begin to justify not making a refund if the original card is not available. Cards get lost, stolen, cancelled, etc. all the time.

If the original card is not available, there are always alternative arrangements, which should not include a useless credit.

Now the other scenario is whether the person has paid the credit card charge already (over one or a few billing cycles). If so, then a cash refund is due but there is hardly any way to confirm such a thing as seller doesn’t have access to that transaction. Generally credit cards do not issue cash/checks of such refunds on purchases. They would simply apply the refund credit to the future transactions. I believe the problem remains to be dealt on with some financial blog and not the travel blog. May be Chris can help up find one of those too :)

Now this case is a little different because the original charge was quite a while ago and the card used was cancelled, causing all sorts of added complications. But no, Princess should not in general have to process the refund in any way the customer wants – if you paid by credit card it goes back to the card. Aside from special circumstances like this why should people think that they’re exempt from standard policy?