in this case
- Robert Battaglia booked a $2,369 Panama Canal cruise on Princess through a travel agent, paid his final balance a day before it was due, and then watched the reservation vanish from the app two days later.
- Princess said he was in default and owed about $2,000 more. The mystery charge turned out to be a Princess Plus upgrade his wife had tried to add online, only for the site to report the purchase failed and tell her to handle it later.
- Princess canceled the booking and kept $1,298 as a cancellation fee, even though his account showed no balance due and his agent could see no pending charge, which raises a basic question about who carries the burden when a company’s own system gives conflicting answers.
Robert Battaglia books a Panama Canal cruise through a travel agent for $2,369, pays his bill on time, but then watches his booking disappear two days later. Princess claims he owes the cruise line money. Can he salvage his vacation?
Question
I paid $2,369 for a Panama Canal cruise with Princess Cruises through a travel agent last year. My wife Norma and I made a deposit and then paid the final balance one day before the due date.
Two days later, I checked my account on the Princess app and the reservation was gone.
When our travel agent called Princess, a customer service representative told her we were in default for nonpayment and owed approximately $2,000 more. Where was this new $2,000 charge coming from? Nobody at Princess could tell us.
After weeks of calls and emails to various Princess representatives, including their director of customer relations and VP of guest services, the mystery finally unraveled. Apparently, we were being charged for a “Princess Plus” upgrade that cost $1,440 — a 62 percent price increase we never authorized and didn’t even know about.
It turns out my wife tried to upgrade to Princess Plus, an optional add-on package that bundles several onboard amenities into a single daily price, through the website. The system returned an error message saying the purchase didn’t go through and instructed her to either contact the travel agent or pay for the upgrade onboard. We followed the system’s advice and planned to handle it on the ship.
Yet somehow, Princess was now treating us as if we’d purchased this upgrade and never paid for it. They canceled our reservation and kept $1,298 of our money as a cancellation fee.
This feels less like a billing problem and more like a system failure that the company is exploiting. I’m a retired accountant. I know how computer systems work. When someone’s account shows “no balance due” and their travel agent can’t see a pending charge either, something is catastrophically wrong with Princess’s infrastructure. The company is hiding behind system failures they should have fixed.
We don’t even care about the cruise anymore. We just want our $1,298 back. — Robert Battaglia, Oro Valley, Ariz.
Answer
Princess should never have canceled your reservation. Full stop.
When your final payment went through, your account should have been settled. If the system later discovered a phantom charge that nobody could document or explain, Princess needed to contact you before taking action. Not after — before.
Instead, Princess relied on a billing system that gave conflicting information to different employees. Your travel agent couldn’t see the charge. The Princess customer service representative couldn’t explain what you supposedly owed. The company’s own portal told your wife the upgrade purchase failed. Yet somehow, all of this added up to a cancellation and a fee.
When a customer makes a payment by the due date and the company’s own statement shows “no balance due,” the burden is on the cruise line to explain any subsequent charges, before taking punitive action.
You did a great job of keeping records. A paper trail is essential when you’re dealing with any billing dispute.
You can appeal any rejection to the executive contacts at Princess Cruises listed on Elliott.org. A brief, firm email to a manager is the next step.
When my advocacy team and I contacted Princess on your behalf, the company directed us to your travel agent. That’s a common deflection in the cruise industry — many cruise lines prefer to have travel agents handle disputes rather than dealing with customers directly. The agency declined to comment, saying the matter was between you and Princess.
Ultimately, Princess agreed. A full three months after your cancellation, the cruise line refunded $1,298 to your credit card. Princess should tell its IT department to fix the billing software. This probably isn’t the first time the cruise line has canceled a reservation because of a system problem — and it surely won’t be the last.
Your voice matters
A paid-in-full reservation disappeared over a charge nobody at the company could explain, and the traveler lost nearly $1,300 in fees. The debate is over what a company should be required to do before it cancels on you.
- Should a company be legally required to notify you and let you respond before canceling a reservation you have already paid in full?
- Should a company be legally barred from charging a cancellation fee when its own billing system caused the problem?
- Should companies be legally required to honor the balance shown on your account, so a hidden charge cannot trigger a cancellation?
What you need to know about cruise cancellations and billing disputes
A cruise line canceled a fully paid reservation over a charge no one could explain. Here is how to protect your booking and your money when a billing system goes wrong.
It should not without warning. Once your final payment posts and your account shows no balance due, your booking should be settled. If the company later finds a charge it cannot document, it should contact you to resolve it before canceling, not after. Princess Plus is an optional add-on package that bundles several onboard amenities into a single daily price. It is meant to be a voluntary upgrade, so it should only appear on your bill if you actually completed and confirmed the purchase. Keep a screenshot of that error message. If the system tells you the purchase did not go through and to pay later or contact your agent, you should not then be billed as though you bought it. That error is key evidence the charge was never authorized. The company is. When a customer pays on time and the company’s own statement shows no balance due, the burden is on the business to explain any later charge before taking punitive action like a cancellation or a fee. It should not, and a fee tied to the company’s own error is worth disputing. Document that you paid in full and that neither you nor your travel agent could see the disputed charge, then challenge the fee directly and through your card issuer. Many cruise lines prefer to have travel agents handle disputes rather than dealing with customers directly. It is a common deflection, but it does not relieve the cruise line of responsibility for canceling a paid reservation in error. Build a timeline of every contact, then send a brief, firm email to an executive rather than repeating frontline calls. Our executive contact database can help, and here is how the consumer complaint process works.Can a cruise line cancel a reservation I have already paid in full?
What is Princess Plus and how does it get added to a booking?
What if the website says my upgrade purchase failed?
Who is responsible when a company’s billing system causes the problem?
Can a cruise line keep a cancellation fee for a cancellation it caused?
Why did the cruise line send me back to my travel agent?
How do I escalate a cruise billing dispute that stalls?
