By Christopher Elliott | Travel Troubleshooter
Q: I booked an 11-day coastal cruise on the Majestic Princess from Seattle to San Diego. I made the reservation online and gave Princess my credit card information for the fare and travel insurance.
Princess confirmed my booking, charging my card for the fare but not the insurance. The next day, I received a “shortfall notice” that the travel insurance charge must be paid by the end of the day. Since it was 10 p.m., I called the provided number, but only reached voicemail with no option to leave a message.
At 12:24 a.m. the next morning, I received a “cancellation notification.” When I called Princess, a representative said the reservation was canceled and couldn’t be reinstated. Princess also charged me a $3,718 cancellation fee.
I disputed the fare charge with my credit card company, but Princess contested the chargeback. Can you help me get this fee removed? — Douglas Berry, Sumner, Wash.
A: Princess Cruise Lines shouldn’t have canceled your reservation and charged you a cancellation fee. I think you did everything right by providing your credit card information for both the fare and the insurance. It seems their system failed to process the insurance payment. That’s not your fault.
You followed the instructions in the shortfall notice but were unable to reach anyone because the cruise line’s office was closed. It’s unacceptable for the cruise line to cancel your reservation just a few hours later, without giving you the chance to rectify the situation.
When you disputed the charge with your credit card company, Princess unfairly contested the reversal, claiming you had canceled the reservation. How absurd.
What went wrong? It looks like Princess was trying to process your card but couldn’t. Credit cards use sophisticated but fallible fraud detection algorithms to pick up any problematic charges. It’s possible that your credit card allowed the first Princess charge but blocked the second one, believing it was fraudulent. You can ensure that doesn’t happen by calling your bank to let them know that you’re about to make a big purchase that could potentially get flagged.
You could have appealed to a manager at Princess. I have a list of contacts for Princess Cruise Lines executives on my website, Elliott.org.
I contacted Princess Cruises on your behalf and it agreed to waive the cancellation fees and refund your money.
So what happened? Although the cruise line wouldn’t tell me, you heard from a representative who offered you a few details. “When they finally looked at what happened with our reservation, it was obvious the problem was their automated reservation system,” you told me.
It’s a shame that it took my intervention to get Princess Cruises to do the right thing. If this ever happens to you, don’t accept a cancellation fee. Escalate your case to a supervisor or executive and stay with it until they return your money.
Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy, a nonprofit organization that helps consumers solve their problems. Email him at [email protected] or get help by contacting him on his site.
