According to an item in today's Washington Post, RSSC and Oceania reached an agreement with the Florida consumer affairs office to refund the fuel charges that were imposed after booking of the cruise. Sure enough, the agreement is on that office's website at http://myfloridalegal.com/webfiles.nsf/WF/MRAY-7NXM78//ClassicCruisesAVC.pdf

Item 6 in the agreement is the most relevant. I look forward to seeing the credit on the DC charges.

Interesting. That seems to say that I should get a refund for my December 2008 cruise, notwithstanding previous statements that cruises after a later date in December only would have their refunded. Hmm. Sounds good to me, if I'm reading it correctly!

The fine print says this applies only for cruises booked prior to 6 November 2007. Alas, our December/January Panama Canal cruise on Voyager was booked on 20 December 2007 so it will remain the last luxury cruise in the world that was charged a fuel surcharge (based on the fact that it sailed 29 December 2008 and by then all other cruise lines had eliminated fuel surcharges {if they had them to begin with} except Regent which eliminated them two days later!). The irony is that we should get a fuel surcharge rebate on our June Black Sea Cruise on Navigator where it was probably justified given the cost of fuel at that time, but not on the December/January cruise when fuel was selling for $2.00/gal (and, yes, I do understand that cruise lines lock in fuel costs in advance...but that should be their problem, not mine).

Yeh, I saw that date. We booked our trip in June 2007, so I guess we should be getting a refund. I wonder how proactive we have to be about this.

Thanks for the link. We booked our 5/27/08 Mariner Alaska cruise on 9/13/07, and paid a surcharge on 2/21/08. I guess we'll be getting the surcharge back.

Ngaire notified us that we'll get our fuel surcharge refund for the 4 segments of ROF as shipboard credit. It's a lot more than we plan for onboard spending but it's reedemable for cash so we don't have to load up in the botique.

As I understand it Regent will process refunds for all those eligible and no action is required on the part of the guests. If you have already sailed then I imagine it will be a check if you have a booking now with fuel surcharges applied they will be refunded via a shipboard credit, that credit is redeemable in cash. When those refund checks will be processed I have no idea.

I wonder what happens when you book one cruise with a fuel surcharge, but then cancel it and transfer the deposit and, for example, on-board booking credit and/or cancellation charges to another booking?

You would only get a refund if you actually PAID the fuel surcharge and you would have to sail to pay the fuel surcharges. Even if you cancelled in 100% penalty you always receive a refund for the port taxes and fuel surcharges.

The settlement requires the refunds be made within 90 days of the decree (2 Feb 2009), so you should have either a credit card credit or check NLT 3 May 2009.

NEW DEVELOPMENT: Chris Elliott's blog has a featured entry: "Florida Attorney General announces sellout “settlement” with Royal Caribbean" (emphasis added) see: [ Florida AG Sellout ]

It gets better. According to an earlier Elliott blog, A 1997 settlement agreement provides that the cruise lines could no longer charge customers any fees in addition to the advertised initial ticket price, except those fees actually passed on by the company to a government agency. No wonder the cruise lines settled! Not clear if this applied to Regent or Oceania, although the announcement of the settlement with them at least implies it does.

A year ago, again according to Elliott, a Coral Gables attorney had sued a couple of the offending cruise lines, contending they not only violated the earlier settlement agreement, but were also engaged in a conspiracy and in violation of the Sherman Anti-trust Act. If there was a conspiracy, and a crime was committed, is this a RICO matter as well? INTERESTING! See it here: [ Fuel Surcharge Lawsuit blog entry ]

I don't know how all of this turned out, but will look further. Meanwhile, has anyone received his or her fuel supplement checks from Regent or Oceania? We haven’t.

Just talked to Regent. They started processing refunds to credit cards last Friday. If card is still valid, they will credit card. If card has been cancelled, they will send check. I didn't ask how long they expect it to take to process all the refunds.

Check would be better as I will be losing 420 skymiles but it is probably easier not having to deal with a check.

This seems an odd choice by Regent, because there's no way to provide any explanation to customers. Only a small percentage of Regent customers read these message boards, so many don't know this is coming and will discover a credit on their credit card statement, with no explanation why it just showed up there, what it's for, how it was calculated, or anything. I'd think a letter would be needed -- and as long as they're sending a letter, wouldn't enclosing a check in the same envelope make more sense?

-- Eric

Yes, I too think this an odd approach, after all this time. In fact I'll end up with a credit on a credit card that I rarely use except for cruises. So it will sit there until something like September. Not a great deal of money I guess, but.

Hi Wendy

I've had a credit card company send a check when I've requested it to wipe out a credit balance. Hope that will work for you.

Cheers, Anne

Thanks Anne, good idea, especially if we end up cancelling our cruise in December.

Our fuel refund for a cruise last summer arrived today as a check by mail. Given the previous posts, I'm not sure why this wasn't just credited to the credit card we used (which is still active). Either way works for us.

The irony is that on this cruise, in July of last year, Regent was certainly paying premium prices for fuel. Our 2008-2009 Panama Canal cruise was running on cheap fuel and (for us) will always be remembered as the last cruise (anywhere) that Regent ran charging a fuel surcharge (this was the last sailing before the New Year when all such charges were eliminated/refunded). Thanks to the Florida Attourney General for making them back down on these early, not fully disclosed, fuel surcharges.

I got a check today.
Domer

I have not received a cheque yet for this. At least one other Canadian on CC has not received their refund either. They have gone as far as contacting the Florida Attorney General's office to find out if foreigners were excluded--they weren't. Any other Canadians waiting for their refunds? Or am I wrong and I don't qualify? Pretty sure I do. Small amount, but...

Wendy,

I assume the fuel surcharge was on your December 2008 PG cruise. As long as you booked that cruise prior to November 6, 2007 and as long as you actually paid the fuel surcharge with your final payment, your're entitled to a refund. As the Florida AG verified, the agreement between Regent and the AG makes no distinction between US and Canadian (or any other country's) citizens. I just don't understand Regent's stance on this issue.

I'm confident that B&K can intercede successfully on your behalf. Keep fighting the good fight. :D

Thanks Dave, the answers are "yes" and "yes".

Hate to bother these guys, but I guess you're right.