Six brands offer refunds for bookings prior to Nov 7. 01 APR 2008: Carnival Corp. has reached a voluntary agreement with Florida’s Attorney General to refund retroactively applied fuel supplements for six brands: Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Princess, Costa, Cunard and Seabourn.
The refund applies to bookings that were made prior to November 7, 2007 when the supplement was announced. The supplement remains in effect for bookings made on or after that date.
The amount of funds to be returned is a total of approximately US$40million. Carnival said today’s announcement will have no impact on first quarter financial results or its March 20 guidance for the second quarter or the full year since the company had not recognized the revenues made prior to November 7 pending the Attorney General’s review.
Refunds for affected guests will be implemented based on cruise departure date according to the following schedule:
• For cruises departing on or prior to April 4, 2008, guests will receive a refund in the same form they used to purchase their cruise.
• For cruises departing from April 5, 2008 through June 23, 2008, guests will receive an on-board credit.
• For cruises departing on or after June 24, 2008, guests’ bookings will be adjusted to remove the supplement.
Carnival noted that travel agents whose clients had existing reservations on November 7 were offered US$10 per booking in administrative compensation for notifying those clients. Agents will still receive the US$10 per booking.
The Florida Attorney General said more than 1.1 million bookings were affected. A similar settlement was reached last month with Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises, resulting in US$21 million in consumer reimbursement.
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