A family from Kentucky had their dream $15,000 vacation on a Carnival Cruise abruptly canceled two days before they were scheduled to leave due to an incident involving identity theft.
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In a series of TikTok videos, Tiffany Banks shared that she and her family had planned the trip over a year and had already made the full payment. However, she was shocked to discover that the trip was canceled after receiving an email about the cancellations of their off-ship excursions. Banks proceeded to contact customer service and learned that the booking for the Excel Presidential Suite, priced at $12,000, was canceled through an online system without her permission.
Carnival offered Banks two interior rooms as an alternative, but she explained to her followers that it was inadequate. Furthermore, Carnival’s cancellation policy prevented any refund because the cancellation occurred 15 days before departure. Banks and her family decided to travel to Miami, hoping to resolve the issue at the dock, but they could not board the ship. Although she initially thought it was a system error, Banks learned from Carnival that someone had added their booking number, which was accidentally shared on Facebook, to a new online account and canceled the reservation, the New York Post reported.
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The impersonator was believed to be from British Columbia, and Carnival offered Banks a cruise credit of $10,404 on the condition that she publically declared the issue resolved. Banks refused the offer and said she wouldn’t book with Carnival again after unsuccessfully trying to fix her trip. TikTok users also expressed their feelings regarding the situation, and some said Banks was at fault for posting the booking number on her Facebook page. In contrast, others were sympathetic towards the situation.
“I hope people do learn from this. I follow someone on instagram who posted their flight info and their international flight was cancelled. Companies need more verification to cancel!” one user wrote. Another said, “I’ve been on 25 cruises with Carnival…Platinum status…and I agree that Carnival needs to change their online system so that it requires more than the name and confirmation number to cancel/edit online.”