BY MATT GEPHARDT AND CINDY ST. CLAIR From CBS KUTV

(KUTV) Kody Thompson and his wife love to cruise. In July, they were set to embark on their tenth, sailing with Royal Caribbean to the Caribbean.

It’s an area that has been plagued with the Zika Virus, a virus that is known to spread through mosquitoes and can cause birth defects if a pregnant woman contracts the disease.

It’s being taken seriously by world health organizations as well as travel companies. Many have offered to allow people who wish to cancel or reschedule trips to parts of the world where the virus has been identified for free, including Royal Caribbean.

It was a welcome offer to the Thompson’s because, at roughly the same time that news of Zika took off, Kody’s wife became pregnant.

“We would still go if she was pregnant, but with the Zika virus, we’re not willing to risk it,” Kody said.

Kody contacted Royal Caribbean to cancel their cruise. He had booked both their flight and the cruise through Royal Caribbean. Kody says the cruise was refunded immediately but the airfare was not.

“[Royal Caribbean] said, ‘if you want the airfare refunded you need to do the legwork and get the airline to refund it,” Kody said.

Kody says he called the airline but, because it was booked through Royal Caribbean, he was told all changes needed to be made through the cruise company.

That began several month of fighting for Kody. He said he again contacted Royal Caribbean and this time they promised to refund the $1,220 he paid for the flights. He was told it could take a few weeks, but he says it never arrived. He would call again, and get the same promise. It went on like that for more than three months, Kody said.

Sick of the runaround, Kody decided to Get Gephardt and we contacted Royal Caribbean on Kody’s behalf. In a statement, a spokesperson told Get Gephardt the same thing Kody has been told multiple times: the refund has been processed and Kody should just wait for it to arrive.

Unlike when those promises had been made in previous months, this time, sure enough, Kody’s airfare was refunded.

Royal Caribbean did not respond to follow-up questions about why it took so many months for the refund check to arrive.

For more on this story and video go to: http://kutv.com/news/get-gephardt/refund-hard-to-collect-after-zika-related-cruise-cancellation