Vesude

11 hours ago, No Ponant Fan said:

We have been making efforts to get a full refund from Ponant for a cruise that was cancelled May 3rd. We attempted to go through our credit card company who originally refunded our money while they contacted Ponant. Ponant sent the credit card company illegible information about their cancellation policy and our credit card company said they would need more information to further dispute the charge.

We also sent a letter to Catherine Brin Customer Service Manager US reservations. At least we did get a response since all the messages we sent through their web site went unanswered. An excerpt of her response-“As a French-flagged company, our Terms & Conditions are governed by French law, which was just changed to allow travel companies to offer a 100% future cruise credit for 12 months instead of a refund.  However, in an effort of good faith, we are offering a 120% future cruise credit which can be used over a longer period, up to 24 months.”

Not what we wanted to hear. We replied by telling them they are not helping their reputation with this policy and our credit card statement said Ponant USA LLC so French law does not apply. An LLC is governed by the laws of the state in which the LLC is formed which is NY. We will be filing a complaint with NY’s attorney general.

If anyone has any other suggestions please let us know. We have no desire to go on a cruise we are forced to go on or lose a lot of money.

We are also in contact with mrs. Brin. After some threats they are willing to pay us back. At least we are “on the list of refund”. This means they make a choice who gets a FCC or a refund. But they will not tell us when they will pay. This can take months and months. Terrible! Never another cruise with Ponant again. 
 

4 hours ago, resistk said:

 

That is no way to run a cruise line, some people get refunds and some do not based on the whim of the CEO?

You are so right.... but.... it worked!

On 6/6/2020 at 3:02 PM, Seabiscuit68 said:

 

Catherine Brin is the Customer Service Manager for US reservations.  She is the individual who originally emailed us  the FCC when the cruise was cancelled.    Nsawhney is CEO and hbellaiche is VP of Sales and Marketing.

 

cbrin@ponant.com

usreservations@ponant.com

nsawhney@ponant.com

hbellaiche@ponant.com

 

 

It worked! We wrote an email to the above mentioned adresses and reveived an answer within 24 hours. We are going to receive a refund.

Thanks!

8 hours ago, DSmith91 said:

If you're asking about your rights if Ponant cancels your cruise, the T&Cs on the website still states that you have the option of a full refund.

Do you have a link to this part of the T&C? I can’t find it...

Does anyone have a copy of Ponant former T&A. So before they changed them?

1 hour ago, Seabiscuit68 said:

Our cruise was to French Polynesia was cancelled in March.  We've been requesting a refund since March 15th.  Over the last month I was posting a lot on Facebook and IG.  On IG they would respond to my comment requesting my contact but then I would never hear back. Finally after aggressive IG posts,  we heard back from US Reservations last week asking if we have made a decision on rebooking our cruise.   We responded once again that we wanted a refund in accordance with the contract.  We advised that if we do not get our refund by end of week we will be filing a complaint with the Federal Maritime Commission, filing complaint with the NY Attorney General, will be launching legal action as well as posting our experience with Ponant on social media.  We also copied our lawyer.  We were refunded fully within one week of sending this email.     

 

 

Good news. To what mailadresse did you contact Ponant? I have send so many mails to their main mail adress (contact@ponant.com) but they never responded. 

Very bad because they have our money in their pocket. 

35 minutes ago, Hutchinj said:

The Passenger Ticket Contract is still on the PG website at https://www.pgcruises.com/ms-paul-gauguin-passenger-ticket-contract. Section 9b(2) pertains to cruise line cancelled cruises entitling the passenger to a refund:

 

Company may for any reason whatsoever cancel any sailing or terminate the Ticket/Contract at any time before departure of the Ship, and in such event, Company’s only liability will be to refund to the Passenger the amount it has received for the Ticket/Contract.

 

This is different from the Reservation Policies page which spells out cancellation fees in case the passenger elects to cancel their cruise:

 

https://www.pgcruises.com/reservation-policies

 

I don't have a copy of the previous Reservation Policies page but check earlier in this thread as I think someone else found it online.

 

Thanks but this is PG. I mean Ponant cruises

does anyone have a copy of the previous terms and conditions that applied before ponant changed them in March 2020. In mean the part that says that we are entitled to receive a refund.

7 minutes ago, Jared Purdy said:

 

No, I didn't "threaten" with a claim, I actually filed one.  However, I posted to both the PG and Ponant Instagram accounts that I had done that.  Shortly after I did that, an agent at PG contacted my TA to inform him that they were going to refund me 90% of what I had paid out.  

 

I swear, these guys make up policy on the fly.  By filing the 3rd party default, I did better than a 90% refund.  I got back 100% of what I had paid.  

 

Still, because Ponant/PG was willing to give me back 90%, I will rebook with them when the coast is clear.  We want to do this cruise.  Nothing has changed though on the Tahiti Tourism web site: all foreign visitors are banned.  No cruise ships, no international flights.  Those bans will eventually be lifted, but I'm not booking a cruise until they are lifted.  It's become quite clear that booking with certain cruise lines carries great risk.

We booked and paid in October 2018. Our credit card company only covers claims within 365 days after payment. We already threatened with a press release. Their reaction was that our future cruise credit can have a longer validiteit of 24 months in stead of 18.
I stil can not believe that they change their T&C like daily underwear. 

19 minutes ago, Jared Purdy said:

 

Filing a third party default claim with my credit card (VISA) did the trick.  I got back 100% of what I paid, which was almost $25,000CDN.  Took about two weeks.

Very good news. 
so you only threatened with a claim and got the amount back through Ponant yourself?

43 minutes ago, resistk said:

Credit card issued a refund for my full value of Ponant cancelled cruise.

When did you book?

11 minutes ago, DSmith91 said:

Rights of passengers where travel is cancelled.

 

I have found the following (and bookmarked for future reference) to be very useful and written in English.

 

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=3c4d9f0f-57b5-4470-a0c9-6d298ad39f7b

Thanks for this. For me it’s clear! 

3 hours ago, Seabiscuit68 said:

I’m in.  I’ve set up another IG account and continue to make comments on Ponant and PG IG.  I noticed that some of my earlier PG comments have been deleted. Anything we can do on a coordinated basis will have more impact. 

Meanwhile I found out that the French law (under which Ponant is sailing) says the following (please have a look at the attachments: 1 quote from the law book and the translation)

9 hours ago, DSmith91 said:

Doesn't that refer to the 'worry-free policy for new bookings made after the 9th March this year?

We are in the UK and due to cruise in August this year,  We booked 2 years ago when the T&C's stated a full refund in case of cancellation by Ponant.  Their T&C's updated in January, and available on the website still state that a full refund is due if the cruise is cancelled.

 

We booked in 2018 also. Can you copy-paste that part of The T&C here?
I am going on with my fight! If anyone wants to join?

15 hours ago, Skywave said:

I'm in the process of filing a claim through Visa which could take some time to show any results. A lawsuit sounds like a good idea if that is unsuccessful, maybe a class action with several of us could be the way to go.

Can I help in any way? A press release maybe?

15 hours ago, Hutchinj said:

 

 

Good luck! My TA says he has spent hours “discussing” the situation with senior staff at Ponant but they are steadfast in their “No Refunds” policy, ignoring existing contracts. He was unable to convince of the long term damage their arrogance will surely cause. And despite their having offices in the USA, any arbitration or legal wrangling would have to be done in France as per French law. It certainly complicates things and makes any legal action expensive which I’m sure they are counting on.

But... I’m still hopeful things will improve so we can take our cruise as planned. I don’t wish PG or Ponant ill will. I just want our cruise or the money we paid for it!

 

We are in contact with our TA and Ponant. We told them that a press-release will be send out if they don't give us a full refund, as stated in their T & C on the moment we booked our cruise. I know about a family from New Sealand who received their money back after threatening with the press

Together with some other duped Ponant cruisers, we are about to send a out press release about the fact that Ponant has changed their general terms and conditions, after the Covid-19 outbreak. 

When we booked (in 2018 for a 2020 cruise) the following terms were valid.