Megabear2

Sorry to hijack your personal thread, however regarding yesterday's outage did anyone else get diverted to an authorisation company used by CC, Auth.o? Having been promoted to enter my email address and password I now apparently have an account with this company from that link and are being asked to authenticate it despite not wanting it. Attempts to contact Auth.o have to date failed apart from a form to send to sales. I have asked CC to assist but have an email saying they're very busy! Any offer of what to do much appreciated.

Totally agree. No way will I commit any money to P&O after this year's hefty reductions to late select bookers. I feel very used and abused! I will however hopefully book with Cunard for Queen Anne when she goes on sale as there is apparently (if the leaks on Cunard forum are correct) a cruise covering our wedding anniversary and my birthday. At this stage we won't even book a Christmas Caribbean which we normally do.

G407 is mid deck. I doubt it is mid forward they will be using. We were midforward G218 on our last Britannia cruise and the isolation areas were from midship to the rear. Doors were shut from G330 backwards as we could not use the rear lifts without getting out deck 7 and walking to midship. We are booked for F324 this time around departing 16 December - we just booked a select fare grade GB cabin with sofa on launch day, not a specific one as it was guarantee only on launch. From Walkingdude's live report on the transatlantic he has been able to walk up and down both sides of deck 8 with no closed off areas. I can only assume that quarantine is considered as being needed in January as if there's a large outbreak passengers may have to stay onboard if quarantine facilities are full up - this has happened a few times through the summer months for some US cruise lines' passengers.

Walk and cycle - a lot from my experience in the Alps in Austria!

What are P&O doing with the people perpetrating these acts of aggression ? Any staff involvement or actions taken against the perpetrators?

This poster is an employee of the company. He did not say you cannot book only you should not do it on the P&O UK website.

Believe you are in St Kitts? Have they finished the building work at the port or is it still the long hike through the building works? Notice on Vessel finder it states you're moored. Are you tendering? Not my own personal favourite island as the rubbish dumped is most off putting to me. Hopefully better now. Enjoy yourselves. I'm getting just a teeny bit jealous!

Looking at this poster's history he only joined on Thursday. I'm guessing it's either another wind up merchant or someone who knows absolutely nothing about P&O and it's ships - hence the "scrap" comment. Not worth the bother perhaps?

I've had problems with this previously. It's not keen on any browser other than Chrome. Normally works with that - I've just checked my own link and it's working in Chrome.

Liquid sunshine ... it is the rainy season you know!

There's apparently no clear liability with anyone. We are pursing the insurance company through the Ombudsman. Unfortunately there is no direct financial loss attributable to either the t/a or cruise line so apart from the medical bill cost being taken from me and then returned and the cruise line having now threatened us with legal action we cannot seek any financial redress. The complaint is about failure in duty of care. I have a lawyer who is looking at compensation and this is why arbitration is considered at this stage a better solution. I'm pretty sure these posts will disappear rather quickly but thanks for everyone's concern.

Well with a current base price of £7396 for a balcony cabin versus £11,938 for a deck 8 mid or £12,298 for a deck 5 mid I don't think I'd be complaining too much!

No. They are saying the TA is not liable as it was a cruise line issue. The cruise line is refusing to speak to them or us - they are apparently under no obligation to do so. I'm now told next step would be arbitration which of course costs but no idea who we arbitrate with. It's not clear cut due to the exceptional circumstances which I cannot discuss on this forum.

The doctor's letter comes at the point he submits the form to the insurance company. Anyone with real influenza, not a viral sniffle, would need to seek medical attention anyway. It is very easy to overthink this. To report you are unwell you need to call your GP surgery and speak to a medical professional, ie a surgery nurse, a doctor etc. This then records your illness and symptoms on your medical records and lo and behold you can make an insurance claim. At the point you submit your cancellation claim to your insurer he sends a form to your doctor's surgery who note what's in your records, holds his hand out for his fee and says thank you very much. There I'd of course a significant difference between real 'flu and the common cold etc but if you have just been refused boarding for anything, even covid, you would be very well advised to get it noted on your GP records that you are unwell.

May I ask why you wanted to move, is it because of the floor, surroundings or what? Appreciate you now say you're happy to stick but I'm intrigued where you actually wanted to be and in what cabin. Which ship are you on?

Ironically cancellation from flu would be covered under insurance.

Very true, as I say the questionnaire based on searching for out dated signs of covid is the problem. Until a common sense attitude to current covid infections is adopted honestly is most definitely not the best policy.

Thanks Moley. You are correct. I had final response from ABTA last week stating as Princess have refused to answer any questions as they are not the organisers I would now need to start arbitration or legal action. They have exonerated IC completely stating that being locked in a port by the cruise line, together with the failed assistance not being within their remit. I will look into your suggestion. At the moment our hands are somewhat tied as Princess are now threatening to sue us for the outstanding funds they had to return to us and the insurance issue is with the Ombudsman. Oh happy days!

Unfortunately we cannot say that is the case. The problem being faced by everyone is that travel insurance policies separate covid from other illnesses and treat claims in a separate way. The rules they have in place in their policies are actually quite out of date in the modern covid era but it very much suits them. Having a specific separate covid policy within a policy (which is what they effectively offer) means claims are in very grey areas with crusing. The cruise lines are sailing on terms made up on the hoof, also very out of date, and as a result the passenger is caught in the middle. Prior to covid the health questionnaire was a relatively small piece of paper handed to you at the terminal and to be frank was mainly looking for signs of norovirus. Anyone refused boarding at the port would have a valid cancellation insurance claim, simple and straightforward. Now with the three day before online job it's become draconian and unfair. The current purpose of the questionnaire is to search for covid but the questionnaire is so generic it includes almost any common ailment. Not fit for either purpose at this stage in the pandemic. The insurer is left to choose which section he wants to judge a claim under and in many cases if the word "covid" rears its head that section is chosen and consequently there is deemed no valid claim. However if it is looked at under the "normal" terms of cancellation there may well be a valid claim in some instances. The original poster on this thread had an illness which was technically not covid and being treated by a doctor. Her claim under the cancellation clause would most likely succeed but those denied boarding with her would have difficulty. Similarly Kopchadder's wife is unwell, albeit with the common cold. Normally no one would make an insurance claim for having the common cold but in light of P&O denying boarding based on their questionnaire and a refusal to even discuss the issue it may well be that is the route Kopchadder takes. Again, however, his in laws will have difficulty. Until the letter from P&O is seen and the reason for refused boarding is fully explained it is therefore impossible to say whether or not an insurance claim will succeed. Everything depends on the use of the covid being the reason for cancellation.

The price on my cruise was steady until final balance due date, about the same ut with slightly higher OBC but nothing to write home about. Three weeks ago it dropped by £1,000, then £1,500 and as at Friday there is £2,000 difference, ie £1,000pp. I cannot therefore do anything about it as it's balance paid. I have another Caribbean Christmas cruise for 2023 booked on Arvia with a £385 deposit which is a replacement for one booked for New Year this year. It was a moved deposit when we decided to look at two separate cruises in Decemberand March next year instead of a back to back over Christma/New Year. I also have FCC which will more or less cover the £7,700 total cost but because of this year's situation I am monitoring it extremely closely and will decide near September 2023 what to with it. I may use the FCC for March instead to get it out of the way - its valid until mid April 2024. The difference for me is I do not book suites or specific cabins or indeed specific ships. I'm content with any mid forward balcony on the ships I sail with my husband and as a solo take what I can get! I'm under no illusions that those who want something very limited are happy but there are many like me who are fairly content with a certain area of a ship but aren't too fussed about which deck etc. I book midforward on select or saver where the option is there, particularly on Britannia, as my husband swims extremely early every day and likes to go direct to the pool area. I hope that explains a bit better why I'm very cross about this particular price cut.

Thank you. I always try to be polite as everyone has a view and there's no right or wrong one, just different ones. I get a bit paranoid I might upset someone!

I would agree in the past with all you say. His time, however, I'm finding it hard to do so at the present when the alternative cabin I'd indicated to my travel agent at the time of booking is so much reduced with more OBC.

No offence was intended and I do appreciate the needs of others. However when I use the word "silly" I do so ironically. I consider myself very "silly" for believing P&O wouldn't launch at a very high price in comparison with previous years because at that point they were offering less accomodation and they knew demand would outstrip supply. I consider myself "silly" for believing that if circumstances changed they'd do right by their loyal passengers who booked at day one, and I consider myself "silly" for thinking they wouldn't just use the old argument of their algorithm raising or lowering fares. What I can say is I feel duped when I see the cabin next door to mine available for a third less and indirectly P&O have admitted just maybe I'm unhappy by chucking an extra £150 OBC at me a month or so ago. I've a right to feel conned as have all others. There's always been cheap saver fares to clear cabins, what there hasn't been until now is a fire sale on select fares with masses of OBC being thrown around like confetti. The 29 October sailing of Iona had fire sale fares across the board in the 10 days before sailing, still on a select fare with OBC. If you look through there are others creeping into that direction. Currently Ticketmaster are causing a furore with their dynamic pricing - Bruce Springsteen tickets at thousands of pounds and his fans bring told tough pay it if you want it. None of it makes it right. Booking a cruise at the moment feels like that, am I just a mug for being loyal and making the cruise line richer by my eagerness to book? Certainly that's how I feel now.

And then the trade association, ie ABTA, finds the travel agent has done nothing incorrect but the supplier (cruise line ) is not obligated to answer legitimate questions and throws up a defence wall stating sue us if you like - at least that's my experience!!!

There's a whole bunch of these no supplement cruises on offer, all sailing fairly soon. I had one of my "special letters" on Friday just passed with about 12 voyages on it. I'm guessing they want to fill empty space going from Autumn to Winter and one body is better than none!