Megabear2

At the moment 15% off the packages if you buy in advance plus your discount for Peninsular. Just purchased ours for January- my Peninsular discount is 8 1/2% and that came off too. Total for Ultimate Internet package was £196. My 2 week Arvia one in May was £230.58 for the same package. Hope that helps.

Then no back to back discount I'm afraid.

7th. You will need midnight of 6th to be at opening. See you in the queue!!!

You can hire a day room too. We booked the beach club, day on the beach, shower change there and direct to airport.

My aunt went to the new Heythrop Park hotel in June. Although they liked it she commented that it was huge so a massive amount of walking and also if you wanted to use the a la carte restaurants or the pub to eat in you had to reserve them in advance. They do not have internet access and were not able to so and ended up unable to eat anywhere other than the self serve buffet. She laughed it reminded her of a cruise because of this.

After my mammoth wait to speak to P&O today on other business I'm told the delay is due to a massive amount of calls about these flights together with a system failure for seat booking and payments. No idea if was true but I waited patiently for 2 hours 35 minutes before I go through!

Yes, ridiculous times. I have just got of the phone so nearly 2 hours 35 minutes in the queue. Luckily my mobile contract allows unlimited inclusive calls so just left it sitting on the table on speaker. When I finally got through was informed they are exceptionally busy because (1) the internet payment system is broken at present, (2) most people can't get into their accounts - apparently that includes seat booker - and they are inundated by calls about Caribbean flights. My actual business took 8 minutes in total. Interestingly he read out my entire Cunard history to me and asked if I'd received my requested assistance form and was most bemused when I said while that's very nice I actually want to discuss my P&O cruise!

Are you sorted now and happy with things?

Currently losing the will to live here! Been on hold to P&O for 2 hours 16 minutes and counting to apply some FCC to my Britannia cruise which has a balance due very shortly. After booking four Cunard cruises for next year I can't find a slot to use it for the forseeable so thought I'd use it for this and use the cash for something else. At this rate with steam now coming out of my ears I'm very close to telling them to put it where the sun isn't going to shine.

I take it you bought a new dishwasher then?

No, for the reason you're buying a package. It's a package covered under ABTA therefore one contract and you decide if you don't want an element of it but aren't entitled to money off. There is, I believe, a small deduction for back to back but the flight element is nothing to do with it. Penib who posted earlier in this thread does a back to back over Christmas every year so if she sees this may be able to give more information on how it works. Meanwhile on the subject of the flight regulations for our cancelling passenger who complained above, the PE element is a paid for upgrade on the base cost so is part of the package but as it's paid for and separate can be billed separately - see the examples above. If that part of the contract cannot be provided as in these cases it is fully refundable. The interesting one we have here is the package bought as PE at the point of sale which was included in the original contract - Presto2, myself and Zap had on this occasion one of these contracts. We will have paid 10% of that fare (in my case £44.90pp) as part of our deposit and as Zap shows in his example the PE upgrade shows on his invoice as exactly that. As 9265359 says the basic package has a "free" flight included. What our correspondent says is P&O have withheld his PE fare under the T&Cs when he cancelled as they claim it's part of the contract and as such he has to forfeit it as part of the loss of deposit on cancellation. This is the part I question. If the booking states a cruise at say £2,000pp plus a PE supplement of £449pp we have a total of £4,898. Assuming a 10% deposit was paid £489.80 should show on the invoice, consisting of £400.00 deposit on the base cruise and £89.80 for the PE supplement. As our correspondent has cancelled due to no PE being available on the flight allocated he would have been entitled to a refund of his £89.80 if he had chosen to go ahead under the new terms. However no PE has made him totally cancel and P&O have stated he forfeits his entire deposit by doing so. I would argue this is incorrect. Yes, he forfeits his £400 deposit on the base cruise but as P&O are failing to provide the supplement item (PE) he cannot be responsible for that element and should therefore be entitled to a refund of his £89.80. If, as happens sometimes, he paid for his PE supplement in full as an addition after booking he should be entitled to a full refund of this amount as P&O cannot fulfil the contract. If he had gone ahead with the cruise he would have received this money back in full and therefore it would be correct he is refunded the full cost of the PE element even if cancelling. If, as he says, this has not happened it should be raised as a query and if the funds are not returned he should go via his credit card or bank to seek redress via charge back. He cannot be expected to be penalised financially for P&O not being able to fulfill that specific part of the contract. His deposit on the base price is all that should be lost.

They were still alive and kicking on Arvia in May

Thank you for the information. Going forward the charter situation most likely won't improve for some time. Is this new company being contracted for just this season or is it intended to be a new long term partner and the Thomas Cook replacement?

I only started booking PE with P&O last year as my husband started to have a lot of pain and difficulty. If I'm alone I rarely take PE, sometimes on flights to LA or Florida on BA. I'm easily pleased and as long as I can pick my seat I'll go for anything. A lot of my long haul is on code shares with Lufthansa who I use extremely regularly and a lot of them don't offer PE or business. My only venture to first class was a flight from Tampa to LHR on BA not a good experience as the flatbed collapsed and I ended up half on the floor all night. My favourite is American, not because they're particularly great but they feed me with pizza and only allow one person to queue for the loo at a time. As you've gathered I have a big thing about people queuing for loos! Their internal US flights leave a lot to be desired though hence zumited/Lufthansa. I really like Lufthansa for their customer service. After 9/11 they pulled out of Stansted and I lost my Christmas flight. Their solution to the problem: a chauffeured car to my home and on to Heathrow, a late night flight the day before I was scheduled to fly followed by a suite at the Munich Kempinski hotel and a chauffeur home from Heathrow 10 days later! The original flight had cost £60 each.

Depends when you book the PE. I added PE on to a booking last September. I had to pay that in full but my balance on my cruise wasn't due, so I had two invoices. My current booking I booked with PE, it was actually a replacement for Arvia booked on board. My flight cost was part of my main fare, not paid in full. My £345 deposit from Arvia transferred and nothing else due until final payment next month. I cancelled another cruise earlier this year as I was unwell. It had been booked onboard last Christmas with a £50 deposit plus I used an FCC. Everything bar the £50 was returned as that was my contractual deposit.

Thank you. Our festive break this year is with Celebrity from Miami. We were booked on Arvia for 22 December but I disliked it far too much when I tried it so looked for an alternative. Settled on 13 nights on Celebrity with 3 days before to visit our friends. However I moved my deposit to Britannia for 13 January as I got a deal whilst onboard Arvia. We 17 days at home inbetween but the second one is a busman's holiday for my OH as he will be working a lot of the time. No Christmas next year either - well planning a luxury hotel break in London - but we sail 35 nights QM2 Caribbean on 11 January 2025. Big Cunard year former as I'm sailing all four Queens and the Caribbean. Have two Britannia cruises then nothing else on P&O unless the new itineraries offer something different. Sadly every cruise is a direct repeat of the year before at present, though I note the 2024 Caribbean fly cruises are now all one port less than previously. Enjoy your trip and have a great time.

Pie & Mash shop with a big mug of tea instead of the greasy spoon for us! God's own food ...

Hi. There are at least two flights from each of Manchester, Gatwick and Birmingham on the Friday and Saturday. If you have your seats confirmed and paid for you are on the TUI. I recall you were on the Wamos replacement last year, this was a TUI change due to lack of aircraft availability not the same as is happening here to provide additional capacity. Unless TUI change the plane as they did last time you will be on the TUI flight in PE. I spoke to flights the day before yesterday and they confirmed if TUI shows that will be the flight unless TUI change it.

If you were at deposit stage they can only keep the amount you paid as per the booking terms, ie x% or £x onboard. Anything over has to be returned. You presumably paid for the upgrade as a separate payment after booking. As they couldn't provide that flight class that money should be returned - that plane has no PE and if it had been there you wouldn't have cancelled. Write in the strongest terms saying you want that premium economy fare repaid as it was not part of the deposit but a separate charte for a service that cannot take place. I assume you have a separate invoice for the flight upgrade? If so and they refuse go down the bank reclaim route. If it's on your booking invoice insist on a refund of that part as it will be more than x% if you paid for it in full. Email to: Executive.Correspondence@carnivalukgroup.com

Yes, that's what P&O gave forms out to the Wamos people for last December when the plane didn't turn up as TUI. However this is advance warned and the top up is being returned in full.

I assume this is TUI's own take on it. You certainly can't book a seat as soon as you book on a P&O flight. It used to be that PE had free flowing drinks and economy didn't. Last two years everyone was getting unlimited drinks (within reason).

Thank you, I received my email today as well.

The only thing I generally look at on Seatguru are the old seat reviews which are very enlightening regarding missing windows, noise issues etc. If you know of any decent upto date seat review sites I'd be very grateful.

Thank you. This site still shows 63 premium economy seats so I assume the plane layout is still the same.

I'm so sorry to hear this it's so desperately sad for all. I hope that you can all at the very least spend some quality time together when she comes home. Sending prayers and best wishes to you all.