Are cruiselines cancellation policies fair IF they rebook the cabin you cancelled?

[celebrity]

What about the passengers that have to cancel the day before or day of the cruise? Things happen!

Please don't take offense, but why do you care?

[madforcruising]

If there has to anything like fairness in business I would say yes I think it´s fair as long as it´s the terms and conditions at time of booking.

 

The comparison with hotels and airlines is not sufficient in my eyes as they are travel business too but that´s it. Actually they are totally different. It´s liem comparing apples with pears.

[FinelyCruising]

cruiseco...yes...good scenarios. Who in the world is going to keep track of these details once the cabin or guarantee is cancelled? Is someone at the cruiline really going to be employed in order to keep tabs on these issues for a guest who cancelled? I am guessing no. Is that fair? It is to me.

[ilionite65]

Sorry, but I really don't understand how the insurance company is being wronged in any of this. They don't pay any claims unless the claim is justified and verified with a lot of paper work, believe me, I had to claim once! I was sitting in the airport terminal, waiting to board and suddenly found myself in a medical emergency. I was rushed to the hospital and admitted. We did have cruise insurance and it paid. Our cabin was not rebooked, I know because our son and his wife were booked next cabin. So, should the cruise line reimburse our costs, when they now can't rebook our cabin, a D1, or should the insurance company pay according to the policy which we purchased? Possibly my wording- that noone is out anything - was not the best phrase to use, but all that the insurance company is out is what they agreed to. It is, after all, their policy!

[lovepuzzles]

I have to agree with the majority here. It's fair. I've cancelled a cruise before and waited until the 60 day mark to do it. Why? Because I could. If the policy would have been 30 days before with no penalty, I would have cancelled then. I would have waited as long as I could. (I was waiting to see if I could get excited about it, but didn't, so I cancelled). There are a lot of other people who would wait until the last minute to cancel if there was no penalty. It wouldn't only be the cruiselines lossing profit, but what about the cabin stewards, waiters, etc. that would be losing a lot of tips. The cruiselines probably have this policy, not only to protect them, but also the crew members who rely on their tips. JMHO :)

[imsulin]

As for the Ta also getting the commission for a cancelled cruise...that's not necessarily true. For the TA, it depends on the terms in the trip insurance policy.

[stuNYC]

First let me say that I have been an executive of a Fortune 500 company for many years, so I am very familiar from a corporate prospective with enhancing the bottom line. I was not looking at this from the Company's perspective (which is to make as much money as they can get away with) but from my fellow cruiser's perspective.

 

Only a couple of people really got the point that the contract is one-sided,

which is what I was really trying to say.

 

Why do I care? Because I, as opposed to the rest of you, think that the contract is unfair. It will not stop me from cruising since I always take out insurance.

 

I also realize that as one poster said "the cruiselines aren't going to change if they can get away with it." From the response to this question they can surely get away with it as well as all the other new additional charges for things that were previously free!

 

Price creep as well as the standard one-sided contract will continue as long as crusing is as popular an alternative as it currently is. This will continue as long as demand exceeds supply.

 

With all the new ships are coming out or in the process of being ordered supply may at one point exceed demand and we the passenger will get the breaks the airlines and car manufacturers are giving in order to meet their inventory of unsold seat or cars, respectively

[Onessa]

The line does incur some costs even if they do successfully fill your cancellation. So I think I'd agree that minimally there should be a "penalty" for a late cancellation even when they are able to fill it. I'd be hard pressed to figure out what a fair cancellation penalty should be.

[FlyingPhotog]

To the OP - it sounds to me like you're complaining even while the cruise line is giving you an opportunity to bail out.

 

If you have a $5000 suite without insurance and cancel at a 50% penalty as you mentioned, you're out $2500 but so is the cruise line. With insurance you only lose $100 per person and the cruise line is out $4800.

 

Why doesn't the cruise line deserve a chance to recover their loss in profit? Why should they sail with an empty room? Should they deny the stateroom attendant his or her income from that week's tips? They're not being unfair to you because you're getting most of your money back. They're not being unfair to whoever re-books the room because they were planning on paying the listed price to begin with.