When is compensation not compensation?

[FrankieSue]

1 hour ago, kazu said:

OP, are you sure there isn’t some more info on the back of your letter?  I’m not doubting you but from experience:

 

We had such an offer on our Westerdam cruise (and believe me, we missed ports and had a lot of bad weather 😉 )

 

It was clear in our offer that it had to be new booking and done by x time.

 

If you didn’t flip the letter over, you wouldn’t have noticed it.

 

I went back to my LIVE thread to find it.

 

This was on the back:

 

 

This is what was on the front:

 

 

[FrankieSue]

Thank you for the pictures of the letter... it is very close to what we received.  Maybe we did not read carefully enough... I still believe that this is a poor way to to compensate passengers... but thanks for all the info.
To clarify: no, we did not ask for or request any compensation, it was offered by Captain Smit.  And no, we were not part of those cruises that dealt with high water under the Trois-Rivières bridge. We were on the Sept. 14 cruise out of Boston.

i always appreciate all the input and view points of other cruises.

happy sailing

[sail7seas]

.

 

 

I did not click your link  so have no idea  the date it was written by whom, their  'general reliability'     or what it may or may not say

 

 

I am becoming very tired of this subject and this thread.  No more I care to add.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 4, 2019 by sail7seas

[kazu]

17 minutes ago, FrankieSue said:

Thank you for the pictures of the letter... it is very close to what we received.  Maybe we did not read carefully enough... I still believe that this is a poor way to to compensate passengers... but thanks for all the info.
To clarify: no, we did not ask for or request any compensation, it was offered by Captain Smit.  And no, we were not part of those cruises that dealt with high water under the Trois-Rivières bridge. We were on the Sept. 14 cruise out of Boston.

i always appreciate all the input and view points of other cruises.

happy sailing

 

Like you, we didn’t complain.  It was offered.

 

I hope you are successful on getting it applied to your current cruise and if not,  hopefully you can find a dream cruise to use it for.  It just has to be booked by the deadline, you don’t need to sail by that date 😄 

[FrankieSue]

Thank you Kazu. Your info is always useful and pertinent.

[kazu]

46 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

The OP posted that it was due to engine problems on Zaandam, and this post seems to confirm it.

 

 

 

Absolutely correct.  There was a thread on this cruise on these boards.

 

18 minutes ago, sail7seas said:

.

 

 

I did not click your link  so have no idea  the date it was written by whom, their  'general reliability'     or what it may or may not say

 

 

 

The thread was by someone on the ship (pretty reliable) along with location maps showing the ship remaining there.

 

Bottom line - it had NOTHING to do with weather and asserting that is misleading IMO.

[faerievert]

This kind of credit is less compensation and more a good will marketing gimmick. "We know you were disappointed, but please come back anyway." It's a nudge for those who very likely would not have returned and, worse, spread bad word of mouth. You, the plan-ahead repeat cruiser, are not their target audience, unfortunately. It absolutely does feel unfair that you not be allowed to use it on a booking that you've yet to make final payment on. I have to assume the "already booked another cruise but won't book another within the year and care about this symbolic credit" is a tiny enough minority that they're willing to chance annoying you in favor of avoiding paying out to the majority who won't get around to making a new booking in time.

 

Our credit from our February Hawaiian cruise missing three ports due to weather had the same terms as @kazu. Only new bookings made within a year (sailing can be anytime available for booking). Which is why we're taking a second cruise this year. We can't book very far ahead due to odd work schedules, plus we prefer to take advantage of the dramatic fare discounts offered closer to sailing date. We likely wouldn't have sailed again until 2021 otherwise. Their marketing ploy worked on us.  

[Shmoo here]

9 hours ago, FrankieSue said:

We were travelling on the recent Zaandam cruise that had engine problems and we were bussed to Montreal from Quebec City as a result of this engine failure.  As I mentioned in a recent post, we were given some shipboard credits and offered a “compensation” equal to15% of the cruise base price paid, to be used within a year, on a future cruise.  To me “future cruise” means any cruise yet to come.  So this morning I called my cruise consultant to have this compensation applied to an upcoming cruise booked for the New Year.  I was quite surprised to be told that the compensation cannot be applied to our upcoming cruise because it was booked earlier than the cruise with the incident. (Final payment is not until November).. i am now questioning whether this compensation is really a compensation or if it is more a clever marketing strategy to get us to cruise again with Holland “give Holland another chance” ... what do you think? I think compensation should be compensation without any strings attached....

I've always thought it was "any future cruise booking".  Meaning, any cruise booked after you get the compensation.

[rhblake]

It is my belief that the on board credit was your compensation and the FCC is a enticement to book another "new" cruise with them.