Passport Fail - Cruise Line Unforgiving

[fshagan]

6 hours ago, April42749 said:

No, I'm not expecting any company or any person to know anything.

The traveler should be made aware that there are rules and acknowledge that he has been made aware......and that it's his responsibility to find these rules and comply.

 

 

The OP did not book on line. The travel agent did. He or she was insulated from the companies by the presence of a professional that should have warned him or her.

[hallux]

2 hours ago, April42749 said:

Honestly....do you

Last 2 times I agreed to it, on NCL, I skimmed the section headlines and decided if I was going to read that section.  I read some, skipped others.

[Sweetnspicy]

I read the cruise contract. 🤷🏽‍♀️ It’s also referenced so much on here that I feel like I know some of it by heart 🤣 

[hallux]

34 minutes ago, fshagan said:

 

The OP did not book on line. The travel agent did. He or she was insulated from the companies by the presence of a professional that should have warned him or her.

But did the OP have their travel agent complete the online check-in?  I booked through a TA, but did my own check-in and agreement to the cruise contract.

 

As I said previously - this information is also on the NCL FAQ page, it is incumbent on the person traveling to ask the questions to find out what is required of them when traveling internationally.  Would you book a Colombia or Brazil without doing your own search to find out if you need a visa to travel there, even on a cruise?  Hint - until 6 months ago one of those countries DID require a visa, even for cruise passengers.  Getting that visa, as I understand it, could take some time and actually required that your passport be hand-delivered to a consulate.  In my mind - finding out about that stuff would be part of researching the trip. 

 

Should the TA have said something?  Maybe.  However - we all possess the tools to find this information out with a few keystrokes, it took all of 10 seconds to type into Google "Norwgeian cruise lines passport requirements" and the page where the 6 month rule was literally the second result (no, I don't look at just one result).

[xcell]

On 1/16/2020 at 3:06 PM, Akumal said:

 

You can't compare a missed cruise to accidentally dropped ice cream cone.

 

That would be like driving your brand new car out of the lot and it gets into an accident -- dealership should just give you a new one?

 

On 1/16/2020 at 3:26 PM, ollienbertsmum said:

My serious  gripe (and for this I felt the pain of the OP) was that, given all the information that we submit when we do online check in, surely there should be some sort of alert  of the issue.  It happens all the time if bank cards fail or when we input wrong info in all sorts of situations.  

 

 

 

May it is RCCL but when I was doing my check in for my March 2020 cruise, it would not allow me to enter my kid's passport info  because it expires in Sept 2020 which is in that 6 months period you need to get a new one....so I did.  

[BirdTravels]

11 hours ago, phillyguy31 said:

The other point is everyone is saying that NCL should have a warning pop up, but obviously the airline didn’t either. 

The point is that NCL does have a pop up warning on the page where you enter your passport number. It has been posted on this thread. 

 

Edited January 18, 2020 by BirdTravels

[Petoonya]

8 hours ago, DinaS said:

 

Insurance is a business like any other, and you have many choices when it comes to purchasing insurance.  

 

If someone chooses NOT to purchase insurance, and they can't get to their cruise for a reason that would have been covered - whose fault is that?

 

We always buy insurance - but NOT from the cruise line.  We buy insurance that covers what we need it to cover.

 

We take responsibility for our actions, just as people should take responsibility for their INACTIONS.

 

It's as if some of us haven't made different mistakes in our pasts.

 

Wise words from a smart guy. "Judge not lest ye be judged", and  "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

 

I give a lot of credit to the poster you are addressing for honesty in admitting a horrendous error. Some of us profit by reading this honest confession.

Some need to extol their own intellect.

 

 

[Oakman58]

5 hours ago, Petoonya said:

 

It's as if some of us haven't made different mistakes in our pasts.

 

Wise words from a smart guy. "Judge not lest ye be judged", and  "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

 

I give a lot of credit to the poster you are addressing for honesty in admitting a horrendous error. Some of us profit by reading this honest confession.

Some need to extol their own intellect.

 

 

 

Of course we've all made mistakes, but most of us don't get on social media and whine about not getting any compensation for making that horrendous mistake.  I feel sorry for the OP but NCL owes them nothing for being a "no-show" at the cruise port.

[Petoonya]

3 hours ago, Oakman58 said:

 

Of course we've all made mistakes, but most of us don't get on social media and whine about not getting any compensation for making that horrendous mistake.  I feel sorry for the OP but NCL owes them nothing for being a "no-show" at the cruise port.

If you read the post that I was referring to, not the OP, you would see that person was not whining, but sharing their experience of not getting insurance on first cruises- and wanting the inexperienced to take note.

And sorry but you're post sounds self-righteous.

[Oakman58]

22 minutes ago, Petoonya said:

If you read the post that I was referring to, not the OP, you would see that person was not whining, but sharing their experience of not getting insurance on first cruises- and wanting the inexperienced to take note.

And sorry but you're post sounds self-righteous.

 

It certainly was self-righteous.  Sorry I misunderstood your post.

[Petoonya]

Just now, Oakman58 said:

 

It certainly was self-righteous.  Sorry I misunderstood your post.

Thanks very much. Much deserved praise to you for being honest and understanding.

Take care and have a great day!   😀😀❤️

 

[mugtech]

16 hours ago, Petoonya said:

Wise words from a smart guy. "Judge not lest ye be judged", and  "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

 

Or as Bill Shakespeare said "The devil can quote the scriptures to suit his purposes."

[reeinaz]

caveat emptor

[reeinaz]

On my NCL vacation summary page, there's a link that says "What You Need to Know Before You Go". When you click on that, the first topic is required travel documentation. Not only does NCL inform the passenger of passport and visa requirements, they even talk about Real ID requirements. So there isn't actually much research required at all.

 

But people care more about if their bed is next to the balcony or the bathroom.🤷‍♀️

[Petoonya]

1 hour ago, mugtech said:

Or as Bill Shakespeare said "The devil can quote the scriptures to suit his purposes."

Touche!!!

[ollienbertsmum]

On 1/17/2020 at 6:11 PM, April42749 said:

But the airline should have had a pop-up too.  In this day and age, when 99% of people do everything on line, programming a pop-up would be an easy way to make sure everyone was warned

 

Over the weekend I had to check in And give API for a couple of flights I am about to make.  I thought about this thread and was surprised that no information came up about any visa requirements.  Therefore although I do think that cruise lines should add an algorithm to highlight when passports do not comply with the 6 month requirement, I also think that airlines should do their part.  Yes of course the passenger should take some responsibility and should not expect compensation if things have gone wrong.  I just think that if you enter the details and a red flag warning does not pop up ...  then I can understand why you feel aggrieved.  

[ollienbertsmum]

On 1/18/2020 at 5:45 AM, BirdTravels said:

The point is that NCL does have a pop up warning on the page where you enter your passport number. It has been posted on this thread. 

 

 

I don’t think that there is any pop up warning that says “no, your passport does not meet the 6 month requirements”.  It certainly did not warn me 15 months ago when I had checked in with all my passport details and only by chance read the actual rules.  At that time I thought that travel within Schengen was Ok with 3 months on a passport. All my documents had been accepted through online booking.  If I had not noticed the small print I would have lost my cruise.  I would have been very upset.  

[cruisequeen4ever]

That’s a very expensive lesson to learn; I’m sorry. I go by the “expires within 6 months” passport rule to play it safe, since many places require that. If you booked through a Travel Agent locally, he/she should have noticed your expiration and said something. If you booked through an online agency, who knows if anyone checks those kinds of things. I still prefer working one on one with a Travel Agent to ask questions and know I’m getting the best info. and in a timely manner. I’m happy for you you at least got travel credit for the airfare and hotel. Hope you can do a Baltic cruise soon; it was very interesting!

[ollienbertsmum]

On 1/18/2020 at 3:10 AM, xcell said:

 

May it is RCCL but when I was doing my check in for my March 2020 cruise, it would not allow me to enter my kid's passport info  because it expires in Sept 2020 which is in that 6 months period you need to get a new one....so I did.     

  

And that is what I think NCL should provide.  We go to the trouble of saving them staff to input the data, the least they could do would be to give us an alert when the data is a problem.  

 

NCL did not alert me.  

[julig22]

3 minutes ago, ollienbertsmum said:

 

I don’t think that there is any pop up warning that says “no, your passport does not meet the 6 month requirements”.  It certainly did not warn me 15 months ago when I had checked in with all my passport details and only by chance read the actual rules.  At that time I thought that travel within Schengen was Ok with 3 months on a passport. All my documents had been accepted through online booking.  If I had not noticed the small print I would have lost my cruise.  I would have been very upset.  

I'm in that 6-month window and nothing has ever been flagged.  Recently booked RT flights to London through Expedia and wasn't even asked for passport info, so no flag there.  But I've known for over a year that I would have to find a window between travels to get the renewal taken care of.

 

Putting a flag would be nice but that might not be as simple as people think, depending on how their system is actually designed.  A simple solution would be to just put a disclaimer where you enter your passport info that reminds you to check your expiration.  However, it was the airline, not NCL, that denied boarding.  OP was in the same situation as anyone who missed their flight and at that point, it was an insurance issue.

 

But now that I have my passport renewed (took about 10 business days), I have to figure out who I have to notify with the new info.  I've changed my NCL check-in information to reflect the new number and expiration date.  KTN apparently goes with the person, not the passport number, so that's ok.  Not sure if I have to notify the airlines, since I don't think they asked when I booked my flight.  Fingers crossed there aren't any glitches!

[ollienbertsmum]

Easy jet seems to get so much negativity. When I went to put my API in last weekend.all I had to do was take a screen shot of my passport and everything was entered correctly.  I was so pleased with that service.  Since my passport still has 9 years to run I am not sure if it would have flagged up any passport issues.  It did not even flag up that I had a bad hair day on the day I had my passport renewed.  As I only found out that I needed a new document at the last minute before my cruise I did not have time to visit my hairdresser before my dreaded passport photo. I am not sure that I am going to stomach ten years with a bad hair day.  

[Dayana]

On 1/13/2020 at 10:04 PM, Sauer-kraut said:

 

This!
A U.S. passport is valid to allow you back into the country up and until the day it expires.  

The airline didn’t allow you to board because the airline is not allowed to transport a person to a country if they don’t meet that countries guidelines for entry.  They will be fined.  Example if you need a visa to enter another country you must present your visa at check in or you will not be permitted to board. 

[smplybcause]

On 1/20/2020 at 3:12 PM, julig22 said:

KTN apparently goes with the person, not the passport number, so that's ok.

 

But, for instance, if your KTN is from Global Entry you need to update your GE with your new passport as it's your passport that you scan to use GE not entering your KTN.

[yoolykeme]

Should have told travel insurance that you got sick, gone to a doctor saying you have coronavirus symptoms, or something.

[hallux]

5 hours ago, yoolykeme said:

gone to a doctor saying you have coronavirus symptoms

Except this happened several weeks prior to that being in the news...