P&Os new cancellation policy - shockingly bad

[terrierjohn]

28 minutes ago, wowzz said:

I'd agree with you about not wanting any financial job in Carnival, or indeed any other holiday company, come to that. 

I wonder if in future cruuse companies might go down the "virtual company" route? Let someone  else build the ships,  and then lease them, subcontract the catering and cleaning, subcontract the entertainment etc.  Basically no overheads, and everyone else carries the risk.  

I think that if that were feasible then all holiday companies would operate that way.

[Eglesbrech]

48 minutes ago, wowzz said:

I'd agree with you about not wanting any financial job in Carnival, or indeed any other holiday company, come to that. 

I wonder if in future cruuse companies might go down the "virtual company" route? Let someone  else build the ships,  and then lease them, subcontract the catering and cleaning, subcontract the entertainment etc.  Basically no overheads, and everyone else carries the risk.  

Marella already do this to an extent, their older ships were leased from Louis Cruises (not sure about the newer ones)and several chunks of staff are not on their books eg shops, spa, entertainment etc

[terrierjohn]

15 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

Marella already do this to an extent, their older ships were leased from Louis Cruises (not sure about the newer ones)and several chunks of staff are not on their books eg shops, spa, entertainment etc

The 4 newest Marella ships are owned and operated by TUI cruises, a 50:50 joint venture between TUI and Royal Caribbean cruises, which also owns the Mein Schiff line.

Edited March 24, 2020 by terrierjohn

[wowzz]

Just had an email from Travelodge about an April booking.  They are refunding 100% of my reservation fee, automatically,  unless I opt in for a credit note with a 25 % bonus.  

Seriously impressed that they are going down the automatic refund route, rather than issuing a credit note. 

[ellie1145]

48 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Just had an email from Travelodge about an April booking.  They are refunding 100% of my reservation fee, automatically,  unless I opt in for a credit note with a 25 % bonus.  

Seriously impressed that they are going down the automatic refund route, rather than issuing a credit note. 

That’s really good news. Great to hear one company is doing right by their customers. They will retain customers by doing that! And let’s face it, they are all going to need to retain customers.

Edited March 24, 2020 by ellie1145

[zap99]

4 hours ago, ellie1145 said:

That’s really good news. Great to hear one company is doing right by their customers. They will retain customers by doing that! And let’s face it, they are all going to need to retain customers.

I cancelled my no changes,no refund booking for 2 nights in Vancouver for June last Wednesday . Marriot cancelled it with no hastle and the Credit is already showing on my cc. Some companies can do it properly. Good customer relations leave a positive impression on customers.

Edited March 24, 2020 by zap99
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[molecrochip]

9 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

Marella already do this to an extent, their older ships were leased from Louis Cruises (not sure about the newer ones)and several chunks of staff are not on their books eg shops, spa, entertainment etc

Shops and spa are not on P&O books nor Art Galleries.

[Eglesbrech]

Celebrity have now confirmed general cancellation of cruises  to 11 May (Alaska to 1 July).

 

They are offering 125% obc or full cash refund within 30 days.

 

P&O will presumably not be too far behind in cancelling the next batch?

[Britboys]

1 hour ago, Eglesbrech said:

Celebrity have now confirmed general cancellation of cruises  to 11 May (Alaska to 1 July).

 

They are offering 125% obc or full cash refund within 30 days.

 

P&O will presumably not be too far behind in cancelling the next batch?

I believe it may be the whole RCI stable that has extended to 11th May, so I would imagine Carnival Corp will not be far behind.

[kenhem]

20 minutes ago, Britboys said:

I believe it may be the whole RCI stable that has extended to 11th May, so I would imagine Carnival Corp will not be far behind.

Carnival have stated on their website they will give an update by Friday.

Edited March 25, 2020 by kenhem

[enjoysummers]

Has anybody been paid out on a cancelled cruise yet? I emailed them about my refund, as I did it through their online form and had received no confirmation email. They sent me a cancellation invoice which is £239.80 short of what I have paid out. Also doesn't include £56 for restaurant booking which I was unable to get refunded. 

[sasmisjas]

I cancelled our May 17th cruise on 17th March, requesting a full refund as my partner is over 70. 
They ‘processed’ it there and then, told me I would get a full refund. 
I immediately was issued with a cancellation invoice showing only 50% followed by 10 minutes later a booking invoice for the cruise. 
So now I’m in limbo waiting for my credit card to  be credited.....or not as the case may be! 

[ellie1145]

2 hours ago, enjoysummers said:

Has anybody been paid out on a cancelled cruise yet? I emailed them about my refund, as I did it through their online form and had received no confirmation email. They sent me a cancellation invoice which is £239.80 short of what I have paid out. Also doesn't include £56 for restaurant booking which I was unable to get refunded. 

How can they justify keeping your money for a restaurant booking? You aren’t going to be eating any food. That’s scandalous. 
 

Will make me think twice about pre-booking anything in the future 

Edited March 26, 2020 by ellie1145

[enjoysummers]

18 hours ago, ellie1145 said:

How can they justify keeping your money for a restaurant booking? You aren’t going to be eating any food. That’s scandalous. 
 

Will make me think twice about pre-booking anything in the future 

I think the handling of their customers is extremely poor. I know their moves are calculated for the good of their business and i can understand that but it's all so deliberate, slow and confusing. Why send me a cancellation invoice with a different amount to what I have paid. It just leaves me, the customer, confused as to what I am going to receive back and potentially have to fight for which in these times nobody should be put in that position to do so. 

[ellie1145]

21 hours ago, sasmisjas said:

I cancelled our May 17th cruise on 17th March, requesting a full refund as my partner is over 70. 
They ‘processed’ it there and then, told me I would get a full refund. 
I immediately was issued with a cancellation invoice showing only 50% followed by 10 minutes later a booking invoice for the cruise. 
So now I’m in limbo waiting for my credit card to  be credited.....or not as the case may be! 

We are in the same boat (no pun intended) but I’m presuming you booked direct with P&O. Unfortunately we booked though a TA and despite there being a no cruise over 70

they said if we cancelled we would get nothing. So we have to wait and see. 

[enjoysummers]

Yes booked direct and waited for them to cancel to take full refund and not the 125% FCC. Ive enjoyed sailing NCL, Princess and RCI in past and this was to be our first P&O. I've emailed back asking them to explain the cancellation amount and where the £56 has gone

[mickrory]

If you book through a TA and the cruise is cancelled by P&O do you get 100% back or does the TA retain their booking fee?

[ellie1145]

1 hour ago, mickrory said:

If you book through a TA and the cruise is cancelled by P&O do you get 100% back or does the TA retain their booking fee?

All I know is that we booked flights and hotel alongside the cruise and when we enquired about how much we would get if we cancelled the cruise they came up with a much lower figure than we had been quoted for the cruise only. Our only hope is if the cruise line cancel and then we should get a full refund. But who knows what will be the reality by May 21st. 

[Mysticalmother]

On 3/21/2020 at 3:28 PM, jeanlyon said:

Thank you Avril.  I don't think I will be paying my balance in July for October, let alone for a cruise in July.  My gut feeling is there will be no cruises this year and even if they wanted to, I don't see the ports opening in Europe.

I can’t see us paying our balance in July either ( for the same cruise as your good-selves) ... we booked a suite for a reason , at a great price at the time, but our balance is still c.£6k. Do I want to run the risk of having a FCC of that amount and no refund...no I certainly don’t!  

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, Mysticalmother said:

I can’t see us paying our balance in July either ( for the same cruise as your good-selves) ... we booked a suite for a reason , at a great price at the time, but our balance is still c.£6k. Do I want to run the risk of having a FCC of that amount and no refund...no I certainly don’t!  

Our next cruise in September is due to be paid by mid June, and under the current terms we will not be paying the balance.  However if they reduced the final balance payment to 6 weeks before cruise date, and allowed FCCs to be used against existing bookings, then we probably would risk it.  Since we would like to cruise in September if its safe, and we have 3 more cruises booked after the September one which will ultimately need paying.

[wowzz]

6 hours ago, mickrory said:

If you book through a TA and the cruise is cancelled by P&O do you get 100% back or does the TA retain their booking fee?

The TA does not get a booking fee. They get a commission on the fare. In many cases the TA will pass some of the commission back to you as an incentive to book through them.

However, at the end of the day, whatever you paid,  you are entitled to a refund of 100% of the sum, once the cruise company cancel the cruise. Which is why P&O  (and many others) are not cancelling cruises until the very last minute.  

[dgs1956]

8 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

Our next cruise in September is due to be paid by mid June, and under the current terms we will not be paying the balance.  However if they reduced the final balance payment to 6 weeks before cruise date, and allowed FCCs to be used against existing bookings, then we probably would risk it.  Since we would like to cruise in September if its safe, and we have 3 more cruises booked after the September one which will ultimately need paying.

We are in a similar position. We have a cruise on 30 May that I would expect to be cancelled and one in December and another in April 2021. We would go with transferring payments to the December one. If not we can only move them as far from now as possible. I think like a lot of people we are not happy with P&O's response or lack of it.

[Tablelamp]

1 hour ago, dgs1956 said:

We are in a similar position. We have a cruise on 30 May that I would expect to be cancelled and one in December and another in April 2021. We would go with transferring payments to the December one. If not we can only move them as far from now as possible. I think like a lot of people we are not happy with P&O's response or lack of it.

 

As things stand at the moment I will not be paying any balances to P & O until things return to normal.  I just don’t understand how, if the foreign office have told us not to travel, how can P and O justify keeping our money.  When I fully paid my balance, it left my account within two hours.

[dgs1956]

22 minutes ago, Tablelamp said:

 

As things stand at the moment I will not be paying any balances to P & O until things return to normal.  I just don’t understand how, if the foreign office have told us not to travel, how can P and O justify keeping our money.  When I fully paid my balance, it left my account within two hours.

I definitely won't be paying any more money to them. I am really angry about the lack of information and the stance they are taking. It is disgraceful. I have never considered P&O to provide a good customer service. Onboard the ship, then yes but if you ever have a complaint then its just brushed away. I am a regular cruiser with P&O and I would have considered myself to be loyal and supportive. That is no longer the case. If it looks like I will loose my deposits then I will reluctantly transfer them.

[Yorky67]

The Australian Circumnavigation (April 12)  and Sydney to Vancouver on Cunard roll call ....Queen Elizabeth, has the same issues aired, but from a Down Under perspective. They are approaching Breakfast TV etc as they say cabins are being resold, as soon as someone cancels. 

Makes interesting reading if you have time. Trouble is ... it isn’t a novel.....but sounds like one in which we are the characters.