MSC now only offering cruise vouchers for cancelled cruises!

[Amion68]

On 14th March my travel

agent (Cruise118) sent out an email notification advising on MSCs policy on passengers booked on to cancelled Caribbean cruises (we are/were booked on Meraviglia on 29/03).

 

The email stated they were offering cruise vouchers OR refunds. 
 

on Saturday 21st I received another email from

cruise118 saying that MSC are now only offering cruise vouchers to the value of 125% of the booking value.

 

Whilst this may appeal to some it is no good for us as we can only travel at Easter...and next Easter my Som will be in his GCSE year. 
 

So I have taken this up both with cruise 118 and MSC and neither seem prepared to take ownership. How can a commercial business state one policy one week and then retract it and say something else one week later!

 It is the supplier (MSC) that has canceled the transaction not me, and as such surely as the consumer I should be entitled to a refund!

 

I really don’t know where else to take this. The travel companies involved are refusing to take ownership whilst its impossible to get through to my travel insurer (so I don’t even know where I stand on that). 
 

Im sorry to add to the post count but I have searched other posts first before posting this. Any advice from anyone in the know would be very much appreciated.

 

 

[IrishComet]

If you paid by credit card, contact the card company and see if they can do anything.( You are not receiving what you paid for)

[Amion68]

1 hour ago, IrishComet said:

If you paid by credit card, contact the card company and see if they can do anything.( You are not receiving what you paid for)

Hi yes done that and they are pointing everyone back to the merchant...who direct you back to the....travel agent....who direct you back to your travel insurer.

 

They are all passing the buck and nobody wants to accept liability. 

[kalkancruiser]

Hi Amion68,

We are in the same situation, booked flight, hotel and cruise package with 118. Contacted them on 16th March when MSC were offering refunds to UK passengers. If I had booked separately I could have had a refund directly, instead I was told to wait my turn, everything would be fine, and I would be refunded in due course. However MSC reneged on that deal and we are now only offered FCC. This is the only itinerary we are interested in, and like you cannot travel next April because of prior plans for next year.  British Airways are offering refunds and again if we had booked separately we would have had this refund too. We were not even offered a partial refund for the flights. 118 should take some responsibility here instead of fobbing us off to insurance or credit card option. If it was a simple med or caribbean cruise I wouldn't mind so much, but we have a lot of money tied up in this 8 week trip. I did get a reply from twitter, just told to email them. Our contract is with 118.

[Amion68]

3 minutes ago, kalkancruiser said:

Hi Amion68,

We are in the same situation, booked flight, hotel and cruise package with 118. Contacted them on 16th March when MSC were offering refunds to UK passengers. If I had booked separately I could have had a refund directly, instead I was told to wait my turn, everything would be fine, and I would be refunded in due course. However MSC reneged on that deal and we are now only offered FCC. This is the only itinerary we are interested in, and like you cannot travel next April because of prior plans for next year.  British Airways are offering refunds and again if we had booked separately we would have had this refund too. We were not even offered a partial refund for the flights. 118 should take some responsibility here instead of fobbing us off to insurance or credit card option. If it was a simple med or caribbean cruise I wouldn't mind so much, but we have a lot of money tied up in this 8 week trip. I did get a reply from twitter, just told to email them. Our contract is with 118.

We booked our flights with Virgin Atlantic (through TravelBag) and the last on that was that Virgin Atlantic were refunding.  I received an email requesting preference on a flight credit or refund and requested the latter (via an online form). I've not heard anything more since (over 1 week on) so the flight refund is far from guaranteed at this stage.  

Then we have a weeks hotel accomodation booked down in Florida Keys with Loveholidays....their stance is that the circumstances are outside of their control.  We also booked 2 nights hotel accomodation in Miami before the cruise with Avios points + part payment, and I've not found anyway way of finding a BA/Avious contact number to resolve that one!.

For us its all resting on our travel insurance now, and their stance is that they only deal with enquiries from people travelling within 48 hours, which is Wednesday for us.

Good luck with it all anyway, and most importantly stay safe.  I will post an update on here if we get any further developments.

[heatherb1958]

The current situation is exceptional but I  am sure it is against the consumer law here in the UK to not give refunds . If you booked a fly cruise package you should be covered by ATOL . 
Have a read through this and see if anything applies .

 

https://www.caa.co.uk/COVID-19/

 

 

We have had one  APT cruise cancelled which we were able to reschedule for next year and I am expecting the RCI May cruise to be cancelled which I think we will accept any FCC offered. I have an ATOL certificate for the May cruise . 

[Amion68]

2 minutes ago, heatherb1958 said:

The current situation is exceptional but I  am sure it is against the consumer law here in the UK to not give refunds . If you booked a fly cruise package you should be covered by ATOL . 
Have a read through this and see if anything applies .

 

https://www.caa.co.uk/COVID-19/

 

 

We have had one  APT cruise cancelled which we were able to reschedule for next year and I am expecting the RCI May cruise to be cancelled which I think we will accept any FCC offered. I have an ATOL certificate for the May cruise . 

Thanks for your feedback.

 

We booked our flights, cruise, hotels all seperately.  However all of the tour operators that we booked through are ATOL covered. 

When I phoned MSC direct they even when as far as to say that ABTA and ATOL had endorsed their T&C's and said they supported them (which surprised me as this seems a blatant breech of consumer rights).

 

The current situation is exceptional as you say however, so one should give them time to sort it all out I suppose.  Its the mixed communication and then MSC reneging on their previous terms that I think is underhand.  

[heatherb1958]

8 minutes ago, Amion68 said:

Thanks for your feedback.

 

We booked our flights, cruise, hotels all seperately.  However all of the tour operators that we booked through are ATOL covered. 

When I phoned MSC direct they even when as far as to say that ABTA and ATOL had endorsed their T&C's and said they supported them (which surprised me as this seems a blatant breech of consumer rights).

 

The current situation is exceptional as you say however, so one should give them time to sort it all out I suppose.  Its the mixed communication and then MSC reneging on their previous terms that I think is underhand.  

I think the cruise lines are hoping a lot of people will take the FCC’s , they are literally sinking with no money coming in . 
I just checked MSC’s terms and conditions for the UK market and it clearly states refunds will be given if MSC cancel your cruise even for a Force Majeure  which Covid -19 certainly is .  Be dogged , determined and hopefully you will get the correct outcome, good luck. 

[Amion68]

39 minutes ago, heatherb1958 said:

I think the cruise lines are hoping a lot of people will take the FCC’s , they are literally sinking with no money coming in . 
I just checked MSC’s terms and conditions for the UK market and it clearly states refunds will be given if MSC cancel your cruise even for a Force Majeure  which Covid -19 certainly is .  Be dogged , determined and hopefully you will get the correct outcome, good luck. 

Interesting. This completely contradicts the email notification that I received from Cruise118 on 21st March. 

[heatherb1958]

1 hour ago, Amion68 said:

Interesting. This completely contradicts the email notification that I received from Cruise118 on 21st March. 

 

like I said they are fighting for survival , hoping people will take the FCCs . There will be companies going bust because of this terrible situation we are all in globally . 

You could also look at this , assuming you paid by card . I am no expert but from what I read on official websites looks like they are breaking the law by not giving a refund if they cancel your cruise.

It is a different kettle of fish if it is the customer wanting to cancel .
 

http://www.theukcardsassociation.org.uk/individual/section-75-for-credit-card-purchases.asp

Edited March 23, 2020 by heatherb1958