Caribbean 2021/22

[lolabarola]

Hi

 

We‘re due to pay our holiday balance for our Britannia caribbean cruise this week  but still no flight details received. Since my daughter‘s shorter 7 night Caribbean returning from St Lucia was recently cancelled apparently because of flight issues I‘m getting a bit twitchy! So I’m looking for some reassurance…..has anyone cruising on Britannia for the 2021/2022 season had their flight details confirmed yet?

[Marmaduke]

In answer to your question,  No we have not yet recieved any flight details.  We are due to travel in late February  and normally by now we would have been notified of the flights.   Our balance in not due until November but I am becoming increasingly uncertain as to whether we will go ahead and pay or just take a hit and loose the low deposit.  There are currently too many unknowns regarding these cruises and I can't see the situation improving in the next few months.

[Jennizor]

On all our previous Caribbean cruises the flight details have been given approximately 90 days before flight date. We are going on 4th December so expecting to know something in the next few. I will not be surprised if we don’t as so many things have been delayed with COVID-19. We are hoping to go the Med on 25th of this month but not received confirmation yet. After 4 cancelled cruises, nothing will surprise me. 

[chrisg1uk]

Can't give you any reassurance I'm afraid but possibly an explanation.  I think P&O have a problem as TUI are not bringing back all their 787 fleet anytime soon. Only very recently TUI announced they were cancelling more of their own charter flight based holidays including some to long haul destinations. So it could well be a capacity issue and therefore those flights that are going will be very popular and therefore expensive. Obviously there are other aircraft that could be chartered but its not simple as airlines are simply not willing to restart aircraft with so much uncertainty.

 

 

[wowzz]

34 minutes ago, chrisg1uk said:

Can't give you any reassurance I'm afraid but possibly an explanation.  I think P&O have a problem as TUI are not bringing back all their 787 fleet anytime soon. Only very recently TUI announced they were cancelling more of their own charter flight based holidays including some to long haul destinations. So it could well be a capacity issue and therefore those flights that are going will be very popular and therefore expensive. Obviously there are other aircraft that could be chartered but its not simple as airlines are simply not willing to restart aircraft with so much uncertainty.

 

 

Good post. What happened in the past, with regards to flight details, is not really relevant today. Bringing an aircraft out of long term storage is an expensive process, and not undertaken lightly.

I think everyone with a Caribbean cruise is really going to have to make a leap of faith when paying the balance.

[jeanlyon]

Agree, but if really worried, just move the cruise to a different one next year.

[lolabarola]

Thanks for the explanation; it does make sense, although increases my doubts of it going ahead! Of course we could reschedule (this is actually one of our rescheduled cancellations from last year) but that‘s not the point really…I‘m just keen to get onboard, preferably with the family and preferably somewhere sunny….

[soulstar]

We're on the Britannia TA  Oct. 22nd. 2021 & flying back from Barbados 2 weeks later. Our travel agent still has no flight details from P&O. Should I be worried 😲

[Denarius]

I am due to sail on Azura in Jan 2022, flying from Manchester. Rearrangement of a cancelled cruise last January.

Booked via local branch of well known travel agency. Enquired recently re. what they know about P&Os Caribbean season and the likelyhood of actually sailing. Was told that the problem is (as others have said) the reduced availability of charter flights, which has led to the cancellation of all the St Lucia sailings and flights from some UK airports. Flights from Manchester are believed to be unaffected - for now!

Fingers crossed.

[firsttimer086]

We're due to fly out to Barbados on the 4th of December, and just received our flight details last night via email from our TA.

 

We used FCC to book the cruise as it was a cancellation from last December, so had already paid the full balance. It's unclear from the guidance whether we could've transferred this cruise as we didn't have a "balance due" date to work towards.

[lolabarola]

We should be flying from London, usually Gatwick. When I raised it with my TA a week or so ago I was told there was no problem; they were running a bit late and had started notifying the transatlantic passengers so it wouldn‘t be much longer before we were notified.

 

Oh Good news that firsttimer has been notified of flight details, maybe it‘ll be ok after all! 

Edited September 1, 2021 by lolabarola

[Jennizor]

53 minutes ago, firsttimer086 said:

We're due to fly out to Barbados on the 4th of December, and just received our flight details last night via email from our TA.

 

We used FCC to book the cruise as it was a cancellation from last December, so had already paid the full balance. It's unclear from the guidance whether we could've transferred this cruise as we didn't have a "balance due" date to work towards.

Can I ask where are you flying from? We are due to out from Manchester on 4th December but not had anything from our TA yet. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, firsttimer086 said:

We're due to fly out to Barbados on the 4th of December, and just received our flight details last night via email from our TA.

 

We used FCC to book the cruise as it was a cancellation from last December, so had already paid the full balance. It's unclear from the guidance whether we could've transferred this cruise as we didn't have a "balance due" date to work towards.

Oh fab. We are flying 25th and we’re getting worried!

 

What airport are you flying out of and which airline is it? There were rumours of it being Virgin as they had more aircraft available 

[Bazrat]

3 hours ago, soulstar said:

We're on the Britannia TA  Oct. 22nd. 2021 & flying back from Barbados 2 weeks later. Our travel agent still has no flight details from P&O. Should I be worried 😲

We are on that cruise was told our flights back have been switched from Birmingham to Manchester, they gave us obc for the switch and we kept our premium seats, plus they refunded the price difference so will done pando.

 

[wowzz]

23 minutes ago, Bazrat said:

We are on that cruise was told our flights back have been switched from Birmingham to Manchester, they gave us obc for the switch and we kept our premium seats, plus they refunded the price difference so will done pando.

 

For once, P&O seem to have done the right thing straight away.

[soulstar]

Well, that's good to hear. I've checked on P&O manage my booking site, & it's still saying no flight details as yet!!!! Same info as given by our travel agent a couple of days ago.

Very confused!

[Bazrat]

2 hours ago, soulstar said:

Well, that's good to hear. I've checked on P&O manage my booking site, & it's still saying no flight details as yet!!!! Same info as given by our travel agent a couple of days ago.

Very confused!

They contacted us but like yourselves we do not know which time our flight is, but not worried still a long way off, we have in the past on land based holidays been given all the details, but a few days before was told it was going to be a different plane and airline bringing us back so things can change.

[Bazrat]

2 hours ago, wowzz said:

For once, P&O seem to have done the right thing straight away.

Actually it didn’t go that smoothly, first they told us all premium seats have gone so phoned for reimbursement than to be told we had them.

[Waju]

Someone has posted just down the page a P&O message with the latest cancellations.

 

Its all really sad, does anyone think they may carry on with staycation cruises over the winter?

 

 

[terrierjohn]

27 minutes ago, Waju said:

Someone has posted just down the page a P&O message with the latest cancellations.

 

Its all really sad, does anyone think they may carry on with staycation cruises over the winter?

 

 

I don't think these are new cancellations, the dates seem to be those advised about 2 months ago.

[Angel57]

21 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I don't think these are new cancellations, the dates seem to be those advised about 2 months ago.

I agree John as it says Aurora’ s last cancelled cruise before April 2022 is R201 which was the world cruise.

[jeanlyon]

But Britannia fly cruises to St Lucia are all cancelled?

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

But Britannia fly cruises to St Lucia are all cancelled?

These have been cancelled for a while. They can’t get the aircraft to fly to St Lucia. A few people on here have said they have had to move to Barbados sailings 

[jeanlyon]

17 minutes ago, Glitterati said:

These have been cancelled for a while. They can’t get the aircraft to fly to St Lucia. A few people on here have said they have had to move to Barbados sailings 

OK sorry, didn't realize.

[Adawn47]

1 hour ago, jeanlyon said:

OK sorry, didn't realize.

Have you seen the new thread on cancelled cruises Jean? I know you have one in April 2022 on Aurora but I don't know when. 

Avril