P&O cancellation / Medical questionnaire

[Snow Hill]

15 minutes ago, Exiled Brummie said:

This sort of dishonurable way of doing business is all too common these days, the original Covid cancellations when travel companies were refusing any sort of refund was eventually sorted out by some complaints authority (who was that?) that cracked down and made them pay up. We had a Hoseasons boating holiday booked on the Broads and we spent countless hours try to get through by phone, email, letter before they were forced to pay up.

 

It was the Competition and Markets Authority who have the power to deal with companies who fail,to follow the law, in this case it was consumer law that was being breached, in terms of refunds not being paid even though it was required by law.
 

Hopefully we will still have this law in place by the end of 2023 for any future refund needs. 

[Megabear2]

13 hours ago, Exiled Brummie said:

Yes excursions were booked through P&O. As far as insurance cost I thought I had seen a post here from someone that got recompense for their travel insurance as well. My wife and I have several pre-existing medical conditions although all well controlled with medication so we are otherwise fit and active, however travel insurance abroad and especially for a cruise is eye watering. over £700 for us on this particular cruise. We are even more pigsick about this because when we originally booked in 2019, which of course was cancelled due to Covid we could get no refund of the travel insurance or indeed any sort of discount or allowance towards the next one, a similar amount to above if I remember correctly, so all that money paid on two occasions for no benefit, interestingly the insurance company before was??? yes Holiday Extras. They didn't get our business for the next one, not that it mattered the way things have turned out.

This sort of dishonurable way of doing business is all too common these days, the original Covid cancellations when travel companies were refusing any sort of refund was eventually sorted out by some complaints authority (who was that?) that cracked down and made them pay up. We had a Hoseasons boating holiday booked on the Broads and we spent countless hours try to get through by phone, email, letter before they were forced to pay up.

I have a degree of understanding if not sympathy for businesses in this situation but businesses have ways and means of raising funds and support from banks that the private individual does not.

And by the way isn't this 'apologies for delay, blah blah due to Covid' wearing a bit thin now, sounds like an excuse to me.

Thanks guys for assistance so far, will keep you updated  as I know all these posts are helpful to others as well.

Bill D.

I sympathise on the insurance although I'm surprised Holiday Extras didn't allow you to move the insurance once the cruise was rebooked as this is what happened with my family members.

 

Unfortunately with Staysure your policy was in place - was it a single policy rather than annual - and as you had been directed to them by P&O they will have treated your policy as in effect as you attempted a claim and obviously this was dealt with after departure date.

 

I suggest in your negotiations with P&O you try to negotiate some extra compensation for the insurance costs stating it was their wrong information which meant you will be marked as using the policy.

 

The excursions nd and restaurant bookings should have been refunded directly to your card used to pay for them.  Check your statements again and if you haven't had the refunds telephone P&O and ask why not.  These refunds are not in dispute and are owed under P&O's Terms and Conditions.  As such the normal telephone channels should be able to deal with the refunds immediately.

 

I hope that helps, if I can offer anything else please let me know and I'll do my best!

Edited February 2, 2023 by Megabear2

[Exiled Brummie]

Thanks Megabear2,

Had email response from Executive.Correspondence today saying sorry issue  remains unresolved and they have reopened case file.

Not a result yet but not an immediate knock back.

No, Holiday Extras were adament they could not help, either by full refund or even an allowance towards a next policy, you can understand we were mighty peeved at this, with hindsight perhaps we should have persued it further.

Staysure policy was for this cruise only.

I will see what P&O have to say about my claim for insurance costs but will keep your advice up my sleeve in event of a refusal, good point you made I think, it was P&O that caused the insurance to be wasted money.

Bill D.

[Megabear2]

37 minutes ago, Exiled Brummie said:

Thanks Megabear2,

Had email response from Executive.Correspondence today saying sorry issue  remains unresolved and they have reopened case file.

Not a result yet but not an immediate knock back.

No, Holiday Extras were adament they could not help, either by full refund or even an allowance towards a next policy, you can understand we were mighty peeved at this, with hindsight perhaps we should have persued it further.

Staysure policy was for this cruise only.

I will see what P&O have to say about my claim for insurance costs but will keep your advice up my sleeve in event of a refusal, good point you made I think, it was P&O that caused the insurance to be wasted money.

Bill D.

That's good news.  The problem with HE is they were a family business grown rapidly on mainly the airport car parking hotel business.  A couple of management buy outs led to them trying to expand into all things travel.  For a very long time they had big links to Thomas Cook who were their main market.  Like many when the pandemic stopped everything overnight they were caught out, sacked and furloughed nearly all their staff and struggled to survive.

 

They earned a dreadful reputation in the car parking/hotel side in the pandemic era with the ridiculous cancellation charges and vouchers you couldn't use.  They have a big tie up with the major travel agencies which doesn't help either.  If you look to book parking through them nowadays they only offer their own subsidiaries whereas previously you had a lot of other options. Rumour has it there were so many problems with the vouchers etc that some hotels and operators didn't want to do business with them, no idea of course if it's TRUE!

 

I'm guessing, only a personal opinion, that they pay handsomely for the recommendations and tie ups and keeping things under one umbrella suits the big companies.

 

Holiday Extras were not always P&O and Cunard's preferred insurer it's a fairly recent deal (if I recall around 5 years).  Their previous recommended company pulled out of the travel insurance market following something of a scandal with the claims company (they weren't the only company to be affected).

 

They also had to change their claims handler/underwriters when TIF moved out of the market. Great Lakes are the people offering this service now and they are slightly better for the customer.

 

I think your timing put you in the middle of that financial crisis/mess up unfortunately.

 

Looking forward to hearing how you get on.

 

HE's history if anyone is interested:

 

https://www.holidayextras.com/about-us/company-history.html#:~:text=1983 - Holiday Extras founded as Apple Booking Company&text=Gerry decided that this was,worked solely with travel agents.

Edited February 2, 2023 by Megabear2

[davecttr]

Do they still have the paper questionnaire that you scribble on at the terminal?

[Megabear2]

46 minutes ago, davecttr said:

Do they still have the paper questionnaire that you scribble on at the terminal?

There's supposed to be people with tablets asking the questions but I don't know anyone who's actually had recent experience.  A lady at the airport when we flew just asked about covid symptoms nothing else.

[niltava42]

20 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

There's supposed to be people with tablets asking the questions but I don't know anyone who's actually had recent experience.  A lady at the airport when we flew just asked about covid symptoms nothing else.

On the 14th January at Southampton, we were directed straight to a check-in desk upon arrival and all we were asked regarding Health was "Are you both fit to travel?"

Nick 

[Exiled Brummie]

Another update guys, following complaining to Executive Documents who responded they instructed P&O to re open file, I have today had email off P&O.

My hopes that they had accepted complaint were soon dashed as it was basically a page of blah blah, referring again to our insurance policy. They have paid no heed to my comments on 'uninsurable event' , 'we know passengers with identical issue had been paid', 'change of Ts&Cs' etc etc.

So I am no further forward basically although they did mention in passing about a FCC being available, this is the first mention we have had  right from the start about a FCC.

My continuing complaint to ABTA has not been answered yet.

Where to next, need to sleep on it.

Bill D.

[Gettingwarmer]

13 hours ago, Exiled Brummie said:

Another update guys, following complaining to Executive Documents who responded they instructed P&O to re open file, I have today had email off P&O.

My hopes that they had accepted complaint were soon dashed as it was basically a page of blah blah, referring again to our insurance policy. They have paid no heed to my comments on 'uninsurable event' , 'we know passengers with identical issue had been paid', 'change of Ts&Cs' etc etc.

So I am no further forward basically although they did mention in passing about a FCC being available, this is the first mention we have had  right from the start about a FCC.

My continuing complaint to ABTA has not been answered yet.

Where to next, need to sleep on it.

Bill D.

I thought FCCs were what other people had received so if you have been offered that I would take it as a good result. 

 

 

 

[Exiled Brummie]

Well this offer was worded  'I can set up a FCC for you', this on the basis of evidence from our insurance that they have not or will not compensate for cancellation. (this was covered by several postings here which showed the situation was an uninsurable event)

A FCC presumably will not compensate for excursions and insurance which are of course paid for.

What actually does a FCC give you anyway, does it fully cover cost of a similar cruise or an allowance towards, sounds a good deal for P&O  either way to me whereas we have incurred a considerable loss for no fault of ours, I'm sure a decent lawyer would blow holes in the P&O case.

Still thinking carefully our next step.

Bill D.

[Exiled Brummie]

Hi all, well seem to be locked in a stalemate between P&O saying they need evidence that Insurance company have refused to pay before they will consider any compensation and insurance company saying they want similar evidence that P&O are refusing compensation, unsure which way to jump in case we  damage our case with one or the other. Any assistance from you guys that have been through this would be appreciated. Got back onto ABTA after their disappointing response (they said they could not interfere with members T&Cs) no response yet, every step seems to take several weeks for a response.

[Exiled Brummie]

Well persistance pays, finally complained to head of P&O and Carnival UK, got reply next day with apologies. Now have full refund of all our money, cruise, excursions and travel insurance.

Wonder why I didn't do this to start with but perhaps we needed to go through the usual procedures first.

Needles to say delighted with result and restored our faith in P&O somewhat.

 

Thanks to all those that helped with advice on this forum.

Bill D.

[Megabear2]

2 hours ago, Exiled Brummie said:

Well persistance pays, finally complained to head of P&O and Carnival UK, got reply next day with apologies. Now have full refund of all our money, cruise, excursions and travel insurance.

Wonder why I didn't do this to start with but perhaps we needed to go through the usual procedures first.

Needles to say delighted with result and restored our faith in P&O somewhat.

 

Thanks to all those that helped with advice on this forum.

Bill D.

Delighted you got the result you were entitled to.  

 

 

[Exiled Brummie]

Thank you for your help Megabear2.

Bill D.

[watsonbeau]

So pleased you have got a result. Just sad that these huge companies make it so difficult. Persistance however has paid off. Well done.