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Maleth confirms end of P&O partnership

minsterman

By minsterman,
in P&O Cruises ( UK )

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Megabear2 "Live from...." Rare

Megabear2

Posted
Posted

As I said way back in this thread the real conundrum is not those individuals who are already booked but the effect this decision will have to future bookings, ie the cruises still on sale - and there's a lot of them.  Once the dust has settled on the bookings made P&O is clearly going to have customers having a crisis of confidence in them.

 

The sensible thing to do would be to put their hands up, say we are sorry for how we handled it both with the agents and those booked.  

 

I've just revisited the list of flights involved: there appear to be 40 in total.  If every PE seat has been booked on these flights (and I doubt that is the case) we are looking at 63 passengers per flight which means we have a maximum 2,520 people affected.   If each person has paid in full their £409 supplement, again doubtful, P&O have already committed to refund £1,030,680 due to not being able to offer this cabin.  Given that a large number of these 2,520 people won't have paid their balance we are looking at most being on a 10% deposit.  Using my own cruise as an example at a cost of £6378 plus £818 PE supplement (total £7196 for 2) we are looking at £719.60 deposit for PE customers and using £1,300 as the entry cost for a basic inside saver cabin plus £818 PE supplement (total £3418 for 2) we are looking at £341.80 deposit if they have PE.  This gives us an average of £530.70 deposit and we know that many of the deposits will not be 10% (my own is £300, Pastyfeet's was £200) but for this exercise we will work on 10%.

 

If every one of those 2,520 people were given back their deposits P&O refunds £1,337,364 in full to the PE passengers across the season.

 

We have therefore already refunded/awarded

 

£1,030,680 already refunded

£189,000 in OBC granted

 

If we allow free cancellation of PE passengers we can add at a rough estimate another £1,337,364 to those figures.

 

Faced with these losses which are at the least £1,219,680 adding a rough estimated further £1,337,364 to the loss is inevitably going to be fought.

 

What P&O now need to consider is whether the damage to their brand and the confidence of the future passenger and travel agents is worth this £1.3m or so.

 

Answers on a postcard ...

 

 

 

 

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kevcharben

kevcharben

Posted
Posted

I have tried to book PE on my cruise in Sept, unfortuantely it is full, does that mean I would be entitled to a refund of my deposit?

Will it stop me going? No but that is my choice, I am 6'2" and will just have to live with it.

I fully understand those for 'medical' reasons who need more room

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zap99

zap99

Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, kevcharben said:

I have tried to book PE on my cruise in Sept, unfortuantely it is full, does that mean I would be entitled to a refund of my deposit?

Will it stop me going? No but that is my choice, I am 6'2" and will just have to live with it.

I fully understand those for 'medical' reasons who need more room

If you tried to book PE and it was full, what deposit ?.

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Denarius

Denarius

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, zap99 said:

Give you the option to cancel the booking and have all money refunded.

I agree. I had a similar situation earlier this year. I had booked a river fly cruise which included only provisional flight details because at the time I booked the flight schedule was yet to be confirmed by the airline. Unfortunately the airline withdrew the service which meant that the river cruise company had to source an alternative flight with another airline. The only flight available was at a very unsociable hour. In informing us of this, they asked us to confirm that we accepted the change and offered cancelation with a full refund of monies paid if we did not. Contractually I am not sure that they were obliged to do this, but I am sure that in customer and public relations terms it was the right thing to do. In the event I understand that most of us accepted the change but the fact that we had the option not to do so meant that the company avoided bad publicity.

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Sunlog

Sunlog

Posted
Posted
31 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

As I said way back in this thread the real conundrum is not those individuals who are already booked but the effect this decision will have to future bookings, ie the cruises still on sale - and there's a lot of them.  Once the dust has settled on the bookings made P&O is clearly going to have customers having a crisis of confidence in them.

 

The sensible thing to do would be to put their hands up, say we are sorry for how we handled it both with the agents and those booked.  

 

I've just revisited the list of flights involved: there appear to be 40 in total.  If every PE seat has been booked on these flights (and I doubt that is the case) we are looking at 63 passengers per flight which means we have a maximum 2,520 people affected.   If each person has paid in full their £409 supplement, again doubtful, P&O have already committed to refund £1,030,680 due to not being able to offer this cabin.  Given that a large number of these 2,520 people won't have paid their balance we are looking at most being on a 10% deposit.  Using my own cruise as an example at a cost of £6378 plus £818 PE supplement (total £7196 for 2) we are looking at £719.60 deposit for PE customers and using £1,300 as the entry cost for a basic inside saver cabin plus £818 PE supplement (total £3418 for 2) we are looking at £341.80 deposit if they have PE.  This gives us an average of £530.70 deposit and we know that many of the deposits will not be 10% (my own is £300, Pastyfeet's was £200) but for this exercise we will work on 10%.

 

If every one of those 2,520 people were given back their deposits P&O refunds £1,337,364 in full to the PE passengers across the season.

 

We have therefore already refunded/awarded

 

£1,030,680 already refunded

£189,000 in OBC granted

 

If we allow free cancellation of PE passengers we can add at a rough estimate another £1,337,364 to those figures.

 

Faced with these losses which are at the least £1,219,680 adding a rough estimated further £1,337,364 to the loss is inevitably going to be fought.

 

What P&O now need to consider is whether the damage to their brand and the confidence of the future passenger and travel agents is worth this £1.3m or so.

 

Answers on a postcard ...

 

 

 

 

We’ve been waiting for November 2025 prices to come out for Caribbean had such a lovely time last year and enjoyed premium economy. Such a shame they did this huge mistake we will now not be booking our 2025 fly cruise with them. 

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CarlaMarie

CarlaMarie

Posted
Posted (edited)
12 minutes ago, Denarius said:

I agree. I had a similar situation earlier this year. I had booked a river fly cruise which included only provisional flight details because at the time I booked the flight schedule was yet to be confirmed by the airline. Unfortunately the airline withdrew the service which meant that the river cruise company had to source an alternative flight with another airline. The only flight available was at a very unsociable hour. In informing us of this, they asked us to confirm that we accepted the change and offered cancelation with a full refund of monies paid if we did not. Contractually I am not sure that they were obliged to do this, but I am sure that in customer and public relations terms it was the right thing to do. In the event I understand that most of us accepted the change but the fact that we had the option not to do so meant that the company avoided bad publicity.

 

This is the difference in handling something well, sensibly and with alot of consideration to the passengers. The passenger then appreciates the situation and the gestures/options from the company. 

 

P&O don't seem to get this right. It is a toss up between whether they don't want to and expect the passenger to accept any changes, or because they just don't know how to. 

Edited by CarlaMarie
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zap99

zap99

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

This must be a European flu cruise and therefore assumedly it will be at the seat booking/picking stage rather than booking PE at the time of booking with P&O?

European fly cruises with P&O don't offer PE, as far as I know.

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majortom10

majortom10

Posted
Posted

I don't understand how P&O go from one corporate disaster to the next on a very regular basis and treat their loyal customers with contempt yet people still book with them. Open your eyes there are plenty of cruise lines who would willingly accept your business and not treat you the same way as P&O do. The worst of it all the numpty in charge gets promoted while talking twaddle to the press the most famous one i.e 99.9%.

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zap99

zap99

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

I don't understand how P&O go from one corporate disaster to the next on a very regular basis and treat their loyal customers with contempt yet people still book with them. Open your eyes there are plenty of cruise lines who would willingly accept your business and not treat you the same way as P&O do. The worst of it all the numpty in charge gets promoted while talking twaddle to the press the most famous one i.e 99.9%.

We have an Arvia cruise booked for April, but as we could do with a few more NCL/RCI points, that may be it for a while.

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zap99

zap99

Posted
Posted
29 minutes ago, Denarius said:

I agree. I had a similar situation earlier this year. I had booked a river fly cruise which included only provisional flight details because at the time I booked the flight schedule was yet to be confirmed by the airline. Unfortunately the airline withdrew the service which meant that the river cruise company had to source an alternative flight with another airline. The only flight available was at a very unsociable hour. In informing us of this, they asked us to confirm that we accepted the change and offered cancelation with a full refund of monies paid if we did not. Contractually I am not sure that they were obliged to do this, but I am sure that in customer and public relations terms it was the right thing to do. In the event I understand that most of us accepted the change but the fact that we had the option not to do so meant that the company avoided bad publicity.

We booked a tour of Nova Scotia with Globus flying direct to Halifax. When all the 737max's were grounded, Globus emailed me asking if I would like to cancel, or for them to arrange alternative flights via Toronto. We accepted their alternative and they got 2 happy customers, who have since booked with them again.

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Megabear2 "Live from...." Rare

Megabear2

Posted
Posted
19 minutes ago, zap99 said:

European fly cruises with P&O don't offer PE, as far as I know.

No but when you seat select some of the operators do so I assume he is referring to that.  I was offered a supposed PE seat on TUI from Kefalonia, it was actually 2 rows of seats with extra legroom in rows 2 and 3.  They charged £78 for the dubious privilege but thanks to a warning from Wowzz I didn't book it.

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zap99

zap99

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

No but when you seat select some of the operators do so I assume he is referring to that.  I was offered a supposed PE seat on TUI from Kefalonia, it was actually 2 rows of seats with extra legroom in rows 2 and 3.  They charged £78 for the dubious privilege but thanks to a warning from Wowzz I didn't book it.

We try and book the extra leg room seats on TUI. They have added a few more rows now.  We fly with them on Monday. I think it was £18 per seat each way. To us that is well worth it. On BA club is a lot more than that, with not much, if any extra legroom. We did a fly cruise to Tenerife in February. Seat selection didn't charge extra for the ' good ' rows so we got extra legroom free. Makes a change to get one over P&O🤣

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Megabear2 "Live from...." Rare

Megabear2

Posted
Posted
19 minutes ago, suepugh said:

I wish that those who are either unaffected by the change, or unconcerned, would stop belittling those who have genuine worries. It’s just plain nasty.

If you read the thread in its entirety most have great sympathy with those who have lost their PE seating. However all the worrying and upset is not unfortunately not going to change P&Os mind.  

 

As it stands they are it seems fulfilling their obligation in refunding the fare for the PE.  Although it would be morally correct to allow free cancellation to those people they have chosen not to. It is their right under the contract. 

 

Pressure from travel agents and bad publicity may change their mind, although personally I doubt it.  

 

No one is being nasty, this is a site where P&O's actions, customer service etc is regularly discussed.  I am one of those who is regularly in dispute on these boards over P&O's offering, believe me others knock me down regularly!  They aren't being nasty just expressing their opinions.

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zap99

zap99

Posted
Posted
51 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

If you read the thread in its entirety most have great sympathy with those who have lost their PE seating. However all the worrying and upset is not unfortunately not going to change P&Os mind.  

 

As it stands they are it seems fulfilling their obligation in refunding the fare for the PE.  Although it would be morally correct to allow free cancellation to those people they have chosen not to. It is their right under the contract. 

 

Pressure from travel agents and bad publicity may change their mind, although personally I doubt it.  

 

No one is being nasty, this is a site where P&O's actions, customer service etc is regularly discussed.  I am one of those who is regularly in dispute on these boards over P&O's offering, believe me others knock me down regularly!  They aren't being nasty just expressing their opinions.

You are right. The only real solution is to cancel this one and think very carefully about future bookings. There are a few nasty comments.  For some folk no PE means no flight. Us included. That's why we cancelled.  The base price for the cruise is now about £1,000 less + the PE premium. Still not tempted.

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Interestedcruisefan "Live from...." Rare

Interestedcruisefan

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, majortom10 said:

I don't understand how P&O go from one corporate disaster to the next on a very regular basis and treat their loyal customers with contempt yet people still book with them. Open your eyes there are plenty of cruise lines who would willingly accept your business and not treat you the same way as P&O do. The worst of it all the numpty in charge gets promoted while talking twaddle to the press the most famous one i.e 99.9%.

Because the guy making the decisions is young and out of his depth

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Interestedcruisefan "Live from...." Rare

Interestedcruisefan

Posted
Posted (edited)
31 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Have you found outif you're on it yet?

Honest answer is I've not checked. 

 

It's not a big concern to me and I've been busy lately 

 

I'm thinking I will be and if I find out I'm not it's a bonus

 

Will check next few days  though 

 

Wouldnt actually mind being a guinea pig for them and reporting back how bad (or good) it is compared to normal

 

Can't be anywhere as good as a dreamliner  though

 

But even on a dreamliner flights are just something I endure rather than enjoy

Edited by Interestedcruisefan
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