Cunard's "new" cancellation policy... what was your experience?

[Commodore Suzy]

We all made note when Cunard changed their cancellation policy between the "introducing" QM2 brochure and the "2004" QM2 brochure. They added a $75 fee for cancelling at any time and added 10% penalty for cancelling 120-90 days out... even before the final is due.

I was just wanting to know if there were any war stories out there where folks confronted the new policy in having to cancel. Did you have any success? Did you book under the original cancellation policies, and get confronted with the $75 fee or the 10% penalty if you had to cancel later?

I have a friend who had a TERRIBLE experience. He booked a QM2 voyage way way in advance, had a burst water heater in his house that caused thousands of damage, and had to cancel his cruise. Now, the water heater incident was months ago.... but he didn't realize anything about the new policies, so he was in no hurry to cancel. (Of course still hoping he could swing both costs.. but he can't.)

Further, his TA didn't even warn him about the true "final" payment deadline of 90 days. He was thinking final was about 75 days out or so, and called his TA at 88 days to inquire. At that point, Cunard had already taken his whole deposit as non-refundable, and assigned his cabin to someone else.

He is trying to get a future cruise credit for the lost deposit and has written a letter to the President of Cunard.. not sure of the address.

Any folks who've gotten the "non-refundable" deposit credited or refunded.. how did you do it? Whom did you contact? Any more suggestions I can pass on to my friend? (Besides the fact that he will never use that TA again.) [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

Thanks!

Suzy

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[mufi]

We have all been caught by not reading the small print, like the recent passengers who could not leave the ship in Mumbai because they did not have Indian visas.

Did your friend not have house insurance that would have covered his water damage.

Did he have travel insurance that would have covered legitimate cacellation.

David.