P&O are still aiming for May cruises to go ahead ???

[Britboys]

Just in case anyone is coming to this thread new, I think it is worth me saying again that as far as I am aware, P&O do not appear to be operating in any significantly different way to most other mainstream cruise lines or package holiday companies.  Rightly or wrongly, they are all just trying to stay afloat in very difficult circumstances.

[daiB]

1 hour ago, Britboys said:

Just in case anyone is coming to this thread new, I think it is worth me saying again that as far as I am aware, P&O do not appear to be operating in any significantly different way to most other mainstream cruise lines or package holiday companies.  Rightly or wrongly, they are all just trying to stay afloat in very difficult circumstances.

Well said Andrew.

 

Dai

[daiB]

2 hours ago, Trevor Fountain said:

Fair enough Glittergal, maybe I did miss your point. Hope you do eventually get to sail away, and have a wonderful time.

 

I told you that and you said it was irrelevant.

[daiB]

5 hours ago, glittergal1 said:

I think you missed the point of my Original Post to start the thread

I was pretty sure and Im still pretty sure that Cruises will not be going ahead for many many months maybe even not at all this year .

However the point of the Post Was that P&O were still trying to take money off people for cruises (we are pretty sure  wouldnt go ahead) 

And P&O continue to tell people that they need to pay the balances for their upcoming cruises (cruises we are pretty sure still wont sail) 

P&O leaves everyone in Limbo If you were to have a cruise to set  sail on May 17th and rang P&O today to ask if it was still sailing I can guarantee they wouldnt Say NO  

Only they are doing the same as everyone else. Royal Caribbean, Warner’s Holidays etc.

[Eglesbrech]

12 minutes ago, daiB said:

Only they are doing the same as everyone else. Royal Caribbean, Warner’s Holidays etc.

Two wrongs don’t make a right.

 

They may be doing the same as many others but it does not make it right or fair given how strictly they (and other travel firms) applied their T&Cs to customers. 

 

They will happily retain the lost deposits for people who don’t want to take what, at that the moment at least, is a bit of a gamble by paying the balance on a holiday in the next few months. So no movement from them on for example extending the final payment dates but customers are expected to wait 60 days for a refund which is due within 14 days. It’s all very one sided.

 

Some companies are behaving differently and customers will remember that fact, two personal examples Coast and Country and Hilton both of whom cancelled in good time and money back in the bank.

 

[daiB]

3 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

Two wrongs don’t make a right.

 

They may be doing the same as many others but it does not make it right or fair given how strictly they (and other travel firms) applied their T&Cs to customers. 

 

They will happily retain the lost deposits for people who don’t want to take what, at that the moment at least, is a bit of a gamble by paying the balance on a holiday in the next few months. So no movement from them on for example extending the final payment dates but customers are expected to wait 60 days for a refund which is due within 14 days. It’s all very one sided.

 

Some companies are behaving differently and customers will remember that fact, two personal examples Coast and Country and Hilton both of whom cancelled in good time and money back in the bank.

 

No it called industry standard. Or possibly survival mode.

 

Why do you expect any cruise company to second guess when they can restart. No one knows. The industry has deeded to cancel a month at a time so when it is safe they can start up again with some bookings intact.

[Britboys]

21 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

...Some companies are behaving differently and customers will remember that fact, two personal examples Coast and Country and Hilton both of whom cancelled in good time and money back in the bank.

 

I don't know who Coast and Country are but I would wonder whether it is considerably easier for a hotel chain to be flexible. Hotels such as Hilton tend to have a high level of flexible booking made by business clients, so perhaps the cheaper 'fixed' bookings are in the minority?  Additionally, in general, hotels such as this have far fewer staff to worry about and a hotel is much cheaper to 'mothball' than a ship.  The ships are all still crewed to some extent and have ongoing running costs far in excess of a land-based hotel that can effectively, just shut down.  Cruise lines will have to keep quite a high number of staff on 'stand-by' ready to leap back in to action as soon as the virus situation eases sufficiently to resume sailing.

It just seems to me that a 'pause' in business is likely to cost a cruise line a lot more than a hotel chain such as Hilton.

Its also worth noting that P&O will not be taking this decision independently.  It will be Carnival Corporation that is in the driving seat with this - hence HAL and Carnival making the same announcements yesterday re the next cancellation period as P&O and Cunard.

[tring]

35 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

 

They may be doing the same as many others but it does not make it right or fair given how strictly they (and other travel firms) applied their T&Cs to customers. 

 

They will happily retain the lost deposits for people who don’t want to take what, at that the moment at least, is a bit of a gamble by paying the balance on a holiday in the next few months. So no movement from them on for example extending the final payment dates but customers are expected to wait 60 days for a refund which is due within 14 days. It’s all very one sided.

 

 

 

This is a valid point.  We have a cruise due in July with balance due in two weeks (CMV rather than P&O, but as mentioned above the same principle applies).  If we were allowed to delay the payment date, the we would keep the booking for a while and may in a month or two decide on re booking or accepting a FCC if allowed to do so (provided there are changes for ABTA coverage by then if the company were to fold).  That could result in a future booking from us, quite possibly for a higher cost than the original one.

 

As it stands we will lose our deposit and would not be looking at them again, as I am sure there will be a lot more holiday booking opportunities after this settles.  I agree with another recent poster that holidays in the UK can be very pleasant and something we would like to do as well. 

Edited March 31, 2020 by tring

[Eglesbrech]

8 minutes ago, Britboys said:

I don't know who Coast and Country are but I would wonder whether it is considerably easier for a hotel chain to be flexible. Hotels such as Hilton tend to have a high level of flexible booking made by business clients, so perhaps the cheaper 'fixed' bookings are in the minority?  Additionally, in general, hotels such as this have far fewer staff to worry about and a hotel is much cheaper to 'mothball' than a ship.  The ships are all still crewed to some extent and have ongoing running costs far in excess of a land-based hotel that can effectively, just shut down.  Cruise lines will have to keep quite a high number of staff on 'stand-by' ready to leap back in to action as soon as the virus situation eases sufficiently to resume sailing.

It just seems to me that a 'pause' in business is likely to cost a cruise line a lot more than a hotel chain such as Hilton.

Its also worth noting that P&O will not be taking this decision independently.  It will be Carnival Corporation that is in the driving seat with this - hence HAL and Carnival making the same announcements yesterday re the next cancellation period as P&O and Cunard.

I don’t disagree with many of your points. I only mentioned hotels because Dai used them in his example as dong the same as everyone else but everyone else is manifestly not doing the same.

[Eglesbrech]

34 minutes ago, daiB said:

No it called industry standard. Or possibly survival mode.

 

Why do you expect any cruise company to second guess when they can restart. No one knows. The industry has deeded to cancel a month at a time so when it is safe they can start up again with some bookings intact.

It is not industry standard, the standard is contained in the terms and conditions we all signed up to, which they are now not abiding by.

 

I do agree it is survival mode however I think that a bit more come and go with customers might actually be more effective in helping them to survive in the longer term. There have been a number of good suggestions from others as to how P&O could help customers and help themselves eg moving the final payment date from 12 weeks to 6 weeks or allowing people to apply any cancelled cruise money to a future cruise booking.
 

If folks already have numerous cruises booked well ahead an FCC is no use to them so they will want their money back in hard cash: allow them to apply a refund to a future cruise and both the booking and the money are retained by P&O.

 

As I said above all the changes are very one sided.

 

 

[daiB]

5 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

It is not industry standard, the standard is contained in the terms and conditions we all signed up to, which they are now not abiding by.

 

I do agree it is survival mode however I think that a bit more come and go with customers might actually be more effective in helping them to survive in the longer term. There have been a number of good suggestions from others as to how P&O could help customers and help themselves eg moving the final payment date from 12 weeks to 6 weeks or allowing people to apply any cancelled cruise money to a future cruise booking.
 

If folks already have numerous cruises booked well ahead an FCC is no use to them so they will want their money back in hard cash: allow them to apply a refund to a future cruise and both the booking and the money are retained by P&O.

 

As I said above all the changes are very one sided.

 

 

It is industry standard if they have all either agreed to do the same thing or ha followed each other. Eg Royal Caribbean is almost exactly the same as P&O

[bee-ess]

9 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

 

If folks already have numerous cruises booked well ahead an FCC is no use to them so they will want their money back in hard cash: allow them to apply a refund to a future cruise and both the booking and the money are retained by P&O.

 

 

I agree, an FCC is no use to use, I think P&O should allow the FCC to be used against a future booked cruise. We have a family wegding abroad in 2021 and already have 2 P&O cruise booked as well so cannot fit another cruise in next year.

[Eglesbrech]

7 minutes ago, daiB said:

It is industry standard if they have all either agreed to do the same thing or ha followed each other. Eg Royal Caribbean is almost exactly the same as P&O

So they just get to make it up as they go along and we have to accept that in spite of having written contracts.

 

Celebrity is quoting 30 days for a refund not 60 so no,  it’s not standard. 

[mercury7289]

40 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

It is not industry standard, the standard is contained in the terms and conditions we all signed up to, which they are now not abiding by.

 

I do agree it is survival mode however I think that a bit more come and go with customers might actually be more effective in helping them to survive in the longer term. There have been a number of good suggestions from others as to how P&O could help customers and help themselves eg moving the final payment date from 12 weeks to 6 weeks or allowing people to apply any cancelled cruise money to a future cruise booking.
 

If folks already have numerous cruises booked well ahead an FCC is no use to them so they will want their money back in hard cash: allow them to apply a refund to a future cruise and both the booking and the money are retained by P&O.

 

As I said above all the changes are very one sided.

 

 

Having recently been in dispute on a T/C situation, with P&O,  regarding 2 on board future  bookings, and  my preference of T/A, resulting in a number of very dismissive correspondence from them, My Tears are Dry!

As they say, what goes around comes around!

Far from accepting 100% refund for my April 26th Cruise I referred them to the terms and conditions of booking, and have requested that they also compensate me in accordance  with the contract,which in my situation is a further 15%. I have offered to accept this by way of cases of wine! which at this time would be more useful!

Edited March 31, 2020 by mercury7289
Spelling

[AnnieC]

42 minutes ago, daiB said:

It is industry standard if they have all either agreed to do the same thing or ha followed each other. Eg Royal Caribbean is almost exactly the same as P&O

Is "industry standard" a new word for cartel? Not that I'm suggesting that is what is going on.

[BrianI]

There is no such thing as “industry standard”. Cruise companies have to abide by the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018. This can only be changed by Parliament.

Brian 

[mercury7289]

1 minute ago, AnnieC said:

Is "industry standard" a new word for cartel? Not that I'm suggesting that is what is going on.

I think more BAA?

[terrierjohn]

51 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

It is not industry standard, the standard is contained in the terms and conditions we all signed up to, which they are now not abiding by.

 

I do agree it is survival mode however I think that a bit more come and go with customers might actually be more effective in helping them to survive in the longer term. There have been a number of good suggestions from others as to how P&O could help customers and help themselves eg moving the final payment date from 12 weeks to 6 weeks or allowing people to apply any cancelled cruise money to a future cruise booking.
 

If folks already have numerous cruises booked well ahead an FCC is no use to them so they will want their money back in hard cash: allow them to apply a refund to a future cruise and both the booking and the money are retained by P&O.

 

As I said above all the changes are very one sided.

 

 

I think you are being a bit harsh with your criticism of how P&O are handling the refund/FCC situation. I do agree that they do generally have a poor track record when it comes to handling customer service issues, but this Covid19 crisis will result in many very profitable businesses failing because their income stream dries up. In these circumstances it will be those that suffer least from liquidity issues that survive, so I hope the P&O management are planning for survival, and for those that do survive they are very likely to be able to pick and choose their customers because there could be a lot less competition than there is now.

 

[AndyMichelle]

Unprecedented.... 

We may all get what we want...

We may all get what is in our contract..

But we may not... 

P&O should survive, but they may not... 

Who would have thought almost everything would come to a standstill in this short space of time and thousands of us would die... 

Parliament may change the rules, they have changed plenty already... 

Plenty of businesses will not survive this. 

Nobody, absolutely nobody knows what will happen... Unprecedented... 

We can all speculate, but that is all it is, speculation... 

Lets concentrate on keeping safe and looking after our loved ones and each other... 

Andy 

 

 

 

[daiB]

22 minutes ago, AnnieC said:

Is "industry standard" a new word for cartel? Not that I'm suggesting that is what is going on.

Well that could well be the case as CLIA seem to be giving advice on how to proceed.

 

However I would like to think that the cruise industry will survive as I would like to cruise again some time.

[AnnieC]

Good to see you, Andy. I don't post very much, but I read this forum every day and love your cheerful posts.

 

 

[Eglesbrech]

14 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I think you are being a bit harsh with your criticism of how P&O are handling the refund/FCC situation. I do agree that they do generally have a poor track record when it comes to handling customer service issues, but this Covid19 crisis will result in many very profitable businesses failing because their income stream dries up. In these circumstances it will be those that suffer least from liquidity issues that survive, so I hope the P&O management are planning for survival, and for those that do survive they are very likely to be able to pick and choose their customers because there could be a lot less competition than there is now.

 

Perhaps I am being harsh John however I have been on the receiving end of the firm application of the T&Cs by P&O, to my cost. I would say that was also harsh in the circumstances that prevailed.

 

As I said above if they were prepared to come and go a bit they may retain more of their income stream. 

 

As an aside have you received any reply with regard to your suggestions yet?

[daiB]

26 minutes ago, BrianI said:

There is no such thing as “industry standard”. Cruise companies have to abide by the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018. This can only be changed by Parliament.

Brian 

I am thinking world wide not just in the U.K. However the regulations you mention may or may not be in force going forward.

[AndyMichelle]

2 minutes ago, AnnieC said:

Good to see you, Andy. I don't post very much, but I read this forum every day and love your cheerful posts.

 

 

Thanks Annie but not very cheerful on here at the moment, understandably. 

Lets hope we can all come out the other side smiling. 

Keep safe, 

Andy 

 

[Josy1953]

34 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

Thanks Annie but not very cheerful on here at the moment, understandably. 

Lets hope we can all come out the other side smiling. 

Keep safe, 

Andy 

 

It's good to see you back Andy.

 

Keep Michele and yourself safe and well.