CRUISE REFUND RECEIVED

[jeanlyon]

11 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

As I have said from day one, I am convinced beyond any doubt whatsoever that the money is being withheld purely to aid cash flow. I think that we will see it, but right at the end of the stated time window.
 

Being able to hold on to hundreds of millions of pounds worth of customers cash for several months beyond when it should have been returned to them makes life in the current crisis a whole lot easier for them when they have next to no revenue coming in but still have many millions of pounds of fixed and variable costs per month. The fact that it is both illegal (refunds are due in 14 days) and immoral (as customers have their own cash flow issues) counts for nothing when a company loses its moral compass. 

Selbourne, my husband is an accountant and likes your thinking.  He thinks we will get it - just not yet.

[wowzz]

It's of no consolation to us here, but Saga are paying out refunds for cruises due to depart on April 26th, according to a poster on the Saga board. 

Smaller company, but also smaller staff, but in just as precarious a position as Carnival,  from a financial perspective.  Shows it can be done.

[Bin man]

On the Barclaycard charge back if they go bust .Wonder if there is any problem if you paid your TA and they pay p and o where does the claim go to for your money p and o or your travel firm . What a mess ! 

[PRINCESSTHE BEST]

26 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

Carnival are not, at the moment, in trouble because Cunard are paying refunds and they are part of Carnival. I think they might be quicker to refund because they only have 3 ships where P&O have refunds for 7 ships.

If it were only that simple. There are many Cunard passengers up in arms about being dumped off the QM2 on its world cruise and left to fend for themselves. They even had to find their own hotels and book their own flights allegedly.  Apparently they haven’t been refunded yet either.

Edited April 29, 2020 by PRINCESSTHE BEST

[grapau27]

30 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

As I have said from day one, I am convinced beyond any doubt whatsoever that the money is being withheld purely to aid cash flow. I think that we will see it, but right at the end of the stated time window.
 

Being able to hold on to hundreds of millions of pounds worth of customers cash for several months beyond when it should have been returned to them makes life in the current crisis a whole lot easier for them when they have next to no revenue coming in but still have many millions of pounds of fixed and variable costs per month. The fact that it is both illegal (refunds are due in 14 days) and immoral (as customers have their own cash flow issues) counts for nothing when a company loses its moral compass. 

+1

[PRINCESSTHE BEST]

18 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

Selbourne, my husband is an accountant and likes your thinking.  He thinks we will get it - just not yet.

So why should they lie and say 45 days then 60 days? Why not just be honest?

[grapau27]

3 minutes ago, PRINCESSTHE BEST said:

So why should they lie and say 45 days then 60 days? Why not just be honest?

I was told 28 then 45 then 60days.

They are keeping customers money to protect their cash flow and getting away with increasing the timeframe for refunds.

[Vampiress88]

As some of you know I was going to Florida in two weeks. Virgin are quoting me worse that p&o. They are saying 90 days. Some other companies people on other boards I’m on for Florida are getting told 6 months! 
 

I told virgin that 90 days is ridiculous. That it should be in 14 and they told me to go look at the faq on abta! Like they were in the right. 
 

p&o have at least moved my credit onto the other cruise. I suppose I will lose all that if they go bust though. 

[Lees Cruisin]

Our Cruise for 26th July was cancelled last week. Only paid my deposit and for one excursion, got £440 to come back. Not massive money but to me and my family at the moment its money we need. Anyway went on Cruise personaliser last night and its still showing my Cruise as if its going ahead, so out of interest i looked for excursions and it was allowing me to book them. I got right down to the payment and i believe it would have let me book one.UNBELIEVEABLE

[PRINCESSTHE BEST]

9 hours ago, grapau27 said:

I was told 28 then 45 then 60days.

They are keeping customers money to protect their cash flow and getting away with increasing the timeframe for refunds.

This situation will just get worse. In a matter of weeks they will have to pause operations until the end of September. Imagine the vast increase in the amount of refunds due! I fear the worst. And before anyone disagrees with me, please explain why Carnival are currently returning crew to their native countries by sea, because flights are not available. If there was an intention to reactivate the fleet anytime soon I doubt they would be doing that.

[PRINCESSTHE BEST]

28 minutes ago, Vampiress88 said:

As some of you know I was going to Florida in two weeks. Virgin are quoting me worse that p&o. They are saying 90 days. Some other companies people on other boards I’m on for Florida are getting told 6 months! 
 

I told virgin that 90 days is ridiculous. That it should be in 14 and they told me to go look at the faq on abta! Like they were in the right. 
 

p&o have at least moved my credit onto the other cruise. I suppose I will lose all that if they go bust though. 

Virgin too are in financial difficulties allegedly. They have been asking governments for bailouts. These actions have all the hallmarks of companies on the road to administration.

[wowzz]

9 minutes ago, PRINCESSTHE BEST said:

Virgin too are in financial difficulties allegedly

I love the way you use the word "allegedly ". 

In the words of Monty Python, they are an "ex airline ".

[Selbourne]

8 minutes ago, PRINCESSTHE BEST said:

This situation will just get worse. In a matter of weeks they will have to pause operations until the end of September. Imagine the vast increase in the amount of refunds due! I fear the worst. And before anyone disagrees with me, please explain why Carnival are currently returning crew to their native countries by sea, because flights are not available. If there was an intention to reactivate the fleet anytime soon I doubt they would be doing that.

Completely agree. They know full well that they aren’t going to be cruising anywhere for a very long time. The ‘cancellation in blocks’ is purely to ease workload with the number of calls that each batch of cancellations generates. Although they are holding back almost all refunds for as long as they can get away with (45 days, then 60 days, what next?) I remain optimistic that the positive impact that this has on their cash flow means that we will see our money back (eventually). Luckily for them, the law counts for nothing in this country at the moment, unless you sit on a park bench!

[wowzz]

4 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Luckily for them, the law counts for nothing in this country at the moment, unless you sit on a park bench!

Careful! You are likely to get a lot of abuse with comments like that - I know I did.

[Vampiress88]

23 minutes ago, PRINCESSTHE BEST said:

Virgin too are in financial difficulties allegedly. They have been asking governments for bailouts. These actions have all the hallmarks of companies on the road to administration.

yes I have heard this. 
 

Doubly worrying for us. 
we have over £4K to come back for holiday

and hubby’s whole job is to make airplane parts and they seem to have some kind contract with them and they will be in trouble with a knock on effect of virgin going under. I know they were one of the companies to publicly back virgin to get this bailout. 
 

 

[grapau27]

11 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Completely agree. They know full well that they aren’t going to be cruising anywhere for a very long time. The ‘cancellation in blocks’ is purely to ease workload with the number of calls that each batch of cancellations generates. Although they are holding back almost all refunds for as long as they can get away with (45 days, then 60 days, what next?) I remain optimistic that the positive impact that this has on their cash flow means that we will see our money back (eventually). Luckily for them, the law counts for nothing in this country at the moment, unless you sit on a park bench!

It certainly appears to be the current situation.

Edited April 30, 2020 by grapau27

[bee-ess]

36 minutes ago, Lees Cruisin said:

Our Cruise for 26th July was cancelled last week. Only paid my deposit and for one excursion, got £440 to come back. Not massive money but to me and my family at the moment its money we need. Anyway went on Cruise personaliser last night and its still showing my Cruise as if its going ahead, so out of interest i looked for excursions and it was allowing me to book them. I got right down to the payment and i believe it would have let me book one.UNBELIEVEABLE

Our cancelled cruise on July 4th (Ionafest) is still on the personaliser also and you can still book restaurants and excursions for it.

Yet even more unbelievable, I tried to phone P&O on Saturday with an FCC question and between rings they were still advertising the cancelled Ionafest cruise I was phoning them about.

[wowzz]

1 minute ago, grapau27 said:

Or do 35 in a 30 zone.

Sorry Graham,  for once I have to disagree.  The boy racers have been out in force round here recently, and the middle aged men having a mid-life crisis on their motor bikes are a real menace. I'd welcome a load more speed traps, something I never thought I'd say. 

[AndyMichelle]

Nice to finally see some realisation... 

ABTA are allowing these travel companies to do what they like, even supporting their actions and the law no longer applies to them. 

Large parts of the industry could go 'boobs up', so they don't give a monkeys about our refunds..

The next Government initiative will be to get the economy moving, not bail out the travel industry, so we could be left to prop them up for longer... 

My best hope is we will see a flurry of refunds at the start of May, but that is probably just wishful thinking because there is very little evidence of any action at the moment. 

As PTB said earlier, it could get a lot worse.. 

 

I'm off to sit on a park bench... What u gunna do bout it!!! 

 

Andy 

 

 

 

[peteukmcr]

53 minutes ago, PRINCESSTHE BEST said:

Virgin too are in financial difficulties allegedly. They have been asking governments for bailouts. These actions have all the hallmarks of companies on the road to administration.

Virgin have not asked for a bailout. They have requested a loan of £500 million on a commercial basis and using Richard Branson's assets as collateral. There is a frenzy out there stirred by the media that he should put his hand in his pocket, and he is worth £4.3 billion and doesn't pay tax. He has already put £250 million of his own money into the Virgin Group. He maybe worth £4.3 billion on paper but that is not his liquid assets. I feel very strongly that the media is vilifying him without reporting the full details. Virgin Atlantic is a UK registered company and does pay tax. easyJet have received a £600 million loan from the UK government yet it's founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou lives in Monaco and pays no UK tax and has flatly refused to inject any money into the airline. BA is in consultation to make 12,000 staff redundant and they are not a British Airline as they are part of the IAG Group that is registered in Spain.

 

Sorry to go on, but this issue re Virgin and media hype is one example of fake news and misleading journalism.

[peteukmcr]

On a positive note, I received a refund today!  Oh, don't get too excited it wasn't from P&O  It was from Royal Caribbean, 27 days from cancellation. 

 

Interest article on the BBC regarding the CMA threatening to take companies to court who are flouting the law. 4 out of 5 complaints are related to refunds.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52483453

 

Edited April 30, 2020 by peteukmcr

[Eglesbrech]

8 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

Nice to finally see some realisation... 

ABTA are allowing these travel companies to do what they like, even supporting their actions and the law no longer applies to them. 

Large parts of the industry could go 'boobs up', so they don't give a monkeys about our refunds..

The next Government initiative will be to get the economy moving, not bail out the travel industry, so we could be left to prop them up for longer... 

My best hope is we will see a flurry of refunds at the start of May, but that is probably just wishful thinking because there is very little evidence of any action at the moment. 

As PTB said earlier, it could get a lot worse.. 

 

I'm off to sit on a park bench... What u gunna do bout it!!! 

 

Andy 

 

 

 

Don’t try that around here Andy, there is a small army of volunteer special constables who will move you on  according to the local press, 😀.

 

Just because they are getting away with it now does not mean they will get away with it longer term, I suspect there will be a reckoning in terms of lost business. That obviously won’t help most customers who are looking for timely refunds. I also suspect that some will take court action just to prove the point, never good publicity for a company.

 

Frustrating customers will have its own cost. Someone said on here that the main email is not  accepting further input, they are generally only answering the sycophantic posts on other media and the phones are a nightmare according to all sources.

 

I am also very surprised that so far journalists are letting them away with puff pieces and not asking the more difficult questions about the lack of refunds.

 

 

[AndyMichelle]

8 minutes ago, peteukmcr said:

On a positive note, I received a refund today!  Oh, don't get too excited it wasn't from P&O  It was from Royal Caribbean, 27 days from cancellation. 

 

Interest article on the BBC regarding the CMA threatening to take companies to court who are flouting the law. 4 out of 5 complaints are related to refunds.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52483453

 

Congratulations Pete, at least 1 step to getting what you are owed... 

Good article, the concern for me is that they will go after the companies refusing to pay and not offering solutions first. 

P&O have never refused to pay, so will be a long way down the list behind the wedding venues etc. 

At least they seem to be taking it seriously... 

Andy 

 

[Eglesbrech]

11 minutes ago, peteukmcr said:

On a positive note, I received a refund today!  Oh, don't get too excited it wasn't from P&O  It was from Royal Caribbean, 27 days from cancellation. 

 

Interest article on the BBC regarding the CMA threatening to take companies to court who are flouting the law. 4 out of 5 complaints are related to refunds.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52483453

 

I’m so glad at least one cruise company is doing the right thing and that you have that refund. So when things go back to normal which cruise company are you likely to choose RCI or P&O? 

 

I suspect that CMA will have a deluge of complaints about the companies who are playing fast and loose. It will be interesting to see what they do with them.

[Eglesbrech]

3 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

Congratulations Pete, at least 1 step to getting what you are owed... 

Good article, the concern for me is that they will go after the companies refusing to pay and not offering solutions first. 

P&O have never refused to pay, so will be a long way down the list behind the wedding venues etc. 

At least they seem to be taking it seriously... 

Andy 

 

Perhaps if they get enough complaints....