P&O Cruises Cancelled Through October 15

[Crazy For Cats]

This morning I saw a post from P&O that they are cancelling all sailings through October 15, 2020.  Hoping that HAL doesn't follow suit but wouldn't be surprised.  Link to their web page: https://www.pocruises.com/travel-health-advisories

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Thanks for sharing.

[KirkNC]

I wonder at what point people start gaming these FCC’s.  IF you have no bankruptcy fears and are committed to a cruise line, start booking August or September cruises.  When they cancel, you get 125% FCC.

[Hlitner]

1 hour ago, KirkNC said:

I wonder at what point people start gaming these FCC’s.  IF you have no bankruptcy fears and are committed to a cruise line, start booking August or September cruises.  When they cancel, you get 125% FCC.

We will ignore the ethical issue of taking advantage to a line we enjoy.  But the bankruptcy issue should be a consideration.   The cruise line will have your cash and you may have a worthless FCC.  If the line were to later go bankrupt you would likely try for a charge-back from your credit card company, but because you were awarded (and accepted) that 125% FCC you might find yourself in a dispute that takes a long time to get settled.  No thanks.

 

Hank

[cruisemom42]

1 hour ago, KirkNC said:

I wonder at what point people start gaming these FCC’s.  IF you have no bankruptcy fears and are committed to a cruise line, start booking August or September cruises.  When they cancel, you get 125% FCC.

 

At some point they may stop giving out 125% FCCs and drop to 100%...

[KirkNC]

16 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

We will ignore the ethical issue of taking advantage to a line we enjoy.  But the bankruptcy issue should be a consideration.   The cruise line will have your cash and you may have a worthless FCC.  If the line were to later go bankrupt you would likely try for a charge-back from your credit card company, but because you were awarded (and accepted) that 125% FCC you might find yourself in a dispute that takes a long time to get settled.  No thanks.

 

Hank

What ethical issues?  If the cruise sails, you go on it.  How about the ethical issues of all the cruise lines offering the full array of cruises in the near future when everyone knows when they start it will only be one or two ships.  The CEO of NCL admitted as much in an interview but they are still taking deposits and full payments knowing damn well all the cruises are not sailing.  The ethics cuts both ways.  I do give HAL a tad of credit as they are only offering seven ships in September 🙄.

[Hlitner]

8 minutes ago, KirkNC said:

What ethical issues?  If the cruise sails, you go on it.  How about the ethical issues of all the cruise lines offering the full array of cruises in the near future when everyone knows when they start it will only be one or two ships.  The CEO of NCL admitted as much in an interview but they are still taking deposits and full payments knowing damn well all the cruises are not sailing.  The ethics cuts both ways.  I do give HAL a tad of credit as they are only offering seven ships in September 🙄.

Perhaps my use of "ethical" was a poor choice of a word.  But since many of us do appreciate having HAL, some might balk at contributing to their financial problems.  Personally that is not my concern as we are travel/cruise fanatics that simply look at other options.  We only have one booked future HAL cruise (for April 2021) and will not have to deal with a final payment for a long time.  We did not receive any HAL offer (increase payment to get an OBC) so apparently they have not gone that far into the future with their appeal.  Like most here on CC we hope that the line soon resumes operations and somehow manages to make everything better then ever :).    I will also mention that we just (this week) booked another future cruise, but it was with Oceania.  We are doing our best to be optimistic about the future of ocean cruises although we also note many dark clouds.

 

Hank

[Himself]

5 hours ago, Crazy For Cats said:

This morning I saw a post from P&O that they are cancelling all sailings through October 15, 2020.  Hoping that HAL doesn't follow suit but wouldn't be surprised.  Link to their web page: https://www.pocruises.com/travel-health-advisories

 

 

 

I heard Carnival was doing the same thing.

[Been There, Planning That]

2 hours ago, Hlitner said:

 We did not receive any HAL offer (increase payment to get an OBC) so apparently they have not gone that far into the future with their appeal.  

 

Hank

We declined this offer for our August '21 cruise and are content to have just a down payment invested until things settle down.

 

In fact we rec'd it twice, once linked to our specific cruise and again as a general offer.

 

Ruth

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for the information and link.

 

I am sure that many cruise lines will cancel more future cruises.

[welwyngirl]

30 minutes ago, Krazy Kruizers said:

Thank you for the information and link.

 

I am sure that many cruise lines will cancel more future cruises.

I hope so.  We are in a Catch-22 situation at the moment.  We have a trip booked leaving late August , one week on a river cruise up the Yangtze River in China and another week on Spectrum OTS.  TA insists they will go ahead and expects final payment!  We are both well over 70, from the UK, all travel, unless absolutely essential, is prohibited.  If we cancel we lose our hefty deposit and if we pay in full it will probably take us months of wrangling to get a refund.  We did a HAL cruise in March which was curtailed.  They have been very fair and, although we still await our refund and FCC details, we're hopeful we will get it fairly soon.

 

 

[kazu]

Not really surprised by this announcement since I believe P & O mainly sails Australia and New Zealand.  (I’m sure I will be corrected quickly if I am wrong).

 

It’s been made clear by those countries that visitors are not wanted yet despite the hit to their economy.

[1ANGELCAT]

29 minutes ago, kazu said:

Not really surprised by this announcement since I believe P & O mainly sails Australia and New Zealand.  (I’m sure I will be corrected quickly if I am wrong).

 

It’s been made clear by those countries that visitors are not wanted yet despite the hit to their economy.

Jacqui,  P&O UK is headquartered in Southampton and offers sailings to the Mediterranean from there.

[rkacruiser]

49 minutes ago, kazu said:

Not really surprised by this announcement since I believe P & O mainly sails Australia and New Zealand.  (I’m sure I will be corrected quickly if I am wrong).

 

It’s been made clear by those countries that visitors are not wanted yet despite the hit to their economy.

 

P&O is a separate operating company from P&O Australia, I think.  From what I have read, neither New Zealand nor Australia want visitors at this time.  It's likely that a similar statement will be forthcoming from P&O Australia, if it has not already been issued.  

[CruiserBruce]

7 hours ago, Crazy For Cats said:

This morning I saw a post from P&O that they are cancelling all sailings through October 15, 2020.  Hoping that HAL doesn't follow suit but wouldn't be surprised.  Link to their web page: https://www.pocruises.com/travel-health-advisories

Haven't they already canceled to that time frame, give or take? They have canceled Alaska and Europe,  so takes you to about mid October for the next "seasons".

[kazu]

1 hour ago, 1ANGELCAT said:

Jacqui,  P&O UK is headquartered in Southampton and offers sailings to the Mediterranean from there.

 

Apologies being in error.  Thanks 🙂 

 

I think the Med has the same attitude port wise.   Some are opening but entering in a cruise ship is a whole different kettle of fish.  I think they were wise to make the announcement they did and not leave people wondering.

[Crazy For Cats]

1 hour ago, CruiserBruce said:

Haven't they already canceled to that time frame, give or take? They have canceled Alaska and Europe,  so takes you to about mid October for the next "seasons".

They have a few itineraries for September and October.  Some will need to be revised or cancelled.  I’m concerned that our November cruise will get cancelled.

[npcl]

9 hours ago, KirkNC said:

I wonder at what point people start gaming these FCC’s.  IF you have no bankruptcy fears and are committed to a cruise line, start booking August or September cruises.  When they cancel, you get 125% FCC.

I suspect that the cruise lines would not consider it to be gaming the FCC's.  They are willing to take every dollar they can get and trade fro a future FCC, why do you think they are still allowing cruises that will almost certainly not sail to be booked.

[KirkNC]

10 hours ago, npcl said:

I suspect that the cruise lines would not consider it to be gaming the FCC's.  They are willing to take every dollar they can get and trade fro a future FCC, why do you think they are still allowing cruises that will almost certainly not sail to be booked.

Seems like an awful expensive way to bolster your cash position.  It’s the same as paying 25% interest assuming the FCC takes one year to use.

[iancal]

I suspect that the cruise lines are playing the odds that a portion of those FCC's will simply expire.  Also, I suspect people with lots of FCC's tend to spend more on board.  That on board spending is high margin for the cruise lines.   

 

I think that the cruise lines are being very savvy by doing this.  What better way is there to lock in a customer from jumping to another cruise line for a future cruise?    I have no doubt that they have all the past  data to calculate the profitability of their marketing programs.

 

I suspect their goal is to ensure that the customer's focus is entirely on the 25 percent....and nothing else.  Not much different from the mattress or luggage sellers or the duty free shops.

[KirkNC]

You maybe right, people may upgrade their cabin thinking they are spending “found money”.  I don’t believe the FCC can be used for anything other then the cabin fare, not even port fees and taxes.

[2inSETexas]

19 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

Haven't they already canceled to that time frame, give or take? They have canceled Alaska and Europe,  so takes you to about mid October for the next "seasons".

 

Changes may be coming. HAL has added the following to their update banner at the top of their home page:

 

"We are currently assessing enhanced health and safety protocols in light of COVID-19 and how they may impact our future offerings. Our actual offerings may vary from what is displayed or described here."

 

This seems to say, what you see on our website for available cruises may not actually be available.

[rkacruiser]

13 hours ago, KirkNC said:

It’s the same as paying 25% interest assuming the FCC takes one year to use.

 

Given the 11.5% or 12% interest CCL is paying on the recent debt instruments sold, why is that figure surprising?  

[KirkNC]

14 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

Given the 11.5% or 12% interest CCL is paying on the recent debt instruments sold, why is that figure surprising?  

Cause it’s double 🙄

[KirkNC]

21 hours ago, 2inSETexas said:

 

Changes may be coming. HAL has added the following to their update banner at the top of their home page:

 

"We are currently assessing enhanced health and safety protocols in light of COVID-19 and how they may impact our future offerings. Our actual offerings may vary from what is displayed or described here."

 

This seems to say, what you see on our website for available cruises may not actually be available.

Their  lawyers probably encouraged that.

Edited June 4, 2020 by KirkNC