Will 125% FCC be reviewed?

[No pager thank you]

People will recall that when the pandemic first struck, P&O were keen for passengers to retain their bookings and so offered up to £400 per cabin as a sweetener, depending on the length of the cruise, instead of the cabin grade.

 

As we know, no real passenger has benefitted from this additional money due to cancellations and the sweetener being lost when either they, or P&O, cancelled respectively.

 

The rate of FCCs to Refunds is now slowly dropping, which is not in the interests of the company, caused in part because of price inflation issues.   I have also noticed that beyond repeating standard promotions (expired from yesterday) there are no "new" offers to try to convince you to book a cruise up to March 2022.

 

This made me wonder:

 

1). Is there a possibility/probability that the level of FCC will be increased upwards from 125% to discourage refunds?  If so, any guesses?

 

2). Does the same apply to the slightly stingier 110% allowance for pre booked excursions and on board items?

 

3). There was discussion on another thread around promotional drinks packages being offered.  Do we think that this is likely, or a return of the thank you for cruising OBC, again to encourage people to rebook another cruise instead of applying for a refund?

 

4). Do they have something new up their sleeve?

 

I know many on here will not cruise until there is a vaccine, but what do you think that P&O will try and do (if anything) to avoid the next group of cancellations transferring too significantly in to requests for cash refunds, which is not in their interests.

 

Thank you for sharing your thoughts 🙂

[wowzz]

I can't see the 25% figure being increased. It would be a major PR disaster, given the thousands of pax that  currently are on the existing bonus.

As to a free drinks package being included - I'm not sure that the average P&O cruiser will be all that bothered.

The one thing that will encourage people to start booking again is a far more relaxed cancellation and refund policy. Cancel any time up to 14 days prior to sailing, and you get a full refund.  

[bee-ess]

It would be nice to hear something official from P&O. Some customers book several cruises a year and have 2021 already booked up from the previous launch so offering them the chance to move to 2021 to save the deposit is no help at all as they have either no time available to fit it in if they are working or are spent out for 2021. The best help they could give would be to reduce the final payment dates or at least produce the 2022/3 brochure so we could at least  transfer to that but they are not offering this. I think it may be refunds all the way from now on and look somewhere else for our cruises. I have wriiten to Paul Ludlow to explain this exact situation but do not expect a reply anytime soon.