Nieuw Amsterdam - Mar. 12 - Anyone else missed the boat?

[Laminator]

3 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

I have not been impressed with Hal’s flight ease.  They cancelled my flight for me to return home after my cruise and tried to pass garbage my way as a substitute.  I stood my ground but I’m having to fly half way across the USA instead only flying north.  Not good public relations.  Clearly they have too much business.  This has caused me a boatload of anxiety.

This is the first time I have used flight ease. It saved me thousands on business class seats for my DW and I on our upcoming trip to Amsterdam. My biggest issue is a lack of notifications. First the aircraft on the flight out was changed. This wound up separating my wife and I. No big deal as I went in and changed the seats. After flying nearly a million miles I know to constantly check the flights. The 2nd change was a 15 or 20 minute time change which is not a real big deal.  Booking directly with the airline i would have been notified of both changes in a very timely manner. The only notification I received from HAL was a time change 5 days after it occurred. 

[Florida_gal_50]

11 minutes ago, Laminator said:

This is the first time I have used flight ease. It saved me thousands on business class seats for my DW and I on our upcoming trip to Amsterdam. My biggest issue is a lack of notifications. First the aircraft on the flight out was changed. This wound up separating my wife and I. No big deal as I went in and changed the seats. After flying nearly a million miles I know to constantly check the flights. The 2nd change was a 15 or 20 minute time change which is not a real big deal.  Booking directly with the airline i would have been notified of both changes in a very timely manner. The only notification I received from HAL was a time change 5 days after it occurred. 

To be honest I checked my flights nearly daily coming down.  I hadn’t checked them coming back until I got the notification that my flights had been changed. They were also business.  I had a half hour connection and was told it was fine.  Nope.  Next they decided they would give me economy but I’d be paying more 🙄.  Nope again.  Finally I was given decent flight times but I’m going to Denver.  I might as well have flown to Florida because I’m half way there anyway.  I had to deal with this while at sea with the manager from the front desk which wasn’t great, about one step up from flight ease.

[Laminator]

7 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

To be honest I checked my flights nearly daily coming down.  I hadn’t checked them coming back until I got the notification that my flights had been changed. They were also business.  I had a half hour connection and was told it was fine.  Nope.  Next they decided they would give me economy but I’d be paying more 🙄.  Nope again.  Finally I was given decent flight times but I’m going to Denver.  I might as well have flown to Florida because I’m half way there anyway.  I had to deal with this while at sea with the manager from the front desk which wasn’t great, about one step up from flight ease.

30 minutes is not nearly enough time in most instances. Especially at my age!

[DaveOKC]

5 hours ago, Laminator said:

30 minutes is not nearly enough time in most instances. Especially at my age!

Agree!  I avoid flights with less than 50 minutes and this even depends on the airport.  Not worth the worry involved nor the stress of running to catch the connection.  As a sad but true example, a co-worker friend of mine died in the DFW airport due to a heart attack caused by running to catch a connection!

[puppycanducruise]

Wow, what a terrible experience.

Thanks for sharing.

Glad you are able to make the best of a bad situation.

[AKJonesy]

8 hours ago, DaveOKC said:

When you arrived in Fort Lauderdale at the pier, which one was it?   You mentioned that Princess ships were still there, but Princess ships generally use Terminal 2, which is on the far North side of the cruise ship areas, far (perhaps a mile) from the docks that Holland America uses normally  and most of the other cruiselines use.  Could the taxi have taken you to the wrong pier?  A taxi driver from Miami might not have known the difference and it would explain why no one from Holland America was around.

The berths are clearly marked on HUGE LED signs at the port. 

[AKJonesy]

Clearly this is HALS fault. Customer service nowadays is only as good as who they can hire and we know what that means. If HAL told you that your trip qualified for the worry free vacation, then it is their fault. Period. I never use their service and never will. I've had too many HAL people give me inaccurate information. This does not help you and I am truly sorry for your situation.

[Brucefan]

8 minutes ago, AKJonesy said:

The berths are clearly marked on HUGE LED signs at the port. 

 

You are correct.  We followed the signs to the correct berth.  I could even see all of the HAL signage inside the building and I tried every single door to get in.  Not a soul was there.

[Brucefan]

15 hours ago, ger_77 said:

Oh my gosh, what a nightmare !!!  Just another example of why we choose to fly in a day or two ahead of departure.  I know that's not always possible for everyone, but it gives us peace of mind.  I don't know how this can be made right for you.

We bought all of the insurance that we could as we never travel without it.  We are hoping that by the time we get home, our travel agent will have worked out an appropriate solution with HAL.  We have already started drafting our letter to as many levels of customer services as we can send it to.

[Mary229]

Yes, HAL should have better customer service, yes it is sad and disappointing to have this happen. Yes, they should complain loudly.

But.....before plunking down large sums of money one should also educate themselves on traveling.  It is all about risk management.

1. don't take a day of flight especially if to another city

2. don't have a connection of less than 60 minutes, you may get there but will your luggage?

3. If you absolutely have to take these risks have rock solid insurance and a back up plan.  

 

BTW I am not chiding or scolding, just trying to provide information for future travelers

Edited March 17, 2022 by Mary229

[Brucefan]

1 minute ago, Mary229 said:

Yes, HAL should have better customer service, yes it is sad and disappointing to have this happen. Yes, they should complain loudly.

But.....before plunking down large sums of money one should also educate themselves on traveling.  It is all about risk management.

1. don't take a day of flight especially if to another city

2. don't have a connection of less than 60 minutes, you may get there but will your luggage?

3. If you absolutely have to take these risks have rock solid insurance and a back up plan.  

We are not first time cruisers nor are we unseasoned travelers.  We are very thankful for our thorough insurance.  However, we also paid for a worry free guarantee that totally fell apart.  If HAL had simply answered a phone call before we even got on our flight and given us instructions, none of this would have happened.

[Mary229]

6 minutes ago, Brucefan said:

We are not first time cruisers nor are we unseasoned travelers.  We are very thankful for our thorough insurance.  However, we also paid for a worry free guarantee that totally fell apart.  If HAL had simply answered a phone call before we even got on our flight and given us instructions, none of this would have happened.

Yeah, you can't rely on them.    It is just not doable for me if I can't manage someone else's failures.  I was thinking about this morning when I was looking at the Antarctic cruises.  I only have so much trust of the cruise lines.  I don't have enough to have them ferry me in rough waters of the Antarctic.  😁

 

This often comes up with other cruise lines failures, what if the ship is seized, what if the ship is broken, what if you break a leg.  My plan is always to extract myself as quickly as possible and find another way.  Deal with the insurance later.

 

I am unclear what you mean by worry free.  If you mean HAL's worry free that is all about the insurance nothing else.  My next is transatlantic.  There is nothing they can do if I am not there on time.   

Edited March 17, 2022 by Mary229

[Brucefan]

14 hours ago, canadianbear said:

What a nightmare.  Horrible horrible horrible.  Sounds like HAL dropped more than just the ball on this one.  I can’t even imagine your stress with all that happened.  And here I was thinking of using their flight ease for a cruise we have booked this winter.  What’s the point if you run into an issue and their 24 hour help line doesn’t help.  😡

The stress has been unbelievable.  We flew into a perfect storm of bad weather in Florida combined with Canadian Sping Break (we are both teachers) and the fact that border restrictions have been eased somewhat so it is an especially busy time to travel.  Finding a rental car was a whole other challenge.  Not to mention finding covid tests in order to return home.  These tests were also part of HALs worry free guarantee.....

 

We now feel we would be excellent competitors on The Amazing Race 😉

[Florida_gal_50]

7 hours ago, Laminator said:

30 minutes is not nearly enough time in most instances. Especially at my age!

Me either 😛🤪😂

[MISTER 67]

9 hours ago, DaveOKC said:

When you arrived in Fort Lauderdale at the pier, which one was it?   You mentioned that Princess ships were still there, but Princess ships generally use Terminal 2, which is on the far North side of the cruise ship areas, far (perhaps a mile) from the docks that Holland America uses normally  and most of the other cruiselines use.  Could the taxi have taken you to the wrong pier?  A taxi driver from Miami might not have known the difference and it would explain why no one from Holland America was around.

Sometimes when Princess has 2 ships in port they use the pier just north of the mid-port parking garage, HAL also uses that pier when they have 2 ships in PE.

 

[grest]

so sorry this happened to you....

[steve4031]

I am a teacher too.  A teacher could potentially lose their job if they take a sick day before a vacation and are not sick.  So I understand the reasoning behind the OPs decision to fly in the day off.  Agreed that this was an itinerary that was likely to not work. 

 

This is a complete fail by HAL.   Since the OPs used the flight ease service there should have been HAL employees monitoring the flights and there should have been employees available to coordinate the process of getting to the ship.  The ship should have information about passengers using flight ease, and employees should be monitoring flight status.  The ship could have and should have waited.  There is enough padding in their schedule that they could make up the time.  If HAL and Flight ease did not have the staff required to support people with travel issues, they should not be offering or selling their service.  

[Boatdrill]

13 hours ago, Brucefan said:

 We also realize that this is the top 1% of a first world problem...being really really mad about a fairly upscale cruise ship not following through on promises.  Other people in the world right now are fleeing for their lives.

It's doesn't matter if it's a first world problem; that's your world. You made an large investment in your trip, and have yet to receive what you planned, and paid for. You are completely right to be angry, regardless of what's happening else where.

 

 

 

    

[VermeulT]

3 hours ago, Mary229 said:

...

2. don't have a connection of less than 60 minutes, you may get there but will your luggage?

 

That reminds me of a tale when I sailed Princess in 2001 when a passenger's luggage didn't make it onboard.  The cruise line gave him credit in the shops to buy a change of clothes or two to hold him over until the bag could catch up to us. 
When hubby and I travel - we each put half our clothes in each suitcase so that if one doesn't make it, we have something.

[VermeulT]

11 hours ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

This has caused me a boatload of anxiety.

Pun intended.  😄

[Mary229]

1 hour ago, VermeulT said:

That reminds me of a tale when I sailed Princess in 2001 when a passenger's luggage didn't make it onboard.  The cruise line gave him credit in the shops to buy a change of clothes or two to hold him over until the bag could catch up to us. 
When hubby and I travel - we each put half our clothes in each suitcase so that if one doesn't make it, we have something.

I carry my clean undies and toothbrush in my carry on back pack.  I can live in $5 cruise t shirts and stretchy pants if need be

[Iris5383]

On 3/16/2022 at 4:30 PM, VermeulT said:

Truly ANYTHING can happen.  True story in 2017 - on the flight to FLL the day before the cruise, a person suffered a possible stroke so we made an emergency landing in Charleston.  The day before we returned was the shooting at FLL that closed the airport.  My sister had to rent a car and drive home (to GA).  My flight to SWF somehow left on time but there was a lot of snow at home and hubby couldn't pick me up so I spent a night at the airport motel.

My DH and I flew into FLL the day before that shooting. Our cruise was scheduled to leave the following day in late afternoon. Our departure was delayed until late that night waiting for passengers who were at the airport during the shooting and for others whose flights were delayed getting into FLL. It was a stressful start to the cruise. 

[Brucefan]

Just a quick update on what we know so far...our TA called HAL on Tuesday.  They told her 60 (!!!!) passengers missed the ship in Ft. Lauderdale and were told to head to Key West....where the ship was unable to come into port.  Will be very interested to hear the rest of this story.....stay tuned.....

[canadianbear]

6 minutes ago, Brucefan said:

Just a quick update on what we know so far...our TA called HAL on Tuesday.  They told her 60 (!!!!) passengers missed the ship in Ft. Lauderdale and were told to head to Key West....where the ship was unable to come into port.  Will be very interested to hear the rest of this story.....stay tuned.....

Wow….at least it’s good to know you weren’t the only ones left stranded as others will be contacting HAL about this too.   

[DaveOKC]

18 minutes ago, Brucefan said:

Just a quick update on what we know so far...our TA called HAL on Tuesday.  They told her 60 (!!!!) passengers missed the ship in Ft. Lauderdale and were told to head to Key West....where the ship was unable to come into port.  Will be very interested to hear the rest of this story.....stay tuned.....

Thats alot of passengers!  You would have thought they would have held the ship longer as the next day was nearby Key West.  What was your scheduled departure time?  And when did you make it to the pier?