Cruise "postponed" a year, not cancelled - how to make claim?

[spikemom]

My husband and I booked a cruise to Senegal and Gambia for January 2023 on Variety Cruise' Harmony G. We have just been notified the  cruise was postponed to December 2023 due to epidemiological reasons.  There are no particular epidemiological issues in those countries other than the usual diseases in West Africa, and the US does not have travel warnings on them except for polio. I assume they had few reservations and decided to cancel. Because they call it a postponement,  not a cancellation, will I have trouble using my travel insurance? I have spent nearly $6000. on business class flights to Dakar and the tickets are non refundable, so need to make a claim. Anyone have experience with this? I'd appreciate input.

[Babr]

I don’t have enough information to give you a definitive answer. First, getting a refund for air fare is tricky because airlines typically give a voucher when you cancel. Your insurance carrier may require you to work with the airline first. If they issue a voucher, then insurance won’t pay because you have been compensated.

 

Second, I’m not familiar with a cruise line postponement as opposed to cancellation. With such a drastic change, I’d expect them to offer you a refund. Do you have that option? 
 

Do you intend to go next year or are you trying to file a claim for the entire trip? I don’t know of any insurance that reimburses for postponement; however, many will change the dates of coverage.

 

 

 

 

[iamtrustworthy]

6 hours ago, spikemom said:

My husband and I booked a cruise to Senegal and Gambia for January 2023 on Variety Cruise' Harmony G. We have just been notified the  cruise was postponed to December 2023 due to epidemiological reasons.  There are no particular epidemiological issues in those countries other than the usual diseases in West Africa, and the US does not have travel warnings on them except for polio. I assume they had few reservations and decided to cancel. Because they call it a postponement,  not a cancellation, will I have trouble using my travel insurance? I have spent nearly $6000. on business class flights to Dakar and the tickets are non refundable, so need to make a claim. Anyone have experience with this? I'd appreciate input.

Hi spikemom,

 

Did you ask whoever you bought your travel insurance from? They should be helping you.

 

Steve Dasseos

[Hlitner]

Hmm.  So, we do know that Variety is a very legit company (we once cruised on Zeus before they became part of Variety).  What they call a "postponement" is actually a cancellation and new booking.  In your situation we would first need to look inwards and ask ourselves, do we really want to continue with the cruise (in Dec).  If not, you certainly want to get your money refunded from Variety (if no, you can file a credit card dispute).  But if you are willing to keep the cruise you still have that airline situation.

 

Our own experience has been that most travel insurers will not pay an airline claim until they have seen something in writing from the airline that the fare is non-refundable and the airline is unwilling to issue any kind of voucher or credit.  Airlines can actually be pretty flexible with non-refundable fares when there is good cause.  So you certainly need to contact the airline, explain the situation, and get their reaction.  If they stick to the non-refundable conditions than you should politely ask if they can send you an e-mail (or snail mail) making it clear that you cannot get a voucher/credit for a future flight.  At that point I would contact the travel insurance company about reimbursement.  

 

Steve D. might have a different take on the subject and we would certainly defer to his expertise.  But I would bet the farm (I really do not own a farm) that when you contact the insurer they will want to see something from the airline.  

 

Hank

[spikemom]

We are dealing with the insurance company at this point. The (very expensive) plane ticket was bought through a consolidator and is non refundable.  It is on TAP and I don't know what we would ever do woth a voucher on TAP if we were to get one. Variety Cruises finally sent us a letter saying the cruise was cancelled, I'm sure others must have complained as well. We will not cruise with them in the future. They have refunded our deposit.

Thank you for your inout and I will let you know how this proceeds. 

[Hlitner]

On 12/20/2022 at 1:24 PM, spikemom said:

We are dealing with the insurance company at this point. The (very expensive) plane ticket was bought through a consolidator and is non refundable.  It is on TAP and I don't know what we would ever do woth a voucher on TAP if we were to get one. Variety Cruises finally sent us a letter saying the cruise was cancelled, I'm sure others must have complained as well. We will not cruise with them in the future. They have refunded our deposit.

Thank you for your inout and I will let you know how this proceeds. 

Please come back here and post an update.  I am very curious how a travel insurance provider will handle a consolidator booking.  My friendly advice is do not give up, keep working the claim with the insurance company, and try not to get too discouraged.  We are in the process of dealing with two major cancelation/interruption claims and quickly accepted the idea that these claims will take at least 6 months of "plugging away" to get resolved.

 

Hank