Urgent help - parents passport stolen in Athens

[the penguins]

15 minutes ago, Torfamm said:

Wishing them the best! Have they checked to see if they have any coverage for the theft through credit cards or possibly even homeowners insurance, although I’m not sure how UK insurance works.

Regretably it's very very unlikely that any UK insurance will cover this incident. The passenger is responsible for arriving at the port or airport with the correct documents. Personally we would have camped out at the British Embassy, taken our new docs to Celebrity's Agent in Athens (hard to see why the docs would be refused unless it's because Israel or Egypt refused to accept them) then flown on to catch up with the ship. 

Failing that I would be on the phone to Celebrity in Woking (or better still turning up at the office) and speaking to the highest person available. I would not wait until the first cruise ended. Such a shame and hopefully X will respond with a positive offer.

 

[the penguins]

12 hours ago, Mark_UK said:

Hi all, 

 

I hadn't meant to spark a big debate - no suggestion here that Celebrity have done anything wrong, apart from being pretty unhelpful when we first contacted the call centres with what felt like an emergency. 

 

The cruise they were due on is not full, as of earlier this week there were quite a few empty cabins, including in the category they were sailing in. My parents also paid quite a substantial amount for a non-refundable successful MoveUp bid which they will now no longer use - free money for Celebrity. 

 

So they have not used an otherwise probably empty room, will have had no food or use of their all inclusive drinks package or promotional onboard credit worth $800. 

 

I therefore don't think it's unreasonable to hope, that as a gesture of goodwill in the unique circumstances, Celebrity would be willing to transfer their booking to an identical sailing in three weeks time, also with empty rooms available, at a reduced cost. 

 

Other companies have shown compassion, such as British Airways in getting them home without charging what they could have done. 

 

My parents now have their emergency passports and fly home tomorrow. They are expecting to hear a decision from Celebrity once it's confirmed they didn't in fact board, hopefully later this week. 

Hi Mark, just noticed you live in London, please see my Post above, a visit to Woking could well pay dividends.

[Torfamm]

16 minutes ago, the penguins said:

Regretably it's very very unlikely that any UK insurance will cover this incident. The passenger is responsible for arriving at the port or airport with the correct documents. 

 

I was thinking more about coverage for victims of crimes. Loss of travel documents is different than theft. There might be some compensation available for the theft of the bag containing the money and passports.

[Mark_UK]

31 minutes ago, the penguins said:

Hi Mark, just noticed you live in London, please see my Post above, a visit to Woking could well pay dividends.

 

Hi there, thanks for the tip - I actually live very near to Woking! We are currently speaking to someone from the execs office who wants confirmation that insurance won't cover it in full. Reading over their policy it's just £500 (with £100 excess deductable) for a disrupted trip even if the insurance do agree. Though sadly stolen passports is not listed as a valid reason for trip disruption. Theft coverage also says it needs to be taken from you, not whilst unattended. Their credit card only covers medical emergency or travel delays. 

 

The reason for not being able to use the temporary document is that neither Israel or Egypt accept emergency passports for entry or transit, only exit. 

Edited September 27, 2023 by Mark_UK

[the penguins]

2 hours ago, Mark_UK said:

 

Hi there, thanks for the tip - I actually live very near to Woking! We are currently speaking to someone from the execs office who wants confirmation that insurance won't cover it in full. Reading over their policy it's just £500 (with £100 excess deductable) for a disrupted trip even if the insurance do agree. Though sadly stolen passports is not listed as a valid reason for trip disruption. Theft coverage also says it needs to be taken from you, not whilst unattended. Their credit card only covers medical emergency or travel delays. 

 

The reason for not being able to use the temporary document is that neither Israel or Egypt accept emergency passports for entry or transit, only exit. 

Hi Mark,

I had a feeling that the security situation in Israel/Egypt would mean they wouldn’t accept emergency passports.

I would still try for a “face to face” as it’s more likely X will be prepared to make “ a goodwill gesture” over a coffee than on the phone.

Best of luck. Geoff.

[the penguins]

3 hours ago, Torfamm said:

I was thinking more about coverage for victims of crimes. Loss of travel documents is different than theft. There might be some compensation available for the theft of the bag containing the money and passports.

Good insurance will cover the costs of getting new passports.

Loss of money might be covered but the Insurance company could well refuse on the grounds that the bag was left “unattended ” I.e not locked in a safe. 
You would also need a Crime Report Number from the local police.

However the main concern is getting a refund of cruise cost or moving it for free to a later date.

[Guest ldtr]

58 minutes ago, the penguins said:

Hi Mark,

I had a feeling that the security situation in Israel/Egypt would mean they wouldn’t accept emergency passports.

I would still try for a “face to face” as it’s more likely X will be prepared to make “ a goodwill gesture” over a coffee than on the phone.

Best of luck. Geoff.

Not unusual for countries not to accept emergency passports for entry. It is my understanding that France does not accept them either for entry only for passing through.

[Guest ldtr]

6 hours ago, Mark_UK said:

 

I asked them the same last night. The hotel suspect someone is able to clone the electronic keycards as this has happened a number of times. The CCTV  also shows 4 masked men going into the property. This particular hotel has 3 buildings located near eachother, only 1 of which has a reception. Parents were placed in one of the annex buildings. 

This is very interesting. Usually to clone a key card one would either need physical access to the card or access to the system. In most cases even using the system to generate a new card will deactivate the old cards.

 

There was a system built by Assa Abloy (vision by vingcard) where it was found to have a vulnerability where one could scan a card and then pull information from it to create cards to open other rooms. Basically a master key. This was discovered in 2018 and the company notified. A fix was developed and made available to users of the product. Certainly possible that some users have not installed the fix and as such have a vulnerable system.

 

If that hotel is using that system and has not installed the fix then they would certainly be negligent. You may want to see what card system they are running.

 

It is interesting that they jumped to the cloned card answer which is not possible on most system without physical possession of the card.

Edited September 27, 2023 by ldtr

[Guest ldtr]

5 hours ago, Baggy178 said:

Unfortunately Athens is notorious for petty thievery and pickpockets.

The Metro system in particular is plagued by them.

Some years ago I caught a miscreant trying to unzip my wife's handbag on an up escalator. I'm not proud to say in the ensuing struggle I punched and kicked him hard. Fortunately he ran off.

Unfortunately while one can take action to prevent a pickpocket from stealing, if one actual hits or otherwise strikes the perpetrator, except in self defense they can be considered to be violating the law themselves and charged with a crime (assault).

[cruisestitch]

On 9/25/2023 at 4:24 AM, Cruise till you drop said:

Is theft at hotels in Athens Greece a common thing ?

It did not happen at the hotel

 

see post #28

Edited September 27, 2023 by cruisestitch

[cruisestitch]

49 minutes ago, ldtr said:

This is very interesting. Usually to clone a key card one would either need physical access to the card or access to the system. In most cases even using the system to generate a new card will deactivate the old cards.

 

There was a system built by Assa Abloy (vision by vingcard) where it was found to have a vulnerability where one could scan a card and then pull information from it to create cards to open other rooms. Basically a master key. This was discovered in 2018 and the company notified. A fix was developed and made available to users of the product. Certainly possible that some users have not installed the fix and as such have a vulnerable system.

 

If that hotel is using that system and has not installed the fix then they would certainly be negligent. You may want to see what card system they are running.

 

It is interesting that they jumped to the cloned card answer which is not possible on most system without physical possession of the card.

It did not happen at the hotel

 

see post #28

Edited September 27, 2023 by cruisestitch

[Guest ldtr]

6 minutes ago, cruisestitch said:

It did not happen at the hotel

 

see post #28

not sure why you are saying that.  The OP is very clear that the theft of their parents passports occured at the hotel with theft from the room.

 

 

[chemmo]

🤞 that Celebrity can help out…

 

 

[RichYak]

14 minutes ago, cruisestitch said:

It did not happen at the hotel

 

see post #28

Seems clear that the passports were stolen from the hotel room. Post 28 only indicates that cash was put in the safe, but not the passports.

[Mark_T]

1 hour ago, ldtr said:

This is very interesting. Usually to clone a key card one would either need physical access to the card or access to the system. In most cases even using the system to generate a new card will deactivate the old cards.

The weakness is usually the housekeeping keys and access to them isn't hard to achieve.

 

The system should log the keys used to access the room and the time, so it is not hard to track down and invalidate the cloned keys, but that requires action on the part of the hotel operator and that can be sadly lacking...

[Bobal]

58 minutes ago, cruisestitch said:

It did not happen at the hotel

 

see post #28

Yes it did

 

See post#1. The very first sentence 

[Cruise till you drop]

1 hour ago, cruisestitch said:

It did not happen at the hotel

 

see post #28

Post #28 clearly confirms this happened at the hotel

[Torfamm]

2 hours ago, the penguins said:

Good insurance will cover the costs of getting new passports.

Loss of money might be covered but the Insurance company could well refuse on the grounds that the bag was left “unattended ” I.e not locked in a safe. 
You would also need a Crime Report Number from the local police.

However the main concern is getting a refund of cruise cost or moving it for free to a later date.

I believe they mentioned that they’ve contacted the police. As for their insurance, obviously it depends on their specific policy. In some cases, trip interruptions or cancellations are covered if it is due to being the victim of a crime.

[HxFx]

17 hours ago, Traveling Fools said:

 

In the U.S. you can order a Pass Port card at the same time you order your PP.  It contains all the relative information contained on the face page of your PP, including photo.  It isn't a substitute for a PP, but eliminate the need to make copies of your PP. 

The passport card has a different number, even if you get them at the same time. First time I got it I did that. I renewed my PP a few months ago but decided to keep my card for now and renew later so at least they are staggered for the future. You can do them separately and there is no savings doing them together (but admittedly more convenient). I have no idea if the card would help with an emergency passport in this situation. They are very limited in where they can be used. I figure if they have a delay in passports again I can at least go on a Caribbean cruise in the mean time!

[Mark_UK]

1 hour ago, cruisestitch said:

It did not happen at the hotel

 

see post #28

Can confirm it was at a hotel - P&T Athens Manor Houses. Apparently staff called the police when they saw suspicious activity but didn't arrive in time. 

[the penguins]

51 minutes ago, Torfamm said:

I believe they mentioned that they’ve contacted the police. As for their insurance, obviously it depends on their specific policy. In some cases, trip interruptions or cancellations are covered if it is due to being the victim of a crime.

True but with some policies interruption only applies for cruises after the first port. 

[Torfamm]

18 minutes ago, the penguins said:

True but with some policies interruption only applies for cruises after the first port. 

They had already traveled to Greece to board the ship. My understanding is that trip cancellation would apply in that case but again, they should check with their travel insurance provider, credit card company etc to see if they have any coverage for any of the losses due to this crime. Their TA may be able to offer advice on next steps if they sold them a package including the insurance 

Edited September 27, 2023 by Torfamm

[jsn55]

"The CCTV  also shows 4 masked men going into the property."

Well, that about sums it up.  What a disaster.

[FiremedicMike151]

On 9/25/2023 at 8:46 AM, love to cruz said:

We have a son in law who is an FBI agent. He said always keep your passports locked in a safe. Passports are worth over $40,000 on the black market. He also advised to always keep a copy with you.

Where does one go to sell their passport for $40,000… asking for a friend.. 😂

[love to cruz]

The black market from criminals