Silversea Cancel Again

Just been informed by Amex that our Hong Kong/Singapore April 2016 has been cancelled, this is the second one, the other was Singapore/Singapore April 2016...at the moment we are waiting for Silversea to get back to us to tell us which way we jump next:... not sure if the Marx Brothers are doing the rosters .

M.P.

Just been informed by Amex that our Hong Kong/Singapore April 2016 has been cancelled, this is the second one, the other was Singapore/Singapore April 2016...at the moment we are waiting for Silversea to get back to us to tell us which way we jump next:... not sure if the Marx Brothers are doing the rosters .

M.P.

That's not good,hope it all works out.

You have my sympathy. I hope that SS are offering you something sensible in recompense.

Are thise cruises bein chartered?

I was booked on a March 29 9 day Singapore/Hong Kong cruise and got a call from SS last week that they're reconfiguring all the Asia cruises for that period. They told me what they are doing and what cruise I had been changed to (it is now a 15 day cruise including Thailand which was not previously in the itinerary.) I had to change flights and hotels so I hope they make no further changes.

I'm sure you or your TA will be contacted soon. I would check with your TA immediately.

This sounds very disorganized! Is SS reimbursing any air fare penalties?

I was booked on a March 29 9 day Singapore/Hong Kong cruise and got a call from SS last week that they're reconfiguring all the Asia cruises for that period. They told me what they are doing and what cruise I had been changed to (it is now a 15 day cruise including Thailand which was not previously in the itinerary.) I had to change flights and hotels so I hope they make no further changes.

 

I'm sure you or your TA will be contacted soon. I would check with your TA immediately.

We have been offered 16 nt Hong Kong/ Tokyo in April for the same price as the 9nt Hong Kong/Singapore or 10% off any other cruise except a World cruise, no comp for re-booking flights & Hotels, but I think we will take the 16 nt offer...which is a fair deal... but annoying ... such is life!!

Cheers M.P.

We have been offered 16 nt Hong Kong/ Tokyo in April for the same price as the 9nt Hong Kong/Singapore or 10% off any other cruise except a World cruise, no comp for re-booking flights & Hotels, but I think we will take the 16 nt offer...which is a fair deal... but annoying ... such is life!!

 

Cheers M.P.

That seems to me as very fair.

We have been offered 16 nt Hong Kong/ Tokyo in April for the same price as the 9nt Hong Kong/Singapore or 10% off any other cruise except a World cruise, no comp for re-booking flights & Hotels, but I think we will take the 16 nt offer...which is a fair deal... but annoying ... such is life!!

 

Cheers M.P.

I see you are in Oz and hopefully made your booking whilst in Oz.

Entirely up to you. Oz consumer laws and protections are based on UK laws and protections, and you are almost certainly entitled to be refunded and losses with respect to your rebooking of flights and hotels and to receive compensation for the inconvenience and loss of the holiday you actually booked. Oz laws prevent these practices. The reasons for the changes that SS made are not reasons outside of their control but are purely commercial reasons to make more money and in so doing breached your contract with them. You had a contract and Oz laws provide considerable protection that most Ozzers seem unaware of. It is a fast track small claims process, which I believe you would clearly win .... if it ever got to it but it won't.

Your extra nights of cruise is nothing to do with the flights and hotels but merely replaces your previous cruise. Just because it is longer is in no way set against the other issues I outlined.

If more simply pursued their rights (outside the US where there is virtually no consumer protection) and made SS paid what they should the commercial attractiveness of messing customers around would reduce.

Good luck.

Jeff

I was booked on a March 29 9 day Singapore/Hong Kong cruise and got a call from SS last week that they're reconfiguring all the Asia cruises for that period. They told me what they are doing and what cruise I had been changed to (it is now a 15 day cruise including Thailand which was not previously in the itinerary.) I had to change flights and hotels so I hope they make no further changes.

 

I'm sure you or your TA will be contacted soon. I would check with your TA immediately.

Did they say why? I can think of two likely reasons, one is they got a charter or two in that period and worked around them and two would be some cruises weren't selling so well and so they bit the bullet and shuffled them around to do the more-popular ones.

They wouldn't give a specific reason but I too received the 15 day cruise for the same fare as the 9 day so I'm happy to go with it. Fortunately, I was able to switch my international flights without any charge but I did have to pay to change the domestic flights.

Consumer laws probably don't usurp simple common contract law.

If you buy a cruise, you choose to buy the cruise based upon the sellers conditions of sale.

The terms of which are (usually) just a teensy bit loaded in the sellers favour.

Consumer laws probably don't usurp simple common contract law.

If you buy a cruise, you choose to buy the cruise based upon the sellers conditions of sale.

The terms of which are (usually) just a teensy bit loaded in the sellers favour.

In Australia as a consumer you can effectively ignore unfair contract terms and almost not even bother reading the small print. Just google .... all will be revealed. The consumer laws in Australia are (generally) loaded in the consumers favour as the UK whereas in the US it is the opposite.

Jeff

I see you are in Oz and hopefully made your booking whilst in Oz.

 

Entirely up to you. Oz consumer laws and protections are based on UK laws and protections, and you are almost certainly entitled to be refunded and losses with respect to your rebooking of flights and hotels and to receive compensation for the inconvenience and loss of the holiday you actually booked. Oz laws prevent these practices. The reasons for the changes that SS made are not reasons outside of their control but are purely commercial reasons to make more money and in so doing breached your contract with them. You had a contract and Oz laws provide considerable protection that most Ozzers seem unaware of. It is a fast track small claims process, which I believe you would clearly win .... if it ever got to it but it won't.

 

Your extra nights of cruise is nothing to do with the flights and hotels but merely replaces your previous cruise. Just because it is longer is in no way set against the other issues I outlined.

 

If more simply pursued their rights (outside the US where there is virtually no consumer protection) and made SS paid what they should the commercial attractiveness of messing customers around would reduce.

 

Good luck.

 

Jeff

Very interesting Jeff, Thanks..... been changing flights & hotels this morning & all done.... cost was $ 225 usd, 10,000 points in cancelations, & a long time on computer & phone, so I will put I to SS & see what they come back with...if anything? & I will know which way to jump then. Oh! all our cancelled cruises 1 & 2 were on the Shadow .

Very interesting Jeff, Thanks..... been changing flights & hotels this morning & all done.... cost was $ 225 usd, 10,000 points in cancelations, & a long time on computer & phone, so I will put I to SS & see what they come back with...if anything? & I will know which way to jump then. Oh! all our cancelled cruises 1 & 2 were on the Shadow .

No probs.

Do not be fobbed off. If you made your booking either personally, or online or over the telephone whilst in Oz then your contract falls within Oz law and it will be heard by an Oz court.

It may well be so when on the ship and particularly if you used an Oz credit card as you then might then also check your credit card protection because some are held to be jointly responsible with Silversea for fullfilling the contract you made as though they are SS. In the UK it is called Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

This part of the legislation details the additional consumer protection afforded to individuals making certain types of payments using credit. This protection makes the supplier of the credit (e.g. the Credit Card issuer) associated with an individual item, ‘jointly and severally liable’ for any breach of contract or misrepresentation by a supplier of goods or services on credit.

In practical terms for credit card holders, this means that if something goes wrong with goods or services, costing between £100 and £30,000 the credit card issuer is liable for redress (i.e. refunding any monies paid).

So first approach is the unfair contract terms process in the fast track small court ... but just do a bit of a check to see whether you have the UK crfedit card protection as they will refund you and do all the work to get it back froom SS. They after all hold some of their cash from customers ... and in tghe UK the refund is very quick or even instant .......;)

I hope your cruise goes well.

Jeff

This happened to us in September 2013 silver shadow shanghai to tokyo was canceled - we were offered the reverse trip tokyo to shanghai 10 days later which luckily suited us and were also given OBC plus all expenses for reimbursing flights were met. Luckily we cancelled and rebooked with Avios and only had to pay cancellation fees so SS got off lightly - it was very annoying at the time but better than when we were bumped off an overbooked SB cruise but that's another story!

This happened to us in September 2013 silver shadow shanghai to tokyo was canceled - we were offered the reverse trip tokyo to shanghai 10 days later which luckily suited us and were also given OBC plus all expenses for reimbursing flights were met. Luckily we cancelled and rebooked with Avios and only had to pay cancellation fees so SS got off lightly - it was very annoying at the time but better than when we were bumped off an overbooked SB cruise but that's another story!

You were bumped off a cruise? Blimey. How, why, what did you do, where did you go? I must admit that possibility had never occurred to me, it must be rare but I am intrigued. Flight bumping, I can sort of understand but cruise bumping? Do tell, please?

Rp

We had a 48 hour hold on a suite in place and were just about to pay our deposit on this voyage (Hong Kong to Singapore) when we were told about the itinerary "change".

The new itinerary bears no resemblance to the previous and - as we hadn't actually paid our deposit - is twice as expensive because the voyage is now twice as long.

We were quite disappointed and declined to proceed with our booking.

We are sympathetic.. at least we didn't lose any money (just the hope of a lovely vacation).

It's just like airline flight overbooking - if one is offered enough to cancel one can choose to do so - but a week before sailing it was not funny. We were offered full refund PLUS free cruise to switch dates but in the end did not take the offer.

Consumer laws probably don't usurp simple common contract law.

If you buy a cruise, you choose to buy the cruise based upon the sellers conditions of sale.

The terms of which are (usually) just a teensy bit loaded in the sellers favour.

It's very sad that people believe this. A shipping line contract is subject to the laws of the nation in which it was booked. I had a similar problem with another up-market cruise line (not SS). I downloaded a document from our County Court in the UK, forwarded it to the cruise line, and received full reimbursement within seven days without any argument. Even got a nice letter from their company lawyer.

It's very sad that people believe this. A shipping line contract is subject to the laws of the nation in which it was booked. I had a similar problem with another up-market cruise line (not SS). I downloaded a document from our County Court in the UK, forwarded it to the cruise line, and received full reimbursement within seven days without any argument. Even got a nice letter from their company lawyer.

Well done you. :)

They rely on people other than people like you! :)

Jeff

I do not think that is true. A cruise ship is subject to admiral laws of the ocean, if the line grants you a refund, that refund is the choice of the cruise line, not any international law of the sea.

I do not think that is true. A cruise ship is subject to admiral laws of the ocean, if the line grants you a refund, that refund is the choice of the cruise line, not any international law of the sea.

It is true. This is not about who's in charge whilst outside of territorial waters on board ......

Every entity has to fully and completely comply with the laws of the country in which it chooses to operate. If the contract is made in the UK it is subject to UK laws and a UK court will hear the case and decide the outcome. A main law that is relevant to these issues is:

The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1999/2083/contents/made

In over simplistic terms for this situation, if the contract allows the cruise line to cancel and change whenever they want but if the customer cancels they pay a penalty then it is under the regulations an imbalance.There is also a concept of balance of power. Many of SS terms are competely outside of the above regulations and cannot be enfoced. That is why they will pay.

All explained under the regs with lots more around to read. Surely this must make you happy!

:)

Jeff

You seem irrational, what was your point? File a suite, what do you get?

Jeff's position accords with current UK consumer legislation. The contract is made with SS. They book through the office in UK (or Australia in the OP's case) . The conditions of contract only apply if they are judged to be fair under existing legislation - a company that places unfair terms in a contract will have them overturned by the court.

Furthermore, companies know full well that most people roll over and get shafted rather than seek redress. The small claims system is designed to make the process simple and efficient and it is usually more trouble and cost for companies to fight the claim especially when it is clear that they are trying to impose unfair terms.

In the US as I understand the unfair terms aspect is much less in favour of the consumer and legal redress more expensive and complex.