Turn the Tide

11 minutes ago, wowzz said:

You are of course assuming that P&O will still be operating in May 2021 !

That's true, but if everyone believes they may not be operating so waits and sees before booking, they definitely will go down. I have to hope that doesn't happen.

9 hours ago, Adawn47 said:

Ours is November 6th so I'm having the same issue Jean. I've already been looking at next year though. The Baltic looks interesting in May.

Avril 

I am using my FCC from my cruise cancelled for this month to go on next May's Baltic cruise.

13 hours ago, No pager thank you said:

There will be uproar if we get to 17th July and no one knows about their cruises from 1st August.  And, little doubt the refunds will still be "in process."

 

Yes but remember that P&O waited until 30th March to move the pause date from 11th April out to 15th May therefore less than 2 weeks before the deadline at the time.

8 hours ago, bobstheboy said:

I have and all they say is the cruise is scheduled to go ahead ! As I said they are still selling it and we think PO is bad.

Do they give you the option to move your booking to a later cruise like P&O do?

11 minutes ago, Son of Anarchy said:

 

Was able to access CP for our upcoming September jaunt.  Not sure for how much longer though...

I can still login to CP and see details of my cancelled June 14th cruise. Rather depressing that it's still there and telling me only 27 days until departure! ☹️

37 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Thanks Andy.

I think my pictures of Explorer(Voyager class) Independence( Freedom class)and Ventura on last post highlight the better layout and room decor.

RC cabins look a little tired.

Personally I prefer having the bed near the cabin entrance and the lounge area near the balcony as well which favours the P&O layout.

2 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

I have 6 P&O cruises booked including a B2B in Sept/Oct , all still active although I doubt I will be paying the balance of that first one, and I have no idea if and when when any of the others will be viable.

I can't see any cruises happening until there is a vaccine. Social distancing is not feasible on a cruise ship.

I'm fairly new to cruising. My first was in 2017 and I've only had 5 - all with P&O. I was booked on a 2 week Baltic cruise for June this year and when it was cancelled, I decided to book a replacement cruise next year and use the FCC for it. The cruise next year is of course a lot more expensive even than 125% of this year's, but I accepted that and just booked online and paid the deposit knowing that most of the balance will be covered by the FCC. I have no visibility of what my FCC value is but have done my own calculation of it. I also already had 2 other cruises booked - one in December this year and one in April 2021.

Before all this happened, I had a high respect for P&O given it's 180 year heritage and good service on board. However, it pains me to say that my respect for them has plummeted when I look at the way they've treated their loyal customers over the refund process. They have clearly strung people along and given false promises on timescales to get their money back. The communication has been appalling both for customers wanting confirmation that their refund is being processed and those like me who cannot see what FCC has been applied for cancelled cruises and OBC for shore excursions.

Whether any of my 3 booked cruises actually sail is debatable as I believe a vaccine needs to be available to all pax before they can, but if they do sail, I will be on them. However, for future cruises, I'm now very likely to start looking at alternative cruise lines based on some of the recommendations I've seen written on this forum.

Most people seem very pessimistic about a vaccine being made available any time soon, but I have a feeling one will be with us sooner than you think. This would be good news because I cannot see how social distancing could be maintained at all on a cruise ship. The lifts, corridors to cabins, restaurants, theatres and communal areas would all be virtually impossible areas to keep 2m apart. Having every other cabin vacant wouldn't in my view, achieve anything. When I say "soon" for a vaccine though, it won't be this year so I'd be surprised if any cruises sail in the remainder of 2020 unless they significantly reduce passenger numbers on them.

40 minutes ago, No pager thank you said:

Pleased that you have some certainty, you have been extremely patient. 

 

I just hope that as they are now being forced to pay out, they don't create a story of cruising being safe on 1st August to force as much money in to the business as possible.

 

The way that they have treated you, I would insist on the FCC going against a future cruise balance before I cancelled.  If they can break the rules at will, so can I.  Not worth the stress otherwise for £100 or so.

Not sure they will announce more "paused" cruises anytime soon since the Government is now talking about some hospitality venues opening as early as July. They may wait and see how the Government steps go for a while yet.

4 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

I saw that on Google news. It's a interesting piece by Which. I couldn't find a way to copy to the forum but you can find it on Which News if anyone's interested. 

Avril 

 

I still believe that Carnival made a business decision a long time ago to delay refunds for 60 days and now that the time is up, the flood gates are starting to open. I hope everyone gets their refund soon - I expect you all will.

59 minutes ago, staygulf said:

I can’t see what possible defence they can put up to a claim which they have already admitted  they owe and which is one due under law. 

Force majeure?

2 minutes ago, wowzz said:

As a matter of interest,  how much  independence do we think P&O have in this whole refund scenario ? As far as I can see, Cunard,  Princess,  HAM are all behaving in much the same fashion,  dictated, I would suppose, by the finance department at Carnival USA .

Many of us are saying that we will not cruise with P&O again,  but, in  reality there are not that many options left.

There are other cruise companies - Royal Caribean?

36 minutes ago, NoFlyGuy said:

As long as it takes. It's not my business to know your personal circumstances but as I posted yesterday, I feel for those who need a refund to help ends meet rather than to book a new holiday in 2021. There's no way P&O can know these people.

I'm sure we will get our refund in due course and it will just go back into our holiday account, which it came from .

I only hope you're right and your doormat position works out for you.

1 hour ago, grapau27 said:

It is down to cost.

It's down to whether you put your customers first or you shaft them for a bit more profit. We all know what P&O's choice is and it will hurt them badly in the long run.

31 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

They can but they are more expensive to process so 1-3 days is the norm.

Nope. A transfer from my bank account to someone elses is free and takes 2 hours.

6 minutes ago, Manx buoy said:

Premier Inn emailed us confirmation of our refund in the afternoon and the money was back in our account the next morning so where is the seven days coming from?

BACS payments these days will get into the account in around 2 hours.

8 minutes ago, No pager thank you said:

The only thing they seem to have posted today elsewhere is some dreadful clip from minor wannabe celeb for a quiz, which they continued with despite it going down badly last time.

 

I haven't seem them "fess up" to 90 days yet, whether that's P&O working days or normal calendar days.  The latest time I have seen them appear to relay to a customer is 60 working days (although this is inconsistent), which would be around 80 actual days, allowing for bank holidays.

 

90 days, or certainly 90 working days would put them at the very worst end of certainly the UK cruise market from what I can see.  Delays of that magnitude will surely cost P&O more in charge backs.  

 

They really are making this worse for themselves.

It was never officially working days. This is most likely telephone staff trying to get people off their backs. There is zero logic in a difference between calendar days and working days when you're talking 60+ days. The simple fact is that they have made a business decision to withhold refunds for as long as they can get away with on the basis that most customers will tolerate it.

Just now, Windsurfboy said:

Cunard /P&O have announced 450 redundancies  sorry for the staff, ut also sorry for all of us awaiting refunds will only be  slower. 

It will make no difference to the speed of getting refunds. The delay was a business decision - nothing to do with staff numbers.

1 hour ago, No pager thank you said:

You can find it by searching through the list of comments towards the top of the cruise suspension thread with the video.

 

The comments were posted early this morning, hope that helps you.

Yes search by 'Newest' -  it was about 6 Hrs ago now at the end of a long thread of 27 comments.

2 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

They cannot put a pause on new bookings because not all are asking for refunds many are opting for FCC and they are then making new bookings with the FCC.

It is very obvious that the 60+ day delay in paying refunds is not a resource problem but a company policy decision.

2 hours ago, No pager thank you said:

Another actual refund being celebrated on FB this morning, received day 65 - working the calendar back this means cancellation on 8th March, which would likely mean that the passenger cancelled, not P&O, but can't be certain on that.

 

Passenger reports chasing P&O for at least a couple of weeks.

 

Think that I may need to request a refund on my postal order of the vuvuzela...😅

The refund on FB has been confirmed as a cancellation by the customer before any 'pause' was announced.

1 hour ago, NoFlyGuy said:

Troubling times for all of us.

I have the greatest sympathy for those, whether they post on here or not,  have found themselves in financial hardship and really do need their refunds to come through quickly. Whether chasing P&O or any other holiday organisation for that matter helps, then good luck.

We are now at day 55 but not expecting anything to happen soon. Having already paid for our cancelled cruise we can afford to wait. If it gets to July and nothing is forthcoming I will probably then at least phone or email P&O. Until then I'll just sit it out. 

You're at day 55 and you'll give them until July?! Wow, I bet they wish all their customers were that easy to hedge.

1 minute ago, jeanlyon said:

I think it goes against your Peninsular number, then when you book, it is applied.

Thanks Jean, but I was wondering if anyone has actually seen it in their account yet on the website? Or will it not be visible there?

There may a separate thread for this but has anyone had their FCC applied to their account on the P&O website yet? If so, where does it show?