Megabear2

As an early booker there is very little chance you will be allocated anything other than Gatwick and I personally would take that as 99% certain. Over the past 9 years - we did cruise Caribbean in January 2020 and December 20221 so no years missed for pandemic - the Gatwick flights have departed around 5.00pm from Barbados every single time and arrive at around 6.00am on average. We have had delays but never more than an hour or so and the aircraft tend to make up the time. This year the arrivals are scheduled for 5.30am and 6.30am. The only serious delay I have heard of in recent times was in January 2020 when due to an aircraft failure on an incoming flight to Barbados we sailed a day late and instead of visiting Curaçao had an extra day in Barbados.

Unfortunately you are correct. I have had further cases of refused boarding reported overnight, including another one via these boards. I am beginning to think if P&O do not deal with this situation for the first time in many years I will be contacting other channels to raise the position into the full public domain.

I am sorry to hear of your mother 's difficulties. I am currently in discussions with P&O on these issues and offer some, hopefully, helpful suggestions. As she was cancelled yesterday quick action is suggested. 1. Has your mother received any medical treatment for her cough or discussed the issue in anyway with her GP surgery? If not please get her to call them today and arrange for an urgent appointment- a telephonic appointment should be acceptable if no in person one is. It is essential to get her "illness" noted into her medical records today and obtain a diagnosis. I would suggest your mother explains what has happened regarding her cancelled cruise as the staff will then understand why she needs a diagnosis. 2. Was your mother travelling with anyone else? If so assumedly they were cancelled too. Please can you post the information here - no personal details - of how many are affected and if they all live at one address. If not, how far apart do they live? 3. Telephone P&O today and insist on a letter/email being sent to you and your mother stating why she has been cancelled . You are entitled to see a cancellation invoice to show your mother's loss in a "formal" manner. Insist you require the letter by return. 4. Contact today your mother's travel insurer and state you need to make a claim. You may well encounter the insurers claim team stating their are delays in dealing with issues. If this is the case Insist you may have to take action against other parties and to prevent time bar issues you need a quick process - be very firm. 5. Please advise via this board who the insurers of your mother and any accompanying travellers are - there are a few companies more sympathetic than others so this information is helpful. Please also could you advise the type of policy held, ie single trip, annual, extended cruise cover, attached to a bank account, specialist age/health care related, ex employee such as civil service etc. This may well be relevant, particularly the extended cruise cover section. 6. Please read the thread on these boards entitled Update on Insurance Issues which was started by me yesterday. This will give you an idea of the type of arguments you will need to prepare and write to P&O. 7. Having read this email P&O on the following email addresses setting out your case and raising a complaint: Executive.Correspondence@carnivalukgroup.com po.guestsupport@carnivalukgroup.com You will most likely receive a generic reply stating they have 28 days to respond however I suggest in your email you state you want a reply within 10 working days and state you will be contacting ABTA if a suitable resolution is not offered in that time frame. I am very happy to offer assistance and provide help if needed in writing the communications. In closing I am very sorry for the state your mother finds herself in. I fully understand how upset she will be and send my personal good wishes. Hopefully we can get a good resolution for her, albeit might take a while.

No problem. I thought the OP wanted London flight information so added to your BHX link out of laziness.

You can still buy the Captain and Commodore selections. The included bottles are listed on the website.

The first charrer flight into Gatwick on 30/12 this year is due to arrive 5.30 ! We are on the second with 6.30am.

Glad that you are happy. I note all your cruises are on Aurora and Arcadia and as such are more specialised. They are also able to carry fewer passengers than the remainder of the fleet and as such are limited in choice of cabins. Whilst delighted to hear you have been successful in booking early and achieving the best price unfortunately this has not been the case in many instances on the larger ships. So, yes, swings and roundabouts but a very difficult decision if you are booking anything other than the smaller ships and also a very fine balancing act.

Yes, and yes! See here: https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2888624-live-report-b225/?do=findComment&comment=64242569

So did I, the website just took my Google information. I did not acknowledge the opening of an account and emailed their sales department asking for removal of my details.

I promised to update everyone interested on my discussions with P&O after Adam Edinburgh of Holiday Extras replied on the issue. I have behind the scenes put the relevant clauses to most of the major travel insurers and to a man they agreed with Adam Edinburgh that there would be little or no cover based on P&O's website clauses. This has led me to speak with both FCA and ABTA and between us we have concluded this is a P&O problem of unfair terms and conditions. I have also spoken with a couple of legal contacts who also believe this to be the case. As a result I made contact with P&O on 3 October informing them of my concerns. A couple of brief conversations have occurred in which the agents have stated they are not allowed to discuss insurance issues and I need to wait for the results of an investigation at the highest level. I have therefore allowed the 28 day period from 3 October to conclude, this expiring today. As a result I wrote this morning to the Executive Office asking for my promised reply. The text was as follows (some personal information as been redacted from this but hopefully you get the gist): Quote Good morning. Further to my email of 3 October and your acknowledgement of 6 October as set out below, it is now 28 days since I first wrote to you on this issue, although my initial enquiry on your guest relations email address remains unacknowledged, as does the contact from your legal team promised in April this year when I first raised my query on insurance issues. As explained in my email of 3 October my enquiry on insurance matters has become important once more due to the imminent cruises to be taken by my family in December. It is many months since you were originally asked for clarification and since September you have stopped all forms of future cruise credit in the event a passenger has problems which makes clarification even more essential. Since raising this issue with you in October and asking for full clarity on your knowledge of the cover offered by your own recommended insurer, Holiday Extras, I have carried out a large amount of research within the UK travel insurance market and also on social media and cruise forums. This research has confirmed that the bulk of the UK travel insurers would not offer cover for the two clauses in your terms and conditions that I asked Mr Edinburgh for his company's stance on. They are as one: these are not insurable risks as per Mr Adam Edinburgh's reply to me and it would therefore appear my fears of being uninsured in the event you refuse boarding for any of the items on your questionnaire are correct. I have also come across three recent incidents on social media where you have refused boarding and cancelled bookings, including third parties from non related households, at the time of completion and submission of your health questionnaire. All three of this reported cases involved a common cold or a long standing cough which were not in any way covid related. I am aware from online chat with one of these unfortunate people that your response has been to send him a letter to forward to his insurer to allow him to claim. I have not seen this letter but after discussing these types of event unofficially with ABTA and the FCA, they have indicated it is extremely doubtful that a claim would succeed, particularly for the gentleman's extended family who also had their bookings cancelled without any supplemental questions or looking into the "illness" which caused the cancellation. As previously mentioned I have already spoken to ABTA in light of Mr Edinburgh's reply to me that these events would not be, in his opinion, insurable. This contact led to my writing to your offices to offer your company a fair chance to investigate and discuss the position fully with UK insurers, in particular your recommended one, Holiday Extras. It was hoped that you would use this 28 days to understand the complexities of the UK travel insurance industry and find and publish a suitable solution for these apparently uninsurable events. If, as P&O and Cunard state, these are insurable events, it would be helpful to hear from you under which section of a policy and on what grounds. As you have seen from Mr Edinburgh's reply to me, a medical practitioner would be required to provide a medical certificate for a claim to be considered. The common cold is not something you are encouraged to call your doctor to discuss, particularly at a time when the NHS are under extreme pressure with major illnesses, and yet the gentleman I have chatted with informs me that was what his wife had at the point he and his family had their cruise cancelled. I would politely suggest it is unreasonable to expect your customers to place such a ridiculously small matter on the shoulders of the NHS at this time. I would be extremely grateful to hear from you as a matter of urgency, by the close of business on Friday 4 November. Failing this I will be forced to raise the issue as a formal complaint with ABTA and also to speak with my MP, Mr John Glen. This appears to be a fairly major issue. I am aware that for in excess of 20 years successive governments have been concerned about misleading terms surrounding travel insurance and clarity of policies. In this case it would appear the clarity and understanding of what policies cover rests with Carnival Corporation UK rather than the insurers. Incidentally, I wonder why the other sister company to P&O and Cunard, Princess, apparently appears to still offer FCC in these circumstances? I have looked at their update of 21 October and their terms are far more favourable to the passenger and do not rely on Holiday Extras paying out on refusal of boarding or cabin confinement due to covid. I look forward to your urgent reply as requested. Unquote Surprisingly a reply has been received two hours after my sending the above: Quote Thank you for your further email and we’re extremely sorry that our comprehensive reply has taken a little longer than expected. Please rest assured that your complaint is being investigated and we will be in contact as soon as possible. Thank you for your ongoing patience in this regard. Unquote I have replied again: Quote Thank you for your acknowledgement to my email this morning. I appreciate that at least your company has chosen on this occasion to at least offer a reply. I note your statement that you require further time to provide a comprehensive answer, however there is no indication as to how long you are intending to take before replying. I also note that I do not have a case reference in this issue. Sadly my previous experience with P&O on this and other issues leads me to believe that without a case reference any complaints go back into the mix with a further 28 days for you to investigate. I'm afraid I would not find this acceptable on such a major personal issue. My six family members sail on Aurora on 6th December and my husband and I fly to join Britannia on 16th December. Time is therefore of the essence if we are to travel knowing we have the comfort of a full and proper insurance policy covering all eventualities. At present we do not have this. I should therefore be grateful to hear when we may expect the promised full reply or at the very least an update on where your investigations currently are and with whom. I hope you will appreciate as very loyal customers of both P&O and Cunard neither I nor my family have any desire to have to resort to ABTA, our MPs or any other medium such as consumer groups. However without a full explanation and answer to our very valid and direct concerns I feel we are being put in a most difficult situation. I would therefore appreciate an indication of your time frame to fit with our upcoming cruise dates. Unquote Just for information, I do indeed have an opportunity to discuss this with my MP and failing a suitable outcome will be making an appointment. Sorry for the length of time for an update and also for the length of this post. I am as promised still working away in my family and all cruisers' interests.

This year is my first in 10 trying PE, mainly because my OH was very upset about a flight earlier in the year. We have always found the economy offering good, particularly as we can both ask for aisle seats. This year we have taken the plunge and have two PE seats together and it will be interesting to compare service etc. Reserving the seats was however a nightmare involving 2 1/2 frustrating hours ending at 2.30am to book the seats. It will have to be a far superior service for me to go through that again!

Out of interest price a mid forward Britannia balcony with sofa for Christmas 2024. Price is £7265 for two with £120OBC. That's actually cheaper than this year on Britannia but much less OBC and only £165 dearer than my 2023 Arvia Christmas cruise. However looking today at both my booked cruises its £2,000 cheaper for my this year's cruise at present and £350 for next year's. Make of it what you will, these are all select prices based on F deck balcony with sofa.

If you do, that's new. Drinks service, not with a meal, has not been included on all my 9 previous P&O Caribbean trips. My experience is one drink offered shortly after boarding, then wine with a meal, pay for anything else to drink except water. I recall being offered a Baileys on a Thomas Cook flight. In PE you can order drinks free of charge at other times which is I think what Wowzz is referring to.

They do indeed within reason. However with limited numbers available thought it best to offer information on the basics.

If it's P&O charter flight the benefits are the bonded luggage and no arrival hall, straight on bus to ship and generally onboard (traffic dependent) in around 1 hour 30 minutes. The flights with TUI are good on modern aircraft. You do not get free drinks apart from wine with dinner and pay to book seats. What sort of other information are you seeking?

Yes, I've had that before. Tends to be because the two browsers aren't talking. Have you cleared your cache etc? That did help but was extremely annoying.

I haven't got the app, I don't use them. However they have all my details as it linked from my Google account! I apparently have 28 days free and then will be invoiced!!!!

Thank you for your update. Would you kindly post the text of the letter, not your personal details along with the number of people on your booking, whether they are on one policy, details of if they live at the same address? I have been in communication with P&O's Executive Office today and mentioned your case, albeit as just we have spoken by chat online. If you are willing to provide the requested information above NOT any personal information, I hope I may be able to help. Meanwhile check the date for your first communication - presumably by telephone on the day they cancelled you but also when you wrote and received the generic reply and let me know what date the 28 days will be up. I'm currently involved with the FCA and my MP on this - the latter is a bit busy but is waiting to see P&O's final reply before raising the issue elsewhere.

Sorry to hijack your personal thread, however regarding yesterday's outage did anyone else get diverted to an authorisation company used by CC, Auth.o? Having been promoted to enter my email address and password I now apparently have an account with this company from that link and are being asked to authenticate it despite not wanting it. Attempts to contact Auth.o have to date failed apart from a form to send to sales. I have asked CC to assist but have an email saying they're very busy! Any offer of what to do much appreciated.

Totally agree. No way will I commit any money to P&O after this year's hefty reductions to late select bookers. I feel very used and abused! I will however hopefully book with Cunard for Queen Anne when she goes on sale as there is apparently (if the leaks on Cunard forum are correct) a cruise covering our wedding anniversary and my birthday. At this stage we won't even book a Christmas Caribbean which we normally do.

G407 is mid deck. I doubt it is mid forward they will be using. We were midforward G218 on our last Britannia cruise and the isolation areas were from midship to the rear. Doors were shut from G330 backwards as we could not use the rear lifts without getting out deck 7 and walking to midship. We are booked for F324 this time around departing 16 December - we just booked a select fare grade GB cabin with sofa on launch day, not a specific one as it was guarantee only on launch. From Walkingdude's live report on the transatlantic he has been able to walk up and down both sides of deck 8 with no closed off areas. I can only assume that quarantine is considered as being needed in January as if there's a large outbreak passengers may have to stay onboard if quarantine facilities are full up - this has happened a few times through the summer months for some US cruise lines' passengers.

Walk and cycle - a lot from my experience in the Alps in Austria!

What are P&O doing with the people perpetrating these acts of aggression ? Any staff involvement or actions taken against the perpetrators?

This poster is an employee of the company. He did not say you cannot book only you should not do it on the P&O UK website.

Believe you are in St Kitts? Have they finished the building work at the port or is it still the long hike through the building works? Notice on Vessel finder it states you're moored. Are you tendering? Not my own personal favourite island as the rubbish dumped is most off putting to me. Hopefully better now. Enjoy yourselves. I'm getting just a teeny bit jealous!