Megabear2

Well the lack of salmon is definitely P&O ...

Lovely. Unfortunately our M&S has very little meat on sale these days so sticks to the more basic lines. Still mustn't complain it's fighting to survive and not close down and then we would have the 25 mile trip that we already have if we want their clothing.

Sending very best wishes for a good recovery Kalos, I miss your positivity and fun. To everyone else with health checks and tests I hope all goes well and good news is soon received. We have our flu and covid jabs this afternoon as well. It's good the roll out is being speeded up.

Just looked at thick ribeye. You get 4 for £37.00 so £9.25 each. Saw one of those on sale in Sainsburys yesterday for £8.50 so if the quality matches the hype not exceptionally expensive. Strangely they have no salmon in stock though!

Looks very nice. Just checked out their website which reminds me of Waitrose's. They are obviously a very old well respected food provider moving into other areas. Personally I like Fortnum & Mason for my upmarket food but unfortunately now I'm 1 1/2 train journey away it's become more of a treat than a regular occurrence.

Only in your opinion as you are happy with an Aldi level cabin whereas some are paying for a Waitrose experience and in the case of Suites your Booths.

I'm only assuming, not seen it confirmed. However reading in depth the T&Cs it would not from what I can see be a major change allowing free cancellation. Basically you are sold a cruise with a flight and there is no promise of who that flight will be provided by or how you will get to your destination airport. In other words P&O make a reservation for you on a flight of their choice and you have contractually accepted that. There isn't even any promise it will be a direct flight, those 757s I mentioned earlier had to have certain weather conditions to make a transatlantic non stop. I've had at least two unscheduled stops at Gandar on a Thomas Cook flight and one Airtransat plane was actually running out of fuel on the way to Toromto.

I doubt anyone on a non exclusive cruise lines would expect Michelin star quality so that really is a fatuous observation. However if anyone has a genuine interest in a Celebrity cruise's current opinion have a look at this thread - you'll need to go to about page 23 for the cruise to star. These guys are high end Celebrity cruisers very highly regarded and respected who travel very many times a year. Some of this "comparison" makes interesting reading.

Nowadays yes. Back in 2013 /14 there weren't very many and TUI and P&O charged a premium. I flew out to join Azura from Birmingham December 2013. It was £100 more for the flight operated by the Dreamliners. Quite a circus onboard- we had to see the Dreamliner Wave, colour changes and the crew dimmed and undimmed the windows like a child using the window button on a car!

Obviously your choice and I'm sorry you are losing your holiday as you feel so strongly about this. I assume the refund offered was the £499pp plus OBC. May I ask how much the OBC was - by offering it that would assume P&O knew you would be disappointed and wanted to try to ease that. Mind you that's a whole new question! Have the folks in economy also been offeredextra OBC?

Yes now most planes are "upgraded" the airport is the guider but back in time an additional supplement for the newer aircraft was the norm.

With respect cost does really come into it. My cruise is £7300, ICF's around £3,000 but we both bought a package at a price we were happy with. The problem here is that there is no spare flight capacity on the normal airlines so alternatives are being sought. I've read my T&Cs and contract: absolutely nowhere does it tell me which airline I'll be flying with. Yes, I assumed at booking it would be as normal, but that is just that an assumption. The way the cruise is sold it states "a flight". That could be a stopping flight making three stops and aircraft changes and lasting 23 hours - they do exist - and legally it would still be within my agreedcontract.

No business class but PE. If you look back you’ll see last year a few passengers got to sit in the business class seats on a replacement aircraft.

Ahh, you're new to the P&O fly cruise game! Over the years they've promised high quality aircraft, people wanted bragging rights and paid a premium to fly on the first Dreamliners offered by TUI, ie Birmingham flight £100 excess for flying from there plus another £100 for the Dreamliner! The Thomas Cook flights were looked down on by many (in fairness some of the flights were pretty rough on 757 aircraft rather than wide bodied) but they moved to A330 just before their demise and these were really comfortable modern aircraft.

Thanks to all who have posted. Out of interest I asked which ship the affected passengers are/were sailing on - my gut says Arvia - could I kindly ask if people would mind confirming this please? I know ICF is definitely on Arvia for instance but no idea on the other folks plans.

The others are currently stored expected into service October. Yesterday one was on ground Manchester, one in the air Valencia, one not on radar rest in storage.

I think we have a planning error tbh. Rewind to 2019 we had Britannia maximum 3600 odd passengers and Azura 3100 so a total 6700 or thereabouts to move per voyage so around 3,400 each day. In 2021 there was just Britannia at half capacity so the planes, although far less in numbers, have a very low passenger count to move. Last year we had the arrival of Arvia so we needed to move 5200 passengers as opposed to Azura's 3100, an increase of 2100 passengers per cruise. Therefore our plane capacity requirement is vastly increased - at 300 persons per plane we need 7 more of them. That's a pretty high increase at a time when many airlines have no spare capacity or slack available. I can see this "problem" next year too for the same reason, the planners of cruises are working 3 years in advance and had no crystal ball to tell them TUI and the other mainstream airlines would have had to slash their plane numbers so drastically. We have ships to fill with the promise of an included flight. Fares are worked out based on a charter, P&O have to make a profit for each "bum on the seat", so to does the airline. So TUI's number crunchers look at available aircraft and say if we use them to fly TUI package holidaymakers or cruisers down to Barbados we get all the money and can put up our prices if demand is high. If however we charter our plane to such and such we have to set a contract price, no flexibility to mark up to make more money if we can. It would be very bad business to do that so clearly they'll go with option 1. Personally I think we will have to look at a new scenario on these cruises in the future. If I choose a fly cruise with any other line except notably P&O and Marella, I have to pay for my flight on top, be it through the cruise line or independently. If I use the first route I pay the market price of what's available at the time of booking (one or two notable exceptions including Cunard) so late booking of my flight means a higher fare as the cruise line is shopping in the same place I would. Worldwide plane fares have increased by around 60% on some routes so without the charter my cruise gets far more expensive - in March 2019 my flight to Hong Kong to join QM2 cost £399 looking at doing it in 2024 its nearly £900. Maybe going forward the planners could look at a bigger plane for Arvia cruises and hire a couple of A380 aircraft for the season using Manchester, Birmingham and London airports. Grantley Adams Airport in Barbados is a very far seeing one. It spent a very large amount of money in 2003 to be able to accept A380 planes and they are extremely capable of handling them. BA have started to use some of their A380s on popular tourist routes this summer and a large number of A380s are currently residing out in the desert awaiting operators to lease them so it's not beyond the realms of possibility.

Flights are like anything else I'm afraid - not guaranteed. Over the years we've experienced loads of flight changes/plane changes it's just the way it is. My biggest disappointment was booking BA to Washington because it was an A380 and I desperately wanted to fly on one. I got the oldest 777 in their fleet, no premium economy seat as booked either. Things change, planes are in the wrong place etc - that's what happened to our TUI Barbados flight last year, it was stuck in Mexico. We flew 3 hours late but it was a 787.

Indeed but your seat offered far more room and padding for your rear!

Yes, we are fine so should you be. I called flights this afternoon just in case, they confirmed flights if shown are allocated. Obviously subject to TUI turning up - they didn't last year for some flights sending the strange Swedish plane. I've noticed a lot of the cruises only had Manchester flights available the further into the season you go but suddenly there is some London availability appeared. It occurred to me too - although I haven't checked - are the guys with the new airline on Arvia as she will need far more planes than Britannia? Lots of chat on the P&O facebook according to my OH apparently and quite a number saying they've cancelled or going to.

I must confess I have not seen anything on P&O's website stating which airlines they use and like many others have always taken TUI and before that Thomas Cook as the choice. Regarding the three incidents only one is on a current aircraft and was caused by insects in a pipe. The A340 from Bournemouth to NTC had 5 passengers and assumedly was the plane going to storage and the third was a 737. However this airline doesn't sound from the attached the sort of airline I'd expect to be flown on by P&O on reputation alone. https://aviationsourcenews.com/news/aelf-flightservices-illegal-monkey-air-shipment-prompts-peta-complaint/

At least they are being honest this year and advising people in advance. Last year some ill begotten Swedish outfit was dropped on passengers apparently by TUI on the day of the flights. Mayhem at Manchester and Gatwick was reported with people having paid for premium economy but the plane having none, other passengers seats being moved and kids being left in solo seats with strangers. I believe one flight was nearly 6 hours late. This was Christmas so very busy with families. It was reported by some on here that the flights offered little or no food and drink service either. The Friday Glasgow flight never even made it until the following day. P&O reception were kept busy for three days dealing with refund forms and flight delay claims. Really a poor experience for all involved.

Try this email address. At least two others have raised points via it in the past few weeks and had fairly prompt replies/answers. Executive.Correspondence@carnivalukgroup.com

May I ask what if any flights are shown in your My Cruise flights section? I've just double checked mine which are shown as TUI 98 and 99 respectively. Do yours show at all or are you awaiting allocation? My seat booking date should open on 7 October a week before my final payment falls due.

Where and when is your flight please? Trying to get a full picture of where these aircraft are intended to fly from. Earlier this year I noted on certain cruises only Manchester flights did not carry a premium and am trying to link these dates/cruises. There are quite a few on sale stating Manchester only flight availability at this stage.