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Irma Hurricane


dandee2
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The islands, of course, have a situation immeasurably worse than most of us. I have donated and hope others do what they can to help these people get back on their feet.

As for itinerary changes, people have lots of reasons for traveling. Windstar isn't a cheap vacation (adding the full cost of the cruise, airfare, hotel prestay, excursions, airport parking, petsitter, and incidentals, we were going to be up in 5 figures), so wanting to visit particular islands while not re-visiting other particular islands I personally do consider a valid reason to cancel.

I am curious whether anyone has gotten travel insurance to pay off on weather-related changes to itineraries that aren't contemporaneous with the actual weather event. [unless, of course, you have the more-expensive "cancel for any reason" insurance.]

My hesitancy with "last minute" is the same issue I've got now - expensive airfare, especially since we travel over the year-end holidays when we have time off. [Although, here, booking through the cruise line might be the answer.] I guess if you have the idea "we'll do *something*", it would work out. With us, we have a travel bucket list, so we have particular locations in mind.

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Hello all. My deepest sympathies to everyone that has suffered loss during these natural disasters. First of all, we're all appalled by the catastrophic property losses, economic devastation, injuries, and deaths that happened on these Caribbean islands. My heart aches for those people. The native citizens that live there year-around have pain and suffering we can't even imagine.

 

I'm also mindful that may of you fellow Windstar travelers have incurred lots of headaches and financial losses of your own. Some of us can take hits like this better than others. (We aren't so well-heeled, and save up for a cruise over the course of several seasons. Anything not covered by trip insurance would be a real blow.)

 

SB44 said something that I found useful: "Lesson learned for us is that we will start booking only last minute sales instead of paying a year in advance and then not be able to get our cash back". I've always been leery of sailing in the Caribbean in November and December, and for me I always had nagging concerns about how fragile these islands are, and what could happen to a large swath of the region if a monster hurricane swept through. And now my worst nightmare came to pass, twice. For me, it underscored the wisdom of looking for late-booking bargains. Previously, we have always waited until the end of any storm season before booking a cruise (even if that limits the selection). Now, we will surely avoid the temptation of an early booking. Last minute works for us.

 

So, now we've seen two Cat 5 hurricanes in one season. Who could have imagined that? Windstar is having to re-group after seeing several of their itineraries completely ruined. As Strenz put it, "....WS has made lemonade from those horrible lemons, 2 hurricanes". So as annoyed as we might be with their customer service at times, I can't imagine the stress for all concerned at Windstar headquarters. We want our beloved favorite cruise line to survive, so I hope they recover their own financial losses soon enough. Rest assured, they are reeling from all this, having to make customers "whole again", reassuring those that have already booked and are on the verge of bailing out, and trying to fill up empty cabins for the long recovery months ahead.

 

For those of you that are disappointed with the re-vamped itineraries, especially when they are so different from what you imagined, hopefully you'll get enough offsetting credits or perks to make up for it -- or the chance to re-book later when the itineraries are completely restored. Complete money-back refunds? I think you're expecting too much from the cruise line for things that are beyond their control.

I understand having to change a couple of ports on the itinerary not being grounds for a refund, however changing all the ports as well as what country the cruise sails out of is a different story. It makes this cruise a completely different product than what was advertised and sold. I understand it's due to cirucumstances beyond their control, yet they make their money based on selling a certain product. WS should have just canceled the impacted cruises out of SXM or at least offered full refunds. That would be the right thing to do.

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Wildcat - try asking AA again after Hurricane Maria. They may be more willing to change flights to SJU depending on damage.

 

I'll do that, BUT, my fare is to San Juan, not SXM, and it's in December so AA figures they can make good on what I booked. I do know I shouldn't have booked two separate fares but I did. I saved $$ at that time but now it appears foolish. Seaborne Airlines said they will allow me to rebook to anyplace they fly, but that was before Maria hit. I believe, that since they probably cannot fly us from SJU-SXM, SXM-SJU in December that I should be able to get a refund from my CC. I'll pursue that after we know more about airport status for December.

As far as the flight to SJU, WS will now (since my last posting) allow us to change to the Pride out of SJU on a Back to Back since we had a 14 day trip booked. That makes my airfare to SJU and the Hotel reservations, (if they're still standing) usable. If we decide we don't want to do that, there is always the Cruise Credit that can be transferred fee free.

I have been pleased with WS response to this whole deal. Most of us would prefer a full refund but that would probably spell disaster for the company. I like their product so will remain pleased with their options.

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True! If we do stay on this sailing it looks as if WS will be picking up an air change fee as Air Canada is insisting that flights will probably be going to SXM in December. This is despite the fact they had a hard job finding our booking in their system as it's been configured to prevent further bookings for this destination. Westjet on the other hand immediately offered a full refund, which we totally didn't expect; so kudos to them.

 

 

 

We had the opposite experience. AC just rescheduled us home from Barbados on December 23 with no exchange fee. Westjet would not waiver the change fee for Dec. 7 saying they are resuming flying to SMX on October 29.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

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We cancelled our Dec 9 sailing yesterday. I was told that as I was transferring the money to another existing booking that there was no fee. Today I get an email saying they've successfully transferred the amount, but it's over a $1000 less than I paid. �� Now waiting to hear back from them to resolve it. Fingers crossed it was just a typo. .

Pleased to report that all resolved satisfactorily - the confusion arose due to the way WS had to track the changes in their system and the invoice. Kudos to the customer service rep for taking the time to look into the issue and explaining their process; and to Windstar for dealing so well with a situation that is beyond their control.

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We had the opposite experience. AC just rescheduled us home from Barbados on December 23 with no exchange fee. Westjet would not waiver the change fee for Dec. 7 saying they are resuming flying to SMX on October 29.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

That's odd as Westjet still has this notice up on their Web site:

 

Flexible Change & Cancel - Santa Clara, Cuba - Cayo Coco, Cuba - St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles Flexible Change & Cancel is in effect for:

- Santa Clara, Cuba - Cayo Coco, Cuba - St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles

We're here to help you, so we've implemented flexible change and cancel rules for those guests who booked on, or before September 12, 2017 for travel until December 31, 2017. To review your options, please call

 

 

 

In light of your experience with Air Canada today, we will give them another call.

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I have a group of 12 going in January from all over the country and our flights were on American, United, Delta, Jet Blue and Spirit (:eek:).

Over the past 3 days we've been able to change all flights to Barbados and quite a few of us ran into agents that insisted on charging the change fees plus another garbage fee...but we would just ask for a supervisor or call back and get another agent and eventually they'd back down...all fees have been waived or refunded.

 

I also had a tour booked in St. Martin that was non-refundable and I just sent the deposit of $750 the week before Irma. I wrote them yesterday and said our hearts and prayers were with them and when they had a chance if they could send me something showing it was non-refundable so I could put in insurance claim,...they wrote back immediately that they would refund due to the situation and I had the money that day. I was really ok with just letting them keep the money and filing a claim...

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You don't have to buy insurance through the cruise line. At insuremytrip.com or squaremouth.com, you can compare quotes from many insurance companies. Most offer medical evacuation coverage far in excess of the cruise lines' coverage. Maybe you can afford to lose $5,000, but what would you do if someone in your group had to be airlifted off the ship ($10,000 - $25,000), receive treatment at a foreign hospital ($ unlimited), and be medevac'ed home ($15,000 - $40,000)?

 

You can also just buy a medical policy to cover evac...we use our credit cards for travel insurance coverage and then get a medical policy for 'just in case'...saves a lot of money that way and we're still covered!

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You can also just buy a medical policy to cover evac...we use our credit cards for travel insurance coverage and then get a medical policy for 'just in case'...saves a lot of money that way and we're still covered!

 

That's what we do, too. The medevac is pretty cheap. It only covers getting you HOME (not to the nearest hospital). It also covers me on business travel, which I do a lot.

 

I've made a successful claim against my credit card travel insurance. People should be aware, though....many don't cover travel delays/cancellations due to airplane mechanical issues. (Weather is covered.) That may be my final try for the airfare, which will be interesting, as I had charged the air travel to the airline-branded credit card, which I only got (at the same time I made the reservations) because it was free, got me the bonus miles just by buying the tickets, and gave me $100 back on the airfare.

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It seems absolutely mind boggling that WS can change everything about a cruise including all the ports and the country of departure and not offer refunds. Yes, I realize natural disasters are not their fault but at the same time they sold a product with a certain description that they won't be able to deliver on.

Yes, it IS mind-boggling. But it happened to us. The last email I got from them stated that we should be happy with ANY Caribbean itinerary.

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