How does a cruise line ensure cabins dont overbook?

[Host Hattie]

I would ring the agent and ask for it, there is no point speaking to Cunard if you don't have a booking reference.

 

It would have been on your initial confirmation, have you had any communication at all from Cunard ?

[dsrdsrdsr]

Is your travel agent in the USA, or the UK, or somewhere else? None of these answers really mean anything unless we know which country's laws you are governed by.

[ace2542]

I would ring the agent and ask for it, there is no point speaking to Cunard if you don't have a booking reference.

 

It would have been on your initial confirmation, have you had any communication at all from Cunard ?

 

I have had no communication from Cunard but I have rang them and forwarded to them my confirmations from the cruise agent. Cunard have said they will get in to it with the cruise agent. I suspect they will be most unhappy particulary if they feel they are owed money by a cruise agent. This situation will be resolved very quickly now I am sure. I am sure everything will work out ok but I can also see the potential for the package to be oversold. As it can be broken down into at least 3 different cruises with many agencies.

[ace2542]

Is your travel agent in the USA, or the UK, or somewhere else? None of these answers really mean anything unless we know which country's laws you are governed by.

 

Uk based travel agency. Largely online presence self employed agents working from all over the world including illegally in the united states.

[dsrdsrdsr]

Uk based travel agency. Largely online presence self employed agents working from all over the world including illegally in the united states.

The country's law that applies will probably depend where you booked.

[ace2542]

The country's law that applies will probably depend where you booked.

 

The final payment date for others booking on my package is today. I will give them a week and then I will contact the relationship manager for Carnival who handles agencies like this he can sort it out. Cunard won't like the fact they are owed money by an agency especially when NCL got their money straight away. The cabin is a gaurantee I didn't think it was but it is I checked the inital paperwork.

[Toofarfromthesea]

The country's law that applies will probably depend where you booked.

 

That raises an interesting question. Are the differences in booking practices between the US and, say, the UK due to each respective nation's laws or are they due to cruise line booking practices? Is there an actual law in the UK saying that deposits must be nonrefundable?

[dsrdsrdsr]

That raises an interesting question. Are the differences in booking practices between the US and, say, the UK due to each respective nation's laws or are they due to cruise line booking practices? Is there an actual law in the UK saying that deposits must be nonrefundable?

No, but there is a law that says once you have agreed the cruise and paid the deposit, then you have a binding contract. Which means on the passenger's side, that they have no right to any refund apart from what is specified in the contract; usually cancel with loss of deposit up to about 8 weeks before, and on a sliding scale after that. And on the cruise line's side, if they then cancel the cruise they are liable to pay not only the cost of the cruise to the passenger, but also any foreseeable consequential losses, eg. air fares or other transport to the port, overnight hotels, etc.

 

No-one booking in the UK would expect to be able to cancel and automatically get their deposit back. It just doesn't work that way.

[ace2542]

It has all been sorted out now. The agency has made the cabin bookings with Cunard and i have the cunard voyager personaliser codes and cunard rep who phoned me this evening has confirmed the bookings with me on the cunard system. They agency are upgrading our hotel in new york as well. Cunard must have said something to them.

[Host Hattie]

Glad to hear it's all sorted, have a great trip.

[luckyinpa]

Cruise lines deliberately overbook. They know from experience that there will be cancelations. Occasionally, there are fewer cancelations than expected. That is when they make offers to passengers to get them to change to another cruise.

 

i do not understand this. i was under the impression that after final payment they have your payment and nothing can ever get it back from them.

 

so if i cancel the day before the trip. that cabin is empty but its fully paid for so how would a cancel hurt them? or do they keep your money and book someone else there and double dip?

[bUU]

I'm not sure your questions follow from the post you replied to. I can tell you from recent experience that right around the final payment date for our upcoming cruise, loads of staterooms magically appeared back in the available inventory. More staterooms appeared back in available inventory both just before and just after the final payment date, but of course those that were restored to inventory after final payment date were almost surely cancelled before the deadline. Therefore, it is likely that those bookings were canceled without penalty. Regardless, those were the cancellations that the previous poster were referring to, those that sometimes occur in smaller numbers than the cruise line was expecting. That would result in overbooking that needs to be resolved.

 

Others can talk about how often various cruise line actually do double-dip, but what I can say is that there is nothing in the cruise contract that would prohibit them from doing so.

[Underwatr]

Cancellation penalties (in the US) aren't 100% until very close to departure. As an example, here's the table of penalties for a US passenger booking on Cunard:

 

Voyage Length 30 nights or less (including World Voyage Segments & Liners)

Number of Days before Sailing

Cancellation Fee

120 to 91

25% or Deposit Amount*

90 to 61

40% of full fare

60 to 31

50% of full fare

30 to 15

75% of full fare

14 days or less, or non appearance

100% of full fare