Flight Ease and EXC shore excursion guarantees about missing the ship

[TAD2005]

A hypothetical question. On Flight Ease and EXC shore excursions, HAL guarantees that they will either hold the ship for your late arrival or get you to the next port to meet the ship, if they can't wait.

For some cruises, if you do miss the ship with a HAL guaranteed flight or tour, it involves getting you to the nearest airport and flying you to the next port, where you meet the ship.

We are booked on a cruise leaving from San Diego, and the next port is Honolulu, 5 days later. We have Flight Ease flights booked. We arrive 10:30 AM the day before the cruise, so we aren't concerned about missing the ship. But our friends who are travelling with us, cannot get off from work the day earlier, so they fly into San Diego from the east coast on the day of the cruise. They are scheduled to arrive around noon, and the ship leaves at 4:00 pm. Should be no problem. But what happens if there is a major weather problem and flights are cancelled. Our friends would have to catch a flight from San Diego to Honolulu and then hang out for 5 days in very expensive Honolulu, waiting for the ship to arrive. Who pays for the hotel and 3 meals a day for 5 days ? Same if our friends take a HAL shore excursion in Honolulu and for whatever reason, their bus doesn't make it back and the ship can't wait. The next stop is Fanning Island. Who pays for the hotel and meals and other living expenses until the ship catches up with the guests. In the first scenario, missing the ship in San Diego, the hotel and meal costs in Honolulu would be around $2000 for 2 people and 5 days. Does HAL compensate for that ?? Obviously trip insurance would be a wise choice, but if people read that HAL guarantees you will be transferred to meet the ship, then they may not feel they need insurance. If this has happened to anyone, please let us know exactly what is covered, so they are fully aware of what is and is not covered by the "guarantee".

[pmcubed]

Always buy your flights through HAL - just for these situations. We are becoming experts on missing the ship. Once due to our own failure to fly in the day early (and weather) and the 2nd totally weather-related.

In the first case, HAL put us up in a hotel and had a limo take us to the airport the next morning and fly us to Grand Cayman. We saved our food/hotel receipts and they gave us full credit for all once we were on the ship.

 

Word to the wise - when the HAL reps meet you at the airport and tell you all that is going to happen now that you missed the ship - Make sure you get the port agents phone number for where you are going to land. We didn't on this one - and there was NOBODY waiting for us and NO hotel booked for us on Grand Cayman. My call to HAL said - oh yes, at the Westin. So, the guy dropped us there - and there was no room for us. Fortunately, the Westin let us call HAL - and finally I just said to the 15th (yes, exaggeration) person - "listen, we are supposed to be on Half Moon Cay and I am looking at a beautiful beach here in Grand Cayman. We are booking a room and you are PAYING for it." And it all worked out.

 

The 2nd time was due to an electrical storm on the East coast so no way to get to Europe. The next day, they routed us through Paris 2 days after the bombings in Nice - nobody made their connections. So, when we finally landed in Copenhagen (28 hours after our planned arrival) - they already had flights booked for us to Bergen, Norway. I told the wonderful HAL employee what had happened in Grand Cayman so he gave us the port agent's phone number - which of course I had to use because our flight to Bergen was 3 hours late. But when we finally got there - and got our ride to our already booked hotel all was great. And the hotel included breakfast and dinner each day. We didn't have to show any receipts when we got on the ship because we didn't have to pay for anything!

 

I probably will NEVER not buy my flights through HAL. In the 2nd scenario I also purchased separate insurance which I had to use for the hotel near the airport for the next day's flight and the pre-booked (and paid for ) hotel in Copenhagen.

 

I hope this answers some of your questions - I know it was long.

Pat

[avian777]

Excellent Post, pmcubed!!! (y)(y)(y) Thank you for your very informative and helpful response.

[pmcubed]

You're most welcome.

After the 2nd time my husband said, "geez, HAL is going to think we do this on purpose - just for the stays in the hotels and such." I turned to him and looked at him with the CRAZIEST of eyes and said, "does this face look like I'm having fun!"

It is SO STRESSFUL to go through this - even though in the end HAL does take care of you.

When the kind young man met us in Copenhagen with a sign with our name on it (after traveling for over 24 hours) I couldn't decide if I wanted to hug him or cry!

Pat

[JudithLynne]

We purchased FlightEase tickets for a Xmas cruise. FE is the best flight insurance you can have even with domestic flights priced higher than the airlines.