Bookings that were managed by Thomas Cook

[mcloaked]

I thought I would post a note that might be helpful for anyone in the UK who booked a Cunard cruise through Thomas Cook, or who booked a Cunard cruise whilst on board, but then gave them a Thomas Cook travel agent shop to handle the booking after returning home.  For any future cruise that was handled in either of these ways by Thomas Cook prior to their collapse, and those bookings are now taken back for managing by Cunard, then if you have a balance due to be paid for an upcoming cruise it would be worth noting the following.  If you use the Cunard 'Pay My Balance' web page, then it will correctly show the deposit paid and the balance due, but when you put your payment details in it will then go ahead and take payment - but, and here is the catch, it will take the entire total cost for the cruise and not just the balance excluding the deposit, thereby making you overpay by the amount of deposit paid. 

 

Apparently the financial details for these cruise bookings have not been transferred across correctly from when Cunard took back the handling from Thomas Cook - and the system also appears not to send you a confirmation email of the amount paid either!  If this has happened to you, then you will need to call Cunard and get them to rectify the incorrect additional moneys paid.  It seems that the only way to get around this is NOT to use the online balance payment web page at the Cunard site, but to call Cunard directly and do it over the phone.

[Lakesregion]

5 hours ago, mcloaked said:

I thought I would post a note that might be helpful for anyone in the UK who booked a Cunard cruise through Thomas Cook, or who booked a Cunard cruise whilst on board, but then gave them a Thomas Cook travel agent shop to handle the booking after returning home.  For any future cruise that was handled in either of these ways by Thomas Cook prior to their collapse, and those bookings are now taken back for managing by Cunard, then if you have a balance due to be paid for an upcoming cruise it would be worth noting the following.  If you use the Cunard 'Pay My Balance' web page, then it will correctly show the deposit paid and the balance due, but when you put your payment details in it will then go ahead and take payment - but, and here is the catch, it will take the entire total cost for the cruise and not just the balance excluding the deposit, thereby making you overpay by the amount of deposit paid. 

 

Apparently the financial details for these cruise bookings have not been transferred across correctly from when Cunard took back the handling from Thomas Cook - and the system also appears not to send you a confirmation email of the amount paid either!  If this has happened to you, then you will need to call Cunard and get them to rectify the incorrect additional moneys paid.  It seems that the only way to get around this is NOT to use the online balance payment web page at the Cunard site, but to call Cunard directly and do it over the phone.

It might also be that the initial deposit was considered by Cunard to be Thomas Cooks commission and therefore was not remitted to Cunard. After the fall of Cook, Cunard has zero monies on the booking and would have to go after Cook for the unearned commission. Not a good look if the agent has gone under. So Cunard while still holding your booking is doing it totally on the come with no money in the purse and you will have to pay in full and also look to Cook for the deposit part.

 

If You have a receipt of sorts that shows that deposit did get to Cunard in fact then that is a different story. Chances are when companies ae in financial distress, they try to hang onto all incoming and delay all out going money.

[mcloaked]

Not in this case - like many bookings the initial booking was made during a Cunard cruise, and the deposit paid to Cunard directly - the cruise was referred back to local Thomas Cook for the management between then and when the cruise start date.  So Thomas Cook may have taken some money as commission but Cunard took the deposit directly. Many others will be in the same position.  So the cruise was referred back from Thomas Cook to Cunard management when Thomas Cook collapsed.

 

So your last paragraph is the more relevant.

[mcloaked]

An interesting further bit of information - it turned out that despite the Cunard web page saying that the amount taken was the full cost of the cruise, in fact when the credit card transaction appeared in the account, Cunard had taken the correct remaining balance amount, taking into account the deposit paid!  So the web server code was showing incorrect information even though the transaction was in fact perfectly OK!

 

It is still the case that the company writing all the Cunard server code, including the new 'manage my booking' pages, needs to get the code fixed and working sooner rather than later, although for a cruise due in a few month's time the replacement voyage personaliser is working for me now.  It seems that whether or not it is working is dependent on specific cruises that you are looking at.  So maybe they are fixing those that are coming up soon, but will be working slowly on getting those that are further into the future working later, once the more urgent ones are fixed!  However the link to correct Cunard World Club data within the bookings page certainly isn't yet sorted out.