NEED A FAIR REFUND POLICY DUE TO VIRUS

[loveislandlife]

I keep posting my complaints on their instagram posts and they keep liking them. No responses. It’s very odd. 

[Trogofthesea]

Hi all, I've been following this thread with interest as much of it applies to me. I was booked on Boreal from Glasgow to Spitsbergen departing June 16th, received my cancellation letter yesterday, offering me FCC of my deposit plus 20% of the cruise fare to be used within 2 years. I queried the terms specifically and got the usual "Ponant will determine on a case by case basis whether to further extend the FCC or refund if it is not used within 24 months of the original departure date."

Hope this may help some others, I would have preferred a refund but I do hope to cruise with them again and I felt 20% of the cruise fare was reasonably generous.

[Roger88]

Refund policy has not been designed to be fair. It has been designed to make sure that the company wont suffer too much losses and the passanger wont be too angry about the policy in general. In my opinion the current refund policies are fine. Most of the rage I hear from people who have cancelled their cruises before an oficial statement that due to covid the cruises are cancelled. As far as waiting period goes, well its the same for any country and for any bank and company in the world 

[jland]

My rage is is not because I have cancelled before an official statement, my rage is two fold. Firstly Ponant will not cancel my cruise to the northwest passage at the end of August putting in danger tiny Inuit communities which in my opinion is criminal and secondly when a cruise is cancelled I expect and demand a refund, in my case $14000. I do not want a worthless piece of paper called a FCC. I am not in the business of providing companies with any interest free loan. If you are happy with an extra 20% of nothing I am please, to each their own.

[jland]

I received an email from a very large TA in the US which stated that a Ponant FCC could be used for a future cruise on either Ponant or Paul Gauguin., it was up to you which line you chose.

Makes no difference to me, I refuse to accept a FCC but I cannot see that policy on Ponant Australian site, has anybody been advised by Ponant of this?

[resistk]

On 5/15/2020 at 5:05 AM, jland said:

My rage is is not because I have cancelled before an official statement, my rage is two fold. Firstly Ponant will not cancel my cruise to the northwest passage at the end of August putting in danger tiny Inuit communities which in my opinion is criminal and secondly when a cruise is cancelled I expect and demand a refund, in my case $14000. I do not want a worthless piece of paper called a FCC. I am not in the business of providing companies with any interest free loan. If you are happy with an extra 20% of nothing I am please, to each their own.

 

Canada has banned all cruise ships until at least October 31.

https://news.yahoo.com/canada-bans-cruise-ship-visits-until-october-201319661.html

 

[resistk]

Ponant operates from US ports and is under FMC jurisdiction regarding refund policies:

 

https://www.fmc.gov/fact-finding-30-investigation-focusing-on-cruise-line-financial-responsibility-and-refund-policies/

 

Federal Maritime Commission also has a mediation arm for resolving disputes with cruise lines.

[jland]

2 hours ago, resistk said:

 

Canada has banned all cruise ships until at least October 31.

https://news.yahoo.com/canada-bans-cruise-ship-visits-until-october-201319661.html

 

Thanks for the info resistk. I will not hold my breath waiting for Ponant to cancel my cruise due to leave on 28/8/20.  The ACCC has stated if we paid for a cruise in Australia then Australian consumer rules apply. Once my cruise is cancelled I am applying for a refund.

[DSmith91]

All cruise ships capable of carrying more than 100 passengers are banned from Australia until at least 17th September, but Ponant still says at the present time our cruise is on for the 6th August despite their ship being taken off the schedule  for Kimberley cruising. 

[Host Jazzbeau]

I would think that the official announcements by Canada and Australia would be sufficient to justify credit card chargebacks for those like @jland who at this point want to get their deposits back.  People on various Cruise Critic boards are reporting success with that approach, although the rules may be different in Australia and UK.

[resistk]

My case was settled satisfactorily :

 

"We've reviewed your account and found that the merchant(s) issued credit(s) to your account." 

 

So I am out of here but I do advise as Jazzbeau suggests, go to the credit card dispute route in the event of a cancellation if warranted.  I received back my deposit from 2019 and the final payment from this year,

 

 

[jland]

Unfortunately in Australia we need the cruise to be cancelled before we can take the credit card route, at least with my bank we do. Ponant knows full well my cruise cannot go but are refusing to cancel it.

[Host Jazzbeau]

12 minutes ago, jland said:

Unfortunately in Australia we need the cruise to be cancelled before we can take the credit card route, at least with my bank we do. Ponant knows full well my cruise cannot go but are refusing to cancel it.

 

Sorry to learn that.  I thought that everybody outside the US had better consumer protections than we do!  Still, they will have to cancel it at some point, because Canada absolutely will not let it happen.

[resistk]

On 5/30/2020 at 11:15 PM, Host Jazzbeau said:

 

Sorry to learn that.  I thought that everybody outside the US had better consumer protections than we do!  Still, they will have to cancel it at some point, because Canada absolutely will not let it happen.

 

Credit card company now allowing Ponant to snap back arbitrary amounts of money paid for cancelled - I will be going to lawyers and the Federal Maritime Commission.

[Nonads]

Our cruise to the Seychelles was cancelled by Ponant in March. We asked for a refund but only offered a FCC.Have tried all other routes ACCC , our insurance company have refused even tho we took out insurance when we booked the cruise in Feb 2019 way before Covid 19. Has anyone had full refund of their cruise money from Ponant ?  Time to honour your  T& Cs Ponant 

 

[jland]

2 minutes ago, Nonads said:

Our cruise to the Seychelles was cancelled by Ponant in March. We asked for a refund but only offered a FCC.Have tried all other routes ACCC , our insurance company have refused even tho we took out insurance when we booked the cruise in Feb 2019 way before Covid 19. Has anyone had full refund of their cruise money from Ponant ?  Time to honour your  T& Cs Ponant 

 

Nonads, could I ask why ACCC dismissed your claim? If you bought your travel insurance before 31/1/2020 I thought, at least with my travel insurance, you are covered. 

[Lukec]

When do you think new cancellations will be announced based on the new France only itineraries just released?

[DSmith91]

I'm hoping they will update in the next couple of days.  It's almost a month since they last updated and I'm waiting and hoping to see my cruise cancellation on there.

[Seabiscuit68]

11 hours ago, Nonads said:

Our cruise to the Seychelles was cancelled by Ponant in March. We asked for a refund but only offered a FCC.Have tried all other routes ACCC , our insurance company have refused even tho we took out insurance when we booked the cruise in Feb 2019 way before Covid 19. Has anyone had full refund of their cruise money from Ponant ?  Time to honour your  T& Cs Ponant 

 

Our cruise was to French Polynesia was cancelled in March.  We've been requesting a refund since March 15th.  Over the last month I was posting a lot on Facebook and IG.  On IG they would respond to my comment requesting my contact but then I would never hear back. Finally after aggressive IG posts,  we heard back from US Reservations last week asking if we have made a decision on rebooking our cruise.   We responded once again that we wanted a refund in accordance with the contract.  We advised that if we do not get our refund by end of week we will be filing a complaint with the Federal Maritime Commission, filing complaint with the NY Attorney General, will be launching legal action as well as posting our experience with Ponant on social media.  We also copied our lawyer.  We were refunded fully within one week of sending this email.     

 

 

[Vesude]

Good news. To what mailadresse did you contact Ponant? I have send so many mails to their main mail adress (contact@ponant.com) but they never responded. 

Very bad because they have our money in their pocket. 

[jonikal]

37 minutes ago, Seabiscuit68 said:

Our cruise was to French Polynesia was cancelled in March.  We've been requesting a refund since March 15th.  Over the last month I was posting a lot on Facebook and IG.  On IG they would respond to my comment requesting my contact but then I would never hear back. Finally after aggressive IG posts,  we heard back from US Reservations last week asking if we have made a decision on rebooking our cruise.   We responded once again that we wanted a refund in accordance with the contract.  We advised that if we do not get our refund by end of week we will be filing a complaint with the Federal Maritime Commission, filing complaint with the NY Attorney General, will be launching legal action as well as posting our experience with Ponant on social media.  We also copied our lawyer.  We were refunded fully within one week of sending this email.     

 

 

 

Congratulations!  Although it's pretty pathetic to have to have gone to these lengths to get satisfaction from Ponant. There is another organization that is very useful and that any travel companies, whether airline or cruise, hate to hear from - The US Dept of Transportation.   We had an amazing response once they looked at our very valid complaint and the airline, after many of our futile attempts to get reimbursed failed, gave us our refund plus extra for the crap we had gone through.  

 

 

[Vesude]

1 hour ago, Seabiscuit68 said:

Our cruise was to French Polynesia was cancelled in March.  We've been requesting a refund since March 15th.  Over the last month I was posting a lot on Facebook and IG.  On IG they would respond to my comment requesting my contact but then I would never hear back. Finally after aggressive IG posts,  we heard back from US Reservations last week asking if we have made a decision on rebooking our cruise.   We responded once again that we wanted a refund in accordance with the contract.  We advised that if we do not get our refund by end of week we will be filing a complaint with the Federal Maritime Commission, filing complaint with the NY Attorney General, will be launching legal action as well as posting our experience with Ponant on social media.  We also copied our lawyer.  We were refunded fully within one week of sending this email.     

 

 

Good news. To what mailadresse did you contact Ponant? I have send so many mails to their main mail adress (contact@ponant.com) but they never responded. 

Very bad because they have our money in their pocket. 

[Vesude]

Does anyone have a copy of Ponant former T&A. So before they changed them?

[DSmith91]

16 minutes ago, Vesude said:

Does anyone have a copy of Ponant former T&A. So before they changed them?

If you're asking about your rights if Ponant cancels your cruise, the T&Cs on the website still states that you have the option of a full refund.

[DSmith91]

Vesude.......

11.9 Where CDP is the Cruise Organiser, and no matter the reason for cancellation, no compensation is due to the Traveller, who will be able to choose between the following solutions:(i) A full refund of the Contract price; (ii) Another Service at the same price; (iii) A Service at a lower price and a refund for the price difference between the two Services based on the advertised prices. Travellers must inform CDP of their choice as soon as possible and in any event before the deadline mentioned in the cancellation document