Cancelling Cruises because of the C word

[staygulf]

11 minutes ago, happy v said:

P&O also said anyone who had already cancelled from 1st. February would get the FCC added to their accounts.

This is only for lost money. See my earlier post 2193

[emam]

New updated terms have just arrived:

 

 

first of all we'd like to thank you for your patience and understanding whilst we navigate through these unsettling times. As ever, our guests remain our biggest priority and we're doing our very best to offer you flexibility and choice in your holiday options. In light of the evolving COVID-19 situation, our voluntary pause in cruise operations, and in line with the latest advice from ABTA, we have amended our temporary flexible booking policy. This new policy is applicable to all guests due to travel with us before 1 September 2020. Sailing as planned If you'd like to keep your existing booking, your ship and crew will be ready and waiting to welcome you. We are pleased to be able to offer you on board spending money to enhance your holiday. For full details please click here*.

Transferring your booking If you would rather transfer your booking to a later date, our new temporary flexible transfer policy still applies. You also have the option of transferring your cruise to an alternative date should you wish, and you can do this up to 48 hours before departure. For full details please click here.

Cancelling your holiday New cancellation policy as of 19 March 2020 Please see our new temporary policy here. As you're booked on a P&O Cruises holiday that departs before 1 September 2020, this policy enables you to cancel your holiday up to 48 hours before departure and benefit from an enhanced Future Cruise Credit offer or cancel under our original terms. The new terms apply to all guests, including British Nationals aged 70 or over and people with underlying health conditions. This new policy supersedes any information you may have received over the last few days. If you have already submitted a transfer or cancellation request based on the previous policy before today, we will honour this and we will be in touch with confirmation in due course. As you can appreciate we're dealing with an unprecedented volume of calls and we're having to prioritise in order of departure date. Please bear with us and do visit our social media channels and website for the latest updates. If you would like to transfer your cruise or take advantage of our enhanced Future Cruise Credit offer please let us know via this web form. If you have booked through a travel agent, please contact them directly.

We truly value your support at this difficult time and hope that our more flexible policies and enhanced Future Cruise Credit show you our commitment to helping you have the holiday you're looking forward to, be it this year or later. Whenever you choose to travel, we look forward to welcoming you on board soon. For further information, please click here.

Edited March 19, 2020 by emam
Moved writing over

[tel69]

I took a 50% refund and 50% FCC, my questions are if you book a cruise using your FCC, say for May 2021, do you have to pay any deposit or is the FCC used as deposit, also if you did this and (God Forbid) the same situation is to occur next winter, because this would be a new booking whilst the virus was still active, i gather your insurance would not cover this.

Has anyone re booked for next year using FCC and did you have to pay any extra deposit, 

 

Keep safe everyone

[Josy1953]

The new terms have removed the option of a full refund just a FCC. We will sit tight and see what happens, hopefully if our cruise gets cancelled we will get a cash refund or if they go under we should be able to claim from the credit card company.

[otbc]

Well that's a significant weakening of the offer from P&O in my eyes.

 

What does this mean for my cruise currently scheduled for the end of May? It's pretty obvious it's going to be cancelled at this point, but I can't work out why they've removed the offer of a refund if your cruise has been cancelled by them, only a future cruise credit?!

[Josy1953]

7 minutes ago, otbc said:

Well that's a significant weakening of the offer from P&O in my eyes.

 

What does this mean for my cruise currently scheduled for the end of May? It's pretty obvious it's going to be cancelled at this point, but I can't work out why they've removed the offer of a refund if your cruise has been cancelled by them, only a future cruise credit?!

They have only cancelled cruises up to 11th April so they won't say what they are doing if your cruise gets cancelled after that.  I agree that it is pretty obvious that most of us booked to travel in the next few months are likely to get cancelled.

Edited March 19, 2020 by Josy1953

[wowzz]

Can they legally refuse to actually not repay the cruise fare, rather than issue a FCC, if the cruise is cancelled?

[otbc]

4 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Can they legally refuse to actually not repay the cruise fare, rather than issue a FCC, if the cruise is cancelled?

 

That's what I'm worried about, too - we'd booked our cruise as our honeymoon! It's bad enough with the situation we've had to cancel our wedding, but at least our suppliers and everyone have been really helpful with it all. The massive uncertainty around whether we stand to lose a LOT of money if P&O are refusing to refund those cancelled cruises is what's stressing us out!

 

I'm going to assume if they cancel the cruise they invalidate the contract which is formed and a full refund is legally due under the Sale and Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 but that's about as far as my knowledge goes on that one....guesswork!

[staygulf]

17 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Can they legally refuse to actually not repay the cruise fare, rather than issue a FCC, if the cruise is cancelled?

No they can’t. And they haven’t. 

[Selbourne]

24 minutes ago, otbc said:

Well that's a significant weakening of the offer from P&O in my eyes.

 

What does this mean for my cruise currently scheduled for the end of May? It's pretty obvious it's going to be cancelled at this point, but I can't work out why they've removed the offer of a refund if your cruise has been cancelled by them, only a future cruise credit?!

It is a weakening of the offer, yes, but P&O would have to refund you in full if they cancel the cruise. The removal of the offer to refund (in full - if over 70 or with an underlying health condition - or part, for everyone else) only applies to customers cancelling cruises that are currently still scheduled. They are obviously trying to stem the massive volumes of cancellations that they are dealing with and are struggling to cope with those whose cruises are already cancelled (refunds taking up to 45 days!), so they have made a rubbish offer (110% OBC) in order to make everyone else sit tight and do nothing. When the next batch of cruises are cancelled then they will deal with those passengers, in other words ‘affected’ passengers only. If I hadn’t paid by credit card I think I would be starting to get worried. 

[staygulf]

12 minutes ago, otbc said:

 

That's what I'm worried about, too - we'd booked our cruise as our honeymoon! It's bad enough with the situation we've had to cancel our wedding, but at least our suppliers and everyone have been really helpful with it all. The massive uncertainty around whether we stand to lose a LOT of money if P&O are refusing to refund those cancelled cruises is what's stressing us out!

 

I'm going to assume if they cancel the cruise they invalidate the contract which is formed and a full refund is legally due under the Sale and Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 but that's about as far as my knowledge goes on that one....guesswork!

Don’t panic. Wrong act. It’s the Package  Travel Regulations  2018 Reg 13 and 14. They must refund. 

[Snow Hill]

Those of us who have sat & waited patiently so they could deal with bookings in March & Early April have been punished for doing so. On a phone conversation with my GP he advised that due to my health condition I should not go on a cruise in the next 10 to12 months. On that advice we were going reluctantly cancel our May cruises, given that once this is over travel insurance for cruises is likely to rise significantly. The reward for our patience is a “stab in the back” from P&O.

 

The FCO website states that “the FCO advises British nationals against all but essential international travel” 

 

This is an indefinite notice and I would expect cruises beyond 11 April to be cancelled, thus I would expect P&O to cancel those cruises probably up to end of May or June. The question is will they provide a full refund to those customers affected, something this email does not cover. 
 

Edited

 

Just seen StayGulf’s post on the matter, so hopefully they will refund in full under these regulations. 

Edited March 19, 2020 by Snow Hill

[otbc]

Thanks for the advice everyone re: our specific situation. I was getting worried because they'd removed all wording to being able to offer a full refund for those cruises before 11 April, so I'd assumed they're not only trying to offer future cruise credit.

 

Hopefully toward the end of Aug or Sept we'll be able to get ourselves on a cruise again - even if it isn't a honeymoon!

[wowzz]

6 minutes ago, staygulf said:

No they can’t. And they haven’t. 

I hope you are right, but they make no reference to any refund in their new email. 

[staygulf]

1 minute ago, Snow Hill said:

Those of us who have sat & waited patiently so they could deal with bookings in March & Early April have been punished for doing so. On a phone conversation with my GP he advised that due to my health condition I should not go on a cruise in the next 10 to12 months. On that advice we were going reluctantly cancel our May cruises, given that once this is over travel insurance for cruises is likely to rise significantly. The reward for our patience is a “stab in the back” from P&O.

 

The FCO website states that “the FCO advises British nationals against all but essential international travel” 

 

This is an indefinite notice and I would expect cruises beyond 11 April to be cancelled, thus I would expect P&O to cancel those cruises probably up to end of May or June. The question is will they provide a full refund to those customers affected, something this email does not cover. 

What I don’t get is how people keep questioning P and O’s  obligation to refund if they cancel a cruise. It’s UK law. 

[wowzz]

10 minutes ago, staygulf said:

What I don’t get is how people keep questioning P and O’s  obligation to refund if they cancel a cruise. It’s UK law. 

But they haven't cancelled cruises after April 11th so far.

[staygulf]

7 minutes ago, wowzz said:

But they haven't cancelled cruises after April 11th so far.

I know they haven’t. Why is that relevant to my comment?

[Pine Man]

20 minutes ago, staygulf said:

I know they haven’t. Why is that relevant to my comment?

Because if your cruise is after 11 april it is you who will be cancelling the cruise, not P&O

[wowzz]

12 minutes ago, Pine Man said:

Because if your cruise is after 11 april it is you who will be cancelling the cruise, not P&O

Exactly - we all know the cruises will not go ahead, but until P&O cancel we seem to be in limbo.

[PRINCESSTHE BEST]

4 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Exactly - we all know the cruises will not go ahead, but until P&O cancel we seem to be in limbo.

And your cancellation charges will be racking up.

[Harry Peterson]

3 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Exactly - we all know the cruises will not go ahead, but until P&O cancel we seem to be in limbo.

P&O know exactly what they're doing here, and they want people to cancel. In that situation, P&O won't need to refund. Ideally, best wait until P&O cancel, then you'll get a full refund. But you do run the risk of having to go on a cruise later this year you'd really rather not be on.

[PRINCESSTHE BEST]

5 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

P&O know exactly what they're doing here, and they want people to cancel. In that situation, P&O won't need to refund. Ideally, best wait until P&O cancel, then you'll get a full refund. But you do run the risk of having to go on a cruise later this year you'd really rather not be on.

Or if they don’t cancel the cruise, risk travelling against FCO advice and no travel insurance. Hence the reason P&Owant you to sign a disclaimer.

[staygulf]

9 minutes ago, PRINCESSTHE BEST said:

Or if they don’t cancel the cruise, risk travelling against FCO advice and no travel insurance. Hence the reason P&Owant you to sign a disclaimer.

I think the point here is that the FCO advice against foreign travel allows EVERYONE who is travelling within the next 30(?) days to cancel and get a FULL refund under Reg 12(7). 
 

 

[wowzz]

13 minutes ago, staygulf said:

I think the point here is that the FCO advice against foreign travel allows EVERYONE who is travelling within the next 30(?) days to cancel and get a FULL refund under Reg 12(7). 
 

 

Is that the Package Travel Regulations Act?

[staygulf]

2 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Is that the Package Travel Regulations Act?

Yes.