P&O are still aiming for May cruises to go ahead ???

[grapau27]

17 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

As I said yesterday P&O are not helping themselves, they need to bend a little or they will break. At the moment all the bending is expected of customers.

 

A little flexibility now might help people to opt for FCC. 

I agree.

The We Are All In This Together

must work both ways for everyone to survive.

[terrierjohn]

9 hours ago, wowzz said:

I have 10 future cruises booked, and cannot move my FCC to any of them. I will be hundreds of pounds out of pocket. 

I know hundreds of people a day are dying slow, lonely deaths, millions of people are facing economic uncertainty, and no one can visit their loved ones. But my £500 is much more important - I will be writing to my MP  tomorrow to demand action.   Don't they know who I am?

Steady on Wowzz take a deep breath and think dreamlike thoughts, it will be alright in 5, 10, 15, 20 weeks or months.😬

[grapau27]

15 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

I agree entirely with your logic Wozz but they are expecting customers to make concessions so why is it fine one way but not the other?. Im right back to it all being very one sided.
 

A few judicious changes for now might just protect the business and the jobs.

 

TC among many others who went bust come to mind where bosses got multi million pound payouts for themselves and their customers lost out.

Letting people use FCC on existing cruises will keep the money in their business and pay dividends when things get better.

RC say 25% of their profits are from onboard sales so P&O with small drink price increases with a full captive cruise audience would soon get their profits back. 

Edited April 2, 2020 by grapau27

[Son of Anarchy]

I thought PandO's amendments to their cancellation T & Cs were poor, until I looked at another holiday company we use for sailing (big white flappy things, boat only moves when its windy) in Greece.

 

Their season doesn't start till next month.  So the company have not cancelled any bookings and are currently applying their usual cancellation T & Cs to all customer cancellations.  The only exception being transfer your booking to 2021.

 

Hadn't booked with them this, glad we didn't.

 

Meaner than PandO methinks.

[zap99]

11 hours ago, wowzz said:

It means we need to have a sense of perspective.  

At times this forum seems to forget the realities of the outside world.  We complain about Inflexibility,  unfair t&c's,  lack of loyalty to previous customers, etc, but we are lucky to have the money to be able to afford these holidays in the first place.

Just my personal opinion, but when there is so much pain and hardship out there at the moment, all this whinging about FCCs seems somewhat insensitive. OVMV.

I agree with you. We should all insist on cash refunds and refuse FCC . If they don't agree, well they just will jollywell have to cos of they don't we will scream....

 

[wowzz]

4 hours ago, Roger88 said:

In any case, as far as I am concerned, there like 2 or 3 bug cruising companies that are going to start cruising this May

Well, that is pretty optimistic. There certainly won't be any cruises in Europe this May. 

[tring]

19 hours ago, Son of Anarchy said:

 

Laws, regulations etc can be amended without a specific Act of Parliament.  A common way is to use a Statutory Instrument.  However, SIs take have to be published 40 days before implementation, in order for MPs to make further amendments etc or even reject it.  The 40 days does not include days that Parliament is either prorogued or dissolved.  Not sure whether or not that includes recess.

 

Several other ways, but I think they take longer than 40 days and are more complex.

 

If Parliament were sitting, they can bash through an new Act in a few day, as has been seen over recent months.

 

Agreed it would be far easier if Parliament was sitting.

 

A Negative Statuatory instrument becomes law when the minister signs it, prior to being laid on the Table.  They are normally post dated to allow for the 40 days + the extra time (which would include the present time not sitting).  However, that does not have to be the case and they can be dated immediately. That method was used for the Coronavirus legislation which has just come into force, though the opposition had agreed not to object and with such a high Government majority it would be unlikely to fail if went to a vote anyway.  The minister does have to take account of interested parties before laying on the table (e.g. trade and consumer bodies in this case).  A case has been made by Which that customers should not be expected to forgo their refunds.

 

Perhaps more likely the holiday companies would just delay paying refunds and any change would be made when Parliament is sitting, but then does not seem to be a firm plan for that to happen as yet.  I will be looking closely at news and the ABTA site to see if anything changes in the near future, in case a way is found.

 

It seems Fred (who cancelled our cruises) are working through refunds and have issued cancellation invoices and subsequently the cash to some people.  We have not had anything for our late March or early April cruises yet, but as we booked through an agent we would expect more of a delay, though again some agents have paid out for Fred cruises. 

    

Edited April 2, 2020 by tring

[Eglesbrech]

2 hours ago, tring said:

 

Agreed it would be far easier if Parliament was sitting.

 

A Negative Statuatory instrument becomes law when the minister signs it, prior to being laid on the Table.  They are normally post dated to allow for the 40 days + the extra time (which would include the present time not sitting).  However, that does not have to be the case and they can be dated immediately. That method was used for the Coronavirus legislation which has just come into force, though the opposition had agreed not to object and with such a high Government majority it would be unlikely to fail if went to a vote anyway.  The minister does have to take account of interested parties before laying on the table (e.g. trade and consumer bodies in this case).  A case has been made by Which that customers should not be expected to forgo their refunds.

 

Perhaps more likely the holiday companies would just delay paying refunds and any change would be made when Parliament is sitting, but then does not seem to be a firm plan for that to happen as yet.  I will be looking closely at news and the ABTA site to see if anything changes in the near future, in case a way is found.

 

It seems Fred (who cancelled our cruises) are working through refunds and have issued cancellation invoices and subsequently the cash to some people.  We have not had anything for our late March or early April cruises yet, but as we booked through an agent we would expect more of a delay, though again some agents have paid out for Fred cruises. 

    

A representative of Which was on radio Scotland this morning stating that position.
 

Simon Calder was then on later in the morning saying that many travel companies are delibaretly making it difficult for customers to get cash refunds which they are entitled to and pushing them towards credit vouchers with, in some cases, misinformation.

[tring]

42 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

A representative of Which was on radio Scotland this morning stating that position.
 

Simon Calder was then on later in the morning saying that many travel companies are delibaretly making it difficult for customers to get cash refunds which they are entitled to and pushing them towards credit vouchers with, in some cases, misinformation.

 

Simon Calder's advice is always sound.  I had been surprised he was not more prominent on TV etc. of late, but am wondering if the BBC/press are playing it quiet as good advice regards the problems with  the vouchers currently being offered and insurance status at present would likely cause many problems for the holiday business and if they may have had some pressure placed on them (not sure if that ever happens though - I am no press expert).

 

As most of us here realise the only way forward at present is to ask for refunds, even if they are not easily coming forward.  I am surprised at the number of people who are prepared to take risks with vouchers though.  Even according to ABTA at present any voucher with extras added on would not be protected under the new scheme they want brought in and holidays booked with vouchers have not been covered by CC or ABTA in the past, so would seem unlikely there would be any retrospective protection for those.

Edited April 2, 2020 by tring

[AnnieC]

3 hours ago, tring said:

 

Simon Calder's advice is always sound.  I had been surprised he was not more prominent on TV etc. of late,

I heard a radio interview with him yesterday and he's been on holiday (somewhere remote I think, only just managed to get out); now doing the rounds of the radio studios, don't know about TV appearances.