Choices - payment due tomorrow for cruise in August?

[chalkstorm]

Hi

1st post so be gentle!

I've paid a deposit on a P&O cruise due to sail on 9th August and full payment is due tomorrow.

I'm 100% sure this will be cancelled.

If I don't pay tomorrow, will they chase me?  Do I risk losing my deposit if I don't pay on time?  

Took ages to find the right one and there's nothing suitable right now in the P&O programme...

Thanks!

Si

Edited May 7, 2020 by chalkstorm

[terrierjohn]

1 minute ago, chalkstorm said:

Hi

1st post so be gentle!

I've paid a deposit on a P&O cruise due to sail on 9th August and full payment is due tomorrow.

I'm 100% sure this will be cancelled.

If I don't pay tomorrow, will they chase me?  Do I risk losing my deposit if I don't pay on time?  

Thanks!

Si

I think your deposit is probably safe, although it's likely to be in the form of a FCC. You can already arrange this on line via the Covid19 information page. In your situation I would not be giving P&O any more cash.

[zap99]

18 minutes ago, chalkstorm said:

Hi

1st post so be gentle!

I've paid a deposit on a P&O cruise due to sail on 9th August and full payment is due tomorrow.

I'm 100% sure this will be cancelled.

If I don't pay tomorrow, will they chase me?  Do I risk losing my deposit if I don't pay on time?  

Took ages to find the right one and there's nothing suitable right now in the P&O programme...

Thanks!

Si

Ours is due at the end of May for a late August cruise. We have sent off the form to move to the same cruise next year. Paying the balance at the moment is super risky, unless you are happy with FCC for the full amount.

[wowzz]

It seems to me you have a number of options

1. Do nothing,  and you will lose your deposit.

2. Pay the outstanding balance: when/if (probably when) the cruise is cancelled you will be able to ask for a cash refund of the entire amount,  although this could take some time.

3. Transfer your deposit to any future cruise. You can move the deposit as many times as you like, and possibly you may be able to use it for cruises not yet released, although this is the still unclear.

You do not say how much your deposit is. If it is only £50 pp, I would be inclined to just walk away. If any more, I would go for option 3. I would certainly not recommend option 2.

[chalkstorm]

Thanks guys.  Dep was £271 in total.  Balance is £5,200 (2 adults and 9yr old money burner).

Decisions!

 

 

 

[wowzz]

Move the deposit to another cruise as far in advance as possible, but a cheap one, just an inside cabin, so you won't need to pay any more deposit.

No way that I would give P&O £5k at the moment.

[Selbourne]

47 minutes ago, chalkstorm said:

Hi

1st post so be gentle!

I've paid a deposit on a P&O cruise due to sail on 9th August and full payment is due tomorrow.

I'm 100% sure this will be cancelled.

If I don't pay tomorrow, will they chase me?  Do I risk losing my deposit if I don't pay on time?  

Took ages to find the right one and there's nothing suitable right now in the P&O programme...

Thanks!

Si

First of all, welcome to Cruise Critic. To answer your question there is only one sensible option IMO and that is to convert your deposit to Future Cruise Credit, even if it’s only £50. It costs nothing and if you never use it you are no worse off than doing nothing now and losing it (doing nothing means you lose the money - it doesn’t automatically become FCC). I don’t think anyone in their right mind would be paying a final balance on any cruise with any cruise line at present. As you say, there’s no way that the cruise will go ahead and at best you will be waiting months to get your money back. I would also say that as more and more time goes on and P&O gets more and more in the mire, it cannot be ruled out that cash refunds may not be an option in the future. It would be against the law, but the law counts for nothing in this country at present. So, convert the deposit to FCC and don’t join the tens of thousands of us waiting and waiting and waiting to get our money back!

[Scriv]

Don't just leave it - cancel it now and apply for FCC to the value of your deposit. It will then go on your account, for use towards another cruise, to be booked by a certain time  - BUT you are also now able to gift this to someone if you can't use it yourself .

 

See the P&O website for the  https://www.pocruises.com/travel-health-advisories/flexible-cancellation-policy

Scroll down to the relevant section and see the table.

 

I have done the same for our cruise in July.

 

 

Edited May 7, 2020 by Scriv

[Selbourne]

2 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Move the deposit to another cruise as far in advance as possible, but a cheap one, just an inside cabin, so you won't need to pay any more deposit.

No way that I would give P&O £5k at the moment.

No need to move it to any cruise. You can just have the FCC on your account, as we have done with the £350 deposit from our July / August cruise. 

[wowzz]

3 minutes ago, Scriv said:

Don't just leave it - cancel it now and apply for FCC to the value of your deposit. It will then go on your account, for use towards another cruise, to be booked by a certain time but you are now also able to gift this to someone if you can't use it yourself .

 

See the P&O website for the  https://www.pocruises.com/travel-health-advisories/flexible-cancellation-policy

 

Yes, I forgot that you can convert a deposit to FCC for cruises that will soon take place. 

 

Edited May 7, 2020 by wowzz

[chalkstorm]

Ha, interestingly, I may already have applied for the FCC (for the depot) having just been there and done it again (it autofilled lots of info!).  Suspect the crazy Covid situation (and I'm sure age related memory!!) means I'd forgotten.  Didn't help as I had no email confirmation that I'd done it....  I'd have expected an acknowledgment.  Anyway, taken a screenshot of the screen so they can't say I'd not requested it in time!

Thanks all.  

[wowzz]

8 minutes ago, chalkstorm said:

Didn't help as I had no email confirmation that I'd done it

Welcome to the wonderful world of P&O IT !

[Scriv]

22 minutes ago, chalkstorm said:

Ha, interestingly, I may already have applied for the FCC (for the depot) having just been there and done it again (it autofilled lots of info!).  Suspect the crazy Covid situation (and I'm sure age related memory!!) means I'd forgotten.  Didn't help as I had no email confirmation that I'd done it....  I'd have expected an acknowledgment.  Anyway, taken a screenshot of the screen so they can't say I'd not requested it in time!

Thanks all.  

 

That's all we have all had, so don't worry....no one has had an acknowledgment. If you are lucky, you might have seen a very q uick pop up that said Thank you. But I haven't heard of P&O disputing that we have done it.

 

Might i just add, make sure you haven't left  your credit card open for automatic payment of balance!

 

 

Edited May 7, 2020 by Scriv

[chalkstorm]

Proof!!  😄

[Scriv]

1 minute ago, chalkstorm said:

Proof!!  😄

 

[Scriv]

That will be fine...  but again, please make sure that you are not set up for auto payment of the balance!

[Scriv]

Duplicated

[Presto2]

We have the same problem. We were due to pay another £6000 by the 15th of May. We used the on line form but as we had had not had a read receipt at all hubby phoned this morning to cancel and ask for the FCC, It took him 3 minutes and was really easy.

 

We are very sad about cancelling so try not to think about it too much. Sad to change my signature and remove the cruise as it has been booked for so long. We are now keeping busy thinking of the next one.