No reduction in balance payment period.

[terrierjohn]

I have now had a response from P&O following a message to Paul Ludlow suggesting that they consider reducing the final balance period, to enable passengers to have a better idea of whether their cruise was definitely sailing, government guidance for over 70s had been relaxed and reasonable travel insurance was now available, before committing large amounts to a cruise they may not be able to take, and have even less chance of a timely refund.  Those last words are mine and were not part of my original e-mail.

I guess you will not be surprised to hear that P&O have no intention of reducing the 90 day period.

There is nothing in the e-mail to provide genuine support for this decision, other than vague ramblings about the senior team needing to make decisions to best ensure the safety of guests, crew and their ships.  Clearly this is taking all their efforts leaving no time to consider wider issues their customers might have, and even less time to make any refunds. 

[Josy1953]

Just now, terrierjohn said:

I have now had a response from P&O following a message to Paul Ludlow suggesting that they consider reducing the final balance period, to enable passengers to have a better idea of whether their cruise was definitely sailing, government guidance for over 70s had been relaxed and reasonable travel insurance was now available, before committing large amounts to a cruise they may not be able to take, and have even less chance of a timely refund.  Those last words are mine and were not part of my original e-mail.

I guess you will not be surprised to hear that P&O have no intention of reducing the 90 day period.

There is nothing in the e-mail to provide genuine support for this decision, other than vague ramblings about the senior team needing to make decisions to best ensure the safety of guests, crew and their ships.  Clearly this is taking all their efforts leaving no time to consider wider issues their customers might have, and even less time to make any refunds. 

Not a surprise given that they have just laid off over 400 workers.  They need to get money in if they can.

[pete14]

4 minutes ago, Josy1953 said:

Not a surprise given that they have just laid off over 400 workers.  They need to get money in if they can.

I am sure I will be corrected if I am wrong but I think the 400 lay-offs are from P&O ferries, not P&O cruises

[wowzz]

2 minutes ago, pete14 said:

I am sure I will be corrected if I am wrong but I think the 400 lay-offs are from P&O ferries, not P&O cruises

No, see the other thread entitled "job cuts". P&O cruises have announced redundancies and pay cuts.

Edited May 12, 2020 by wowzz

[Manx buoy]

9 minutes ago, pete14 said:

I am sure I will be corrected if I am wrong but I think the 400 lay-offs are from P&O ferries, not P&O cruises

No it’s 1100 at the ferries separate company altogether, 450 at Carnival

[Selbourne]

12 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I have now had a response from P&O following a message to Paul Ludlow suggesting that they consider reducing the final balance period, to enable passengers to have a better idea of whether their cruise was definitely sailing, government guidance for over 70s had been relaxed and reasonable travel insurance was now available, before committing large amounts to a cruise they may not be able to take, and have even less chance of a timely refund.  Those last words are mine and were not part of my original e-mail.

I guess you will not be surprised to hear that P&O have no intention of reducing the 90 day period.

There is nothing in the e-mail to provide genuine support for this decision, other than vague ramblings about the senior team needing to make decisions to best ensure the safety of guests, crew and their ships.  Clearly this is taking all their efforts leaving no time to consider wider issues their customers might have, and even less time to make any refunds. 

Thanks for sharing John. Not at all surprised, given how many people are still paying balances in a deluded belief that their cruise will go ahead. It’s almost the only form of revenue that they are getting to shore them up at present and for as long as people are daft enough to pay cruise balances at present P&O will lap them up and then have interest free loans for more than 2 months until they get around to refunding. I have always taken the view that those of us awaiting refunds will get our cash back (mine due within the next 3 weeks) but as each month goes by I would be less and less certain (today’s job cuts shows that they are really starting to hurt). Others will no doubt be thinking the same and P&O knows that, so will be wanting as much cash in as quickly as they can, so there’s nothing to gain (for them) by giving the waverers time to rethink.  

[terrierjohn]

15 minutes ago, Josy1953 said:

Not a surprise given that they have just laid off over 400 workers.  They need to get money in if they can.

I thought that my suggestion would possibly lead to them getting more money in, by allowing customers to delay their cancellation requests, until they are more certain a future cruise will go ahead.

[Selbourne]

Just now, terrierjohn said:

I thought that my suggestion would possibly lead to them getting more money in, by allowing customers to delay their cancellation requests, until they are more certain a future cruise will go ahead.

I follow your logic, but guess that the average balance is many many times the deposit, so they must think that getting lots of the big final balances in earlier is better for them than just delaying paying out lots of piffling deposits? 

[wowzz]

4 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

given how many people are still paying balances in a deluded belief that their cruise will go ahead.

Too true. Do these people live in a parallel universe!

[terrierjohn]

1 minute ago, Selbourne said:

I follow your logic, but guess that the average balance is many many times the deposit, so they must think that getting lots of the big final balances in earlier is better for them than just delaying paying out lots of piffling deposits? 

Cancellations cost them nothing Selbourne since they only give you a FCC,   but they do reduce their potential future income quite considerably.

 

[P&O SUE]

Thanks for posting John, shame they haven’t reduced it as we would have held on for a bit longer.

[Selbourne]

3 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Cancellations cost them nothing Selbourne since they only give you a FCC,   but they do reduce their potential future income quite considerably.

 

You’re correct, I keep forgetting that but, of course, they already have that money and have had it for some time, whereas the final balances are ‘new’ money and significant sums, so the earlier they get them the better (for P&O). 

Edited May 12, 2020 by Selbourne

[pete14]

17 minutes ago, Manx buoy said:

No it’s 1100 at the ferries separate company altogether, 450 at Carnival

Apologies. I knew someone would correct me if I was wrong. 

[Son of Anarchy]

36 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I have now had a response from P&O following a message to Paul Ludlow suggesting that they consider reducing the final balance period, to enable passengers to have a better idea of whether their cruise was definitely sailing, government guidance for over 70s had been relaxed and reasonable travel insurance was now available, before committing large amounts to a cruise they may not be able to take, and have even less chance of a timely refund.  Those last words are mine and were not part of my original e-mail.

I guess you will not be surprised to hear that P&O have no intention of reducing the 90 day period.

There is nothing in the e-mail to provide genuine support for this decision, other than vague ramblings about the senior team needing to make decisions to best ensure the safety of guests, crew and their ships.  Clearly this is taking all their efforts leaving no time to consider wider issues their customers might have, and even less time to make any refunds. 

 

I accept that PandO are doing what they're doing in order to survive. 

 

But it does grate when they are so cavalier with the refund situation, constantly moving the goal posts and blatantly flouting legislation.  Yet they are maintaining that we the customer, ie those who pay their wages must conform with their T & Cs and they are not prepared to relax them in these unique times.  And I'm someone who has gone for the FCC.

 

 

[Adawn47]

34 minutes ago, P&O SUE said:

Thanks for posting John, shame they haven’t reduced it as we would have held on for a bit longer.

We would have as well. This wait and see approach is beginning to get very frustrating. 

Avril 

 

[Joseph Bloggs]

1 hour ago, Selbourne said:

I follow your logic, but guess that the average balance is many many times the deposit, so they must think that getting lots of the big final balances in earlier is better for them than just delaying paying out lots of piffling deposits? 

Has anyone noticed that the deposit required is now 15%?

[No pager thank you]

22 minutes ago, Joseph Bloggs said:

Has anyone noticed that the deposit required is now 15%?

Someone asked this on FB and received the reply that 5pc deposits are a promotion, 15pc would appear to be the standard terms.

 

I'm not all surprised that the sensible idea of reducing the 90 days (or more in case of TA bookings) has been ignored.  This would seem to be counterintuitive to cash flow as some people following the national lockdown commentary may well think that travel will return from July.

 

Being very kind to P&O, which I am less inclined to be at present, the only other motivation could be that they want a certain percentage of people to cancel the earlier cruises from August onwards, so that they do not eventually run in to an overbooking scenario whereby paid passenger numbers exceed what can be allowed with social distancing.

[Joseph Bloggs]

50 minutes ago, No pager thank you said:

Someone asked this on FB and received the reply that 5pc deposits are a promotion, 15pc would appear to be the standard terms.

I honestly can't remember when I last paid 15% deposit  as the vast majority of my cruises have been booked on board with the £50pp deposit promotion. The 5% promotion seems to have been in place for ages. I know it is academic at the moment but I suppose the £50 promotion will also bite the dust.