No Cruise. No Money back. What you should know before booking your P&O cruise. IMPORTANT WARNING!

[Guest Sayward]

Lets start off by saying what this about.

There are many people who will end up not being able to take their cruise or get a refund because P & O have not provided customers with the correct information when they need it and in fact anyone who does not lie on a declaration should think very hard about whether to book a cruise holiday. Therefore also any one who cares about therir health should be very cautious in believing that cruising with P & O has any meaningful health safeguards because their policy will encourage people to lie.

P & O will expect you (rightly in my opinion) to complete a health declaration before you travel BUT BEWARE. if you have been ill with ANY infection 10 days before travelling then you will not be able to board and will have to cancel. 

Fair enough I hear you say BUT let me describe my experience. We booked a late P & O cruise holiday two weeks before travelling chose P and O's holiday extras partner (their words) travel insurance company. Low and behold next day my wife has a sore throat and the next, me too and the day after we both test positive for Covid. Before you say ah but we have had our boosters, well so have we! and we enjoy spectacularly good health so dont think that saves you from the dreaded. 

Being a good responsible citizen the next day 11 days before travelling I phone P & O tell them exactly the situation, and the answer No we cannot sail even if it was just a heavy cold or flu! Shucks I say, so what now, I ask. Well the nice lady gives me an email address and says send to this address all the information and they will send back to you the information needed for your insurance company. All straight forward I think. When after 3 days I have not even had an acknowledment email I phone P&O again and it seems the email I was given was wrong it was internal only email. Now I work in IT and I know that is lame but never mind. So I have now waited and now must urgently get the reclaim process started so I contact Holiday Extras P&O's declared insurance etcetc partner. (sounds easy wait to you try)

The result is I cannot reclaim holiday cancellation without a PCR test, not antigen, PCR! I am day six now of covid I am not positive now. So no PCR. no refund. What if I lied and sai I had flu, then I would need a medical certificate for an illness that I had just had. So if you get covid drag yourself off to the diminishing number of PCR testing centres and pay through the nose (pardon the pun) for a test while spreading your covid to all and sundry.

So OK worth thinking about there a major underlying problem that P&O do not want you to think about and that is if you are in any way sick in the 10 days prior to travel. NO Holiday and in all practical terms NO money back. Thousands of pounds out of pocket.

Finally what about P&O response.

I phoned them back to explain the situation to say that in two clear ways they had cost me the cancellation fee of my holiday

1. Their website and documentation does not explain in a prominent position about the health declaration about what would cause your holiday to be cancelled by them and clear information about the need for medical certification of even the most common winter compalint anywhere near your cruise.

2. Their original agent I spoke to in failing to inform me correctly of the proceedure by giving me incorrect contact details and by not being aware of or not passing on the correct information about getting a PCR test while positive had negated my chances of claiming on my insurance.

AND THEIR RESPONSE a supervisor would not even talk to me and has since even failed to email me. They have washed their hands and say it is just down to the insurance company even denying that they have a connection to Holiday Extras. Well here you go copied from the P&O website 

We’ve partnered with Holiday Extras to offer cover for our holidays

well apparently they havent.

SO! My advise

1. Worry about your health before you go on a cruise,

2. Assume a lot of people on the cruise have lied about their health so as not to fall foul of this problem

3. Dont expect any service from  P&O customer service.

4. Dont believe that any partnered products are actually partnered in any meaningful way

5. When you phone P&O triple check every answer they give.

 

Oh yes finally everyone has to have their sob story nowadays here's ours. The third person on the cruise was to be our mentally handicapped daughter, she loves cruise ships and dressing up and generally people watching. We have been proecting her for the last 2 and half years and have not travelled. When we told her about going she sweetly scribbled the date on her calendar and said can I come? Which I said of course we would never leave you behind. So now we have to explain we cannot go but we will not tell her that her hard saved holiday pot has just been snaffled by P&O and they dont give a damn.

 

 

[Windsurfboy]

My condolences  it's a pity you haven't  been on this board earlier as this has been discussed and advice has been unless you are dying to lie and answer NO to everything. 

 

If you read megabear2 thread you will learn what others have been through , still pending outcome, if there has been resolution not been made public.

 

You have two courses .

 

Small claims court, using arguements in megabear2 thread.

 

Or get media on your case.

 

Good luck

[Technoman2]

This is a long shot but have you got legal cover on your house insurance. If so you can ring them for free legal advice and they may take your case up if your travel insurance company wont help. Also i wonder if the credit card company would have any liability under the section 75 regs. Might be worth exploring these routes or the media option as mentioned above. 

You have tried to do the right thing by not passing on a pandemic infection and it seems very unfair you are penalised this way. At the end of the day any contract has to be seen as fair and something has gone seriously wrong here. It is just a case of finding the correct route for a suitable remedy.

[HalifaxYorksCruiser]

If everyone answered the questionnaire honestly there would be a lot of empty cabins on sailaway. 

[Guest Sayward]

Thanks I am new to Cruise Critic and mores the pity did not keep up to date with cruises concerns.

Thank you both for your helpful suggestions. I did use credit card so that is woth pursuing.

[Host Sharon]

This has been extensively discussed elsewhere so this thread will be locked. Please continue to post on the existing thread. 

[Host Sharon]