What constitutes a significant change to itinerary

[Mollag]

We’ve just had a few changes to our upcoming cruise so enquired with our TA if this constitutes a significant enough change for us to be able to get a full refund and it appears P&O don’t know themselves 🤦‍♂️🤷‍♂️

[carlanthony24]

A new Itinerary to one you had booked. Not sure if changing a few ports because of unrest, weather or something along them lines would exactly count. 

 

What changes did occur?

[Megabear2]

4 minutes ago, Mollag said:

We’ve just had a few changes to our upcoming cruise so enquired with our TA if this constitutes a significant enough change for us to be able to get a full refund and it appears P&O don’t know themselves 🤦‍♂️🤷‍♂️

Which cruise is this and what has changed?

[Mollag]

4 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

Which cruise is this and what has changed?

Aurora in January lost Bonaire and St Lucia replaced with St Vincent and Martinique along with a few different dates for ports/sea days we knew they wouldn’t do anything but for them to answer like that beggars belief

[Son of Anarchy]

4 minutes ago, Mollag said:

We’ve just had a few changes to our upcoming cruise so enquired with our TA if this constitutes a significant enough change for us to be able to get a full refund and it appears P&O don’t know themselves 🤦‍♂️🤷‍♂️

Unbelievable.

You'd have thunk that they would have some sort of idea.  Might be different to yours or mine, though.

 

Which is the point at which the customer goes to the Small Claims Court, explaining why their (customer's)  interpretation of significant change holds more water than P&O's.  By the sound P&O's response, they would simply get ruled against at the Small Claims Court, as they can't even put forward at which point a change becomes significant.

 

Others will have better knowledge of such things than me. 

 

Out of interest, there was a change to our cruise to the USA last year.  Total of 35 nights.  They cut all four American ports about six weeks before we were due to sail.  We cancelled, and received full refund, no arguing.

[Megabear2]

3 minutes ago, Mollag said:

Aurora in January lost Bonaire and St Lucia replaced with St Vincent and Martinique along with a few different dates for ports/sea days we knew they wouldn’t do anything but for them to answer like that beggars belief

That's the 65 night one?  I wouldn't think changing two ports on that itinerary would constitute a significant change because of the length of the cruise and the advance warning.

[Josy1953]

Surely a significant change can mean different things to different people.  For me for instance changing Aruba to Dominica would be enough for me to consider cancelling my cruise.  I hate Dominica but love Aruba.

 

[majortom10]

We did a cruise on Oriana a few years ago and after we had booked and paid balance we were told by P&O that she was due in dry dock at end of cruise and our cruise had to be cut short from 16nts to 15nts and also every port of call for the whole cruise the dates were changed. Still the same ports just every day had changed. All they offered was the one night cut short we would be reimbursed by adding amount pro rata for cabin booked as OBC. I contacted P&O and said I had paid for my cruise as agreed in cash and wanted the difference reimbursed in cash and the changes meant that it was a significant change. They initially refused my refund in cash and said changing the day of every port of call on a cruise was not classified as significant. After a considerable amount of toing and froing discussion and the threat of taking legal advice they finally agreed to refund the difference in cash/cheque and said the changes could be classed as significant and I could cancel the cruise and have a full refund as to TCs of booking conditions. P&O dont give anything back freely you have to be firm and push all the way but when pushed to the edge they usually give in.

[Megabear2]

I'd be more worried about the ominous waiting for information as to what constitutes a significant change for this cruise.  If the final payment date is 5/6 weeks away I'd seek clarification from P&O urgently as to what this means.

 

Personally I would read that as a high possibility something else may be changing imminently.  Two ports being changed isn't unusual on Caribbean cruises but this rather strange comment would definitely ring alarm bells before I parted with a substantial amount of cash next month.

[Mollag]

12 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

That's the 65 night one?  I wouldn't think changing two ports on that itinerary would constitute a significant change because of the length of the cruise and the advance warning.

We knew full well this wouldn’t be enough but asked the question anyway it’s their answer that is the point I’m trying to make

[Megabear2]

Just now, Mollag said:

We knew full well this wouldn’t be enough but asked the question anyway it’s their answer that is the point I’m trying to make

As I said above I would seek clarification on that reply before parting with my cash next month.  If you felt strongly enough about the changes to ask you must be concerned.

 

I'm guessing this is an expensive cruise and I also recall you saying you were only reluctantly sailing with P&O so ask and insist on a proper answer.

[Mollag]

6 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

I'd be more worried about the ominous waiting for information as to what constitutes a significant change for this cruise.  If the final payment date is 5/6 weeks away I'd seek clarification from P&O urgently as to what this means.

 

Personally I would read that as a high possibility something else may be changing imminently.  Two ports being changed isn't unusual on Caribbean cruises but this rather strange comment would definitely ring alarm bells before I parted with a substantial amount of cash next month.

I’ve asked the TA to chase it up, the next change we think will be losing the partial transit of the Panama as they’re already limiting the cargo vessels transiting due to a very dry spell and not enough water in the lakes

[Megabear2]

3 minutes ago, Mollag said:

I’ve asked the TA to chase it up, the next change we think will be losing the partial transit of the Panama as they’re already limiting the cargo vessels transiting due to a very dry spell and not enough water in the lakes

Why not forward the reply highlighting the worrying bit to the people you dealt with previously at Carnival House as well as speed is needed here and you'd be within the must reply in 28 days if you write in the next day.

[Mollag]

1 hour ago, Megabear2 said:

Why not forward the reply highlighting the worrying bit to the people you dealt with previously at Carnival House as well as speed is needed here and you'd be within the must reply in 28 days if you write in the next day.

I’ll message them tomorrow always get a faster response on there. One of the other changes is only one sea day from Key West to New Orleans which seems a big ask according to others on our group 

[Cloudyrain]

I wouldn’t think this is a significant change relative to the whole holiday. For me it would mean “booked for the canaries, changed to the Fjords”. I also wouldn’t expect changes due to anything out of their control to be classed as significant unless it meant the whole thing needed to be changed. 
 

I know it’s disappointing when you have your heart set on something, but I wouldn’t expect them to refund for a couple of ports being swapped for other ports in the same vicinity, or accounting for such a small portion of the actual trip as a whole.

 

I would have thought they have a set criteria (percentage of dates changed etc) that counts as “significant”.

 

Edited to add: is it possible that they are possibly expecting further changes to occur, and therefore they are holding off until that is confirmed? 

Edited August 15, 2023 by Cloudyrain
Esit

[Mollag]

6 minutes ago, Cloudyrain said:

I wouldn’t think this is a significant change relative to the whole holiday. For me it would mean “booked for the canaries, changed to the Fjords”. I also wouldn’t expect changes due to anything out of their control to be classed as significant unless it meant the whole thing needed to be changed. 
 

I know it’s disappointing when you have your heart set on something, but I wouldn’t expect them to refund for a couple of ports being swapped for other ports in the same vicinity, or accounting for such a small portion of the actual trip as a whole.

 

I would have thought they have a set criteria (percentage of dates changed etc) that counts as “significant”.

 

Edited to add: is it possible that they are possibly expecting further changes to occur, and therefore they are holding off until that is confirmed? 

If you read the first post they don’t know themselves what constitutes a significant change and we knew we wouldn’t get anything for 2 changes but would like to know if anything else changes

[carlanthony24]

11 minutes ago, Mollag said:

I’ll message them tomorrow always get a faster response on there. One of the other changes is only one sea day from Key West to New Orleans which seems a big ask according to others on our group 

Regarding New Orleans I have heard a lot they try to get to earlier than planned because Immigration is a nightmare

[david63]

Tell P&O, in writing within 14 days of being notified of the change, that you wish to claim under section 40 of their T&Cs

 

https://www.pocruises.com/legal-and-privacy/booking-terms-and-conditions

 

Probably won't get very far but you will at least have made the claim within the timescales.

[molecrochip]

2 hours ago, Mollag said:

I’ve asked the TA to chase it up, the next change we think will be losing the partial transit of the Panama as they’re already limiting the cargo vessels transiting due to a very dry spell and not enough water in the lakes

Significant change will vary from cruise to cruise and will also depend on the details of the cruise at the point you booked.

 

The first post is the TAs wording. It states that this is not a significant change. That will be a P&O decision.

 

It’s not they don’t know, it’s that P&O are not crystal ball gazing to say “if you loose this” or “that” then it’s significant. The are not required to tell you from a commercial perspective.

 

If something further does change snd tip the balance then they will say. I agree that this isn’t but would also agree that if f you do lose the Panama Cannal then that’s likely to be significant.

Edited August 15, 2023 by molecrochip

[gsmt47471015]

43 minutes ago, carlanthony24 said:

Regarding New Orleans I have heard a lot they try to get to earlier than planned because Immigration is a nightmare

Can definitely confirm that 👍

[molecrochip]

30 minutes ago, david63 said:

Tell P&O, in writing within 14 days of being notified of the change, that you wish to claim under section 40 of their T&Cs

 

https://www.pocruises.com/legal-and-privacy/booking-terms-and-conditions

 

Probably won't get very far but you will at least have made the claim within the timescales.

But it isn’t significant. Two Caribbean ports replaced by two others. As far as itinerary goes, it’s essentially a like for like swap - even if they are different islands.

[Cloudyrain]

1 hour ago, Mollag said:

If you read the first post they don’t know themselves what constitutes a significant change and we knew we wouldn’t get anything for 2 changes but would like to know if anything else changes

I did read the first post, and as I added, it may be that they don’t know the answer yet as it may be that other changes are possibly pending.

 

If you are asking them “how many more changes would be required to make it a significant change” I would expect they probably have a formula, but that it would be fluid and reflect the nature of the change and the reason. Therefore I wouldn’t expect they can answer you. 

[Mollag]

53 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

But it isn’t significant. Two Caribbean ports replaced by two others. As far as itinerary goes, it’s essentially a like for like swap - even if they are different islands.

I knew we wouldn’t be able to do it with these few changes was asking for future reference. The answer the TA has given me is from P&O regarding they don’t know what a significant change is for one of their own cruises not the TA answering that part of the question. So if P&O don’t know who is supposed to?

[Mollag]

2 minutes ago, Cloudyrain said:

I did read the first post, and as I added, it may be that they don’t know the answer yet as it may be that other changes are possibly pending.

 

If you are asking them “how many more changes would be required to make it a significant change” I would expect they probably have a formula, but that it would be fluid and reflect the nature of the change and the reason. Therefore I wouldn’t expect they can answer you. 

I’d have thought the same that they would have a formula  like 20% change of ports or something similar but it appears they are just making it up as they go along, now why does that not surprise me. 

[Mollag]

1 hour ago, carlanthony24 said:

Regarding New Orleans I have heard a lot they try to get to earlier than planned because Immigration is a nightmare

New Orleans isn’t the first port of call in the US…………. at the moment