Bereavement and changing lead passenger

[Jonesthecat]

A mini update for those of you who have been kindly supporting-I contacted the MD of the TA as I was so shocked by how difficult it was to navigate their customer services. The MD has replied with condolences and said they are going to ask a senior member of staff to support me and will do everything they can. I guess then it will be up to P & O to sort it.

 

[david63]

Depending on who the TA is and what the relationship is that they have with P&O it may work out well. Some TAs have access to those higher up the food chain than the "front line"

[Whittleblue]

This seems like a simple problem to solve but bureaucracy is causing further unnecessary stress at such a difficult time. 
 

I suspect this isn’t a totally unique scenario and P&O should be doing everything they can to help and support a valued customer. Surely if the poster can provide evidence of his fathers death certificate this should be enough for the company to amend the booking - even if it requires escalation to a more senior member of staff to make this decision.

 

I assume P&O officials read forums such as this and should pick up on this issue and look to resolve it instead of passing someone from pillar to post whilst they are grieving. 

[jeanlyon]

23 hours ago, david63 said:

Although it might be a bit late now that this has been flagged up but did you actually have to do anything? If you and your mother just arrived at the terminal would anybody actually query where your father was?

She is taking another person with her who is not already booked.

[david63]

16 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

She is taking another person with her who is not already booked.

I know that - which is why I said just turn up alone

[Dermotsgirl]

Hi, @Jonesthecat

 

I am so sorry to hear of your loss and can see that an already traumatic time is being made even worse by the stress with the holiday.

 

In your original post, you mention that 'you have booked and paid for' the cruise - this gives me the impression that you are the lead passenger, and as such are the person who is authorised to make any changes to the booking. If this is the case, it should be a straightforward matter for you to get your dad's name removed from the booking, and for the other person's name to be added. If there is any query about the reason, then all you would need to do is show them the death certificate.

 

If I've got this wrong, and your dad was the person who booked the cruise, then it is the probate document that gives you the authority to act on behalf of your dad's estate.  Therefore you'd need to apply to the probate office to get this document (it's all online how to do this). Obviously, this takes time, so, as already has been suggested, it might be  quicker to cancel the holiday and get a refund under the insurance policy.

 

I rather suspect that you have had the misfortune to talk to someone at the travel agent who doesn't really understand the situation, as a power of attorney, even if one existed, ceases on the death of the subject.

 

Hopefully, by talking to someone senior at the TA you will be able to get this resolved, and still have the holiday that your mum wants.

 

Please let us know how you get on

  

Edited June 12 by Dermotsgirl

[Dermotsgirl]

In connection with my post above - the easiest way to define 'lead passenger' is to see whose name appears first on the documentation, as it quite possible that you made the booking and paid for it, but put your dad's name as lead passenger.

 

If it's your name first, the first solution above applies

If it's your dad's name first, then the second solution applies. 

[Jonesthecat]

57 minutes ago, Dermotsgirl said:

In connection with my post above - the easiest way to define 'lead passenger' is to see whose name appears first on the documentation, as it quite possible that you made the booking and paid for it, but put your dad's name as lead passenger.

 

If it's your name first, the first solution above applies

If it's your dad's name first, then the second solution applies. 

No it’s definitely me. I booked it and paid for the whole holiday as a surprise but they put a lead passenger for each cabin and that is what they are saying they cannot change. I didn’t even ask for my father to be the lead in their cabin, they just put the man first. I booked it via a travel agent and they explained that P & O don’t allow more than one cabin to be assigned to one person so there had to be a lead for each cabin. They of course were fine with me paying for it all and adding extras! 
the estate does not need to go through probate as it’s all jointly owned and passed to my mother. Although I am an executor in the will too.

i work in mental health and knew I didn’t need a POA and as you say, it would not help anyway. I suspect I just spoke with someone on the phone that wasn’t very experienced. 
no contact from the travel agent yet though today 

Edited June 12 by Jonesthecat

[Selbourne]

12 minutes ago, Jonesthecat said:

No it’s definitely me. I booked it and paid for the whole holiday as a surprise but they put salad passenger for each cabin and that is what they are saying they cannot change. I didn’t even do for my father to be the lead in their cabin, they just put the man first. I booked it via a travel agent and they explained that P & O don’t allow more than one cabin to be assigned to one person so there had to be a lead for each cabin. They of course were fine with me paying for it all and adding extras! 
the estate does not need to go through probate as it’s all jointly owned and passed to my mother. Although I am an executor in the will too.

i work in mental health and knew I didn’t need a POA and as you say, it would not help anyway. I suspect I just spoke with someone on the phone that wasn’t very experienced. 
no contact from the travel agent yet though today 

If you made (and paid for) the bookings then I’m confused as to why you can’t just do a straightforward name change on the booking. 
 

I had a similar situation (albeit not a bereavement, but the same scenario). I booked and paid for 3 cabins on Iona. The other 2 cabins were for our daughters and their partners. One of our daughters and her partner went their separate ways, so I had to remove them from the booking. The partner showed as the lead passenger on the booking, but as I had made the booking and paid for it, there was no issue whatsoever. Somebody else came with my daughter and I was able to add them to the booking. There was just an admin fee. The TA did all of this with no issue at all. It was all done on my say so with no referral to anyone else. 

[Dermotsgirl]

57 minutes ago, Jonesthecat said:

No it’s definitely me. I booked it and paid for the whole holiday as a surprise but they put a lead passenger for each cabin and that is what they are saying they cannot change. I didn’t even ask for my father to be the lead in their cabin, they just put the man first. I booked it via a travel agent and they explained that P & O don’t allow more than one cabin to be assigned to one person so there had to be a lead for each cabin. They of course were fine with me paying for it all and adding extras! 
the estate does not need to go through probate as it’s all jointly owned and passed to my mother. Although I am an executor in the will too.

i work in mental health and knew I didn’t need a POA and as you say, it would not help anyway. I suspect I just spoke with someone on the phone that wasn’t very experienced. 
no contact from the travel agent yet though today 

Thank you for explaining.

 

i can’t help thinking that the TA is causing a problem that shouldn’t exist.

 

As Selbourne has said, as the person who booked the cruise, you are the person who is responsible for making amendments to the cruise, and you should be able to do this without any problems - and you have the death certificate to confirm the reason why the change is required.

 

I really hope you get contact from the TA from someone who understands the issue.

 

 

[Jonesthecat]

Thank you both. I’m also confused why I can’t make changes as they also said it’s a linked booking and agree I booked it and paid for it. It’s incredibly confusing and at a time I’m also dealing with lots of other paperwork they’re not making it easy for me. I am hoping that the TA does get someone senior to look into it as I am not confident the agent on the phone really understood.