UK passengers and deposits

[woodmill100]

It's taken several weeks of telephone calls but I have managed to obtain a full refund of my deposit from HAL.

 

A bit of background. Booked Alaska for May 08 though a TA. Paid our £400 deposit (UK is different from States in that deposits are always non refundable under any circumstances - I believe in the US they are refundable up to final payment date).

 

Anyway, I am now 3 months pregnant with baby due in June and therefore would not be able to take the cruise at the end of May. Spoke to TA who were insistent that full deposit would be lost. Tried to argue that it was HAL that were preventing me from travelling due to their pregnancy regulations and it was not me that didn't want to go (although I never would have at 8 months gone). Was fighting a losing battle and they wouldn't back down.

 

Spoke to HAL who initially gave same response however with a bit of persistence to both HAL and TA, they finally agreed that it wasn't me who couldn't travel, it was them that wouldn't allow it. I have now received my full refund.

 

So, I just wanted to let UK passengers know for future reference that sometimes you don't need to accept that first no. Keep pushing and pushing if you have to. I did and I got my refund.

 

Hope this helps someone in the future.

 

Hopeful to sail with HAL in 2009 or may be 2010.

[PrincessYoga]

Congratulations on your wee baby. I am glad you got your money back. We had to cancel both our land based holiday in June and our family Christmas cruise for this year because I got pregnant last November. I had a baby girl in August. Babies are so worth cancelled/postponed holidays. I hope your morning sickness is better.

[woodmill100]

Thank you and congratulations on your little girl too.

 

Morning sickness is getting better. I feel better every day!

[PrincessYoga]

Thank you. :) I am glad you are feeling better. MS is a killer. I missed my Christmas dinner last year because of it. I will keep your advice in mind in case we are ever forced to cancel again.

[woodmill100]

If it was £50 I wouldn't have bothered but £400 is a pram and car seat!

[PrincessYoga]

Tell me about it... I saw one of those Quinny ones for £750 not including the car seat base. We got a Mothercare one. It does the job. My advice to you is don't buy a nursery wardrobe or drawers. The wardrobe was £299 and I got the wardrobe, drawers and bedside table for £130 including delvery. Don't get me started on babies I can go on for hours...lol.

[hammybee]

Woodmill:

 

Congratulations on all your blessings.

 

I am curious about this non-refundable deposit thing. Is this imposed by cruise lines or travel agencies?

 

For the life of me, I cannot imagine why a cruise line would have a different policy and see no mention of a different set of terms and conditions for UK passengers.

[Addict]

Terms and Conditions for UK travellers are totally different to USA.

 

Deposits are totally non-refundable. And the rules re price drops are different. I know if there is a price drop, then HAL will honour it for Americans but not for British as there is no reason for them to do so - ie Americans could just cancel with no penalty and re-book at the lower price. Not so for the Brits - and HAL takes such a large deposit from us that cancelling and re-booking just wouldn't work.

 

I had an issue with HAL earlier this year when a few weeks after booking our Xmas cruise, the price dropped by around £600 (yes, pounds)! And this was about 10 months out! But we had paid £600 deposit so no benefit to cancelling and re-booking. I did pursue HAL about it as I thought it was very unfair - in the end they offered to reduce by around £400 and we accepted. I was still not happy though, especially as we had booked by telephone and had not had access to any terms and conditions prior to booking. The only T & Cs HAL have on their website is re American rules and not relevant to the British. I think that's why they had to back down in the end.

 

Had a similar issue with Celebrity last year when there was a price drop of £900 and they honoured it with no problem - so I think this is just a HAL rule.

 

(I have posted re this issue before but I thought it was relevant to this thread so thought I would repeat it).

 

Congratulations on your good news Woodmill!:D

[Bouff]

Firstly, congratulations on your good news. I hope all goes well.

 

We have cruised HAL twice now and on both occasions booked through a US on-line travel agency. I was also able to speak with them on the telephone. I had no problems.

 

The first time I did this I originally booked an NCL cruise through them but when the cruise line changed the itinerary completely from a Caribbean to a Bahamas cruise I was able to cancel NCL and re-book HAL. Admittedly there was talk of the agencies US$75 cancellation fee but as we re-booked with them and it was a more expensive cruise, being 10 days not 7, they waived it.

 

The US$ exchange rate also worked in our favour for the past two years but of course may not in the future.

 

Nevertheless I would strongly recommend booking on-line with a US agency. It can be done and has worked well for us.

[PrincessYoga]

Thanks for posting the tip to use an online US angency to book.

[Wilba]

Yes I'll second the 'tip' for using a US TA. Certainly the one we use(a well known one) has a 'no loss' cancellation policy, no questions asked.The upside is, if your cruise goes down in price, you simply cancel & rebook at the new price. The downside is they take a higher deposit than most UK TA's. Typically $400pp as opposed to £100pp & this 'offer' is only available up to the point of final invoice. They have a freephone number or if you email them they normally respond in about 10 minutes, (don't forget the time difference). Hope this helps. Regards

[George W. Bush]

I wonder what the effect of so many people using American TAs is on the U.S economy . . .

[Ine]

The deposit and cancelation rules are more or less the same in The Netherlands as in Great Britain. (Probably in more european countries).

Most rules are made by the dutch TA organisations, of course highly in their favour.

 

Apart from that despite the for us better exchange nowadays Euro/ US$ we often pay more, which is (mostly) done by the cruise-line or their general agents. (And the difference can be rather high.)

 

Not always is it possible for us to book a cruise in the USA and have the better rate in US$.

Even when a cruise starts in the USA it sometimes can give problems when a passenger lives in Europe. Bookings sometimes are refused by the cruiselines and redirected to their european agents at the higher rate.

[Jade13]

It's taken several weeks of telephone calls but I have managed to obtain a full refund of my deposit from HAL.

 

A bit of background. Booked Alaska for May 08 though a TA. Paid our £400 deposit (UK is different from States in that deposits are always non refundable under any circumstances - I believe in the US they are refundable up to final payment date).

 

Anyway, I am now 3 months pregnant with baby due in June and therefore would not be able to take the cruise at the end of May. Spoke to TA who were insistent that full deposit would be lost. Tried to argue that it was HAL that were preventing me from travelling due to their pregnancy regulations and it was not me that didn't want to go (although I never would have at 8 months gone). Was fighting a losing battle and they wouldn't back down.

 

Spoke to HAL who initially gave same response however with a bit of persistence to both HAL and TA, they finally agreed that it wasn't me who couldn't travel, it was them that wouldn't allow it. I have now received my full refund.

 

So, I just wanted to let UK passengers know for future reference that sometimes you don't need to accept that first no. Keep pushing and pushing if you have to. I did and I got my refund.

 

Hope this helps someone in the future.

 

Hopeful to sail with HAL in 2009 or may be 2010.

 

First, Congratulations! Second, def use an US TA next time based on the other posts.

 

I think if you had bought insurance the pregnancy would not have been pre-existing so you would get all back with the exception of the insurance premium, correct?

[hammybee]

The deposit and cancelation rules are more or less the same in The Netherlands as in Great Britain. (Probably in more european countries).

Most rules are made by the dutch TA organisations, of course highly in their favour.

 

Apart from that despite the for us better exchange nowadays Euro/ US$ we often pay more, which is (mostly) done by the cruise-line or their general agents. (And the difference can be rather high.)

 

Not always is it possible for us to book a cruise in the USA and have the better rate in US$.

Even when a cruise starts in the USA it sometimes can give problems when a passenger lives in Europe. Bookings sometimes are refused by the cruiselines and redirected to their european agents at the higher rate.

 

Thank you Ine. My sense of this is that the inability to take advantage of better pricing and non refundable deposits is a local TA custom or something, as opposed to policies imposed by a cruise line.

 

I am thinking that HAL and other U.S. based corporate cruise lines are far more dependent upon local TAs steering them business, than in the states. I think the real in the flesh agents have far more influnece, in Europe than they do, in the U.S.

 

The pricing thing is boggling too. Just last week, I learned that cruises with Fred Olson sell for multiples of a HAL cruise with a similar intinerary, to U.S. passengers, sell for substantially less in the U.K.

 

Airfare is another area that seems to carry different rates and terms, dependent upon where you purchase your ticket and the currency used to pay for it.

 

The international politics of pricing and terms is fasinating stuff, to me.:)

[Addict]

My sense of this is that the inability to take advantage of better pricing and non refundable deposits is a local TA custom or something, as opposed to policies imposed by a cruise line.

 

My TA advised that this is the provider's rules (ie cruise line, holiday package company etc) - not the TA's rules. They make it very clear to you when you book that this is the "providers" policy - whether it be £300 deposit for HAL or £100 for Celebrity - all non-refundable. Includes all land based holidays.

 

I do trust my TA and have no reason to disbelieve her.

 

Why? I don't know. I wish all travel rules were the same for everyone. :D

[sail7seas]

Congratulations on all counts.

 

Expecting a precious little one and on being persistent and getting back your deposit!

 

Loads of good wishes.

 

[hammybee]

My TA advised that this is the provider's rules (ie cruise line, holiday package company etc) - not the TA's rules. They make it very clear to you when you book that this is the "providers" policy - whether it be £300 deposit for HAL or £100 for Celebrity - all non-refundable. Includes all land based holidays.

 

I do trust my TA and have no reason to disbelieve her.

 

Why? I don't know. I wish all travel rules were the same for everyone. :D

 

I wonder who the provider is. Perhaps your TA is buying cabins from a consortium. It makes no sense to me that a cruise line would have different terms and conditions dependent upon the homeland of the passenger. It's a curious thing. Here is a link to the policy and it does not say it is applicable to only those bookings made in the U.S.

 

http://www.hollandamerica.com/guests/category.do?category=cancellations&topic=cancellationBerkely

[George W. Bush]

It makes perfect sense to me, the cruise line probably sets their rules according to the bare minimum required by the law. Perhaps the UK has a different bare minimum than the U.S does.

[hammybee]

I lifted this off the web sit of a nameless travel agency in the UK:

 

PLEASE NOTE:- all deposits are non-refundable. Prior to signing a cruise

booking form you MUST ensure that you have read and fully understood the full terms and conditions of booking, which are laid out in the relevant

cruise line brochure.

It is not clear from this, who is imposing the non-refundable condition.

Perhaps the devil is in the detail of the terms and conditions of booking, within the cruise line's brochure.

 

Regardless of whose policy it is, I like the requirement that those making a booking are required to sign-off that they have read and understood the terms and conditions of booking. This is far better than what is done in the U.S., the land of the clueless. :o