Advice please

[Topdeck, London]

ABTA is just a code of conduct, and they don't back consumers where they can get away with it.

how the relevant laws get interpreted is what matters if you go to court, that will be consumer law and holiday law.

What value will the proportion of the cruise that was the transport for less than 24 hrs?

[lucy, sutton]

I think they have a reasonable defence (or alternative interpretation) that there was no delay to your boarding the ship, and any compensation would be limited to a discretionary payment, possibly as OBC or future cruise credits.



Cheers

Tony B

All I am wanting is that they recognise we did not get the cruise we paid for and even a minor offer of OBC would have been welcome, even if it was £20. OBC of £20, would have probably cost them much less than half of that, due to massive mark up on things. However at least it would show that P & O value their customers and recognise when things go wrong the customer should be recognised and valued.

[alandrover, beccles]

I must of missed this, but why was the departure delayed? This MIGHT have some bearing on whether you were or weren't offered compensation.

[Topdeck, London]

https://www.abta.com/help-and-compla...-are-my-rights

You missed this bit.

Compensation You don’t have an entitlement to fixed amounts of compensation. Your rights to compensation come under the Package Travel Regulations.

Cruises are considered packages because they have accommodation and transport, you got your accommodation.

Many transport compensations are based on arrival time not departure.

If you had missed a port clear claim,
Transit through an interesting bit of water like a fjords at night not day there is a loss.

A few hours not sailing the English Channel is probably quite low value.

[lucy, sutton]

I must of missed this, but why was the departure delayed? This MIGHT have some bearing on whether you were or weren't offered compensation.

We were delayed for mechanical repairs needed to the ship.

What is annoying is they said that they sent out an email to let us know. Both me and my husband and our travel agent were not notified at all. So they could say maybe one did not get an email, but for 3 different people with 3 different emails to say they did not get any notification, that must mean they did not send any. We got emails to say our e-ticket was available, so they definitely had our emails. Funny that the notification did not get received!!

To some extent it is not the money that I am bothered about, it is being recognised as a customer that we did not get the cruise we booked and some offer would have said they valued our custom. Not very impressed at all with P & O. We have a Gardiner and he said that when this happened to him with Royal Caribbean, they were given $200 OBC each. However, this is an American ship and in my opinion, they obviously value their customers more than P & O.

[mike, lanarkshire]

We were delayed for mechanical repairs needed to the ship.

What is annoying is they said that they sent out an email to let us know. Both me and my husband and our travel agent were not notified at all. So they could say maybe one did not get an email, but for 3 different people with 3 different emails to say they did not get any notification, that must mean they did not send any. We got emails to say our e-ticket was available, so they definitely had our emails. Funny that the notification did not get received!!

To some extent it is not the money that I am bothered about, it is being recognised as a customer that we did not get the cruise we booked and some offer would have said they valued our custom. Not very impressed at all with P & O. We have a Gardiner and he said that when this happened to him with Royal Caribbean, they were given $200 OBC each. However, this is an American ship and in my opinion, they obviously value their customers more than P & O.

Trust me, Royal Caribbean are not good to deal with. They don’t flash the cash anymore when things go wrong. From memory, on our Rhapsody cruise,(delayed overnight in Venice) they credited us $63.40 which, according to them, was the exact cost of one night in port.

[toshtosh, Guiseley]

I fully agree that good customer service would be to make a low-cost (token) gift to passengers affected by changes - bottle of wine, a free excursion, some OBC or a speciality restaurant meal.

However in the 2019 world the bean counters rule and more and more the only way is to resort to legislation where nobody wins except the lawyers.

Interestingly we have just been on a train journey and Northern Rail now offer compensation for delays over 15 minutes and it is openly advertised in all stations. Other than one minor delay on our 6 train day out all trains were punctual.

One thing that isn't clear in this case is what the travel agent has done to assist in the claim? Isn't that one of the benefits of using a TA?

Cheers

Tony B

[Topdeck, London]

I fully agree that good customer service would be to make a low-cost (token) gift to passengers affected by changes - bottle of wine, a free excursion, some OBC or a speciality restaurant meal.

However in the 2019 world the bean counters rule and more and more the only way is to resort to legislation where nobody wins except the lawyers.

Interestingly we have just been on a train journey and Northern Rail now offer compensation for delays over 15 minutes and it is openly advertised in all stations. Other than one minor delay on our 6 train day out all trains were punctual.

One thing that isn't clear in this case is what the travel agent has done to assist in the claim? Isn't that one of the benefits of using a TA?

Cheers

Tony B

I suspect

Delays of arrival time not departure time.

A lot of UK cruises are sold through TAs as agents so even the TA ABTA does not apply.

[lucy, sutton]

One thing that isn't clear in this case is what the travel agent has done to assist in the claim? Isn't that one of the benefits of using a TA?

Cheers

Tony B

My TA has forwarded my complaint email to P & O and said he did not receive any information about the delay either.