Bad practice from P&O

[Travel]

Really disappointed with p&O,booked a 2021 cruise last week on Oceana. Today discovered that she is leaving the fleet. They say that it will take 60 days to get a refund. It didn't take that long to take the incoming deposit for a cruise that would never happen!

[Omega1]

Originally Posted by Travel

Really disappointed with p&O,booked a 2021 cruise last week on Oceana. Today discovered that she is leaving the fleet. They say that it will take 60 days to get a refund. It didn't take that long to take the incoming deposit for a cruise that would never happen!

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Carnival Corporation has known for some time that several ships across its fleet would be taken out of service (sold or scrapped) - it’s a shame they were taking bookings up to yesterday for cruises they knew would not be going ahead. P&O has form for cancelling cruises just after final payment date - a cynical person might say they do it deliberately to help their cash flow.🤔

[Sweeney_Todd]

After our cruise on the Iona in June was cancelled we took advantage of the 125% future cruise credit to book a cruise on the Oceana for the end of November. Now we find out it has been cancelled.
At least we will get a further 125% FCC to put to another cruise.

[holidaysaver75]

We were booked on the Oceana for next year and had the email yesterday.

I'm a bit confused. They say the FCC is 125% of what you've paid, but I don't know if that means an extra 25% on the deposit we've paid or 125% of the total cost of the cruise booked. As most people will only have paid the deposit this far out, the former would be a completed waste of time, especially as prices have risen a fair bit since we booked.

My frustration is that they're saying we can't rebook until the cruise is showing as cancelled, but that's reducing availability even further. I feel like this holiday's fated as it is - we moved to the Oceana after having the cruise on the Azura this year cancelled!

[Sweeney_Todd]

Originally Posted by holidaysaver75

We were booked on the Oceana for next year and had the email yesterday.

I'm a bit confused. They say the FCC is 125% of what you've paid, but I don't know if that means an extra 25% on the deposit we've paid or 125% of the total cost of the cruise booked. As most people will only have paid the deposit this far out, the former would be a completed waste of time, especially as prices have risen a fair bit since we booked.

My frustration is that they're saying we can't rebook until the cruise is showing as cancelled, but that's reducing availability even further. I feel like this holiday's fated as it is - we moved to the Oceana after having the cruise on the Azura this year cancelled!

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I'm almost certain it's only on what you have actually paid, not the outstanding balance which of course you would no longer have to pay.

With regard to our situation.
- We were booked on the Iona for 13th June having paid the full balance of £1834 for a balcony cabin.
- Towards the end of April our cruise was confirmed as no longer sailing. With the 125% FCC we had £2292.50 to put towards another cruise.
- We booked an inside cabin on the Oceana for the end of November at at cost of £2478. After the FCC contribution we had an outstanding balance of £185.50, to be paid in September. We were happy with that, paying less than £200 for a two week cruise instead of one week.
- After yesterday's news, I called P&O today to check what the FCC would be. DW had her fingers crossed that it would be 125% of the new cruise price - £2478. Of course, they would never do that; they would go bankrupt.
- I was told that since we hadn't paid anything further yet towards the new cruise our FCC would revert to what it originally was - £2292.50.
- If we had already paid the outstanding balance of £185.50 we would have also got 125% of that, another £231.87, albeit only £46 actual benefit.

Given our experience, I would expect they would only give you 125% of what you have actually paid.

As far as not being able to book because the cancellation of the cruise isn't actually official, that shouldn't matter. Try calling them; I called late this afternoon and was only waiting for twenty minutes.

Good luck!

[holidaysaver75]

Originally Posted by Sweeney_Todd

I'm almost certain it's only on what you have actually paid, not the outstanding balance which of course you would no longer have to pay.

With regard to our situation.
- We were booked on the Iona for 13th June having paid the full balance of £1834 for a balcony cabin.
- Towards the end of April our cruise was confirmed as no longer sailing. With the 125% FCC we had £2292.50 to put towards another cruise.
- We booked an inside cabin on the Oceana for the end of November at at cost of £2478. After the FCC contribution we had an outstanding balance of £185.50, to be paid in September. We were happy with that, paying less than £200 for a two week cruise instead of one week.
- After yesterday's news, I called P&O today to check what the FCC would be. DW had her fingers crossed that it would be 125% of the new cruise price - £2478. Of course, they would never do that; they would go bankrupt.
- I was told that since we hadn't paid anything further yet towards the new cruise our FCC would revert to what it originally was - £2292.50.
- If we had already paid the outstanding balance of £185.50 we would have also got 125% of that, another £231.87, albeit only £46 actual benefit.

Given our experience, I would expect they would only give you 125% of what you have actually paid.

As far as not being able to book because the cancellation of the cruise isn't actually official, that shouldn't matter. Try calling them; I called late this afternoon and was only waiting for twenty minutes.

Good luck!

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Thanks - that's really helpful. We weren't able to get a FCC because of Covid-19 on the Azura cancellation because our balance was due right at the start of the pandemic when no-one knew quite what was happening, so we didn't want to risk paying the balance. We took up their option to transfer to another cruise. That's not exactly worked out for us!

We haven't booked direct with P & 0 but through Cruise118, so I think we now have to wait for them to act on our behalf. Problem is that - if the FCC is only on the deposit - we're effectively priced out because all of the cabins sleeping families have gone. We had a balcony and 2 insides, but we can't get close to the price we had on the Oceana, even based on all insides. Back to the drawing board I think.

[Sweeney_Todd]

Yes, I know what you mean about the prices.
Admittedly, we got such a good price for the Iona cruise because we booked in 2018 as soon as the sailings were released. However, to sail at the same time in June 2021 in the exact same cabin would cost us another £1000 more; yes, a grand! There was no way we were going to pay that for just seven days. That's why we chose Dubai for two weeks for just a little bit more outlay.
We're waiting for Spring and Summer 2022 to be released, but I reckon they will be a right price.

[Rachie]

I had my P&O cruise to the Fjords cancelled...refund was 45 days.
I was really impressed with this. I'm still waiting for a refund of over £5K with NCL, just over the 120 day mark now

[holidaysaver75]

Eventually got an answer and we would only have got the 125% if we paid in full now, which I’m not prepared to do this far out. So we’re going for a refund and have got a great deal with Princess. Really excited - never sailed with them before.

[Omega1]

Originally Posted by holidaysaver75

Eventually got an answer and we would only have got the 125% if we paid in full now, which I’m not prepared to do this far out. So we’re going for a refund and have got a great deal with Princess. Really excited - never sailed with them before.

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Which Princess cruise have you booked? We like Princess and have a couple of cruises booked with them for later in 2021.