Cruise industry chaos in both hemispheres

# UPDATE 

More bad news for passengers on board “the cruise that will go anywhere that will take us”. 

The proposed stop in Port Arthur is off due to “bad weather”. But bus transfers from Hobart will be available. 

I’m not sure anyone books a cruise to spend up to five hours in a bus. 

And then it got even worse for long-suffering cruise passengers. 

In Brisbane, Royal Caribbean’s Quantam of the Seas sold too many cabins - leaving several groups of travellers unable to embark. 

What a shambles this industry is. 

—

In the southern hemisphere, cruise passengers looking towards exploring some of the highlights of New Zealand will instead be visiting Tasmania and the south coast of New South Wales.

In the northern hemisphere, gullible folk who signed on for a three-year luxury cruise around the globe will be going absolutely nowhere after their cruise company discovered it did not have a suitable ship.

Cruise companies have a record for shooting themselves in the foot, but the latest catastrophes were biggies, even the by industry's lofty standards.

First off the blocks was P&O Cruises. Owned by Carnival Corporation and headquartered in Sydney, P&O is led by Sture Myrmell, who is a big cheese in the cruise business in Australia.

Yet P&O was not organised enough to have the barnacles scraped off the hull of one of its ships before entering New Zealand, where they are considered a biohazard. The ship was turned around. 

Those affected included a couple who had planned to disembark the cruise and get married in New Zealand. Their wedding had to be scrapped.

P&O had planned to have the ship's hull cleaned by divers off the Bay of Plenty but weather forced that plan to be scrapped. There was no back up plan.

And P&O decided not to wait for better weather but instead divert back to Hobart, Port Arthur and Eden, which was not what those on board the Pacific Adventure (above) had booked and paid for on their 13-day 'Kiwi Adventure' voyage - which will not visit New Zealand at all.

The barnacles are not wanted in New Zealand, but are apparently fine in "clean, green" Tasmania.

In a statement provided to passengers on board, and later shared on social media, P&O said: "Unfortunately the weather has not aligned with the predicted forecast and conditions dramatically changed upon the divers entering the water [to clean the ship]."

Some passengers wanted to return to Sydney, but this was not possible.

Passengers were given a $300 on-board credit and a 50% credit for a future trip, but P&O later said "a more generous compensation offer had been provided after feedback from affected customers".

Translation: Enough passengers kicked up a stink to make us do better."

P&O Cruises Australia, like all cruise companies, alerts customers in its terms and conditions that changes to the itinerary can sometimes be made during the voyage. But that usually covers weather and political occurences, not the company failing to plan properly.

P&O can get in the bin along with Optus.

Meanwhile, in Istanbul, Turkey, a lot of rich folk were stranded after signing up for a cruise that sounded too good to be true. And was. 

Those who signed up and paid for the Life at Sea inaugural cruise - billed as three years travelling in a luxury cruise ship - found there was no ship at. 

Many were left having sold or rented out their homes and with nowhere to return to CNN reported.

The cruise line told passengers that it has no ship, and had cancelled the departure, promising to refund those who’d signed up for cruises costing up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Good luck with that. 

The cruise was originally due to depart Istanbul, Turkey, on November 1, but shortly before that date, departure was postponed to November 11 and relocated to Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and then to November 30, again from Amsterdam. 

A total of 111 cabins were apparently sold. 

The company has said it will make repayments in monthly instalments, starting from mid-December. It has also offered to pay for accommodation until December 1 and flights home for anyone now stranded in Istanbul. 

Life at Sea Cruises had reportedly been planning to buy the AIDAaura, a ship retired this summer by AIDA Cruises, a German subsidiary of Carnival Corp. 

It was due to be rechristened as the MV Lara and to be renovated before the voyage. Life at Sea Cruises advertised the ship on its remarkably amateurish website https://www.lifeatseacruises.com/ without owning it. 

On November 16, however, Celestyal Cruises said it had purchased the AIDAaura.

Vedat Ugurlu, the owner of Turkish-based Miray Cruises, which operates Life at Sea, said he was "extremely sorry for the inconvenience”. 

He said that while the company had made the down payment for the ship, investors “declined to support us further due to unrest in the Middle East.”

Ugurlu also told passengers that day that the company then tried and failed to buy another ship, and that it was working on a third. Remarkably, bookings are still available on the website. 

The message: If you are booking a cruise then do your homework, know your rights and be prepared to scream and holler if necessary. 

Australian travellers slam industry rip offs

Consumer group CHOICE has asked Australian governments to fix Australia’s travel “cancellation chaos” with seven urgent reforms, starting by making it easier for travellers to obtain refunds when plans are cancelled.

 

CHOICE surveyed over 4,400 Australians who had travel plans disrupted by Covid-19 and is sharing their experiences in the report Consumer protection for Australian travellers: a plan for clarity, consistency and fairness. 

 

“Many Australians who had booked travel have faced inconsistent and unfair treatment since CovidD-19 emerged in early 2020,” says CHOICE Consumer Rights Expert and report author Alison Elliott.

 

“While some people reported receiving incredible help and assistance from travel businesses, others waited more than six months for a refund or encountered appalling customer service. Australians were forced to navigate cancellation chaos rather than receiving clear and practical advice on their rights. 

 

“Many people are now grappling with impractical limitations on travel vouchers and unfair solutions to a problem they didn’t cause. Just like the EU and UK, we should have clear rights to refunds when travel plans are cancelled.”  

 

The CHOICE travel cancellations survey found 53% of respondents waited over three months for a resolution, with nearly a quarter waiting over six months. 

 

“Waiting over 6 months to get a refund is far too long, even in pandemic conditions," says Elliott. "Looking at the experiences of over 4,400 Australians, we saw major problems that governments have the ability to fix. We need stronger and clearer consumer protections to help Australians have the confidence to book travel in the future.”

 

Australians also shared their stories of major travel brands hiding behind complicated terms and conditions, passing the buck and befuddling customers out of asserting their rights. Flight Centre, AirBnB and Qantas featured heavily in the survey feedback.

 

“It is not OK that the big players in this industry don’t have better systems and higher standards of service," says Elliott. "The recent lockdowns in a number of states are a reminder that this problem is not going away.”

CHOICE is calling for the Federal and state governments to implement easier travel refunds; minimum voucher/credit rights; a mandatory industry code for all airlines and large travel providers; a travel and tourism industry ombudsman; a mandatory information standard at time of booking; an ACCC market study into the travel and tourism sector and a national travel restrictions website.

 

More detail available in the full report available here: https://sites.google.com/choice.com.au/travelreport2021 

Passengers slam Air New Zealand for intransigence on refunds

Air New Zealand is under fire from passengers after passengers booked on cancelled flights to Norfolk Island were told they were not entitled to a refund.

Air New Zealand temporarily cancelled all flights from Australia to Norfolk Island to weeks ago after the Australian government suspended quarantine-free flights from New Zealand to Australia (these have since been reinstated).

Due to the changed border restrictions, Air New Zealand said its crew would have been unable to operate the Australian domestic flights without first undergoing 14 days of hotel quarantine.

This left hundreds of Australians stranded and prompted Qantas to operate five rescue flights between Brisbane, Sydney and New Norfolk last week, 

Members hit the Australian Frequent Fyer (AFF) notice board to complain about Air New Zealand's high-handedness. Air NZ was the most-complained-about company in Aotearoa last year.

An Air New Zealand spokesperson confirmed to AFF that customers booked to Norfolk Island were orginally offered either a travel credit or to change their travel dates, but that the airline has since decided to offer refunds to passengers booked on the cancelled Norfolk Island services as a “gesture of goodwill”.

This is a good outcome for those affected passengers but Air New Zealand maintains that it is not legally required to refund passengers where a flight is cancelled for reasons outside the airline’s control.

The airline argues that events such as the recent Norfolk Island cancellations are due to Covid-19-related restrictions, and are therefore beyond their control.

Since last year, this policy has left many tens of thousands of Air New Zealand customers with cancelled flight bookings unable to access refunds. Many of these customers have instead been issued with flight credits that will expire by the end of this year.

According to section 15.5 of Air New Zealand’s conditions of carriage, the airline is entitled to issue a credit instead of a refund under some circumstances.

Air New Zealand's website says that passengers can “book with confidence”, as the airline is waiving change fees or offering credit vouchers for any flights booked until March 31. But that doesn’t guarantee a refund.

Unlike Air New Zealand, Qantas’ policy is to offer refunds for any flights cancelled by the airline, industry expert AFF reports.