A 78-year old pensioner saved for a cruise for 10 years, but after she missed an airplane connection, she missed the cruise ship and Princess Cruises gets to keep her $2500 paid for the cruise. They’re also keeping the $559.80 the airlines refunded because she didn’t take the flight. (See how that works? You don’t get charged unless you actually use their service…) You gotta read the Washington Post column for the full run-down of all the different things that went wrong on this lil old lady’s trip.
For the cruise industry, cancellation fees of 100% are the norm. It’s clearly stated in the fine print on your contract. Since there’s disclosure, the FTC isn’t of the opinion that there’s anything wrong with it. With these non-existent refund policies, perhaps floating prison rides are one time travel insurance is worthwhile?
The Dream Trip That Wasn’t [Washington Post]
RELATED: Princess Cruise Lines Requires Death Certificate To Get Off Junk Mail List
(Photo: Getty)
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@sixninezero:
How many times have you seen the carts going through airports? How many times do you hear about “a representative at the gate to help you” when you’re finishing up a flight?
If you’re running low on connection time its very easy to talk to a gate agent and they can easily notify the next gate to either hold the plane or to get a faster means of transportation.
Also, since she has special circumstances (old, etc), she should have been specific about her needs to the travel booker. If you don’t ask for a wheel chair and can’t get off of a plane, isnt that your fault? Airlines/travel agents/etc are not mind readers.
Princes should have noted her needs? How are they supposed to know? And if she did tell them, why didn’t she make sure things were good when she got the tickets?
You both are right, I have no idea if she notified Princess beforehand if she needed assistance. That is her fault. Chances are Princess didn’t ask her either.
There is no argument. Princess is within their contractual rights. You win.
I was brought up to never treat my elders so poorly. If your granny should ever come through the doors of my business I can guarantee she will not be treated in such a sterile and cold manner.
A three leg flight to Alaska doesn’t sound unreasonable to me. If I wanted to fly to Alaska I’d have to fly from home to DFW or Houston (depending on airline) then from DFW or Houston to SeaTac then from there to Alaksa. I could see it easily becoming a 4 leg if a longer route was that much cheaper.
The cruise line doesn’t owe her anything at this point. They made a good faith effort to get her to the boat even if it wasn’t where she wanted it to be. Their obligation has been fulfilled. Also, as others have said, it’s not like the cruise line can resell her room to someone else.
Still though, if this lady took 10 years to get this sorted out….why couldn’t she have, I don’t know, left a couple days in advance and stayed in a motel 6? That’s what I would have done, I would have booked a flight that arrived at least a day before the ship leaves port and stayed in the cheapest hotel I could find.
My favorite part of the article is when Carnival basically says “We would never do that” even though they admit to having the same policies.
I have a difficult time being sympathetic because the article seems to play up the fact that this is an old lady who can’t function in the modern world. She’s so old she doesn’t know that she’s supposed to see how many connections she has before booking a non-refundable trip! She’s so old she can’t figure out how to use a pay phone!
Yes the cruise line CAN resell the room to someone else. Its a frequent practice and happens more often than not. I used to be employed by a certain cruise line that operates out of Seattle, Wa. During the summer months with cruises to Alaska they would always overbook the ships knowing that every week there would be people that wouldn’t show up. Its important to them because if a week goes by where the ship isn’t full, they’re losing revenue. In the instances where a ship is overbooked and all of the passengers show up, the cruise line will just put them up in a hotel or rebook them for another time. I was made to believe that it wasn’t a big deal to the cruise line because it rarely ever happens.
Man, why do you guys even read this stuf. I can’t believe how everyone here always blames the consumer and says, “should have known better” or “she got what she deserves”. You guy’s tire me out.
@Mr. Moto: But a lot of readers want to discuss the good and bad policy…if they think that Princess Cruises was in the right, they can do it and it doesn’t make them any less of a decent person, unless they are in fact, evil. I don’t see how it is a BAD thing that not everyone thinks the woman should be reimbursed for everything. Aren’t differing opinions important to foster discussion?
@sixninezero:
Well put, and my thoughts exactly.
@CaffeinatedSquint:
Well, differing opinions are important to an intellectually stimulating discussion. IT seems some of the commenters on here would prefer that everyone agree and side with the consumer every time. That certainly would make the site and comments worth reading, right?
@sixninezero:
You certainly do give up awfully easily.
Now on to my actual point. I recognize that you and others sometimes go above and beyond for the elderly, because you “respect your elders”. At times, that kind of thinking is appropriate. At others, it is most certainly not. Further, the fact that YOU go above and beyond to ensure the special needs of the elderly are met does not mean that a company that does not is “wrong” or “scamming” the elderly. They are simply meeting the status quo and there is nothing wrong with that and not something they should be raked over the coals for.
Is Princess Cruises wrong? Not really. They offered to put her on the cruise anyway, it’s not their fault she missed her flight. It’s her problem if she refused.
@jpmoney: BWI is between DC and Baltimore. I’d be surprised if it took 30 minutes to get from BWI to National, considering you can get from Arlington to Baltimore in 45 minutes.
@jpmoney:
There are plenty of 1 stop flights from BWI to Anchorage. For those that are saying it is not the cruise line’s fault, they acted as her agent in booking the flight. Anyone with the slightest bit of air travel experience would not schedule a 2 stop flight to a time sensetive destination with narrow connection windows at both stops. It does not say in the story what the layover times were so we don’t know how tight they were running it but based on some of the facts it sounds like they were too damn close.
Additionally the second they were delayed in Minneapolis, Princess should have been on the phone getting her accomodation on whatever the hell flight they had to to get her to Anchorage on time. It’s completely unacceptable that Princess was not able to find them room on a timely flight. I don’t know who on here uses a travel agent still but one of the advantages of using one is that you have someone working thier ass off to make sure you get where you’re going. Looks like Princess wanted to charge a premium like a travel agent but not do anything you’d expect from a travel agent.
Additionally, for all those interested, it looks like her cruise would be 7 days (only princess one leaving from anchorage is 7 days). As she stated in the article she would have missed her glacier day which is what she was most interested in. I don’t see why she should feel obligated to take a truncated vacation and miss the portion that is most important to her. She bought her airfare through Princess, if they can’t deliver her on time to her ultimate destination I don’t see why it is her risk? Please remember that just because something is in a contract does not mean it’s enforceable.
Fucking Princess Cruises
I haven’t cruised with Princess specifically, but if I had to guess, if she’d caught up to the boat, and then been sad that she missed the glaciers (by which I assume they mean a day spent cruising one of the glacier bays), they’d probably have tried to compensate her with something like a free glacier tour shore excursion at another port to ensure she got to see them. Cruise lines are generally pretty good about that sort of thing.
But just bailing and leaving the trip outright? Apparently without even notifying the cruise line, because apparently she’s just too terribly old to use a *phone*?
I think her getting the money back for the flights makes sense, since Princess got that back. But her making none of the cruise was not Princess’s fault, it was hers. Had she made it, they’d have no doubt been able to arrange some sort of compensation for the lost day. She chose to go home instead.
@swalve: You must live in the fifth dimension, where there is never any traffic!!
@Pylon83: Yes, but she lost the first day because of the delay. They owe her for THAT day.
@RowdyRoddyPiper:
What about her responsibility to mitigate the damages?
I am appalled, I don’t care what anyone says. Okay, I know there was a contract and I know that Princess is entitled to keep all the money. I still feel that the way they are treating this situation (admittedly, a newsworthy one or there would be no sympathy) is extremely poor and while it is true she might have been able to make the cruise, you have to take into account that she was tired, confused and 78 years old. I think that all types of companies have a propensity for just walking all over senior citizens because they can (keeping the airline ticket money is perfect example of that). The bad PR is going to cost Princess in the long run. It was neither the cruise line’s nor the woman’s fault she missed the ship, so I think that refunding half of her cruise tickets – $1250 – plus the money for the airline ticket (or at least giving her a credit for the unused portion of the ticket) – is plenty fair. Compromise, people – don’t blame the victim. That seems to happen way too much in this forum.
Executive email carpet bomb, anyone?
@Pylon83:
There is no duty to mitigate in this circumstance. She did not receive the benefit of her bargain due to negligence on the part of Princess. They had every opportunity to get her there on time and fell short. Again the situation would be different had she booked airfare separately. As it stands, Princess assumed responsibility for her timely arrival when they became her agent in booking her transportation. They held themselves out to be her agent when dealing with the airlines and they should accept the level of responsibility that comes with that.
@swalve: Obviously you’ve never actually drive that route. Or you regularly drive at 150 mph.
Has nobody read this article?
It says:
Since May, her daughter has been fighting for a refund of the air tickets. The woman finally contacted CoGo last month, saying she accepted forfeiting the money for the cruise but asking for help in recouping money for unused flights .”Please let me know if you think I am being unreasonable,” she wrote in an e-mail. She added that she’d never again be able to afford an Alaskan cruise , but if she got her unused airfare refunded, she could take “some little trip.”
Again, she accepted the lost cruise. To my reading, the cruise line collected twice for the airfare:When the woman paid them and then when the airline refunded it.
Why shouldn’t they pass it on to her? Is keeping the refund any more fair?
To take an analogy upthread, if I paid a movie theater sent a car service for me and the car got a flat causing me to miss the movie, I would be cheesed off, but wouldn’t necessarily expect a free movie ticket.
BUT if I found out that the car service had refunded the theater for my transportation, I would want the refund.
Seems unfair for the theater/Princess to PROFIT off of the situation.
@pearlandopal: I have, but I don’t schedule flights during rush hour to avoid traffic. And I sure as heck wouldn’t use the route google maps gives.
And if I drive 150 mph, I would get there in 15 minutes. Of course, there wouldn’t be any traffic if I could do that.