Our cruise was axed . . . now Noble wants another £6,000 for an identical voyage
D.S. writes: Noble Caledonia has cancelled our cruise because of problems with its ship. It offered to transfer our booking to the next identical cruise, sailing in August, and we accepted this. Now, ignoring its own booking conditions, it wants to charge us an extra £3,000 each to take up the offer. It is no longer answering my emails.
YOU and your wife booked a circumnavigation of the United Kingdom cruise on board the Heritage Adventurer. Your trip should have begun two days ago, but on May 3 you received an email from the cruise company cancelling the entire voyage. Sea trials off the coast of Turkey had uncovered problems with the ship’s fire system, which had to be repaired before passengers could board.
Noble Caledonia offered you a complete refund or the option to switch your booking to a number of alternative sailings, including the next cruise around the UK, on August 6.
You chose to transfer to the August voyage, but were startled to be told that this would cost £8,295 a head, an extra £6,000 on top of your original payment.
You were startled because Noble Caledonia’s booking conditions say that if the firm is forced to cancel a trip, it will offer passengers the choice of a refund or, it adds, ‘if available, accepting an offer of alternative travel arrangements of comparable or higher standard from us, at no extra cost’. This seems clear enough. You were told that a better cabin was available in August, and you were happy to transfer your booking.
So why were you asked to pay thousands of pounds more when there was supposed to be no extra cost?
I asked Noble Caledonia to explain, and I was told there had been an ‘error’, and that you should have been quoted the same price as for your original booking.
So, you are definitely booked in for August on the Heritage Adventurer without paying a penny more.
However, Noble Caledonia has provided a fuller explanation, telling you that its interpretation of its terms and conditions is not what you expected.
It says ‘we are not obliged to offer another holiday of equal or higher standard/price and nor are we obliged to offer another holiday available without the need for customers to pay an additional premium’.
It seems your original voyage had been marketed at a discount, and when you were invited to switch to the August trip, someone at Noble Caledonia had failed to consider the discount and tried to charge you £6,000 more.
The firm has apologised for what it says was this ‘mix up’ and it has confirmed to you as well as to me that you will be sailing round the coast in August.