06 November 2008

Luxury lines drop fuel supplements

Prestige Cruise Holdings, parent company of Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises, is the latest company to drop fuel supplements on 2010 voyages.

The change applies to bookings for 2010 taken from November 10.

The company has also established specific guidelines under which the fuel supplement may be reimbursed to passengers sailing next year.

For existing reservations on cruises departing in 2010, the fuel supplement charge will automatically be removed from the final payment balance.

For voyages departing in 2009, the company will continue to apply a $15 per guest, per day fuel supplement.

Fuel supplement charge adjustments, if any, will be determined on a quarterly basis.

Refunds, in the form of shipboard credits, will be applied to all bookings to which a fuel supplement had previously been charged if the quarterly closing price on the New York Mercantile Exchange of West Texas Intermediate fuel is below $65 per barrel two weeks prior to the beginning of the upcoming calendar quarter.

Chairman Frank Del Rio said the company was implementing these changes due to the recent decline in fuel prices.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœIf oil stabilises below $65 per barrel, we are confident that we can effectively eliminate the need to charge our guests a separate fuel supplement.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœHowever, we must see stability in fuel pricing on a mid- to long-term basis as there could still be significant volatility in the marketplace.Ã¢â¬~

Prestige follows other cruise groups such as Carnival, Royal Caribbean and NCL in dropping fuel supplements.

by Phil Davies