P&O president tries to reassure customers over refund delays
P&O Cruises president Paul Ludlow has posted a long message to customers on Facebook to explain why refunds are so delayed.
He took to social media after some customers publicly accused the cruise line of being ‘a big business’ holding on to their money.
"I assure you I am very aware of the financial constraints everyone is under at the moment and we are not delaying this intentionally," he said.
He said the impact of Covid-19 has been devastating, and the complexity and scale of issuing refunds has been unprecedented.
"The first cruises were cancelled due to Covid-19 in the middle of March and whilst we expected to process the first refunds sooner, we revised that to ‘up to 60 days’ when we realised the impact the pandemic was having on our wider business and teams, he said.
"I know that ‘up to 60 days’ is not ideal and it is certainly not the service you would normally expect from us but sadly ‘normal’ has taken on a new meaning.
"In the past few weeks, despite the challenges, we have been able to put new technology and systems and also additional resource in place which will result in more refunds being processed more quickly and I hope this will improve the situation daily. We will also be contacting all of you who have requested a refund."
For customers who have opted for an enhanced 125% Future Cruise Credit systems have also been amended so the FCCs will soon be able to be redeemed online without the need to call the cruise line,
Ludlow promised more details on that coming at the end of the month.
"To give you maximum flexibility, I’m also pleased to announce that you now have until the end of December 2021 to put your FCC against a booking for any holiday on sale during that period, which should help with your planning if you already have future holidays booked with us," he added.
His post ended with a thank you for customers’ understanding and forbearance.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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