Reclaim for cancelled cruise

traveller43

I booked a cruise through the travel company ROL for a cruise with Cruise and Maritime on January 5 paying by credit card. The cruise was due to depart on April 11 but on March 20 I was informed that the cruise had been curtailed and was given the option of vouchers for a later cruise with enhanced features or a full refund. I immediately elected for a full refund but having waited several weeks without hearing from the agent, I called them to be told that Cruise and Maritime - under guidance from ABTA - would be processing the claims on July 31 even though Cruise and Maritime said that they would be processing claims within 90 to 120 days. However, Cruise and Maritime went into administration on July 20 and was advised to contact ABTA. I made a claim for a full refund with ABTA sending full documentation as requested but after visiting the site to see the progress of my claim it said Awaiting Travel Agent Documentation. On contacting ROL by email I got the standard reply from them that they will contact me when they have finished liaising with ABTA. This seems to me that they are stalling me, Is there any way I can speed this process up?

Alan_Bowen

With the greatest of respect CMV only failed a few weeks ago and you chose to book with a huge agency with thousands of bookings rather than direct with CMV. Most claims even in the good times take a minimum of a month, with staff of the agency and ABTA working from home, I would expect things to take considerably longer.  By all means, chase after 60 days if the claim hasn't been settled 

Kentigern1

Traveller 43, we were in similar circumstances to you: we heard this week that ABTA have turned our claim.  We also had a cruise booked with Cruise and Maritime cruise line (we were due to sail back in April, but the cruise was cancelled due to Covid). Sadly the cruise line went into administration in July before our overdue refund was issued. We had already waited 4 months for the agreed refund before the company went into administration. We booked through Cruise Nation as agent. Cruise Nation say our contract was with Cruise and Maritime and advised us to approach ABTA for a refund. ABTA have refused to refund, saying our contract was with Cruise Nation. Who is right and what should people in our position do? There must be a lot of us!

Ladyshopper

Kentigern1 said:

Traveller 43, we were in similar circumstances to you: we heard this week that ABTA have turned our claim.  We also had a cruise booked with Cruise and Maritime cruise line (we were due to sail back in April, but the cruise was cancelled due to Covid). Sadly the cruise line went into administration in July before our overdue refund was issued. We had already waited 4 months for the agreed refund before the company went into administration. We booked through Cruise Nation as agent. Cruise Nation say our contract was with Cruise and Maritime and advised us to approach ABTA for a refund. ABTA have refused to refund, saying our contract was with Cruise Nation. Who is right and what should people in our position do? There must be a lot of us!

Cruise Nation are shocking. I had to put in a claim through our credit card provider to get a full refund for our cruise package holiday. I would suggest you try your credit card.