P&O Cruise cancellation

UpTheNorth

I'm looking for some advice here.

I booked a P&O Cruise 2 yrs ago and it got moved to April this year due to Covid travel restrictions. I paid for the booking with my debit card.

We were told by P&O to get Lateral flow test 72 hrs before flying to Malta to pickup the ship.

Both myself and my partner both work for the NHS and due to work commitments had to take the LFT 9hrs earlier than the 72hr cut-off. We both tested negative and both have been vacinated 3 times.

At Manchester airport a rep from P&O looked at our LFT certificates and said they were invalid as they test was carried out too early. The rep said we could not board the flight to Malta and were left standing in the airport.

P&O did not offer to do a LFT there and then to prove we were Covid negative- they did no want to know.

We explained that we could have flown to Malta as they did not have the same COVID restrictions as P&O ships and we could have sorted our own accommodation. They said the flights were part of the package and we were ineligible to travel.

We've tried emailing P&O and phoning them with no reply -  their customer service is non-existant.

I paid £1350 for the cruise for both of us.

Best regards,

Nick

Upsidedownandaround

Testing is your responsibility and if your tests were invalid as you appear to be saying then they would be entitled to cancel your package.

What exactly are you hoping to get from them?

lisyloo

Why did you think it was ok not to comply with the requirements?

onashoestring

You have stated that prior to departure P&O informed you of what they required before flying . It was your responsibility (not P&Os ) to get the tests and paperwork that meet the requirements.

When you chose not to get the test in the time-frame that was required , you forfeited your holiday . 

It would have been a similar outcome if you had tried to travel with an out of date passport .