Is P&O Cruises change to flexible transfer terms unlawful?

saver_ali

In November 2021 I booked a cruise with P&O Cruises for August 2023, through travel agent Bolsover. At that time P&O had introduced a widely advertised flexible transfer policy, enabling clients to change a booked cruise, for any reason, to a new cruise of any value (higher or lower cost to the original cruise). Presumably this was to give clients the confidence to book during uncertain times.

We now wish to change our cruise to one which is of lower cost. As far as I’m concerned, the terms in place at the time we booked should still apply, but Bolsover are telling us that P&O won’t allow the transfer. We would have to cancel, lose our deposit and rebook the new cruise. 

Apparently, in August 2022, without any advance warning/notice to clients or travel agents, P&O removed this transfer flexibility, and went back to their previous terms, which were that you could only change your cruise to one of equal or higher cost. Bolsover say that the flexible terms were always going to be a temporary measure, and P&O could revert to their regular terms at any time.

This seems ridiculous to me. Surely a supplier can’t just change the terms under which you enter into a contract with them before that contract has been fulfilled. 

Alternatively, is it a trade description act infringement to not stand by booking incentives they have advertised?

The brochure says “Free flexible transfers. Transfer your Select Price or Early Saver booking as many times as you’d like, free of charge, up to the date the balance for your holiday is due”.

We know that transfers to cruises of a lower value were permitted because we did precisely that with another cruise.

P&O’s advertising had certainly worked on us! We wouldn’t have booked such a long and expensive cruise nearly two years in advance without that “guarantee”.

The small print in another brochure (not the one I booked from) says that the “criteria for allowing transfers may be changed by P&O Cruises at any time without notice.” However, it doesn’t say that these can be changed mid contract, so it could be open to interpretation. 

According to my booking documents, my contract is with P&O, not Bolsover. Bolsover have said there’s nothing more they can do, although they don’t seem to have tried very hard.

I lodged a complaint with P&O a week ago. I’ve received an acknowledgment, but they have 28 days to respond before I can refer it to ABTA. It remains to be seen whether they even reply though, if past experience is anything to go by.

Does anyone have any other thoughts as to how I can progress this? 

My deposit was £355. The balance is due on 3rd May. If P&O don’t agree to transfer my cruise I will cancel it, although I’m not sure how that would affect any ABTA dispute, given that I would then be claiming compensation for loss of deposit as it would be too late to get P&O to transfer the cruise. 

Any helpful suggestions would be gratefully received. Thanks. 

sammynunes

Travel agents are always an unnecessary hinderance in this day and age. Try not to use them in future.

I would imagine that P&O wrote to your agent to inform them of this change and they are not admitting to this. It would then have been up to you (or your agent) to argue that this was significant enough change to your contact to nullify it.

So your choice at the time would have been to accept the change, or to proceed to cancel. Your window to do this has now probably past.

SiliconChip

If you want an opinion on whether the change is lawful that you can rely on you need to ask a solicitor, you have absolutely no idea of the qualifications of anybody responding on here and even if you did it's unlikely that either Bolsover or P&O would be prepared to accept such an opinion. Whether this is something that legal cover with Household insurance would allow I don't know but if you have it it may be worth giving them a call to find out.

DullGreyGuy

onashoestring said:

saver_ali said:

My deposit was £355. The balance is due on 3rd May. If P&O don’t agree to transfer my cruise I will cancel it,

Before cancelling are you aware that cancelling does not automatically mean that you will not owe them anymore than the deposit already paid ? 

You do need to check the  T&Cs about cancelling - In addition to your deposit - you may still owe them for a percentage or all of the holiday depending on how long there is before  the cruise starts. 

Check the T&Cs of your booking to see what applies to the terms of the flexible transfer policy - what is in the brochure is not relevant ( as they can change ) what is relevant is the specific terms of your contract with them . These should be in the paperwork/ e-mails at the time of booking . 

The CRA does explicitly state that sales materials from both "manufacturer" and "retailer" do count however you always have to consider the full context as I clearly cannot dig out the 2005 brochure and then claim they should honour those prices.


The OP certainly needs to check the T&Cs for their actual booking, in addition to the full details of anything in the sales materials. Ideally they'd have done this at point of sale and so called out any discrepancy between the two but that ship has sailed. 

saver_ali

onashoestring said:

saver_ali said:

My deposit was £355. The balance is due on 3rd May. If P&O don’t agree to transfer my cruise I will cancel it,

Before cancelling are you aware that cancelling does not automatically mean that you will not owe them anymore than the deposit already paid ? 

You do need to check the  T&Cs about cancelling - In addition to your deposit - you may still owe them for a percentage or all of the holiday depending on how long there is before  the cruise starts. 

Check the T&Cs of your booking to see what applies to the terms of the flexible transfer policy - what is in the brochure is not relevant ( as they can change ) what is relevant is the specific terms of your contract with them . These should be in the paperwork/ e-mails at the time of booking . 

Thanks for commenting. I definitely wouldn’t be liable for anything other than the deposit if I cancelled before 3rd May.

Their default terms, as stated in the T&Cs, were that customers can only transfer to a cruise of higher value.

However, in the brochure I booked from, there was a footnote marker ^ against the phrase about free flexible transfers that I quoted in my original post. At the bottom of the page it said “terms and conditions apply, see back cover”. On the back page it says “ ^This policy modifies the transfer policy in our booking conditions. This policy may be changed or withdrawn at any time without notice.”

So this appears to vary the terms for anyone booking from that brochure. Although it says that the policy can be changed, surely they can’t retrospectively change the terms that were in place when I booked?

The original terms should only apply to bookings that were made after they reverted to their standard terms.

saver_ali

SiliconChip said:

If you want an opinion on whether the change is lawful that you can rely on you need to ask a solicitor, you have absolutely no idea of the qualifications of anybody responding on here and even if you did it's unlikely that either Bolsover or P&O would be prepared to accept such an opinion. Whether this is something that legal cover with Household insurance would allow I don't know but if you have it it may be worth giving them a call to find out.

Thanks. Yes, I do have legal cover with my household insurance. I’ll wait a little bit longer before calling them, to give P&O a further chance to respond directly, but it’s definitely worth a try. 

I appreciate your point about the value of any opinion expressed here, but you never know who's lurking here and might respond! 😉
At least I may get some other ideas, or even other people who have been similarly affected, in which case we can take a joint approach. It’s the first time I’ve posted on this particular forum but I’ve had amazing help in other MSE forums in the past. 

saver_ali

A quick update…..
The issue has been resolved. I have been allowed to transfer my cruise booking according to the temporary terms that were in place when we booked. They responded to my email to the CEO.
So all is good, and I’m happy with the way P&O have handled the complaint in the end.

onashoestring

Thanks for the update @saver_ali .