Claim for refund of holiday deposit via Tesco Credit Card or Personal Travel Insurance (Staysure)

Cpd1960

Looking to lean on your previous experiences for guidance.

We have cancelled our cruise holiday booked with departure date of 4th Jan 2025.   It was booked 25th April 2024.   Cruise was for almost 4 weeks to Antarctica, Chile, Argentina, Falklands.

Reason for cancelling is family reasons.

Our daughter who is Autistic and in receipt of Disability Living Allowance and has, with husband literally just moved for work to Edinburgh, (family are in Dorset/London).  They have advised us a couple of weeks ago that they are expecting twins on 6th Jan 2025. 

Very exciting but at the same time daunting - twins are not in the family!  Daughter has been advised that the pregnancy is considered "High Risk", that they will be delivered by C-Section at 36 weeks.

Antarctica is a very long way away should any type of emergency arise and/or family help is needed/required.

Given our daughter and husband live in a new area, no family / friend support network my husband and I decided to cancel.  

We have asked Iglu for a refund and were told that Holland America do not give refunds of deposits.  I have asked Holland America as well hoping that exceptional circumstances might be a reason for cancellation.  To date I haven't had an acknowledgement or reply.  

Value of claim is :  Deposit £1720.00 PLUS Destination Experience with Holland America $799.90

Your guidance is much appreciated.   Thank you 

Voyager2002

Credit card will not help since the company have not done anything wrong. 

Insurance? Read your policy to see if it says that you are covered for this unusual situation, but I think it unlikely.

Brie

Sadly I think that you'll find that cancellation for a personal reason (even a very good one like this!) doesn't warrant a refund.  I expect that's outlined in their T&Cs.  

I think it's best to concentrate on the excitement you'll be having when the twins arrive.  

Caz3121

Looking at the Holland America terms and conditions it appears to be loss of deposit if you choose to cancel (plus potentially more if flights are involved in the package) they do state that you 'may' be able to claim from insurance but that will very much depend on your policy.
It may be worth enquiring if you can move your trip - the terms state "If a Guest wishes to transfer to another Package, this will generally be treated as a cancellation under clause 38. Holland America Line, at its discretion, may allow the transfer without treating it as a cancellation if the Holland America Line holiday to which the transfer is to be made departs within 12 months (within 6 months in the case of transfer from a Grand World Cruise, Grand Voyage or a sector of a Grand World Cruise or Grand Voyage) of the original and is for a higher fare.".

Grumpy_chap

Cpd1960 said:

Looking to lean on your previous experiences for guidance.

We have cancelled our cruise holiday booked with departure date of 4th Jan 2025.   It was booked 25th April 2024.   Cruise was for almost 4 weeks to Antarctica, Chile, Argentina, Falklands.

Reason for cancelling is family reasons.

Our daughter who is Autistic and in receipt of Disability Living Allowance and has, with husband literally just moved for work to Edinburgh, (family are in Dorset/London).  They have advised us a couple of weeks ago that they are expecting twins on 6th Jan 2025. 

Very exciting but at the same time daunting - twins are not in the family!  Daughter has been advised that the pregnancy is considered "High Risk", that they will be delivered by C-Section at 36 weeks.

Antarctica is a very long way away should any type of emergency arise and/or family help is needed/required.

Given our daughter and husband live in a new area, no family / friend support network my husband and I decided to cancel.  

We have asked Iglu for a refund and were told that Holland America do not give refunds of deposits.  I have asked Holland America as well hoping that exceptional circumstances might be a reason for cancellation.  To date I haven't had an acknowledgement or reply.  

Value of claim is :  Deposit £1720.00 PLUS Destination Experience with Holland America $799.90

Your guidance is much appreciated.   Thank you 

Congratulations!  Hope that becoming grand parents is wonderful for you and that parenthood is absolutely superb for your daughter and her husband.  Very exciting indeed!

Initial thoughts are that you won't have any route to recover any costs here.
Certainly credit card chargeback / S75 will not be a route as the cruise provider has not done anything to breach the contract.
In most cases, insurance would also not cover this under "disinclination to travel" - that was where my initial thoughts stopped.

Thinking a bit deeper, the insurance may cover your daughter for the cancellation of her part given the reason not to travel is medical - even if not covered under the absolute terms, the insurer may decide that refunding a portion of the deposit (£500 for her?) is preferable to her travelling and the insurer potentially falling liable for emergency treatment or helicopter repatriation from the cruise.
If there is cancellation cover for your daughter, that may also extend to cover her husband.
However, in the case of anyone further removed, I really cannot see the insurer treating this as anything other than disinclination to travel.

It is still worth reading through the travel insurance policy to check exactly what is covered, but I would not be hopeful.

elsien

I don’t think the daughter was planning to travel from the sound of it? So it’s purely disinclination on the part of the OP because of the clash of dates. I’m not seeing any insurer covering that.

Would it be more cost-effective to transfer the cruise to a different date?

DullGreyGuy

Cpd1960 said:

Looking to lean on your previous experiences for guidance.

We have cancelled our cruise holiday booked with departure date of 4th Jan 2025.   It was booked 25th April 2024.   Cruise was for almost 4 weeks to Antarctica, Chile, Argentina, Falklands.

Reason for cancelling is family reasons.

Our daughter who is Autistic and in receipt of Disability Living Allowance and has, with husband literally just moved for work to Edinburgh, (family are in Dorset/London).  They have advised us a couple of weeks ago that they are expecting twins on 6th Jan 2025. 

Very exciting but at the same time daunting - twins are not in the family!  Daughter has been advised that the pregnancy is considered "High Risk", that they will be delivered by C-Section at 36 weeks.

Antarctica is a very long way away should any type of emergency arise and/or family help is needed/required.

Given our daughter and husband live in a new area, no family / friend support network my husband and I decided to cancel.  

We have asked Iglu for a refund and were told that Holland America do not give refunds of deposits.  I have asked Holland America as well hoping that exceptional circumstances might be a reason for cancellation.  To date I haven't had an acknowledgement or reply.  

Value of claim is :  Deposit £1720.00 PLUS Destination Experience with Holland America $799.90

Your guidance is much appreciated.   Thank you 

To claim from your credit card you'd have to show the cruse company have breached their contract with you and clearly they haven't. 

Your chances of claiming off of travel insurance isn't a whole lot better, they almost universally exclude routine pregnancy.

You may have better chance asking the company to change your booking to a later date.