Bumped by P&O cruises

Pitcrew

I booked a baltic cruise on 17th April with P&O cruises and on 1st of May I got a phone call from my travel agent to say that P&O had cancelled my cruise because of overbooking. 

They offered me an inside cabin which I refused as I had booked a sea view cabin and we must have a view. 

I have over 400 nights cruising with P&O over 25 years and I am very angry that they find this acceptable.
I have received a refund from P&O but have yet to tackle the travel agent for the outstanding £108 which I can only assume is their fee.
The big question is, are these people allowed to cancel my holiday after accepting my booking, providing me with a boarding pass, allowing me to book a hotel and parking then cancel at a few days notice without any form of compensation,  After all I can’t cancel them without penalty. 

Any advice would be very welcome.

elsien

Looking at the their terms and conditions, the answer would seem to be that yes they can.
I can’t see any mention of monetary compensation in there but depending on the timing of the cancellation it says they should offer cruise credit. Of course, whether you want to cruise credit is a different debate entirely. 

They don’t specifically mention the words over booking, but they do refer to cancellation on their part and the discretion to select which guests this impacts on.

section 40.
https://www.pocruises.com/legal-and-privacy/booking-terms-and-conditions#cancellations-prior-to-departure

Not sure what mechanism you would have to take it any further - there’s a couple of posters who are quite good on consumer rights. @the_lunatic_is_in_my_head? 

Neil49

I would start by going onto the P&O website and see if you can book the grade of cabin that you wanted (or better). I'm guessing that your travel agent accepted your booking based on general availability of an outside cabin rather than a specific cabin number. The latter option would require them to reserve it at the time of booking.

People often cancel bookings (particularly when the time for final payment arrives (around 12 weeks prior to sailing) so keep checking for availability. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

elsien said:

Looking at the their terms and conditions, the answer would seem to be that yes they can.

I haven't looked at the terms, @elsien is it yes they can because they say they can or is it a case of acceptance occurring until a point that hadn't occurred before they cancelled?

Also contracts require balance so I believe if you book and can cancel up to, say, 1 week before the cruise then P&O could also do the same. If a fee is required to paid in the event the customer cancels some kind of similar compensation should be due if P&O cancel in the same time period. 

Rights aside OP, as a customer for 25 years I would push a polite complaint further up the chain to see what kind of goodwill you can squeeze out of them. 

Grumpy_chap

Pitcrew said:

I booked a baltic cruise on 17th April with P&O cruises and on 1st of May I got a phone call from my travel agent to say that P&O had cancelled my cruise because of overbooking. 

They offered me an inside cabin which I refused as I had booked a sea view cabin and we must have a view. 

I have over 400 nights cruising with P&O over 25 years and I am very angry that they find this acceptable.
I have received a refund from P&O but have yet to tackle the travel agent for the outstanding £108 which I can only assume is their fee.
The big question is, are these people allowed to cancel my holiday after accepting my booking, providing me with a boarding pass, allowing me to book a hotel and parking then cancel at a few days notice without any form of compensation,  After all I can’t cancel them without penalty. 

Any advice would be very welcome.

I will let others comment on the "can they do this?" question (beyond the fact, they have done it).  If they can cancel without penalty but you cannot cancel without penalty, then that appears to be an unfair contract term.

From a practical perspective, what have you been offered by way of refund if you accept the inside cabin?  It might be pragmatic to accept the inside cabin and squeeze the maximum amount of compensation from them for that.  I have done inside cabin in the past and it is quite OK.  That route also avoids losses associated with the hotel and parking etc.