Cunard Offers Queen Mary 2 Passengers a Full Refund*
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 01.26.06 | 5:24 PM ET
If you’ve been following the story, you know that guests aboard the fabled luxury liner this week have been threatening a sit-in when the ship arrives in Rio to protest Cunard’s offer of a 50 percent refund after three port stops were cancelled. But reports CruiseCritic.com this afternoon: “Cunard has increased the original compensation offered to guests disembarking in Rio, which was a 50 percent refund. These guests now have two options: Receive a refund of full cruise fare including air, or take 50 percent of their refund in cash, plus another 75 percent as a future cruise credit for another Queen Mary 2 departure between now and the end of December 2007.”
That should avert a sit-in. Given the public relations disaster this has become, I’m only surprised it took the company this long.
*Update: Laura Bly’s USAToday.com story, which just went live, has more details and the travel headline of the week: Rocking the boat works.
Bly’s report suggests that, in the big cruising scheme of things, these passengers are getting a sweet deal:
In practice, most lines provide a refund and credit for a future cruise if a trip is canceled, as several Caribbean cruises were during last year’s record hurricane season. But compensation for skipped or substituted ports is typically limited to onboard credit of $50 to $100 plus a refund of applicable port taxes, and is more likely if the switch was made because of mechanical or other operational snafus.”
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Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
