Getting a refund after a cruise cancellation can feel like a lottery – best advice: “Be polite, patient but stubborn”

• This week two major cruises were diverted due to weather warnings in the South Pacific.
• It’s a common instance in Australian cruising and no fault of the cruise lines involved.
• But should getting a refund or compensation be such a lottery?

Earlier this week thousands of cruisers woke up to discover their P&O cruise had diverted from the South Pacific to Cairns due to extreme weather conditions.

Royal Caribbean’s Ovation of the Seas suffered a similar fate, with the line diverting the ship to start sailing towards Tasmania to avoid cyclone warnings.

While most accepted their fate, and the diversion made by the cruise lines, some demanded a refund for the missed ports. Perhaps what is most remarkable is that some were successful. Others, not so much.

Cruise cancellations are rarely the fault of the cruise lines. It’s expensive and engenders ill-will. But in an age of climate change and political unrest, they are becoming more common, even in our region.

What doesn’t help is that the way compensation is worked out is rarely transparent and often misunderstood.

A Current Affair reported last year a Carnival Cruise that was changed from the Pacific to sail locally, and Cruise Passenger also covered a story of the Disney Wonder that also had to change its course. Passengers on Disney were offered a full refund.

Most cruise lines have terms and conditions that exclude compensation for events outside the line’s control. Weather is the most obvious of those. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t get compensation.

For minor changes, cruisers may be offered nothing or some compensation. But for major changes, cruise lines will offer a larger compensation amount like a future cruise credit.

There is even a rough rule of thumb, according to some observers: onboard credit for one or two ports and future cruise credits for a major change that alters the point of the cruise.

Victoria Roy, expert cruise lawyer at Victory Travel & Cruise Lawyers says not enough cruisers know their rights, and in her experience, she often only sees the most tenacious cruisers get their money back.

“Too many cruise passengers are unaware of their rights.  Whilst there are flaws in the Australian Consumer Law, passengers should at least be made aware of what rights they have.  The federal government has recently committed to an Aviation Industry Ombuds Scheme and Aviation Customer Rights Charter. 

“The Charter is being designed to complement consumers’ existing rights under the ACL and ensure that airlines and airports treat their customers fairly and reasonably.  Australians would benefit from similar attention being given to the cruise industry.”

Roy emphasises that too often the customer “gives up”.

“In my experience unfortunately it is not uncommon for not just cruise lines but other travel companies like airlines and hotels not to be forthcoming with a remedy when things go wrong.  I often hear of customers battling to get refunds for service issues or compensation for injuries, sending unanswered emails to generic email addresses or staying on hold to customer service lines. 

“Whilst some tenacious customers might get the solution they are looking for, other times it might only be when the customer starts legal action or gets a lawyer involved that their complaint makes any headway.  However, this is not always a financially viable option or something that the customer can do themselves.  Too often, the customer will give up.”

Therefore, the advice from cruisers who have managed to get money back is: if you aren’t offered a refund on your diverted cruise, call the cruise line and be patient but stubborn.

It can be a lottery and depend on the line. But there is a good chance you will be compensated – sometimes in full.

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Why cruises won’t offer a refund – but you might be entitled to one 

When a cruise is cancelled or diverted, there is no law that dictates that a customer is or isn’t entitled to a refund. 

This is both a negative and a positive for cruisers.

Negatively, it means the cruise line has no legal obligation to offer you a refund, even if the itinerary changes significantly. However, more positively, it also means that when a cruise line reserves the right to change itineraries in their terms and conditions, this doesn’t negate your right to seek a refund.

In the absence of specific laws relating to cruises, these situations fall under the Australian Consumer Law. Under the law, a customer is entitled to a refund if it is determined that a major service problem has occurred. 

According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, a service has a major problem when it:

• Creates an unsafe situation
• Has either one serious problem or several smaller problems that would stop someone buying the service if they knew about them beforehand
• Can’t be used for its normal purpose, or for a specific purpose that the consumer told the seller about, or doesn’t achieve a specific result that the consumer told the seller about, and can’t easily be fixed within a reasonable time.”

There has not been a case trialled in Australia to set a precedent on diverted cruise itineraries and refunds.

However, the Moore v Scenic Tours class-action lawsuit after a river cruise turned into what was claimed to be a coach tour due to bad weather, was successful for the plaintiffs.

For a cruiser, there is no guarantee you will get a refund if your port changes. The cruise line does reserve the right to change ports but the consumer should still question whether they are entitled to compensation.

For example, one cruiser wrote after their P&O cruise was diverted: “Planning another cruise is not always possible for an individual. For many, full reimbursement is the only acceptable measure.”

Some cruisers who took to the phones to demand a refund were successful.

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Here’s how to get a cruise refund

Just as cruiser Laura fought tooth and nail to get her money back after her Disney Cruise Line voyage was rerouted, so did some P&O cruisers. 

A cruiser on the online site Reddit reported doing this with the Pacific Encounter cruise diverted from the Pacific to Cairns.

The user reported putting up with “two hours of hold music” and researching that “Australian Consumer Law says a significant change like this requires a full refund, if any reasonable person would not pick the new route at the price paid.”

Eventually, the user-edited their post to say: “Took a while but P&O did agree to a full refund. It’s a full cash refund, the catch is 21 – 90 days to actually get the money.”

The cruiser also offered some words of advice in managing to get your refund: “The tier one person you talk to isn’t authorised to give you the full refund so they’ll offer a bunch of other options before having to contact their “support team”, AKA tier two, to get approval for a full refund.

“Please just be nice to the tier one person, they didn’t have anything to do with it.”

Another Reddit user commented they were booked on the same cruise and managed to get a refund.

“I was on hold for three hours as were my brother and sister. They got hung up on the second they were put through but thankfully I got through to someone patient enough to refund all four of our rooms.

“It was a bit of a hassle being taken on and off hold for a bit but now we’re expecting our full refund.”

Once you call up the cruise line and make it clear that a refund is what you want, in a situation where there is a grey area over whether or not Australian Consumer Law applies, it is at the cruise line’s discretion. But the reality is that neither party wants legal action.

While legal advice will always need to come from professionals and will differ from case to case, the simple reality is that if your cruise gets significantly changed, call up the cruise line and you might just be able to get that refund.