[0:00]
so Virgin Voyages at the very last minute changed my client's cruise from New York to Bermuda to New York to Canada and it was because of weather and that's totally understandable but the fact that they changed it to a Canadian port meant my clients could not even board the ship and Virgin Voyages did not want to give him a refund so let's get into that hi my name is Heather I'm a professional travel planner cruising is my specialty my husband and my children would often tell you that 
[0:32]
I spend a good part of almost every single day arguing with cruise lines and while it's true I'm not really arguing I'm advocating for my clients and that's a huge portion of what I do in my job so here's what happened with this particular client so these clients it was three sisters um they were from Bolivia and Chile and they were sailing from New York City to Bermuda this past Monday April the 6th um for one of their birthdays they had planned this trip 
[1:02]
they were so excited about it um and then two days before on Saturday the 4th I get an email from Virgin letting me know that there is a weather system they're not gonna be able to sail to Bermuda so they were changing the itinerary to stop in Canada well in that email they gave you the information they said you know they they let everyone know what the um travel documentation requirements were and they said that um if you did not have a Canadian visa if you required one and you did not have one 
[1:33]
you could not go ashore that's what the email said I also gave you a link to see if you needed a visa so my clients who were from Bolivia and Chile were travelling with those passports and they did require a visa to get into Canada but a Canadian visa would often take a few weeks for to obtain so that wasn't going to work so the client read all of this and the client it was a holiday weekend and instead of reaching out to me they just decided they were gonna try to handle it on their own 
[2:04]
and they reached out to Virgin Voyages directly they needed a refund all Virgin wanted to offer them was future voyage credit they did not want a future voyage credit they would not be able to use future voyage credit because they did not have the time and it was too costly to get back to the United States for another cruise they had booked this one they had planned for this one they wanted this one if they couldn't have this one then they just wanted a full refund and I think that makes perfect sense so clients reach out to Virgin directly 
[2:35]
Virgin tells them no that's not happening they will only give them future voyage credit um client asked to speak to supervisor supervisor says the same thing so at this point client reaches out to me and says you know this is not future voice credit it's not gonna work for us and you know we don't really want to sail if we can't get off the ship I was like I'm not even sure that you can get on the ship I don't know that it's necessarily an issue if you can't even go ashore I'm not sure that you can even board that ship without the visa so I call Virgin and I speak to a girl 
[3:05]
and she initially tells me the same thing no we cannot give future voyage or we cannot give a refund we can only give future voyage credit so I said okay so they have two options they can either sail and stay on the ship or they can have future voyage credit but but that's the only two options and the sailor services rep said yes that's correct and I said are you sure that they can even board the ship are you sure that they can even board the ship without having this visa and she was like oh yeah yeah they can they can board the ship they just can't get off in Canada and I said are you sure about that 
[3:37]
and she says yes and I said can I have your name because I was going to document all of this um because if my clients got to the port and were denied boarding it was gonna go come back on the sailor services rep and so when I kept asking for her name she didn't give it to me but she said hold on a minute let me go double check for you so she goes and she puts me on hold for a very very long time and she comes back and she says no they will not be able to board they will have to have the visa in order to even board the ship in New York City and I'm like so they don't even have an option to sail 
[4:09]
so now you're telling me that the only option is future voyage credit and she said yes and I'm like that's not okay so I wait on hold for an hour and a half for a supervisor supervisor comes in tells me the same thing tells me the exact same thing well first of all the supervisor tells me oh no no no the clients they can still sail they can still board the ship they just can't get off Canada so I'm told this again and I'm like that's not true I was like they have to have a visa to even board he's like no no no I'm like you need to clarify this for me so he puts me on hold comes back 20 minutes later 
[4:41]
clarifies that oh you're totally right they can't even board the ship so as again so we have no option the only option is future voice credit yes that's the only option I said but I understand that this is in the terms and conditions I understand it that the itinerary can be changed I understand that my client understands that but the clients don't even have an option to sale now so this is where the issue is and they can't use future voice credits going to go to waste and they said I'm sorry that's all we can offer you 
[5:12]
I said fine so I hang up and I get back to the client and I I explain all this to the client and I said but I'm not stopping here I'm keeping on with this fight this is not over so I reach out to my Virgin Voyages business development manager explain the conversation to him and then I also escalated to his boss and um they said that they would look into it and I didn't hear anything um I followed up on one Monday 
[5:43]
no response I followed up on one Tuesday morning no response I followed up on Wednesday morning no response but then Wednesday afternoon I get an email from Virgin saying that they issued my clients future voyage credit and I'm like no that is not what we need so I I start the email chain again client forwards me that email she's like what are we gonna do and I was like well we're gonna keep fighting 
[6:13]
so we did and y'all we won we won because last evening late afternoon early evening I get an email that yes they are giving my client they are making a one time exception and giving my client a full refund yes now if the client wouldn't have had a travel agent they would have had no recourse at all at all if my clients wouldn't have had a good travel agent they wouldn't have had any recourse at all but I was going to push this to the very last straw 
[6:46]
because this is the right thing to do I understand policies I understand terms and conditions I understand all of that but this was the right thing to do for this client and we got it done so this is why you need a travel agent