WEBVTT


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so Virgin Voyages at the very last minute

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changed my client's cruise from New York to Bermuda to New York to Canada

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and it was because of weather

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and that's totally understandable

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but the fact that they changed it to a Canadian port

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meant my clients could not even board the ship

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and Virgin Voyages did not want to give him a refund

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so let's get into that hi

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my name is Heather I'm a professional travel planner

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cruising is my specialty my husband and my children would often tell you that

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I spend a good part of almost every single day

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arguing with cruise lines

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and while it's true I'm not really arguing

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I'm advocating for my clients

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and that's a huge portion of what I do in my job

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so here's what happened with this particular client

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so these clients it was three sisters

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um they were from Bolivia and Chile

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and they were sailing from New York City to Bermuda this past Monday

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April the 6th um

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for one of their birthdays

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they had planned this trip

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they were so excited about it

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um and then two days before

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on Saturday the 4th

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I get an email from Virgin letting me know that there is a weather system

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they're not gonna be able to sail to Bermuda

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so they were changing the itinerary to stop in Canada

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well in that email

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they gave you the information

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they said you know

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they they let everyone know what the um

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travel documentation requirements were

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and they said that um

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if you did not have a Canadian visa

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if you required one and you did not have one

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you could not go ashore that's what the email said

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I also gave you a link to see if you needed a visa

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so my clients who were from Bolivia and Chile

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were travelling with those passports

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and they did require a visa to get into Canada

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but a Canadian visa would often take a few weeks for

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to obtain so that wasn't going to work

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so the client read all of this

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and the client it was a holiday weekend

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and instead of reaching out to me

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they just decided they were gonna try to handle it on their own

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and they reached out to Virgin Voyages directly

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they needed a refund all Virgin wanted to offer them was future voyage credit

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they did not want a future voyage credit

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they would not be able to use future voyage credit

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because they did not have the time

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and it was too costly to get back to the United States for another cruise

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they had booked this one they had planned for this one

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they wanted this one if they couldn't have this one

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then they just wanted a full refund

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and I think that makes perfect sense

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so clients reach out to Virgin directly

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Virgin tells them no

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that's not happening they will only give them future voyage credit

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um client asked to speak to supervisor

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supervisor says the same thing

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so at this point client reaches out to me and says

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you know this is not future voice credit

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it's not gonna work for us

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and you know

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we don't really want to sail if we can't get off the ship

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I was like I'm not even sure that you can get on the ship

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I don't know that it's necessarily an issue if you can't even go ashore

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I'm not sure that you can even board that ship without the visa

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so I call Virgin and I speak to a girl

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and she initially tells me the same thing no

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we cannot give future voyage or we cannot give a refund

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we can only give future voyage credit

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so I said okay

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so they have two options they can either sail and stay on the ship

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or they can have future voyage credit but

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but that's the only two options

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and the sailor services rep said yes

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that's correct and I said

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are you sure that they can even board the ship

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are you sure that they can even board the ship without having this visa

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and she was like oh yeah

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yeah they can

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they can board the ship they just can't get off in Canada

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and I said are you sure about that

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and she says yes

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and I said can I have your name

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because I was going to document all of this

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um because if my clients got to the port and were denied boarding

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it was gonna go come back on the sailor services rep

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and so when I kept asking for her name

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she didn't give it to me but she said

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hold on a minute let me go double check for you

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so she goes and she puts me on hold for a very

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very long time and she comes back

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and she says no

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they will not be able to board

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they will have to have the visa in order to even board the ship in New York City

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and I'm like so they don't even have an option to sail

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so now you're telling me that the only option is future voyage credit

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and she said yes and I'm like

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that's not okay so I wait on hold for an hour and a half for a supervisor

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supervisor comes in tells me the same thing

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tells me the exact same thing

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well first of all

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the supervisor tells me oh no no no

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the clients they can still sail

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they can still board the ship

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they just can't get off Canada

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so I'm told this again and I'm like

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that's not true I was like

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they have to have a visa to even board

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he's like no no no

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I'm like you need to clarify this for me

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so he puts me on hold comes back 20 minutes later

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clarifies that oh

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you're totally right they can't even board the ship

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so as again

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so we have no option the only option is future voice credit

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yes that's the only option

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I said but I understand that this is in the terms and conditions

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I understand it that the itinerary can be changed

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I understand that

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my client understands that

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but the clients don't even have an option to sale now

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so this is where the issue is

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and they can't use future voice credits

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going to go to waste and they said

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I'm sorry that's all we can offer you

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I said fine

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so I hang up and I get back to the client

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and I I explain all this to the client

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and I said but I'm not stopping here

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I'm keeping on with this fight

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this is not over

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so I reach out to my Virgin Voyages business development manager

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explain the conversation to him

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and then I also escalated to his boss and um

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they said that they would look into it

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and I didn't hear anything

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um I followed up on one Monday

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no response I followed up on one Tuesday morning no response

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I followed up on Wednesday morning

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no response but then Wednesday afternoon

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I get an email from Virgin

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saying that they issued my clients future voyage credit

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and I'm like no

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that is not what we need so I

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I start the email chain again

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client forwards me that email

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she's like what are we gonna do

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and I was like well

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we're gonna keep fighting

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so we did and y'all

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we won we won

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because last evening late afternoon

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early evening I get an email that yes

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they are giving my client

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they are making a one time exception and giving my client a full refund

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yes now

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if the client wouldn't have had a travel agent

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they would have had no recourse at all

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at all if my clients wouldn't have had a good travel agent

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they wouldn't have had any recourse at all

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but I was going to push this to the very last straw

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because this is the right thing to do

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I understand policies I understand terms and conditions

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I understand all of that but this was the right thing to do for this client

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and we got it done so this is why you need a travel agent