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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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