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B eth Mann and her husband were looking forward to a European luxor las vegas hotel cruise they booked through Vantage Travel luxor las vegas hotel for months. They d been preparing for her ports of call in Helsinki, St. Petersburg and Tallinn by reading books on Russia and the Baltics.
To add insult to injury, our Vantage travel packets arrived the day after the phone call with the final information on flights, itinerary, and even the names of our travel guides and my platinum member card.
Of course, I thought upon receiving the packet, the phone call must have been a mistake. When I inquired, I received a very curt reply, "There has been no mistake!" I was also told, "Everyone overbooks!" Of course, our mothers' told us that because "everyone else does it", that is no excuse for bad behavior.
It s true, overbookings happen. In fairness to Vantage, I m almost certain its representative didn t just say Oops, we re sorry or blow her off when she called back but that s what it felt like to her. Just as bad.
Is there a precedent for additional compensation? Well, if the tables were turned and Mann had tried to cancel, luxor las vegas hotel here s what she would face (PDF). luxor las vegas hotel She can t just take her money and run; Vantage would charge her cancellation fees and other penalties.
In a perfect world, yes. But in the real world, it s uncommon for a company to step up and take responsibility for its overbooking mistakes unless it s obligated to by law. If Vantage were an airline, and the Manns were involuntarily denied boarding, then the Transportation Department would step in. But weeks in advance, even the government requires either a refund or a flight of the passenger s choosing but no financial compensation.
Mann wants to know how something like this could be prevented. I don t know. Telling her to avoid a popular cruise seems silly. luxor las vegas hotel It s popular because people like it, but that s no reason to stay away from it.
I wanted to share some details you might find helpful. luxor las vegas hotel In the event of an overbooking, our travelers are given a few options. They can move to another program, or reschedule the same program luxor las vegas hotel at another time with a discount and price protection.
If travelers are not able to change their travel plans, we give them a full and expedited refund and $500 per person. luxor las vegas hotel In the Manns' case, they chose to cancel luxor las vegas hotel for full refunds, and were also reimbursed for their visa expenses in early August.
If Mann had had additional expenses we d probably have heard about it; Elliott usually doesn t leave out details in the plaintiff s favour. Plus the trips sound all-inclusiveish on the website. What s fair compensation? As a starting point I d say the reciprocal equivalent of the company s cancellation fees but, realistically, how many hours is Mann prepared to spend on the phone for a bonus voucher for a free trip to a Finnish sauna or whatever? She could also just decide to take her business elsewhere luxor las vegas hotel and bitch about Vantage travel to all her friends
luxor las vegas hotel For this specific cruise, I think Vantage  exclusively chartered the WHOLE SHIP for the season or seasons. AMA is using a newer MS AmaKatarina for their own tours. So Vantage has FULL CONTROL of all the bookings in that boat! They are 100% to blame.
But this wasn t normal overbooking because the cruise had already mailed them their final packets, indicating that even in the cruise s eyes they were effectively on board.   Something came up at the 11th hour and I m betting the cruise sailed with somebody in their cabin who paid more than $11K.
I find it very strange there weren t any better offers sent their way. It s odd because you d expect good customer service from a higher luxor las vegas hotel end provider, but it s also counterproductive given they re now going to have to sell a cabin on a future cruise from scratch while they had a couple here who d already luxor las vegas hotel paid them $11K to cruise with them.
They got their final packet the day after they were bumped, so it doesn t appear they were canceled months and months in advance. And the mailing of a final packet suggests something major came up on the cruise luxor las vegas hotel s end of things. A big-time clerical error where they didn t realize they were overbooked luxor las vegas hotel until the 11th hour? A last-minute deal where they were able to rent out the entire ship?
But, regardless why or when they were bumped, it s very strange there was no carrot offered to them to get them onto a different cruise. These days the segment of people willing to fork over that kind of money on a river cruise luxor las vegas hotel is smaller than ever and the cruise literally had to take their money out of the bank and refund it to them while basically telling them We don t care if we never hear from you again.   That makes no sense.
Goodness me. You can take the local cruise ferries between those three ports for well under $100 for each leg, and well under $200 for a lovely room on each leg. Skip the cruise, just fly in, stay in a nice hotel in Helsinki like Hotel Kamp, and visit the free local tourist office here in the city where the city-provided travel guides speak excellent English. Almost $12,000 honestly, count your lucky stars that you got a full refund from a RIPOFF cruise company.
In addition to the uneveness of response if the customer wants a last minute cancellation or change, is the reality that even with a refund, these people now need to make last minute bookings for a new vacation (much more costly than making plans ahead of time) or re-schedule their vacation, which is not often possible.
I once had a connecting flight changed that significantly interfered with my vacation.  The airline offered to refund my flight and cancel the remaining leg, allowing me to re-schedule my flights one week before my Caribbean vacation in February.  A $400 airfare was now $1200.
People like the OP normally book far in advance to get a preferred cabin or pricing. Cancelling on them like this makes it difficult for them to find a comparable cruise. So, I think more than the $500 pp is needed, preferably also a discount on a future cruise. What s to stop this from happening again with the same cruiseline (unlikely but possible).
Vantage is not a cruise line it is a travel company that sells many kinds of trips.  Also, I would be curious if the Mann s had paid the trip in full, in cash at a very early date to save money off the cost.  If so, Vantage had their money for quite a while before it was actually due and earned some interest on it.  If it was by credit card, then that was not the case.
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