P&O Cruises has admitted many passengers have been
refunded thousands of pounds more than they actually
paid.
Refund cheques for the cancelled 103-day cruise – which
affected 1,752 passengers – have been sent out, but without
including any discounts offered by agents.
The total overpayment is uncertain, but cruise discounts are
typically around 10% with consumers rarely paying full price. In
some cases clients have been overpaid by more than £3,000.
David Dingle, managing director of parent firm Carnival UK, said
there was ‘every possibility’ passengers had been
overpaid, but said P&O did not send the refunds via agents
because it wanted to speed up the process and avoid extra
administration. Customers received cheques last Saturday or Monday,
he said.
“If agents rebated some commission to passengers we would not
know about it. The position we took was to preserve the goodwill of
the customer, which is good for P&O Cruises and good for travel
agents as well.”
“Travel agents haven’t lost a penny,” he added.
Dingle said he did not know how much customers had initially
paid and it would have delayed refunds to find out.
They had been repaid the full fare minus any discounts direct
from P&O Cruises, he said.
The Aurora world cruise was scrapped last week following
propulsion problems that had dogged the ship since its original
departure date on January 9. It was due to call at 34 ports across
23 countries, but failed to go further than 25 miles off the Devon
coast before returning to Southampton.