Screwed by operator....what are my options?

[DandyDon]

From the OP's original post

"We are flying from the UK Saturday 20th October to Miami"

Welcome to the US.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Welcome to the US.

I hope he's in the Bahamas today.

 

[Athito]

I hope he's in the Bahamas today.

Unfortunately not...remained in the UK. Trying to re-organise an entire trip in the 48 hours we had was just too much effort.

I have spent another $500 and upgraded the ticket to changeable...as has my brother....so this trip has now cost us another $1,000 over "sticker price" .

Yes; you might think I am being a little unreasonable....but this is a once in a lifetime trip for me...so I really want to do "that trip" not just 3x boat dives a day for a week and burn the vacation time.

It's a simple as not having holiday days available to allocate to dive trips so I either do "the big one" or nothing...there isn't really a half-way house as I cannot get out of work again to do the trip if I use the holiday now.

Things are further complicated...whilst I am coming from the UK I spend a lot of time in the middle east, as does my brother - the other diver on the trip. Not to sound spoilt...but we can do a fair bit of boat diving.

We do have a scheme in the UK called ATOL which covers you if the airline or tour operator goes bust. This isn't the case...they just don't want to run the trip. ATOL doesn't cover you for that.

Insurance doesn't cover either - most policies will only refund if you're (or a fellow passenger or close family member) is incapacitated. Not the case here.

One of the re-booking options mentioned above is the operator in question...but not going to name and shame yet...I want to see if they make any effort to make this right.

We offered to pay more for them to run the trip to try and help them break even. They told us break even is 6 place filled out of 10. Currently only 2 places are filled....my brother and I.

Assuming they have run fairly full boats all year there should be a healthy bank in there for situations such as this...but they're unwilling to ding their profits.

Perhaps cancelling due to not being full is a standard practice...but their contract is totally silent on that. However their contract is very punchy when it comes to a client cancelling:

CANCELLATION POLICY:
A charter is binding when contract is signed and returned with the deposit. If the charter is cancelled due to weather, credit on another charter will be issued for one full year. There are no refunds given for weather, seasickness, acts of god or any other circumstance beyond our control, once the vessel has left the dock.
Contracts cancelled within 120 days of the charter date are subject to a non-refundable 1^st deposit if cancelled between 120 and 90 days, plus a non-refundable 2^nd deposit if cancelled between 90 and 60 days.
Full payment is due 60 days prior to departure, unless otherwise stated above. There are no refunds for cancellations made within 60 days. A late fee may be charged if payments are not made on the above specified dates. There is s a non-refundable booking fee of $150.00 on all contracts once written and signed, regardless of cancellation date.


Just upset, disillusioned and out of pocket.

 

[mikeycanuk]

I say name and shame. The operator want's it both ways. Don't tell you up front they can cancel-if you knew you might look elsewhere, but when they look to lose $ they cancel you without warning. Shame! This would be totally different if the op KNEW up front what might be in store.

 

[Capt Scotty]

i know it doesn't ease your pain...but the weather in the Bahamas sucks this week..Windfinder - Wind & weather forecast Freeport/Grand Bahama

---------- Post Merged at 10:08 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 10:02 AM ----------

Your trip would have most likely been cut short. The little Bahamas bank is not a nice place to be in these conditions.

 

[DandyDon]

Hurricane Sandy will be passing thru the Bahamas tomorrow. I'd say it's best he got his money back from the dive op and salvaged value from his plane tickets rather than to go that far and turn around.

 

[Capt Scotty]

Dandydon is right. Looks like the Op came out on the best end of the deal after all.

 

[DandyDon]

Dandydon is right. Looks like the Op came out on the best end of the deal after all.

:laughing: We use Op to mean dive Operator at times, others to mean Original Poster - with you referencing the latter I think.

I was on a liveaboard in the Exumas once that had to rush back to port halfway thru the week; they were nice about it, still fed us well the rest of the days - weather happens. I flew to Coz once thinking that H.Dean would surely veer off, then retreated 2 days later when he hadn't yet - losing most of my trip & money paid. Hehe, I guess you're hoping she doesn't turn your way, but it looks like it's a sure hit for his intended destination. It would have been frustrating to travel all that way, spend that much, for a couple of days of diving.

 

[jhonstruass]

In June my brother and I booked a week on a very well known liveaboard from Ft Lauderdale over to the Bahamas for a shark diving trip. The boat sleeps 10 and was empty when we booked it.

We paid $3,000 for the liveaboard and separately booked our flights to Miami costing another $2,000+ as the operator doesn't do "packages".

We are flying from the UK Saturday 20th October to Miami and then routing up to Ft Lauderdale to pick up the boat on the afternoon of the 21st.

On Saturday 13th the operator emailed to say "I am very, very, very sorry to inform you that the trip scheduled to depart on Sunday, October 21 has been cancelled. Although it is a very rare occurrence it sometimes happens through cancellations or unfulfilled contracts that we do not end up with enough people booked to be able to run the trip. Unfortunately this trip is one of those very rare occurrences."

There is nothing in the contract that allows the operator to cancel....though there are very stiff penalties if the client cancels.

Since Saturday we have been trying to encourage the operator to run the dive by offering additional cash to fund fuel/staff costs but they have responded by saying they need 6/10 berths filled to make it viable.

Our travel insurers have said the risk of an operator cancelling is not covered...

The operator has offered a week of day-boat dives for free.

This is an interesting gesture; however, we can do day-boat dives where we currently are working (Middle East) has lots of options.

Also we will burn a week holiday doing some very lovely I am sure - but ultimately "average" diving. This precludes us from another trip later this year or in 2013...so I would rather bank the holiday.

We will incur more expense as we're no longer "full board" but will be staying on the dive boat in the marina (the operator offered this to help our costs) but ultimately still buying breakfast and dinner and drinks onshore...

The biggest issue apart from inconvenience, booked vacations etc etc is that the operator is refusing to give us a credit for our wasted airfare.

They will refund the $3k livebaord fee...but nothing else.

Apart from being hugely upset that the trip we booked in June has been cancelled without any discussion we don't want to settle for a "normal" dayboat dive for a week....we booked a unique liveaboard.

Feeling so utterly rotten I need to vent...and get an opinion of where to go next.

I have tried other operators and they are either booked or the travel times are a conflict with their schedule and they cannot do anything.

$2k+ and a wasted vacation not sitting well at the moment.

The policies of that company sucks................