What if you can't make it to your cruise ship because your airline overbooked the flight you were supposed to be on? What if your luggage is lost? What if the cruise line says you're a "no-show" and refuses to rebook you on a future sailing - or refund any of the money you spent? That's a lot of "what ifs." Now throw in a travel agent who can't help, an attorney and a collection agency, and you have an idea of what one traveler is up against.
Q: We booked a Caribbean cruise package, which included airline tickets, on Norwegian Cruise Lines through our travel agent last year. We charged the initial deposit of $700 and paid off the balance of $2,812 on our credit card a few months before sailing.
But when we arrived at Detroit for our flight to Miami two hours before our departure, we found the airport in complete chaos. Northwest Airlines did not have enough agent stations open to handle the huge crowd that morning.
We stood in line for more than two hours and missed our flight. When we finally reached an agent, we were told the aircraft was overbooked and we would not be allowed to board. She offered to put us on a stand-by flight at 10:35 a.m., but made us aware that aircraft was also overbooked. We were not allowed to board that flight either.
The next flight out of Detroit was at 8 p.m., which was too late to make our cruise. Northwest sent us home and we received our luggage several days later (it had made the flight to Miami and had to be returned to Detroit).
We called Norwegian immediately to let them know we couldn't make the cruise through no fault of our own. A Norwegian representative told us to try to book a flight to San Juan as their ship would be arriving there on Monday. But we didn't have any luggage and no one knew where it was at that point.
After a month of back-and-forth between the airline, cruise line and our agent, it became clear to us that no one was going to take responsibility for our missing cruise. Norwegian accused us of being "no-shows." The cancellation insurance we bought through our agent wouldn't cover us, either. So at the suggestion of our attorney, we contacted our credit card company and disputed the amount we paid for the cruise.
Visa issued a "temporary credit" to our account for $700. Then we got a letter from Visa saying that Norwegian had contested our dispute. More than half a year later, we received a letter from Norwegian demanding that we immediately pay the $700 that Visa had credited back. We refused, and now the matter has been sent to a collection agency. Can you help us?
-- Jim Gabocy
A: You shouldn't have to pay for a cruise you weren't able to take. So why do we have attorneys and collection agencies involved here? Isn't it obvious that you couldn't go on your vacation for reasons you couldn't control?
Well, yes - and no.
Northwest Airlines oversold your flight (a common practice in the airline industry), bumped you from it but transported your luggage to Miami. Under Rule 75 of its contract of carriage, it would have owed you 200 percent of the value of your ticket in compensation - up to a total of $400 per ticket. If it could have rebooked you on an acceptable flight, Northwest would have still owed you 50 percent of the value of your original ticket, up to a total of $200. As far as I can tell, it did neither.
Then there's the matter of accepting your luggage without also allowing you on the flight, which violated the Transportation Security Administration's rules for matching every bag with a passenger.
Put simply, Northwest dropped the ball.
But it's not alone.
Norwegian should have either allowed you to catch up to the cruise or to reschedule the cruise at a later date. Since the company handled your air reservations, it was ultimately responsible for your transportation to Miami.
Part 21 of its ticket contract makes certain provisions for cancellations, which seems to suggest you should have been able to postpone your vacation. However, the rule is so vague and refers back to contract language in the terms and conditions of your brochure (which I don't have access to) that it's easy to see why Norwegian took the actions it did: because it could.
And let's not forget your travel agent who sold you the cruise.
Not only was the cancellation insurance you bought completely worthless, but your travel counselor also pocketed a commission on your lost vacation. There's nothing wrong with commissions, of course, but when you hire someone as an agent, what are you getting in return for it? You expect to receive sound advice on a cruise. But you also count on your agent's expertise when something goes wrong.
Could you have done anything differently? Perhaps. I think you could have scheduled your cruise at a better time, when fewer passengers were clamoring to get to Miami. Instead of relying on your travel agent to solve your problem, you might have consulted Northwest's and Norwegian's rules to see if they were following them (I don't think they were).
All is not lost, though. Northwest apologized for the way it handled your flight and credited each of your frequent flier accounts with 20,000 miles.
Norwegian insists that it did "everything possible" to assist you in reaching Miami. Kristi Behl, a spokeswoman for the company said her records show that you were offered an alternative flight to Miami which would have allowed you to reach your cruise on time. "For some reason, which is not apparent in our research, they decided to not take advantage of it," she told me.
The cruise line's position is that it isn't at fault, but as a "gesture of good will" decided to abandon its efforts to collect the $700. It also issued a $500 cruise credit certificate, good for a future Norwegian cruise.
After a little more prodding, and after this story first appeared, you finally received a full refund on your airfare (about $900) and a cruise credit for the balance of the money you spent on your vacation.