"On March 21 [2009] my husband and I arrived at Gatwick to board our charter flight to join the Sea Princess in the Caribbean. A company employee approached us in the check-in queue and asked if either of us had suffered any vomiting, upset stomach or diarrhoea in the past 48 hours. My husband answered honestly and said he had had a touch of diarrhoea that morning because he is a nervous flier.
The agent went away to make a call and returned with a letter that said we could not travel because of my husband's illness and we should phone the company's customer services department to discuss our options. When we phoned on Monday morning (the office is closed at the weekend) we were told we would have to claim on our travel insurance.
Our insurer, White Horse, says our cancellation claim is invalid because there is no proof that my husband was ill. It told us that because the airport representative was not a medical professional, she was not qualified to make the decision that he was too ill to fly. What do we do next?
Gill Charlton replies
Mrs Darlaston originally got in touch with me more than a year ago. I put it to Princess Cruises that it had a duty of care to the Darlastons under the EU Package Travel Regulations 1992, which it had not performed. At the very least its airport representative should have told Mr Darlaston that he needed to go to a doctor to get a letter confirming his "illness". I also said that Princess should have arranged to fly the Darlastons out to join the cruise once he was given the all-clear.
Princess Cruises persisted in saying that the insurer should pay up.
White Horse Insurance is registered in Ireland, so Mrs Darlaston applied to the Irish Financial Services Ombudsman for a ruling. This process took a year and, predictably, the Ombudsman ruled for the insurer. Sadly, during this wait, Mr Darlaston died from an unrelated condition.
Armed with the Ombudsman's ruling, I went back to Princess Cruises on Mrs Darlaston's behalf to ask for a refund. I said that the company had been wrong to tell her that the insurer would pay out. Princess once again refused to consider a refund. It said that it had offered Mr Darlaston the opportunity to join the cruise as soon as he had been given the all-clear from his doctor and had offered assistance with these travel arrangements.
Mrs Darlaston was upset by this response. She said there had never been any mention of rejoining the ship. She wrote a stiff email rebuttal to me that I passed on to Princess Cruises.
Finally, the company has seen sense and accepted that Mrs Darlaston is not a liar. She will now be repaid in full for the aborted cruise. Princess Cruises stands by its decision to refuse to let the couple board. It claims that her husband was given the wrong letter and that he should have been able to rejoin the cruise after visiting a doctor."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/columnists/8128322/Travel-advice-cruise-refunds-cheap-car-rentals-Christmas-markets.html
