Cancelled/postponed trips due to COVID - please share your outcomes

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"...we’ll have ¼ of our trips filled with non-paying customers in 2021."

I hate that they are calling you "non-paying customers". You are customers that paid and you are getting only part of what you paid plus a supplement a year later. If anything you would be overpaying customers. Raja Ampat trips are really expensive and a lot of that money goes to fuel, no? This operator has been dragging their feet from the very beginning and was acting very unreasonable knowing customers couldn't even get to R4 based on flight and country restrictions. I get that you don't want to out them yet, but I would very much like to know eventually. These are not people I would want to deal with in the future.
 
Deleted - didn't notice this was under "General Asia" - sorry.
 
I was scheduled on the Arenui to Komodo for the middle of July... Trip organizer called and wanted my thoughts. I figured with the way things were going (this was a couple weeks ago) that even if we could leave on a flight out of the US, getting to Indonesia might not be possible. So through the travel agent, we were told that we would forfeit our deposits of $300. No rescheduling available. People who run the Arenui were not willing to bend at all. Must have something to do with being booked out to 2025... Luckily, the travel agent held up our next payment of $1000 each traveler! She waited to send payment thinking there would be a problem.

For me, I'm willing to lose the $300 to be safe rather than pay for the trip and hope everything turns out well. The unyielding position of the Arenui surprised me as Indonesia is going through their own problems now that the US was going through back in Feb.

i believe this is completely 180 from other people's experiences with the arenui. I'm pretty sure some people received full refunds, no questions asked.
 
@outoftheoffice you should ask them how much profit they are budgeting for 2021. You're being screwed so the owner can maintain the same profit margin. The financial burden of an event like this should not fall on individual customers, when they failed to provide the service! Unless they will go under if they have "non-paying" (what a joke, you've a PREPAID) customer this hit should be coming from their profit margins. Please post the name because I would stay away even if this gets resolved. It's quite apparent from the initial mindset and response which boats have customer centric mindset and which don't.
 
Our half charter chatted thoroughly as a group and while we appreciate that there is progress made, we collectively decided that we will not accept anything less than a reschedule at no additional cost because at the end of it all, the marine park was closed and that was what forced their hand in canceling the sailing altogether, among other issues that sprouted up before then. We were to sail early April and the closest sailing next year that we are looking at (also in April) is 1 day shorter and a few hundred bucks less and we're not even asking for the difference. Fuel prices have gone significantly down and will probably stay that way for a while, so if anything their margins will be larger when we actually sail next year. We are totally paying customers; we've paid for our trip in full and they essentially have a $30,000 unsecured, 0% interest loan. They can use it how they see fit, including paying their staff if they'd like, because we're not asking for it back. They can keep it for now. By not sailing, they should be saving a lot on variable costs like diesel fuel (the biggest expensive) and food. I feel like we'e made our concessions already and they're not really making any.

Our group came up with some extremely compelling talking points in response to their "reasoning" and we have given it everything we've got. We sent an e-mail to our agent to relay to them. I know many of you have been strongly urging me through here or PM to share who it is and I will; even though some might disagree, I want to give them this last chance to make it right after what we put together.

Thanks for understanding.
 
Acts of God. Really they are pulling this BS excuse? Do they have a contact for God?

As mentioned, it is a clause very commonly used in insurance and legal documents in all industries. Given Damai's policy, this would fall under Force Majeure/Acts of God and a reschedule to an alternative date is required, per their own terms and conditions. One would think a reschedule shouldn't require extra payment as it is an "alternative date" and no mention of additional payment.

"In the case of Force Majeure (natural disasters, epidemics and unforeseen acts of God etc) or unavoidable acts of man (war, riots etc) Dive Damai reserves the right to cancel the trip and offer an alternative date to the agent and/or client at the earliest possible convenience. Should the agent and/or client be unable to accept the offered date then Dive Damai will not be required to offer an alternative or to refund any monies paid."
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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