What would you do? AITA?

[CathyE]

That's not equivalent at all.

Airlines have thousnds of flights and millions of customers over which to spread their risk. They operate bucket pricing to jack prices up for poeple who don't have flexibility or to improve profitability. In many cases it is not a luxury purchase but non-voluntary travel. Try flying to the opposite hemisphere for your dead father's funeral within 24 hours and tell me how you get on. And finally when airline incompetence and poor management makes them insolvent, tax payers end up digging them out.

Dive boats on the other hand are usually small businesses running on the edge of solvency as the owners do it for love as much as money. A couple of zero revenue launches could be the difference between them going under or keeping going for another year. If they go under we are sometimes left with routes and sites that no longer have any service whatsoever. I have never operated a dive business but having dealt with insurance for decades I would be surprised if a medical emergency would pay out on a terminated dive trip. Happy to be corrected here if I am wrong.

Personally, I am willing to help fund diving optionality by eating a trip or two over my lifetime in the case of a medical emergency. I would also be happy to receive a free trip if the dive operator offered it, either because they can afford it or insurance paid out.

When was the last time you tipped your airline/desk agent/captain/steward/ess for their service? You didn't? That's completely disingenuous of you.

Wow, lotsa hate for airlines!
So it’s okay to expect a big company to step up, and pay out, but the poor small, struggling boat companies need to be treated like charity cases. Got it!
What does tipping have to do with anything?

Your post is the not equivalent.

Say the dive boat pax has a heart attack between dive 1 and dive 2. The equivalency would be the airliner having left Chicago an hour ago and an hour left to Houston and turns around. Airliners don’t do that, they land wherever they can, then continue the trip because the plane needs to be in the next place. In your equivalency experiment, the same would be that the boat never gets out of the marina, and turns around, and no dives are completed. The boat hasn’t burned any fuel, and the crew then has to eat it.

FYI. It has happened that after landing at X airport and handing off ill passenger to EMTs the flight crew no longer had enough hours to continue the flight. Aircraft returned to original airport and passengers were re-booked on different flights at no extra cost.

No one is saying that dive ops can only be profitable by ripping off customers. No one is saying they are happy about a missed dive. No one is saying they dont deserve some sort of refund. No one is saying it is great customer service to not make the customer whole. You are 100% factually correct in that you are paying for something and not getting what you paid for. To me context is important and impacts my narrative and how I react to the situation. That doesn't invalidate your narrative. I was literally playing back your example, language and narrative to you so don't have a cow. Let's hope none of us have to miss any dives!

Question... (conceptually at least) shouldn't we be looking to the victim's insurance for recompense rather than the dive op?

As mentioned, when I looked at DAN insurance I couldn’t see any mention of reimbursement for anyone other that the insured. I think you would have to sue the person themself, that would definitely be an a-hole move. Only the lawyers would win.

 

[_john]

All you folks who say you would or that others should eat the expense and not expect compensation, lets look at this through a slightly different lens...

It's not really equivalent. There are a lot of regulations involved that dictate what the airlines can and must do. Being stuck somewhere in transit is a much more severe set of damages that prevents you from returning to either your destination or origin. With a dive trip at the end of the day, you are back where you started, and you missed an hour of underwater bubbles.

However, you did make me consider something that I had not considered. How much are the damages here? Typically, I pay under $100 a dive, and when I book a two-dive trip, it works out to a better rate for both. My damages here are going to be somewhere around $40 - $80, estimated. I can expect that the higher the cost of the dive, the more likely I would expect to receive some compensation. Am I going to go off and become indignant and bent out of shape for $40? Probably not. Would I for $200? Probably.

I assumed in the course of the conversation that the amount is minimal. When the boats factor their pricing, they generally assume the second dive is in close proximity to the first dive, and the greatest cost of the trip is the ride out and back. It is possible that the injury ending the day might result in the operator losing money for the day after refunding the second half. That's not a justification, just something to consider.

In either case, I would remember the end result, and it would determine any future use of the operator.

 

[chaad]

This discussion is timely because over the weekend, I had a big ole bust with a dive boat. I was considering posting here to get some feedback.

Here's the situation:

I paid for a two-tank dive. The weather was calm. We went to the first site (a wreck). The DM anchored the boat into the wreck and relayed the current was very strong and visibility was extremely low. The captain was going to allow the group to dive, but after the first diver to giant stride in quickly shot backwards down the trailing safety line, they called off the dive. We headed to the second dive spot. A different DM jumped in and anchored us. He returned to the boat and reported the viz was so bad he couldn't see his gauges. The captain decided we wouldn't be diving that day and returned to the dock. I am not second guessing the captain's decision to cancel the dives. In fact, I appreciate that the captain cared more about safety than guest satisfaction. The following day, we received a 50% refund through their online booking platform.

We paid for two dives and did zero dives, but they did drive us to both dive sites. Perhaps what I'm paying for is the boat ride -- which I received. After all, the conditions are not within their control. Still, I'm a bit dissatisfied with the resolution. I'd have been happier if I were offered the choice if a 50% cash refund or a 100% credit for a future trip. I'm not peeved enough to complain though. Is this standard?

 

[jadairiii]

Bad day on the water, but everyone made it back. I would expect the dive operator would comp you in some way for the "lost" dive. But I would not go looking for it. If they didn't comp you, well, you now know how this operator works. We never do, but that is a question you should ask before putting your money down. Caveat emptor.

Funny story, local dive operation in South Florida, my buddy and I went out on an afternoon dive, it was a sh*t show from the very beginning and ended with them losing a diver for a bit, due to the captain's ignorance. It so poorly run and dangerous that my buddy and I sat out the second dive, knowing something "bad" would happen. There was a new diver on the boat and we told him to sit out the 2nd dive also, he thanked us when we got off the boat. We made our feelings/opinions clear and polite with the captain. As we were loading our gear at the dock the shop manager came out and apologized and said our next trip would be free......we thanked her but said, no thanks, we wouldn't be coming back.

 

[SouthernSharktoothDiver]

@chaad I'd call the dive op and ask about it. Suggest your compromise of giving you a credit for a future dive, or, if they prefer, perhaps half credit for two separate trips? That way they're not just hemorrhaging money, but you're getting your value paid. Assuming you'd find that an acceptable option, of course. IMO, you're not paying for the boat ride. You're paying for two dives, which you did not receive. If I just wanted to ride in a boat on the ocean somewhere, there are other ways of doing that, and if the dive operator is going to take it on themselves to forbid me to dive, then they have to shoulder the cost of doing so. Otherwise, let me make the call myself.

 

[grantmac]

This discussion is timely because over the weekend, I had a big ole bust with a dive boat. I was considering posting here to get some feedback.

Here's the situation:

I paid for a two-tank dive. The weather was calm. We went to the first site (a wreck). The DM anchored the boat into the wreck and relayed the current was very strong and visibility was extremely low. The captain was going to allow the group to dive, but after the first diver to giant stride in quickly shot backwards down the trailing safety line, they called off the dive. We headed to the second dive spot. A different DM jumped in and anchored us. He returned to the boat and reported the viz was so bad he couldn't see his gauges. The captain decided we wouldn't be diving that day and returned to the dock. I am not second guessing the captain's decision to cancel the dives. In fact, I appreciate that the captain cared more about safety than guest satisfaction. The following day, we received a 50% refund through their online booking platform.

We paid for two dives and did zero dives, but they did drive us to both dive sites. Perhaps what I'm paying for is the boat ride -- which I received. After all, the conditions are not within their control. Still, I'm a bit dissatisfied with the resolution. I'd have been happier if I were offered the choice if a 50% cash refund or a 100% credit for a future trip. I'm not peeved enough to complain though. Is this standard?

You're paying for local knowledge, including currents and visibility both of which are predictable.
I'd be wanting a full refund AND I'd never dive with them again.

 

[Zane]

We booked a two tank dive. We completed one dive and had to miss the second because of a diver in the group who had difficulty breathing and had to be brought back to shore. Would you expect a refund for the second dive you did not complete? Or do you just eat it?

Did you agree to a "no refunds" policy when booking? If so, the shop has every right to enforce that. A good compromise is the shop offering to reschedule.

Maybe a 25% refund if you can't be rescheduled?

We all know conditions can be unpredictable and that $#@! happens, prepare accordingly or be ready for the consequences