Would you expect compensation from a live-aboard operator if

[utdivermatt]

Since the outbreak occured two weeks prior, EV should have contacted the guests a week earlier. At that time they could have let them know about the situation, the liklihood for transmission, and at that point the guests might have been able to pay a small fee to the airline and get a one-year voucher.

Really? Would you like to be called by every trip you plan because someone got sick two weeks before you were going to be there? Would you even take it seriously, especially when it is not a serious illness, but more of a cold? And who on a liveaboard can plan for how long an illness will last?

Simply put, how would you feel if they did call a week in advance, tell you someone on the crew was sick, and you should probably not come? A week passes and you have gotten your airfare voucher, rescheduled yourself to not have your vacation from work, and have unpacked everything you had planned to take. But the crew member recovered in a week (which I know I tend to do when I have a cold). So now everyone loses, you dont get the trip, and the liveaboard has to take a week off. Is this really realistic to do?

And again, if this is such a horrid diesease and they cannnot stop it from spreading, what happened to the group from the week before? I have heard no mention about them, but it sounds like if someone on the crew had been sick for two weeks, and they were the ones spreading it, the rest of the crew would have been sick before they left (which they obviously weren't, since only one was moved to a room away from the rest of the crew). The crew was fine after living with this sick crew member for two weeks, as were the passengers from the week before. Is the OP really sure this wasnt just the same illness brought on the ship by 3 of the passengers? At this point, thats what I would have to guess it was. I mean, I would be angry if that happened, and look for ways that I would be entitled to a refund, but at the end of the day, if you can't show without doubt that it came from the crew, how can you say they are responsible?

 

[Potapko]

"Yes I think that you are entitled to some compensation.
Not because you became sick, but because I don't think the company can honestly say they have done all that could be expected from them to prevent you becoming sick."


There have been several similar quotes to the above in this thread yet we have no way of making such a judgment. They very well may have done "all that was possible" to prevent the new passengers from catching the virus. The majority of available prevention measures were the responsibility of the OP and not the dive op anyway imo. ie. personal disinfectant, stay away from those that are sick....Anytime you travel with a group such as this you risk catching something and need to be prepared.
Then afterwards a little honey would have gone a lot farther than the vinegar that was supplied in the message we have been provided.

 

[DBailey]

I voted for "no compensation".

Nothing so far in the thread has swayed me that the crew member(s) was the source of your sickness. Yes, the crew member(s) were sick, but that doesn't mean that is what got you sick. Plus, at the moment it is "he said, he said". The passengers claim they were not sick, but the boat claims some of them boarded and were already showing signs of sickness, while the passengers report the opposite.

Next, I have never heard of a liveaboard that guarantees the number of dives that you will be able to do. The fact is that every passenger did some diving.

Lastly, your computation method for compensation would have put me on the defensive. You still stayed on the boat, you still ate the food, you still traveled from dive site to dive site, yet you didn't account for that in your calculations. If you look at the expenses of the boat, the diving costs are a very, very small portion. I know you suggested it as your starting point, but if the company would have responded with "well, the diving is only $200 of your total package, here is a $200 check", you would have come here anyway.

 

[nadwidny]

I also don't see where the OP took their own measures to lessen their risk of getting infected ie: wearing surgical masks, washing hands, disinfecting things on their volition, etc.