I booked an Alaskan Cruise for my family back in December through Amex Platinum travel. About 2.5 weeks prior to final payment, I called them and told them to split it over 2 billing cycles. Bill 1/2 now and the remaiing 1/2 on or before the due date. They billed the first payment immediately and it posted to my account like I asked. 1 week after the payment due date I noticed all sorts of credits on my card from the cruise line. The cruise was cancelled becasue Amex travel did not make the final payment. I was not informed of this, Amex travel was contacted 2 times in writing to make payment by the cruise line and did not. I was never contacted by Amex travel telling me I had a past due balance.
The cruise is full, my room is gone and I am on a wait list. Amex travel was able to find me one room that is significantly below the level of the room I booked which is unacceptable. I have non-refundable airfare purchased, also 2 awards tickets which cannot be changed at such a late date, plus prepayments on shore excusions. So I am very locked in to these dates. My questions.
What is Amex responsible for? They admit it was there mistake and have aplogized but have yet to offer anything.
Do I have legal recourse?
Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Wow, that is VERY odd for Amex Platinum travel service!! You pay rather dearly for those benefits, I’d demand either to get on that cruise by however they need to (I have a hard time believing it is full - cruises are dying for passengers now), or, at VERY least, refund your membership fee for the year.
I heard back from the Supervisor yesterday. They somehow got me back in the original room that I booked on the original cruise. I don’t know how, but don’t really care. Now I am working on “compensation” so far it seems like they are up to about $800 in various credits. So although it was a big pain in the ass, I am relatively happy with the end results.
What sort of shore excursions did you book? We went on an Alaska cruise with extended family a couple of summers ago, and the scenery was breathtaking. The highlights for me were the Mendenhall glacier, our day in Glacier Bay (!!), and then seeing whales playing in the water right from our cabin window. That said, if I ever go again (and I’d love to) I wouldn’t recommend the shore excursions that we selected. We did two-- one was a bus to the Mendenhall Glacier and Glacier Gardens. The Gardens were really boring, and while the Mendenhall Glacier was spectacular, other members of our family took the city bus (at a small fraction of the shore excursion price) and got there at the same time! It was our first cruise, so that was a lesson learned. The White Pass Railway was also a disappointment to me because although the scenery was lovely, you can’t get off the train at all to enjoy it. Those are minor gripes, really. Coastal Alaska is spectacular.
I have 2 whale watching trips booked 1 in Vancouver for Orcas and 1 in Juneau for Humpbacks. Both are small boat excursions, in fact in Juneau it will only be the 4 of us on the boat. I am also deciding between a helicopter to the Glacier or a floatplane tour of Misty Fjords with a water landing. We have a land bear tour set up and I would like to go snorkelling in Ketchikan if we have time.
I have done the chopper ride to the top of the glacier before, kind of spendy and worth it though.
I also did a bus ride over the White Pass to the NW territory. Now of course they have the train running. I think that also was worth it since you get into the NW Territory and lots of great scenery. Better than spending the day in Scagway.
Bus tour of Sitka was worthless, got off at the first bar we found and stayed there.
Highlight of trip of course is touring Glacier bay.
A few years ago we did the floatplane trip and loved it. I think a helicopter tour would be fun as well; not sure how to advise between one and the other.
Now that sounds great. I’d probably do the float plane to the Misty Fjords, and just take the city bus to the Mendenhall Glacier. I’m sure it would be amazing from the air, bu the view of the glacier is magnificent on foot, and there’s a small (but interesting) museum to visit there.
On foot at the Mendenhall Glacier, we saw a smallish black bear way up close. Let’s just say that if it had been a grizzly at this range, I’d have needed to change my pants…
I’ve done both the floatplane and the helicopter to bobsledding on the glacier. Both are fantastic, but if you can only do one, go for the helicopter and bobsledding. You’ll never have an experience like it. That being said, definitely do both if you can.
Helicopter to the Glacier is fantastic. The views flying into the Glacier are spectacular. You then land and you hike on the Glacier. We did the White Pass railroad to the top then rode bicycles back down to town. It’s all downhill and a lot of fun. I also recommend the float plane. We landed on a lake in the middle of nowhere. Saw Eagles, Bears and some great scenery from the plane.
Sorry I don’t have any specific recommendations but we did this so long ago I don’t have any information on who we used. We did NOT book any excursions through the cruise line. Check out http://www.cruisecritic.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. There will probably be people on your cruise posting information there.
Helicopter to the glacier is fantastic! The float plane is too. I wasn’t a huge fan of the whale watching but it was on a pretty large vessel. The fact that I had too much fun the night before didn’t help, either.
