Carnival Cruise Lines tightened its cancellation policy so that the penalty increases closer to the sailing. According to a report by Johanna Jainchill in travelweekly.com, the new policy, effective September 11, 2010 makes the customer's deposit the cancellation penalty if it is higher than the 50 per cent or 75 per cent penalty. For example, Carnival said that if a cancellation occurs during the 50 per cent penalty window and the 50 percent penalty is less than the deposit, the cancellation penalty will be the higher deposit amount.
Joni Rein, Vice President, Worldwide Sales, Carnival Cruise Lines explained that after looking at how its inventory was being held, it learned that much of it is tied up in FIT and group bookings that are in a penalty period. "When taking an even closer look, we found that in many cases, the amount it would cost the traveler to cancel in the 50 per cent and 75 per cent cancellation period was actually less than the initial deposit they put down," Rein wrote in a notice to travel agents. |