Titanic memorial cruise passengers claim fuel charge refund

Up to 200 passengers on a Titanic Memorial Cruise are threatening legal action to recover more than £246,000 they paid in fuel surcharges, which they claim is the largest demanded in the history of travel.

Passengers were charged up to £15.50 per person per night just four weeks before they departed on the 21-night cruise in April organised by Miles Morgan Travel of Bristol on a ship chartered from Fred Olsen Cruiselines.

It is understood that those who were first to book the cruise were not asked to pay the surcharge, but 950 of the 1,250 passengers did pay extra for fuel.

A protest group has since formed to recover all the surcharge, which they claim was excessive and illegal.

Leader of the group David Cotton said initially the group was only requesting a refund of 50% of the fee, but he said they were now demanding a full refund.

"Although we were originally demanding a 50% refund of the fuel surcharge, we have now had legal advice which suggests that the relevant paragraph of our booking conditions was defective in that it did not include details of how any surcharge would be calculated, as required by the Package Travel Regulations 1992," said Cotton, who paid £4,500 for the voyage.

"As the relevant paragraph is thus null and void, Miles Morgan Travel was therefore not entitled to impose any surcharge and hence we are now demanding repayment in full, as the details of how the surcharge was calculated by Miles Morgan and Fred Olsen have now become irrelevant."

He said the group had calculated that the additional charge for fuel consumption on the Balmoral should have been no more than £194,000, based on "supermarket" petrol prices, suggesting that Fred Olsen had profited from the additional charge.

However, ABTA defended Miles Morgan, saying the company had not broken the regulations. A spokesman added: "The Package Travel Regulations are clear on surcharging;  members must reserve the right to surcharge in their booking conditions, absorb up to 2% of the package cost from any surcharge amount, offer the option of a full refund if the surcharge is over 10% and not surcharge less than 30 days prior to departure.

"We have investigated the Titanic cruise offered by Miles Morgan on all of these points and the company has complied with their legal responsibilities. Above and beyond that tour operators will only surcharge as a last resort, they are very aware that it is understandably unpopular with customers."

Cotton said passengers were also pursuing Miles Morgan for a last-minute change of itinerary on the return leg, when the ship cancelled a scheduled stop at Newfoundland, with the captain blaming a "navigational problem", which he said should have been identified when the itinerary was put together. "There was hence a ‘de facto’ breach of contract and the cruise package was mis-sold," added Cotton.

Passengers were given £47 each on board for the change of itinerary, but he said they were seeking "considerably more" compensation.

By Linsey McNeill

Wednesday June 20th 2012