Can I make a claim if my P&O ferry is cancelled?

Q P&O’s Hull-Rotterdam operation is currently curtailed, and the general warning is “don’t travel unless essential”. So what will happen if I turn up at the port to travel to my essential (to me and my family) ski holiday? Is P&O Ferries putting people on some other alternative crossing? And if not, how do I get my money back as soon as possible so that I can make other arrangements?

Nick Y

A On 17 March P&O Ferries made 800 seafarers redundant, intending to replace them with cheaper agency staff. The company has repeatedly said that the decision – which contravened rules on consultation about job cuts – was the only alternative to closure.

While sailings are continuing between Liverpool and Dublin, a route already crewed by workers on lower-pay contracts, resuming service from Dover, Cairnryan and Hull is proving slower.

The company insists it is hoping to resume sailing at scale as soon as possible, but the standard message I have seen from P&O Ferries is basically the same as it has been for the past week: “Tonight’s Pride of Hull service from Rotterdam to Hull is suspended. We apologise for the inconvenience caused. Those with essential travel needs will be guided by our port teams.”

That last line suggests you might usefully turn up at the port, just east of Hull city centre. Please don’t: instead, choose between the DFDS Newcastle-Amsterdam and Stena Line Harwich-Hook of Holland link, or one of the short-sea crossings from Kent. Buy a new ticket, then set about claiming the difference between what your original ticket cost and the extra you had to spend, whether on the crossing or extra fuel.

P&O Ferries is offering straight refunds for trips that could not be made. But ferry passengers’ rights rules go beyond that: if a sailing is cancelled for any reason, then the company responsible must enable the traveller to reach their destination in a reasonable time frame.

For Dover-Calais that is easy at the moment: customers simply turn up at the DFDS control point and are given space on the next available sailing. But on other affected routes, the passenger has to make suitable arrangements and then send in the bill. Be prepared for it to be a slow process – especially if the unfortunate and unintended impact of government measures to force P&O to make a U-turn is that the ferry firm closes down.

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Q We live very close to London Stansted airport and are hoping to do a day trip somewhere in Europe during the Easter holiday. We have previously done this for Oslo, Venice and Pisa. Where would you recommend that’s different?

Mark E

A I am obliged to point out that flying somewhere just for a day is environmentally questionable. But I also recognise the considerable appeal for someone like you who lives close to an international airport with frequent flights to a wide range of destinations, often at low fares for people with just a small day-pack – as I presume you will have.

I am intrigued by your choices so far. Pisa is excellent: it’s a city whose airport is a pleasant half-hour walk from the city centre, and that you can explore pretty solidly in the course of a day (though I would recommend at least a weekend in order to embrace the fine city of Lucca, just north, as well as Viareggio on the Tuscan coast).

Venice is simply too full of wonders for a day trip. And Oslo? Well, the train fare alone from the airport to the centre of the capital and back is a punishing £37, possibly more than you paid for the flight.

Anyway, I have looked at day trips for 12 April, both on Ryanair. For a relaxing start and end to the day, but rather squeezed time at the destination, Krakow looks feasible: 8.45am out, arriving at noon in Poland’s loveliest city. The return flight is at 6.40pm, meaning about four hours in town once the quick airport transfers are built in. That’s currently £42 return.

Much more rewarding, as well as a flight time of half as long, is to Cologne. The 7.30am departure arrives at 9.40am; rail links to the city are excellent, so you should be in the centre shortly after the cathedral World Heritage Site opens at 10am. There’s an impressive range of museums and some lovely parks that should be especially appealing in spring. You should even have time for a brief Rhine cruise.

The return flight is at 9.45pm, giving plenty of time for an early dinner, and thanks to the hour gained you’ll be back at Stansted at 10pm. All yours for £53 return. That is the one I would choose.

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Q Do you think France is likely to ease its entry rules in the next few weeks for all passengers?

Celine P

A I think there is a good chance. France is heavily dependent on UK tourism; it is our second-favourite overseas country after Spain. After the UK scuppered the peak late-July/early August getaway with the ludicrous “amber plus” classification, imposing quarantine on all holidaymakers returning from France, the government in Paris wilfully destroyed holidays over Christmas and new year with a blunt travel ban that was a ridiculous overreaction to the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19. So there is plenty of pressure from the travel industry to open things up.

Even in the 10 weeks since the French veto on fully vaccinated British visitors was lifted, the rules for travellers have shifted significantly. There is no longer a need for a pre-departure test or an online passenger locator form, but you still need to make a sworn statement (intriguingly addressed to the Ecology Ministry) confirming your absence of Covid-19 symptoms and contact with cases.

The definition of fully vaccinated, by the way, requires travellers aged 18 and over either to have had their initial vaccine course within the past nine months or to have received a booster (no time limit). Unvaccinated travellers are really not welcome. Only those with a “compelling reason” (normally strong family links) can apply, and they must present a pre-departure test.

Increasingly, many European nations, including the UK, are following the decisions by Hungary and Ireland to open up without restrictions. In short order, I expect the major tourist nations to remove or at least ease significantly their complicated and onerous rules. Having said that, the first round of the French presidential election is on 10 April 2022. As, sadly, we have learnt over the past two years, travel bans are often electorally popular. So perhaps nothing will happen until after Easter.

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