What happens if a Brittany Ferry to Spain gets cancelled?

[CRD]

The Portsmouth to Bilbao ferry is cancelled tomorrow. I’m not booked on it, but it got me thinking.

How does Brittany Ferries deal with all those affected by a cancellation? They can’t just be put on the next ferry, as all the cabins will already be taken and there may be no available space for vehicles.

What happens if you’ve booked a pet cabin (which we do use)?

If a ferry from Spain back to the UK is cancelled, then that could cause big problems if you have to drive through France to get back home, and your Shengan time is running out, or you have to get back for a set date.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts or experiences with this.

Thanks.

 

[zac]

Ours got cancelled santander to Portsmouth year before last 1 day before departure at the start of January. They will book you back on the next available crossing but will only give what's available so you would not get your pet cabin for sure. We chose the refund and drove through France as there were no guarantees the next boat would run and I needed to get back for work.
Chance you take that time of year, it does happen I am afraid but we plan for it normally ie we ensure we are in that area the day before so can make a decision if it happens.

 

[Bolti]

Last March our ferry from Santander was cancelled. You can either try to ring Brittany ferries and try to get on the next available sailing . We ended up driving to Rotterdam and sailing across to Hull, you then need to ask for a refund.

 

[stewartwebr]

From my experience having been cancelled twice over the years, you’re very much on your own. The first time they offered us a standard cabin the following week and the second time they said they could place us on a waiting list. On both occasions we opted to go home via France. Since the introduction of the new slow boats I’m not prepared to risk it we drive through France now.

 

[Howard B]

We had a ferry cancelled about 5 years ago from Bilboa. Told by BF we had to make our way to a channel port as there were no spaces on any other ferries from Spain. We did get the difference in costs refunded plus another voucher for £250 a few months later.

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[CRD]

Thanks for sharing your experiences. It’s a bit concerning for us as we would need a pet cabin, so a cancellation would result in a dash across France.

 

[jongood]

BF new strategy has meant that there are less ferries that take longer but at least they're doing their bit for the environment - as long as you overlook the fact that they had them constructed in one of the worst polluting countries.

 

[Millcourt]

…..and it would not be wise to risk turning up at Santander/Bilbao on day 89 of your 90-in-180. If you are then left with no option but to spend another few days driving north to catch a ferry across the Channel, do not be surprised at the possible consequences.

 

[Two of usI]

In this situation, I really can't see an option for BF, as extreme weather is not a normal situation, however, currently I don't trust BF as the user friendly company they used to be and am still hoping for some other company to start the routes and who can give BF some fair competition instead of everything in their favour.

 

[David and Sally]

We are due out Thursday night Portsmouth to Santander. Fingers crossed.

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[jongood]

In this situation, I really can't see an option for BF, as extreme weather is not a normal situation, however, currently I don't trust BF as the user friendly company they used to be and am still hoping for some other company to start the routes and who can give BF some fair competition instead of everything in their favour.

Heavily subsidised by the French government so probably not.

 

[Eddieb]

We are due out Thursday night Portsmouth to Santander. Fingers crossed.

So are we All bits crossed

 

[David and Sally]

So are we All bits crossed

Look out for a Bailey Adamo with a scooter on a trailer.

 

[10tenmen]

This happened to us in 2023 cancelled outbound to Santander with Pet cabin, BF transferred us to Cherbourg with a pet cabin and a refund of the difference. Driving through France was wet and miserable.

 

[David and Sally]

Loads of cancellations today/tomorrow.

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[carolyn]

I’ve always assumed that if the Spanish/English route was cancelled we’d have to do a French/English one or the reverse direction. Wouldn’t dream of cutting my 90 days close since Brexit. Not worth the risk. We’re only talking 3 days at most.

Not going to stop me booking the Spanish crossing. We rather like it.

If we had a dog then we’d take the tunnel and cost wouldn’t come into it or the P&O ferry with the pet lounge which my cousin uses. That looks nice.

 

[CRD]

We don’t cut close to the 90 day limit either, but we are limited by our house insurance that stipulates a 60 day maximum period away from the property.

We do get a bit too close to that limit for comfort, but are now going to plan in contingencies should a BF ferry from Spain be cancelled.

 

[Millcourt]

Would not worry too much about your 60-day house insurance. On a couple of occasions we found ourselves delayed by ferry problems (one before Brexit, one since within our 90-day limit) and on telephoning the Insurance Company they just extended the coverage by a week without charge.

Perhaps of greater concern, I wonder what would happen in the event of an accident, prolonged repair to the MoHo, or serious illness requiring hospitalisation and consequential delay beyond the 90 day limit?

 

[CRD]

Would not worry too much about your 60-day house insurance. On a couple of occasions we found ourselves delayed by ferry problems (one before Brexit, one since within our 90-day limit) and on telephoning the Insurance Company they just extended the coverage by a week without charge.

That's good to hear. Thanks!

 

[Brains]

To put it bluntly, when the ferry is cancelled
(Which happens several times a year due to weather, mechanics or strikes)
Then you are on your own.

If you are travelling out of season then there is a good chance if you wait a few days you can go on the next one.
In high season the only option is a 3-4 day drive to the channel or North Sea ports.

Never push you 90 day limit to the last day, as you may need that extra week to get home!

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[jongood]

We don’t cut close to the 90 day limit either, but we are limited by our house insurance that stipulates a 60 day maximum period away from the property.

We do get a bit too close to that limit for comfort, but are now going to plan in contingencies should a BF ferry from Spain be cancelled.

You would be well advised to chevk with BF customer services a couple of days before and if it looks like it might not be running switch it to Caen, caen always runs and has 3 crossings a day.

 

[L' Hobo]

The Portsmouth to Bilbao ferry is cancelled tomorrow. I’m not booked on it, but it got me thinking.

How does Brittany Ferries deal with all those affected by a cancellation? They can’t just be put on the next ferry, as all the cabins will already be taken and there may be no available space for vehicles.

What happens if you’ve booked a pet cabin (which we do use)?

If a ferry from Spain back to the UK is cancelled, then that could cause big problems if you have to drive through France to get back home, and your Shengan time is running out, or you have to get back for a set date.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts or experiences with this.

Thanks.

They NEVER guarantee a crossing, just the effort to provide one AND, unless it's changed in the last few years, if your vehicle gets smashed up, it's not their fault, it's 'an act of God' as I sadly found out many years ago when I ran overseas trucks.

It's ALL in the companies T & C's.

 

[PlacidoD]

On a motorcycle trip to the Picos and into Portugal late April a good few years ago I travelled Portsmouth-Bibao and was due to return via the same route. 24 hours before return departure I got a text message saying due to storms in the Bay of Biscay my sailing was cancelled. I was directed to a later sailing Santander-Plymouth and compensated for the extra miles to get home.

As I recall the storms had meant my scheduled sailing had been cancelled from Portsmouth and was therefore not there for the return trip. Being relatively low season there was enough space on the ferry out of Santander to Plymouth which was very full rather than half full as a result. So my only problem was finding the Santander ferry terminal which I had not expected to need to know.

 

[Millcourt]

You would be well advised to chevk with BF customer services a couple of days before and if it looks like it might not be running switch it to Caen, caen always runs and has 3 crossings a day.

Not always…… one of today’s crossings to Caen is cancelled and already two of tomorrow’s crossings are cancelled!

 

[jongood]

Not always…… one of today’s crossings to Caen is cancelled and already two of tomorrow’s crossings are cancelled!

Wow must be really bad

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[CRD]

They NEVER guarantee a crossing, just the effort to provide one AND, unless it's changed in the last few years, if your vehicle gets smashed up, it's not their fault, it's 'an act of God' as I sadly found out many years ago when I ran overseas trucks.

It's ALL in the companies T & C's.

I can see how very rough seas could cause vehicles to smash together, as they never leave much room between them when loading.

I’m going to check the T&C’s straightaway as “an act of God” might invalidate the MH insurance.

Thanks for pointing this out.

 

[EuroTrotters]

If I was late getting back and short of Schengen days. I’m on whatever BF have available and the dog goes in the kennels .

 

[maison]

Several years ago we booked early in order to have a “dog friendly” cabin.

Three weeks before we were due to sail Brittany Ferries contacted us to say that a different ferry would now be on that route and no “doggy” cabins would be available. That was the sum total of the message !

On contacting them we were told that, on all other sailings, the “doggy” cabins were fully booked but that we could put our dog in the “kennels” if we wished on a Ferry leaving three weeks after our original date.

Not only was the date no use to us but our dog was a large GSD/Border Collie cross which would hardly fit the kennel/cage according to their dimensions. We were pretty pi##ed off with their can’t be bothered attitude.

This year we have a booking with them again, (no dog this time unfortunately ), so we will see how they do.

 

[Minxy]

Would not worry too much about your 60-day house insurance. On a couple of occasions we found ourselves delayed by ferry problems (one before Brexit, one since within our 90-day limit) and on telephoning the Insurance Company they just extended the coverage by a week without charge.

They may have extended it but did you keep the same level of cover? Some companies let you pay to extend but the cover is severely reduced, we had this with our previous insurer, the cost to extend by a month was about £20 I think but we had no vandalism, accidental damage etc type cover during that time so decided not to take the risk and stuck with 60 days.

 

[L' Hobo]

I can see how very rough seas could cause vehicles to smash together, as they never leave much room between them when loading.

I’m going to check the T&C’s straightaway as “an act of God” might invalidate the MH insurance.

Thanks for pointing this out.

The incident I was referring to was when our freight ferry docking at Dover, was still doing a number of knots due to 'frozen' equipment (we were told later) it smash the bow doors and 2 of VimVos new tankers trucks.

It appears large transport companies, like ferries and train companies had insurance with a company that sounded something like the Viennese Convention. (A bit like running a ship under a Panama flag,) who's T&C's are so complicated we ALL claimed of our own insurance.

For the next 3 days, the ferry ran between Dover and Zeebrugge just picking up passengers until the bow doors were released and we could offload

It might sound like fun unless you are an owner driver losing work and money!

PS. I think thing tightened up considerably after the Spirit of Free Enterprise disaster a couple of years later?