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.

 

[Millcourt]

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.

Don’t think we are talking about the same thing, Mel. If you take out an annual policy with say a 30 day trip limit and then seek to buy an extension of say another 30 days whilst away from home, the Insurance Company might decline or agree to the extend the cover on the same terms or perhaps on different (more limited) terms which they should make clear to avoid recourse to the Insurance Ombudsman if the worst was to happen. In my case, on both occasions we were unavoidably detained for a brief period due to return ferry disruption and when I telephoned to explain the situation our cover was extended without any hassle. A rather different situation from one where the need for extension was no more than a wish to extend ones stay beyond the limit previously purchased.

 

[Minxy]

Don’t think we are talking about the same thing, Mel. If you take out an annual policy with say a 30 day trip limit and then seek to buy an extension of say another 30 days whilst away from home, the Insurance Company might decline or agree to the extend the cover on the same terms or perhaps on different (more limited) terms which they should make clear to avoid recourse to the Insurance Ombudsman if the worst was to happen. In my case, on both occasions we were unavoidably detained for a brief period due to return ferry disruption and when I telephoned to explain the situation our cover was extended without any hassle. A rather different situation from one where the need for extension was no more than a wish to extend ones stay beyond the limit previously purchased.

Not really, all I was saying was that you need to ensure an extension to the insurance regardless of the reason has the cover you expect, be it the same as existing or have limitations/restrictions applied. I would hope that the insurer would inform the policy holder if the latter but wouldn't like to rely on it so anyone in the position you found yourself in should always ask just to be safe.

 

[L' Hobo]

Just out of curiosity, I Googled " who are cross channel ferries insured with" NOT a single answer!
Does this tell us something?

 

[jongood]

Just out of curiosity, I Googled " who are cross channel ferries insured with" NOT a single answer!
Does this tell us something?

There was a really bad incident with one of the France- Ireland ferries only a few years ago and some of this came out. The Vienna convention.

Bf though are really crap at loading. The crammed us all into a one side on our December crossing and other side was completely empty.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Nanniemate]

My ferry was cancelled on Monday as luck would have it was in the process of looking at an earlier one so was in a chat with a rep at the time of notification by text.
Changed to the Sunday as I was too far away to make the late crossing that night.

Dfds called me as I was waiting to board to inform me the orginal crossing was cancelled.they seemed surprised I was on the Dock

 

[CRD]

Just out of curiosity, I Googled " who are cross channel ferries insured with" NOT a single answer!
Does this tell us something?

I believe they are covered by maritime insurance.

 

[Nanniemate]

My ferry was cancelled on Monday as luck would have it was in the process of looking at an earlier one so was in a chat with a rep at the time of notification by text.
Changed to the Sunday as I was too far away to make the late crossing that night.

Dfds called me as I was waiting to board to inform me the orginal crossing was cancelled.they seemed surprised I was on the Dock

In addition the captain said it would be rough but it was lovely and smooth only one wave I noticed

 

[jongood]

I believe they are covered by maritime insurance.

I wonder what the limits are though?

This is the one I'm thinking,ing of.

PHOTOS: Irish ferry badly damaged after sailing into Storm Imogen

One observer said it was most likely the “worst ever” crossing from France and it was “lucky the ship was not lost”.

www.thejournal.ie

 

[CRD]

I checked the BF T&C’s and they state this :

The passenger is entitled to compensation from the Carrier of up to SDR 12,700 (vehicles, including baggage carried in or on the vehicle) or SDR 3,375 (other luggage), unless the Carrier can prove that the incident occurred without fault or negligence on its part.

Brittany Ferries

www.brittany-ferries.co.uk

I had no idea what an SDR is, but apparently it is an IMF variable value based on a basket of five currencies.

The current SDR exchange rate is 1 USD = 0.765 SDR, therefore BF will cover your vehicle for the princely sum of 9,715 USD, unless they can wriggle out of it!!

What is the SDR?

What is the SDR? The SDR is an international reserve asset. The SDR is not a currency, but its value is based on a basket of five currencies—the US dollar, the euro, the Chinese renminbi, the Japanese yen, and the British pound sterling.

www.imf.org

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[carolyn]

I assumed I’d have to claim on my Comfort insurance? Oh well I’m not going to start worrying about that. There are so many things that are out of my control that if I started worrying about them I’d never do anything. I joke that I look for things to worry about but I don’t really. I look for problems to solve and if I can’t then I don’t give them head space.

The only things I actually worry about are my children and even that is usually pointless as they’re now of an age when their problems aren’t ones I can solve but I can still listen and I’m told that helps

 

[L' Hobo]

I believe they are covered by maritime insurance.

What's that? It's not just Lloyds.

I once put it into Wikepedia, it's an interesting read if you have a week to spare.

 

[CRD]

What's that? It's not just Lloyds.

I once put it into Wikepedia, it's an interesting read if you have a week to spare.

Throughout her career, my wife worked in insurance, and at one point worked for an international broker with a large maritime section. She almost made it sound interesting

 

[wildcampers69]

We had a ferry cancelled in 2023 from santander to portsmouth , we booked through the caravan club and britany ferries would not discuss it with us ,it turns out third party bookings were cancelled to accommodate direct bookings after bad weather. Also this year due to an emergency eye operation for my wife we had to move a dover booking and discovered that we had to pay an amendment fee to CC as well as the ferry company , direct booking for us all the time now.

 

[CRD]

We always use Flexi bookings. I think BF have a deal on at the moment which gives a free upgrade to Flexi from standard.

Your experience with the Caravan Club (was that CAMC?) was very disappointing.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Dart]

There was a really bad incident with one of the France- Ireland ferries only a few years ago and some of this came out. The Vienna convention.

Bf though are really crap at loading. The crammed us all into a one side on our December crossing and other side was completely empty.

I don't think they really are crap at loading, they will have loaded that way for reasons of their own but safety will have been maintained by appropriate use of the ballast tanks.