Hi Geoff
Did you get a cruise letter for 2005 like a lot of us? If so you also ring the company that it was with and ask for a quote. I rang Louis and was quoted £974 including single supp, that can add another 50% to the cost

Richard

Not been in this site for ages, thought i would have another look i was totally amazed at all the action taking place
Well i have not heard a word freon the DE, i did write a number of times last year, all unanswered, so i will write one more letter to the DE to see what happens, and then commence court proceedings, with Money claim.
It was really great reading whats been going on with all cruise applicants
really cheered me up.
Anyway i will keep you posted
All the best
Mike

Geoff, If you can find a cruise for a solo traveller for £350 please let us all know! Single supplements can increase the price by 120% so as I say, please publish it here if you find one!

Way back when Watchdog covered the Cruise, an Editor at the paper did say that people would get £1000 or vouchers for that amount! I am sure someone will put me right if I got that fact wrong!

Hi, Geoff,

I agree with what everyone has said: at the time of the promotion I costed the equivalent Louis cruise and, even then, it came out at well over £1000 - I should go for, say, £1250 and accept £1000 as a compromise. Certainly not £350 - even a cruise advertised at that price would be more in practice, when you add in extra costs, such as fuel surcharges and, perhaps, air fares.

Don't forget, when talking about Louis, that they were never part of the deal: their cruises were offered but no places were contracted and they had no available ship for the cruise on the dates stated (I got that information from Louis' management and posted details on the original HT site).

Last week a message was posted about staff cuts at the DE. Details were reported in the UK Press Gazette in October/November: you can find the articles, as well as information about Mr Desmond's pay, through these links:
http://digbig.com/4rdjj
http://digbig.com/4rdjg

Good luck, everyone!

Interesting articles Cruiser.

It's amazing that Desmond can take out as much as £50M a year. No wonder the Daily Excess is strapped for cash, casting aside staff and leaving many cruiseless. How many more short term foolish decisions will they take before they realise that one lost court case will cost them dearly.

For those interested in Legal Action......

There is an article on the 'Small Claims Court' on the back page of the most recent 'which' magazine which is worth reading. A Judge describes how the Court works and how the process should not be too intimidating for first time users.

Has anyone else got a date yet for their hearing?

I have been in contact with BBC watchdog they are looking at the situation again and are in contact with DE, there may be an update on the next watchdog programme on tuesday 6 feb.

Thanks for letting us know Ferryman. I shall make sure to watch the programme. If they do feature it I hope they treat it seriously, rather than as an opportunity for the presenters to show off their potential as comics like they did last time.

Thanks for the advice on costs.

I did check on the Daily Express website - no mention of the £10 cruises. BUT click on their 'Legal Store'- they have a great looking book entitled, wait for it..
'Small Claims Made Easy' - £11.99

I would order it only you can't trust the DE to deliver of course !

Thanks for the great links Cruiser, you are doing a great job of digging these things out, as always. Someone has mentioned seeing information on the 'late' travel company! Perhaps you could find something of that for us as well please!
Geoff, I am sure you will now see that members are not being at all grasping in claiming around £1000 for an equivalent cruise. Unfortunately the wonderful offers you see in print bear no relation to the cost of cruising as a single. Part of the downfall of this promo is that it ALWAYS said the cruise was for one person only and I presume someone somewhere thought money could be made by selling the 2nd place at an inflated price. Someone certainly never bargained for over 40000 people being happy to cruise alone! When I got the dreaded call offering me vouchers, I was offered the opportunity of taking someone else at a cost of £999! I declined of course!
So Geoff, go for it and claim what you saved for! I love the book that's for sale, did you buy it?

Magsy wrote: "I presume someone somewhere thought money could be made by selling the 2nd place at an inflated price"
€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€

Exactly right, Magsy. The owner of the famous travel company, in his justification to share-holders for poor performance, said in his Annual Report that the big problem had been DE cruisers' unwillingness to go along with the spirit of the deal and take paying partners (or pay extra for flights at more social hours).

I'll see what I can find out about the company: some time ago I signed up for an 'alerting' service to warn me every time the company's name appeared on the web: haven't heard anything for a while!

Cruiser.

I think that chairman said something like the "wrong profile" of people had applied for the cruise (whatever that means) . You would have thought they would have done some sort of market research before committing themselves to such a potentially expensive promotion.

More probably the whole idea was thought up on a slow afternoon after a very liquid lunch, and it seemed a good idea at the time.

I may well be the 'wrong sort of person' but I was willing to take my husband on a cruise with me if the price was right. Trouble was they wouldn't give me a price!!!! He said all along I was stupid to think I'd get a cruise for a tenner. I would so love to prove him wrong. I am watching the outcome of the court proceedings ready to sue at the first sign of success.

Hi All

I had a letter from The DE a copy of an application to have my judgment put aside and a defense claiming I didn't adhere to the terms and Conditions. Then yesterday I received a letter from the Northampton Court with a copy of the DE's application and stating the case would be held in my local court at Pontefract, no date given and it cost them £65 to make the application.

I think collectively we could write a book :-)

Cheers

Richard

I think we should all hang our heads in shame and embarrasment at being the 'wrong sort of people'. Fancy not living up to their expectations of the sort of people who read their paper (or not in my case, except during the time I was collecting the vouchers. :lol:)

Hi

Cruiser and Magsy
The travel company and its parent, changed names. Add the words concepts ltd after the three letters used to denote the parent company, and you have the new name. For the travel company search IATA 91271795, will bring up results for the new and the OLD and some of their latest promotions.

Redo
any indication as to what T&C you didn't adhere to?

Peter

Some time ago Barneydog posted the T&C's on this site and I am repeating them below. The Daily Excess 'defence' seems to be a standard one of (the promotions company says) 'Applicant is in breach of the T&C's'. And must show that they did comply with said T&C's. So far they have refused to state specifically which T&C's I have not met.

Can I ask the collective might of HT to have a look at these with any suggestions or help for those taking legal action. Also are these the complete T&C's and were they ever modified at any stage?

As I see it if you got an Allocation Letter, then you must have complied up to condition {9}. After {9} all the T&C's seem procedural and describe the process that the promoter should have followed (but did not)!

This surely can't have any chance of standing up in court can it? Am I missing something?

"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦0"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦

[Nos {1 - 4} are instructions re token collection by the reader, so haven't reproduced them]

{5} Applications must be received at the named address no later than July 2 2004. There is no limit to the amount of applications per household but strictly one application per envelope, per person/booking. Applications who wish to travel together may not be offered the same cruise. destination or the same date.

{6} Only original differently numbered tokens may be used. No responsibility will be accepted for illegible applications or those lost in the post. Proof of posting is not proof of receipt. Applications sent in without a SAE or received after the closing date will not be processed.

{7} You will be required to prioritise your months of travel in order of preference. Every effort will be made to allocate one of your preferred dates, but there is no guarantee of this. You may be offered alternative destinations and/or dates. You are advised to be flexible in your requirements as many cruises travel only at certain times of the year and particular destinations and dates can have limited availability.

{8} You will be offered the option to upgrade into a different type of cabin and, with some destinations, to extend your cruise.

{9} Following receipt of your application form, you will receive a confirmation letter from Rise Travel by August 2 2004, which details your allocated cruise. This will be valid for a specified travel period and will include a travel voucher. This voucher must be completed and returned no later than 10 days from its receipt. Please note that your first preferred date of travel must be 45 days after the date your voucher is received by Rise Travel. Your voucher will then be checked and you will be contacted within 31 days to confirm your application details and proceed with your booking. Do not contact Express Newspapers as the bookings are handled only Rise Travel.

{10} Flights are included with Option 1 and Option 3. Travel to the cruise departure points is not included with Option 2, but you can purchase flights from Rise Travel at competitive rates. However there is no obligation to do so. Flight departures for all three options will be available from London Heathrow/Gatwick, Manchester and Glasgow/Prestwick. Regional departures will be available where applicable and will incur a supplement. Readers in Ireland may pay a supplement of £60 per person for air travel from Dublin/Belfast to London.

{11} Readers are responsible for ensuring they have a full and valid passport and for arranging and paying for any necessary visas.

{12} As with all cruise holidays, there are fewer single cabins than double cabins available per cruise, but as long as you are prepared to be flexible with your dates of travel, MKM/Rise Travel will honour all bookings.

{13} Rise Travel will contact you regarding your booking between August 3 2004 and October 31 2004 inclusive. Travel must be made between September 1 2004 and May 30 2005 inclusive. MKM and Rise Travel may extend this travel period in order to meet demand. All bookings are subject to availability in respect of readers' preferred travel dates. Travel during the Christmas, New Year and all Bank Holiday periods is excluded. Some destinations have special events at certain times of the year and travel during these periods may be limited. Some sailings are at specified times of the year only. A Saturday night stay for all travel is required.

{14} All readers booking Option 1 will be charged £10. All payments may be made by debit or credit card. Credit card payments incur a two percent charge.

{15} Travel vouchers and bookings are issued by our designated booking agent, Rise Travel (IATA 91271795 and ATOL 5611).

{16} Rise Travel reserves the right to offer additional cruise itineraries and destinations as appropriate.

{17} MKM/Rise Travel reserves the right to use cruise operators and airlines of their choice. Cruise operators used (but not limited to) are Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Lines, MSC, Costa Cruises, Marco Polo and Thomson Cruise Lines. Rise Travel may offer additional cruise itineraries and destinations as appropriate.

{18} In the unlikely event of limited availability for the stated offers, all qualifying readers will be offered cruises or flights of equal or greater value to the offers stated.

{19} No cancellations or amendments are possible after confirmation of booking.

{20} Usual terms and conditions of special fare IATA tickets apply to any flight booking. A copy of these may be required by writing to MKM at Nelson House, Park Road, Timperley, Altrincham WA14 5AB.

{21} Insurance is essential for travellers' own peace of mind and protection. Rise Travel will be pleased to assist with your requirements and optional comprehensive travel insurance is available from as little as £4.25 per day. Simply tick the box on the application form and Rise Travel will advise of the best available rates. If you opt to arrange your own insurance, details of valid/adequate insurance must be supplied at time of booking confirmation or an indemnity form sighed and returned.

{22} There is no cash alternative to any of the offers and vouchers are not transferable and cannot be resold or used with other tokens/promotions.

{23} The Promoter, MKM and Rise Travel, cannot be held responsible for any alterations to flight schedules, cruise schedules, route and suppliers. We reserve the right to withdraw these offers without notice.

{24} The promotion is administered on behalf of the Promoter, Express Newspapers, Ludgate House, 245 Blackfriars Road, London, SE1 9UX by MKM Marketing and Promotions Ltd, Nelson House, Park Road, Timperley, Altricham WA14 5AB.

** Edit to remove the name of the promoter, unless that name was stated in the T&C's. luci **

***These are the published T&C's printed in the DE at the time of the promotion and are therefore a matter of fact and within the public domain*** Wallecan 5.02.07

Hi Peter, I hoped you might still be reading! You and Cruiser between you managed to provide us all with lots of relevant links which of course were most useful. Cruiser, if you can't remember the 3 initials I can! The name change would account for the fact that you haven't heard anything!I must admit I would love to read a bit of light hearted fiction!

Maureen, don't you dare give up girl! You will win out in the end!

Wallecan, I am still baffled as to how the paper can say you haven't adhered to T & C's when they didn't take over the promotion until June 2005 (I believe that is correct)! Have they provided you with details of exactly which T & C you failed to fulfil?

Ros Fernihough was once the legal eagle for HT. Does she still provide a service to the site? Perhaps someone from HT can answer that one.

Is our law so weak that it can allow a defense to be completely unspecific about the exact reason for failing to comply with the terms and conditions? How else can the claimant prepare a case?

I am with you Aslemma in being the wrong type of person - shame on us! (and the other 40,000 people!)

Hi All,
Still no news as yet but saw an item re a certain Travel company who appear to be having some trouble concerning free flights! Link for article is attached.
http://www.zdnet.co.uk
Regards to all
Pmad1