Cruise Line Refund Policy, Legal but Immoral

Oceania cruise line once again laughs in the face of justice, attempting to pocket $43,000 dollars from a woman suddenly diagnosed with lung cancer. The couple booked a cruise of a lifetime with Oceania Marina, hoping to sail the south pacific, extravagantly. However, the wife woke up one day, sick beyond functioning, and was forced to check into the hospitable where she was diagnosed with cancer. The couple was forced to cancel their cruise. They called and requested a refund from Oceanic Cruises, were then denied the refund, and the cruise liner then attempted to sell the tickets to make double profit.

Cruise liners have historically operated on draconian terms and conditions. Attorneys of cruise liners no doubt take advantage of their customers, and the trend in denying refunds to the terminally ill is far from uncommon. Oceania and its parent company Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) recently denied another passenger the refund of a brother whose funeral took place on the day of the cruises departure. When asked for a refund, on clearly fair terms, the cruise liner representative said, “sorry, no refund.” This passenger then tried to donate his cabin to a child with cancer, to which the cruise liner refused and then sold his cabin for double profit.

Clearly, what Oceania is doing is flat out wrong. It’s a classic example of a greedy corporation taking advantage of a weak vulnerable consumer. The fact that these cruise liners spend millions of dollars on attorney fees in order to dupe their customer out of a refund for a terminally ill diagnosis is flagrantly outrageous and unjust.

Thankfully, an attorney—Mr. Elliot—has been speaking out over his blog and fighting against the cruise liners greedy, avaricious actions. He was able to recover the couples $43,000 cruise fare, a very fair request. Although what these cruise liners is doing is legal, it is far from moral.