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Complain to P&O Cruises

P&O Cruises complaints: the official complaints form, the 28-day deadline once you are home, and free stage-one ABTA dispute resolution under V8764.

Travel

How to complain to P&O Cruises

P&O Cruises has no complaints email that we could find on its own site. Use its official online form instead.

How to complain to P&O Cruises, step by step

  1. Complain to P&O Cruises in writing

    Use P&O Cruises’ online complaints form. P&O Cruises publishes no complaints email. Say what went wrong, what you want back, and keep a copy.

  2. Give them time to answer

    P&O Cruises aims to resolve complaints within 28 days. That is its own target, not a legal deadline.

  3. Escalate if they say no

    If it stays unresolved, use the escalation steps further down this page, and the small claims court after that.

Laws that protect you

Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018

A cruise is a package, which P&O Cruises’ own booking conditions confirm. It is responsible for the proper performance of the whole holiday, owes a price reduction where services weren’t provided as agreed, and must refund a terminated booking within 14 days.

Regulation 14Regulation 15Regulation 16

Maritime passenger rights (Regulation (EU) No 1177/2010, retained in UK law)

Covers a cruise from a UK port, but Article 2 leaves cruise passengers out of the delay and cancellation payouts a ferry passenger gets. What stays is assistance: refreshments once a departure is held more than 90 minutes, and accommodation where an overnight becomes necessary.

Article 2Article 17Article 24

ATOL protection

Fly-cruises are financially protected under P&O Cruises’ ATOL licence 6294, so your money is covered and you are brought home if the company fails.

Tips for P&O Cruises complaints

  • Raise it on board, at the time, with a P&O Cruises representative. Their booking conditions make that the first step, and a problem that never came up on the ship is easier for them to argue with later.
  • You have 28 days from getting home to put anything unresolved in writing. P&O Cruises says missing that may affect its ability to investigate, so treat it as a hard deadline.
  • Use the email form on pocruises.com and choose the Cruise Feedback topic. P&O Cruises publishes no complaints email address, so an address off a forum is a guess, and a guess goes nowhere.
  • Say the words “package holiday”. A P&O Cruises booking is a package under the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018, which makes them answerable for the whole trip rather than for their own parts of it.
  • Ask for a price reduction rather than goodwill. Where part of what you paid for wasn’t provided, money off is the remedy the regulations give you, and naming it changes the shape of the reply.
  • Quote ABTA membership V8764. P&O Cruises publishes it on its own company information page, and it is what lets you take an unresolved dispute to ABTA.
  • The sea passenger delay compensation you may have read about doesn’t apply to cruises. Article 2 of the retained regulation carves cruise passengers out of it, so build the claim on the package rules instead.
  • If 28 days pass with nothing, chase in writing and say you will register the dispute with ABTA. That is a real next step rather than a threat you can’t carry out.

If P&O Cruises doesn't respond

  1. 1

    On board

    During the cruise

    Raise the problem with a P&O Cruises representative while you are still on the ship. Their booking conditions make this the first step.

  2. 2

    Written complaint

    Within 28 days of getting home

    Submit it through the P&O Cruises email form under the Cruise Feedback topic, quoting your booking reference, the ship and the sailing dates.

    Visit website
  3. 3

    ABTA stage one

    Up to 50 calendar days

    Register the dispute with ABTA, approved by government under the ADR Regulations 2015 and at no cost to you. It brings you and the company together but does not itself decide the case or award compensation.

    Visit website
  4. 4

    ABTA arbitration

    Stage two is independent arbitration and does make a legally binding award, payable within 28 days. Registration costs £150 for claims up to £25,000, and you pay the company the same amount if you lose.

    Visit website
  5. 5

    Money Claim Online

    The court route stays open instead of arbitration, for claims up to £10,000 on the small claims track.

    Visit website

P&O Cruises’s own response target

28 days

P&O Cruises aims to respond to a written complaint within 28 days, and asks for anything left unresolved on board to reach it within 28 days of the end of your holiday.

Frequently asked questions

Three steps, and the first one happens on the ship. Raise the problem with a P&O Cruises representative at the time. If it isn’t fixed by the end of the holiday, put it in writing within 28 days of getting home, through the email form on pocruises.com. P&O Cruises aims to respond within 28 days. Still unhappy after that, and the dispute goes to ABTA under membership number V8764.

Through the email form on pocruises.com, choosing the Cruise Feedback topic. P&O Cruises publishes no complaints email address, so that form is the route it actually reads. Include your booking reference, the ship and the sailing dates, what went wrong and the outcome you want. Keep a copy: the 28-day deadline after you get home is theirs, and proving you met it is yours.

Yes. P&O Cruises publishes ABTA membership number V8764 on its own company information page, and ABTA’s member register returns that number against Carnival UK Ltd. in Southampton. Fly-cruises are ATOL protected too, under licence 6294. So an unresolved dispute can go to ABTA’s government-approved scheme, and your money is protected if the company fails.

P&O Cruises says it aims to respond within 28 days of a written complaint. Sea passenger rights complaints run on a separate track: those must be sent within 2 months of the date the service was performed, after which P&O Cruises has 1 month to say whether the complaint is upheld, rejected or still being considered, and 2 months to give its final reply.

Not through the sea passenger delay rules. Article 2 of the retained regulation excludes cruise passengers from the re-routing and ticket-price compensation articles, so the 25% and 50% payouts a ferry passenger can claim are off the table. The package rules are what apply: a cancellation means a refund within 14 days of the booking being terminated, and a significant change gives you the choice to accept it, take an alternative or withdraw. Refreshments and, where an overnight becomes necessary, accommodation still apply once a departure is held more than 90 minutes.

There is no cruise ombudsman. The equivalent is ABTA’s approved dispute scheme, which P&O Cruises offers as a member under V8764. Stage one is run by ABTA, costs you nothing and takes up to 50 calendar days, but ABTA doesn’t decide the case or award compensation. Stage two is independent arbitration, which does issue a legally binding award payable within 28 days, and costs £150 to register for claims up to £25,000.

A P&O Cruises booking is a package under the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018, which its own booking conditions confirm. That makes P&O Cruises responsible for the proper performance of the whole holiday, not just the parts it runs itself, and where a service wasn’t provided as agreed you can ask for a price reduction rather than a goodwill gesture. Raise it on board first, then in writing within 28 days of returning.

No. P&O Cruises trades as Carnival UK Ltd. from Carnival House in Southampton and is part of Carnival Corporation. P&O Ferries runs the Channel and Irish Sea crossings and was bought by DP World. Different companies, different routes: only P&O Cruises is an ABTA member, and only P&O Ferries passengers get the ticket-price compensation for a late arrival. Sending a cruise complaint to the ferry Care Team loses you time you may not have.

No. We couldn't find one on P&O Cruises' own site, so any address you see on a complaints directory isn't one P&O Cruises publishes. P&O Cruises takes complaints through the form on its own site: https://www.pocruises.com/contact-us. Write the complaint out before you send it, and keep a dated copy of what you sent: that record is what you need to take it further. NoReply writes that complaint for you free, with the law it relies on cited.

Tools & guides for your P&O Cruises complaint

Free calculators and explainers that strengthen the case you make to P&O Cruises.

Further reading

Not sure what the law actually entitles you to? Start with our UK consumer rights guide - refunds, faulty goods, and how to enforce your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Work at P&O Cruises? Reply to complaints here.

Don't let P&O Cruises ignore you

Read your P&O Cruises letter first: it cites the law that applies, sets a deadline, and says what happens when it passes. No account until you want to keep the draft and track what they do next.

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Disclaimer: NoReply is an independent consumer advocacy platform. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to P&O Cruises or any of the companies listed on this site. Where an address is marked verified, we read it on P&O Cruises’s own site or a complaint sent to it arrived. Addresses marked not verified have not been checked, and ones marked bounced do not reach P&O Cruises. This page is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.