Having travelled to Guernsey for half-term with my two children, I thought I would share my recent experience with Brittany Ferries, which has turned what should have been a straightforward family trip into a rather frustrating exercise in patience.
Given the cost of flying with Aurigny, we decided to try the ferry for the first time. Our outward journey from Poole to Guernsey on Sunday 18 October was a pleasant experience, and we were looking forward to an equally straightforward trip home. Unfortunately, the weekend storms threw those plans into disarray.
We were originally booked to return to Poole on Sunday 25 October. On Friday, I was notified that our sailing had been rescheduled to Monday 26 October. Then on Sunday 25 October, came the further news that we would not be sailing until Thursday 29 October.
After spending over an hour on hold trying to get through to Brittany’s customer services, I eventually managed to secure places on an alternative sailing to Portsmouth on Wednesday. This means a longer journey home and further disruption to our half-term plans, but at least we now had a way back to the mainland.
What makes the situation even more frustrating is that there was availability on a sailing on Tuesday. However, I was then told that Brittany limits the number of children it can carry and that capacity had been reached for the Portsmouth crossing. Clearly it was frustrating to learn that we could not travel on a sailing that appeared to have space, and for me conjured up visions of the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang running around the boat – although, in this case, the issue was apparently one of safety rather than a shortage of places for children.
To be fair, the customer service representative I spoke to was very friendly and helpful. She explained that the faster ferry to Poole is more susceptible to cancellations than the slower service to Portsmouth.
I understand that adverse weather is beyond Brittany’s control and that passenger safety must always take priority.
However, what I struggle to understand is why passengers are not proactively offered places on the next available sailing to the UK when a service is cancelled or significantly delayed.
Had this happened when our original Sunday sailing was disrupted, we might have been able to travel to Portsmouth on Sunday or Monday, rather than facing the prospect of waiting until Thursday.
I appreciate that alternative sailings may have different safety requirements, capacity restrictions and operational limitations.
Nevertheless, surely there should be a system for identifying affected families and moving them to the earliest suitable sailing, rather than leaving passengers to spend hours on the phone trying to find a solution themselves.
Name and address supplied
A Brittany Ferries spokesman responds:
Thank you for passing on your correspondent’s letter. We’re very sorry for the disruption to their family’s half-term trip and for the long wait on the phone while they tried to put things right. We’re glad the colleague they spoke to was friendly and helpful, and we will pass that on.
The severe gale-force storms that hit the Channel Islands lasted almost a week and began just as the October half-term did. Travel on and off the island was suspended for a number of days, schools and offices were closed early and bus services paused.
More than 2,000 passengers, your correspondent among them, had their sailings changed and our crews and shore-side teams, supported by colleagues from across the Brittany Ferries network, worked flat out to rebook everyone as quickly and fairly as possible on existing departures and additional sailings. Most travelled within three or four days of their original date.
Our high-speed service to Poole cannot sail in conditions that the larger ships on the Portsmouth route can, so it was hit hardest, but we know that is little comfort to a family waiting to get home.
Your correspondent asks why customers aren’t automatically moved to the next available departure. We contact every affected customer as soon as a sailing changes and try to find the earliest suitable alternative. But a move to another sailing, and especially another port, isn’t right for everyone: cars, onward travel and plans can all depend on where a family arrives. Sailings with space also fill up very quickly, so the priority is to give everyone a confirmed way home.
Even so, nobody should have to spend an hour on hold in those circumstances and we apologise.
On the carriage of children, our ships comply with the SOLAS convention, the international safety treaty, which requires a suitable lifejacket for every child and infant on board. On Voyager, Islander and Clipper we carry more child and infant lifejackets than the minimum, but the number is still finite, and we can only carry as many children as we have suitably-sized lifejackets for.
When many families are rebooked at short notice, that limit can be reached, and regrettably it was on the Portsmouth sailing your correspondent asked about. It is a safety requirement rather than a choice, and we are sorry that on this occasion it added to their frustration.
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