The premium brand Crystal Cruises introduced a new policy to protect future customers in the event of unexpected itinerary changes.
On June 2, the company unveiled "Crystal Voyage Assurance" - program for existing and new bookings on the two Crystal Ocean liners (Crystal Serenity, Crystal Symphony) for departures between November 2020 and April 2021.
The new policy protects against unforeseen travel restrictions forcing changes to set itineraries affecting either the homeport (embarkation/disembarkation port) and/or more than 30% of the itinerary's scheduled call ports.
Crystal Voyage Assurance allows booked customers 7 days from the date of the company's communication of revised itinerary to cancel with full (100%) refund of cruise fares and port charges.
Eligible itineraries include the regions of Mediterranean, Caribbean, Middle East, Africa, Asia, as well as "2021 Full World Voyage" (world cruise) and all its itinerary segments.
Crystal Cruises' new program builds on the recent efforts to provide customers with increased flexibility in the time of COVID. The Crystal Confidence program, for example, applies to all 2020 cruises with reduced deposits and revised cancellation schedules, allowing travelers to cancel up to 7 days before their sailing for a 100% FCC (future cruise credit).
Crystal's Easy Book program offers reduced deposits of 15% (compared to 25%) and waived administrative fees for all new bookings for 2021-2022-2023 made through June 30, 2020.
Crystal's Assured Savings program allows guests to make an open booking non-refundable deposit of US$500 per person by June 30 to lock in an additional savings of 2.5% on any itinerary of 7 nights or longer in 2020-2021-2022. Depending on the cruise and category, passengers can save anywhere from US$50 to more than US$6,000.