International Dash Dash (OAT) purports, “We procure consistently taken the protection of our travelers severely – and consistently will. With over four decades within the hasten hasten industry, we procure expertise navigating historical crisis scenarios spherical the enviornment.” The opposite occurred on this amble where my welfare and protection did no longer steal priority! Security took the backseat to convenience and financial hobby.
Early into the OAT pre-amble in Tasmania, Cyclone Jasper manifested. Our Dash Ride Leader, GH expressed wretchedness on what impression Cyclone Jasper might perchance need on the Cairns/Port Arthur segment of our tour (December 16, 2023 – December 20, 2023). All of us on the pre-amble inspired him to jot down an e-mail to the OAT Sydney position of job with this wretchedness. About one to two weeks prior to the Cairns/Port Arthur segment, G wrote an e-mail to the OAT position of job in Sydney about the approaching Cyclone Jasper with the advice to divert our neighborhood from the Cairns/Port Arthur segment of the tour to 1 other space in Australia
Right throughout the amble, G had a family emergency. The conception used to be that G would go the amble for the Cairns/Port Arthur segment and one other tour files, PC would fill in.
From a meteorological level of view, Cyclone Jasper made landfall at Port Douglas on December 13, 2023 where its winds had weakened wait on to tropical despair strength. The storm then stalled over the Cape York Peninsula where its cyclonic circulation brought warmth, moist northeasterly winds from the Coral Sea onshore, resulting in heavy precipitation along the fly for quite a lot of days. Cyclone Jasper used to be final famed over Cape York Peninsula on December 18, 2023.
Evacuation centers had been location up in Cairns and Port Douglas. Homeless folk had been offered shelter through native charities. Tourists had been entreated to procure a conception to bunker down at some level of Cyclone Jasper. Cyclone Jasper brought about hundreds of properties to lose vitality and there used to be a scarcity of ingesting water.. There used to be severe flooding and folk wished to be rescued. Loads of rivers and creeks overflowed. Trees had been uprooted. Different roads including Captain Cook dinner Highway, the significant toll road between Cairns and Port Douglas suffered mudslides and destabilizing peril. Cairns airport finally closed attributable to low visibility and indecent flooding on the touchdown strip of the airport (Dec 16-17. 2023). Mossman and Daintree River had been moreover flooded. Crocodiles had been viewed floating throughout the significant avenue of Ingham. Jasper used to be the wettest tropical cyclone to electrify Australia on report.
On December 16, 2023, while we had been in Ayers Rock, G told us that every and every the roads had been certain and actions had been wait on to long-established in Cairns/Port Douglas. Our flight from Ayers Rock to Sydney used to be delayed by an hour. Our aircraft from Sydney to Cairns arrived safely. We had been met with torrential rain. The aircraft after ours used to be diverted from Cairns to Brisbane attributable to the climate. After that, all flights to Cairns had been postponed. The Highway between Cairns and Port Douglas used to be flooded in diverse areas. Fortunately, we had a upright driver who knew the backroads and acquired us to our Hotel unharmed. In most cases, the pressure would steal Forty five minutes, but the pressure took 1.5 hours. We arrived on the hotel about 12 Hour of darkness. P told us to be within the foyer at 9am for the Natural world Tour.
On the morning of December 17, 2023 P gave us an exchange. He said that there might perchance be no amble to the Natural world Zoo. If truth be told, all our deliberate actions had been cancelled at Port Douglas and we had been confined to the hotel. P told us he used to be in communication with OAT and his goal used to be to procure us transferred to Cairns so we might perchance be shut to the airport and flit out to Sydney as quickly as we might perchance also. Some of us wrote emails to OAT about our wretchedness in Port Douglas.
On December 18, 2023, all of us bought an e-mail from Marisela R. Perez, Traveler Relations, OAT that acknowledged the wretchedness we had been in and attributed it to conditions beyond OAT’s control. Marisela reiterated that our security remained OAT’s priority. Our neighborhood used to be upset that OAT made the decision to flit us into the aftermath of Cyclone Jasper and that OAT did no longer accumulate accountability for that decision.
On December 19, 2023, planes began to flit out and in of Cairns airport. All of the significant roads between Cairns and Port Douglas had been flooded. The Captain Cook dinner Highway between Cairns and Port Douglas suffered from mud slides onto the toll road. Port Douglas began up a Ferry Service between Port Douglas and Cairns.
On December 20, 2023, we took the Ferry from Port Douglas to Cairns. We then flew from Cairns to Sydney as on the origin scheduled. G met us on the Sydney airport, rejoined the neighborhood and the tour resumed as deliberate. It used to be glaring from the style occasions unfolded in Cairns/Port Douglas that OAT had no “Opinion B”.
On December 22, 2023, all of us bought one other e-mail from Marisela reiterating that the switch in program in Cairns/Port Douglas used to be out of OAT’s control and as a gesture of upright will, we had been offered a hasten voucher for $500.00 per particular person to exercise on any OAT or Tall Circle Tour true throughout the following two years. This 2nd letter angered us extraordinary extra. We made up our minds to jot down a neighborhood response within the fabricate of a letter. Whereas SC used to be designated because the level particular person and supervisor of the letter, he wouldn’t sing for us as a neighborhood. We all agreed to reject the $500 credit score provide from OAT. We all requested compensation of $10,000.00 money for every and every particular person for OAT’s snide if no longer prison negligence for sending us into an glossy unhealthy wretchedness placing our lives in threat. G talked about the advice for altering our itinerary used to be nixed by Sandrine Le Gillard, Vice President Regional Traditional Manager, South Pacific.
On January 3, 2024, S emailed the neighborhood letter to Marisela.
On January 19, 2024 S and Marisela spoke. She tried to administer expectations where she said that OAT would no longer most ceaselessly refund trips and that the quantity of $10,000 compensation used to be out of the query. She said that she used to be looking out ahead to a response from the Executive Crew at OAT. S reiterated that he did no longer sing for the neighborhood and that every and every member might perchance even procure diversified requests or requirements when it comes to money wait on/credit score.
On January 23, 2024, Marisela spoke with S and said the Executive Crew wouldn’t authorize any refund at all.
On January 28, 2024, I despatched an e-mail to Harriet Lewis, Chairman of the Board with Tall Circle Company, Brian Fitzgerald, CEO Tall Circle Company and Nicholas D’Angelo, Executive Vice President Traveler Relations International Dash Dash (OAT) with an attachment containing links to loads of articles and knowledge clips about Cyclone Jasper, the peril that it brought about and the endured aftermath of rains, winds, flooding and damages. I acknowledged that while no one can predict the climate, the decision to ship me and my neighborhood into pre-glossy inclement climate from the aftermath of Cyclone Jasper endangered our lives, used to be snide negligence and must quiet had been prevented. I said that G, our Dash Ride Leader must quiet had been listened to. I requested the following from OAT: 1. A letter from OAT acknowledging their accountability in this grossly negligent incident with an apology 2. Compensation of ten thousand greenbacks ($10,000.00) for the snide negligence. 3. A dialog with a particular person within the OAT group with authority over quality control and processes to net assurance that this is able to perchance by no contrivance happen again – to any one traveling with OAT
On January 31, 2024 Marisela and I spoke. Marisela said that she spoke to Brian Fitzgerald, CEO Tall Circle Company and used to be conveying his message. She said that Brian reviewed the letter and looked severely at what occurred. She said that the decision to ship our neighborhood to Cairns/Port Douglas used to be in accordance to phone calls to the airline where OAT used to be told that the planes had been flying and on phone calls to the vacationer companies in Cairns/Port Arthur where OAT used to be told that the vacationer venues had been commence for industry and prepared to provide companies and products. The choice to ship our neighborhood to Cairns/Port Arthur used to be made in accordance to the records OAT had on the time. He said what occurred after that used to be surprising. I was no longer given a demonstration how a long way upfront from our departure date these phone calls had been made. There used to be no mention about the climate reviews after Cyclone Jasper made landfall at Port Douglas on December 13, 2023 nor about the peril from Cyclone Jasper to the house. In essence, OAT used to be claiming that the wretchedness used to be out of their control or Force Majeure or “Act of God”. At one level, Marisela wished to know what would design issues better for me. At that level, I told Marisela that I wanted a elephantine refund on the four future OAT trips which I had paid in elephantine. Marisela said the refund would steal Forty five-60 days (April 1, 2024) for the refunds as OAT used to be backlogged with refund requests. I moreover reinforced with Marisela that OAT lost the total folk on the amble as repeat potentialities.
In portray for an event to trigger a Force Majeure clause, it might well quiet be unforeseeable, exterior to the occasions of the contract and serious ample that it renders it impossible for the celebration to bear its contractual tasks. On this case, Force Majeure must quiet NOT be applied because the climate wretchedness used to be very foreseeable and ongoing. It used to be unforeseeable to OAT as they did no longer procure their eyes on what truly mattered: files reviews of peril from Cyclone Jasper and the following climate reviews and knowledge about the aftermath of Cyclone Jasper. In my very humble official notion, I gaze this incident as snide negligence on the portion of OAT.
Within the interim, I genuinely procure bought a elephantine refund for the money ($27,000) that I paid in elephantine for the four OAT trips. I did put up a disclose with my hasten insurance protection for Left out Excursions and acquired a partial reimbursement as OAT offered a $500.00 credit score for future hasten. I genuinely procure moreover made plans for diversified trips out of the country with diversified tour operators.