I recently spotted a change to what happens when you are late for the Wightlink Isle of Wight car ferry. I'm not sure when this change happened, but I think it was in the last few months (please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it was probably when they also changed the terms of the Multilink passes). The old Wightlink policy was that if you were less than two hours late for your ferry, then it wouldn't count as a 'revised booking'. In other words, your booking would still be valid if were only slightly late. They would wave you into the naughty line and then you would wait for a space on a ferry. If it was a busy day then you might be waiting a while, but if it was quiet then you would get on the next sailing and could breathe a sigh of relief. The new policy has got rid of that two hour grace period. If you miss your sailing then you have to: "amend to an alternative sailing time". You also have to cough up "payment for any resulting increase in costs, and any amendment fees" before they'll let you on the ferry. If you bought an economy ticket and change your booking in the ticket office then the policy says they will charge you a £25 amendment fee. If you use the Wightlink app it will cost you £15. If you paid for a 'standard' ticket then you don't pay the £25. Whichever type of ticket you've booked, you will also have to pay "any increase in cost" between your original ticket and the current price of the next sailing. There might not be any increase in cost, particularly if you missed a lunchtime crossing and are now sailing in an evening (Isle of Wight car ferry prices are higher towards the middle of the day). However, the increase could be a lot as prices tend to increase as you get closer to the date of the sailing. And no, you don't get a refund if your new sailing costs less than your original sailing. See our other ferry guides for more advice: What happens if I'm late for a Multilink booking?Multilink is Wightlink's ticket passes for people with an Isle of Wight residence. I am not 100% sure what the policy is if you are late for a Multilink booking, as it's not covered in the Multilink FAQ. The policy does say that "you can amend your booking up to one hour before your scheduled sailing time online" so my advice is that if you are running late then you should log onto your account on your phone and try to change the crossing. But what happens if you don't do that, or if there are no Multilink spaces left when you try to amend it? A 'minimum of 15% of space per sailing' is reserved for Multilink ticket holders, but this often gets gobbled up at peak times. My assumption is that your options are either to a) wait until there is a Multilink space on a crossing or b) pay the standard fare. If anyone has experienced something different, please comment below. What about foot passengers that miss their Wightlink sailing?It is much simpler if you booked on a Wightlink ferry as a foot passenger. As long as it's the same day, there is no extra fee for getting a later crossing. Here's the policy:
"Late arrivals travelling by foot can still travel on an alternate sailing if it’s on the same route and same day subject to availability". If you are looking for the best price for a foot passenger with Wightlink, see this guide.
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Isle of Wight Guru's BlogTales of Isle of Wight days out, attractions and ferry discounts from a Wightophile. This site uses cookies - see our privacy policy. Ads & links in bold may give us a small payment from the seller, at no cost to the buyer. However, this never affects our views - if we like it, we recommend it. Archives
February 2025
|