sixteen questions in four groups
Questions About Weather and Booking
Sixteen questions about weather and booking, grouped by what they are really about. Five of the answers cost this company the sale.
The odds
Where do the numbers on the trip pages come from?
Published climate records for the nearest usable station, read for the months the trip runs and for as many years as there is record. Where the governing factor is not rainfall but something else, wind above a boat's threshold, cloud at a particular hour, the week ice usually clears, that is what gets counted instead.
How far can I trust them?
As a description of what has usually happened, a long way. As a forecast for your particular week, not at all, and no page here pretends otherwise. A one-in-eight chance is still a chance you might draw.
Do the odds change the price?
Not directly, but they explain most of it. On several of these trips the lowest priced weeks are low because the conditions are poor, which is the market pricing risk rather than anybody being generous.
Will you tell me not to book something?
Regularly. If the month you named has twice the cloud of the month either side of it, that is the first sentence of the reply, before any figure appears.
The money
Is there a fee on top?
None exists, at any point, and that stays true in the conversations that end with you booking elsewhere entirely.
Who invoices me?
Whoever carries you, houses you or takes you out on the water, in their own name, which is the name your bank shows. Nothing passes through this company.
Are these the lowest prices anywhere?
No claim of the kind is made and none is checked. Each figure is the floor of a range this company genuinely placed.
I found it cheaper. Will you match it?
No. Where the departure and the dates line up exactly, the cheaper of the two deserves your booking.
Will somebody hold a price?
That power belongs to the firm that quoted it and to nobody else, for exactly as long as they choose.
When the weather wins
Does any money come back?
On most of these, none. The operator did what it promised: the skipper turned up, the vehicle was fuelled, the permit was paid for. The only thing that did not arrive was the weather, and nobody is liable for that.
What sometimes does come back?
An entry fee never used, a boat charge never incurred, a night released in time. Small amounts, and never the whole thing.
And on the expedition trips?
Nothing at all. A berth is bought whole and the days happen whether or not the ice lets you land. Both of those trips say so in their opening paragraph.
Would insurance solve this?
Not a question this company answers. Nothing of the kind is sold, arranged or recommended here, and a page about what can go wrong is precisely where an agency should not be selling you a policy.
Do you rebook me if it fails?
Only on the same terms anybody else would get, which is usually a new booking at a new price. Nobody here has the power to make an operator carry the loss.
Everything else
What about passports, visas and entry rules?
Those turn on the passport you hold and every border you cross, both of which get rewritten without notice, and none of it is answered at this desk.
Why no reviews?
Because not one honest review exists to publish. Writing some would be easy and it is the one thing this company will not do for a booking, so the space stays empty until an honest one exists.