Booted off of Lindblad/Nat Geo Expedition

[twistedtree]

Although we are all boaters, I know others take the occasional commercial cruise/expedition. We have too, including two trips with Lindlbad/National Geographics, including one to South George, the Falklands, and Antarctica which at the time was their most extravagant expedition.. As of the past several months we have been booked for the Northwest Passage trip this summer, which is no small trip. We picked Lindlbad because we have had good experience with them in the past, and their focus on Nature, the natural world, and history is appealing to us.


Well, Lindland is now on our do-not-fly list. Just a couple days after we plunked done a large payment towards the NW Passage trip, we get a call telling us we have been booted off the expedition. Weather? No. Mechanical breakdown (it's a brand new ship)? No. War or acts of God? No. Covid? No.



They booted us off because they want to take the suite they sold us and split it into two small cabins. No alternate accommodations available other than half of the room they already sold us.



If you want to rearrange your ship's accommodations, don't you do that AFTER fulfilling you bookings? If you are going to boot someone out of a room, don't you do it ONLY if you can accommodate them in an equivalent room? Nope. Just summarily eject a repeat customer, and one who has taken (or tried to take) your two most extravagant expeditions. All they could offer was to switch from a level "700" cabin (highest level) to a level "500" cabin which is the lowest level.


It speaks volumes about a company that can arrive at such a decision, and it's not one I want anything to do with. Definitely not the Lindblad I once knew.

 

[mvweebles]

Another example of how to go from Great to Good!

If you're so inclined, looks like their company has a relatively new CEO - Dolf Berle as of May 2021. Their founder, Sven-Olof Lindblad, is now co-chairman. Reasonable hunch that he retired when he brought the CEO onboard 20-months ago.

https://www.expeditions.com/leadership-team/

I've always taken the approach that if I were the CEO, I'd want to know if my team somehow pissed-off a good customer. A quick Google suggests dolfb@expeditions.com will get you to the new CEO. guessing that SvenO@expeditions.com or SvenL@expeditions.com (maybe just Sven@expeditions.com) will get you to the founder/chairman.

Sounds like they're out of my league, so it's more moral support than anything when I say I'll never use them based on your experience. Lousy thing they did.....

Peter

 

[twistedtree]

Another example of how to go from Great to Good!

If you're so inclined, looks like their company has a relatively new CEO - Dolf Berle as of May 2021. Their founder, Sven-Olof Lindblad, is now co-chairman. Reasonable hunch that he retired when he brought the CEO onboard 20-months ago.

https://www.expeditions.com/leadership-team/

I've always taken the approach that if I were the CEO, I'd want to know if my team somehow pissed-off a good customer. A quick Google suggests dolfb@expeditions.com will get you to the new CEO. guessing that SvenO@expeditions.com or SvenL@expeditions.com (maybe just Sven@expeditions.com) will get you to the founder/chairman.

Sounds like they're out of my league, so it's more moral support than anything when I say I'll never use them based on your experience. Lousy thing they did.....

Peter

I just sent both an email.

 

[C lectric]

I have no hope of a trip of that nature without a lottery but I sympathize.

They could/should have arranged to fullfill your trip and their obligation and not book that cabin afterwards so they could renovate it.

 

[mvweebles]

New CEO of Lindblat is a Harvard B-School guy. Sorta sounds like the infamous Ford decision when they knew the Pinto gas tanks would explode. Their numbers people calculated cheaper to pay lawsuits than change production and design. Guessing that's when companies started quantifying reputational risk into decisions.

Everyone makes mistakes. It's how they recover that makes a difference. Holding off on renovations may not have been workable, but there are a number of ways I can think of to work through this successfully. Given TTs prior customer investments with Lindblat, and given they cater to high end customers, I'd have a higher level Exec call and explain the full situation and bend over backwards with whatever it takes to make TT happy, profit be damned - give his cabin for free, ridiculous credit for future, whatever. TT is a reasonable person - my guess is it wouldn't have taken much to get him over the line.

Peter

 

[Choices]

You could verbally tie up both rooms as long as possible....

 

[Simi 60]

No big deal, do it yourself on the Nordy. (-;

 

[twistedtree]

I have no hope of a trip of that nature without a lottery but I sympathize.

They could/should have arranged to fullfill your trip and their obligation and not book that cabin afterwards so they could renovate it.

That would have been one of several good ways to handle it.

 

[twistedtree]

New CEO of Lindblat is a Harvard B-School guy. Sorta sounds like the infamous Ford decision when they knew the Pinto gas tanks would explode. Their numbers people calculated cheaper to pay lawsuits than change production and design. Guessing that's when companies started quantifying reputational risk into decisions.

Everyone makes mistakes. It's how they recover that makes a difference. Holding off on renovations may not have been workable, but there are a number of ways I can think of to work through this successfully. Given TTs prior customer investments with Lindblat, and given they cater to high end customers, I'd have a higher level Exec call and explain the full situation and bend over backwards with whatever it takes to make TT happy, profit be damned - give his cabin for free, ridiculous credit for future, whatever. TT is a reasonable person - my guess is it wouldn't have taken much to get him over the line.

Peter

At the risk of offending people with MBAs, I have found most useless at best, and destructive at worst. They study the same business cases, all from an arm chair, play make-believe about how to do better, then go out and tell people how to run their business. I hugely value education, but it’s worth 10 fold when coupled with experience. I can’t begin to count how many VC MBA Harvard/Slone people told us to do this or that with my business. Not one of them was right about a single thing, because none of them really understood the business. You can’t from afar - you have to go neck deep. Not that I got it all right - I didn’t - but I had it 80% right and course corrected for the rest of it.

 

[Hippocampus]

Going through a less costly but similar experience with hertz. Wife needs to go back and forth due to family health issues. We also wanted to take a few local excursions in the region (SE US) via car and hotels/B&Bs. We are gold members for Hertz. So we rented a car for a month. A week into our rental the oil change light went on. Called them to inform them. Corporate said bring it to Savannah airport and exchange it. Drove there and told locations are franchises. Corporate cannot make reservations at any franchise. Most franchises will not allow a one way rental as they not corporate own the cars. A few corporate locations will rent one ways and very few franchises . So after driving 100+ miles went back to the boat and called corporate again. They said call Hilton Head airport. After 22 attempts it was clear they don’t answer the phone. Called corporate again. They said you do the oil change and we will reimburse you. So they expect me to spent my time to service their vehicle. Told them that’s unacceptable. Told them they would need to pay me my hourly rate to wait for an oil change to be done. Told them they need to reemberse me for the fuel I bought and time I spent trying to preserve their car. Told them it was unacceptable they told me a car was reserved for me at Savannah airport when in fact that was not true.

Hertz will hurt you. Corporate tells one story the franchises tell another. Although we have spent thousands with them won’t ever use them again.

 

[mvweebles]

Going through a less costly but similar experience with hertz. Wife needs to go back and forth due to family health issues. We also wanted to take a few local excursions in the region (SE US) via car and hotels/B&Bs. We are gold members for Hertz. So we rented a car for a month. A week into our rental the oil change light went on. Called them to inform them. Corporate said bring it to Savannah airport and exchange it. Drove there and told locations are franchises. Corporate cannot make reservations at any franchise. Most franchises will not allow a one way rental as they not corporate own the cars. A few corporate locations will rent one ways and very few franchises . So after driving 100+ miles went back to the boat and called corporate again. They said call Hilton Head airport. After 22 attempts it was clear they don’t answer the phone. Called corporate again. They said you do the oil change and we will reimburse you. So they expect me to spent my time to service their vehicle. Told them that’s unacceptable. Told them they would need to pay me my hourly rate to wait for an oil change to be done. Told them they need to reemberse me for the fuel I bought and time I spent trying to preserve their car. Told them it was unacceptable they told me a car was reserved for me at Savannah airport when in fact that was not true.

Hertz will hurt you. Corporate tells one story the franchises tell another. Although we have spent thousands with them won’t ever use them again.

I used to travel 50+ weeks a year - out Monday morning, home Thursday evening. Depending on where I was assigned, I rented well over 50-cars per years including personal travel. From 2013-2019, I had over 300 car rentals in many airports - probably a total of over 1000 days. I quickly cycled through Hertz, Avis, and Budget. Around 2015 or so I tried National Car and stayed with them. Had a couple small glitches that were quickly resolved. Was the only company where I felt my business was valued.

I am a Lifetime Platinum member with Marriott (they call it something different, but my status is still the top tier for life). A few years before I quit work I had an issue with a reservation I made for my brother that went askew. An email to the CEO went unanswered so I stopped using Marriott and built my Hilton points (also achieved lifetime Diamond). Like National, I've had nothing but good experiences with Hilton. Marriott was good for many years, but they lost their edge to me and I now have no reason to return to them despite having over 1-million points which I've mostly donated to families with a loved one with a longterm hospital stay (MD Anderson in Houston).

Final words of caution - the above only applies to US. Once you go international the rules for any company change.

Peter

 

[O C Diver]

We were having a discussion about this, this evening. Went out to dinner as a group for the prime rib special. It was not so much. 30 years ago, you could get away with a bad night. In the age of internet, you live and die by your every day performance, as it should be! If you're going to do stupid $hit to good repeat customers, loose your exemplary reputation now! For the cost of 1st class, nobody should have to suffer the stupidity of a greedy bean counter!

Ted

 

[DDW]

A week into our rental the oil change light went on. Called them to inform them.

Why was this a problem? A rental car runs just fine with the oil change light on.

 

[Retriever]

Wow, incredibly disappointing, even more so because you’re a repeat customer. Seems you’ve been really looking forward to that trip. Shame on Lindblad/Nat Geo. I had a good trip to the Galapagos with them years ago and figured I’d take them to Antarctica one of these days, but not after this. Are there other comparable options for NW Passage cruises?

 

[SeaDogAK]

Why was this a problem? A rental car runs just fine with the oil change light on.

A small piece of black tape would solve the problem.

 

[Benthic2]

.... whatever it takes to make TT happy, profit be damned ...

If they valued customer satisfaction over profits we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Social Media has become a great way to inform executives of companies that their front line employees have dropped the ball. However if your relationship with this company is not salvageable, I would suggest you just move on. They have already done you wrong, there is no sense in wasting any more time with them.

For the record, there are bad examples of people with all degrees and of all occupations. If a short sighted, small minded person gets an MBA, it's not going to erase their faults. If you do run into an incompetent MBA, just imagine what he was like before he got the degree!

 

[Hippocampus]

Having worked my whole life with people who have multiple initials after their names from prestigious institutions have come to believe there’s a poor correlation between those credentials and problem solving.

However having those credentials does mean a grasp of a body of knowledge and the ability to think about their area of expertise in an appropriate manner which those without training are generally incapable of doing.

Unfortunately this dynamic has lead to a significant fraction of the population to discount and disrespect the knowledge signaled by gaining those initials. Can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had to gently tried to dissuaded someone from the pseudo science or superficial understanding they gathered from the WWW in an effort to save their lives.

Although some MBAs maybe functional idiots due to lack of life experience, hubris or lack of common sense I’m sure some do make contributions they would not be able to in the absence of their training. As my dad would say”there are good plumbers and bad. You don’t know which are which until you flush the toilet.”

 

[Lollygag1]

Emails or letters to the CEO/President usually go to someone to handle (I was that person at one point). These folks do not have much authority to resolve the situation.

Instead I would contact investor relations and the media relations.

Good luck

 

[twistedtree]

Having worked my whole life with people who have multiple initials after their names from prestigious institutions have come to believe there’s a poor correlation between those credentials and problem solving.

However having those credentials does mean a grasp of a body of knowledge and the ability to think about their area of expertise in an appropriate manner which those without training are generally incapable of doing.

Unfortunately this dynamic has lead to a significant fraction of the population to discount and disrespect the knowledge signaled by gaining those initials. Can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had to gently tried to dissuaded someone from the pseudo science or superficial understanding they gathered from the WWW in an effort to save their lives.

Although some MBAs maybe functional idiots due to lack of life experience, hubris or lack of common sense I’m sure some do make contributions they would not be able to in the absence of their training. As my dad would say”there are good plumbers and bad. You don’t know which are which until you flush the toilet.”

It’s a whole other subject, but I think we are saying the same thing. I think education is extremely important, but it alone doesn’t make for exceptional capabilities. It’s the combination of education plus practical experience that makes the most capable people.

 

[mvweebles]

I read TT's comment (a follow-on to my pointing out the CEO was a Harvard B-School guy) as it's not that MBA's are necessarily worthless - they're not. But that canned B-School methodologies are often worthless or perhaps even counter productive.

Because most of my career was in a niche boutique vein of management consulting to F500/G2000 clients, I worked alongside most of the blue-chip management consulting companies. What was often missing was practical experience - they recruit new hires from prestigious schools such as Harvard and teach them various canned methods and approaches. It's all very slick and polished, but often not actionable advice. Often the conclusion is the client needs to spend more money on a new project with the consultancy. I've heard it called "The Morphine Drip" of consultancy. While not consulting companies, VC's take a similar approach and have an amazing track record of hollowing-out many great names in business including Hinkley Yachts, Fender Guitars (now manufactured a few blocks from me in Ensenada), and Sears & Roebuck.

I have to assume the founder - Olaf Lindblat - grew the business via a lot of non-quantifiable decisions. I think that's almost required of an entrepreneur. The decision to jettison a repeat customer of a firm's flagship product would not be taken lightly......unless you ran the short-term numbers. You'd have to ignore that a guy who booked a trip like that probably knows other people of similar means and tastes in travel. So while all MBA-types may not make a decision like that, its safe to say that a decision like that would be an easy one for a self-assured MBA-type who didn't know much about the business of luxury travel (CEO's past is CEO of Dave & Busters). It's a transactional approach to business relationships - tough to build a luxury life-style brand being transactional.

Bottom line - given Olaf's name still adorns their company of 673 employees, he might care.

Peter

 

[BCRyan]

Thanks for sharing. We have been tempted to join one of their expeditions, but have lost all interest now. What an unprofessional move on their part.

 

[MYTraveler]

Thank you for sharing this information. My wife and I are planning a luxury expedition cruise and there are not a lot of choices. It is bad enough when an airline changes a booked flight (and I have never been booted in favor of another passenger), but cancelling a booked cruise is much more disruptive. Needless to say, we will not give further consideration to Lindblad, which is disappointing considering that it otherwise seems to have a very good reputation.

 

[AlaskaProf]

A small piece of black tape would solve the problem.

AH! The Magliozzi gambit.

 

[kthoennes]

My in-laws gave us a really sweet Ram 2500 diesel when they sold off the farm. At first I thought it was absurdly huge, but I've grown to love it. But that truck does nag me constantly -- micro tire pressure fluctuations, fuel filters ($500, two of them each time), oil filters ($200), DEF fluid. A seat belt chime that never stops. A message to wipe off the back-up sensors on the rear bumper. A glow-plug message that essentially says "Don't start the truck yet!" A message that tells me when the voltage is low in one of the two batteries at 20 below zero. That truck nags me so much that I can't possibly keep up, so I just ignore them all and think to myself, "The Trawler Forum guys say diesels run forever, let's see if that's true."

 

[KnotYet]

My in-laws gave us a really sweet Ram 2500 diesel when they sold off the farm. At first I thought it was absurdly huge, but I've grown to love it. But that truck does nag me constantly -- micro tire pressure fluctuations, fuel filters ($500, two of them each time), oil filters ($200), DEF fluid. A seat belt chime that never stops. A message to wipe off the back-up sensors on the rear bumper. A glow-plug message that essentially says "Don't start the truck yet!" A message that tells me when the voltage is low in one of the two batteries at 20 below zero. That truck nags me so much that I can't possibly keep up, so I just ignore them all and think to myself, "The Trawler Forum guys say diesels run forever, let's see if that's true."

Your 6.7 Cummins is one of the best diesels on the road or in the water.
Beyond regular oil+filter changes and clean fuel, the rest is up to you.

 

[RedRascal]

Wowza what a disappointing experience with Lindblad. So here's a naive question about the Northwest Passage, would Tanglewood but up to the task or is there something extra that the boat needs to make the run? Like ice protection on the bow or something different with the sea chest for operating in "slushy" water. I realize logistics, insurance and time would probably make this a pretty tough trip to tackle independently. Just curious about a "stock" N68 being able to do it if all other resource constraints didn't matter.

 

[Cold Duck]

Although we are all boaters, I know others take the occasional commercial cruise/expedition. We have too, including two trips with Lindlbad/National Geographics, including one to South George, the Falklands, and Antarctica which at the time was their most extravagant expedition..

I too took this trip which was by far the most exciting trip you can take short of going into space. Sitting on a beach with 500,000 penguins and elephant seals fighting is awsum. I have travelled with them on the Amazon catching piranha, Oronoco, Galapagos, among others with excellent service. I only say this because I have no Cruise Line loyalty. **** can happen and does. What they did to you was as bad as I have seen. However; those trips I and you took with Linblad cannot be duplicated by normal Cruise ops. So, I wouldn't "cut my nose off to spite the face". The Northwest and other cruise destinations can be taken with other lines with pretty much the same results. But the really special trips that Linblad does is worth even crummy things happening. Covid cost us a total cancellation on the Easter Island to Tahiti cruise to World heritage sites that can't be visited by Princess, Celebrity, etc. Not Linblad's fault as the airlines canceled their flights also so I couldn't have flown to the cruise anyway. I would strongly, firmly but politely and professionally let your feelings be known to the upper management. I would be very surprised it they didn't compensate you in some significant way for what they did. Not saying that can totally make up for it, but you obviously know Linblad and I bet there will be a cruise in your future that can't be had with the usual suspects. Good luck

 

[Wine47]

My former boss, Dr. James Kelley was/is a guest scientist for Lindblad - his son later joined them also. You could not find a more dedicated group of competent scientists leading an expedition. This is not bars and casinos travel. S happens sometimes.

 

[MYTraveler]

When S happens, it is an accident. When someone intentionally disavows a commitment particularly a commitment made on the basis of a corresponding financial commitment by the other party, that is BS.

 

[Tator]

I too have several friends who are/were guest scientists on the Linblad boats. Linblad/National Geographic has helped us much in years past when we were conducting humpback research in SE Alaska. I'm sorry to hear this has happened. I'm wondering if National G's relationship with Linblad has also changed as well. I can remember some years ago when National G sold a controlling interest in their TV network to Fox and things went to hell-think "When Whales Go Bad!" The serious researchers left the television side and went to other departments wanting nothing to do with the new programming.

Tator