P&O Shareholder scheme

[Mrh74]

I tried searching for any posts on this and can't find any, so, does anyone here use the shareholder concessionary scheme from P&O? We have a house in the Vendee and live 'up north' close to Hull and recently went over on the Hull - Zeebrugge route and found it the best way we've tried yet. So we were thinking of ways to reduce the costs of using this route and the shareholder scheme looks promising. Anyone have any experience of it and can advise if it's worth it?

Cheers

Mark

[Baz]

The P&O shareholder concessionary scheme has been discussed many times but to find the thread via search may prove rather diificult. The share scheme only reduces the fares on the standard pricing and no discount is available on special offers. With so many special offers around at present taking into consideration the initial cost of share purchase, it is almost certainly a no go area for most routes.

You mentioned the Hull - Zeebrugge route where it is possible special offers are very limited so you need to investigate the costs on that route. It was generally agreed that the shareholder concessionary scheme was of limited or no benefit on both the short sea crossings and the western routes.

Baz

[Alcazar]

I live within 25 miles of Hull, on the south bank, and still won't use Hull Zeebrugge, despite being a shareholder. It's just too dear.

OK, it's more civilised, and certainly not full of booze cruisers on coaches,  but the costs for us were horrendous, especially when we had a caravan.

IIRC you get 40% discount off the FULL fares, and no reductions on any special offers, BUT you didn't get a reduction on the accomodation, and since you HAVE to have a cabin now, it made it just over expensive.

Also, IIRC, you have to have 600 shares to qualify? Taking into account special offers etc, it'll take some making up in savings!

The other thing that put me off was the sailing times. I estimate Zeebrugge to be about 2 hours from Calais, (??), so that meant leaving our property in the Limousin at around 5am to give us time to visit the local Auchan/Eastenders on the way back. After all, if you miss the ferry at Calais, they put you on the next one, and you'd be unlucky if you had to wait more than an hour or so.

Having said all that, I REALLY hate the drive back up the UK, and I'm not that keen on it on the way down.

Alcazar