Ferry Service Disruption

Please note that your rights are outlined and protected via Regulation (EU) 1177/210 concerning the rights of passengers when travelling by sea and inland waterways (incorporated into domestic UK law by section 3 of the European Union Withdrawal Act 2018).

If you’d like to see the full text from this legislation, click here. Otherwise, we hope this guide summarises the most relevant information for quick and easy reference. 

If your sailing has been delayed by more than 90 minutes, you can choose to wait for the next available crossing, rebook and travel within seven days at no additional charge, or cancel your booking to receive a full refund.

No matter what the reason, if your scheduled crossing is late and you have been waiting:

• 90 minutes: we’ll offer you a drink (typically a hot drink or bottle of water)
• 4 hours: we’ll offer you a light snack, i.e. sandwich or wrap, crisps or fruit, and a beverage
• 8 hours: we’ll offer you a hot meal (subject to availability)

If a cancellation or delay means that you would miss the last sailing of the day and it's reasonable that you would need to stay the night before getting back on the ferry at a reasonable time in the morning (or thereafter), we will cover the cost of your paid accommodation at a rate of £70 per passenger per night for up to 3 nights.
 

In the event that your sailing is delayed, you may be entitled to a refund against the cost of the affected ‘leg’ of your travel. Compensation can only be offered to customers booked on specific sailing times and does not apply to Red Jet foot passenger travel as these tickets are not booked for specific times and are open-ended travel.

If your scheduled crossing time departs:

• 60-120 minutes late: You can claim back a 25% refund on what you paid for that sailing/leg.
• Over 120 minutes late: You can claim back a 50% refund on what you paid for that sailing/leg.

However, please note there are some exemptions to where refunds can't be offered:

If your sailing has been cancelled or delayed due to adverse weather and/or sea conditions including but not limited to fog, heavy winds, adverse tidal conditions, large swells, snow or anything outside of Red Funnel’s control which could affect the safe operation of the vessel, then no compensation will be granted.

Additional examples of events outside of Red Funnel’s control whereby compensation/ refunds would not be offered, includes but not limited to medical emergencies (including on board or attending to a distress/call situation), broken down vehicle, obstruction to the vessels infrastructure or interior caused by a third party, regulatory inspections, harbour movements (heavy traffic on the Solent) or road traffic incidents outside the terminal.

If you are:

• Already checked in for your sailing and want to leave the terminal: Please see a member of our staff. We’ll need to update your booking and remove you from our crossing manifest. 
• Not yet arrived for your sailing: Please call us on 02380 019192 or email [email protected] to cancel or rebook. 
• Cancelling with us and travelling with another carrier instead: Please note that Red Funnel is not liable for covering any extra cost in fare price.

If your scheduled ferry crossing has been disrupted and you need to get in touch to make a claim for reimbursement, please use this form. A member of our Customer Services team will review your claim and entitlement and be in touch. We endeavour to respond to all claims within 30 business days and to process all claims (with payment back to bank accounts) within 30 days or less. To enable us to assist you more quickly, please provide as much information as you can.

Our friendly Customer Services team works hard to process claims and resolve them for our customers. If you’re unsure if you are entitled to a claim, if you have questions, or if you’re unhappy with our service, we want to hear from you and do our best to make it right. Contact us at [email protected]. We endeavor to respond to all queries within 5 business days or less. The actual processing of monetary claims takes a little longer and but will be processed in 30 days or less from the point that your claim is submitted.

If you’ve been in touch to make a claim and we have declined to approve it, you’re always welcome to get back in touch with us and challenge us to have a second look. If after challenging your claim we’ve still not approved it, but you disagree with us, please note that you can get in touch with ABTA at [email protected] ABTA is the Voluntary Complaint Handling Body who has been appointed by the Department for Transport to investigate and resolve complaints relating to delays and cancellations under The Merchant Shipping (Passengers’ Rights) (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019.

When booking, be sure to provide the driver’s mobile number so we can text you if we have advance notice of disruption to your journey. Prior to arriving at the terminal, check our Live Service Status or our Travel News Page on Twitter.