Alaska cruise passenger accuses Holland America of fraud

In a two-part civil suit, filed in US District Court in Seattle, Ohioan J.B Miller accuses Holland America Line of fraud and asks for class-action status. Mr. Miller has two beefs: first, that he overpaid for a shore excursion during his July 2006 Oosterdam cruise to Alaska, and second, that a government fine collected by the cruise line wasn't passed along to the government.

The shore excursion in question was a $219 fishing trip Mr. Miller purchased. This portion of his lawsuit centers around a generally ignored Alaska statute that has required a cruise line to disclose any fee it may receive from a business it is promoting. Mr. Miller says that he never was informed of HAL's markup on the fishing charter and that he would have saved considerable money if he had booked the tour directly.

We're struggling with this. On the one hand, if the law was on the books, it should be followed. On the other hand, of course the cruise line adds a markup, as does any retailer selling anything. In addition, the cruise lines add value by vetting and monitoring their shore excursion vendors for quality and safety, and monitoring for any tardy return to the ship... so you don't miss the boat because your excursion motor coach got a flat.

The second part of the suit involves the so-called "Jones Act," the US law that forbids foreign-flagged cruise vessels (as most are) from transporting people between US ports without an intermediate stop at a foreign port. Violation results in a $300 per person fine.

After missing the Seattle embarkation because of a delayed flight, Mr. Miller and his family of four skipped over the foreign Canadian port call and joined the ship in Juneau, making them liable for this fine. His claim is that the government, as a matter of practice, seldom asseses these fines and the cruises lines don't pay them in reality. But, Holland America rebuts that penalty issuance can take many months and that it was too soon to tell if the cruise line would be fined for Miller's passage. A Seattle Customs spokesman confirmed this statement.

We're curious about this one, and although Mr. Miller's claim may amount to nothing in the end, it might be interesting for his attorneys to be able to dig into the truth of the matter through the discovery process and settle the matter once and for all.

Holland America Line, one of the largest cruise operators in Alaska, operates a number of cruises and cruise tours in the state from May to September each year. A spokesperson for the line denied all charges and called the lawsuit frivolous.