Survivors of the Costa Concordia wreck are being offered 30% off future cruises with the company — a sales pitch that was not received with much gratitude Sunday.
“It is a ridiculous and insulting offer,” survivor Brian Page, a retired British accountant, told The Telegraph of London, which first reported the discount offer.
“The company is not only going to refund everybody, but they will offer a 30% discount on future cruises if they want to stay loyal to the company,” said a spokesman for Costa Cruises, a subsidiary of industry leader Carnival Cruise Lines.
But survivors want considerably more than a third off another cruise.
They plan to file a class-action suit Wednesday in Miami, where Carnival is based, seeking $160,000 a passenger — or almost $513 million if all 3,206 passengers were to be paid.
The cruise line blames hapless Capt. Francesco Schettino for running the luxury liner on to rocks off the Tuscan coast on Jan. 13, holding him fully responsible for killing at least 30 people.
But Schettino told a judge last week that his bosses not only knew he was going to sail perilously close to the island of Giglio — they told him to do it as a form of “advertising” for the cruise line.
“The Giglio salute on Jan 13 was planned with the company before we departed from Civitavecchia,” Schettino said, according to leaked excerpts from his 135-page statement published Sunday in the Italian newspapers La Repubblica and Il Messaggeo.
“We meant to do it the week before, but it was not possible because of bad weather,” he said.
Meanwhile, prosecutors were hunting for the laptop Schettino took with him when he abandoned ship and that he hastily handed to a mystery blond moments before he was arrested.
La Repubblica said prosecutors had identified the woman as a lawyer, but that it was unclear if she was working for the cruise line or not.
In his statement, Schettino also denied bringing a young Moldovan dancer onto the bridge to impress her with the “sail-by” of Giglio.
“She wasn’t on the bridge because I don’t let anyone go there,” he said.
hkennedy@nydailynews.com
