From the “You can’t make this stuff up” files:
It’s an offer they can refuse.
Carnival Corp. is pitching a tasteless “30 percent discount on future cruises” to survivors of its deadly Costa Concordia shipwreck off the Italian coast, in an apparent bid to stave off lawsuits.
The tactless move by Costa Cruises, a subsidiary of Carnival, came as rescuers pulled a 13th body from the crashed cruise liner, reports surfaced of possibly unaccounted-for stowaways killed in the disaster — and investigators hunted for a laptop computer hurriedly discarded by the disgraced ship captain.
Prosecutors believe there may be important data on the computer because of the “haste” with which Capt. Francesco Schettino gave it to a woman — believed to be a lawyer — after he hopped aboard a lifeboat carrying it in a bright plastic bag, according to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
Over the past week, representatives of Carnival have been phoning European survivors pushing the cruise-line discount while also asking them if they’ve been suffering from nightmares or sleepless nights, the London Sunday Telegraph reported.
“The company is not only going to refund everybody, but they will offer a 30 percent discount on future cruises if they want to stay loyal to the company,” a company spokesman said.
Brian Aho, a Schenectady resident who survived the disaster with his wife and teenage daughter with little more than their evening clothes, called the offer “kind of insulting.”
