PSULion101

Our airline lost all THREE pieces of our luggage for our 30th anniversary cruise...and it took NINE days for them to catch up with us.  No fault of Celebrity at all.  We managed to pick up a change of clothes before boarding, assuming the luggage was not far behind.   When we checked in with no luggage, that flagged us.
 

On board, customer service provided us with the staples we needed, a couple of free t-shirts each, and free next -day laundry as long as we needed it.  A couple days in, am officer approaches us as we sat in a line reading ...ended being the head of customer service onboard, came over and introduced himself, and asked us how we were doing.  We found that odd...that he had picked us out.  He then explained that he "knew" we had not gotten or luggage...one of three on the cruise in that situation.  Apparently the shirts they give out are dead give aways under the circumstances.  But he knew exactly who we were and what our situation was.

The fact that he knew our individual circumstances, and that customer service did everything they could to make things as best they could for us -- including giving us "free" stuff -- is one reason we're sticking with Celebrity throughout this whole situation.

On 3/16/2020 at 3:15 PM, Ontario Cruiser said:

 Please stop phoning Celebrity to follow up after you have requested your  booking to be cancelled. Patience is a virtue

Ontario Cruiser

Yes.  Those of us who were stuck in Chile, trying to figure out what was happening and how to get home, really appreciated not being able to get through to someone because your refund didn't come through the next day!

One of the primary reasons we moved (and have stayed) with Celebrity is the experience we’ve had with great sommeliers on X.  We have had nothing but a great experience with them, and have been introduced to many great wines, at their suggestion, as a result, that we continue to get at home.  Please don’t let Celebrity even think about eliminating them from the experience!

Same here.  Paid 9 months in advance so we could pick some good seats, together, for our 9.5 hour flight.  But had American reroute us, and put us in two separated middle seats, 2 months before cruise.  And FBX “couldn’t” do anything about it...but tell us we could “voluntarily” choose to get our original overseas flight back for about 150% more, on top of what we already paid.  So...don’t count on paying in advance being of any advantage!

Would independent travel insurance have paid for the difference between their Business class seats and Economy class had they chosen to take the downgraded seats that Delta offered?

 

I think if the OP had purchased the Delta flight insurance, they probably would have been reimbursed.

 

This is not the same situation, but we once had a flight where the equipment was changed and our booked "extra comfort" seats turned out to be standard economy seats. When we returned from our trip, I called Delta and received a refund for the price difference between the seat prices.

 

Luggage: If the OP was 15 minutes late for their flight, doesn't that mean that their luggage was also late and did not make it to the plane? Can you hunt luggage down while it's in the airport?

 

I use that Delta luggage app, but don't always get updates until we have landed in the destination city. It would be nice to have that information before take-off so that we can relax during our long haul flights knowing that our luggage is with us. :D

The app said it was “expedited to Amsterdam”. And we explicitly had the agent confirm, in the morning, that our luggage was on our flight. But, when we checked the baggage tags, after we got them...one flew with us and was lost there, one went to Amsterdam ahead of us and was lost there, and one went to Amsterdam ahead of us and continued on to Munich (which happened to be where we connected at, before flying to Amsterdam). So, the app wasn’t really very accurate

Generally speaking, if you buy business class tickets the airline WILL reaccommodate you in business. However, since the business class cabin is smaller, options maybe more limited so your new flight might not be til the next day or even a day after that. Meanwhile, there may be coach seats available much more quickly. If you take those, it is considered a voluntary downgrade, meaning you give up the right to a refund because you are voluntarily saying, "no, I do not want you to rebook me on next available business class seat, I want you to rebook me on ANY seat that gets me there sooner." And if the reason for the delay is out of the airline's control (ex. weather) they don't have any further responsibility to you. This is where travel insurance can be good to have.

 

Without full details, it's impossible to say why Delta was seemingly unable to reaccommodate the OP in the way that Choice Air was. I'm glad things worked out for the OP. Unfortunately, others have reported an experience quite opposite to this. Inconsistency seems to be the name of the game.

Yeah. This is basically what they told us. It was weather related. It was “voluntary”...or we could wait three days (and miss our cruise). But, the fact that I found at least three options to get there about the same time, flying DeltaOne, makes me question the sincerity of their customer service to make things right.

!

 

Wow! Sounds like a true travel nightmare. For what its worth, "WE ARE!" This last will be lost on many :).

 

 

 

Hank

Penn State!

Thanks for sharing this! And now that you've been forced to do it, could you share with us your discoveries regarding stuff you can do without packing wise?! :-) Seriously though, as someone who always packs too much I'd love to know your thoughts after having to make do for such a long time.

You know, we thought we did everything right...went 3 days ahead, divided everything up between the three bags (though not as well as we thought), and carried a weeks worth of meds with us. So, yes...now ALL meds go with us, plus a few days worth. And a change of clothes. And, if it's gone missing, we buy additional clothes right away, not wait (for the ship to sail, literally). Otherwise, never thought ALL the luggage could/would go missing...for so long.

Glad to hear about a satisfied customer, but we would love to know more about your tale of woe. Please post the entire story of how you missed a connection (how much time did you originally have between flights). Am also wondering if you had Delta Airlines app on your phone, which normally allows you to track each piece of luggage. The app normally shows when each piece is loaded and off-loaded onto aircrafts and each pieces last known location.

 

Your situation with Delta One really gets me angry. This is primarily an issue with US Airlines (less of a problem with foreign airlines) where they do not think they owe passengers any compensation when the airline fails to deliver what is booked (in this case Delta One). While I am not normally a proponent for government regulation, I do think that its time for our US Government to adopt some tough pro-consumer rules when it comes to the airlines. If one pays for Business/First Class and the airline does not deliver that service they should be required to refund the fare plus pay additional penalties. Probably the worst insult was that until recently the airlines would not refund the extra charges one paid to check luggage....even if the luggage was lost! Go figure.

 

Hank

No...CruiseCritic doesn't have the bandwidth for "the rest of the story"! ;)

Suffice it to say...we missed the flight (along with a few other people we met) by 15 minutes. We had a 1-1/2 hour layover. Our bags came to us via three VERY different routes, including one they delivered to the hotel the night we sailed, which chased us for 9 days. I'd been locked into United for so long, wanted to give others a try. Delta blew this one!

Oh...and Delta DID offer us DeltaOne seats....the only ones they claimed they had...three days later (after the ship sailed). I (and ChoiceAir) found three very reasonable options quite easily.

Thank you for the positive post. I suspect you always walk on the sunny side of the street. I'm not sure how I would handle not having all the items that I carefully packed, but if it every happens (please don't ever happen to me ;) ), I'll think of your story.

Actually, I'm not a person that walks on the sunny side. On a good day, I've been known to describe myself as someone who sees the glass 1/4 full. It's taken 2 weeks to get to this point. Looking forward to when this becomes a "funny" story to tell. Maybe for our 50th!

I see a lot of complaints on these boards, but I'd like to break that mold by highlighting a GOOD experience we had with Celebrity and ChoiceAir. We have been looking forward to our British Isles cruise on Eclipse, for our 30th anniversary, for 2 years.

Long story short(ish)...we missed our connections to Amsterdam, on Delta, by 15 minutes, enroute. We had splurged, paying for DeltaOne (business/first class) for this special trip. Delta customer service "offered" us two seats, in the middle and back of coach, with no refund for not getting business class, the next day, with no offer/possibility of a hotel for overnight in Detroit.

We called ChoiceAir...they found and paid for a hotel and to pay for transport. And, overnight, they got us DeltaOne seats that got us into Amsterdam within a few hours as we would have had if we had taken Delta's option.

But, that's not the end. Delta managed to lose all three of our pieces of luggage; two of which didn't show up until 6 days into our 12 day cruise, and the other 3 days before it was over (coincidentally, the same day we got our debarkation luggage tags!).

However, even though this was no fault of Celebrity's, when we boarded we informed them of our situation. They bent over backwards to make the best of it. They gave us some stuff to tied us over, free laundry (for our one change of clothes), attempted to get us our second week's meds (in the third bag...never do THAT again!), and took over working with Delta to get our baggage. In fact, I got chewed out, one day, by Guest Relations, for having checked the Delta/KLM web site to see what the status was: "you're on vacation. That's OUR job. Let US take care of it!".

And, to top it off, the Guest Relations Manager, Rodrigo Jacob, saw us, minding our own business, reading in the Sky Lounge...came up to us, and asked if he could ask us a question. We said, "of course", and he went on to introduce himself and ask if we were missing luggage. (note: the t-shirts they gave us were a dead give-away!) He knew exactly who we were (said that we were one of three on the ship) and told us what the status of our baggage was. Needless to say, we were extremely impressed that, not only would he pro-actively seek us out, but was that knowledgeable of the situation!

So, for all the complaints people have...this beats them all, in our books. This, along with Celebrity having great itineraries and, most of all, continuing to have knowledgeable and engaging sommeliers (Emina and Akhil), will keep us coming back! Although this is not a cruise we will "fondly" remember, Celebrity did more than their part to make the best of it for us!

Ok...been enjoying these way too much, so should probably reciprocate with a story...

Went down one morning to get my usual specialty coffee. A number of us got on the elevator, and a guy carrying 4 or 5 cups of coffee gets on just as the doors are closing. He asks if someone could push the <whatever floor> button for him, to which someone wittily replied something to the effect of “why? Can’t you?”. To which the guy starts to balance all of the cups on one arm, to free the other hand. Wasn’t til that moment that we all recognized him as the juggler from the show the night before!

Has anyone else booked air travel on Celebrity’s website and then lost the ability to see (or book) pre-cruise hotel options? I assume(d) it was the web site having a (temporary) issue, so I gave it a week or so to “correct itself”, but it didn’t. So I called, and they told me I *should* be able to see it, after they reset some setting. But I still can’t see pre-cruise hotels...and they tell me the best they can do is read me my options!?!

Anyone else had this problem, and were you able to get it fixed. Otherwise, I’m just going to make my own arrangements.