moebruin

........633 Days At Sea.......(497 on Celebrity)...and I'm counting all 7 days on the ill-fated Millennium even though my cruise was shortened!)

Ha! I was on that cruise also. I call it the Cruise to Ketchikan.

We too received a refund from our CC company. We felt the amount Celebrity gave us was completely unfair. Well guess what? A friend who traveled with us went to TA to use on his next cruise.... the agent called him and said Celebrity will NOT HONOR the FCC because he put in a dispute with his card company!! I called Celebrity today.. it was confirmed... FCC is null and void if you filed a claim... What exactly does a FCC, which I took as sort of a sorry we screwed up your dream vacation, have to do with the terrible compensation so many were given for being stuck on ship??? Again Celebrity has chosen its pocket over public relations. I also think this could just be plain illegal!?!?

As someone in the same position of you being someone Celebrity was disingenuous with I can say I am sure it is not illegal to pull your FCC. While my 100% refund and FCC, turned into 60% as I have stated in other posts my guess is that Celebrity is probably legally obligated to give nothing. Particularly in light that they fly foreign flags (avoiding US and Canadian laws) and when I look and see what airlines and other similar type of companies are obligated to do when things go wrong with them.

Whether there is any legal case to get a full refund, I guess will be determined by the credit card companies and the lawyers I suppose. Regardless, I believe it is safe to say that FCC is basically Celebrity's way of saying here's a little extra if you take our settlement on this manner. Being you chose not to take their settlement then I am sure they are under no legal obligation to give you the same things that people who did take their offer get. In fact I would guess you have a chance that this can all lead to losing the refund they did give if you don't prevail.

If it was me I would call Celebrity and see if you can work something out where you get the credit back for dropping the dispute. You may win the other way but it probably will be painful and you could loose even more.

I take satisfaction in knowing that Celebrity lost way more by at least 10 fold in future business profits from me by taking the actions that they took then the $1000 or so they made by being disingenuous.

So I cut my losses while realizing that Celebrity probably has all the laws stacked in their favor.

Best of luck.

I used:

contactmichael@celebrity.com -- Michael Bayley

rfain@rccl.com -- Richard Fain

captainsclub@celebrity.com

celebrityguestrelations@celebritycruises.com

 

I got a phone call from an executive assistant in Richard Fain's office, but I never heard anything back on any of the three e-mails I sent to Celebrity. I received an auto-acknowledgement after they were received, but that was all.

Did better then me Cindy. I wrote to all 3 and the officers of Costco. I heard back from Costco but not from RCCL or Celebrity except for the ack e-mail from Celebrity.

This will make people mad but so be it.

 

bigmohes,

Your post doesn't make me mad and in fact I agree with just about all of it.

The one thing I don't agree with you is that you should have known what the price of the tour was going to be. The reason being you had know way of knowing. If you try booking a cruise tour and ask them how much the land portion is going to be, they won't tell you. I know because I asked. What they tell you is they don't sell land tours seperate and they won't quote you a price even if you are booking both the cruise and the land.

That said I don't feel cheated by Celebrity but I do feel lied to and its clear to me they are a corporation more worried about today's dollars then their future.

I feel lied to because they did not give me a 100% cruise credit and a 100% FCC like they promised and told the press while we were on the ship. Were they under a legal obligation to do so? I am not a lawyer but my guess is that they probably were not. So instead of 100% they gave me 60%. Can I live with that? yes. Will I use the credit? you betcha.

Did I enjoy the cruise and the land tour? I did. Even all the days in Ketchikan.

Even on the cruise I new they had allot of leadway on how they could break up the charges between the cruise and the land. They arbitrarily, imo, picked a point that was totally to their advantage and totally against their customers and they have taken an extremely hardline on that.

Therefore, I will choose in the future to spend my cruise dollars (except when it is purely to my advantage to do so) with other cruise lines. All conditions equal or close to equal, I prefer to not do business with Celebrity.

Because they cheated me? No, but because they did not treat me as a valuable customer whose business they care about.

Until X used this "logic" to weasel out of rep funds, how could any passenger know this? Is it separated out on the invoice? Does the cruise line show it in their advertising? Does X offer a land tour only for price comparison?

Is it separated out on the invoice?

No - I asked to see and they said no such item exists!!!!

Does the cruise line show it in their advertising?

No in fact I pointed out that in my package it talked about getting a free upgrade from 2C to C2 category. Nothing at all about any other discount on the overall cruise price. Yes I would be happy if I was only compensated for a 2C.

Does X offer a land tour only for price comparison?

No I specifically asked this when it was suggested early on by someone from Costco and Celebrity stated more then once they do not sell land only tours. You can only by the land tour with the cruise package.

Pretty much all of the cruise lines discount the cruise portion in combined landtour/cruise combinations. You can get an idea by pricing out what a land tour a similar accommodations would cost (Alaska Railroad is a good source for doing that pricing). Especially for Celebrity who outsources most of the land tour services, unlike Princess and Holland America who own a lot of their land facilities in Alaska. The advantage to booking a cruise land tour is that the combined rate is far cheaper then buying them individually. The downside is what you have run into if there is a problem with the cruise. The landtour is carried on their books as the majority of price while the cruise is pretty much at their cost.

Well first they don't advertise that fact, second they didn't give us a choice about continuing the land cruise at the non-discounted rate. I personally had priced it before the tour and know I could do 5 days on land for two for well under the $4200 that Celebrity claims we paid for the land cruise. So if it wasn't about making money why didn't Celebrity give us an option of doing the land tour at the "non-discounted" combined rate or not doing it at all. BTW I figured I was paying about $2300 for the land tour which was slightly more then doing it myself but worth the convience especially considering my new bride wanted a tour versus doing it ourselves. Finally Celebrity didn't have to take a full profit on the land tour being their decisions ruined our honeymoon. I had personally thought and Costco even ran through them OK be cheap on the cash but be more generous on the FCC so that we can at least get on the same boat in close to an equivalent cruise and finish our honeymoon but Celebrity's answer was pretty much the attitude the original people on the boat had when parties were being spit up etc. Which do you think we really care about your problem?

Moe

I too booked the Aug 16 CruiseTour through Costco. I feel caught in the middle between Costco and Celebrity regarding my cruise refund. I received the same amount back as "moebruin" but have no way to go back and prove the true cost of the "cruise only" portion of this trip. Celebrity tells me that this is amount Costco told them to credit back and Costco tells me that is untrue and the refunds are totally controlled by Celebrity. The math just doesn't add up based on the total cost of the cruisetour, current priceing being offered and other websites that show last Aug. cruise prices for this trip. Neither Costco or Celebrity will give me any verification of the breakdown of our cruise only portion costs.

 

I'm happy that those who only had the cruise booked seem to have received the credit they paid for that. Those of us who had the cruise/land tour booked at one total price, seem to have gotten less than what the cruise only would have cost.

 

I also have not received any FCC from Celebrity and the clock is ticking against future travel deadlines.

I felt like you but after writing to the two Presidents, I am certain the blame is on Celebrity who decided to make a nice profit on the tour part of our cruise.

While Celebrity ignored my letter Costco was very pro-active. They assigned a manager to the case and then kept giving me updates on what was going on. When they felt like Celebrity wouldn't budge, as stated above Costco offered to give me Cash Card that I believe covered what they received as commission from Celebrity on the trip.

The person I talked to at Costco was Travis at 425-657-1842 if you want to discuss your situation with him, you might feel better about the Costco part. BTW I haven't even gotten the Captain's Club credit.

Since I got home I would estimate I have received about 70 e-mails from Celebrity on future cruise deals and 0 communication from them directly on my anything related to the cruise. If there is one thing that can be learned from all this without dispute is Celebrity isn't big on customer communication.

For those following my Celebrity drama with the Costco Cruise tour. While Celebrity president ignored my e-mail, the executives at Costco didn't and seemed to agree Celebrity's claim that my concierge level room only cost me $1075 a room was bogus.

After two weeks of negotiating with Celebrity with various proposals they wouldn't budge. So Costco travel decided to refund their commission of $868 in the form of a Costco cash card.

So Costco kept their rep in my book and Celebrity/RCCL lost lots of future business.

Not that it matters but to date no Captain Club credit or FCC from Celebrity although they claimed to Costco those were sent out on September 19th.

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I think their job is to figure out how to alienate everyone at least once. I also find it interesting that Celebrity has not once sent us any communication.

They haven't sent one letter or email to us minus our daily Celebrity cruise deal explaining their process, acknowledging that a refund had even been put on our credit card etc.

Rule 1 of customer relationships is communication.

I BTW wrote both Costco and Celebrity management about my experience. From Celebrity off course ZERO so far.

From Costco a call from a person saying management is looking into my situation and will give me an answer in a week. When a week went by they called again to tell me they need a few more days.

Be surprised if much happens from this but they call me I didn't call them.

I am convinced Celebrity and must cruise lines for that matter feel obligated to treat you like kings on the ship but off the ship I rather be dealing with a cable company.

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Nealberk I am not sure where you see that. Even Celebrity admits you can never get into a Concierge room ever for the 1075 pp they claim I paid. For anything more then the $2300 delta for two people I thought I paid I was going to do the land myself which would have been cheaper then the $2300. I surely if on the boat was told the land portion was now $4000 and given the change to cancel would have done so.

As I surely even with last minute could have done it myself much cheaper.

On the positive side, I did get a very small epilogue to all this. A manager from Celebrity did call me back on Friday. She said she was one of the people who was sent too the ship and seemed to genuinely feel bad about things. While she couldn't help me with the ridiculous refund, she did give me her personal number and told me when I found the cruise I wanted to use my credit to call her and that she would make sure I received the best price possible for that cruise. Said that she sees the ever changing prices before the public and thus when a great situation opened she would get me on it. Honest enough also took assure new that for the voucher amount it would never be Concierge room.

Will definitely will take her up on it although must say I look at it as an employee who feels bad about being taken by their employer.

Did write the heads of Celebrity and Costco be interesting to see if Costco even responds and what Celebrity has to say.

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We also used Costco Travel for the August 16th cruise.

 

 

Whatever the amounts, I do think it is reasonable to expect Celebrity and Costco Travel to provide a full and detailed accounting of the refunds after the dust finally settles.

 

All of our refunds are supposed to be finalized by Sept 23rd (according to Costco Travel anyway).

 

Regarding the reimbursement of travel expenses to get us home after the ship evacuation - that's a different story. Except for a robo-reply to my email - nothing from Celebrity about that.

Well I think my case is a little different because buying the special Costco Cruise Tour allowed Celebrity to call my cruise a "group" tour and allowed them to use the "tour" to jack down our refund.

The actually received two refunds from them. The first was my credit from my shipboard account that including the refund of taxes and the refund of tour excursions etc. The second refund covered what they claim to be my cruise portion of my trip (actually its about 65% of the cost) and that posted on Sept 12th and they all agree except for a small food credit that is all that I am getting.

The other thing Costco and Celebrity seem to be fully adamant about is that they won't give a full accounting on how they determined the amount of the refund. They just say Alaska Travel Company billed them a total amount without any back-up or justification and that is what they are deducting. They also both seem to have no matter who you talk to well if you don't like it that's your problem attitude.

So for the short term unless a go the credit card route Celebrity makes an extra $1000 on me this year and looses allot more over the next 15 to 20 years or longer.

I should also note they tried to say all sorts of weird things they were deducting to me also but I called them on every item and they really didn't have an answer.

Best of Luck. But I find it interesting that they are trying to bring down the bill from people that they can't blame the bring down on a Land Tour.

The OBC and perks should not count against the cruise cost. For example, we booked through an online TA. We received her on-board credit on our ship invoice, and our tips and wine went against our OBC. Since we also received a prorated credit of the taxes that we paid, we actually had a credit balance on our ship invoice, which was applied to the credit card that I gave Celebrity on boarding.

 

Tell Costco that their OBC and perks should not count against the cost of the cruise. I would assume that all TAs, including Costco, will be allowed to keep their commissions for the sale of our cruise. The OBC is the part of their commission that they are rebating to us.

Well Costco called back saying Celebrity wouldn't give additional information but they would be happy to talk to me and call them at a special number which apparently yesterday I had but wrote down wrong.

When I talked to the people at Celebrity they weren't happy to talk to me and again said they couldn't talk numbers because I was on group even after I told them they told the group to have me call.

After more discussions with Celebrity it was clear they got an invoice from the Alaska Tour Company which they claim isn't broken down beyond the $2076.12 per person and that they were subtracting that cost plus taxes and pre-paid tips etc and that the remaining amount was my cruise fare refund and credit.

Had long discussions about the rediculousness of that type of pricing.

But I think its pretty clear the bottom line from both Celebrity and Costco is this is what Celebrity is giving and if you don't like it well thats your problem.

So I suppose I can pursue the credit card route but at this point leaning toward not going that route. Probably just going to move on.

I would insist on speaking to a supervisor at Costco, and explain to them that the land tour was an add-on to the cruise. Celebrity does not discount their cruise fares, so the price of the cruise should be the published rate at the time that you booked. Tell Costco that they should recalculate their cost breakdown. Also insist that Costco needs to send to you the official Celebrity invoice for your cruise tour.

Thanks again Sandy. Had some long talks with Costco including one with the supervisor. They claimed it was all on Celebrity and tried to explain that the perks such as onboard credit should count against the cost. I explained to them that there was just a little lower onboard credit with the cruise only fare that I quoted above.

I kept insisting that they give me an invoice with a breakdown like you said. They insisted that no such invoice exists but after lots of persistence promised to ask Celebrity to produce one although they couldn't promise that Celebrity would give them one. I told the Supervisor if they couldn't justify the cost then and I think it should be difference that I guess I would just need to challenge with the credit card company but I prefer not to.

She said she would see what she can do and get back to me.

Not optomistic but will see what happens

It's contactmichael@celebrity.com

 

Also try Captain's Club, and like WestLakeGirl suggested, insist on getting a detailed cost breakdown from Costco.

 

Glad to hear that the FCCs are starting to come.

Will pursue on but yes the Costco person while I was on hold for about a half hour or more did contact numerous people at Celebrity before she finally did get an invoice with a breakdown for the cruise versus tour. The breakdown without all the details showed the land tour coming in at $2076.12 pp to be exact.

Now I am sure all of this was done after the fact so should Costco hold a responsibility also?

BTW appreciate all the support and help allot.

I would try appealing their calculations. You added on a land tour to your cruise - not vice versa. Ask Celebrity to show you when the price of a Concierge Cabin (not a guarantee) was $1050 per person. They should at least credit you the lowest advertised cost of a Concierge Cabin.

 

Called Celebrity Guest Relations and present your numbers, and your rationale for them, to Celebrity. Maybe you can at least reach a compromise with them.

Tried calling and couldn't even get the Customer Relations people to even pass me on to a supervisor. They did finally take my number and agreed to have someone call within 2 to 3 business days.

It appears the problem as far as having Celebrity talk to me details isn't that I used a Travel Agent. Apparently because it was a special Cruise Tour arranged through Costo it was considered a "Group" tour and thus you have to go through the "Group" people and the "Group" people will only give details to the person who arranged the group "Costco".

Sandy do you have the e-mail for the President because I definitely do want to explain to him how they went from having allot of good will with a new Celebrity customer to having ill will. No expectations but want him to know how they are tarnishing their name.

Sandy,

Will try although today Celebrity wouldn't even talk to me. They would only talk to a Costco person because I had bought the cruise through them.

Do you have a particular number that you would suggest calling?

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Well finally got everything straightened out with my Cruise Tour and refund from the August 16th sailing that was cancelled at Ketchikan.

Sadly it looks like for cruise tour people or in my case the people who bought the special Costco Buyers Choice 12 day package they decided to take the cheap way out.

I paid $6350. for two people for a 12-day package in a Concierge Class 2 room. Based on the prices of the cruise alone and thinking originally of doing that way I figured I payed about $3500 for the cruise (based on what a cruise only would have cost both today for next year and at the time of the booking) and about $2800 for the cruise tour.

After the experience with the planes I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to find out that Celebrity was going to take the cheap way out. They basically decided that they were giving me a BIG DISCOUNT on the cruise for taking the Land Tour.

So they priced the Land Tour at $2075 per person and our discounted Concierge Room at the cruise at $1050 per person. So getting a refund for the Full Cruise fare to them means I get and have already received a $2100 credit which I imagine will also be my certificate value.

So in reality if I wanted to take the Millenium next year in the same room I would need to use my FCC plus $1000 of the $2000 refund. So for at least one Cruisetour person it means what they are calling full refund and credit is really a 2/3rds credit.

Not my that I can do but right their stupid president about their stupid decision and move on. In my book Celebrity at the end of the day looses or at least blew a big opportunity.

Me and my wife are young cruisers who really plan to do allot more cruising in the future. Our experience on the Millenium until the flyout day we loved and when we heard about the generous offer of a refund and credit I must admit they build up allot of goodwill with me and was becoming my new favorite. However starting with the plane fiasco (which I could forgive) and their cheapness with how they decided the credit (they could have split the discount equally between the two portions of the trip or given us the list price of room) they have lost all that goodwill. So we will be of course using our credit but then we will look forward to seeing what their competitors have to offer.

Hope some of my fellow cruisetour people did better but I doubt it. I know at least one other Costco person who posted got similar results.

I was on the Aug 16th cruise with the Costco Buyer's choice Cruisetour so I wasn't quoted out a seperate price for the cruise and my "Conceirge" Class room with a balcony.

Was getting worried because I saw everyone else having credits posted. Just looked at my Costco AMEX card and this morning a refund of $2152.00 was refunded in my account. Without too much calculating this would seem like a fare amount if it covered one person, however I was two people. So I will wait a day or so to see if there is more coming (we traveled on the same credit card but it was a honeymoon so it was under two different last names).

I know at least one other person who posted was on the Costco deal. Did any of you get your refunds and if so for what amount?