misleading marketing? book early and get the best deals!

[canne]

Booked a cruise with Celebrity Silhouette for 12 nights in the med in July 2014 at the end of June - promotion was a balcony discount! Paid deposit, quite happy! Two weeks later get an email from them saying 'book early for best deals - drinks package and cheaper flights on selected cruises ' I checked and one of the cruises mentioned was ours!! Well to cut a longish story short - had to rebook cruise (even though have same cabin,date, flight etc), so although gained on the flight price and drinks promo, lost my £300 deposit as they had allocated us the flight!!! This seems incredibly mean, as if I had booked my cruise later I would have saved quite a bit - so the phase -'book early to get the best deal' is not exactly true! And am sure that there is something in the small print about this - Celebrity are not budging on any compensations regarding this, although they have been able to assist others not to lose their deposit as they had not be allocated a flight?! I know there would be an administration charge - but £300?! a trifle exorbitant - any ideas about how to deal with this issue would be appreciated! 'just go with it' seems to be the only option :(

[Suzy Smith]

Sorry, but I think they are within their rights. X state their cancellation policy in the Ts & Cs (in bold type):

 

Please be advised that the minimum cancellation charge will always be the loss of deposit and that any amendment or transfer fees will also be charged when a booking is cancelled.

 

Booking early always used to get you the best deal, as Celebrity UK will honour price drops, but with the various limited-time promotions that they are now running, it's very difficult to figure out when is the best time to book - as you have found to your cost! It is probably still a net gain for you though, provided you get full value out of the drinks package!:)

 

The pricing system has become such a lottery, that we have decided to wait for a last-minute deal for next year and I am sure many other UK cruisers will take the same approach if X continue with their current unpredictable pricing policy.

[knowehead]

We are from the uk and have booked east med cruise in may 2014. The reason we booked so early was the free classic drink pa

 

 

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[knowehead]

Package which is worth nearly £800 as I can't see the cruise dropping that much I think it will be good deal. Didn't bother with the flights as we live in Scotland and would need to make our own way to London.

 

I noticed that the person who started this thread is doing a med cruise in July. We did the same this year and the day time temp was never below 36 and some of the destinations were mob. But it was fantastic I think patience is a must.

 

 

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