Compensation - Millennium Alaska - Interrupted and Canceled Cruises

[satdan]

For sure we will be ahead, but not the ta's

 

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[VanessaM]

Seems like TAs are definitely getting the short end of the stick on something they had no control over!

 

Thanks for the updates!

[deise17311]

Celebrity refunded our 8/23 cruise to someone else's Amex...once I told them I don't have an Amex they refused to talk with me and suddenly said I could only speak with them through my TA...I'm so over Celebrity right now...our TA has called and refund should be fixed in...2 WEEKS!!

[VanessaM]

Celebrity refunded our 8/23 cruise to someone else's Amex...once I told them I don't have an Amex they refused to talk with me and suddenly said I could only speak with them through my TA...I'm so over Celebrity right now...our TA has called and refund should be fixed in...2 WEEKS!!

 

Sorry you've had such issues! Virtual hugs!!

[h2dcruise]

Has anyone gotten a response or refund of the airline cancellation / change fees? I emailed them all the proof 3 weeks ago and haven't even received a single response since the automated reply.

[timbom]

I Called them today because it had been a month since I had sent by change fees in.

 

After telling me they could not find it she said if you mailed it in my associate takes care of it. They said yes they found it and they will review it in a couple of days.

 

Sounded like settling these items was a low priority.

[sandyss]

Has anyone gotten a response or refund of the airline cancellation / change fees? I emailed them all the proof 3 weeks ago and haven't even received a single response since the automated reply.

 

I talked with Guest Relations again on Monday. Answers to my questions.:

 

I was told that the expenses that I had submitted by email for our August 16th cruise had been approved and sent to accounting to be refunded. They promised to call me when the refund actually occurs.

 

The FCCs for the August 16th cruise are currently being worked on, and should be mailed out "shortly". I was told that these can be applied to existing cruises - except for "holiday cruises".

 

The cruise credits for this partial cruise have gone to the IT Department:eek:, so they can do them all at once. Don't hold your breath on this one since we all have so much confidence in the Celebrity IT Department.

[deise17311]

Sorry you've had such issues! Virtual hugs!!

 

Thanks! The worst part is guest relations...short, curt, and rude...I emailed an FYI to the corporate office...look what happened to Sprint...customer service issues caused people to run from them in droves...the CEO even made commercials apologizing for the horrible way they treated customers...however, there are lots of cruise lines out there and as the flamers like to say, "we can always go elsewhere"...

[rnrcruzin]

Good Day All,

 

We've received three different refunds to two credit cards. But as with others I was coming up with a delta as far as the difference between our cruise and tour portion of our vacation. I called Guest Relations and got much the same story others have, but I stayed firm, but polite. I told the lady the same thing my TA told me - that she has asked the questions and Celebrity was unresponsive. The Guest Relations rep immeditaly set up a conference call between with me and my TA. Together we then went through the charges and the refunds received to date. It was explaned what was refundable and what wasn't. The math was about equal to that of buying a house with a little JuJu thrown in. When the smoke cleared me and Celebrity were actually about $100 different, which surprised me. But to quote the late Malcolm Forbes when asked how much was enough, his response was "just a little more." I tried so the TA is making up the difference.

 

We're taking our FCC, when we get it, and throwing in a few bucks and taking a Panama Canal cruise next year.

 

Neal and Sandi, please say hi to Deb and Shel.

 

Regards,

Bob and Rosemary

[gblotter]

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

 

I just spoke with Costco this afternoon. Costco told me that Celebrity is reclaiming their commission of $500.48 for the cruise and will then refund that amount to us on our credit card. Doesn't seem fair, frankly. Celebrity - not Costco - should bear the cost of this screwup. Travel agents incurred greater-than-normal expenses related to the August 16 cruise and yet they will be given no compensation through commissions? If the Costco OBC ($285.00 for our stateroom) already constitutes a partial return of that commission, I am wondering if we will really see the full $500.48 refunded to our credit card.

 

Costco said that we are also expected to receive an additional refund of $286.24 related to gratuities and taxes (that refund comes from the ship). We already received a small refund of taxes while still on the ship, so once again I am wondering if we will really see the full $286.24 refunded to our credit card.

 

There are obviously a lot of different buckets here, and I do not have a full understanding of how all of this works. If both of those refunds (commission and taxes) come through as promised, then we will have received a full refund of everything we paid. Fingers crossed. With the various moving parts, I can now better understand why the refunds are showing up piecemeal.

 

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.

With the promised deadlines now passed, I just spoke with Costco Travel again this morning for a status update.

 

From previous conversations, I was expecting two additional refunds of $500.48 and $286.24

 

The $500.48 refund is stuck in processing and it will now be processed manually because of my complaining. I should receive that within the next two weeks (or so I am now promised).

 

I will not receive the refund of $286.24 because that amount was already given back to me in the form of a refundable Costco OBC of $285 and also a minor refund of taxes that I received while still on the ship. I can live with that.

 

The Costco agent said it would be another 6-8 weeks before I receive the promised FCC (not very definitive - she was just relaying information from Celebrity).

 

Regarding reimbursement of our travel and food expenses to get home, I was given the telephone number of guest relations and told to call myself. Guest relations confirmed that my email with receipts was received and that the reimbursement will be processed within the next 3-4 weeks. The agent was very courteous but I don't put much credibility in her promised timeline.

 

Guest Relations = 800-529-6918

[Travelling101]

Did any other Canadians on the August 16th sailing book through a TA who used Air Canada Vacations?

 

I'm curious to know for those who have whether they have received their refund yet, and how this worked out?

 

We received our onboard Account refund on my Credit Card within a couple of weeks of the sailing directly from Celebrity and are happy with the offered compensation (refund, plus the offered expenses, plus the 100% FCC). We were on one of the flights to Vancouver which worked fine for us too as we had no private tour arrangements post cruise in Alaska.

 

Our experience with the Celebrity personnel we spoke with on board and since by phone has been largely positive as well. Just not as informative at this point as we would have hoped. They do not seem to be able to confirm a timeline or an amount for our reimbursement since our TA booked through another agent.

 

Just getting a bit concerned that perhaps bookings like our made through a "middleman" might be a bit lost in the shuffle.

 

Already working with our TA on our 'redo' for next year. Celebrity assured her that if we book now our FCC can be fully applied towards the booking and that any outstanding credit from our deposit will be refunded to my Credit Card once we receive our FCCs.

 

Our TA will be talking to Air Canada Vacations on Monday so we hope this will be sorted out by then.

 

Any feedback on how things have worked out for other Canadians who booked in a similar way though would be appreciated.

[sandyss]

Our refund for our additional air and meal expenses finally hit our credit card. It took four calls to Guest Relations.

 

We still haven't received our FCC.

[deise17311]

Our refund for our additional air and meal expenses finally hit our credit card. It took four calls to Guest Relations.

 

We still haven't received our FCC.

 

Guest relations has been rude and not very helpful when I call...the same answer everytime..."It will be done in the order it was received"...not ok, they need to be able to give people information...let's not forget, I did not cancel this vacation for 10,000 people, they did!

[moebruin]

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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[sandyss]

I actually had very friendly and helpful service from Guest Relations. On my first call, I was told that emailed claims with receipts as attachments would get processed faster than the snail mail that we had been told to use. On my next two calls, I was told first that my request was with Melinda, and then that Melinda would be getting to my claim shortly. On my last call, I was told that Melinda had approved and sent my claim to accounting for payment, which should occur in 4 or 5 days, and that Melinda would call me when the payment hit my credit card. The payment did hit my card in 5 days - but no call from Melinda yet:rolleyes:.

 

The phone number that I used was 800-256-6649.

[dolson367]

From the 8/16 sailing, I have received all of my refunds for the cruise fare paid (we had a cruise only and the refund was exactly the amount I expected less a small portion of the taxes). Seems odd to me that X doesn't eat the cost of all of the taxes themselves, but we only ended up paying about $100/pp.

 

I met with our travel agent on 9/17 and then she submitted our paperwork for the reimbursement for our travel expenses to get home after X flew us to Vancouver. Haven't seen anything yet. Really crossing my fingers that goes through without a hitch - we had booked an air/pre-cruise hotel package, not through X, which was nonrefundable/noncancellable airfare. That meant that our TA had no choice but to get us one-way tickets from Vancouver to Minneapolis...~$750/pp! She's got paperwork to support that expense, but I will breath much easier after I've been reimbursed for it.

 

No FCC certificate yet, but we've got a stateroom booked on the 6/20 sailing to give this itinerary another shot. This was our first time cruising and our first time to Alaska...I'd really like to get more than 100 miles into the state next time!

[sandyss]

I actually had very friendly and helpful service from Guest Relations. On my first call, I was told that emailed claims with receipts as attachments would get processed faster than the snail mail that we had been told to use. On my next two calls, I was told first that my request was with Melinda, and then that Melinda would be getting to my claim shortly. On my last call, I was told that Melinda had approved and sent my claim to accounting for payment, which should occur in 4 or 5 days, and that Melinda would call me when the payment hit my credit card. The payment did hit my card in 5 days - but no call from Melinda yet:rolleyes:.

 

The phone number that I used was 800-256-6649.

 

I did receive a call from Melinda this morning telling me that our refund hit our credit card.

 

She also said that the FCC letter was mailed on the 26th, and that we should receive it shortly.:D

[tinabinab]

8/16 Ketchagain cruiser here...

 

Finally received a couple of credits but still shy about $1000 of our cruise fares. Also have received nothing on our departure related expenses. No FCC yet either. Still rolling with the punches, but would love to deliver a few instead of just taking them.

[Cindy]

The only thing I have not received yet for my cancelled 9/13 cruise is the promised 25% FCC. I have been assured I can apply it to my May Connie Baltic booking when it arrives, so I am content to wait. All told, I didn't think the refund and reimbursement period was unreasonable...I had everything by approximately my scheduled sailing date, so it took about three weeks. That includes my air change fee reimbursement, which was posted to my credit card on September 10th.

 

I found everyone I spoke with to be pleasant and patient, although not all were helpful. In hindsight, I wonder if I called too soon. I was on the phone with Celebrity as soon as they opened the morning after I learned of the cancellation here on CC. My preference would have been to have them help me transfer the funds to another sailing, but I was told that was impossible. I later found out several people from my roll call were able to do just that.

 

An interesting note about communication -- I sent a letter (by e-mail) to Michael Bayley's office, and copied the letter to RCCL Corporate (Richard Fain), Celebrity Guest Relations, and the Captain's Club. I received a call within hours from the RCCL CEO's office, but so far only silence from Celebrity.

 

I hope everyone who is still struggling to get their refunds and expenses reimbursed can close out this chapter in their cruise history soon!

[cruisingronnie]

Was on Aug 16th sailing. Booked Dec, 2013 sailing on the Reflection. Final payment was due this week. Spoke to rep in Corporate Guest Relations and they were able expedite the creation of the FCCs so that I could apply them to my Dec sailing. Still missing reimbursement for meals while in Seattle and refund on train transfer from Seward to Anchorage.

[sandyss]

Our Captain's Club credits for our August 16th cruise to Ketchikan was just posted on our Celebrity accounts.

 

I had been told that all credits for that cruise would be posted at the same time by Celebrity's IT department, so others on the August 16th cruise should have received their credits today also.

[satdan]

Yes, mine are there as well

 

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[satdan]

Just got confirmation that my expenses from Aug 16 cruise were processed. Everything covered...airfare, baggage fee, meals, extra day car rental and hotel (max $250). Very happy, thanks celebrity!

 

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[gblotter]

With the promised deadlines now passed, I just spoke with Costco Travel again this morning for a status update.

 

From previous conversations, I was expecting two additional refunds of $500.48 and $286.24

 

The $500.48 refund is stuck in processing and it will now be processed manually because of my complaining. I should receive that within the next two weeks (or so I am now promised).

 

I will not receive the refund of $286.24 because that amount was already given back to me in the form of a refundable Costco OBC of $285 and also a minor refund of taxes that I received while still on the ship. I can live with that.

 

The Costco agent said it would be another 6-8 weeks before I receive the promised FCC (not very definitive - she was just relaying information from Celebrity).

 

Regarding reimbursement of our travel and food expenses to get home, I was given the telephone number of guest relations and told to call myself. Guest relations confirmed that my email with receipts was received and that the reimbursement will be processed within the next 3-4 weeks. The agent was very courteous but I don't put much credibility in her promised timeline.

 

Guest Relations = 800-529-6918

I have now received all of the expected cruise fare refund.

 

The Captains Club credits have now appeared as well.

 

Still waiting on the reimbursement of travel expenses to return home from the aborted August 16 cruise.

 

Still waiting for the Future Cruise Credit as well.

[bigmohes]

All refunded from the Aug 23 sailing except our get home expenses. Was told they have been approved and are in process. No FCC yet.