Cruising from UK need advice!

[barney50]

Booked in September for Reflection Cruise on 4th July. I got a free Classic Drinks Package. I booked a Concierge C2 stateroom. The price has decreased and the 3 2 1 offer is also on. I rang Celebrity and queried all this. They said there was nothing they could do as the package with flights and transfers is no longer available. If I got the current price for the cruise and the gratuities on the 3 2 1 then I would be saving around £650 for the 2 of us. I have paid a deposit of £300. The price of flights and transfers have gone up since September. Any suggestions are most welcome.

[terrierjohn]

If X will let you transfer the booking, including the deposit, and you can get your own flights cheaper then go with that.

If not you still have the best deal currently available.

[A1000]

If I understand your plight correctly on the upside you'd be £650 better off due to a better price for the cabin and offers. On the downside you'd be £300 down from the deposit plus a higher flight cost.

 

We have tended to book through an agent due to price and they have always assured us that if the price went down then they'd try and get an adjustment for us even though there's no formal price system like the US. I have to say I've never had to use it as the price has always gone up.

 

If you booked with Celebrity directly then you may be best off pushing them a bit and you might be able to get an adjustment, or some on board credit or an upgrade. It's down to getting the right person on the right day I get the impression though. If you're sure you're going to get a big upside for all the hassle then cancelling and rebooking's an option but you'd have to be sure of your figures!

 

If you booked through an agent then I'd push them to earn their commission ;-) Good luck.

 

Either way you'll enjoy the cruise. We've done that routing and it was great.

[upwarduk]

I booked our Eclipse Southern Caribbean cruise in Sept 2012, direct with Celebrity.

Payment was due in January 2013 and I rang just beforehand to ask for a 2A cabin, as some had become available. Initially, I was told they were for new bookings only, but when I said none were available when I booked, she said 'I can do better than that.' We were upgraded to a 1A, which had a huge balcony.

We were also refunded £496 for the total booking.

We did however, not have a 123 offer attached to the booking.

 

I would asked to be upgraded, at least to C1, if not Aqua.

[barney50]

Thank you all for your replies. I might try Celebrity again. They are adamant that the site is totally independent and they cannot offer me like for like as ther are no flights available. I said if I cancel my present booking and rebook then those flights are bound to be available but they said no.

[TowandaUK]

We booked through a UK travel agent in August 2013 for a Holy Land cruise in Oct 2014. In Nov 2013 Egypt was dropped from our itinerary and we were given the option to cancel at no cost to us. 123 went live the week after. We asked if we could take up the offer to cancel and rebook with same cabin and flights so that we could take advantage of 123. TA rang X UK and they agreed just to add the 123 onboard credit and drinks package onto our original booking. Not exactly the same circumstances, but it does prove that X UK can do it. Might be worth ringing again and speak to a different person and you might get a different answer.

[Wiltonian]

I hit a similar issue this week with X-UK; cruise cost has reduced by around £160 pp, but flight cost has risen by a very similar amount. So there's no point cancelling and rebooking, and I can't have the cruise saving without paying the higher flight price.

 

In the future, I'll look at booking my own flights, so I can then get the cruise price reduction. Chap said that if total (cruise + flight) reduces before final balance date, I can have the saving - though I'd lose 123Go after the end of Feb.

 

Stuart

[Project_gal]

It has been possible, in the past [and pre-123 offer], to take advange of a price drop on a cruise and maintain the price on the rest of the package but [and this will be no surprise to regular Cruise Critic members] the computer and accounting system that the Celebrity representatives have to work with is, shall I say, difficult. If someone said they will do this for you, it will involve a great deal of work on their part over some days.

 

Celebrity have changed their working practices in the UK. In the past, we always had access to our own PCS who you could get to know and would go out of their way to sort things out for you. Now, even if your PCs is still working for Celebrity, they are restricted as to the outward calls they can make. They are driven by incoming calls and it is difficult for them to do things away from the call centre environment.

 

Our PCS was very experienced, knew what had to be done to make any ajustments and would make the effort to get it done - eventually. Now, he just unable to sort out problems. We had to resort to writing to Celebrity to get issues that had been outstanding since May last year sorted. However, in our case, I knew that we were right and had the documentation to prove it. The OP's issue is that we do not know if they are entitled to the price drop or not!

 

Celebrity may or may not have changed the rules about price drops when flights and hotels are involved. It probably matters little. I doubt that it will be easy to find someone who knows what to do AND knows how to do it.

 

OP, best of luck! As our US Cruise Critic friends always recommend, just keep phoning until you find the person who says what you want!

[Adammara]

We had a lovely PCS who really looked after us, got us hump cabins and gave us great OBC and sorted problems, even when we were on board. She was made redundant at Christmas, and an email to her named successor was not even acknowledged! Yet another decline in service from Celebrity, making us look elsewhere for future cruises.

 

Our friendly PCS is now working with an online TA, guess where we will be booking in future.

 

Richard

[gosport11]

I havent had to contact celebrity since the call centre relocation,i hope its not to stressful other wise i also shall be looking else where,i have a cruise booked on both celeb and rci

[barney50]

Took all the advice given here. Rang Celebrity today and got a very helpful person who reduced the price of the cruise only and left the airfare as it was. So I'm a happy bunny saved over £600 and got the 123 -promo. My faith in humanity has been restored.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the thread!

[upwarduk]

Very well done- sense at last!

We have always booked an air package with our cruise and as I said previously we had an upgrade and refund!