with all the IT issues, are we sure the price is correct?

[dirtymoney]

With all of these IT issues with the website, how we can be certain that the price shown is in fact correct? I know that in the past, placing a call to a CVP got me OBC that was never mentioned on the website, and of course cat upgrade based on status, but has anyone ever found the price on the website to be wrong?

[cruisingsince94]

I had that very issue once when I was on the phone booking with RCI. I was on their website and called C&A to book and get my balcony discount applied. The prices they were showing and quoting was different from what I was looking at online at the same time. Was a bit weird as I had to explain to them exactly what was showing. They eventually found it somehow, someway, somewhere.:D

[ghstudio]

Spent many hours on the phone yesterday on that exact same issue....the prices on the web weren't being honored by celebrity for the captain's club upgrade benefit. The prices on the web are very misleading unless you are making a new booking...and there is no way to find out the "non new booking" rate for any cabin without calling and asking...and then you have no way to know if that agent is winging it or that really is the price.

 

Terrible information management ... but we're dealing with a known disaster...the celebrity web site.

[gimletgal]

Spent many hours on the phone yesterday on that exact same issue....the prices on the web weren't being honored by celebrity for the captain's club upgrade benefit. The prices on the web are very misleading unless you are making a new booking...and there is no way to find out the "non new booking" rate for any cabin without calling and asking...and then you have no way to know if that agent is winging it or that really is the price.

 

Terrible information management ... but we're dealing with a known disaster...the celebrity web site.

 

You are so right about the new pricing on the website. If there is the word "offer" under a price and you select that category, you will not be able to get base pricing for the cruise. The "offer" (if you look at terms & conditions) is for new bookings only. Very aggravating!!!! Now you have to call to see if your original price has been reduced, and good luck with that! :eek: Celebrity is getting way too "cute" for their own good.....Those of us who use another site to monitor pricing are S.O.L. as well, as their price reduction notifications reflect the "offer" pricing!

[ghstudio]

The current scheme of posting "new booking pricing only" and not stating that the price does not apply to the "captain's club upgrade" benefit is going to cause some significant negative feedback when captain's club folks (their loyal customers) realize the new game.

 

That benefit specifically states some fare types that are not applicable which is fine...but when you look at prices on their web site, there is absolutely no way for you to know that the fare you are shown is one of those special fares....or if it is a normal fare and there is some other offer (e.g. $75 OBC). That is clearly by design...not an oversight.

 

I wonder if the lowest price guarantee has the same caveats...can't be used with special fares....

 

Don't be surprised to see all new price reductions as offers for "new bookings only".

Edited May 3, 2014 by ghstudio

[Project_gal]

You cannot be certain that they are correct!

 

When the 2015/16 season itineraries were released, I was watching the earlier releases for an indication of how much suite prices had risen with the new perks. The UK prices for Panama Canal prices were double what I had expected. I checked the US$ prices [could still do that at the time] and they were what I had expected. I could find no one in the UK who were interested so I emailed Michael Bayley's office. They were concern enough for someone to 'phone me in the UK to get the details. Clearly, they know they have problems and are concerned about it!

 

The UK prices were corrected in line with the US ones.

[woodyren]

You are so right about the new pricing on the website. If there is the word "offer" under a price and you select that category, you will not be able to get base pricing for the cruise. The "offer" (if you look at terms & conditions) is for new bookings only. Very aggravating!!!! Now you have to call to see if your original price has been reduced, and good luck with that! :eek: Celebrity is getting way too "cute" for their own good.....Those of us who use another site to monitor pricing are S.O.L. as well, as their price reduction notifications reflect the "offer" pricing!

 

This tactic makes the well known site for price monitoring almost useless for Celebrity now. I received an email from them alerting me that the cruise prices for the cruise I have booked had dropped by $300 across the cabin classes I was interested in. As I thought it was a price drop I got straight onto my TA who then insisted that on her computer the prices were still the same as when I booked. I sent here a fishy screen shot and she said something was strange and she would call Celebrity to check. The result was that the $300 off was a "new offer" rather than a price drop. I could of course take it up but would lose PYP and OBC we had.

 

The problem I have now because I booked with a TA is that I can't cant call Celebrity to regularly monitor prices (the real ones anyway) and can't expect my TA to call everyday either.

 

Annoying to me but I also see it as a smart move to get around the many savvy cruisers who take advantage of perks AND price drops.

 

Might back fire as people will go elsewhere or hold off.

[gimletgal]

This tactic makes the well known site for price monitoring almost useless for Celebrity now. I received an email from them alerting me that the cruise prices for the cruise I have booked had dropped by $300 across the cabin classes I was interested in. As I thought it was a price drop I got straight onto my TA who then insisted that on her computer the prices were still the same as when I booked. I sent here a fishy screen shot and she said something was strange and she would call Celebrity to check. The result was that the $300 off was a "new offer" rather than a price drop. I could of course take it up but would lose PYP and OBC we had.

 

The problem I have now because I booked with a TA is that I can't cant call Celebrity to regularly monitor prices (the real ones anyway) and can't expect my TA to call everyday either.

 

Annoying to me but I also see it as a smart move to get around the many savvy cruisers who take advantage of perks AND price drops.

 

Might back fire as people will go elsewhere or hold off.

 

In essence, what they have done is sucker people into booking at ridiculously high prices (thinking they will take advantage of price drops later) and then making it next to impossible to get a price drop without giving up the perks that were tied into that ridiculously high price in the first place.

 

If this is their pricing strategy going forward, I, for one, see myself cancelling some future cruises that were booked on board recently. Quite frankly, I think their strategy will backfire.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

When I was finally able to get in the Celebrity site I found a curious pricing option I've never seen before. The fare was X with a $200 savings or X with $200 OBC. The fare with the OBC was $200 higher than the $200 savings fare. What's the point of stupid pricing like that??? It's the same either way.

 

I suspect that if they continue with this strategy, any Caribbean bookings I do will be last minute after final payment. I love cruising, but I've been there/done that in the Caribbean many times. Don't need to do it again unless the price is reasonable. The international stuff is more difficult because of the airfare issue.

 

We do have many other options for how to spend our travel dollars. Currently there is no real incentive for me to cruise more with Celebrity. I'm Elite+ and will never make it to Zenith. So the points are meaningless to me going forward.

[ghstudio]

When I was finally able to get in the Celebrity site I found a curious pricing option I've never seen before. The fare was X with a $200 savings or X with $200 OBC. The fare with the OBC was $200 higher than the $200 savings fare. What's the point of stupid pricing like that??? It's the same either way.

 

I suspect that if they continue with this strategy, any Caribbean bookings I do will be last minute after final payment. I love cruising, but I've been there/done that in the Caribbean many times. Don't need to do it again unless the price is reasonable. The international stuff is more difficult because of the airfare issue.

 

We do have many other options for how to spend our travel dollars. Currently there is no real incentive for me to cruise more with Celebrity. I'm Elite+ and will never make it to Zenith. So the points are meaningless to me going forward.

 

I have to agree...in fact we are going to cancel two reservations next week and wait to see what happens on those cruises. Those who are buying with Celebrity's "guaranteed lowest rate" may well find that they got a hollow promise because they can't get the "new bookings only" rate.

 

Not sure if this current idea of hiding the real price is working for Celebrity, but I suspect that they will have some pretty negative feedback once folks realize what's happening....and the consumer protection folks might just love to write an article about ethical pricing in the cruise industry.

 

Only time will tell how this rolls out...perhaps what we're seeing right now is just a poorly thought out experiment.

 

Yes, I was offered two options $300 OBC for the cabin or $150 off per person (max 2) on the cruise. It's nice to know that someone in Celebrity HQ can do basic math) but you get to pick whichever one you think is a deal even though the end result is identical. Didn't read the fine print...maybe that's an extra $150 off for single occupant passengers, cleverly hidden so they don't see it.

 

But the net right now is that if you have a guaranteed rate...or you have a captain's club upgrade, you are not going to get the prices celebrity is advertising and are on their web page. Oh, if you want to book a new cruise and use the captain's club upgrade, you don't get those prices either.

Edited May 3, 2014 by ghstudio

[Project_gal]

I have to agree...in fact we are going to cancel two reservations next week and wait to see what happens on those cruises. Those who are buying with Celebrity's "guaranteed lowest rate" may well find that they got a hollow promise because they can't get the "new bookings only" rate.

 

Not sure if this current idea of hiding the real price is working for Celebrity, but I suspect that they will have some pretty negative feedback once folks realize what's happening....and the consumer protection folks might just love to write an article about ethical pricing in the cruise industry.

 

Food for thought!

 

I think that something else you need to throw into this equation is the rapidly rising cruise market in Europe [and Australia?]. These areas do NOT have refundable deposits [thus, feel committed to a cruise from the get go] plus a culture where we expect to pay the price we booked at. Rooky cruises in these new cruising markets probably expect there to be a catch with the "guaranteed lowest rate", or that it will be applied automatically, so that they will not check the prices in the same way as Cruise Critic members do. The other side, of course, is that consumer protection laws in the EU have more clout than just writing articles on ethical pricing...

 

I may be wrong but I get the impression that new cruisers from the US test the water in the Carribean first. From our experience, new cruisers in the new markets tend to be people who have travelled a great deal before trying cruising and do not necessarily start crusing "locally".

 

Is, perhaps, Celebrity as much as a rooky in these new markets and seeing what works?

[goodycruising]

Well...our bookings are hiding as well with the IT problems at the moment. Both on Celebrity and Royal. Previously with website issues we at least could see our reservations, but couldn't always get into them. Now we have no cruises showing...feels like we don't need to save anymore towards them! We have also been looking at some other cruises and can't even get into the booking area. Going to go and have a look at the credit card and see if we have any refunds showing :D

[steveweese]

And then this happens......i booked a couple of cruises on board one for our friends. Got them the 123 promo and nice onboard credit. They called and got the 300 deal added on to their cruise along with the 123 package. I didn't think it was possible but they sent me their Invoice. So I called my cruise planner and was told they are not combinable .Then I sent her the invoice and said why not? Well I guess the agent that combined the 2 made a mistake and they would honor that invoice. It looked to me that an agent can change and do what they want unless a supervisor catches it.

[hulamoon]

These issues have been a problem for us for almost a year now. Hours and hours of wasted manpower on their part not to mention mine. I feel it erodes trust to not just put the five star price up or whatever the term for it is now.

 

I was using the category below the one I had been assigned to see the price, I guess this isn't correct anymore because it is a new booking price.

 

 

Personally I feel it would be far cheaper in the longer run to fix the site and have a more transparent pricing. At our house we wondered if someone isn't getting paid on the calls they receive rather than solving issues.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

It's nice to know that someone in Celebrity HQ can do basic math.

 

___________________

 

Too funny! Maybe they think their passengers can't? The whole thing is just ludicrous.