Transferring a deposit from Royal to Celebrity

[nekzaadvakil]

I've been loyal to the Royal/Celebrity family so far and with (hopefully) many years of cruising ahead, one would imagine that the company would like to keep us within the fold.

 

While we absolutely love the ships, the itineraries and the staff on board, the websites and booking staff are just horrible. While I was on the Celebrity Silhouette earlier this june, I paid a deposit for Royal Caribbean's Quantum sailing (May 2015) for myself, my parents and my aunt (3 Veranda staterooms).

 

A couple of months ago, my parents and aunt saw the Celebrity Asia cruise and decided to change the Quantum booking to the Celebrity Millennium booking (Jan 2015) and we faced no issues.

 

Last week, I decided that instead of the Quantum (May 2015), we preferred doing the Celebrity Silhouette Baltic Cruise. We changed it via our travel agent (Tirun is RCCL's OFFICIAL travel agents in India) and asked them to transfer the deposit (like we did for my parents)

 

Now here's the best part:

1) The agency comes back saying it is not possible to transfer a deposit from RCCL to Celebrity. They go on to say that Royal Caribbean and Celebrity do not cross sell each other's cruises and hence a transfer was not possible (Really? Then how did i book 5 RCCL cruises on board the Celebrity Silhouette?)

 

2) When I asked them how they managed to transfer my parent's deposit from RCCL's Quantum to Celebrity Millennium, they said that maybe they didn't realize what they are doing.

 

From the looks of it, Royal is more comfortable with me canceling both cruises and earning ZERO business from me, rather than simply transferring a deposit. This is how absurd their sales policies are!

 

Anyone else have a similar issue?

[florisdekort]

Although the same holding owns both companies, both are truly separate companies with their own accounts, P&L, etc. Unless they create a complex system of cross company charging, I totally understand why a deposit paid to company 1 can't be used at company 2. If I book a room at Hilton, I can't go spend the night at Conrad (same holding) either.

 

 

 

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[Christine Frances]

I haven't tested it yet, but when I did my on board booking last month I was told I could transfer it to Royal or Azamara.

 

 

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[nekzaadvakil]

florisdekort - I would have agreed, except that they have just done it for 2 of my other onboard bookings (Quantum to Millennium) less than 2 months ago! And they are saying they can do it for bookings done through a travel agent, but not for bookings done onboard.

 

Although the same holding owns both companies, both are truly separate companies with their own accounts, P&L, etc. Unless they create a complex system of cross company charging, I totally understand why a deposit paid to company 1 can't be used at company 2. If I book a room at Hilton, I can't go spend the night at Conrad (same holding) either.

 

 

 

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[nekzaadvakil]

Yup, I was told the same thing. My TA now wants to know the name of the person who agreed and also if I have something in WRITING which states that the same is possible! Absurd.

 

 

I haven't tested it yet, but when I did my on board booking last month I was told I could transfer it to Royal or Azamara.

 

 

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[Turtles06]

I understand that perhaps it would be easier to just transfer the deposit, but if folks are making that difficult and time-consuming for you, why not just place a deposit on your new sailing and get a refund of the first deposit?

 

In any event, it looks like the issue may be more with your travel agent than with the cruise lines.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[terrierjohn]

I sympathise with your dilemma, you would think it should be easy to arrange a switch like this within the same overall company. In fact you would think that RCI customer service would go out of it's way to ensure a booking remained within the overall group, rather than risk you switching to another cruise line.

Ridiculous jobsworth rules like this must make it equally frustrating for any dedicated customer service employee, of any organisation.

[villauk]

Unsure if the T&C are the same in Mumbai as they are if booked in the UK :confused:, but here you can transfer your non refundable deposit over to the other line if you pay an admin fee. We did this a few years ago, booked on a Royal ship and changed to Connie, and paid a charge for the 1st and 2nd passengers only. I can't remember exactly how much it was - either £35 or £75 pp.

 

If you can cancel without penalties in India, then it may be easier just to cancel and rebook on the new sailing ;).

Edited December 12, 2014 by villauk

[Blondie008]

We 100% have transferred between RCI and Celebrity

I think the admin was £75 pp.

From UK