upgrade to business class

[hifred]

This is our first time sailing with Celebrity and will probably be our last. I thought this was supposed to be an "upscale" company. The customer service problems I have had (and the cruise hasn't started yet) are very disconcerning. Maybe someone out there can give me some advice. We are scheduled on the Millenium Dec. 24th Ft. Lauderdale to Santiago Chile. I booked cruise and air. The air is on American. We have 80,000 airline miles and we told Celebrity that we needed to expedite the air tickets and then American once the tickets are in the computer system will upgrade us to Business class. American holds the space for a week. Celebrity noted this in our file and never did the ticketing. I have called them. It is in the file but what they did is printed the cruise only tickets and not the airline tickets. I have continued to call and have now been told to call back Monday. The business class air seating is long gone. Now I have to wait list because it is Christmas time. More than two weeks has elapsed which caused my upgrade request to drop out of American's system. Celebrity has dropped the ball and they admit it but still todate they have not made it right. I was on the phone all day yesterday, there was a computer problem and the air could not be ticketed. I was told to call back today. I called back today and they told me no one was in to take care of the ticketing. I am supposed to call back next week. :( Any ideas out there?

[KevBew]

We had American tickets in coach from Custom Air, planned on upgrading with AAdvantage miles. AA had told us as soon as X ticketed the seats, they would upgrade us to Bus. or 1st. I called Custom Air (such a misnomer) to inquire when they would ticket so I could upgrade. Ended up in an argument with the CSR because she said AA would not allow me to upgrade. Also, if I wanted 1st, I would have to pay through Custom Air at market rate. That would raise the cost to almost 3 x's what we were already paying. She didn't care that I already had a guarantee from AA for the upgrade. She could not give me a date for ticketing. I ended up cancelling the Custom Air arrangements at a $50 pp fee and went on my own to find fares. We were paying $770 pp for the Custom Air from SFO to SJU in coach. For an additional $220 pp we have first class on USAir (not my usual carrier) from Orbitz. Considering we are flying from SFO we wanted to be as comfortable as possible for such a long flight so it was worth the extra money. I'm not going to waste my time with Cruise air again. It isn't that big of an advantage IMHO. Others may disagree.

[Brucemcdou]

Hifred - sorry to hear of your frustration in the pre-cruise experience but please wait until you get on board - hopefully the on-board experience will be much more impressive. Celebrity pre-and post-cruise telephone and e-mail customer "service" is woefully inadequate, for whatever reason, but they will charm you on board. If Celebrity management ever reads these boards, that's the number one complaint they should notice! It sounds as if you've done everything you reasonably can but I'd suggest trying again and insisting on speaking with a manager and don't give up until you get satisfaction. Make notes about the names of who you speak with, the times, the promises, etc. which can get you past the "we can't do that" response.

 

I've never done Celebrity air and/or custom air but have always done my own in order to maintain control of seats assignment, mileage credit, etc. Of course, the risk you take is if anything goes wrong such as delayed flights, changed cruise itinerary, etc. you're on your own. That's where travel insurance can help out.

[bob278]

I am very interested in this subject but all my inquiries have indicated that it isn't really possible. Delta (and I think most airlines) have certain fare basis tickets that miles won't upgrade.

 

For instance on Delta, there is one group of fares (I forget the exact designation, but for the sake of illustration I will use Q and K) for 40,000 miles and another group (again for illustration B, H, Y) for 20,000 and yet another (L, T, U) that are not upgradeable. everyone I ask tells me that the cruiselines use either one of the lowest group or special codes and my miles would not be able to upgrade them.

 

I am guessing AA did not know what fare basis your tickets would be or perhaps your know all this and paid enough to get to an eligible fare. But the Cruiseline reps should know all this. Sadly, they are not conversant with all of the nuances of frequent-flyer programs.

 

Unfortunately, the shore-based service is nowhere near as good as what you can expect on board. I think this is true of most of the lines. The cruise experience will be far superior to what you have seen so far.

[Ma Bell]

I agree. If you are going to use frequent flyer miles, you really need to book your own tickets.

[ocngypz]

Bulk coach seats such as the massmarket cruiselines contract, cannot be upgraded using FF miles. Wrong fare code. Luxury lines at times, is a different story.

 

You are best to do your own air. If you need transfers you can always purchase those separately.

 

I have a feeling you did not use a ta for your booking?

 

Oh btw. Air/Sea works M-F.

[alanmal]

If you would like to join the roll call for the 12/24/05 cruise from Ft Lauderdale to Valparaiso go to:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=229497

 

 

al :rolleyes:

[Arubalisa]

...and yet another (L, T, U) that are not upgradeable. everyone I ask tells me that the cruiselines use either one of the lowest group or special codes and my miles would not be able to upgrade them.

These are indeed the lowest fares, mostly also known as "bulk" fares, in that cruise lines, travel wholesalers etc. receive contracted pricing on these seats. The airline also uses these fares when they offer sale pricing.

 

As others have said, it is really necessary to book your own travel to obtain FF upgrades. Whether a land based vacation or cruise, whoever you are buying your airfare from is most likely getting that fare at a discount which (see above) is not upgradeable because it is already highly discounted.

[KevBew]

Just to clarify, AA had our specific information when I spoke to them. The only problem was that Celebrity had not finalized the purchase. I'm not arguing the fare code issue but in our case we clearly did not have the lower, more restrictive fares. The AAdvantage CSR understood our request and could accomodate the request according to the fare code in AA's system. The CSR at X just seemed intent on trying to sell us a more expensive fare.

[smdubowsky]

I will agree with the other posters here. We are going on the Constellation in February and recently cruised on the Infinity. On both occasions I declined to use Celebrity Custom Air because of their limitations and because they would have charged me much more than the fare I received by booking directly with the airline. The booking codes and allotments for frequent flier seats can be complicated and not all economy fare basis codes can be upgraded. I believe that in the future you should make these slightly more complex plans yourself and then know that they were done correctly.