UK cruisers - beware sales - exchange rates

[anniedave]

If you are from the UK please be careful of any sales. I just thought I would be really clever by cancelling an excursion and rebooking at a sale price saving myself about £20. However because of the difference in the exchange rate from when I booked it a few months ago it actually ended up costing me £3.60 ! Not much but if you cancel and rebook a few things it could be costly ! The celeb exchange rate appears really bad $1 - 76p !! 

[anniegb]

1 hour ago, anniedave said:

If you are from the UK please be careful of any sales. I just thought I would be really clever by cancelling an excursion and rebooking at a sale price saving myself about £20. However because of the difference in the exchange rate from when I booked it a few months ago it actually ended up costing me £3.60 ! Not much but if you cancel and rebook a few things it could be costly ! The celeb exchange rate appears really bad $1 - 76p !! 

 

Is that not the equivalent of $1.30?? or am I misreading you??

 

Annie

[barneyboy]

21 minutes ago, anniegb said:

 

Is that not the equivalent of $1.30?? or am I misreading you??

 

Annie

That seems a great exchange. I just bought some currency from Marks and Spencer at an exchange rate of 1.19 which is about $1 = 83p

[anniedave]

31 minutes ago, anniegb said:

 

Is that not the equivalent of $1.30?? or am I misreading you??

 

Annie

When I booked it was roughly $1 -£1 so  now down by about 24p per $. When I booked the particular excursion I paid £99.84 for it. Sale price was about £80, so I thought I would cancel and rebook - saving myself I thought £20- however I cancelled and then was only given a refund of £76.44 rather than the £99.84 I paid so cancelling and rebooking at the sale price actually cost me rather than saving me money! Lesson learned ....I will check in future ! 

Edited August 24, 2019 by anniedave

[anniedave]

1 minute ago, barneyboy said:

That seems a great exchange. I just bought some currency from Marks and Spencer at an exchange rate of 1.19 which is about $1 = 83p

So today on celeb the exchange rate was $1 = 76p 😣

[anniegb]

17 minutes ago, anniedave said:

When I booked it was roughly $1 -£1 so  now down by about 24p per $. When I booked the particular excursion I paid £99.84 for it. Sale price was about £80, so I thought I would cancel and rebook - saving myself I thought £20- however I cancelled and then was only given a refund of £76.44 rather than the £99.84 I paid so cancelling and rebooking at the sale price actually cost me rather than saving me money! Lesson learned ....I will check in future ! 

It is too early for my Maths.  

The exchange rate for GBP:USD has never been at parity in my lifetime.

So you are saying you purchased an excursion at USD 100 approx. and paid £99.84 initially?? 

Sorry I am missing something.

 

Annie

 

[barneyboy]

22 minutes ago, anniedave said:

So today on celeb the exchange rate was $1 = 76p 😣

Well that is better as each dollar is only costing 76p as opposed to 83p. It means we get more dollars for our pounds. I think it must be an error if you bought excursions at close to par as the pound hasn’t been at par with the dollar for as long as I can remember. I have read in the press that it may happen following Brexit, which is why I purchased some currency. 

[anniedave]

18 minutes ago, anniegb said:

It is too early for my Maths.  

The exchange rate for GBP:USD has never been at parity in my lifetime.

So you are saying you purchased an excursion at USD 100 approx. and paid £99.84 initially?? 

Sorry I am missing something.

 

Annie

 

I'm not sure what the price was in dollars initially  ( but yes roughly $100 I think) but I paid £99.84 and then when I got a refund I only got back £76.44 

[anniedave]

13 minutes ago, barneyboy said:

Well that is better as each dollar is only costing 76p as opposed to 83p. It means we get more dollars for our pounds. I think it must be an error if you bought excursions at close to par as the pound hasn’t been at par with the dollar for as long as I can remember. I have read in the press that it may happen following Brexit, which is why I purchased some currency. 

I booked it the end part of last year. Yes you get more dollars for your pound and we get less pound for our dollars 🤣 we are doing the opposite of you and waiting until after Brexit to buy our dollars for our Jan cruise in the hope we get more for our money. Although it's your turn to benefit now as we remember about 12 years ago when we went to Las Vegas and were fortunate enough to be getting 2 dollars to the pound! ... a distant memory now! 

[anniegb]

6 minutes ago, anniedave said:

I'm not sure what the price was in dollars initially  ( but yes roughly $100 I think) but I paid £99.84 and then when I got a refund I only got back £76.44 

If you purchased a $100 excursion and paid £99.84 - you were overcharged.

 

If you have documentary evidence to support that, I would be asking for a refund on the grounds of exchange rate error.

 

Annie

[anniegb]

3 minutes ago, anniedave said:

I booked it the end part of last year. Yes you get more dollars for your pound and we get less pound for our dollars 🤣 we are doing the opposite of you and waiting until after Brexit to buy our dollars for our Jan cruise in the hope we get more for our money. Although it's your turn to benefit now as we remember about 12 years ago when we went to Las Vegas and were fortunate enough to be getting 2 dollars to the pound! ... a distant memory now! 

When I was a child the exchange rate was £ : $4 or $1 was worth 5 shillings 😉

 

Annie

Edited August 24, 2019 by anniegb

[bengaltiger1]

47 minutes ago, anniedave said:

When I booked it was roughly $1 -£1 so  now down by about 24p per $. When I booked the particular excursion I paid £99.84 for it. Sale price was about £80, so I thought I would cancel and rebook - saving myself I thought £20- however I cancelled and then was only given a refund of £76.44 rather than the £99.84 I paid so cancelling and rebooking at the sale price actually cost me rather than saving me money! Lesson learned ....I will check in future ! 

 

Annie, may I clarify that you booked the trips through Celebrity UK? The only reason I ask is that I have cancelled excursions with them and received a refund for the exact same amount that I paid. Then rebooked at the lower rate.  I would question this with them. Trips paid in £ and refunded in £. 

[anniedave]

2 minutes ago, anniegb said:

If you purchased a $100 excursion and paid £99.84 - you were overcharged.

 

If you have documentary evidence to support that, I would be asking for a refund on the grounds of exchange rate error.

 

Annie

Hi Annie, 

At the time the exchange rate was about $ to £ so it was about right. I just wanted to warn anyone from the UK to be wary when they are looking at sale prices of excursions, dining etc and were thinking if cancelling and rebooking, as with drop in exchange rate from £ to $ they may not benefit ! 

[anniedave]

1 minute ago, bengaltiger1 said:

 

Annie, may I clarify that you booked the trips through Celebrity UK? The only reason I ask is that I have cancelled excursions with them and received a refund for the exact same amount that I paid. Then rebooked at the lower rate.  I would question this with them. Trips paid in £ and refunded in £. 

Yes I did cancel and rebook through them. It may be because I cancelled and they didnt actually refund my card but just converted it into OBC which I then used to rebook the trip? Maybe that's why the exchange rate wasnt great? Maybe I should have done it a different way? As I said I only lost £3.60  ( about $3.50) so I'm not too worried, I just wanted to make sure others didnt make the same mistake ! 

[anniegb]

23 minutes ago, anniedave said:

Hi Annie, 

At the time the exchange rate was about $ to £ so it was about right. I just wanted to warn anyone from the UK to be wary when they are looking at sale prices of excursions, dining etc and were thinking if cancelling and rebooking, as with drop in exchange rate from £ to $ they may not benefit ! 

The exchange rate has NEVER been £1 = $1.

 

Annie

[anniegb]

26 minutes ago, bengaltiger1 said:

 

Annie, may I clarify that you booked the trips through Celebrity UK? The only reason I ask is that I have cancelled excursions with them and received a refund for the exact same amount that I paid. Then rebooked at the lower rate.  I would question this with them. Trips paid in £ and refunded in £. 

That is what I would expect.

 

Annie

[Suite Susie]

Annie, I think you will find that the Exchange Rate has not dipped to £1 to $1 for many many years.  Lowest it has been has been is around $1.18 to the £.  See if you can find your confirmation from Celebrity - they always email you when you book anything and see what you paid.  As others have said, we always pay in £'s in the UK not $'s, but the price no doubt goes up with the differing exchange rates.

Thanks for the warning though. 

[mickey89]

3 hours ago, anniedave said:

If you are from the UK please be careful of any sales. I just thought I would be really clever by cancelling an excursion and rebooking at a sale price saving myself about £20. However because of the difference in the exchange rate from when I booked it a few months ago it actually ended up costing me £3.60 ! Not much but if you cancel and rebook a few things it could be costly ! The celeb exchange rate appears really bad $1 - 76p !! 

The current Celebrity exch. rate is 1$ = 0.81p ($1.23 = £)

It changes all the time. If you buy something via your Cruise Planner today you pay 0.81p per $. If you cancel that same item in a few months time you will get the new exchange rate of the day not what you paid. You win some, you lose some - be alert !

[anniegb]

53 minutes ago, anniedave said:

Yes I did cancel and rebook through them. It may be because I cancelled and they didnt actually refund my card but just converted it into OBC which I then used to rebook the trip? Maybe that's why the exchange rate wasnt great? Maybe I should have done it a different way? As I said I only lost £3.60  ( about $3.50) so I'm not too worried, I just wanted to make sure others didnt make the same mistake ! 

To recap you booked and paid in sterling.  You were offered the refund in sterling but you declined.

 

What have Celebrity done wrong??

 

Annie

[bengaltiger1]

1 hour ago, anniedave said:

Yes I did cancel and rebook through them. It may be because I cancelled and they didnt actually refund my card but just converted it into OBC which I then used to rebook the trip? Maybe that's why the exchange rate wasnt great? Maybe I should have done it a different way? As I said I only lost £3.60  ( about $3.50) so I'm not too worried, I just wanted to make sure others didnt make the same mistake ! 

 

I booked through my credit card and was refunded through my credit card. 

 

On the UK site when you look at your OBC it says that once you start spending it that the exchange rate is locked in, therefore I don’t understand how they can refund less or even refund to OBC  if you paid by credit card. 

 

Sorry if i am understanding your post correctly.  

[Bretty]

My understanding of the exchange rate being locked in your cruise planner  is that it applies to advance purchases using your OBC.

 

Aside from that, any purchase via credit card on the UK site should be in sterling and not dollars since X are advertising the products in £ sterling. Strictly speaking, there should be no loss from a change in the rate of exchange as it shouldn’t even apply.

 

If you make a purchase in $USD, and I don’t see how that should happen if prices are published in sterling, but if you do pay in $ then the exchange *should* be handled by your bank / credit card provider at the prevailing interbank rate plus any foreign exchange fees they might add on. X would not normally be able to influence that unless they are advertising in £ sterling and doing a dynamic conversion to $USD - which they’re supposed to tell you about and give you the choice (and you should always pay in local currency to where you are).

 

If X have refunded a credit card payment as OBC instead of back to the card then they’re going to do that at their own dynamic rate which you can see on your cruise planner. Which means you’ll lose out and they will make money!

 

From reading the OPs posts, I’m not sure if she originally paid in $ or £, but it should have been £ as that is how X is advertising and offering their products to the UK market.

[mickey89]

2 hours ago, bengaltiger1 said:

 

On the UK site when you look at your OBC it says that once you start spending it that the exchange rate is locked in, therefore I don’t understand how they can refund less or even refund to OBC  if you paid by credit card. 

 

The exchange rate is locked for that transaction only.  

If you make a further purchase say in a month's time it will be at the rate of the day whatever that maybe, it could be better or worse.

[bengaltiger1]

11 minutes ago, mickey89 said:

The exchange rate is locked for that transaction only.  

If you make a further purchase say in a month's time it will be at the rate of the day whatever that maybe, it could be better or worse.

 

Thats not how I read it in my booking. It states that once you make your first purchase that your exchange rate is locked in. 

[Fouremco]

8 minutes ago, bengaltiger1 said:

 

Thats not how I read it in my booking. It states that once you make your first purchase that your exchange rate is locked in. 

 

 

I agree, once you start using it, the OBC is locked in at the exchange rate on the date of the first purchase. In our case, the receipt  clearly shows the balance in CAD, not in USD to be converted at a different rate at a future time.

 

 

[mickey89]

Yip, locked in for your obc only.