Weird email Celebrity / RCI snafu?

[mk-ultra]

Well, this is just weird.

 

I booked a solo Celebrity cruise for November 2020.

 

My friend, in no way associated with my Celebrity account or this booking, received an email with my name, booking number, Captain's Club number and other booking details with a welcome message from the CEO.  I didn't get this email, it was only sent to my friend (who, again, has nothing to do with this reservation).

 

My friend and I have traveled together, on Royal (RCI is the parent company of Celebrity), but that's the only connection.

 

Anyone else had this happen?  This is what my friend received:

 

 

 

Edited November 1, 2019 by mk-ultra

[boogybaby]

Hi, I would contact the captains club and ask them to make sure that only your email is registered to your account, I wouldn’t be happy even if it was a friend, janice

[mk-ultra]

The most weird part was that it was addressed to me (by first name)... but sent to my friend instead of me,  RCI's IT department has had some issues, but wow.

[Luvcrusn]

That's truly alarming. Luckily this was received by your friend, but I'd want to know who else received that information! I'd call Captains Club and ask to have this escalated up the line to upper level supervisory person for some answers! Someone having access to your name, reservation number, ship and sail date can gain access to all sorts of personal information like your address, passport number etc.

Edited November 1, 2019 by Luvcrusn

[Nymich]

They are exceeding the level of incompetence expected.

[Luvcrusn]

7 minutes ago, Nymich said:

They are exceeding the level of incompetence expected.

That is beyond incompetence, it's a serious security breach, especially for a solo traveler. There are also serious identity theft implications here as well as personal safety issues.

Edited November 1, 2019 by Luvcrusn

[hcat]

Wires are crossed somewhere.  I believe X and Royal databases have been merged  but still?   Did you use a mutual TA at some point?

 

 Need to have someone look into it and fully explain.

Person receiving the e mail should check things as well.

 

 

[mk-ultra]

15 minutes ago, hcat said:

Wires are crossed somewhere.  I believe X and Royal databases have been merged  but still?   Did you use a mutual TA at some point?

 

 Need to have someone look into it and fully explain.

Person receiving the e mail should check things as well.

 

 

No TA involved (for any of my cruises or my friend... we've never used one).

 

The thing that bugs me most about this is that there is essentially zero security around modifying a reservation other than knowing a name and reservation number (as anyone who has ever called in can attest to).  They've emailed out enough details to screw with my reservation... to someone not even on it.  That's beyond sloppy.

 

I called in. Naturally, nobody at first level support had any idea (and I didn't expect them to).  They've escalated my question (LOL), and I replied to the originating email address to see if that goes anywhere.

Edited November 1, 2019 by mk-ultra

[mitz18]

6 minutes ago, mk-ultra said:

No TA involved (for any of my cruises or my friend).

 

The thing that bugs me most about this is that there is essentially zero security around modifying a reservation other than knowing a name and reservation number (as anyone who has ever called in can attest to).  They've emailed out enough details to screw with my reservation... to someone not even on it.  That's beyond sloppy.

 

Not good at all.  You might sign in to your Capt Club account and check your profile just to see if your friends email address is in there somewhere.

[mk-ultra]

2 minutes ago, mitz18 said:

 

Not good at all.  You might sign in to your Capt Club account and check your profile just to see if your friends email address is in there somewhere.

 

First thing I checked.  Nope.  We've never cruised Celebrity together.  We had an Aug 2020 cruise on Royal planned, but my friend dropped out and I'm the only person left on that reservation.

[jcpc]

This did happen to me once.  I usually travel with my best friend.  But on occasion I will do a solo cruise without her.  One of my solo cruise's correspondence was addressed to me but sent to her email address.  Nobody at Celebrity could figure out how her email address replaced mine in one field in my profile (a field that I could not see but the folks at Celebrity could see it).  The only "guess" they had was that on the previous cruise we were on she was booked as Passenger 1 and i was booked as Passenger 2 (I'm usually Passenger 1) and that somehow caused her email address to replace mine.  They re-input my email address in that field and we haven't had the problem since then (well, not at least not yet.....but it wouldn't surprise me if it happened again as the Celebrity systems are loaded with bugs!)

 

Edited November 1, 2019 by jcpc

[mitz18]

1 minute ago, mk-ultra said:

 

First thing I checked.  Nope.  We've never cruised Celebrity together.  We had an Aug 2020 cruise on Royal planned, but my friend dropped out and I'm the only person left on that reservation.

 

Strange indeed.  I would seriously check with either (or both) the club and celebrity to see what happened, especially since you booked direct.   Would love to hear feedback what they ultimately tell you, if anything.  Good luck.

[mk-ultra]

2 minutes ago, jcpc said:

This did happen to me once.  I usually travel with my best friend.  But on occasion I will do a solo cruise without her.  One of my solo cruise's correspondence was addressed to me but sent to her email address.  Nobody at Celebrity could figure out how her email address replaced mine in one field in my profile (a field that I could not see but the folks at Celebrity could see it).  The only "guess" they had was that on the previous cruise we were on she was booked as Passenger 1 and i was booked as Passenger 2 (I'm usually Passenger 1).  They re-input my email address in that field and we haven't had the problem since then (well, not at least not yet.....but it wouldn't surprise me if it happened again as the Celebrity systems are loaded with bugs!)

 

I could see this happening, but for me... nobody else has ever been associated with this booking.  It's been me, and only me, since I booked it.

 

RCI IT department strikes again, I presume.

[ando cruiser]

This is deja vu for me. When m husband and I checked in in Fort Lauderdale on Reflection Nov 5 2018 they had no record of us and our reservation number was attached to a Royal Caribbean cruise for a woman and a child. Luckily I always bring all of my paperwork.  After making us wait aside for a few hours the hotel director told us that it was a database issue and because of all their upgradeding our file got corrupted.  It was a mess and they could not recreate our file. They finally checked us in because of course our stateroom was available.  After about 5 days   They discovered that RCI refunded some of the fare to our account - we had no dealings with RCI and only cruised with them once over 10 years ago. Near the end of the cruise they repriced our cruise taking into account the RCI refund which we had to verify with Amex and we had to pay again for the cruise.  We did not get our OBC or paid gratuities entitlement.  That was my worse cruise ever and it was the first of a btb. I was so worried about the next cruise which was on Silly so I kept asking the Front Desk Manager to check to make sure everything was ok.  She assured me everything was ok and that We were the only ones this happened to.  They offered us dinner at a Specialty Res and sent me flowers. I was so stressed on this cruise, it was no holiday.  I didn’t even complain when we got home bcuz I was so glad it was over.  Hope u have better luck. At least you are seeing a problem before the fact.

[jcpc]

1 minute ago, mk-ultra said:

I could see this happening, but for me... nobody else has ever been associated with this booking.  It's been me, and only me, since I booked it.

 

RCI IT department strikes again, I presume.

mk-ultra,

Nobody was ever associated with my solo booking either.  It was booked as a solo right from the get-go.  She was associated with my PREVIOUS booking and Celebrity thinks that someone changed the specific field to her email address and must have made it a "permanent" change.  

[Caribbean Chris]

Very unnerving! Makes one wonder, as a past X passenger, who else is receiving your travel data. You only learned of this because your friend informed you.

 

I’d make a huge issue of this if I were you - letter to the president of the company.

[Caribbean Chris]

3 minutes ago, ando cruiser said:

This is deja vu for me. When m husband and I checked in in Fort Lauderdale on Reflection Nov 5 2018 they had no record of us and our reservation number was attached to a Royal Caribbean cruise for a woman and a child. Luckily I always bring all of my paperwork.  After making us wait aside for a few hours the hotel director told us that it was a database issue and because of all their upgradeding our file got corrupted.  It was a mess and they could not recreate our file. They finally checked us in because of course our stateroom was available.  After about 5 days   They discovered that RCI refunded some of the fare to our account - we had no dealings with RCI and only cruised with them once over 10 years ago. Near the end of the cruise they repriced our cruise taking into account the RCI refund which we had to verify with Amex and we had to pay again for the cruise.  We did not get our OBC or paid gratuities entitlement.  That was my worse cruise ever and it was the first of a btb. I was so worried about the next cruise which was on Silly so I kept asking the Front Desk Manager to check to make sure everything was ok.  She assured me everything was ok and that We were the only ones this happened to.  They offered us dinner at a Specialty Res and sent me flowers. I was so stressed on this cruise, it was no holiday.  I didn’t even complain when we got home bcuz I was so glad it was over.  Hope u have better luck. At least you are seeing a problem before the fact.

 

Yours is another awful story. I’m so sorry your vacation was so disrupted.

 

I guess I’m lucky - when we checked in for our January Edge cruise, they had no record of the usual pre-arrangements, as I’ve done five or six times before, carefully made many months in advance, for bringing my service dog. There were three dogs on his list, but not mine.

 

I tried to show the counter man the many emails and point out that the “service dog agreement form” I had to sign and present at check-in was a Celebrity form - emailed to me by Celebrity. Clearly the accessibility department paperwork had not reached the ship.

 

We were left waiting quite a while for him to return to the pier checkin area from the ship. He sort of grudgingly told me that the ship’s officer he’d met with had decided to allow the dog to board, as if it was touch & go, but they were going to do us a big favor.

 

At the time, I concluded the Miami office was not well-organized yet for notifying the new ship of passenger accessibility requirements. Now I think someone checked in that day on a Royal Caribbean Cruise and was asked where the heck their dog was.

[hcat]

Wow...very bad computer  record keeping.. very scary situations,

Never heard of so many problems before Royal C took charge of Celebrity.  It seems to have brought the worst to one of the best,

 

I suggest an  e mail to Celeb One Touch Dept.  They seem to get  results,

[Mike981]

I hate to hear this, I'm sorry it happened OP.

 

I'm curious, have you tried a "reply to all" on the problem email? If it was truly just sent to your friend, that is bad enough. But if someone else received it, that opens up a whole new can of worms.

It amazes me everyday how often companies refuse to deal in today's world of security. I believe it is a calculated risk because it is expensive to do the right procedures, but it should not be an option. Everyday there is another news story about a data breach, a companies data being held for ransom, hospitals, city governments and on and on.

OP I you get it all sorted out and have the trip of a lifetime.

[effinaround]

Was your friend's email address ever used in a form on your computer? If it was, it could be that it was memorized and entered when you filled in your booking.

 

When you and your friend traveled together, who was the primary on the booking?

 

There is an explanation for it and it is not necessarily incompetence, or bad record keeping.  

[tandtiff]

Something similar happened to us a few years ago when the welcome email was sent to our emergency contact. 

[mk-ultra]

49 minutes ago, effinaround said:

Was your friend's email address ever used in a form on your computer? If it was, it could be that it was memorized and entered when you filled in your booking.

 

When you and your friend traveled together, who was the primary on the booking?

 

There is an explanation for it and it is not necessarily incompetence, or bad record keeping.  

 

Nope.  And that's why I find this so odd.  I haven't shared a cabin (on Royal) with my friend for ~10 years... but we've been on a lot of cruises on Royal together.  Neither of us has ever sailed on Celebrity.  He received this Celebrity email, not me and was (natch) confused by it.

Edited November 2, 2019 by mk-ultra

[Scottygirl1]

I have a similar thing happening.  My partner is getting all the emails for upgrades and excursions etc but nowhere have I put his email address on any part of the booking!  Everything has my email address.  We have sailed on RCI before and on Celebrity ten years ago but I always use my email for bookings.  Very strange.

[hcat]

Starting to sound like this may be a systemic issue that needs correction rather than a one-off snafu.

 

   Any guesses from computer/ data experts how this can happen`

 

[mk-ultra]

35 minutes ago, hcat said:

Starting to sound like this may be a systemic issue that needs correction rather than a one-off snafu.

 

   Any guesses from computer/ data experts how this can happen`

 

 

LOL.  The punchline here is that a huge part of my day-to-day job is insuring PII data doesn't leak.  Clearly, Celebrity is using data available from RCI, and being sloppy about it.