Celebrity no longer issuing partial refunds...

[dani negreanu]

This was posted by "Ourusualbeach" on the Royal board --

 

 

[hcat]

Followed the link.....read  through and posted this reply:

 

"Hmmm

We have to read this over a few times and process how it affects us in the future.  We already cancelled under rhe Cruise with Confidence plan..getting 50% back on credit card and 50% future cruise credit. Happy with that .

 

Many res are not at final payment date yet..so they can just be cancelled without any penalty.  If this is the " new plan" , folks will have to make their decision earlier rather than  last min after final payment.  We will likely cancel our Nov cruise after the current cancellation is processed. For Nov that  can be done on line & will just be a credit back to our card ..

 

X will still have 2 $ 900 deposits  for 2021 and 2022....Hoping things will be all good by then."

 

Would like to hear more????

 

 

[Fouremco]

@Ourusualbeach indicates that this change was announced to TA's today. This will have a huge impact on passengers, who will be leaving a great deal of money in Celebrity's hands. I'm glad that I cancelled on Sunday.

 

I'm surprised that this thread hasn't generated much reaction here.

[jelayne]

Not a big deal to us.  We are at 75% penalty and planned to canx later this week when I hoped the wait times had lessened.  We have 3 more cruises  booked this fall and 4 for 2021 so will wait until just before final payment then apply the FCC to one if the fall cruises.  Final payments for those are in July so not far away.

[lostchild]

Mine was cancelled yesterday.  Hopefully it will follow the old rule....

[Fouremco]

4 minutes ago, jelayne said:

Not a big deal to us.  We are at 75% penalty and planned to canx later this week when I hoped the wait times had lessened.  We have 3 more cruises  booked this fall and 4 for 2021 so will wait until just before final payment then apply the FCC to one if the fall cruises.  Final payments for those are in July so not far away.

I suspect that for those who can only afford an occasional cruise, having thousand of dollars tied up in an FCC would be more of an issue, particularly as those funds wouldn't be available for other holiday options. Given the current state of COVID-19, planning on simply delaying a cruise to this summer or fall may not be possible.

[Ward517]

I just called to see what our options were for our 5/15 Edge cruise.  We had made final payment and Celebrity confirmed all would be FCC regardless of penalty phase under Cruise with Confidence.   They are also no longer following the updated cancellation dates that were issued on 2/28 for certain cruises 😞.  So now we wait and see what happens....  

Edited March 11, 2020 by Ward517

[hcat]

Wow,,, glad we went ahead and cancelled under the  Cruise with Confidence plan...Rather have the money back on  our credit  card than a  large future cruise credit.

 

Those who were waiting awhile  may be sorry they did if cancellation was their plan.!

[jelayne]

The way I look at it we were going to lose 75% as we were planning to cancel our April TA  because of the virus.  Travel insurance wasn’t going to cover it as it’s excludes epidemics.  So we were looking at getting 25% ($1500) back in cash period. Losing $4500.   Cruise with Confidence gives us all $6000 of our money to apply to another cruise.   We are happy, disappointed we can’t go on the TA but happy.

[hcat]

If you book at  suite level, that should be a healthy fcc.

Our fcc will fit well when applied to our January 2021 cruise  on Connie,..fingers and toes crossed.

[Educators2]

I canceled this morning and got 75% back to credit card and 25% future cruise credit. Haven’t seen the money on my credit card account. Guess I was lucky.

[ocngypz]

It changed late this afternoon.

[JOHN474]

Folks, you are missing the change in the fine print. When I cancelled on Saturday, the policy read 100% of the cancellation penalty would go to the FCC.  From last Friday to at least Monday, what that meant was the portion other than the cancellation penalty went to CC cash refund plus port fees and taxes went to CC.

They changed the wording sometime Tuesday 3/10.  Now it says if you cancel up to 48 hours before, " 100% goes to FCC ".  Under the new policy, apparently only port fees and taxes gets refunded to CC.

They had in original fine print they could change the offer or withdraw it.. Well on Tuesday they changed it,

I suspect they hoped it would slow down cancellations, instead it probably accelerated cancelations. If you thought it was likely you would cancel, until today there was an incentive to cancel sooner. If you did, a greater % of monies went to CC refund.  Folks that did not cancel by yesterday monday, or possibly early Tuesday... not sure when they changed it ... are not eligible for the better deal. 

I printed out the original website wording on Saturday. Amazing how just changing a couple words, makes such a significant difference, if you were cancelling after final payment.

Celebrity to my knowledge did not advertise or put out a press release that they somehow changed the policy today.

[middlehaitch]

Again JOHN474 could you please post the link to this. There is rumour that things are going to change, but, right (9pm PST 100320) now I am still reading...

https://www.celebritycruises.com/cruise-with-confidence

Essentially, Cruise with Confidence means that guests who cancel their cruise for sailings departing up until 7/31/2020 can do so for for ANY reason as late as 48 hours before sailing and get a 100% Future Cruise Credit (good until 12/31/2021) for the full amount in penalty.

 

I may not be delving deep enough for the fine print that negates this, so I would appreciate a link.

 

Cheers, heather 🥂

 

[WonderMan3]

I would assume that you can opt to reject the cruise credit, meaning that you could choose to default to the standard cancellation policy which means you would get everything above the cancellation fee back as cash and receive no FCC. That is the contract that you entered into with them when you booked so they are required to honor that.

[JOHN474]

10 minutes ago, middlehaitch said:

Again JOHN474 could you please post the link to this. There is rumour that things are going to change, but, right (9pm PST 100320) now I am still reading...

https://www.celebritycruises.com/cruise-with-confidence

Essentially, Cruise with Confidence means that guests who cancel their cruise for sailings departing up until 7/31/2020 can do so for for ANY reason as late as 48 hours before sailing and get a 100% Future Cruise Credit (good until 12/31/2021) for the full amount in penalty.

 

I may not be delving deep enough for the fine print that negates this, so I would appreciate a link.

 

Cheers, heather 🥂

 

 

Heather your statement above is accurate. NOW you can get a 100% Future Cruise Credit, but Friday to Monday the wording was different. After final payment, 100% of the cancellation penalties (ie. non refundable deposit plus normal 25 , 50 or 75% penalty based on how close to cruise) went to FCC and the balance went to CC Cash refund.

You can read many folks now confirming when they cancelled today, the Cruise With Confidence offer put everything to FCC, except port fees and taxes. That was not the case Friday to Monday.

[middlehaitch]

John, we're reading this different. The quote above is current and says it is only the penalty that is a FCC. This has always been the offer no matter the wording up until now.

If folks are getting 100% FCC when they are still under the 100% penalty phase they need to challenge it. 

Celebrity may have changed their policy, but at this point in time have not published the change to the cruising population at large, maybe to TAs.

 

Best that we agree to our own interpretations and let others come to their own conclusions. 

 

Cheers, heather 🥂

 

[Saab4444]

What happens now before final payment with non refundable deposite but already paid in full? Do you still get the non refundable deposite as FCC and the rest back in cash?

[Ontario Cruiser]

What about cruiseline air. I presume we get that back

OntarioCruiser

[hcat]

At 48 hours before sailing...  wouldn't all folks be in the 100 % penalty range? Seems they can get FCC for what they would normally lose.  

 

Guess we have to wait for those FCC Certificates to come through and compare  notes to answer some of the questions.  So far nothing is  back yet on our credit card.  We cancelled our excursions and specialty dining a day before we cancelled the cruise...to make it simpler.  So we expect that credit might hit first....maybe????  Our card is at zero balance so not sure if we will need to charge up on it to use our credit card credit,  or if  BOA will send us a refund check????

[mac_tlc]

11 minutes ago, hcat said:

At 48 hours before sailing...  wouldn't all folks be in the 100 % penalty range? Seems they can get FCC for what they would normally lose.  

 

Guess we have to wait for those FCC Certificates to come through and compare  notes to answer some of the questions.  So far nothing is  back yet on our credit card.  We cancelled our excursions and specialty dining a day before we cancelled the cruise...to make it simpler.  So we expect that credit might hit first....maybe????  Our card is at zero balance so not sure if we will need to charge up on it to use our credit card credit,  or if  BOA will send us a refund check????

For anyone within 30 days of sailing, there is no difference. For those between finall payment date and 30 days, the change is bigger....no more cash back, only FCC.

 

I think  this change forces more cancellations before final payment date.

 

mac_tlc

Edited March 11, 2020 by mac_tlc

[Eglesbrech]

40 minutes ago, mac_tlc said:

For anyone within 30 days of sailing, there is no difference. For those between finall payment date and 30 days, the change is bigger....no more cash back, only FCC.

 

I think  this change forces more cancellations before final payment date.

 

mac_tlc

May be a strategy. If more people cancel will that not present a much clearer picture to Celebrity about actual occupancy otherwise everyone would hedge their bets until 2 days before. They can then take decisions about (potential) full cruise cancellations.

[OuiOnboard]

9 minutes ago, Eglesbrech said:

May be a strategy. If more people cancel will that not present a much clearer picture to Celebrity about actual occupancy otherwise everyone would hedge their bets until 2 days before. They can then take decisions about (potential) full cruise cancellations.

As part of the booking process pricing games, may be a strategy to keep everyone on their toes. It is all in the details.

Edited March 11, 2020 by OuiOnboard

[Hllb]

I received a reply from Celebrity last night at 11:25 PM to a question I sent over 2 weeks ago (prior to cruise w/confidence). They still said the FCC is only for the 'penalty' and it's still listed as that on the website today. They really need to get their communication together, if they have in fact changed the policy.

[ABZCRUISE]

We are due to pay final balance next month on 2 cabins - am i correct in assuming if we cancel, we will receive a FCC for our NRD's and new FCC for the FCC we were already using towards this booking?