Lift and Shift Flexibility question

[XuGator]

Hi, we have a 14 night Scandinavian cruise booked out of Southampton on an S class ship for July of 2021. There do not seem to be any comparable sailings for this cruise in 2022 and the closest one is on July 8th, 2022 on the Apex. The 2022 Apex cruise is only 12 nights and leaves from Amsterdam instead of Southampton.

 

I know the policy suggests that you cannot go from an S to Edge class ship but is there any chance Celebrity will accommodate a lift and shift since this is the most compatible cruise and if we are willing to give up 2 nights by going from a 14 night cruise to only a 12?

 

Has anyone been in a similar situation and how flexible has Celebrity been with this program? We have a terrific rate and promotions on this sailing and we just don't see our 2021 cruise happening (at least without significant adjustments or ports getting cancelled).

 

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

[PTC DAWG]

Does anything come up when you put the cruise into the lift and shift feature on Celebrity's web site?  

 

https://cancellation.celebritycruises.com/?brand=C&program=liftshift

[XuGator]

We havent tried a request yet because it appears the policy in its current form only applies to sailings before May of 2022 and ours is July. We are assuming this will be extended out past July but were curious on how flexible Celebrity might be moving to a higher class ship if we forego several nights (14 down to 12).

[Fouremco]

17 minutes ago, XuGator said:

We havent tried a request yet because it appears the policy in its current form only applies to sailings before May of 2022 and ours is July. We are assuming this will be extended out past July but were curious on how flexible Celebrity might be moving to a higher class ship if we forego several nights (14 down to 12).

Different class of ship. Different duration. Different itinerary. Outside the date limits for L&S. 

 

Any one of these factors individually might negate your possibility of using L&S. With all four combined, unless Celebrity makes a major revision of the program, not simply an extension of the date limits, I doubt that you have any chance of using L&S. 

 

 

Edited January 7, 2021 by Fouremco

[TFree]

56 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

Different class of ship. Different duration. Different itinerary. Outside the date limits for L&S. 

 

Any one of these factors individually might negate your possibility of using L&S. With all four combined, unless Celebrity makes a major revision of the program, not simply an extension of the date limits, I doubt that you have any chance of using L&S. 

 

 

Agreed.  I currently have a request pending with Celebrity to approve a Lift & Shift from a 15 night cruise to a 14 night cruise.  However, it is same class of ship, same type of itinerary, and within the current date limits.  I am waiting to hear back, but I assume that will be approved.  I would be surprised if Celebrity would approve 4 deviations from the program.

 

Tom & Judy

[jojo1966]

We requested a lift and shift on a Japan cruise...same ship...same destination...within 4 weeks following year..but new cruise was 1 night shorter....told them we didn't want any reduction for less nights but we're told point blank NO....then again we are in the UK where we get treated considerably less favourably by celebrity UK

[Tigrou]

The Lift & Shift policy is very clearly not applied consistently by Celebrity.

 

I've no idea whether it's down to how much clout your travel agent has with them, or if your face fits, or simply luck of the draw, but it is most definitely not applied fairly or consistently.

 

I was booked on the April 2021 Reflection 16-night transatlantic.  There are no 16-night TAs in spring 2022 so I asked to L&S to the most similar itinerary, on Silhouette.  It was refused.

 

Yet other passengers on the same Reflection TA have been allowed to L&S, including to Reflection's spring 2022 TA which is a completely different itinerary, and even to Apex.

 

My (US) travel agent asked again, citing these examples, but it was again refused.  I asked for an explanation as to why I have been treated less favourably than other customers but no response was forthcoming.  All Celebrity will do is keep insisting that there are no spring 2022 cruises which meet the criteria for L&S.

 

[jojo1966]

21 minutes ago, Tigrou said:

The Lift & Shift policy is very clearly not applied consistently by Celebrity.

 

I've no idea whether it's down to how much clout your travel agent has with them, or if your face fits, or simply luck of the draw, but it is most definitely not applied fairly or consistently.

 

I was booked on the April 2021 Reflection 16-night transatlantic.  There are no 16-night TAs in spring 2022 so I asked to L&S to the most similar itinerary, on Silhouette.  It was refused.

 

Yet other passengers on the same Reflection TA have been allowed to L&S, including to Reflection's spring 2022 TA which is a completely different itinerary, and even to Apex.

 

My (US) travel agent asked again, citing these examples, but it was again refused.  I asked for an explanation as to why I have been treated less favourably than other customers but no response was forthcoming.  All Celebrity will do is keep insisting that there are no spring 2022 cruises which meet the criteria for L&S.

 

When I asked my celebrity uk rep why other people had been allowed to do improper lift and shift when we couldn't she said it was because when it first came out there were some reps allowing flexibility but they had since been clamped down on and it was now set in stone what could and couldn't be done....sure that's a load of rubbish and it still depends who you get to speak to when requesting 

[wrk2cruise]

I agree with your TA that in the early days exceptions were not that uncommon and they could respond favorably to logical arguments.   Personally I got them to allow me to move to the same ship 9 night instead of 10 night at the same fare as they went from 10/11 night sailings to 9/12 night in 2021.   A friend on the same sailing was denied but I gave them my reservation number to use as an argument and was eventually allowed.

 

Once they developed their tool for displaying allowed replacement sailings exceptions became rare.

 

But there does seem to be some lately around the spring TAs as I believe most TAs changed number of nights next year and are not technically eligible.   My only suggestion if denied and you have gone as far as you can with your TA or Celebrity rep would be to escalate to CelebrityOneTouch@celebrity.com stating your case.  They may be more empowered to make an exception.

[Tigrou]

9 hours ago, wrk2cruise said:

But there does seem to be some lately around the spring TAs as I believe most TAs changed number of nights next year and are not technically eligible.   My only suggestion if denied and you have gone as far as you can with your TA or Celebrity rep would be to escalate to CelebrityOneTouch@celebrity.com stating your case.  They may be more empowered to make an exception.

 

Thank you, it's a good suggestion.  However, right now I think I'll just take my refundable deposit and hold onto the money myself until I see what happens this year with the whole situation. 

 

I'm not impressed with Celebrity's current attitude towards their customers, not just with the inconsistency over Lift & Shift but also their refusal to cancel 'non CDC compliant' cruises before final payment date.  I don't know how other cruise lines are handling their equivalent of L&S, but I certainly know that many are being much fairer and more realistic about cancellations.

 

[XuGator]

Thank you everyone for their comments and insight.

[tfred]

Now that I have L&S from 4/2021 to 4/2022 when would my final payment be  due ?

[Ashland]

52 minutes ago, tfred said:

Now that I have L&S from 4/2021 to 4/2022 when would my final payment be  due ?

One year from when your original payment was due. You should request a new confirmation that will have the same booking number but the new sail details.