Celebrity hold times

[kruzerci]

I booked our first Celebrity cruise in August after many Royal Caribbean sailings. I'm appalled at how long the wait times are both times I have had to call. When I called to switch to MTD in August it was 50 minutes. I've been on hold for an nearly two hours today trying to get a price adjustment. This is crazy! Is it normal for Celebrity?

[Oceansaway17]

best to call in the evenings after 8pm

[canderson]

When a major repricing occurs (vs one for a particular itinerary) even the TAs are stuck on hold.  This one impacted a HUGE number of cruisers.

[zitsky]

17 minutes ago, canderson said:

When a major repricing occurs (vs one for a particular itinerary) even the TAs are stuck on hold.  This one impacted a HUGE number of cruisers.

 

Are you talking about the 20% sale or something else?

[canderson]

Yes.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

I was on hold for less than 10 minutes today around lunch time.

[jelayne]

One of the benefits of booking with a TA I don't sit on hold.

[txtechmk]

I was on hold for an hour and 5 minutes today.  The 20% off sale that just started is making the hold time longer than usual.  The rep I talked to today said he has been on the phone non-stop all day, and they were all Celebrity cruisers looking to get their booked cruise re-priced to the better price.

[dunedinmaiden]

2 hours ago, canderson said:

When a major repricing occurs (vs one for a particular itinerary) even the TAs are stuck on hold.  This one impacted a HUGE number of cruisers.

Yes, and this is an example when booking through a TA is worth it's weight in Gold.  My TA hung in there and got us a $510 price reduction!

[canderson]

The advantage the TA has is that they are able, once connected, to do multiple customers 'in bulk' on the same call.  Always happy to leave mine in charge of this sort of thing!

[Tinkbelle87]

3 minutes ago, canderson said:

The advantage the TA has is that they are able, once connected, to do multiple customers 'in bulk' on the same call.  Always happy to leave mine in charge of this sort of thing!

Apparently even Royal is having long waits. I've just started using a travel agent so this is the first time I'm having someone else sit on the line for me. Its... very nice! 🙂 

[davekathy]

I was on hold this afternoon with the Captains Club. Less than 3 minutes. 

[If only]

2 hours ago, davekathy said:

I was on hold this afternoon with the Captains Club. Less than 3 minutes. 

You were extremely lucky then.  We gave up after half an hour & this was just to ask a Captains club question.

[Lady Arwen]

Called this a.m. at 10:30 for the sale refare and was on hold about 30 minutes.  Pretty good!

[CHEZMARYLOU]

Normally we would have called our CVP but she is on vacation. After getting through the canned messages I didn't think the hold time with the CC was too bad. Good or bad we already have the lowest price on our 3 booked cruises but it was worth checking.

[davekathy]

4 hours ago, If only said:

You were extremely lucky then.  We gave up after half an hour & this was just to ask a Captains club question.

Timing is everything. 😉

[slewis7]

7 hours ago, jelayne said:

One of the benefits of booking with a TA I don't sit on hold.

Speaking from personal experience, that is not true of all TAs.  I have had to contact Celebrity directly to handle my upcoming October sailing on several occasions because my TA (actually, pretty much the customer service branch of their entire company) has gone on hiatus since early in the pandemic.

[jelayne]

Fortunately I don’t have to deal with Customer Service unless it is something that isn’t time sensitive.  The TA told me they were experiencing 90-120 minutes hold times.

[TeeRick]

7 hours ago, jelayne said:

Fortunately I don’t have to deal with Customer Service unless it is something that isn’t time sensitive.  The TA told me they were experiencing 90-120 minutes hold times.

It depends on the time of day.  Try not to call in the AM eastern time.  Like every other business in the USA right now, most likely a labor shortage.  Experienced Customer Service reps probably were laid off and found other positions in the past 18 months.  Now a new team needs to be hired and trained.  We need to be patient.  It is a tough but common situation.