Rebooking at a better price

[thecruiser7]

Today....... I noticed I could save about $300 by rebooking my Celebrity cruise that I booked online. According to their web site, you are allowed to rebook if the price changes. After being on hold at least 50 minutes, I finally reached someone. I know they are probably busy.... with less help.... but feel the longer they make you wait.... the more likely you will hang up. That's a plus for them. Once I finally reached someone, it took another 45 minutes to rebook. They continued to tell me I could not rebook with different reasons. I finally told them to cancel and was then told it would take at least 45 days to get my deposit back. I finally said cancel & it was then.... they allowed me to rebook. Any one else have this issue?

Edited November 4, 2021 by thecruiser7

[DaKahuna]

8 minutes ago, thecruiser7 said:

Today....... I noticed I could save about $300 by rebooking my Celebrity cruise that I booked online. According to their web site, you are allowed to rebook if the price changes. After being on hold at least 50 minutes, I finally reached someone. I know they are probably busy.... with less help.... but feel the longer they make you wait.... the more likely you will hang up. That's a plus for them. Once I finally reached someone, it took another 45 minutes to rebook. They continued to tell me I could not rebook with different reasons. I finally told them to cancel and was then told it would take at least 45 days to get my deposit back. I finally said cancel & it was then.... they allowed me to rebook. Any one else have this issue?

Our TA was on hold multiple times but managed to get through and reprice two of our three cruises where the prices were lower.  The price on the third cruise was already lower than the current 50% off second passenger sale.  This was the second price reduction on one of the cruises. 

Edited November 4, 2021 by DaKahuna

[Miaminice]

Why rebook as in cancelling and making a new booking?!?! 
A simple price adjustment is all that’s required.

 

Did it two times with all of our three currently booked cruises over the past three weeks. All I need to do is to send an email to our TA including screen shots of the current offer on the Celebrity website. She does the rest…

A day or two later she sends me a new confirmation. Piece of cake.

[DaKahuna]

Agree. That is what we always do.

[Ipeeinthepools]

There are a lot of new inexperienced people working at almost any job.  If things area going as expected, politely ask to talk to a supervisor.

[thon]

I’ve been able to re-price my existing cruise twice in the past few weeks under the latest 2 sales without any difficulty.  Granted I had to wait an hour or more on the phone with Celebrity both times but once I reached someone everything was done without any problem.  Happy I didn’t have the problem the OP had.

[spammie]

I gave up on getting $200 OBC.  I have called a few times and after being on hold for an hour had to hang up.  I finally got through to a live person this morning at 8am with the worst phone connection ever.  I gave her my cel phone number in case we got disconnected.  Guess what??? We got disconnected and no phone call back!  It's next to impossible and I personally feel they make it difficult so you give up.  

 

I also sent an email to a Celebrity Rep that I had worked with and got no reply from him either.

[MarkWiltonM]

I didn't have any trouble getting my cruise repriced. I don't think my April 2022 cruise qualifies for the $200 OBC. I also assumed it was for new bookings only, but I'm not sure about that.

[mkam2821]

Final payment for my cruise is tomorrow though I'm already paid in full. I booked through warehouse club TA.  I have already received 2 price adjustments. First one I was on hold for my TA about 30 minutes and then Celebrity had them on hold for another 30 but it was finally done. Took me about a week to receive the refund and Celebrity shorted me about $70 (invoice from TA has correct amount that should have been refunded). When I called for the 2nd adjustment I had to wait 50 minutes to get a live person but she was able to do the adjustment online with Celebrity and she advised them they shorted me the first time. Hopefully when the 2nd refund comes the total refunded will be correct. No need to cancel and re-book (don't want to risk being unable to get same cabin).

[jhskick]

I have called twice for repricing. First time 30 minute wait second 45 minutes. Both times a very pleasant and helpful person. I figure the time waiting is time well spent to save $1200. More people need to post good experiences and out comes.   Enough doom and gloom around. Have a great day and happy cruising.

[DCPIV]

I haven't had any trouble at all.  There have been some waiting on hold, but that's been going on for some time and with a number of outfits (cruise lines and otherwise). There have been other times with virtually no wait.

 

I have to say that a bunch of us calling in to reprice cruises ain't helping hold times, but I suppose that's sort of a nice problem to have. 🤣

 

3 hours ago, MarkWiltonM said:

I also assumed it was for new bookings only, but I'm not sure about that.

 

It's not for new bookings only.

 

3 minutes ago, jhskick said:

More people need to post good experiences and out comes.

 

There are plenty of threads from the last few sales and extensions with many folks (including yours truly) reporting all the savings they've received and how happy they are about it.

[LGW59]

21 minutes ago, jhskick said:

I have called twice for repricing. First time 30 minute wait second 45 minutes. Both times a very pleasant and helpful person. I figure the time waiting is time well spent to save $1200. More people need to post good experiences and out comes.   Enough doom and gloom around. Have a great day and happy cruising.

Yes indeed, never waited on hold more than 18 minutes in many calls to Celebrity.  Always very pleasant and extremely helpful.  I find their customer service to be always positive.

[Guindalf]

We're booked!

 

Not sure how the total price compares, but we decided to go all-out and book a Sky Suite with a different TA. In addition to the $600 Celebrity OBC, we got a choice of $750 additional OBC or a discount of $500 plus 4250 extra. Chose the latter! We also have two three-night dinner packages to add to it and the suite included excursion discounts, so we may have ended up with too much OBC!

[LGW59]

4 minutes ago, Guindalf said:

We're booked!

 

Not sure how the total price compares, but we decided to go all-out and book a Sky Suite with a different TA. In addition to the $600 Celebrity OBC, we got a choice of $750 additional OBC or a discount of $500 plus 4250 extra. Chose the latter! We also have two three-night dinner packages to add to it and the suite included excursion discounts, so we may have ended up with too much OBC!

Nicely done 

[DCPIV]

1 hour ago, Guindalf said:

too much OBC!

 

No such thing!  If nothing else, you zero your account on the last night by providing extra gratuities.

 

Happy cruising!

[L75317]

I booked a guarantee balcony on the Reflection for March over the weekend.  They assigned us a 2B cabin a couple days later. I have never been assigned a cabin that fast. Anyway, I called my TA when the new sale dropped and he said I could not get any credit for the price drop on the guarantee cabin because now I was in a higher priced 2B. This just doesn't seem right. Has anyone experienced this??

[deliver42]

I called last night about a price drop. I waited 45 minutes, but got an adjustment in 15 for $250.00, which was $50.00 more than I expected.

[mfs2k]

2 hours ago, L75317 said:

I booked a guarantee balcony on the Reflection for March over the weekend.  They assigned us a 2B cabin a couple days later. I have never been assigned a cabin that fast. Anyway, I called my TA when the new sale dropped and he said I could not get any credit for the price drop on the guarantee cabin because now I was in a higher priced 2B. This just doesn't seem right. Has anyone experienced this??

That’s a common cruise tactic 

[jagoffee]

13 hours ago, L75317 said:

I booked a guarantee balcony on the Reflection for March over the weekend.  They assigned us a 2B cabin a couple days later. I have never been assigned a cabin that fast. Anyway, I called my TA when the new sale dropped and he said I could not get any credit for the price drop on the guarantee cabin because now I was in a higher priced 2B. This just doesn't seem right. Has anyone experienced this??

No experience.  You might try asking them to remove your cabin and take you back to the GTY and tell them you understand you may get a different category assignment.

is cancelling and rebooking an option to get a savings?  Perhaps  Celebrity and your TA think that you are asking to keep the same 2B cabin.  Obviously that would be an unreasonable request when a reprice.  
 

of course the is is assuming that the current GTY rate is lower than the rate you booked.
 

Good luck.  

[Purplsmurf]

I hope we can eventually get a better price. We booked our first suite for our 30th anniversary in 2023. It’s a 10 day cruise in Europe and priced at just over $11k. Last night I priced out a sky suite in the Caribbean for February 2023 and it was about $4500! I know that one is in Europe and one in Caribbean,  but that’s an awfully huge price difference for 3 extra days! I sure hope ours comes down in price!

[canderson]

15 minutes ago, Purplsmurf said:

I hope we can eventually get a better price. We booked our first suite for our 30th anniversary in 2023. It’s a 10 day cruise in Europe and priced at just over $11k. Last night I priced out a sky suite in the Caribbean for February 2023 and it was about $4500! I know that one is in Europe and one in Caribbean,  but that’s an awfully huge price difference for 3 extra days! I sure hope ours comes down in price!

Not the least unusual.  The Caribbean is a much more competitive market, and even the port charges (granted, a small portion of the bill) are less there.  I remember the sticker shock when pricing our first European (Baltic) cruise years ago after our first couple had been in the Caribbean! 

[DCPIV]

47 minutes ago, Purplsmurf said:

I hope we can eventually get a better price. We booked our first suite for our 30th anniversary in 2023. It’s a 10 day cruise in Europe and priced at just over $11k. Last night I priced out a sky suite in the Caribbean for February 2023 and it was about $4500! I know that one is in Europe and one in Caribbean,  but that’s an awfully huge price difference for 3 extra days! I sure hope ours comes down in price!

 

I echo what @canderson said, and I'll add that February is a slow time for cruising, in general, and it's also a time where there is a lot of supply in the Caribbean (warm temperatures and all).  That tends to lead to low prices in the area.