Weird email about owing money for my cruise leaving Monday?

[blueskadoo]

I just received a weird email from celebrity saying due to a recent change to our cruise reservation, some purchases made with OBC are no longer paid in full, I need to pay 447 dollars by phone before 10/31. We actually had leftover OBC, and only booked one excursion with it. I logged into my account and it shows a zero balance, We’re traveling today so don’t really have a lot of time to figure this out. Anybody seen this before? We’re staying I retreat so we had 800 OBC and had used a part of it, but planned to book some specialty dining once on board. Should I worry? Getting on our long haul international now…

[AnnaNicole]

Someone previously posted there was a mistake in Celebrity's system and people were given duplicate OBC.   Celebrity sent emails collecting the erroneous OBC usages.   Some people argued they were supposed to have the duplicate OBC as it was included in their booking.    Did you go through a TA?  Do you have a confirmation of the OBC?  I would start there.

Edited October 28, 2022 by AnnaNicole

[blueskadoo]

No TA but I do have the invoice that shows we each have 400 of OBC for being retreat guests. Am I safe to wait and handle this once on board Monday? 

[39august]

Are you sailing from terminal 25 at Port Everglades? If so, you can handle it with the personnel in the Retreat lounge at the pier if you arrive before say 11ish. That is where Retreat guests wait to board. Otherwise, I'm sure such a small amount can be handled when you are on board. 

[blueskadoo]

We’re sailing from Barcelona on the TA leaving Monday. We’re on the plane now or id just deal with being on hold. 

[Georgia_Peaches]

30 minutes ago, blueskadoo said:

No TA but I do have the invoice that shows we each have 400 of OBC for being retreat guests. Am I safe to wait and handle this once on board Monday? 

That's it right there.  It was supposed to be OBC per stateroom not per guest.  The OBC was removed for all of us who booked under that error.  Like you, I had an invoice that stated my OBC.  Didn't stop them from removing it because it was a "mistake".  

Edited October 28, 2022 by Georgia_Peaches

[cdn_tbird]

12 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

That's it right there.  It was supposed to be OBC per stateroom not per guest.  The OBC was removed for all of us who booked under that error.  Like you, I had an invoice that stated my OBC.  Didn't stop them from removing it because it was a "mistake".  

The OBC included for suite guests is per person not per stateroom. I would think that if there was an error with any OBC it might have been part of the "sales" they were doing earlier this year. I know that OBC was per stateroom not per person.

[jelayne]

20 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

That's it right there.  It was supposed to be OBC per stateroom not per guest.  The OBC was removed for all of us who booked under that error.  Like you, I had an invoice that stated my OBC.  Didn't stop them from removing it because it was a "mistake".  

The OBC for a Sky Suite is $400 per person for longer sailings.  Got that for our recent 12N and have that amount for 2 other sailings a 12N and a 14N. So I don’t think that’s the problem.

Edited October 28, 2022 by jelayne
Typo

[Georgia_Peaches]

46 minutes ago, jelayne said:

The OBC for a Sky Suite is $400 per person for longer sailings.  Got that for our recent 12N and have that amount for 2 other sailings a 12N and a 14N. So I don’t think that’s the problem.

 

51 minutes ago, cdn_tbird said:

The OBC included for suite guests is per person not per stateroom. I would think that if there was an error with any OBC it might have been part of the "sales" they were doing earlier this year. I know that OBC was per stateroom not per person.

I should have clarified to say that it was the explanation that was given to me by my TA when we mistakenly received double obc. 

[blueskadoo]

Hi from Barcelona. Can’t believe it was 18 hours ago I posted this. I’m currently on hold (40 minutes then disconnected, 15 minutes in on call 2 now) trying to get this sorted out, because now they’ve sent an email cancelling our excursion that we really want to do. The app still shows were reserved or I’d just rebook and pay and deal with it on the ship. 

Anybody else hear of such? 

[Cruise Gopher]

This was reported over on the Royal Caribbean board this Summer. I can’t remember what the exact issue was but I will see if I can find it. It wasn’t something that was a big deal in the end and the poster was able to take care of it at check in at the pier. 

[Cruise Gopher]

Here is a thread about this happening on Royal. 

 

[blueskadoo]

Still here on hold at 51 minutes later. Thank you for the thread from the RC board. Interesting and sounds similar. We’re on a casino cruise so now I’m on hold for Blue chip club. 

[AnnaNicole]

1 hour ago, blueskadoo said:

Still here on hold at 51 minutes later. Thank you for the thread from the RC board. Interesting and sounds similar. We’re on a casino cruise so now I’m on hold for Blue chip club. 

If you have a problem getting through to them via phone, you could forward the email to them and ask them to fix the issue.  Be sure to include your original documentation.

 

 

bluechipclub@celebrity.com

Edited October 29, 2022 by AnnaNicole

[Silvery Seas Cruiser]

We had the same email today stating that we owed $144 more even though we had a paid in full statement. We called and were told we owed for tips!!!  We were really surprised, but paid it and were sent a revised paid in full statement. This doesn't  inspire much confidence, I must say. We thought we were all set for the cruise.

[AnnaNicole]

12 hours ago, Silvery Seas Cruiser said:

We had the same email today stating that we owed $144 more even though we had a paid in full statement. We called and were told we owed for tips!!!  We were really surprised, but paid it and were sent a revised paid in full statement. This doesn't  inspire much confidence, I must say. We thought we were all set for the cruise.

You don't have to prepay tips.  I would call again.  

[Silvery Seas Cruiser]

7 hours ago, AnnaNicole said:

You don't have to prepay tips.  I would call again.  

 

[Silvery Seas Cruiser]

Just now, Silvery Seas Cruiser said:

 

I thought it was really strange too, but my husband handled it and told me that is what the extra charge was. It is possible he misunderstood. It is also possible we were scammed.

[wrk2cruise]

Generally the tips charge is a mess up in the way they do accounting for the included gratuities where they apply the charge and then a comparable credit.  Sounds like the credit was erroneously dropped.

[go.without.you]

Same thing happened to me! I was originally booked as a solo cruiser then added a guest after final payment. The TA came back and said she was able to get the additional $300 OBC for my guest. The $ went into my account and I booked her a few things less than $300. Then the emails started saying I owed money. They even cancelled something I had booked weeks before adding her instead of the things I just booked. I never got the $ back and still think I got screwed over but whatever.

[Moonarino]

On 10/28/2022 at 7:28 PM, Georgia_Peaches said:

 

I should have clarified to say that it was the explanation that was given to me by my TA when we mistakenly received double obc. 

Odd thing, I just noticed the following in a bon-voyage email from my TA -- for a Celebrity cruise, relating to booking a next cruise onboard:

 

"Free Onboard Credit of $150 per person."

 

My emphasis. Another mistake? The email also doesn't specify suite or any stateroom category at all. I have never seen or received "per person" OBC on any cruise, but now this is twice in a few days that I've heard it mentioned.