Changing cruise date

[Newcruiser2024]

Hello! So my hubby and I would like to change the date of our cruise (from January to March of 2024) and upgrade our cabin. My travel agent said Celebrity charges a $200 fee to make the change. Now I booked a refundable reservation. Doesn't this mean I shouldn't be charged for making the change, especially this far out? Or maybe I should just cancel the first reservation and book a new one. Any thoughts?

[Arizona Wildcat]

2 minutes ago, Newcruiser2024 said:

Hello! So my hubby and I would like to change the date of our cruise (from January to March of 2024) and upgrade our cabin. My travel agent said Celebrity charges a $200 fee to make the change. Now I booked a refundable reservation. Doesn't this mean I shouldn't be charged for making the change, especially this far out? Or maybe I should just cancel the first reservation and book a new one. Any thoughts?

You need to look at your documents.  A $100 fee for changes is common from Celebrity.   Have never seen $200 ever on a refundable fare from X.

Is your TA charging a fee?  If so maybe a new TA?

Definitely check out a couple TAs and ask them.  Compare cancellation and rebook with a change.  It is often cheaper and Definitely easier.

Let us know what you find out.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

If you booked a refundable fair there should be no change fee.  If non refundable then $100 PP.  Perhaps your TA is charging you the fee.

[deliver42]

I bet it's the TA charging the fee, not Celebrity.

[wrk2cruise]

OP specifically said TA was reporting it was Celebrity charging the $200.   The charge would make sense if it is a NRD.   If you truly have a refundable deposit just remind the TA of that and there should be no fee involved to cancel, change ship or change sail date provide you are before final payment.

 

[bikerunner]

With a refundable there is no charge this far out.  It’s a cxl and new booking.   This has to be a TA charge like others said. 

[Arizona Wildcat]

57 minutes ago, wrk2cruise said:

OP specifically said TA was reporting it was Celebrity charging the $200.   The charge would make sense if it is a NRD.   If you truly have a refundable deposit just remind the TA of that and there should be no fee involved to cancel, change ship or change sail date provide you are before final payment.

 

Am not sure of where the $200 is from any more than the OP.  One needs to select a TA carefully.  Jim_Iain said it quite well to ask a number of questions.   A good TA is worth thousands of dollars.  Most big box TAs, sadly, nothing 

[AmberCascades]

Over the last 3 years we've had to shift all of our cruises and we cancelled one.  They were refundable deposits and we dealt with a rep at Celebrity.  There was no charge whatsoever to change any of them.

[Ferry_Watcher]

a CCer posted earlier this week that X changed it's policies on Non-Refundable Deposit bookings effective on March 2 2023 charging each passenger $100 for certain changes - but I believe it was for cruises booked beginning March 2 and going forward.  It was posted 3/1/23

 

.Effective Mar 2 2023: Changes to Non-Refundable Deposit Policy

 

[Arizona Wildcat]

16 minutes ago, Ferry_Watcher said:

a CCer posted earlier this week that X changed it's policies on Non-Refundable Deposit bookings effective on March 2 2023 charging each passenger $100 for certain changes - but I believe it was for cruises booked beginning March 2 and going forward.  It was posted 3/1/23

 

.Effective Mar 2 2023: Changes to Non-Refundable Deposit Policy

 

The OP stated a refundable fare was booked. 

Need the OP to come back as it still appears to either be a TA fee on a refundable fare or Celebrity charging  from a NRD fare

[Ferry_Watcher]

5 minutes ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

The OP stated a refundable fare was booked. 

 

I understand.  I am just sharing the policy update.   ;  )

On a personal note, I actually booked a cruise (non refundable) on March 2, unaware of the new policy.  My deposit for the two of us was $500, but the surcharge to make it refundable was $625 for the room.  The port is less than an hour away (on back roads), and unless something really unforeseen happens (which I know does happen), I expect to be on that ship. 

It's too bad that the cruise lines are moving to this booking model.

[Newcruiser2024]

Hi folks, my travel agent is going to double check regarding the fee. It is not a fee imposed by her, and yes I did purchase refundable fare.

[Ipeeinthepools]

8 minutes ago, Newcruiser2024 said:

Hi folks, my travel agent is going to double check regarding the fee. It is not a fee imposed by her, and yes I did purchase refundable fare.

 

Perhaps you need to re-evaluate your TA for future cruises.  I would hope the TA would see that you had a refundable deposit and know you shouldn't be charged any fees.   If your TA is new or having trouble with this basic concept, I wonder if she will be able to help with more complicated issues.

[Newcruiser2024]

My travel agent got back to me. So, Celebrity does in fact charge a $100 per person change fee EVEN IF you have booked a refundable fare. So my travel agent is going to cancel the original reservation and book a new one to avoid the fee.

[mayleeman]

Prepandemic, I called Celeb to see about cancelling our March Eq cruise. I told her I knew we would be getting  FCC with a $200 penalty (can't remember the circumstances).

 

I mentioned we would be applying the FCC to our Eq cruise in Oct and asked her to explain how to do that. She asked me to hold on. She came back and said that she didn't know we already had another Eq cruise booked. She told us she could just transfer ALL of our money from the cruise being cancelled to the other one, with no penalty. Took 5 mins, and we got our new booking confirm while still on the line with her. It showed the transferred money as a payment to the new cruise.

 

The only thing that was different from a regular payment is that the NR deposit in the transferred money was still treated as forfeitable in the event of a future cancellation.

 

A very helpful rep!

Edited March 8, 2023 by mayleeman

[Newcruiser2024]

The third time is a charm! My travel agent talked with a third Celebrity agent, who told her there will be no change fee since I booked a refundable reservation. Yay!

[wrk2cruise]

9 minutes ago, Newcruiser2024 said:

The third time is a charm! My travel agent talked with a third Celebrity agent, who told her there will be no change fee since I booked a refundable reservation. Yay!

 

It shouldn't be this hard!!  Inexperienced TA and Celebrity agent.  TA should have known this and resolved without ever getting back to you until it was done.