Japan 2024 canceled…

[micruiser2002]

37 minutes ago, MandL said:

All,

I reached out to my contact at Celebrity last night by email to find out what she knew.  I also wanted to clarify what the OP was told.  I just received her answer.  I’ve put it in quotes, but omitted my name and hers.

 

“Good afternoon Ms. xxxxx, the entire season of Asia is not cancelled, there are only select sailings and select cabins that were oversold if you have not been contacted then your sailing and reservation is not affected. I would be the one or the team handling that would have called, today is the final day for choosing what to do with those bookings, yours is not affected.”

 

Hope this helps and explains to some of you. I suggest if you are using a TA you make sure they aren’t sitting on a notification.  

If you read all of the posts in this thread you will see that we already know the details of this situation.  The problem is how celebrity is handling this situation.

[patty1955]

7 minutes ago, micruiser2002 said:

If you read all of the posts in this thread you will see that we already know the details of this situation.  The problem is how celebrity is handling this situation.

This thread was supposed to be about the problem and got hijacked to be about how Celebrity is handling it. 

[Belgian fry]

5 minutes ago, patty1955 said:

This thread was supposed to be about the problem and got hijacked to be about how Celebrity is handling it. 

Because how Celebrity is handling it IS the problem

[anniegb]

1 minute ago, Belgian fry said:

Because how Celebrity is handling it IS the problem

Also Celebrity created the problem??

 

1st May 2023 is the deadline - may I ask which timezone?? and it is reported that some cruisers only received their notifications in the last 24 hoiurs.

[patty1955]

9 minutes ago, Belgian fry said:

Because how Celebrity is handling it IS the problem

I'm still waiting to hear if I'm sailing next March. How Celebrity is handling it is another issue and should be on it's own tread.  (IMHO)

[Judy Arthur]

I believe they’re one in the same.

[mahdnc]

The OP talked about both subjects in the first post: the cancellation and the "pathetic" offer.

[raananh]

I just spoke with Celebrity and our personal CSR at Celebrity. First, quick background: we booked directly with Celebrity and our October 2023 cruise was "oversold". We had to cancel for a refund because we cannot switch to October 2024.

The official compensation offer from Celebrity (for anyone?) was $450 / person and up-to $500 for other expenses such as flights.

It seems that Celebrity is sweetening the deal!!!!

In our case, we get:

1. More than $450 / person, and half of the total will be refunded to our credit card - not a Future Cruise Credit. I got a very complicated story why we get more, and honestly I did not understand it. I was just happy that we get more than originally I thought. It was something about us putting an additional down payment on the cruise because we had to rebook it due to Covid cancellation. I did not even remember we did it.

2. Due to even prior cancelation due to Covid, Celebrity gave us 125% of the original amount paid for this cruise. As part of this current compensation, we will still get that 125% of the money. Note: this is still has to be approved by Celebrity management, but most likely it will happen.

So, being much more happy with Celebrity I went ahead and told them I am booking a Bermuda cruise with them, 2 cabins, once we know the final future cruise credit.

Thanks.

 

[southwestie]

I Phoned Mt TA this morning  1st May

 

 

They had a list of 11 people still to contact. Today.

 

Our booking was OK. They said all is good and we're going. March 4th 2024.   Very sad for the 11 people today. And all in the past few weeks

[dlh015]

The fact that X appears to be keeping to the arbitrary (imo) deadline of May 1st come H or high water just makes a horrible situation even worse. I just don't get it...there appears to be folks that haven't even been notified yet...how can anyone at X think this is okay??

 

Obviously there is no off ramp for X on this one...what's done is done.

[ReubenR]

4 hours ago, raananh said:

We bought travel insurance, not through Celebrity, well before the cruise got "oversold". We always do...

How can travel insurance help here? For the cost of the cruise, I cannot honestly place a claim with the insurance because Celebrity offers refund (cruise credit) or S&L.

For other costs, such as flights, maybe I can place a claim with the insurance ... but Celebrity also offers some refund ($500). It will be messy, a lot of time.

10 hours ago, raananh said:

So we had to cancel, our vacation plan was ruined + big financial loss (Japan flights.)

 

You file a claim for the "big financial loss (Japan flights)" that you incurred because Celebrity canceled your cruise. However, you'll need to first cancel the Japan flights and incur that "big loss" before being able request indemnification.

 

And then it depends on your travel insurance if you'll be reimbursed – if you bought travel insurance to cover both your cruise and your flights, then you should be eligible for compensation. But if you only bought travel insurance for the cruise, then your flights might not be covered.

 

And if Celebrity reimburses you $500 for flights, then you would deduct that $500 indemnification from your third-party travel insurance claim.

 

 

Edited May 1, 2023 by ReubenR
typos corrected

[ReubenR]

9 hours ago, XLVIII said:

I agree that you should always protect yourself with travel insurance. I don’t think I’ve ever seen medical insurance that doesn’t have a ‘pre-existing condition’ clause though. 

 

8 hours ago, zorb22 said:

If you buy the travel insurance within 7 days of the initial deposit the pre-existing condition clause is generally waived. It always has been for me, and it specifically says so on the insurance I just purchased recently.

 

Yes, @zorb22 is correct. You have to read the contract before buying, and in most cases there's a grace period (usually 7-14 days after making your "initial payment") during which the travel insurance will waive the pre-existing condition clause. But note that some cruise lines' travel insurance (like Norwegian Cruise Lines') never waive the pre-existing clause. So don't just buy insurance based on the big print on the purchase page. The large print giveth; the fine print taketh away.

[raananh]

1 hour ago, ReubenR said:

 

You file a claim for the "big financial loss (Japan flights)" that you incurred because Celebrity canceled your cruise. However, you'll need to first cancel the Japan flights and incur that "big loss" before being able request indemnification.

 

And then it depends on your travel insurance if you'll be reimbursed – if you bought travel insurance to cover both your cruise and your flights, then you should be eligible for compensation. But if you only bought travel insurance for the cruise, then your flights might not be covered.

 

And if Celebrity reimburses you $500 for flights, then you would deduct that $500 indemnification from your third-party travel insurance claim.

 

 

My flight to Japan is in October 2023 and we are now in May.

Based on what you say, I need to "cancel" my flight now in May (i.e. inform the airline I will not show up), to get some kind of a letter / screen "you lost all your money on this flight".

In contrast, FYI, Celebrity told me today that for their $500 refund on flights, all they need is a picture of the ticket with the words "non-refundable".

Then, I need to ask Celebrity for an official letter for my Travel Insurance claim about my Cruise being cancelled. When Celebrity hears that, they should say "no $500 refund for you!" because "you have Travel Insurance!". And technically they are right.

All this seems like me spending days with back-and-forth arguments between Celebrity and the Travel Insurance about who pays what and if to pay.

All I was hoping is for "peace of mind" when I got Travel Insurance....

Wish me luck!!!! 



 

Edited May 1, 2023 by raananh

[RichardRahl]

That’s not how it works. You can’t get reimbursed for your flights if you haven’t experienced a loss. The only way to experience a loss is to cancel your flights (and I don’t mean “tell the airline you’re not showing up,” but rather canceling the flight and getting documentation of that showing it’s a non-refundable loss).

 

And I don’t know what you’re talking about with Celebrity backing out of compensating your the $500 you’ve been promised. One has nothing to do with the other. But even if that happened. It just means your third-party travel insurance would covert the entire loss (maybe - see next paragraph).

 

But like Reuben said, you need to read your insurance contract before doing anything. Some travel insurance will cover flights that become unusable due to a cruise cancellation, but others won’t (because the airline didn’t cancel the flight).

[micruiser2002]

6 hours ago, patty1955 said:

This thread was supposed to be about the problem and got hijacked to be about how Celebrity is handling it. 

My point was thru the 30 some pages it was already clarified what the cancellation actually was.  

[micruiser2002]

4 hours ago, raananh said:

I just spoke with Celebrity and our personal CSR at Celebrity. First, quick background: we booked directly with Celebrity and our October 2023 cruise was "oversold". We had to cancel for a refund because we cannot switch to October 2024.

The official compensation offer from Celebrity (for anyone?) was $450 / person and up-to $500 for other expenses such as flights.

It seems that Celebrity is sweetening the deal!!!!

In our case, we get:

1. More than $450 / person, and half of the total will be refunded to our credit card - not a Future Cruise Credit. I got a very complicated story why we get more, and honestly I did not understand it. I was just happy that we get more than originally I thought. It was something about us putting an additional down payment on the cruise because we had to rebook it due to Covid cancellation. I did not even remember we did it.

2. Due to even prior cancelation due to Covid, Celebrity gave us 125% of the original amount paid for this cruise. As part of this current compensation, we will still get that 125% of the money. Note: this is still has to be approved by Celebrity management, but most likely it will happen.

So, being much more happy with Celebrity I went ahead and told them I am booking a Bermuda cruise with them, 2 cabins, once we know the final future cruise credit.

Thanks.

 

Are you actually getting a refund of 125% or a FCC?  Also if you purchased tickets with Delta you can get a ecredit for the full ticket amount.

[MandL]

57 minutes ago, micruiser2002 said:

Are you actually getting a refund of 125% or a FCC?  Also if you purchased tickets with Delta you can get a ecredit for the full ticket amount.

I'm curious micruiser2002 (without reading through 33 pages, although I have followed this thread through the start). You must refresh my memory.....have you been cancelled?

[raananh]

10 hours ago, micruiser2002 said:

Are you actually getting a refund of 125% or a FCC?  Also if you purchased tickets with Delta you can get a ecredit for the full ticket amount.

Yes, I am getting 125%, but, to clarify: I am not getting a new 125%.

I am getting the 125% I already got from Celerity when I booked this "oversold" cruise due to a prior cruise getting cancelled because of Covid.

If I look at the details of my "oversold" October 2023 cruise statement, I can see the lines of the actual $$ I deposited and one additional line which is a 25% given to me by Celebrity. I will still keep that 25% and can use it for a future cruise.

If you did not realize: It would be really bad if Celebrity was actually considering, in addition to all the issues they caused to customers, to also take the 25% they gave some passengers in the past for Covid-related cancellations. 

Thanks

[raananh]

11 hours ago, RichardRahl said:

That’s not how it works. You can’t get reimbursed for your flights if you haven’t experienced a loss. The only way to experience a loss is to cancel your flights (and I don’t mean “tell the airline you’re not showing up,” but rather canceling the flight and getting documentation of that showing it’s a non-refundable loss).

Totally agree with you! Only if you lose money, you should place a claim.

But if I have a non-refundable flight to Japan, for October 2023, 6 months from now, I will not realize a loss of money until October 2023, when I don't show up for the flight.

Celebrity / travel insurance will not wait until October for a realized loss of money so I can place a claim.

So Celebrity said "if you show us a ticket and it says "non-refundable" on it, you get $500."

Not sure what my Travel Insurance would say.

In all honesty, I am not sure what I will do with this Japan flight ticket by October. Maybe I will fly.

I have another dilemma here, and I need to decide this week. I did not place flight claims yet.

 

[pukekolive]

59 minutes ago, raananh said:

Totally agree with you! Only if you lose money, you should place a claim.

But if I have a non-refundable flight to Japan, for October 2023, 6 months from now, I will not realize a loss of money until October 2023, when I don't show up for the flight.

Celebrity / travel insurance will not wait until October for a realized loss of money so I can place a claim.

So Celebrity said "if you show us a ticket and it says "non-refundable" on it, you get $500."

Not sure what my Travel Insurance would say.

In all honesty, I am not sure what I will do with this Japan flight ticket by October. Maybe I will fly.

I have another dilemma here, and I need to decide this week. I did not place flight claims yet.

 

Surely if you cancel your flight now due to cruise cancellation you will lose your money now? This is what happened in 2020 to us except we had $300 cancellation fee each when we asked for our independent flights to be cancelled; Celebrity reimbursed this on production of our airline invoice showing the cancellation fee.

[raananh]

22 minutes ago, pukekolive said:

Surely if you cancel your flight now due to cruise cancellation you will lose your money now? This is what happened in 2020 to us except we had $300 cancellation fee each when we asked for our independent flights to be cancelled; Celebrity reimbursed this on production of our airline invoice showing the cancellation fee.

Yes, if I inform the airline I will not fly 6 months from now, in October 2023, then I lost all the money as the ticket is not-refundable.

Then I will get only $500 for a ticket that costs $1000s.

Most people in this situation would wait with cancellation because they may still go to Japan, albeit with no cruise.

So here Celebrity is showing good-will and just asks to show that the ticket is non-refundable. Celebrity does not ask to prove that I actually cancelled in advance.

It's fair. My travel plans were ruined and I am stuck with a ticket I probably do not need and will not use. Even if I go to Japan, I now need to work on a new vacation plan ($$$ and time) for a different vacation in Japan. 

Thanks.

[micruiser2002]

40 minutes ago, raananh said:

Yes, if I inform the airline I will not fly 6 months from now, in October 2023, then I lost all the money as the ticket is not-refundable.

Then I will get only $500 for a ticket that costs $1000s.

Most people in this situation would wait with cancellation because they may still go to Japan, albeit with no cruise.

So here Celebrity is showing good-will and just asks to show that the ticket is non-refundable. Celebrity does not ask to prove that I actually cancelled in advance.

It's fair. My travel plans were ruined and I am stuck with a ticket I probably do not need and will not use. Even if I go to Japan, I now need to work on a new vacation plan ($$$ and time) for a different vacation in Japan. 

Thanks.

What airline did you purchase air with?  Delta still gives 100% ecredit for canceled flights.

[TequilaJane]

3 hours ago, micruiser2002 said:

What airline did you purchase air with?  Delta still gives 100% ecredit for canceled flights.

If the airline offers a credit for future flights you may be out of luck with the insurance. Most of the time the credit is good for 1 year after the date you booked the tickets not the day you were to fly. If you want a usable credit the sooner you cancel the better so you can utilize the credit. 

[pmarrsouth]

5 hours ago, pukekolive said:

Surely if you cancel your flight now due to cruise cancellation you will lose your money now? This is what happened in 2020 to us except we had $300 cancellation fee each when we asked for our independent flights to be cancelled; Celebrity reimbursed this on production of our airline invoice showing the cancellation fee.

Why would one ever cancel a non-refundable flight, for travel in 6 months time, now? If there is any schedule change by the airline, that changes the departure time by ~2-4 hours (depends on the airline), then you are generally entitled to accept the change or schedule a new date or get a refund 

[tsukikageran]

 

On 5/1/2023 at 5:49 AM, XLVIII said:

I agree that you should always protect yourself with travel insurance. I don’t think I’ve ever seen medical insurance that doesn’t have a ‘pre-existing condition’ clause though. 

 

There is a product here in Canada that will cover pre-existing conditions. It can be purchased via a travel agent or insurance broker.