Celebrity's inconsistency makes it hard to be loyal

[aggiejd2000]

We're Elite but man, Celebrity's customer service leaves much to be desired.  I have an upcoming sailing and called the Captain's Club number about the Elite discount for premium wifi.  I bought a stacked discount earlier this year.  When I called a few days ago during the Flash Sale, the rep told me that I couldn't combine the discount during the Flash Sale and said to call back after it was over.  So I called back today.  The rep then tells me no stacking, period.  What?  Has there been a change of policy?  She doesn't know.  She tries to transfer me to Reservations.  I've already been on the phone for her for an hour while she's been checking with whoever about this.  I ask her if she in the Captain's Club department and she says yes.  Then I asked for a supervisor.  After waiting for another 20 minutes, a supervisor comes on line.  She offers me a 37% discount.  I'm confused and ask her to explain because the Flash Sale is over and the current pre-cruise discount showing online is 20% off.  She says the 20% off right now is some other sale that cannot be stacked with the Captain's Club discount.  But the website isn't showing any sale, it's just showing a pre-cruise discount.  She then tells me that the standard pre-cruise discount is 5% or sometimes can be 7% and that is why she is offering me 7%, plus 30% for 37%.  However, the system does not show either the 5% or 7% to anyone other than internally.  So when I asked her how any Captain's Club member would know how to get the best discount, she tells me she has no idea and suggests that I just buy now.  

 

Oh, so when discuss pricing for my purchase, she gives me the dollar amount, which was $153 and change for a 7 night cruise.  I said, that doesn't add up correctly.  That's not even 30% off, much less 37%.  I calculated it based on the full price of $28.99/day but she said it should be $29.99/day.  I tell her that online, I have four cruises booked.  Two out of the four cruises show the full price of premium wifi as $28.99/day while the other two show it as $29.99/day.  She insists that it should be $29.99/day across the board and asks me to email her screenshots.  But even if the discount was calculated based on $29.99/day, for a 7 night cruise, 30% off would be $146.95, as she confirmed there are no taxes or fees. Of course, as we're discussing this, we get disconnected and she doesn't call me back...

[jelayne]

They do not allow stacking of the Captains Club discounts with the Flash sale pricing.

 

I have  7 bookings and the wi-fi price in the cruise planner is different.  The premium wi-fi package without any discount ranges $25.99 to 32.99 per day.  The pre cruise discount is 15- 20%.

No wonder the reps have difficulty.  

[tigervixxxen]

I am realizing this more and more. This is the first cruise with Celebrity I’ve “taken the wheel”, before I let DH handle it. I’m realizing now how many things have gone unnoticed, not by his fault just not knowing what these inconsistencies are, I don’t want to think about how much we’ve been ripped off in the past. 
 

In my app the premium wifi upgrade cost is $7.99, it says that’s 15% off but it’s really 20% off of $9.99. For premium outright it says $21.99, a 10% savings off of $24.99 per day. I bought the upgrade at $4.99 per day for a 17 night cruise that sails west over the international date line so of course they charged x18 days and not 17. I don’t feel like arguing over the phone for $10 (extra day x2 people) but might bring this up on board, we’ll see. It is maddening. 

[C4HCG]

As jelayne says, maybe they don’t have a standard rate for all sailings. We ignore the sales when we are mailed about them on the basis that we have accepted the price quoted as good value (otherwise we wouldn’t have booked), and don’t want to stress ourselves by taking “advantage” of sales as can clearly happen. May mean we are doing ourselves out of some savings but we worry about that the rest of the year when we’re not on holiday, just want those to be stress free as much as they can be.

[mahdnc]

14 hours ago, aggiejd2000 said:

We're Elite but man, Celebrity's customer service leaves much to be desired.  I have an upcoming sailing and called the Captain's Club number about the Elite discount for premium wifi.  I bought a stacked discount earlier this year.  When I called a few days ago during the Flash Sale, the rep told me that I couldn't combine the discount during the Flash Sale and said to call back after it was over.  So I called back today.  The rep then tells me no stacking, period.  What?  Has there been a change of policy?  She doesn't know.  She tries to transfer me to Reservations.  I've already been on the phone for her for an hour while she's been checking with whoever about this.  I ask her if she in the Captain's Club department and she says yes.  Then I asked for a supervisor.  After waiting for another 20 minutes, a supervisor comes on line.  She offers me a 37% discount.  I'm confused and ask her to explain because the Flash Sale is over and the current pre-cruise discount showing online is 20% off.  She says the 20% off right now is some other sale that cannot be stacked with the Captain's Club discount.  But the website isn't showing any sale, it's just showing a pre-cruise discount.  She then tells me that the standard pre-cruise discount is 5% or sometimes can be 7% and that is why she is offering me 7%, plus 30% for 37%.  However, the system does not show either the 5% or 7% to anyone other than internally.  So when I asked her how any Captain's Club member would know how to get the best discount, she tells me she has no idea and suggests that I just buy now.  

 

Oh, so when discuss pricing for my purchase, she gives me the dollar amount, which was $153 and change for a 7 night cruise.  I said, that doesn't add up correctly.  That's not even 30% off, much less 37%.  I calculated it based on the full price of $28.99/day but she said it should be $29.99/day.  I tell her that online, I have four cruises booked.  Two out of the four cruises show the full price of premium wifi as $28.99/day while the other two show it as $29.99/day.  She insists that it should be $29.99/day across the board and asks me to email her screenshots.  But even if the discount was calculated based on $29.99/day, for a 7 night cruise, 30% off would be $146.95, as she confirmed there are no taxes or fees. Of course, as we're discussing this, we get disconnected and she doesn't call me back...

 

For a long time I have found when placing an order through the phone that Celebrity's calculation of the stacked discount Wi-Fi price differs from mine.  Every time I ask for a breakdown on how they calculated it I get an answer that I don't quite understand and I realize that they would have to resort to using hand puppets to explain it to me.  Fortunately their method yields a lower price than my way although I have to fight my engineer's urge to be right when I conclude the call.

Edited August 10, 2023 by mahdnc

[PTC DAWG]

I think Celebrity knows that if you really need WiFi on a cruise, you will pay for it.  I can’t say that I blame them, or any other cruise line for that matter.  I would price accordingly if I ran a cruise line. 

[mahdnc]

1 minute ago, PTC DAWG said:

I think Celebrity knows that if you really need WiFi on a cruise, you will pay for it.  I can’t say that I blame them, or any other cruise line for that matter.  I would price accordingly if I ran a cruise line. 

 

I think you are quite correct.  If pricing was on a need-driven basis, I shudder to think what kind of prices and fees that Celebrity Space Cruises would have 100 years from now.  

[aggiejd2000]

Maybe there's misunderstanding or something, but I called again and was told clearly that there is NO stacking of the Captain's Club discount.  The CC discount is just based off of whatever the prevailing "full price" is, which apparently fluctuates.  I asked if there is a change in policy and she said no, that for as long as she has worked there (however long that is), there has not been any stacking.  So at least two different reps, including one supervisor, has told me that there is no stacking of CC discount.