Cruise Reservation up-ended when cancelling Flights by Celebrity

[Islander500]

Had an incredibly frustrating experience yesterday when I cancelled flights by Celebrity before Final Payment. Just sharing so others know what happens and not to be surprised when it does. 

 

I changed my travel itinerary and needed different flights to return from Europe after a TA.  I booked the flights directly and called Flights by Celebrity to cancel the prior reservations before Final Payment as is allowed.  I verified with agent that this cancellation did not affect my cruise booking and she assured me opf such, and that there was no cancellaton fee.

     

Immediately, I started getting emails saying that my specialty restaurant reservations, WIFI upgrades and even 1 excursion would be cancelled unless I paid certain amounts since I had exceeded my OBC (I had not).  Not just one email, but multiple emails; one after another. These were extremely concerning because they were sent to me and copied to another couple with whom we are traveling and we had booked various reservations as we are linked together. 

Thankfully, I had computer access so immediately went on the Celebrity website.  The cruise was still there but the payment had increased significantly even though the flights were no longer there. 

 

I was so concerned that I called Celebrity & waited & waited.  Finally, I was fortunate enough to reach an EXCELLENT customer service rep who told me he would check it out, contact his support dept and would call me back. Honestly, I was skeptical but he did just that.  After 2 to 3 hours back and forth on the phone, & multiple call backs from the same rep, it was all supposedly fixed.  They couldn't reinstate the same cruise rate I had but the difference was minor. The OBC was also reinstated. The specialty restaurant bookings were supposedly all reinstated, although what I received has no specific dates or times or passenger names anymore. The wifi and premium drink package upgrades are not specific with the passenger's names, either.

 

The Rep explained that cancelling flights, which is permissible without any penalty or fees, up-ends the entire cruise reservation and resets everything so it all has to be manually corrected, to the extent it can be.  I did go back and print my receipts for each individual booking from OBC (from my emails) to bring with me. Hopefully, all will be well!  If not, I expect I will be very pissed when I get on board my cruise and my travelling companions and I have to spend hours at Guest Relations after boarding. 

 

Sharing so you know what to expect if you end up in the same proverbial "boat".          

 

 

              

 

 

     

 

[vjmatty]

Yikes! Thank you for sharing that information and warning.  I can see why you would think that canceling flights is no different from canceling transfers or any other extra element of the cruise.  It's a good thing you happened to have excursions and dining booked or you may never have known.

[cruisestitch]

There have been a couple of other similar reports in the last few months about the same problem. It appears that Celebrity does not make it clear. What would happen if you need to cancel the place to buy Celebrity. I hope this gets corrected and until I hear that it has been corrected, I won’t be booking any further Flights by Celebrity.

[keesar]

48 minutes ago, Islander500 said:

Had an incredibly frustrating experience yesterday when I cancelled flights by Celebrity before Final Payment. Just sharing so others know what happens and not to be surprised when it does. 

 

I changed my travel itinerary and needed different flights to return from Europe after a TA.  I booked the flights directly and called Flights by Celebrity to cancel the prior reservations before Final Payment as is allowed.  I verified with agent that this cancellation did not affect my cruise booking and she assured me opf such, and that there was no cancellaton fee.

     

Immediately, I started getting emails saying that my specialty restaurant reservations, WIFI upgrades and even 1 excursion would be cancelled unless I paid certain amounts since I had exceeded my OBC (I had not).  Not just one email, but multiple emails; one after another. These were extremely concerning because they were sent to me and copied to another couple with whom we are traveling and we had booked various reservations as we are linked together. 

Thankfully, I had computer access so immediately went on the Celebrity website.  The cruise was still there but the payment had increased significantly even though the flights were no longer there. 

 

I was so concerned that I called Celebrity & waited & waited.  Finally, I was fortunate enough to reach an EXCELLENT customer service rep who told me he would check it out, contact his support dept and would call me back. Honestly, I was skeptical but he did just that.  After 2 to 3 hours back and forth on the phone, & multiple call backs from the same rep, it was all supposedly fixed.  They couldn't reinstate the same cruise rate I had but the difference was minor. The OBC was also reinstated. The specialty restaurant bookings were supposedly all reinstated, although what I received has no specific dates or times or passenger names anymore. The wifi and premium drink package upgrades are not specific with the passenger's names, either.

 

The Rep explained that cancelling flights, which is permissible without any penalty or fees, up-ends the entire cruise reservation and resets everything so it all has to be manually corrected, to the extent it can be.  I did go back and print my receipts for each individual booking from OBC (from my emails) to bring with me. Hopefully, all will be well!  If not, I expect I will be very pissed when I get on board my cruise and my travelling companions and I have to spend hours at Guest Relations after boarding. 

 

Sharing so you know what to expect if you end up in the same proverbial "boat".          

 

 

              

 

 

     

 

Something similar happened to me when I just checked out the cost of Celebrity insurance on my reservation.  Now,   after 6 weeks, I still get regular emails asking for money even though the cruise has been paid for. Asking for money on My Reservation as well.   Very frustrating.  

[CruiseOrRust]

This happened to us in 2022 on an Alaska itinerary.  When the flight schedule changed (unacceptably) and we changed flights (including airlines), the entire itinerary was repriced.  No components were cancelled however.  It took me several hours on the phone to get it all straightened out.  Very disappointing to read that this is SOP with Celebrity.  Especially since we're contemplating using FBC for an early 2025 Australia/NZ itinerary.

[dlh015]

Like cruisestitch mentioned, I've seem other threads on this sort of craziness with FBC. I, too, have been avoiding FBC because of this (and other) type of issue. And frankly I doubt they've lifted a finger to try and fix it...

[Midlo]

It’s happened to me twice in the last three days. I have a cruise booked and paid in full. When I logged in to Celebrity I had a 0 balance but when I started checking flights on the app I noticed I couldn’t click on choices. When I backed out to the home page I had a balance due that was an error in my original booking. After an hour on the phone with Celebrity two days ago it was fixed. Today the same thing happened again with a different balance due that is past due. Not a warm and fuzzy feeling.

[acrane]

Ok, now I'm feeling a little paranoid, because I booked flights online with FBC back in June, then cancelled them the next day to book direct with the carrier. My final payment isn't due until February. If my amount due, excursions, and OBC are all shown correctly in my account, does that mean my cruise reservation is fine, or should I be worried about a surprise when I go to make final payment?

[keesar]

7 minutes ago, acrane said:

Ok, now I'm feeling a little paranoid, because I booked flights online with FBC back in June, then cancelled them the next day to book direct with the carrier. My final payment isn't due until February. If my amount due, excursions, and OBC are all shown correctly in my account, does that mean my cruise reservation is fine, or should I be worried about a surprise when I go to make final payment?

There are 2 screens of payment  data.  One screen is viewed by the agent and the other is what you see.  Unfortunately, they are have not been the same in my case.  Check your emails and MyReservation.  Hope all turns out well.

[Midlo]

I would check the balance online periodically. My due date for final payment was December 26 so mine is showing a past due amount with my reservation at risk of cancellation. It looks like just going into Fbc triggered a change in my balance. I didn’t purchase anything. In fact, it appears that once you have a past due balance it freezes your ability to click on anything. I’ll not be searching FBC after this is fixed again.

[cruisestitch]

Here’s one of the other threads on this….might contain useful information