It's worth keeping an eye on pricing...

[canderson]

10 hours ago, Stockjock said:

I think they are a little more flexible before final payment than after. In my case, it was after final payment. That doesn’t mean they won’t do anything after final payment, it just means that I think there is less flexibility since they know they’ve got you where they want you.

Our experience has been that any possible repricing after final payment is returned as onboard (non-refundable) OBC.  We had two repriced cruises (B2B) that repriced after final soon after the restart, and wound up with $6,500 in OBC.

 

[Stockjock]

3 hours ago, canderson said:

Our experience has been that any possible repricing after final payment is returned as onboard (non-refundable) OBC.  We had two repriced cruises (B2B) that repriced after final soon after the restart, and wound up with $6,500 in OBC.

 

$6,500 OBC is pretty wild.  I guess I'd be buying some new Apple products, lol.

As mentioned, I was surprised they let me upgrade my cabin for $30 after final payment, but no complaints.

[drakes2]

4 hours ago, 563toM said:

Does anyone track how often the price of a cruise can change ?  I thought it was only once a day as we are booked for a 10 day cruise on Constellation for January 2025. I was able to get a lower price yesterday of just under a  $100 savings.  I repriced it this morning and it had gone up in price. 

 

A couple of hours ago I repriced the same cruise and it dropped in price again.  In just two days I have saved $166 and now I am becoming obsessed with repricing so I can see how low this cruise will be by final payment. 

I see daily fluctuations in pricing for some cruises. I had my original invoice for my fall Caribbean cruise that I booked early in June and now with the new price a few days ago I've saved $366.  Thats for a verandah on deck 7. Doubt very much I'll keep that room. 

[Lolou127]

On 6/12/2024 at 7:26 PM, wrk2cruise said:

 

Right this is normal.  The OBC for Memorial Day was the price/promo combination when you booked.   If you reprice it is at the current price/promo combination at the time.   The only Celebrity "extras" that I know of that shouldn't change if you upgrade or change the ship/sail date on a reservation would be Onboard Booking OBC (If your invoice is marked as an Onboard Booking) and Shareholder credit.  Although many times the Shareholder credit will be dropped off and you have to re-submit to get it added back.

I had a different experience, I wanted to upgrade our 2025 cruise from IV to Aqua and was told I’d loose my current OBC and wouldn’t qualify for the new OBC promotion as that was for new bookings only! needless to say I reached out (politely) and they gave me a gesture of goodwill OBC 

[wrk2cruise]

I booked a sailing on May 23 and I have repriced 5 times now for a savings of over 1k on an Oceanview room so almost 30%.

 

Here is the response I got from my long standing TA when I sent the request to reprice this morning.  Clearly the bouncing prices and promos are causing a lot more work for him.  If they keep this up I suspect we may all be getting less kickback from our TAs.

 

"Celebrity has officially change my job title…I am not longer doing sales for them. All I am doing is repricing and losing commission during this process. This is not just with you, it’s with every CEL booking I have.  

 

As I have been doing; I will update and re invoice. "

[Stockjock]

1 hour ago, wrk2cruise said:

I booked a sailing on May 23 and I have repriced 5 times now for a savings of over 1k on an Oceanview room so almost 30%.

 

Here is the response I got from my long standing TA when I sent the request to reprice this morning.  Clearly the bouncing prices and promos are causing a lot more work for him.  If they keep this up I suspect we may all be getting less kickback from our TAs.

 

"Celebrity has officially change my job title…I am not longer doing sales for them. All I am doing is repricing and losing commission during this process. This is not just with you, it’s with every CEL booking I have.  

 

 

 

As I have been doing; I will update and re invoice. "

This is one of the reasons why I often don't use a TA.  If I receive a substantial incentive, then yes, I'll use one.  For example, American Express offers some nice perks through their Cruise Privileges Program, as long as I use an AMEX-qualified TA.

But not only do I feel bad if I do a number or changes/reprices or even cancellations, but sometimes they don't move fast enough for me.

The price change that I began this thread with is a good example.  I noticed the price drop on a Saturday.  I called the Travel Agency (I don't have a specific assigned TA) and they did not have any "outbound agents" available to call.  I then called Celebrity directly, but they wouldn't talk to me.  I did finally reach an agent on Monday, and fortunately the pricing stayed the same, but it could have increased, as it just did, and I would have been SOL with no agent initially available.

I have another booking with an individual TA.  I asked that agent about the cost of an upgrade, and there was no reply.  I've had a few other questions here and there, and at times, the TA was quite slow to get back to me, or in some cases, I had to send a reminder of what I was after.

Edited June 14 by Stockjock

[wrk2cruise]

I have no issue with the TA.  I was relaying the issue the TA is having with Celebrity causing churn and wasting his time.

 

Generally the on call agent at the larger agency can handle if my agent is not available.  If for some reason there is an issue with that I have put a reservation on hold on the Celebrity website then send the held reservation number to my agent when he becomes available and he has always been able to work it  out.

[TeanneTX]

We're on Flora next month and they had a huge price drop.  I called my TA and she called the "Flora desk" and they won't match the price since we have already made final payment.  I was hoping to get the difference added to my cruise to Japan on the Millie next year. 

[Stockjock]

36 minutes ago, TeanneTX said:

We're on Flora next month and they had a huge price drop.  I called my TA and she called the "Flora desk" and they won't match the price since we have already made final payment.  I was hoping to get the difference added to my cruise to Japan on the Millie next year. 

You might call back and see if Celebrity can "do something" for you.  Perhaps OBC or an upgrade in lieu of the price drop.  That's what they did for me, and again, my request was made after the final payment.

[LuvCruzn4Evr]

15 hours ago, canderson said:

Our experience has been that any possible repricing after final payment is returned as onboard (non-refundable) OBC.  We had two repriced cruises (B2B) that repriced after final soon after the restart, and wound up with $6,500 in OBC.

 

We tried to reprice after final payment. Our TA contacted Celebrity and was told no, no repricing (makes sense) nor could we get OBC because we already had OBC from Celebrity. Really Celebrity??? Guess you can't book onboard and hope to get additional OBC if your cruise price drops after final payment. 

[canderson]

1 hour ago, LuvCruzn4Evr said:

We tried to reprice after final payment. Our TA contacted Celebrity and was told no, no repricing (makes sense) nor could we get OBC because we already had OBC from Celebrity. Really Celebrity??? Guess you can't book onboard and hope to get additional OBC if your cruise price drops after final payment. 

How it worked for us:

 

It's more or less a cancel-rebook after final.  So if there's an OBC difference between the old and new deals that would hurt, the reprice has to more than make up the difference to be worth doing it.  And it all depends upon any current price guarantee program rules and cancellation penalties...

 

It's not always easy after final!

[jkloni]

On 6/3/2024 at 4:28 PM, bjahil47 said:

No, I had not given her the go ahead.  

Our TA will hold (no charge, no cost) a cabin at the price quoted.  They have a specific timeframe to deposit it, or  relinquish. (may be 48 or 72 hours to hold before deposit?)