Celebrity Cruise company / travel agency double booked our room! How can we get full reimbursement for trip costs?

[Ferry_Watcher]

2 hours ago, Dread_Pirate_Roberts said:

I still had a confirmed reservation with all the codes in hand before we left for Florida, so we figured we should just take that to the dock.

 

What happened when you arrived at the terminal for check-in?  Did you speak with a Pier Coordinator?  Was the ship completely sold out, and/or were there no cancellations or 'No Shows' that your reservation couldn't be revived?

[bundtkate]

2 hours ago, Dread_Pirate_Roberts said:

Celebrity paid the cruise cost

You're right, I did miss this. My apologies. I saw the $450 "gesture", but overlooked the refund. I did see Celebrity admitted fault, but that matters little if they're not meeting their obligations and providing a detailed retelling of events along with proof that you met your obligations can still help. Also, I think you may have missed this part:

 

20 hours ago, bundtkate said:

Keep in mind that both parties may reasonably deny extra nights in Miami beyond the first one as you likely could have flow the day after and choosing not to is on you

All of these things -- insurance, reimbursement from the cruise line -- are based on contracts you agreed to, upon purchase of the product. Typically, cruise lines will at least cover airline change fees and extra costs you were required to incur in getting home as soon as possible so I had actually assumed those would be in the contract, but turns out I was wrong and technically you've already been paid what you owed. Here's what Celebrity says about what they owe you when you don't get to take your cruise:
 

"3(d). Refund of Cruise Fare for Nonperformance of Transportation. Guest agrees that the following procedure shall govern requests for refunds due to Nonperformance of Transportation:

(i)  First, Guest shall request a refund of the CruiseFare from the Third Party Reseller.

(ii)  In the event that the Third Party Reseller does not provide a refund of the CruiseFare under subsection (i) above within 45 calendar days,  Guest may make a written request for a refund from Carrier.

(iii)  If Guest is unable to resolve the request for a  refund with Carrier within 180 days of the written request under subsection (ii) above, Guest may submit a claim against Carrier’s financial instrument by following the instructions on the Federal Maritime Commission’s website, https://www.fmc.gov/about-the-fmc/bureaus-offices/bureau-of-certification-and-licensing/"

 

As you can see, all they owe you per this agreement is a refund. Even if they canceled the entire cruise without notice, as you can see here:

"7a. Cancellation by Carrier Generally. Carrier has the right, without prior to notice to Guest, to cancel all or any portion of this Agreement at any time prior to Guest boarding the Vessel for the Cruise or commencing a Land Tour, whichever occurs first. Carrier’s right to cancel this Agreement shall be in addition to Carrier’s right to cancel the Cruise or CruiseTour. In such case, Guest agrees to follow the procedure outlined in Section 3.d of this Agreement should Guest wish to obtain a refund of any CruiseFare"

And just for the sake of total clarity, here's the contractual definition of "CruiseFare", for those who purchased from a TA:

 

a. Cruise Fare. “Cruise Fare” means the amount paid and/or due from Guest to Third Party Reseller for the Cruise or CruiseTour which includes carriage onboard the Vessel, full board, ordinary Vessel food and entertainment, and any other inclusions as are established by Third Party Reseller.

Per your the contract, Celebrity has already paid what they owe you -- the refund -- and even given you a good will gesture of future cruise credit that they never owed you in the first place.

As for the insurance, it sounds like you read your policy and overbooking was not listed as a covered cause of loss. They are highly unlikely to pay for anything. You're a data scientist and I worked in the insurance industry for the first 5 years of my career. Unlike cruise lines who care about their public image and will frequently go beyond their contractual obligations as Celebrity has already done here, insurance companies will pretty much never pay more than exactly what they owe you under the policy, which looks to be nothing. There's no harm in filing, but keep your expectations low.

Now to make it abundantly clear since apparently you view those who took quite some time out of their day in an attempt to help you as deserving the same frustration as the people blaming you for the situation, I don't think this is your fault nor that paying only what they contractually owe you is the right thing for Celebrity to do. They objectively screwed you over and added stress by failing to immediately fulfill their obligations under the contract. They should make more than a token $450 credit effort to make it right. My personal opinion is that they should pay your flight change fees + increased cost for your flight home and one night of hotel/food/transport since asking you to get a same day flight under these circumstances would be unreasonable, if not impossible. But contractually they paid what they owed so I'll revise my advice:
 

Reach out to the executive office as others suggested. These folks care more about PR and have the power to deviate from established procedures. Send them the documentation you gathered, along with the admission of fault, and ask them to reimburse your extra costs. Go ahead and ask for all of them if you'd like. You never know what they may accept in service of looking less like money grubbing jerks so no harm in asking for the moon. But keep in mind that it very much appears they've met their obligations.

And also, I'd suggest treating them with more kindness than you've given folks here. Those pointing the finger at you deserve your frustration, but those asking you questions and giving advice are trying to support you. Some gratitude for the attempts, regardless of their success, would go a long way -- both with folks here and those you're asking for help at Celebrity. The internet turns a lot of folks into anonymous jerks and, as another poster mentioned, cheerleaders who refuse to believe their favored line can do any wrong are very real. But most ordinary people want to help and sympathize with your experience, including most of the service people you're working with at Celebrity. A little kindness and gratitude goes a long way towards encouraging them to be your advocate rather than just doing the bare minimum required by their job.

[gfkcruiser]

On 9/25/2024 at 1:56 PM, Dread_Pirate_Roberts said:

Sorry in advance for the long post. I'm trying to include everything I remember. Earlier this month, my two best-friends-since-high school and I had booked a 6-day cruise out of Fort Lauderdale. We had all turned 50 this year and wanted a special way to celebrate, so we booked the cruise. We flew in the Saturday night before and stayed at a local hotel. I tried to pre-check us in online the night before the cruise, but I kept getting errors like "we cannot find your reservation." I had an email confirmation from my travel agent of our fully purchased cruise, along with the room that we had selected when we purchased the cruise. I assume there was some kind of computer glitch, so we headed off the boarding pier on Sunday morning. When trying to check in, they stated we DID NOT HAVE A RESERVATION. BTW, we also purchased travel insurance. We were taken to the customer service desk and showed them our documentation. But they stated that because we were not on the manifest, we could not board. And the ship was full, so they could not give us a different room. In fact, someone else was already booked into the room on our reservation confirmation. When we inquired how did this happen, they stated it was the fault of the third-party travel vendor (a major online one, but I'm leaving out the name). We went back to the hotel and told them we would be staying there again. I am disabled, and this traumatic interaction at the docks, trying to get the cruise line to honor our confirmed reservation, triggered an immediate health tole on me; within a day, I was showing signs of an infection (stress lowers my immuno-response). We updated our flights to Wednesday (rather than the following Sunday), which cost an additional ~$200 each. During the time we were in Florida, we went to a few local gardens and parks and ate maybe 1-2 meals a day. When we returned home, my husband immediately took me to an urgent care, who prescribed antibiotics. However, by Friday morning, I had to be taken to the ER.

 

After my recovery, I started calling to find out how to be reimbursed for our whole trip. Initially, the cruise company had said it was the fault of the third-party vendor, that is who I called first. The vendor immediately said they had the correct information, which was correctly communicated to the cruise company, and therefore the cruise company was at fault. Ugh. After a few back-and-forth calls, I received an email from the cruise company, "Once again, I sincerely apologize you couldn't sail with us on the Celebrity Beyond that was leaving on September 15, 2024 because of our mistake. I truly regret this impacted your enjoyment of your cruise vacation. As we are eager to restore your faith in our brand, please find the Future Cruise Certificate offer for your use on a forthcoming sailing with Celebrity Cruises." In addition to the refund, they afforded a $450 voucher (good for only 1 year). Then, the travel vendor would reimburse the first night at the hotel because that was directly booked through them, but none of the further nights because they were a separate reservation done directly with the hotel. 

 

So, this leads me to our current place. We believe we should be refunded for 100% of our trip cost since the trip was the cruise, as we did not get a cruise. Our biggest additional expenses are the flights (~$1400), additional hotel stay (~$500), Lyft/rental car (~$400), and food costs (~$900). The travel vendor has said these are not their problem, since we did not book any of those items through them. And the Travel Insurance - we cannot find anywhere the policy deals with double bookings. I think the cruise line should pay the remaining costs, as they accepted fault. But they say they only have to refund the cruise cost.  I'm looking for help on next steps and any online documentation regarding double bookings on cruises. Anyone?

Did they explain how this fiasco happened other than it was their mistake?  Would hate to have this happen to me.

[Dolebludger]

We have always purchased travel insurance on cruises and other trips. We fortunately have never needed to make a claim due to a cruise foul up. But we had travel insurance through use on our American Express Platinum card for a simple domestic trip involving flights from Durango CO to Boston MA with a connection in Denver.  Due to an airline problem in Durango, we missed our connection in Denver to Boston. The airline couldn’t get us a replacement flight for this for three days! But the airline agreed to refund all our fares paid to them, and fly us back to Durango the next morning for free. This trip wasn’t necessary, so that was fine, except for the $300 we paid for one night at the airport hotel. The travel insurance that came with this AnEx card paid the $300. I have never heard of any travel insurance that wouldn’t cover the out of pocket expenses incurred by the OP. 

[JFontaine]

I understand seeking reimbursement for your direct and unavoidable expenses. I don't understand your claim of lodging for a few extra nights and meals while you went to parks and hung out.  That's a vacation. 

[zitsky]

If I understand OP is asking when to follow up with insurance.  I use a big but not huge TA but my Covid refund came from Celebrity.  My insurance let me reuse the policy for the rebooked cruise. The time to deal with insurance is right now.  If they deny the claim you go after Celebrity or your TA.  

 

In future please do not ignore multiple errors and do try to access your booking earlier.  I only get emails from my TA about final payment dates.

[Tigermad]

13 hours ago, Tigermad said:

Sorry if you already mentioned it here but did you never look at your reservation online?  I’m not going until May next year but check it weekly just in case. I’m a first time cruiser. 

I guess the answer is no since you are not answering this 

[CaroleSS]

3 hours ago, Tigermad said:

I guess the answer is no since you are not answering this 

OP said they checked the reservation online, but received an error message. I can only "assume" that they did not follow-up with said message.

[Tigermad]

1 minute ago, CaroleSS said:

OP said they checked the reservation online, but received an error message. I can only "assume" that they did not follow-up with said message.

That was after they had flown in just before the cruise when they tried to check in. Looks like they never checked at all prior to this. 🙁

[zitsky]

What I learned as a project manager for 12 years is that even when someone has “data” in their job title, they can be as unfamiliar with protocol as the rest of us.  And having previously been in IT, our helpdesk probably got tired of me reporting the minor and major errors I would document on a weekly basis.  But it was necessary to help other employees.  😳

 

Hopefully this story will help someone else.

[CaroleSS]

1 hour ago, Tigermad said:

That was after they had flown in just before the cruise when they tried to check in. Looks like they never checked at all prior to this. 🙁

A lot could have been avoided if they had