confused.

[mmp13]

Both expedia and orbitz are showing a price drop for the cruise I have booked in October. Whenever I try to access the Celebrity home page to check the price there I get a mesage that the site is down for maintenance. Is anyone else having trouble accessing the home page? I will hav my TA check but I did not think Tvavel agents were allowed to under sell the official price. This is a significant drop not a commission kick back

[lvtotrvl1]

No one can sell under the rate inclusing the two that you named. If you booked through an agent, I would call them.

[ECCruise]

Both expedia and orbitz are showing a price drop for the cruise I have booked in October. Whenever I try to access the Celebrity home page to check the price there I get a mesage that the site is down for maintenance. Is anyone else having trouble accessing the home page? I will hav my TA check but I did not think Tvavel agents were allowed to under sell the official price. This is a significant drop not a commission kick back

 

Just accessed the home page, no problem. Clear your cache and try again. BTW, the prices shown on Expedia and Orbitz should match the official X prices. Call your travel agent.

[DaveFr]

Peg,

 

I was just able to access your cruise on the Celebrity web site to check prices without any problem. Try again and if you still can't access the site, clear your browser's cache. Sometimes clearing the cache fixes access problems.

 

Hope this helps.

[newmexicoNita]

If this doesn't work call Celebrity or hopefully, you have a TA. As tvtot mentioned, especially on RCI and Celebrity the prices are the same, no matter who you book with; no company can advertise a lower rate, so if you are seeing one, it is available to everyone. This happened to me a few months ago: cliant had gotten an email about a rate drop (happened to be Celebrity) I didn't have it and couldn't match it. Luckily for me this was a loyal cliant. Well guess what, later that day I too was able to offer the same rate. Our system just hadn't been updated yet. NMNita

[Rich&Natalia]

Hi Peg,

Hope you get the price drop thing straightened out soon. We want to wish you guys a great cruise. I'm not 100% sure, but I think we might be looking at a RC cruise next month, with our 6 month old daughter in tow. We'll see how scheduling works out (we'll miss the Constellation though :( ).

-Rich

[mmp13]

Hi rich, It's great to hear from you! I check in at your website once in a while...Your little girl is just precious. Can't wait for our cruise but I think RC cruise is a better choice with a child. Although your little one is a little young to take part in most of the activities. She will probably need another year or two before she is ready for the ROck climbing etc.. And by then maybe she will aquire a taste for martini's and you can come back to the constellation:D

[mmp13]

So Now I have checked several on line agencies and it's about a 50/50 split lower price versus price I paid and Celebrity price shows same as I paid. I really am not getting it . Still waiting to hear from TQ who is out of the office for a while.

[newmexicoNita]

So Now I have checked several on line agencies and it's about a 50/50 split lower price versus price I paid and Celebrity price shows same as I paid. I really am not getting it . Still waiting to hear from TQ who is out of the office for a while.

If you are getting lower rates on Celebrity form the net something is certainly wrong. As memtioned earlier this is totally not allowed and I would like to know how the on line agencies are justifying this. NMnita

[mmp13]

Me too!!! I'm working on it!

[mmp13]

Me too!!! I'm working on it!

[Rich&Natalia]

Thanks Peg. Yeah, we didn't think that we would be cruising for another couple of years. But then we were just talking yesterday about how much we miss it and just decided to start looking into a cruise before the season ended. And I do hope that Tyler gets into the rock climbing thing before she gets into martinis - rock climbing is a lot cheaper. :)

Also, about your price drop, I saw your itinerary on the happy hour special today, which I guess is only for new bookings. I don't know if that's where the lower price is coming from.

[mmp13]

Maybe it is a happy hour price. It shows on several different web TA sites.

My TA was on the phone with several Customer service people while I was there and they basicly said too bad. When he asked why some TA's had the special price and others did not they said they had no idea...Nice to know that all the propaganda about travel agents offering the same prices is a lot of nonsense. His agency is one of the larger web and non web agencies. Seems odd that they did not get the same prices as expedia and orbitz!!

[mmp13]

Rich, YOur right it is the happy hour price. Unfortunately it was not listed as such on some of the sights. funny that customer service did not seem to know that. OH well It's only money,,,I just can't wait to get going!

[donnajo]

Hi, First of all, the agencies get the same pricing (especially on the no discount RCCL and Celebrity cruises)

The Happy Hour specials are sent to all agencies. Whether or not someone is diving into the mountain of specials that come across the desk and actually putting them on their website is another matter.

I am responsible for putting specials on my agency's website.

I get pages and pages of them every day.:eek:

We can only put so many on the site, so I have to be selective. I try to get a variety of cruiselines and itineraries (and dates) on there.

Happy hour specials, since they are only one day specials, get put on the website for one or two days only. Other specials may be on the website for a week or two.

All the agents try to skim through the specials list periodically, but honestly, it's pages and pages and pages EVERY DAY (alot of them are last minute cruises)

I do get calls from customers who see specials on another website and I give them the same price. When I go into the reservations system, any discounted price will automatically come up.

The above poster is right - some agents will give a shipboard credit or free insurance as their gift to you for booking with them which comes out of the agency's commission.

There are alot of reasons to book through an agency which have been repeated on too many threads already so I won't go there lol.

Happy sailings cruisers :)

Donna

[Rich&Natalia]

Peg,

We're still looking around for a Caribbean cruise before the end of the season. I looked at the Tuesday happy hour special this week but didn't pay much attention to it. Since I've been really digging into the itineraries and the prices, I'm finding out that the happy hour special on your sailing would have been perfect for us. I wish I had realized earlier. Shoot....

5 more weeks to go for you. :)

-Rich

[mmp13]

Oh Rich!!!Now I'm really dissapointed.:( it would have been so great to see you and Natalie and especially baby Tyler. We could have gone to paradise beach and introduced her to some great Nachos! And I could have held her while you guys were in the water. I love babies. :) There are still a lot of cabins available. I can't beleive they have not dropped the prices like they did last year.:confused:

[Rich&Natalia]

That was a fun day Cozumel. It would be so cool to be there again. We'll keep you updated on what cruise we end up booking. Washing down nachos and ceviche with beer on the beach - it doesn't get much better.:)

[mmp13]

Amen!!!

[jaxon41]

Probably not your situation, Peg, but I often get confused when comparing prices by the fact that taxes and port fees are figured so differently. I will see a sale but when I check out the final price, it is really not a sale, just a change in the taxes/port fees configuration. I really hate this as it makes comparing so difficult. Why do agents use a much higher tax/fee number than I find on Celebrity's site?

[ocngypz]

Some agencies use an outfit called Revelex to handle their online bookings.

Revelex defaults to the lowest available farecode. Until you go all the way through the booking process and enter your particulars, you do not get a final price. Nor do you get a confirmation that you are eligible for the rate.

Say, the lowest available fare is a senior fare. If you are not 55+ and attempt to put in your credit card information, the booking will not go through.