Price drops

[chrob]

I am from the UK and have used a UK travel agent to book my cruise with Celebrity. The final payment was made 5 weeks ago. There are 7 weeks left to our cruise.

 

The price has dropped today on my Panama Canal cruise in November onboard the Summit and after contacting my travel agent I am £120 richer. - Great!

 

But my question is - if the price drops again can I apply for another refund?

 

My TA says Celebrity will only honour one price reduction but these boards seem to indicate otherwise.

 

I would be grateful of anyone's experiences in receiving refunds after final payment - particularly from Uk cruisers who have booked with a UK TA.

[englishmum]

Hi,I am also from the UK and have booked a cruise to South America directly with Celebrity.I also noticed a price drop in my catogory of cabin but I find it extremely frustrating to have to continually phone and ask for the reduction.I keep looking on My Celebrity but so far nothing has changed.I have emailed Celebrity today so maybe someone will give me the price drop.Having read these threads I get the impression that our friends in the US get a far superior service from Celebrity and are immediately given any price drop they identify.I also booked a 3 day pre cruise stay in Santiago which I now want to change to 2 days as I have made private arrangements for the 3rd day but Celebrity tell me if I book 2 days they must be day 2 and 3 of my stay.It makes no sense to me.I just wanted transfer from the airport, day 1 and day 2 accomodation but I am told this is not possible.I am now having to cancel these arrangemants with Celebrity and organise my own hotel and transfer.I have also had to spend a long time on the phone trying to organise my flights

with Celebrity,they kept teling me that they had not sorted out their contracts with British Airways so I could fly back with BA but not fly to Santiago with them.I am now booked with Iberia Airlines to Santiago and with BA from Buenos Aires to London.The whole process of booking this holiday has been most stressful I will need a cruise to recover!!

[uktog]

I know you will read on the boards about what others can do but it seems that the contract between agents and Celebrity UK differs from that others enjoy. I have only ever heard of one price drop being honoured, but others from the UK may have examples that differ. Certainly our cruise in October has had 2 itinerary changes, US passengers got 2 x $50 on board credit for the changes, we only are getting one because I am told of the wording in the contract we sign

As regards travel plans, I can understand why you find it stressful. Afer a similar experience, we now book cruise only and make our own arrangements with BA or whoever and with hotels - ofen the ones X uses. Not only do I feel in control and able to avoid the stupid flight times they pick (we fly from Scotland they tend to pick flights that will only allow 90 minutes transfer at Heathrow - the bare minimum and first thing in the morning we all know that flight is never on time) but also on our next trip we are going to be £400 better off making our own arrangments. As we fly out at least two days before we have "contingency"

Good luck and enjoy your trips

[englishmum]

All my problems have been resolved.In response to the email I sent Celebrity yesterday I received a phone call today from their Customer Services.The person calling from Celebrity could not have been more helpful,I am really impressed,I have received the price drop and I have also been given an onboard credit of $100 for my inconvienience.Immediately My Celebrity showed all the changes.I never expected service like this,it just shows that by getting the right person your problems can be resolved instantly.All credit to Celebrity's UK Customer Service Dept.

[JuneauWhatIMean]

Congratulations, mgwardle! I'm waving my pom poms for you! :D

 

I really think Celebrity is trying to improve its customer service. Everyone I've spoken to on the phone has been very helpful and on my recent cruise with Mercury several people told me they (management) really do read Cruise Critic.

 

Have a great cruise!

 

Ali

:cool:

[bandmom1]

chrob, I am not from the UK and I booked my cruise through Celebrity - I have had 3 price drops and they have honored them all. One even after the final payment. Isn't it nice to get $$ for cruising ???? :o

[chrob]

Thanks everyone for your replies. Can you tell me where in My Celebrity it shows your onboard credit?

 

We were awarded $100 shipboard credit about 6 months ago when Celebrity changed the disembarkation port from Fort Lauderdale to San Juan. The only record I have of the credit is a letter and on the travel agents invoices. I have never been able to find any reference in My Celebrity.

[Janiefrmde]

We are booked for the Western Carribbean Cruise on Nov. 7th on the Constellation. We have booked a 2C Balcony. The guarantee balcony has always been the same price as the 2C until today. It has gone done $150 per person. I called Celebrity and they told me the only way I could get the lower fare is to cancel my room and book a guarantee.

 

Would any of you switch? Right now we are in 6090 (middle of the ship).

 

Thanks for your feedback.

Janie

[uktog]

All my problems have been resolved.In response to the email I sent Celebrity yesterday I received a phone call today from their Customer Services.The person calling from Celebrity could not have been more helpful,I am really impressed,I have received the price drop and I have also been given an onboard credit of $100 for my inconvienience.Immediately My Celebrity showed all the changes.I never expected service like this,it just shows that by getting the right person your problems can be resolved instantly.All credit to Celebrity's UK Customer Service Dept.

 

Can I just confirm -were you booked direct with X or through a TA? If you were booked through a TA do you mind telling me what number at Weybridge you called. We have an issue with an itinerary change that has been out for 3 months but we have not been told about it and I need to speak with someone sensible to guage whether I shouldbe directing my complaint to X (who tend to take the line if you are booked through a TA you must speak to them) or the TA (whom I suspect in this scenario is the guilty party)

[englishmum]

I am booked directly with Celebrity,I very rarely use a TA as I like to communicate directly with the cruise line.If you use a TA Celebrity will not answer any of your questions you have to do everything through your TA.My phone call from Celebrity was in response to an email that I sent using their internet site.Hope this helps.

[uktog]

Thanks it does - I wish I had never used this TA for this next trip - though my TA for the 2007/08 trips is a good one it seems

[lucky white heather]

We live just outside city boundary of Edinburgh too but have used in turn ,a city travel agency, direct booking with Celebrity, and also an English based cruise company from time to time.

We are just off Century, 2nd Sept sailing, booked direct with Celebrity.

Our invoice said we had paid £40 more than we should have but that money was never refunded to my credit card straight away .... only after phoning them weeks and weeks later did I get someone who said they would organise the refund immediately (Aug.24th refunded to my credit card.) They had the money for a while, no explanation was offered about how this was overpaid in the first place , and I had to wonder if I had not chased it up personally, would it ever have been repaid to me? Change of price happening after we booked?????We never seem to get the fabulous refund type deals US citizens seem to get regularly.

We are also confused about our next booking (thro' a city travel agency) for Constellation T/Atlantic 07.

(We already had a "hold" on the cabin we had been originally booked into for a B2B on this ship before Celebrity cancelled our first cruise, moved the second forward, and changed the final destination port etc etc.but offered no air out to join this B2B with a new first cruise, therefore we were forced to cancellation as taking a transatlantic flight for only a 12 nighter did not really seem worth it.)

Weeks later, faced with little alternative choice, we decided to go ahead and book anyway but now having lost our goodwill OBC for Celebrity's cancellation of course.

The travel agency invoice shows we are supposed to have a discount of £176 ????? but we are paying the actual screen price for our package anyone can buy by phoning Celebrity direct and we wondered if anyone else has experienced this with any explanation ... no point in discussing further with the agency if it is indeed accurately priced.

As far as cruise flight arrangements to join cruises using Celebrity flights dept (we are Elite and can deviate , request etc. for no fee) are organised...it did happen once before when we booked cruise only , the first flight we had out of EDI was actually cancelled , so we missed the last LHR connection of the day to Miami, and had we not left time ahead of sail time, we would have missed the cruise entirely.

Celebrity give you the "bestdeal" flight they can find irrespective of safe connections and leave you to do the worrying.

Next year if our Celebrity flights don't "gel" for us, Constellation will be on its way direct to Ireland , with no hope of us catching it up! What happens then? We are already worrying!

[Addict]

Hi All

 

Just want to add about our experience of price drops. Our final payment was due yesterday, we spoke to the travel agent and asked if they could just check with Celebrity before we paid the final amount to see if there had been any price changes - and we couldn't believe it when they said the price had dropped by £900!!!. So our total had dropped from £5,000 to £4,100. We were absolutely on cloud nine. So we have paid up quick before they can change their minds.

 

The only irritating thing was that we wanted to add on one night pre-cruise (they include one night anyway but we wanted to add another one) - Celebrity said if we do this we would have to pay for both pre-cruise nights at the hotel. Not sure why they have to do this - we weren't asking to change hotels or anything, so we have left it as it is.

 

Anyway, we feel we have had an excellent result saving £900 and wouldn't even have bothered to ask about price reductions if we hadn't been reading these forums and realised that it is almost the done thing! So thank you everyone.

 

I just hope they haven't made a mistake!!

 

Sue