I had a similar issue a few years ago with X. I spent half my cruise just trying to get to see the onboard booking agent (who always seemed to be out on break or away from her desk when she was supposed to be in her office). The offer of $200 on board credit was too good to pass up at the time, so I kept going back and trying to catch her.
Finally on the last day I was able to sit down with her. We were both in her office but she kept taking calls on her cell and not paying attention to me and the questions I was trying to ask her.
She gave me a booking number after running my credit card and swore it was being sent to my travel agent. A few weeks after I got home, there was the 1-2-3 promotion and a state promotion for New York. I saw a cruise I wanted to take and called my travel agent to try and set up my reservation.
My agent said she never received anything from X with my name. I gave my agent the pre booking number I had and she told me it was listed as being with X still.
My agent called X in front of me and was able to get it moved to her agency, but it had only been set up as a 1 passenger ticket. My agent asked me why I would set it up as a 1 passenger ticket, and I explained to her I didn't.
My agent called X back while I ran home to get the papers the onboard agent gave me. Sure enough, the onboard agent set it up for 1 person, but charged me the pre booking rate for 2. I called my agent and she told me to print my credit card statement and to call my credit card company to get the authorization number.
I printed my card statement and wrote down the authorization number and gave it to my TA. She called X and explained that she had my statement and the authorization number for the charge and that I was charged for a 2 person ticket. My agent was told to fax it to them so they could look into it and that they would get back to my agent in a few days.
Almost a week later, my agent called and told me the finally got back to her and agreed I did pay for a 2 person pre booking and that they issued me a new number. We discussed the cruise I wanted and the 1-2-3 go program, and the NY special offer and an offer my agent was running and set up my reservation.
When X sent my agent the confirmation back, the $200 onboard credit was missing. She called me and told me, then she called the cruise line. They asked her for proof of the $200 on board credit offer.
I emailed my agent a copy of the flyer from the ship and again a copy of what the onboard booking agent gave me. She explained the whole situation to them, and after all that, they sent back a confirmation with the $200 onboard credit, the 1-2-3 go promo, but set up for 1 person and missing the NY promo and my agents promo.
My agent tried again, this time they got the 2 passengers, the $200 onboard credit and my agents promo but not the 1-2-3 go or NY promotions.
When my agent called this time they told my agent the 1-2-3 expired and so did the NY promo. We then spent a week calling and writing to X to get it all sorted out and fixed. In that week, the price went up $300 per person.
We finally had everything in place. The $200 onboard credit from X, the $100 on board credit for being a New York resident, the $150 on board credit from my TA and the 1-2-3 drink package and prepaid gratuities. However, now we were paying $600 more because all the runaround with X and the onboard booking agents mistake.
A few months later, my TA calls to tell me that X told her they were removing the $150 onboard credit from her and the $100 onboard credit for being an NY resident, because they didn't feel all these offers should apply if we had the prepaid gratuities, drink package and $200 OBC for booking on a prior cruise.
I was very frustrated (especially since I thought all the BS was done and their onboard booking agents mistake was already costing me $600). We tried for days to get this fiasco settled. Nobody in the cruise lines reservation department seemed to care about the mistakes their employee made or the stress, time and extra money it was costing me.
Some of the employees even tried to tell us if they edited anything now, we would lose the NY OBC and the 1-2-3 offer because they both expired already. We finally had it, I decided to request my money back and (I'm sure like they told you), they couldn't do that.
At that point, I googled "executives celebrity cruises" and "executive Royal Caribbean cruises". I wrote to all of them, and then my TA received a call from a random person in X saying they would honor the price from when we started trying to book the cruise months earlier (when we discovered that the onboard booking agent only put my reservation in for 1 person {so a $600 savings}), they would honor the $200 OBC for booking on board, the $100 NY resident OBC, the drink package and prepaid gratuities for the 1-2-3 go promotion, and the $150 from my TA and that they were going to add another $150 in OBC and a certificate for a free meal at a specialty restraint of my choosing for the hassle.
We also received an extra bottle of champagne and a thing of chocolate covered strawberries when we got on board.
I find that the X customer service on land is less impressive and less caring than the onboard customer service and (despite being on the ship) the onboard booking agents are just on land customer service agents who happen to be with the ship.
Also, don't use the website, that thing is useless. Write an old fashioned letter and mail it.
Onboard booking of a next cruise - problems afterwards with Celebrity
in Celebrity Cruises
Posted · Edited by freehold101
Squadra03
Write to Lisa Lutoff Purlo CEO of X.
I had a similar issue a few years ago with X. I spent half my cruise just trying to get to see the onboard booking agent (who always seemed to be out on break or away from her desk when she was supposed to be in her office). The offer of $200 on board credit was too good to pass up at the time, so I kept going back and trying to catch her.
Finally on the last day I was able to sit down with her. We were both in her office but she kept taking calls on her cell and not paying attention to me and the questions I was trying to ask her.
She gave me a booking number after running my credit card and swore it was being sent to my travel agent. A few weeks after I got home, there was the 1-2-3 promotion and a state promotion for New York. I saw a cruise I wanted to take and called my travel agent to try and set up my reservation.
My agent said she never received anything from X with my name. I gave my agent the pre booking number I had and she told me it was listed as being with X still.
My agent called X in front of me and was able to get it moved to her agency, but it had only been set up as a 1 passenger ticket. My agent asked me why I would set it up as a 1 passenger ticket, and I explained to her I didn't.
My agent called X back while I ran home to get the papers the onboard agent gave me. Sure enough, the onboard agent set it up for 1 person, but charged me the pre booking rate for 2. I called my agent and she told me to print my credit card statement and to call my credit card company to get the authorization number.
I printed my card statement and wrote down the authorization number and gave it to my TA. She called X and explained that she had my statement and the authorization number for the charge and that I was charged for a 2 person ticket. My agent was told to fax it to them so they could look into it and that they would get back to my agent in a few days.
Almost a week later, my agent called and told me the finally got back to her and agreed I did pay for a 2 person pre booking and that they issued me a new number. We discussed the cruise I wanted and the 1-2-3 go program, and the NY special offer and an offer my agent was running and set up my reservation.
When X sent my agent the confirmation back, the $200 onboard credit was missing. She called me and told me, then she called the cruise line. They asked her for proof of the $200 on board credit offer.
I emailed my agent a copy of the flyer from the ship and again a copy of what the onboard booking agent gave me. She explained the whole situation to them, and after all that, they sent back a confirmation with the $200 onboard credit, the 1-2-3 go promo, but set up for 1 person and missing the NY promo and my agents promo.
My agent tried again, this time they got the 2 passengers, the $200 onboard credit and my agents promo but not the 1-2-3 go or NY promotions.
When my agent called this time they told my agent the 1-2-3 expired and so did the NY promo. We then spent a week calling and writing to X to get it all sorted out and fixed. In that week, the price went up $300 per person.
We finally had everything in place. The $200 onboard credit from X, the $100 on board credit for being a New York resident, the $150 on board credit from my TA and the 1-2-3 drink package and prepaid gratuities. However, now we were paying $600 more because all the runaround with X and the onboard booking agents mistake.
A few months later, my TA calls to tell me that X told her they were removing the $150 onboard credit from her and the $100 onboard credit for being an NY resident, because they didn't feel all these offers should apply if we had the prepaid gratuities, drink package and $200 OBC for booking on a prior cruise.
I was very frustrated (especially since I thought all the BS was done and their onboard booking agents mistake was already costing me $600). We tried for days to get this fiasco settled. Nobody in the cruise lines reservation department seemed to care about the mistakes their employee made or the stress, time and extra money it was costing me.
Some of the employees even tried to tell us if they edited anything now, we would lose the NY OBC and the 1-2-3 offer because they both expired already. We finally had it, I decided to request my money back and (I'm sure like they told you), they couldn't do that.
At that point, I googled "executives celebrity cruises" and "executive Royal Caribbean cruises". I wrote to all of them, and then my TA received a call from a random person in X saying they would honor the price from when we started trying to book the cruise months earlier (when we discovered that the onboard booking agent only put my reservation in for 1 person {so a $600 savings}), they would honor the $200 OBC for booking on board, the $100 NY resident OBC, the drink package and prepaid gratuities for the 1-2-3 go promotion, and the $150 from my TA and that they were going to add another $150 in OBC and a certificate for a free meal at a specialty restraint of my choosing for the hassle.
We also received an extra bottle of champagne and a thing of chocolate covered strawberries when we got on board.
I find that the X customer service on land is less impressive and less caring than the onboard customer service and (despite being on the ship) the onboard booking agents are just on land customer service agents who happen to be with the ship.
Also, don't use the website, that thing is useless. Write an old fashioned letter and mail it.
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