raananh

Yes, if I inform the airline I will not fly 6 months from now, in October 2023, then I lost all the money as the ticket is not-refundable. Then I will get only $500 for a ticket that costs $1000s. Most people in this situation would wait with cancellation because they may still go to Japan, albeit with no cruise. So here Celebrity is showing good-will and just asks to show that the ticket is non-refundable. Celebrity does not ask to prove that I actually cancelled in advance. It's fair. My travel plans were ruined and I am stuck with a ticket I probably do not need and will not use. Even if I go to Japan, I now need to work on a new vacation plan ($$$ and time) for a different vacation in Japan. Thanks.

Totally agree with you! Only if you lose money, you should place a claim. But if I have a non-refundable flight to Japan, for October 2023, 6 months from now, I will not realize a loss of money until October 2023, when I don't show up for the flight. Celebrity / travel insurance will not wait until October for a realized loss of money so I can place a claim. So Celebrity said "if you show us a ticket and it says "non-refundable" on it, you get $500." Not sure what my Travel Insurance would say. In all honesty, I am not sure what I will do with this Japan flight ticket by October. Maybe I will fly. I have another dilemma here, and I need to decide this week. I did not place flight claims yet.

Yes, I am getting 125%, but, to clarify: I am not getting a new 125%. I am getting the 125% I already got from Celerity when I booked this "oversold" cruise due to a prior cruise getting cancelled because of Covid. If I look at the details of my "oversold" October 2023 cruise statement, I can see the lines of the actual $$ I deposited and one additional line which is a 25% given to me by Celebrity. I will still keep that 25% and can use it for a future cruise. If you did not realize: It would be really bad if Celebrity was actually considering, in addition to all the issues they caused to customers, to also take the 25% they gave some passengers in the past for Covid-related cancellations. Thanks

My flight to Japan is in October 2023 and we are now in May. Based on what you say, I need to "cancel" my flight now in May (i.e. inform the airline I will not show up), to get some kind of a letter / screen "you lost all your money on this flight". In contrast, FYI, Celebrity told me today that for their $500 refund on flights, all they need is a picture of the ticket with the words "non-refundable". Then, I need to ask Celebrity for an official letter for my Travel Insurance claim about my Cruise being cancelled. When Celebrity hears that, they should say "no $500 refund for you!" because "you have Travel Insurance!". And technically they are right. All this seems like me spending days with back-and-forth arguments between Celebrity and the Travel Insurance about who pays what and if to pay. All I was hoping is for "peace of mind" when I got Travel Insurance.... Wish me luck!!!!

I just spoke with Celebrity and our personal CSR at Celebrity. First, quick background: we booked directly with Celebrity and our October 2023 cruise was "oversold". We had to cancel for a refund because we cannot switch to October 2024. The official compensation offer from Celebrity (for anyone?) was $450 / person and up-to $500 for other expenses such as flights. It seems that Celebrity is sweetening the deal!!!! In our case, we get: 1. More than $450 / person, and half of the total will be refunded to our credit card - not a Future Cruise Credit. I got a very complicated story why we get more, and honestly I did not understand it. I was just happy that we get more than originally I thought. It was something about us putting an additional down payment on the cruise because we had to rebook it due to Covid cancellation. I did not even remember we did it. 2. Due to even prior cancelation due to Covid, Celebrity gave us 125% of the original amount paid for this cruise. As part of this current compensation, we will still get that 125% of the money. Note: this is still has to be approved by Celebrity management, but most likely it will happen. So, being much more happy with Celebrity I went ahead and told them I am booking a Bermuda cruise with them, 2 cabins, once we know the final future cruise credit. Thanks.

We bought travel insurance, not through Celebrity, well before the cruise got "oversold". We always do, due to some incident in the long past with my father, where THANKFULLY(!) we had insurance. How can travel insurance help here? For the cost of the cruise, I cannot honestly place a claim with the insurance because Celebrity offers refund (cruise credit) or S&L. For other costs, such as flights, maybe I can place a claim with the insurance ... but Celebrity also offers some refund ($500). It will be messy, a lot of time. I really wonder if people who bought travel insurance through Celebrity can get anything. Thanks

The Sept/Oct 2025 cruises for Japan are not even planned by Celebrity. We had an October 2023 "oversold" cruise, and we would probably go for an October 2025. All we were offered was October 2024, and we have other obligations for that month. So we had to cancel.

In our case, our October 2023 cruise was "oversold" and the only option for S&L is Sept/October 2024. Well, we can't go at all in Sept/Oct 2024 because of another obligation. I am sure that we are not the only ones: many other people may have other obligations for the only choice given by Celebrity. So we had to cancel, our vacation plan was ruined + big financial loss (Japan flights.) If I was Celebrity, and I actually cared about customers, I would offer "any other Celebrity cruise for a big discount to compensate you". Don't you think many will go for that, and actually Celebrity will make money off them, instead of cancellations? Thanks

Yes. You are 100% correct. We all know that. But with airlines this practice is not as bad because normally there's another flight to the same destination few hours later. Can't say that about cruises being over-sold. In any case, this practice of over-selling really hurt people. It actually got worse in the last few years where airlines are allowed to cancel flights because the plain was not fully sold. The issue with oversold flights and cancelled flight became so bad that now I always book a flight 2 days before the cruise starts, paying an additional hotel. And this practice save me from missing a cruise only last year. Thanks.

So this is not the first time Celebrity oversold a cruise. I am beginning to think that all those "oversold" incidents, by Celebrity, also Royal Caribbean (parent company of Celebrity), airlines, etc is really intentional... and the reason it to somehow make more money.

I meant 10 sailings, which is 1000s of people, which are 15% of the passengers.

For sure, this fiasco is costing Celebrity $ while also giving them bad publicity and hurting their business. Sadly, it costs Celebrity only $ and not $$$ because same bad management behind the fiasco is also handling the consequences using their same exact style of bad management: lack of care, lack of planning, being cheap, and shortly, handling customers as if they are cattle. If each booking mismanagement costs $$$ instead of $ then, for sure, incidents will be fewer and no massive fiascos of 10 ships with 1000s of passengers, almost 15% of Celebrity customers just this year. This is the only reason this large-scale massive fiasco happened: it does not cost Celebrity as bad as it should. Am I right? Then comes the government with their own lack of care, and makes sure such incidents cost only $ and not $$$ for corporations likes Celebrity. Anyway, I have the $$$ and I will choose others to give my $$$.

Totally agree with you, except "letter to the executive office". Celebrity and Corporations do not care about personal letters. They only care when issues are exposed publicly on message boards, media, groups, etc. Just here on CruiseCritic, I can see many people who said, including me, that they will not sail again with Celebrity = a lot of $$$$ of lost sales for Celebrity.

This is exactly what we discuss now: all those whose October 2023 cruise was "oversold" are now not(!) able to S&L to an October 2024 cruise ... because the 2024 cruises are full. So all the "oversold" cruisers will now have to cancel and lose the ability to get a 2024 cruise for the same price of a cruise from 2023 (or earlier). Thanks

This is getting worse and worse every day. We also have an October 2023 cruise that was "oversold". We can't go in October 2024, so we cancelled the cruise. Now you are telling us that those who want to S&L / Transfer to October 2024 can't do that because those cruises are completely sold. So everyone who was "oversold" will have to cancel. P/S: I said to Celebrity that I would be glad to go on a Japan cruise for October 2025, but Celebrity still do not have those cruises planned for 2025.