Is my TA info correct ? please help (again)

[fragilek]

 My mum and MIL are sailing in a cabin together.  My mum may have to cancel due to a medical issue.  I have been told by my TA that if my mum cancels her booking - she will not get anything back except taxes/port fee as we are close to sailing.- I get and agree with that part.  However , the TA is also wanting to recharge my MIL to now sail as a single person (+$1105) - This is the bit I am not sure about.  Surely if they have my mums money for the cabin my MIL should not need to pay out again.

 

Anyone know the rules about this and can advise me. 

[Bo1953]

I would recommend that you tell you TA that Mother and MIL are both sailing...

 

Once you arrive at the docks, X will not care at all... because the cabin is paid for.

 

Do not let your TA fiddle with the reservations for no other reason than greater commissionable fare.

 

Fees and taxes are not that much, I would consider foregoing them in order to avoid the higher fare.

 

I trust your Mum will be better soon and you and your group will have a grand sailing....

 

bon voyage

[2flacruisers]

Not sure which ship you are on, but this happened when my mother and 2 of her friends were cruising RCCL...when I called to let the cruise company know that one of the ladies in the group couldn't cruise due to medical conditions, they did keep the amount paid for the cruise, but refunded the taxes. The only thing that is different is that the cruise company did not re- book the cruise for the 2 remaining ladies...the price of the cabin remained the same.  It might be that the TA in your event, might be trying to keep the total cruise price the same as paid initially.  Also, when you book 3 to a cabin, usually, the third person's price is less than the price of the first 2 cruisers.  There really shouldn't the price for 2 shouldn't be any more than the price for 3.

[fragilek]

12 minutes ago, Bo1953 said:

I would recommend that you tell you TA that Mother and MIL are both sailing...

 

Once you arrive at the docks, X will not care at all... because the cabin is paid for.

 

Do not let your TA fiddle with the reservations for no other reason than greater commissionable fare.

 

Fees and taxes are not that much, I would consider foregoing them in order to avoid the higher fare.

 

I trust your Mum will be better soon and you and your group will have a grand sailing....

 

bon voyage

We can't do this if my mum needs to cancel as she will need to claim her travel insurance so needs to show that she has canceled the total cost of the trip including flights is about $3000 so its far too much for her to loose.

 

I was hoping that she would just cancel the ship keeps her money so my MIL doesn't need to pay any extra as they have the two peoples full amount anyway.

[Bo1953]

13 minutes ago, fragilek said:

We can't do this if my mum needs to cancel as she will need to claim her travel insurance so needs to show that she has canceled the total cost of the trip including flights is about $3000 so its far too much for her to loose.

 

I was hoping that she would just cancel the ship keeps her money so my MIL doesn't need to pay any extra as they have the two peoples full amount anyway.

Yes, that is a lot of money to lose....

 

Given the 'all in' cost, there might be no other option....

 

Ask the TA if they can provide a letter, on their letter head, a notice of cancellation and with the amount of fare loss and port fees to be reimbursed.

 

Not sure if that is the type of documentation which your insurer will accept. Maybe a call to them will provide some guidance by explaining the situation?

 

If positive, get it in writing from the insurance agent.

 

good luck and bon voyage

[CHEZMARYLOU]

If one person cancels after final payment and loses 100% of the cruise cost the remaining person should not be charged double by Celebrity as they already have full payment for the cabin. Insurance, or lack of, should not enter into the equation. 

 

I'm not even sure that Celebrity would take an additional payment on the cabin.

Edited June 27, 2019 by CHEZMARYLOU

[hopeless holiday booker]

I think I may be tempted to call celebrity directly and see what they say.  As you've booked through an agent they won't talk to you about your specific booking but I'm sure you could have a hypothetical conversation with them.

[fragilek]

2 minutes ago, CHEZMARYLOU said:

If one person cancels after final payment and loses 100% of the cruise cost the remaining person should not be charged double by Celebrity as they already have full payment for the cabin. Insurance, or lack of, should not enter into the equation. 

this is the email from my TA - 

your mom would lose everything except the taxes and gratuities 

also ***** would have to pay an additional 1105.40 if the changes were made today

 you can change as long as one original person stays on the booking 

 

I asked for clarification  then got the following email

at this point it does not matter when she cancels because she is in 100% penalty

***** will have to pay the difference as a single passenger whatever the lowest price is the day your mom cancels

 

So is this wrong info - if so any ideas what do I do next to get this sorted 

[Bo1953]

1 minute ago, hopeless holiday booker said:

I think I may be tempted to call celebrity directly and see what they say.  As you've booked through an agent they won't talk to you about your specific booking but I'm sure you could have a hypothetical conversation with them.

It may be worth a call to X and specifically address this situation, as the agent 'may be' taking advantage of the situation, seeing you are in the UK and your agent is in the US???

 

You might get an agent or ask for a Supervisor, to explain what the real options are in this case for the need to re-book and cancellation and what their policy is in this type of situation.

 

Not saying that your agent is not doing right by you, but something may not be correct in how they are handling this situation, which is odd to us Americans and our experience.

 

Good luck and bon voyage

[Bo1953]

2 minutes ago, fragilek said:

this is the email from my TA - 

your mom would lose everything except the taxes and gratuities 

also ***** would have to pay an additional 1105.40 if the changes were made today

 you can change as long as one original person stays on the booking 

 

I asked for clarification  then got the following email

at this point it does not matter when she cancels because she is in 100% penalty

***** will have to pay the difference as a single passenger whatever the lowest price is the day your mom cancels

 

So is this wrong info - if so any ideas what do I do next to get this sorted 

Sounds like the cabin pricing has gone up to that rate...

 

Many X sailings have increased rates after final payment and just before actual sailing...

 

Again, I would not be afraid to call X for assistance and clarification on this situation.

 

bon voyage

[fragilek]

Just now, Bo1953 said:

Sounds like the cabin pricing has gone up to that rate...

 

Many X sailings have increased rates after final payment and just before actual sailing...

 

Again, I would not be afraid to call X for assistance and clarification on this situation.

 

bon voyage

 The price is over $1000 lower for our cabin than what we actually paid. on my TA web site

[fragilek]

Thanks to everyone.  I have now just phoned Celebrity and they have said it would be very unusual for them to charge my MIL any additional money if we are past the 100% cancellation charge (which we are).  He thinks that the TA is trying to do it online and it is changing the booking to a single person thus the additional charge.  Now to go back to the TA yet again!!

[gerelmx]

1 hour ago, fragilek said:

 My mum and MIL are sailing in a cabin together.  My mum may have to cancel due to a medical issue.  I have been told by my TA that if my mum cancels her booking - she will not get anything back except taxes/port fee as we are close to sailing.- I get and agree with that part.  However , the TA is also wanting to recharge my MIL to now sail as a single person (+$1105) - This is the bit I am not sure about.  Surely if they have my mums money for the cabin my MIL should not need to pay out again.

 

Anyone know the rules about this and can advise me. 

 

Past Summit cruise (October 2018) my wife can't go, I travel alone. My TA cancels 48 hr before boarding, NO EXTRA CHARGES, Celebrity refunded all items in the cruise planner, the tax and port fees and the prepaid gratuities.

[GeorgesGal]

16 minutes ago, fragilek said:

Thanks to everyone.  I have now just phoned Celebrity and they have said it would be very unusual for them to charge my MIL any additional money if we are past the 100% cancellation charge (which we are).  He thinks that the TA is trying to do it online and it is changing the booking to a single person thus the additional charge.  Now to go back to the TA yet again!!

 

Good for you for contacting Celebrity direct and cutting out the middleman.  At this point, your TA might want to contact Celebrity himself to confirm.  It sounds like your Mum will be able to collect from her insurance company once ~X~ gives you the paperwork for her - and only her - cancellation.

 

Let us know how all of this works out in the end!  Wishing your Mum good news from her doctors that she can sail with the family, and that this whole discussion will be moot!

 

Donna

[bEwAbG]

It's true that if one person cancels from a two-person room that it then becomes a single booking & the cruise line will expect the same fare to be paid.  I suspect the person at Celebrity is also correct: in an effort to get info on what would happen, the TA was relying solely on a website to see what would happen, but their websites are not sophisticated enough (understatement) to handle this particular situation in which the cruise line will still get the money they expect to get for the cabin.  I would certainly make your TA clarify whether or not they actually spoke to someone.  If they did, then ask them to call again with you on the line so that you can understand what they're saying.  This is not a very typical situation, so it make take the intervention of a supervisor at Celebrity.

[hcat]

After this is sorted out, hopefully with a good outcome financially and medically,  suggest you find a new TA for future trips

 

Sounds like TA is trying to solve things to their advantage not yours! Good luck!

[wrk2cruise]

I would ask the TA to put you on a 3 way call with Celebrity and have Celebrity tell the TA how to accomplish the changes.  From what I'm reading the TA was trying to cancel the original booking to rebook as a solo which is causing the reservation to be re-priced.  This may be the only way they have to accomplish this with the inane Celebrity IT systems but in reality they should be able to just remove 1 passenger from the reservation.

[SFLcowboy78]

please provide us an update once this issue is resolved. 

[helen haywood]

I had this sort of problem once with trip insurance when I canceled a cruise.  Different in that both of us were canceling the cruise...but the insurance company wanted confirmation of a hotel cancellation.  It was a hotel booked via Priceline and paid at the time of booking.  I called Priceline but they do not offer cancellations so there was no way I could document that I had “canceled” it.

 

This is sort of similar here because I don’t think Celebrity issues a confirmation that one party in a cabin has canceled.  The cabin is paid in full and they just treat it as a no show.  The only documentation I could think of for the insurance company is whatever paperwork comes with the refund of her taxes and Port fees.  Clearly if Celebrity has refunded those monies it is clear she is not going on the cruise and is out her reservation funds.

[verizon]

On 6/27/2019 at 11:25 AM, fragilek said:

We can't do this if my mum needs to cancel as she will need to claim her travel insurance so needs to show that she has canceled the total cost of the trip including flights is about $3000 so its far too much for her to loose.

 

I was hoping that she would just cancel the ship keeps her money so my MIL doesn't need to pay any extra as they have the two peoples full amount anyway.

If you have insurance call them up and the will refund  the person can't go and you still available to go by your own as solo with no extra charges. 

That is why buying insurance for.

Edited June 28, 2019 by verizon

[dodge9]

Once someone is within 100% penalty the other passenger does not have to pay single fare.  Only if you were less than 100% penalty does that apply.  Your travel agent is wrong or doesn't understand that things are different when under 100% penalty.  Your mom can cancel and make claim with the insurance.  I have had this happen before... one time with the client waiting to cancel until they were under 100% penalty to protect her travel partner from having to pay single fare.  Since you are booked through a travel agent, the cruise line won't speak with you, but you can request your travel agent put  you on a three way call and ask the process while you are on the phone.  Best of luck, I am sorry your Mum may need to cancel.

[fragilek]

14 hours ago, SFLcowboy78 said:

please provide us an update once this issue is resolved. 

 I will update when we get to the stage of having to make the call.  We saw the specialist yesterday and they ran some further tests. He is hopeful that a 7 day monitor will prove what he thinks the initial tests indicate and that she will be treatable with tablets and he thinks she will still be able to travel as long as the insurance allows.  So at the moment  I would say its a 50/50 shout.

[Slugsta]

6 minutes ago, fragilek said:

 I will update when we get to the stage of having to make the call.  We saw the specialist yesterday and they ran some further tests. He is hopeful that a 7 day monitor will prove what he thinks the initial tests indicate and that she will be treatable with tablets and he thinks she will still be able to travel as long as the insurance allows.  So at the moment  I would say its a 50/50 shout.

 

 

I have my fingers crossed for you!

[gatour]

On 6/27/2019 at 1:59 PM, hcat said:

After this is sorted out, hopefully with a good outcome financially and medically,  suggest you find a new TA for future trips

 

Sounds like TA is trying to solve things to their advantage not yours! Good luck!

I concur with finding a new TA. 

 

However, it could be that the TA didn't know how to handle and the thought didn't occur to them to simply call Celebrity (I am a glass half full person it trying figure out what motivates other people)

[bEwAbG]

2 hours ago, gatour said:

I concur with finding a new TA. 

 

However, it could be that the TA didn't know how to handle and the thought didn't occur to them to simply call Celebrity (I am a glass half full person it trying figure out what motivates other people)

 

I believe in giving people some benefit of the doubt and have learned that sometimes you have to ask more than once, but the OP would potentially be out a lot of money in this case if relying on the advice of someone who is supposed to be a trained professional & able to do some critical thinking for their client.