Deposits - Question for Lisa Lutoff-Perlo

[Jimbo59]

Celebrity offers bookings with a non-refundable deposit or a booking with a refundable deposit and extra cost perks. The cruise I am considering is nearly a year in the future. I don’t want the extra perks, and I cannot commit to a non-refundable deposit this far in advance of sail date.

 

Why doesn’t Celebrity offer a booking option with a refundable deposit without the perks?

 

[DebInAntigua]

You need to add your question under the special LLP forum. She’s not reading everything under the Celebrity forum, there’s a dedicated one for Q&A with her (no answers yet). 

[Bo1953]

My question would be, in advance of the re-posting, why not book a refundable fare and upon deciding (before final payment) cancelling and re-booking non-refundable fare if it it important that you do not want any perks?

 

Or take the risk of booking closer to when you are sure that the sailing will work OR wait until there is possibly a Tuesday Deal issued for the sailing you want and others, which are fares without Perks.

 

This topic has been discussed here on CC several times recently, unless a response from corporate is preferred to confirm some of the postings on this.

 

bon voyage

Edited July 27, 2019 by Bo1953

[vtcruising]

Here is the sub-forum for posting questions for LLP: 🙂

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/827-celebrity-cruises-president-and-ceo-lisa-lutoff-perlo-invites-you-to-crewupwithwomen/

[ECCruise]

5 hours ago, Jimbo59 said:

Celebrity offers bookings with a non-refundable deposit or a booking with a refundable deposit and extra cost perks. The cruise I am considering is nearly a year in the future. I don’t want the extra perks, and I cannot commit to a non-refundable deposit this far in advance of sail date.

 

Why doesn’t Celebrity offer a booking option with a refundable deposit without the perks?

 

Find a TA that has group pricing.  We always book group prices which are almost always lower than the non-refundable price, have no perks and are fully refundable up to final payment.

[Glendakayself]

5 hours ago, Bo1953 said:

My question would be, in advance of the re-posting, why not book a refundable fare and upon deciding (before final payment) cancelling and re-booking non-refundable fare if it it important that you do not want any perks?

 

 

Agree, if you are not in the UK or a country where deposits are always non-refundable.

 

We booked a refundable deposit for our October cruise and switched to a non-refundable about a month before final payment was due at which point it all becomes non-refundable except for insurable reasons if you have insurance. We were going to change closer to the final payment date, but a perk was added with the non-refundable for about four days. We switched to the NRD with grats, but we had to pay back $300 OBC that we had already spent. We still saved $1,000 and received a refund of $95 on our credit card.  

 

It has become a game. 

Edited July 27, 2019 by Glendakayself

[bkbarrym]

1 hour ago, Glendakayself said:

Agree, if you are not in the UK or a country where deposits are always non-refundable.

 

We booked a refundable deposit for our October cruise and switched to a non-refundable about a month before final payment was due at which point it all becomes non-refundable except for insurable reasons if you have insurance. We were going to change closer to the final payment date, but a perk was added with the non-refundable for about four days. We switched to the NRD with grats, but we had to pay back $300 OBC that we had already spent. We still saved $1,000 and received a refund of $95 on our credit card.  

 

It has become a game. 

It is a game. In your case it worked. However, there is a risk that the overall cruise fares could go up appreciably.

[Glendakayself]

42 minutes ago, bkbarrym said:

It is a game. In your case it worked. However, there is a risk that the overall cruise fares could go up appreciably.

 

Yep. And our game continues as we await an answer on our upgrade bid. We bid the lowest, but we are quite pleased with our current price and location on the ship. 

[Jim_Iain]

12 hours ago, Jimbo59 said:

Celebrity offers bookings with a non-refundable deposit or a booking with a refundable deposit and extra cost perks. The cruise I am considering is nearly a year in the future. I don’t want the extra perks, and I cannot commit to a non-refundable deposit this far in advance of sail date.

 

Why doesn’t Celebrity offer a booking option with a refundable deposit without the perks?

 

You can usually get a refundable deposit without perks but have to force the system to show them.    After initial search - choose "OFFERS" and select STATE DISCOUNT, SENIOR DISCOUNT or anything else that apply.  As a Zenith (we get free Internet and Premium Beverage)  I am constantly finding offerings - even Suites without perks.    If you go to many other sites e.g. any of the airlines they usually show all rates with and without perks.

[Bo1953]

12 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

You can usually get a refundable deposit without perks but have to force the system to show them.    After initial search - choose "OFFERS" and select STATE DISCOUNT, SENIOR DISCOUNT or anything else that apply.  As a Zenith (we get free Internet and Premium Beverage)  I am constantly finding offerings - even Suites without perks.    If you go to many other sites e.g. any of the airlines they usually show all rates with and without perks.

j - thank you for sharing the work around for this....

 

bon voyage

[kearney]

10 hours ago, Bo1953 said:

My question would be, in advance of the re-posting, why not book a refundable fare and upon deciding (before final payment) cancelling and re-booking non-refundable fare if it it important that you do not want any perks?

 

Or take the risk of booking closer to when you are sure that the sailing will work OR wait until there is possibly a Tuesday Deal issued for the sailing you want and others, which are fares without Perks.

 

This topic has been discussed here on CC several times recently, unless a response from corporate is preferred to confirm some of the postings on this.

 

bon voyage

This sounds like a plan.

 

We are flexible when we cruise... and I am not convinced that for us... it is best to wait and pick cruise based more on deal than itinerary. Last July we booked (onboard) a cruise for March '19.... as we approached the 90 day period we decided that we wanted to do some work around the house... so rather than get our deposit back... we shifted the cruise to a less costly but still nice Southern caribbean cruise in Sept.... over the course of the year I was able to lower the price... so 90 day period comes and weeks later the cost of the cabin (on an equivalent basis) drops over $100/pp. Now they offered to upgrade us...but we would lose the one perk...  So the lesson I learned... is that I should do what we usually do... and track a few itineraries we are interested in and then once the 90 day period... consider booking. We are not big drinkers, don't use our phones when we travel.. so the gratuities or OBC is only perk we are interested in... and I would prefer the lower cost.. to either. 

[cantstopingcruising]

Usually we book a winter b2b, which is in high season.

 

If we were to book a refundable in order to choose the cabin we prefer, and just before final payment, we change it to non-refundable, would we be able to keep the same cabin?

[Bo1953]

It would be a crap shoot... I have been able to do it once or twice...

 

Timing, timing, timing...

 

bon voyage

[NantahalaCruiser]

On 7/27/2019 at 5:17 AM, Jimbo59 said:

Celebrity offers bookings with a non-refundable deposit or a booking with a refundable deposit and extra cost perks. The cruise I am considering is nearly a year in the future. I don’t want the extra perks, and I cannot commit to a non-refundable deposit this far in advance of sail date.

 

Why doesn’t Celebrity offer a booking option with a refundable deposit without the perks?

 

Would you agree that a refundable fare should cost a little more than a non-refundable fare?

 

Even if the internet package or beverage package is of no value to you, when you subtract the value of the OBC and Gratuities from the refundable fare, the net cost is generally only about 5% higher than the non-refundable fare. As an example, for a typical balcony cabin on a Feb 2020 7-night Caribbean cruise, the NR 0-perk fare is $1269 while the R 2-perk fare is $1584 - an increase of $315. The value of OBC and Gratuities is $255; thus the effective cost is only $60 more than the NR fare - a little under 5% - a very reasonable upcharge for the value of a refundable deposit.

 

Presumably, if Celebrity were to offer a R 0-perk fare it would also cost at least 5% more than the NR 0-perk fare. So you effectively already have what you are wishing for!

 

And for those of us that value the Classic Beverage Package, the effective cost of the R vs. NR is actually negative!

Edited July 28, 2019 by NantahalaCruiser

[Jimbo59]

2 hours ago, NantahalaCruiser said:

Would you agree that a refundable fare should cost a little more than a non-refundable fare?

 

Even if the internet package or beverage package is of no value to you, when you subtract the value of the OBC and Gratuities from the refundable fare, the net cost is generally only about 5% higher than the non-refundable fare. As an example, for a typical balcony cabin on a Feb 2020 7-night Caribbean cruise, the NR 0-perk fare is $1269 while the R 2-perk fare is $1584 - an increase of $315. The value of OBC and Gratuities is $255; thus the effective cost is only $60 more than the NR fare - a little under 5% - a very reasonable upcharge for the value of a refundable deposit.

 

Presumably, if Celebrity were to offer a R 0-perk fare it would also cost at least 5% more than the NR 0-perk fare. So you effectively already have what you are wishing for!

 

And for those of us that value the Classic Beverage Package, the effective cost of the R vs. NR is actually negative!

For the 14 night cruise I am considering, two perks costs $1260 extra. Tips are $406 and internet for two would be $448. So the two perks are not a good deal ($854 vs. $1260).  

[Iamcruzin]

I booked a refundable deposit with Royal Caribbean hoping that by final payment that I could switch to NRD and save money. As it turned out the NRD rate close to final payment was more than what I paid for the refundable rate. I had 3 offers to Royal up to a better room but I refused the offers. Turns out that I had booked the lowest refundable deposit rate for my room category.  I have to say that since Celebrity has changed to this format I have received a lot of great last minute deals. Unfortunately, I can't take advantage of them because we are both still working and need to plan vacation time in advance. I could have booked a 10 cruise in  a balcony with 2 perks for less than I paid for my 9 day cruise on Royal without a drink package or other perks. It was after final payment for my Royal cruise so I couldn't cancel. Both cruises were for the same week and both were out of Cape Liberty.

[bkbarrym]

17 hours ago, NantahalaCruiser said:

Would you agree that a refundable fare should cost a little more than a non-refundable fare?

 

Even if the internet package or beverage package is of no value to you, when you subtract the value of the OBC and Gratuities from the refundable fare, the net cost is generally only about 5% higher than the non-refundable fare. As an example, for a typical balcony cabin on a Feb 2020 7-night Caribbean cruise, the NR 0-perk fare is $1269 while the R 2-perk fare is $1584 - an increase of $315. The value of OBC and Gratuities is $255; thus the effective cost is only $60 more than the NR fare - a little under 5% - a very reasonable upcharge for the value of a refundable deposit.

 

Presumably, if Celebrity were to offer a R 0-perk fare it would also cost at least 5% more than the NR 0-perk fare. So you effectively already have what you are wishing for!

 

And for those of us that value the Classic Beverage Package, the effective cost of the R vs. NR is actually negative!

Rarely have I seen a delta of only $315 between the non refundable and refundable fares.

[NantahalaCruiser]

On 7/28/2019 at 10:16 PM, Jimbo59 said:

For the 14 night cruise I am considering, two perks costs $1260 extra. Tips are $406 and internet for two would be $448. So the two perks are not a good deal ($854 vs. $1260).  

I guess I would frame the question of good/bad deal with a different perspective - Is the extra $406 a reasonable or unreasonable cost for a refundable vs. non-refundable deposit? I would be interested in knowing what percentage the $406 is of your NR-0 fare per cabin.

 

I took another look at R-2 vs NR-0 differences for a variety of cruises - randomly chose July 2020 and randomly selected 6 cruises in different regions with from 6 to 14 nights.

 

Found that the differences were about $45 to $50 pp per night - which is consistent with your $90 per night per cabin.

 

After subtracting Gratuities and OBC the effective cost of R vs. NR varied from 3.5% for the 6-N to 8.6% for the 14-N. So I personally could only justify the difference for the shorter cruises if I only valued Gratuities and OBC. But since my value is placed on the Classic Beverage Package plus whichever is greater of Gratuities or OBC, I always come out ahead with the R-2 perk.

 

Anyway, my best to ya - happy cruising.

 

Larry