Catpal128 Posted October 5, 2019 #1 Share Posted October 5, 2019 Loyalty means nothing to Celebrity Just received our notice.that our May 23 Cruise on Equinox is cancelled! Unbelievable…Celebrity doesn’t even have anything to offer for the same date!!! Our TA said she is receiving a lot of these cancellations due to ships being chartered. We are Elite Plus with Celebrity with over 16 sailings and will never book with Celebrity again. Flights are booked and paid for so we are looking at other lines. Loyalty doesn’t mean anything to Celebrity!! They must be making a ton of $$ from Charters as they are doing them so often and don’t seem to care about losing loyal customers. Only offered $200 to cancel our flights when we paid almost $2,500!!! Can you tell I’m about to tear my hair out.!!!!We should be receiving at least some compensation for the perks we lost as the other lines are not offering any perks and its going to cost us much more for anything equivalent. Travel Ins doesn't help as we book our flights 335 days ahead to receive special seats as my husband is quite tall and the seats will not be available now if we need to change out flights. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stateroom_Sailor Posted October 5, 2019 #2 Share Posted October 5, 2019 Ridiculous. These charters should be scheduled no less than one year out so that passengers aren't stuck with other travel expenses. 7 months, really? 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovecruzin Posted October 5, 2019 #3 Share Posted October 5, 2019 I don't think loyalty comes into play in their making the decision to charter the ship. However, 7 months out is just not right regardless of status. I am surprised they are not offering OBC or anything else for you to cruise on a different date. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare NMTraveller Posted October 5, 2019 #4 Share Posted October 5, 2019 (edited) It seems to me if they are going to allow a cruise ship to be chartered, they should figure into the price comping all of the guests that they are bumping off of their cruise. The time frame is too short. I would be unhappy also. The comp should be a free cruise next time around. I too book all of my flights 330 days out so that I can get the best seats on the plane. Plus if you are using airline miles many of the flights book up quickly. Look at Princess. Edited October 5, 2019 by NMTraveller 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare broberts Posted October 5, 2019 #5 Share Posted October 5, 2019 58 minutes ago, Catpal128 said: Loyalty means nothing to Celebrity I believe you may misunderstand "loyalty" when it involves cruise lines. Customers are expected to be loyal to a cruise line, not the other way around., 20 1 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare mom says Posted October 5, 2019 #6 Share Posted October 5, 2019 You seem to attach a lot of importance to your loyalty status since you mention it 5 times. Are you actually saying that X shouldn't cancel a sailing because you (or any other Elite + passenger) happens to be signed up? Would it surprise you to learn that there might be more pax with NO loyalty status who had also put deposits on this cruise? Using loyalty status as a basis for complaint is laughable. A cancelled cruise because of a charter is of course disappointing and frustrating, but X is not the only line that does this. And some itineraries seem more prone to charters than others. Best of luck finding a similar cruise on another line. If you mention the itinerary and dates, perhaps alternatives could be suggested. As for booking flights so far in advance... I must admit that I would never buy a nonrefundable ticket more than 6 months out. Life is fickle and you never know what might happen in that long interval. Even then I look at fares that include reasonable change fees. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marine7 Posted October 5, 2019 #7 Share Posted October 5, 2019 1 hour ago, Catpal128 said: Loyalty means nothing to Celebrity Just received our notice.that our May 23 Cruise on Equinox is cancelled! Unbelievable…Celebrity doesn’t even have anything to offer for the same date!!! Our TA said she is receiving a lot of these cancellations due to ships being chartered. We are Elite Plus with Celebrity with over 16 sailings and will never book with Celebrity again. Flights are booked and paid for so we are looking at other lines. Loyalty doesn’t mean anything to Celebrity!! They must be making a ton of $$ from Charters as they are doing them so often and don’t seem to care about losing loyal customers. Only offered $200 to cancel our flights when we paid almost $2,500!!! Can you tell I’m about to tear my hair out.!!!!We should be receiving at least some compensation for the perks we lost as the other lines are not offering any perks and its going to cost us much more for anything equivalent. Travel Ins doesn't help as we book our flights 335 days ahead to receive special seats as my husband is quite tall and the seats will not be available now if we need to change out flights. We have a party of 8 on that same cruise. Airlines already paid and hotel booked. This is going to make a lot of people unhappy! Were you contacted by email, text or telephone? None of our group has been contacted thus far by Celebrity. Life is full of lots of ups and downs. Guess we will have to come up with a new plan and we will! Sorry to hear about your cruise and hope for the best for you and your husband. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davekathy Posted October 5, 2019 #8 Share Posted October 5, 2019 (edited) 10 minutes ago, Marine7 said: We have a party of 8 on that same cruise. Airlines already paid and hotel booked. This is going to make a lot of people unhappy! Were you contacted by email, text or telephone? None of our group has been contacted thus far by Celebrity. Life is full of lots of ups and downs. Guess we will have to come up with a new plan and we will! Sorry to hear about your cruise and hope for the best for you and your husband. Any cruise we've been thrown overboard from, Celebrity has always provided a list of alternate cruises, compensation (additional OBC) and same stateroom category. But we've been lucky and have been notified more than the 7 months the OP and yourselves have been given. I would be calling Celebrity or your TA if I were you. All of our notices came directly from Celebrity. Edited October 5, 2019 by davekathy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare NMTraveller Posted October 5, 2019 #9 Share Posted October 5, 2019 (edited) For Celebrity to charter the ship on a busy holiday means that someone paid them a lot of money to charter the ship. Guests getting bumped are receiving meager comps. Edited October 5, 2019 by NMTraveller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Essiesmom Posted October 5, 2019 #10 Share Posted October 5, 2019 The cruise looks to have been an 8 day Caribbean from Miami. Only other ship on the East coast would be Summit in Capr Liberty, going to New England/Canada for 9 days. Not a good time of year to have anything similar to offer. EM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alwaysonaship Posted October 5, 2019 #11 Share Posted October 5, 2019 (edited) Times have changed. We had a Galapagos cruise booked when they got in hot water over the lobsters. We got all our money back ( of course) plus a refund for our air which we DID NOT buy from Celebrity, and a reimbursement for a post cruise trip which we book ourselves. We booked another cruise on a different line. When we got home there were two vouchers for $7,000 each to be used on another Galapagos cruise. Sorry to hear this. We make plans far in advance I understand your frustration. It appears to be all about $$$$ and not customer loyalty. I would suggest you look on another cruise line. I would think you could easily find something in the Caribbean Edited October 5, 2019 by alwaysonaship 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stateroom_Sailor Posted October 5, 2019 #12 Share Posted October 5, 2019 1 hour ago, mom says said: As for booking flights so far in advance... I must admit that I would never buy a nonrefundable ticket more than 6 months out. Life is fickle and you never know what might happen in that long interval. Even then I look at fares that include reasonable change fees. If the cruise line itself offers nonrefundable deposits, they're setting a poor example, should this be the excuse. If they can cancel at 7 months out, they can cancel at 6, or other points thereafter. Perhaps they need to give a greenlight when the cruise is officially on. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ontario Cruiser Posted October 5, 2019 #13 Share Posted October 5, 2019 Look at MSC Seaside, Caribbean Princess & Symphony of the Seas all on the 23rd of May Ontario Cruiser Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George C Posted October 5, 2019 #14 Share Posted October 5, 2019 I know celebrity does lots of charters have done two in last two years and have another booked but these were all chartered a year or more in advance. Always good idea to get insurance for cruise and flights we do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOVERNITE Posted October 5, 2019 #15 Share Posted October 5, 2019 I can only imagine the anxiety and anger you feel when your vacation is just erased for a charter. Think of the logistics and time you took to make it perfect! George C, you're right on the mark about trip insurance. We always get air, hotel & cruise covered and not from the cruiseline or TA. Everything from delay of trip to medical evacuation are offered. You select a policy to include what is important for you. We use insuremytrip.( Not an endorsement; just a company we use.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omeinv Posted October 6, 2019 #16 Share Posted October 6, 2019 Who notified you of the cancellation? Celebrity is still accepting bookings for this sailing, and it would be extremely unusual for them to charter a ship only seven months pre-sailing. On top of that, typically if there's a charter, one can find it by entering the ship and sail date. Nothing comes up. Could it be something else? Harris Denver, CO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fouremco Posted October 6, 2019 #17 Share Posted October 6, 2019 18 minutes ago, omeinv said: Who notified you of the cancellation? Celebrity is still accepting bookings for this sailing, and it would be extremely unusual for them to charter a ship only seven months pre-sailing. On top of that, typically if there's a charter, one can find it by entering the ship and sail date. Nothing comes up. Could it be something else? Are you sure? I checked a couple of hours ago and it was gone from the website. It's still listed with a number of travel agencies, but they might just be a bit slower removing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omeinv Posted October 6, 2019 #18 Share Posted October 6, 2019 2 minutes ago, Fouremco said: Are you sure? I checked a couple of hours ago and it was gone from the website. It's still listed with a number of travel agencies, but they might just be a bit slower removing it. Right you are. My error. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miched Posted October 6, 2019 #19 Share Posted October 6, 2019 (edited) We have had 4 cruises either canceled or shortened by X because of charters. On the the bright side we booked another cruise on a different cruise line and really enjoyed it. Since then we have booked more with them than with X. And with the shortened cruises we spent more time in the areas and found that staying on land was more enjoyable as we had a lot more options for everything. We are now phasing out our cruising and will be doing only land based get a ways enjoying our great and beautiful county. THANK YOU X for making us discover a better option and value for our dollars. Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅 Edited October 6, 2019 by miched 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Creekside89 Posted October 6, 2019 #20 Share Posted October 6, 2019 I’m not on FB, but husband is. He came home this afternoon and said this woman was getting hammered on FB because Celebrity has cancelled her cruise. He was quoting from one of the Celebrity FB fan pages he is a member of. I thought, sounds familiar. What are you looking for? At least people here have been kinder to you and were willing to help you. You are not the first, nor will you be the last to have a cruise cancelled. I have as well. It took me half an hour to organise a new one with Celebrity and I didn’t complain to anyone. As many have suggested, travel insurance is a wonderful thing and it would only cost you a few hundred dollars to change your flights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABoatNerd Posted October 6, 2019 #21 Share Posted October 6, 2019 11 hours ago, miched said: We have had 4 cruises either canceled or shortened by X because of charters. On the the bright side we booked another cruise on a different cruise line and really enjoyed it. Since then we have booked more with them than with X. And with the shortened cruises we spent more time in the areas and found that staying on land was more enjoyable as we had a lot more options for everything. We are now phasing out our cruising and will be doing only land based get a ways enjoying our great and beautiful county. THANK YOU X for making us discover a better option and value for our dollars. Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅 Exactly miched - we have no cruises planned going forward other than the QM2 TA westbounds from our europe land vacations. We are only doing land based, customized, personal escorted land vacations everywhere - this is the way to see the world. Once you start land based touring, cruises are easily understood as canned, fake experiences. Many travel agents have concierge experts for various parts of the world, they are specialized in organizing customized land vacations; including preferred reservations to restaurants etc. We too thank the cruise industry, particularly Celebrity and Oceania, with their continuously downgraded product not matching their advertising, for introducing us to the engaging world of land vacations. Time is precious and it is slipping away, open your eyes to the variety of travel options out there besides cruising - get the very most of your travel. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bikerunner Posted October 6, 2019 #22 Share Posted October 6, 2019 Charters happen. Only once happened to me Tho i haven’t been on as many cruises as others. It was 7 months out. Like some others I don’t book air until much closer but also many airlines only have out a certain amount of months. Hotels are easy to change cxl. I don’t worry about it unless they did something like that cpl months out. Then different story. I been shifted in hotels because they were overbooked etc. no worries I deal with it. Usually got some type of something back etc but stayed professional thru it I worked and ran hotels had to move guests because of different issues. 95% were understanding had a few who went ballistic. Actually had one guy try to jump over the desk and hit me. Let’s just say he lost his job after a talk with his company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeeRick Posted October 6, 2019 #23 Share Posted October 6, 2019 Actually Loyalty to frequent cruisers has nothing to do with this at all. It is just extremely poor regard for all customers on this cruise. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorky Posted October 6, 2019 #24 Share Posted October 6, 2019 I sort of find it strange that people still think loyalty exists in big business, it’s all about the bottom line regardless. We use small independent hotels when travelling and they certainly treat returning customers well. But big, multi national companies are a different kettle of fish. We don’t give loyalty a second thought these days in truth, that way we don’t end up dissapointed. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare WrittenOnYourHeart Posted October 6, 2019 #25 Share Posted October 6, 2019 19 hours ago, Stateroom_Sailor said: Ridiculous. These charters should be scheduled no less than one year out so that passengers aren't stuck with other travel expenses. 7 months, really? I agree. I would go a step further and say that the charters should have to be firmed up before the cruises are even released to the public, but finalizing them no later than 12 months from date of embarkation should be the minimum amount of time. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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