Credits offered unacceptable

[NantahalaCruiser]

7 hours ago, Mark_T said:

 

It doesn't change the obligation that they had to give you the option.

 

The fact that you made your own travel arrangements puts those outside the scope of the regulations for package holidays so you will have to fall back on your insurance for that, but as long as the changes were known before you were due to board the ship, you should have received the offer of a cancellation.

The letter in Miaminice (post#28) shows the cancellation offer:

 

If you choose not to sail on this revised itinerary, you’ll receive a Future Cruise Credit in the amount of 100% of the original cruise fare. You can use this credit toward any future Celebrity Cruises vacation.

[Mark_T]

I should add at this point that if I was in the OPs position where I had separately arranged travel and hotel costs and was already in country at the time I'd have taken the offer and continued with the cruise and just claimed on my travel insurance for the delay costs.

 

It gets far too complex to want to deal with the consequences of trying to claim for the air travel and initial hotle costs under insurance when you take the cancel and refund option on the cruise portion, as I'm not at all sure the travel insurance would cover those costs merely becuae you elect not to continue with the cruise...

 

This is another good reason why you should always book the pre-cruise travel and hotels at the same time as the cruise if you can, or just accept you are taking the risk on yourself...

 

 

[Mark_T]

1 minute ago, NantahalaCruiser said:

The letter in Miaminice (post#28) shows the cancellation offer:

 

If you choose not to sail on this revised itinerary, you’ll receive a Future Cruise Credit in the amount of 100% of the original cruise fare. You can use this credit toward any future Celebrity Cruises vacation.

 

Once again, that is a valid offer to a US based customer, it is not a valid offer to a UK based customer, the refund has to be 'cash' not a FCC. This isn't an option, it is a legal requirement.

[sr4mjc]

Is the OP including any drink package days in his costs perhaps?  Those two days should have been refunded as well though, along with taxes and port fees.

[jagoffee]

I will admit that I may not fully understand the issue.  I thought the issue is related to not be compensation for the extra two nights in a hotel.  

[cobre5]

14 hours ago, sfaaa said:

What? Did you shop around or simply refuse to be flexible? Many hotels in Tokyo charge less than your quoted price.

 

Because of the typhoon and the rugby plus a grand prix all hotels had increased their prices. 

[cobre5]

7 hours ago, Mark_T said:

I should add at this point that if I was in the OPs position where I had separately arranged travel and hotel costs and was already in country at the time I'd have taken the offer and continued with the cruise and just claimed on my travel insurance for the delay costs.

 

It gets far too complex to want to deal with the consequences of trying to claim for the air travel and initial hotle costs under insurance when you take the cancel and refund option on the cruise portion, as I'm not at all sure the travel insurance would cover those costs merely becuae you elect not to continue with the cruise...

 

This is another good reason why you should always book the pre-cruise travel and hotels at the same time as the cruise if you can, or just accept you are taking the risk on yourself...

 

 

The whole package was purchased from a TA to ensure we were covered by ABTA I did not buy airfare hotels and cruise separately. The TA is at the moment dealing with Celebrity on my behalf

[Miaminice]

19 minutes ago, cobre5 said:

The whole package was purchased from a TA to ensure we were covered by ABTA I did not buy airfare hotels and cruise separately. The TA is at the moment dealing with Celebrity on my behalf

 

Wait a minute... just for clarification... how do you calculate the 60 % per day you are not satisfied with?

The complete package price (divided by no. of days) or only the "catalogue" cruise fare?

Edited November 8, 2019 by Miaminice

[cobre5]

Just now, Miaminice said:

 

Wait a minute... just for clarification... how do you calculate the 60 % per day you are not satisfied with?

The complete package price (divided by no. of days) or only the "catalogue" cruise fare?

 

From the portion of the package included for the cruise this figure was supplied by my TA and in fact was less than the advertised Celebrity fare

[Miaminice]

12 minutes ago, cobre5 said:

 

From the portion of the package included for the cruise this figure was supplied by my TA and in fact was less than the advertised Celebrity fare

 

Of course the fare advertised by TAs is lower than the official fare... they give you part of their commission as an incentive. That´s why most of us book with TAs.

Honestly, I am definitely not on the same page with you on your opinion about Millennium. And I also wonder about the expectations of some people when it comes to force majeure events. However, my feeling is that your TA isn´t honest to you and blames it on Celebrity... 

Edited November 8, 2019 by Miaminice

[oneputt18]

I just read the Roll Call for OP's cruise, not one complaint , nor was compensation even mentioned.

 

[cobre5]

11 minutes ago, oneputt18 said:

I just read the Roll Call for OP's cruise, not one complaint , nor was compensation even mentioned.

 

The only comments in these posts were on disembarking in Shanghai nothing about the cruise

[hcat]

2 hours ago, cobre5 said:

The whole package was purchased from a TA to ensure we were covered by ABTA I did not buy airfare hotels and cruise separately. The TA is at the moment dealing with Celebrity on my behalf

This is the best and probably only way to go  Not much more can be done at this point.  Everyone is now on notice about what  happened or could happen.

Hope the rest of the cruise met or exceeded expectations!

[sanger727]

2 hours ago, cobre5 said:

 

From the portion of the package included for the cruise this figure was supplied by my TA and in fact was less than the advertised Celebrity fare

 

Can you TA provide you with an invoice that line items the taxes and port fees? Those would have to be taken out of the calculation for the refunded days. They are both government fees that do not go to the cruise line and are not considered part of the cruise fare. If ports were missed you should have automatically received a refund via OBC for any port fees for those ports. If the costs of port fees for the remaining ports went up after you booked, then you may not have received a refund since the overall cost of port fees for your remaining ports was not less than what you paid.

[Mark_T]

4 hours ago, cobre5 said:

The whole package was purchased from a TA to ensure we were covered by ABTA I did not buy airfare hotels and cruise separately. The TA is at the moment dealing with Celebrity on my behalf

 

Just to be 100% clear, did your TA say they were selling you  a 'package' or a 'linked travel arrangement'. ?

 

You get ABTA cover for both, but the exact nature of the liability for things like the hotel costs during the delay etc.is very different.

 

By not arranging both through Celebrity, it put those other travel arrangements outside the cover Celebrity would have provided and of course your TA is the right place to be dealing with whatever they sold you as either a 'package' or a 'linked travel arrangement'.

Edited November 8, 2019 by Mark_T

[cobre5]

22 minutes ago, Mark_T said:

 

Just to be 100% clear, did your TA say they were selling you  a 'package' or a 'linked travel arrangement'. ?

 

You get ABTA cover for both, but the exact nature of the liability for things like the hotel costs during the delay etc.is very different.

 

By not arranging both through Celebrity, it put those other travel arrangements outside the cover Celebrity would have provided and of course your TA is the right place to be dealing with whatever they sold you as either a 'package' or a 'linked travel arrangement'.

It was a package I have worked with this TA many times

[Mark_T]

1 hour ago, sanger727 said:

 

Can you TA provide you with an invoice that line items the taxes and port fees? Those would have to be taken out of the calculation for the refunded days. They are both government fees that do not go to the cruise line and are not considered part of the cruise fare. If ports were missed you should have automatically received a refund via OBC for any port fees for those ports. If the costs of port fees for the remaining ports went up after you booked, then you may not have received a refund since the overall cost of port fees for your remaining ports was not less than what you paid.

 

I'm sure the OP apreciates everyones willingness to offer help, but this is one of those cases where the liabilities and solutions and handling are very different between the UK and the USA, so what is normal and accepted in the USA is unfortunately irrelevant in the UK, so best to watch and wait while the TA works on this I guess.

Edited November 8, 2019 by Mark_T

[Mark_T]

9 minutes ago, cobre5 said:

It was a package I have worked with this TA many times

 

I'm sure your TA will be able to help you get everything resolved.

 

Only reason I was being specific about wording is the laws and importance of the wording changed in July last year so your TA is accepting a lot of the responsibility if they represent to you that what you were sold was a 'package'.

 

There is a lot more than ABTA/ATOL cover that hangs on the definitions these days.

 

Good that they are willing to accpet that liabiltiy and are working through this for you.

 

 

Edited November 8, 2019 by Mark_T

[richstowe]

4 hours ago, oneputt18 said:

I just read the Roll Call for OP's cruise, not one complaint , nor was compensation even mentioned .

 

 

4 hours ago, cobre5 said:

The only comments in these posts were on disembarking in Shanghai nothing about the cruise

Almost all roll calls seem to go dead after the cruise , even those where certain passengers had issues .

I am always suspicious (not referring to this case specifically) where the poster says everyone was furious at x and y issues , yet reading reviews for the same cruise , there is no mention of these issues .

[npcl]

17 hours ago, Mark_T said:

I made the same point in an earlier post, compensation is not due, but... he was entitled to be given the option of cancellation for a full refund, not cancellation for FCC and that is why I would hope that the letter the OP received was different to the USA one.

 

As long as he was given the option of cancellation for a refund or continuing under the stated terms then the UK regulation were met.

 

We just don't know what he was actually offered as alternatives.

 

There certainly wouldn't be grounds for compensation but I'd guess that he has good grounds for getting the proportion of the full fare he paid refunded as their letter certainly doesn't make it clear that some other lesser number would be used as a basis for the refunded portion.

 

In the end though we may never know unless the OP decides to share the actual notification which he received...

Unfortunately the OP has shared neither the letter nor the actual booking terms and values.

 

All we have is his 60% claim from which people are trying to calculate what would generate the difference.

 

Many times the cruise lines will generate a letter based upon US terms (their largest customer base), but when contacted by someone booking under non-US terms will modify the offer appropriately based upon the terms of the individual. So I would not be surprised if the OP received the same letter.

[NLH Arizona]

2 hours ago, npcl said:

Unfortunately the OP has shared neither the letter nor the actual booking terms and values.

 

All we have is his 60% claim from which people are trying to calculate what would generate the difference.

 

Many times the cruise lines will generate a letter based upon US terms (their largest customer base), but when contacted by someone booking under non-US terms will modify the offer appropriately based upon the terms of the individual. So I would not be surprised if the OP received the same letter.

Many have offered help or asked questions, but I feel the OP thinks he is right and that is all there is to it.

[hcat]

14 minutes ago, NLH Arizona said:

Many have offered help or asked questions, but I feel the OP thinks he is right and that is all there is to it.

And it  can't be resolved here!

The linger it goes on,..any good memories of the cruise will be obliterated,

 

[Mark_T]

The OP has confirmed that his TA is dealing with this for him so may as well wait to see if there are any further updates to follow...

 

Not really much point in specualting or asking further questions at this point, but this is a forum so a few more pages of posts are to be expected 🙂

[Beanb41]

what may make this thread clearer to all is would the OP provide the following information?

1. What was the total fare paid for the 14 day cruise?

2. How much refundable OBC was given to compensate for the loss of two days?

3. Have you made a claim against your travel insurance for the difference between the OBC and the actual costs incurred for shore based accommodation?

 

I ask this because I expect getting accommodation in Yokohama would have been extra expensive because of the Rugby World Cup and the Grand Prix. These increased costs are outside the scope of Celebrity and therefore not their issue. It is however a reason for having travel insurance.

 

We were on the Constellation two years ago which was delayed two days coming out of dry dock. We were scheduled to go to Monaco for the Grand Prix but the ports was missed due to the delay. We were in that instance well looked after, accommodation ashore provided at their cost for two nights, substantial cash refunds and we were flown up to Monaco for the GP at the cruise lines expense. We have subsequently had two cruises cancelled with limited OBC compensation. There appears to be no rule of thumb as referring to hat compensation is offered. I would suggest that the OP if not satisfied keeps pumping away at Celebrity until a better deal is reached, but do it away from forums like this. Coming here before resolution is reached is really pointless as we cant resolve your problem and the publicity can only make Celebrity dig their toes in deeper. If you have made your mind up not to cruise with them in the future they have nothing to lose by standing firm on their offer. Sometimes a conciliatory approach is better

[villauk]

4 hours ago, Beanb41 said:

We were in that instance well looked after, accommodation ashore provided at their cost for two nights

 

 

I remember the total chaos after the delay due to Connie’s refurbishment. Has the OP mentioned that they were offered any accommodation by X for the 2 days? It would be interesting to find out if they were offered the same as you.