X discontinues surcharge on Beverage package

[cluso]

2 hours ago, mikkelhansen said:

If you booked during the Black Friday (Big Deal) promotion, you weren't charged the fare increase. The BF promotion was the "silent launch" of the removal of the fare increase.

I booked a cruise through a big online TA on Monday, 25 November and the upcharge (which was included in the fare price, not listed separately) was removed the next day.  So my basic fare went down the exact amount of the upcharge.  This was before Black Friday.

[Blueskiesahead]

I thought that might be the case, but the TA contacted CC.  CC said I was charged the upcharge and that I'd be upgraded to premium any day now, as CC is going through booking by booking to manually change this.  My TA couldn't tell whether upcharge was applied or not, but the CC agent knew. 

[Blueskiesahead]

7 hours ago, mikkelhansen said:

If you booked during the Black Friday (Big Deal) promotion, you weren't charged the fare increase. The BF promotion was the "silent launch" of the removal of the fare increase.

Reposting, as my quote of your reply did not take:

 

I thought that might be the case, but the TA contacted CC.  CC said I was charged the upcharge and that I'd be upgraded to premium any day now, as CC is going through booking by booking to manually change this.  My TA couldn't tell whether upcharge was applied or not, but the CC agent knew. 

 

[MamaChach]

I’m totally confused 🤣. We booked in June with classic. We are planning to upgrade. Do we automatically get upgraded to premium?  How can I confirm?

 

TIA

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

Just now, MamaChach said:

I’m totally confused 🤣. We booked in June with classic. We are planning to upgrade. Do we automatically get upgraded to premium?  How can I confirm?

 

TIA

I think probably not. The upgrading is for those who booked in the small window when they were adding an extra $14/person for the beverage package perk. I think that started after June.

[davekathy]

15 minutes ago, MamaChach said:

I’m totally confused 🤣. We booked in June with classic. We are planning to upgrade. Do we automatically get upgraded to premium?  How can I confirm?

 

TIA

No, but you can always call Celebrity to verify that.  I agree with "WrittenOnYourHeart" post #80 that you booked before the $14.00 PPPD charge was implemented for the bundled CBP so you wouldn't be automatically upgrade to the PBP because the charge didn't effect your booking. If so you would have been notified by now.  

Edited December 30, 2019 by davekathy

[femalenyc]

I am booked on the Edge for Jan 12.  I booked the cruise during the Veterans Day sale and took the 4 perks.  My cruise invoice includes the code 4PERK SALE NRD.  It sounded like I would be getting some money in OBC as a refund based on what I read in an earlier post on this thread.  I just called Celebrity and was told that I didn't pay a separate charge so I will not be getting any OBC.  It is correct that there is no separate line item on my invoice that shows an upcharge.  I wanted to share this info in case anyone else is in the same situation.  Still excited to cruise on my first Celebrity ship!

[piggiepuff]

I booked on November 19 and I believe that was in the window where they were charging extra, right?  How can I tell if I was charged?  My email confirmation I got from my TA was pretty plain and didn't say a lot (I had to call them to make it include that we got a beverage package, free tips, and $300 credit).  I assume, since I was in that window, that I paid the extra amount, but don't have anywhere that actually says it.  

[davekathy]

3 minutes ago, piggiepuff said:

I booked on November 19 and I believe that was in the window where they were charging extra, right?  How can I tell if I was charged?  My email confirmation I got from my TA was pretty plain and didn't say a lot (I had to call them to make it include that we got a beverage package, free tips, and $300 credit).  I assume, since I was in that window, that I paid the extra amount, but don't have anywhere that actually says it.  

Looks like you picked 3 Celebrity bundled perks. The CBP being one of them. Yes you would have been charged the $14.00 PPPD rate for the CBP. Call your TA and ask and have a new invoice sent showing the change from the CBP to the PBP.  

[snoopsbc]

I wouldn’t recommend waiting for CC to automatically apply the upgrade. I booked direct with CC on October 30 and paid the surcharge ($210AUD). When I called Celebrity today to enquire about the Premium upgrade Or repricing at the prevailing rate, the rep had no idea what I was going on about and denied Celebrity ever had a surcharge in place. After 45 minutes and being transferred to 2 other consultants, Celebrity finally agreed to apply the upgraded premium package. 

[wrk2cruise]

On 12/30/2019 at 1:33 PM, femalenyc said:

I am booked on the Edge for Jan 12.  I booked the cruise during the Veterans Day sale and took the 4 perks.  My cruise invoice includes the code 4PERK SALE NRD.  It sounded like I would be getting some money in OBC as a refund based on what I read in an earlier post on this thread.  I just called Celebrity and was told that I didn't pay a separate charge so I will not be getting any OBC.  It is correct that there is no separate line item on my invoice that shows an upcharge.  I wanted to share this info in case anyone else is in the same situation.  Still excited to cruise on my first Celebrity ship!

 

During that sale they were waiving the upcharge.

[shipshape sam]

On 12/16/2019 at 3:13 PM, C-Dragons said:

X has made the decision to discontinue the controversial surcharge they were adding to the Beverage packages.

If you have already been charged this for the Classic Beverage package, you will automatically be upgraded to the Premium Package.

Glad to read this.  It was making my decision to NOT get drink package really easy.  

 

 

[doskram]

Has anybody been on their cruise yet that had their package automatically upgraded ?

[BridgeMates]

We booked when they added the extra cost for the  Classic Bev Pkg.  I found the upgrade to Premium listed in the Order History for our Nov cruise.

Question:   Since wines are about the only thing we generally upgrade, I'm wondering are there any "premium" wines/drinks available at the Elite Happy Hour?

Thanks.

[MEcruzr]

8 minutes ago, BridgeMates said:

We booked when they added the extra cost for the  Classic Bev Pkg.  I found the upgrade to Premium listed in the Order History for our Nov cruise.

Question:   Since wines are about the only thing we generally upgrade, I'm wondering are there any "premium" wines/drinks available at the Elite Happy Hour?

Thanks.

Since it is held in a lounge you can order anything you want if the "included" drinks aren't to your liking. When we have a drink package we order what we want, not from the HH menu. 

[neilrr]

On 1/19/2020 at 8:43 AM, doskram said:

Has anybody been on their cruise yet that had their package automatically upgraded ?

I had the same question -- as we paid the $14 PP PD and received it back from the TA as a OBC for the entire $196 for the two of us. Are they still going to upgrade us to the Premium package?  I will call Celebrity today and see if I can find anything out.. I will get back to you... 😁

[neilrr]

On 1/19/2020 at 8:43 AM, doskram said:

Has anybody been on their cruise yet that had their package automatically upgraded ?

doskram - Follow-up ---Just got off the phone with Celebrity... The Celebrity Rep initially was unaware of $14 surcharge on the Classic package perk --- so she contacted a resolution specialist and they new what I was talking about and they are in the process of making the change to the Premium Package for me and my Partner.  She said I would have a confirmation later today. 😁 Good luck!!!

[TriciaCC]

In October 2019 we booked a one week Norwegian Fjords cruise in May 2020 whilst on board the Equinox.  One of the perks included the Classic Drinks Package and we were told by lady who made the booking that the CDP surcharge of $14 pp per day was included in the cruise price.

We transferred our booking over to a local TA and we have just enquired as to whether we have been upgraded to the PDP.  On checking with Celebrity the TA was informed that the surcharge had not been applied to our booking and that it had only been applied to some US customer bookings - we are British customers by the way.  We can't see the surcharge separately on our booking details - which always seem overly complicated to interpret anyway.  Has anyone else had this response?  Many thanks.

Edited February 4, 2020 by TriciaCC

[wrk2cruise]

I'm pretty sure the surcharge was a line item on the Celebrity Guest Invoice and never included in the "Cruise Fare" line item.    I believe that if you don't have a line item charge for the surcharge you weren't charged.   Maybe someone else in this "boat" can confirm.

[TriciaCC]

4 hours ago, wrk2cruise said:

I'm pretty sure the surcharge was a line item on the Celebrity Guest Invoice and never included in the "Cruise Fare" line item.    I believe that if you don't have a line item charge for the surcharge you weren't charged.   Maybe someone else in this "boat" can confirm.

Thank you for your reply wrk2cruise.  Doesn't seem like an upgrade to PDP is on the cards.  Probably just as well.😊

[njsweetie]

We upgraded from 2 to 4 perks which included upgrade from classic to premium on 11/12/19 which I assume was some Veterans Day sale. I had read about the surcharge issue. Was never notified and not sure how I would see on my invoice if I was charged. When I called Celebrity to inquire they said I would receive an OBC of $14 pp per day, so $196 and I wouldn’t see it until I boarded. They also said I could get that $196 refunded if I didn’t use it on board. Fast forward to 2/8/20 on the Summit, there was no OBC on our account at all. Guest Services knew nothing about it but contacted ‘home office’ and said I was told the wrong information but as a ‘good will’ gesture would give us a $200 OBC but we cannot get it refunded. So now we have $200 basically will need to just spend in a shop because all our shore excursions were paid for and done by the time this was figured out. I’ll admit it took us a few days to even make our way to guest services otherwise I would’ve cancelled and rebooked shore excursions with the OBC. Maybe I can convince my SO to book another cruise while on board and use it towards the deposit. I guess life could be worse but I wonder what went wrong in this process and were we really due the surcharge refund to begin with. I would rather just get a simple refund.

[Mike981]

56 minutes ago, njsweetie said:

 Maybe I can convince my SO to book another cruise while on board and use it towards the deposit. I guess life could be worse but I wonder what went wrong in this process and were we really due the surcharge refund to begin with. I would rather just get a simple refund.

 

I could be wrong, but I was told that you can not use OBC towards a deposit on another cruise.

[Bo1953]

24 minutes ago, Mike981 said:

 

I could be wrong, but I was told that you can not use OBC towards a deposit on another cruise.

That is correct, OBC cannot be used for future cruise deposits...

 

bon voyage

[4774Papa]

On 12/16/2019 at 6:46 PM, Happy Cruiser 6143 said:

In my opinion, Celebrity should not have had to listen to feedback from its agents and customers to know this was a bonehead move.  But they seem to be less about improving the guest experience and more about improving the bottom line these days.

Happy Cruiser,

You are right, but I will give X credit for taking the right action in the end.  We also cruise on NCL (less now) and their drink packages are not so wonderful and include a horrendous 20% gratuity on a daily value of $99 per person per day.   Our last NCL cruise we couldn't book the cruise without perks and still declined the beverage  (drink) package, but brought our own wine, paid the $15 corkage fee per bottle and still paid LESS than what we would have paid JUST paying the gratuity on the beverage package.   

[hiccups]

7 hours ago, njsweetie said:

We upgraded from 2 to 4 perks which included upgrade from classic to premium on 11/12/19 which I assume was some Veterans Day sale. I had read about the surcharge issue. Was never notified and not sure how I would see on my invoice if I was charged. When I called Celebrity to inquire they said I would receive an OBC of $14 pp per day, so $196 and I wouldn’t see it until I boarded. They also said I could get that $196 refunded if I didn’t use it on board. Fast forward to 2/8/20 on the Summit, there was no OBC on our account at all. Guest Services knew nothing about it but contacted ‘home office’ and said I was told the wrong information but as a ‘good will’ gesture would give us a $200 OBC but we cannot get it refunded. So now we have $200 basically will need to just spend in a shop because all our shore excursions were paid for and done by the time this was figured out. I’ll admit it took us a few days to even make our way to guest services otherwise I would’ve cancelled and rebooked shore excursions with the OBC. Maybe I can convince my SO to book another cruise while on board and use it towards the deposit. I guess life could be worse but I wonder what went wrong in this process and were we really due the surcharge refund to begin with. I would rather just get a simple refund.

The Veteran's Day promo didn't have the surcharge.  If you changed whatever previous promo you had with the two perks to take advantage of the Veteran's Day four perks deal, assuming you hadn't originally booked your cruise while that surcharge was in place, then you didn't pay it.  Just enjoy the $200 OBC  🙂