Celebrity Summit - March 7, 2020 - Refund >$300 per person and other travel refund concerns??

[Lauren10]

Hey everyone, I hope that all of you are doing well post cruise! 

 

I am wondering if any of you are in the same situation as my family.  On March 14th, there was an initial announcement made for any travelers who had flights leaving from San Juan on March 14th before Noon (additional times were later announced as well) to come to Customer Relations.  We  were told to book alternate travel from San Juan and that we would be refunded for the cost.  We booked new flights from San Juan for later that day as well as a hotel for that night and these purchases were approved by Celebrity with receipts provided to staff.  When the announcement was later made that we would be sailing to Florida instead on March 16, we were NOT able to cancel our new bookings for March 14th from San Juan as phone lines for travel services were very busy. 

 

We later booked new flights from Miami to home in Canada on March 16.  To our surprise, we have been told that we now may not be refunded for the bookings from San Juan,  and may only be refunded for the less expensive flights from Miami to Canada.  We haven't had much luck in getting more information from Celebrity other than to send our receipts and that we might not get our money back as promised.

 

I would be interested to know if anyone else is in the same boat and how you have been getting along in your communication with Celebrity, as so far the communication has not been as reassuring as it was onboard.

 

Thank you!

[sdudek105]

Depending on the airline you may be able to receive a flight credit for the missed flight out of San Juan due to the circumstances. Delta has been good working with customers

 

Have you heard anything on the 50% refund and FCC Celebrity was supposed to issue due to the inconvenience?

[az_tchr]

58 minutes ago, Lauren10 said:

Hey everyone, I hope that all of you are doing well post cruise! 

 

I am wondering if any of you are in the same situation as my family.  On March 14th, there was an initial announcement made for any travelers who had flights leaving from San Juan on March 14th before Noon (additional times were later announced as well) to come to Customer Relations.  We  were told to book alternate travel from San Juan and that we would be refunded for the cost.  We booked new flights from San Juan for later that day as well as a hotel for that night and these purchases were approved by Celebrity with receipts provided to staff.  When the announcement was later made that we would be sailing to Florida instead on March 16, we were NOT able to cancel our new bookings for March 14th from San Juan as phone lines for travel services were very busy. 

 

We later booked new flights from Miami to home in Canada on March 16.  To our surprise, we have been told that we now may not be refunded for the bookings from San Juan,  and may only be refunded for the less expensive flights from Miami to Canada.  We haven't had much luck in getting more information from Celebrity other than to send our receipts and that we might not get our money back as promised.

 

I would be interested to know if anyone else is in the same boat and how you have been getting along in your communication with Celebrity, as so far the communication has not been as reassuring as it was onboard.

 

Thank you!

Best of luck.  Am confused in that you were able to change your existing reservation for 3/14 on short notice, but not able to cancel online?  X then did reimburse MIA to home.  Were you originally due to fly home from San Juan?  Are you looking to be reimbursed for the San Juan flight or the increase vs your previously booked flight home?

FWIW we are awaiting refunds and FCCs from two cruises in March.  My TA suggested 6- 8 weeks and to not call before that.

Refunds are not handled by customer service but accounting.

 

[Lauren10]

17 minutes ago, az_tchr said:

Best of luck.  Am confused in that you were able to change your existing reservation for 3/14 on short notice, but not able to cancel online?  X then did reimburse MIA to home.  Were you originally due to fly home from San Juan?  Are you looking to be reimbursed for the San Juan flight or the increase vs your previously booked flight home?

FWIW we are awaiting refunds and FCCs from two cruises in March.  My TA suggested 6- 8 weeks and to not call before that.

Refunds are not handled by customer service but accounting.

 

Thank you for your reply!  Our cruise was left San Juan March 7 for a seven day cruise, with plan to disembark from San Juan on March 14.  We had flights booked from San Juan to home in the morning of March 14.  San Juan denied our disembarkation unexpectedly and we had to reroute to Fort Lauderdale with disembarkation on March 16. 

 

Celebrity thought we were going to be able to disembark in San Juan eventually on March 14 and had people with early flights leaving San Juan March 14 book flights later that day which we were told we would be reimbursed for.  There were no flights available through our initial airline, so we booked new flights altogether under supervision of the cruise staff.  Eventually, it was announced we weren't docking in San Juan at all, but were accepted for disembarkation later in Fort Lauderdale. We will receive a refund for our flights from Miami to home.  We are not expecting a refund on the  flights we booked in the fall from San Juan to home, rather the second batch of (more expensive) flights we were told to book on March 14.  Hopefully that makes sense.

 

Good luck with your refunds.  It is good to know that it may take some time for our claim to be reviewed by the accounting department.

Edited April 6, 2020 by Lauren10

[Canada Rocks]

We were on this same cruise. We were to get off the ship at 8 am on Saturday in San Juan - we were not anchored, not a good sign. We were worried we might not get off. At 10 am the captain announced for those with noon flights to go to customer relations. We went down and were told to change our flights. The staff TOLD us to change the flights for later that day since they felt we would be able to port.  They opened up the internet and took out numerous laptops so we could change flights. Staff TOLD us Celebrity would reimburse us. Later that afternoon the Customer Service Floor was packed with numerous people changing flights for Saturday.  Long story short, San Juan would not let us in. We were diverted to go Fort Lauderdale. This would take two days. We all had to make new flights again for Monday-these flights told us before hand they would give us $300. I just need to Celebrity it remember what happened to us on Saturday and be reimbursed for those flights There many, many of us in the same boat.