Placeholder or CWC deposit refund as FCC

[Lolou127]

After asking yesterday about what may happen with our Silhouette September cruise if it gets cancelled, I’ve now been told by X that if we choose to cancel before we pay in full, we can either go with CWC and our deposit will be used against another cruise but it’s book by April 2022 travel by September 2022 or we can have it made into a placeholder which would be valid until April 2023, what I can’t get explained to me is what’s the difference, surely I’m better off with the flexibility of having until 2023 to decide on a cruise or am I? Can someone tell me in layman’s terms the difference between the two options?

[Cruising is my passion]

In the past a “placeholder” really means just that. It is holding a place.  It used to protect your promos, I.e. OBC, gratuities. It is like FCC but without expiration. You book a reservation for the farthest date that they have showing, even in an itinerary or ship that you know you don’t intend to take. You can transfer it as often as you like and the promos, deposit transferred with that booking number. How they treat this kind of booking now is a bit different because of Always Included. Most people will not have additional promos to protect, or they may have very little. I have transferred already made bookings to other sailings, other ships and other itineraries. I have not used CWC but rather have transferred before final payment has been made.

Most times when transferring an existing reservation it may result in a lesser or greater prevailing rate of the cruise fare. Changing the Class of the ship as well as change in category can also result in a lesser or greater price.

Sorry if this sounds confusing.

 

[Lolou127]

Thank you, actually we do have some promos on this as it was originally booked back in 2019 and we lifted and shifted from last year to this year, we’ve got OBC, gratuities, wifi and a drinks package, are those the things that are now called Always Included? So if I understand correctly we’d just choose any cruise as far out as we like and we’d keep our perks? but we can change it to another cruise whenever we want?

[hulamoon]

Is this placeholder new? When I call the only options are through Sept 2022.

[hulamoon]

I would love the ability to move accumulated FCC to 2023 and then move it back if conditions improve. It's too late for us to refund and I feel a bit squeezed with the Sept 2022 deadline. I was over optimistic when given the options initially. We have had four cancelled cruises and there was a mix up on refunds so we have over 800 FCC still. 

 

I would absolutely move further out or refund because so many ports will not be vaccinated.

[Lolou127]

I’m not sure if it’s new, it was offered as an option to me when I called X to ask about our Silhouette European cruise for this sept, to me it seems like a better option than the CWC because it’s farther out, but I came on here to ask the question as I’m very new to all this and didn’t know if there might be a catch, it seems not x

[Cruising is my passion]

I stated it is like FCC, however, FCC usually has a date by which you must book a cruise and when you must cruise by. Again, regarding an older booking that has promos on it: I am not sure what happens now that most of what you have for your existing promos are now in the AI, except the OBC. So whatever your Celebrity rep does I cannot speak to. There does not seem to be a way to get a Refundable Deposit without the Always Included. Conversely, A non-refundable deposit will not give you Always Included. You have to be the “squeaky wheel” so to speak and your own advocate in indicating you want to keep whichever promos you have on the original booking that may be different or better from what is now being offered. The OBC you may have, if you booked the original on the ship should transfer, but never hurts to remind them.

[wrk2cruise]

I suspect there may be something missing from what you were told.   There are really 3 options

 

1) Cancel the sailing and get 100% of your NRD deposit as FCC

2) Transfer your deposit to a sailing departing before 10/1/2022

3) Transfer you deposit to a sailing departing 10/1 or later and pay $100 / pp admin fee

 

The first 2 are variations of CwC and therefore have the restrictive dates.  #3 is just the standard NRD penalty.

 

Now what you have to watch with #3 is if you transfer as a placeholder and transfer again later you technically should be charged the $100 pp for each transfer.   Maybe they are offering to transfer as a placeholder waiving the fee.   I've heard of some people getting the fee waived for #2, but I was not one of them!