Changing from refundable to non-refundable

[FirstTeacher]

When I originally signed on to a June cruise, the Celebrity agent highly recommended that I start with a refundable deposit rate. He assured me that anytime prior to final payment I would be allowed to switch it over to the non-refundable rate, thus saving the extra $500+ that was tacked on. Has anyone tried doing that, and if so, did they simply subtract the extra charge or did they open a new account based on the latest (probably higher) cruise fare?

[Roxydog15]

I hope someone can provide insight on this.  We have one non-refundable for this summer that I would love to convert if possible.  Would take some of the anxiety off.

[BettyCruiser]

Moving from refundable to nonrefundable is like a price adjustment. It would be adjusted to the current nonrefundable price, so if the price has gone up since you booked the saving may be reduced. 

 

To move from nonrefundable to refundable I believe would be a cancel rebook.  

[sanger727]

I don’t know the answer. But if you are permitted to switch from refundable to no -refundable the day before final payment and get the add on cost refunded; wouldn’t everyone do that and get both the refundable assurance AND the price discount?

 

@BettyCruiser’s comment that it would just be a rebook at prevailing rates makes sense. If you have a refundable rate you can always cancel/rebook.

Edited January 23, 2022 by sanger727

[Lastdance]

My cruises cost so much, that adding refundable to some is ridiculous.  The 200 loss is a gamble, but so is life.  It will be interesting to read the experiences of others.

Edited January 23, 2022 by Lastdance

[Arizona Wildcat]

Yes you can, but you need to cancel your refundable reservation and rebook at the then nonrefundable price.

I book with my TA who Expedites things.  I get a refundable group fare for less than the regular non refundable fare plus a bit of OBC.

It is refundable until you make the final payment.   Have an August cruise from Iceland.  Will owe the final $100 as long as possible.  All the rest is FCCs from several cruises.

Edited January 23, 2022 by Arizona Wildcat

[Jim_Iain]

I did it recently during the sales at Christmas.    I noticed a much lower price and called Celebrity.   It took him awhile to find the price for the cruise I had put on hold.    He finally found the difference was the Non-Refundable -   I had him change it to Non-Refundable at quite a difference.   I figured there was little risk as it qualified for Cruise with Confidence.  

 

 

[Calico Jack Sparrow]

I had a non refundable deposit on my November 2020 cruise which was cancelled.  Celebrity gave us very restrictive rules for rebooking. Due to Covid concerns we cancelled that trip and "lost" our deposit.

Celebrity kept $900.  TA kept $100.

However, when I rebooked I was able to apply all of that to my new reservation.  So, I was not out any money on the deal.

I hope that helps.

[Jim_Iain]

I was going to call my TA and also ask on a finer point.    Can you shift to a non-refundable if the class, e.g. Retreat Class, is sold out.    I know for fare reduction you need to have at least one cabin in your room type to get a reduction.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

2 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

I was going to call my TA and also ask on a finer point.    Can you shift to a non-refundable if the class, e.g. Retreat Class, is sold out.    I know for fare reduction you need to have at least one cabin in your room type to get a reduction.

We've gotten reductions on 2 cruises even though the suite we are in was no longer available.  Our CVP offered to check for us while talking to her about another matter.  

[Jim_Iain]

18 minutes ago, CHEZMARYLOU said:

We've gotten reductions on 2 cruises even though the suite we are in was no longer available.  Our CVP offered to check for us while talking to her about another matter.  

Good to hear.    I was going to shift 2 of our August cruises to NR.   With Cruise with confidence the risk far outweigh the cost.   The difference is about $1,800 for the two of us. 

 

Iain's very conservative and insisted we book only refundable after the mess of cancelling 8 cruises during the shutdown and the trouble we had with all the FCC's.    I did however book about half of them non-refundables  oops. 

[Beachlover1989]

For our Feb 14 cruise on Silhouette, we switched from a refundable deposit to non-refundable one week before final payment.  It was just a reprice, not a rebook, and it saved us over $600.  We also got the extra OBC that was being offered at the time.

[Lastdance]

23 minutes ago, Beachlover1989 said:

For our Feb 14 cruise on Silhouette, we switched from a refundable deposit to non-refundable one week before final payment.  It was just a reprice, not a rebook, and it saved us over $600.  We also got the extra OBC that was being offered at the time.

That makes more sense to me.."reprice," without canceling and rebooking.  However, maybe it is the same process with just different terms?  My b2b/TA in October has cabins sold out, but it never hurts to ask.  $200 is not much at all, but $400 is a little more than I am okay with losing.  I guess I could always pick the most expensive one of the two if I did not want to do both.

[miched]

6 hours ago, CHEZMARYLOU said:

We've gotten reductions on 2 cruises even though the suite we are in was no longer available.  Our CVP offered to check for us while talking to her about another matter.  

How would you know what the cost is if they are sold out?   Where do you see the price?

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

[cruiseb4udie]

22 hours ago, Roxydog15 said:

I hope someone can provide insight on this.  We have one non-refundable for this summer that I would love to convert if possible.  Would take some of the anxiety off.

If you switch from a non-refundable to a refundable, you keep the terms of the original non-refundable deposit.  The only benefit would be a price reduction...if you can ever find a refundable booking that is LESS than a non-refundable.  

 

This question USED to be in FAQ's but the FAQ's have been "improved" so now the answer is impossible to find.  It may be buried in the terms of your original booking.  I have a copy and paste of the question from before the FAQ's were changed.

 

"NonRefundable to Refundable - If a guest books a non-refundable fare and later prefers to change to a refundable rate, will the booking remain under non-refundable status?  Yes. Any booking originally created as non-refundable will maintain this status for the life of the reservation, regardless of subsequent category changes."

[CHEZMARYLOU]

1 hour ago, miched said:

How would you know what the cost is if they are sold out?   Where do you see the price?

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

We don't. Our CVP checked prices for us when we were talking.

 

 

[Roxydog15]

4 hours ago, cruiseb4udie said:

4 hours ago, cruiseb4udie said:

If you switch from a non-refundable to a refundable, you keep the terms of the original non-refundable deposit.  The only benefit would be a price reduction...if

 

Thanks for finding that. I had never even thought of the possibility, but I guess is a non-starter. 

[pawmtweez]

Does anyone have any more recent information?

[numnums]

just to throw my own experience, this month a couple weeks ago I had a refundable cruise for the ascent this year on December, I then switched to make it non refundable for the non refundable discount. After a couple days later, my cabin price dropped and I was able to call for a 200- difference on my final payment. Celebrity will honor price drops. I think if you know you will be on vacation or if it’s set in stone, it’s not a bad idea to make it non refundable. You can always make it non refundable at any time as long as it’s before a certain date, but I think they will only apply current promotions and can’t use your old ones.

 

Male sure you call a supervisor, or the agent will transfer you to someone with higher ranking and is more knowledgeable.

 

 

[wrk2cruise]

Yes you can convert from Refundable to Non-refundable at prevailing rates/perks prior to final payment.   Once non refundable it can't be converted to refundable.   I do this all the time.

 

Note there are some very recent (last week or 2) reports that any change to an onboard booking including price reductions cause a loss of book onboard bonus OBC.   If true it's not right as that's not what was promised at time of my bookings onboard.

[numnums]

25 minutes ago, wrk2cruise said:

Yes you can convert from Refundable to Non-refundable at prevailing rates/perks prior to final payment.   Once non refundable it can't be converted to refundable.   I do this all the time.

 

Note there are some very recent (last week or 2) reports that any change to an onboard booking including price reductions cause a loss of book onboard bonus OBC.   If true it's not right as that's not what was promised at time of my bookings onboard.

Oh yes, about the obc I actually had a few new workers at the center almost lose my obc that was goodwill, I kept it after she talked to her supervisor about keeping it,

 

 

if anyone has any existing obc, you must make sure to reiterate that it can not be lost!! I’m not sure if it only applies to goodwill/ purchased obc, but always make sure to speak to a higher up about it and a little niceness goes a long way!  (reservation only controlled by me)
 

I believe I’ve also lost obc before (promotional) when it came to price reductions, on a previous reservation that was being controlled by my TA.

Edited August 1, 2023 by numnums

[wrk2cruise]

OBC associated with old pricing/promo you are repricing does go away and is replaced with whatever is included in the prevailing rate.   Shareholder credit is always dropped as well but simply requesting it again via shareholder services and it gets re-applied.

 

Book onboard OBC is supposed to be retained on the reservation of course if you change category or ship/sail date the amount gets adjusted.

[ISABELLA]

On 1/22/2022 at 6:42 PM, BettyCruiser said:

Moving from refundable to nonrefundable is like a price adjustment. It would be adjusted to the current nonrefundable price, so if the price has gone up since you booked the saving may be reduced. 

 

To move from nonrefundable to refundable I believe would be a cancel rebook.  

Canceling NRD cruise will cost you paid deposit plus repriced under current  promo

[pawmtweez]

Thanks for the information.  We have only done one cruise since the pandemic started and it wasn't Celebrity.  The last time we were on Celebrity was a few years before that, so we have some catching up to do in terms of learning what has changed and the best way to deal with those changes.

[miched]

How does it work changing non refundable to refundable and then canceling?   🤷‍♂️

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅