Need help! Celebrity left us stranded in an airport and won't refund us

[Jonnoh]

Hi there,

 

New to the forum and hope someone out there can help me.

 

My family and I were excited to go on our first vacation since 2019 on Celebrity Summit in May. We booked a flight and cruise package with Celebrity and were able to check-in to our cruise but had issues with completing our flight check-in. We didn't think twice since we were able to select our seats and assumed this was normal since we were flying with a newborn baby on lap and figured credentials needed to be validated at the airport so we didn't think twice.

 

We went to the airport and tried to check-in and were shocked to hear that we did not have valid tickets for the flight and were no even on the flight manifest. The gate agent was able to trace back into the system and it displayed that our flights were voided. We never had any payment issues so this was a huge shock. We were informed that Celebrity did not pay for the tickets and we had to leave the line and purchase new flight tickets. At 4am in the morning, we were left stranded at the airport with a newborn baby, elderly couple and a cruise that was going to leave without us. We had no choice but to purchase the tickets....

 

Thankfully we still had cruise tickets and were assured by the Summit team that the funds would be refunded by the emergency travel team. We did our best to enjoy the cruise the best we could knowing that we would have to handle this situation after our vacation. For the record, the extra amount paid was over $2500 for 6 guests!

 

Since we've arrived on land and over the last 2 months, our entire family has been trying as hard as we can spending countless hours (literally a full time job) trying to navigate the complicated contact center teams to figure out when the refund for the flights would arrive. I can't emphasize this enough, but we have received inconsistent information, runaround and told to keep waiting. We were OK with waiting knowing that the full amount was approved / refunded.

 

It now feels like we were being pushed out so far that we'll just go away. We were even told a month ago that the funds / refunds would be processed by this week. It's now 2 days past the 'deadline' and still do not have the refund pending.. in fact, we were told that we wouldn't be getting refunded at all and would be getting some time of gift certificate (for a smaller amount paid) for future flight use with an expiry date.. this makes no sense. I don't think my ask is unreasonable - just looking to get back what is owed for services that should have been handled by Celebrity from the onset.

 

I'm not sure if anyone has had a similar experience, but any help or guidance would be great... I'm beyond frustrated

 

I'm writing this while still sitting on hold with Celebrity ... been on the call today alone for 3 hours and redirected for the 5th time.. now getting transferred back to the first team i spoke to.... UGH.

 

[5waldos]

Can your credit card company help? Were  the initial flight charges done separately? Worth giving it a try. Sounds awful and hard to imagine what happened and why they canceled your flights. 

[wrk2cruise]

The weekend is not the time to be trying to get this resolved.   Since you have seemed to do all the right things already I would send an email to the executive office.   Clearly state the problem and what you have done to get resolution.   

 

The director of customer engagement jennifermorales@celebrity.com

 

If that doesn't work

 

CEO lLutoff-Perlo@celebritycruises.com

[TeaBag]

Welcome to Cruise Critic.  I am very sorry your first vacation in years ended up like this.  Do you have a copy of your booking including the airfare that was ultimately denied?  The links provided by wrktocruise should get you some response.  I hope this works our satisfactory for you.

[Bobbiegentry]

In the future (admittedly this will not help your current situation) ALWAYS go to the airline site and confirm then reconfirm the fact that your flights show "Ticketed" and not "Pending", "On Request" or some other similar term.

 

This is especially true whenever using a TA or consolidator, e.g.,  Flights by Celebrity, EZAir, etc.  

 

Unless the word "Ticketed" shows on the AIRLINE SITE you do not have tickets. 

[hcat]

As someone mentioned, in US you can file a  complaint with the credit card co for amount in question,, the amount you paid which was  to be refunded,  The card co usually will give u a provisional credit back to your card while they investigate...they will want documents etc.   Doing so sometimes shakes the Celebrity tree and hastens their decision on your claim.

 

Very poor cust svc on Celebs part all around.

Curious how you could cruise with a newborn???

Celeb has min age, so I thought..guess not

[Jonnoh]

wow! Thanks so much everyone! I genuinely feel your care for our situation and I'm blown away how amazing and powerful this community is.

 

I'll definitely check out the links to send emails to those folks! thanks so much @wrk2cruise !

 

In regards to the credit card company, I've started a dispute process so fingers crossed that gets some attention as well.

 

We enjoyed the cruise as best as we could and the people were lovely. Our baby girl was 6 months old and was the only passenger under 18! She had a blast and while the post cruise service has been a nightmare, the cruise was great! 
 

[Ferry_Watcher]

Is it the $2,500 that is still owed?  Depending when in May you took this cruise, it's been maybe 60 days, and not quite 90 days that you are waiting on your refund.  It's not unheard of during this post Covid restart time period to wait this long.  At least you were still able to arrive in time for your cruise with your baby (who had to have been at least 6 months old to be allowed to board), and the elderly couple.

 

Hopefully you get your refund this coming week as promised.

[hcat]

Happy the Cruise was fun..typical Celebrity disconnect..great on board but the stateside service is often sub par

[Jim_Iain]

I would definitely start by filing a dispute with your Credit Card.   You will get an immediate temporary credit and Celebrity has 10 days to respond or the credit is made permanent and a bill back is issued to a Credit Card. 

 

I had to do this with a cruise at the beginning of Covid.  At least it worked for me that I got a full refund instead of a FCC. 

[Host Anne]

Jonnah ~ welcome to Cruise Critic.  I'm so sorry that your first post is because you had a serious issue with  your cruise.  When you send your email, I would address it to both Ms. Morales and Ms. Lutoff-Perlo.  I learned a long time ago that it's best to start at the top for serious issues that haven't been solved by going through the normal channels (which you've done).  Be sure to attach all of your Celebrity documentation that details your cruise and flights.  

 

As I mentioned on another thread today, like all businesses, Celebrity is very understaffed right now and those on the general lines, while trying to be helpful, often can't assist in a situation like this.  But hang in there.  At least in my experience over the years, Celebrity does make things right.  It make take far longer than it should, but I'll be surprised if they don't give you a refund.

 

I've only used Celebrity Air once (a number of years ago) and as soon as I booked the flights and paid for them, they showed up in my airline's website and I had complete control over the reservation moving forward.  I don't know if it still works that way, but right now, I would only book direct with an airline.  There are far too many changes, delays and cancellations.  I don't want to wait for a third party, like Celebrity Air, to contact me and attempt to rebook me.  

 

Please come back and let us know how things go for you!!!!  Best of luck!

 

 

[Arizona Wildcat]

43 minutes ago, Host Anne said:

Jonnah ~ welcome to Cruise Critic.  I'm so sorry that your first post is because you had a serious issue with  your cruise.  When you send your email, I would address it to both Ms. Morales and Ms. Lutoff-Perlo.  I learned a long time ago that it's best to start at the top for serious issues that haven't been solved by going through the normal channels (which you've done).  Be sure to attach all of your Celebrity documentation that details your cruise and flights.  

 

As I mentioned on another thread today, like all businesses, Celebrity is very understaffed right now and those on the general lines, while trying to be helpful, often can't assist in a situation like this.  But hang in there.  At least in my experience over the years, Celebrity does make things right.  It make take far longer than it should, but I'll be surprised if they don't give you a refund.

 

I've only used Celebrity Air once (a number of years ago) and as soon as I booked the flights and paid for them, they showed up in my airline's website and I had complete control over the reservation moving forward.  I don't know if it still works that way, but right now, I would only book direct with an airline.  There are far too many changes, delays and cancellations.  I don't want to wait for a third party, like Celebrity Air, to contact me and attempt to rebook me.  

 

Please come back and let us know how things go for you!!!!  Best of luck!

 

 

Think you have a plan going forward. 

 

An email or two - don't waste your time calling on a weekend - to the top AND the credit card dispute are the actions.

 

Give them the facts short and sweet.   Copies as an attachment of your cruise and air booking and payment.  Keep you note free from any emotional comments. Tell them exactly what you expect them to do.  Make sure the paperwork shows both the original ABC confirmation and amount AND your payment at the airport.

 

Things right now are chaotic at best.  Do not try to find fault because it could just as likely be the airline made the error and misapplied the payment.

 

Agree with the host - until things settle down book with the airline.  If you really want an airline consolidator booking becsure to verify that you are ticketed with the airline.

[Covepointcruiser]

Minimum age for children is six months or 12 months if the ship will be at sea for three consecutive days.    A six month old child is a baby, but not a newborn.    I wonder how old the elderly couple was, 60?

[Mark_T]

3 hours ago, Jonnoh said:

In regards to the credit card company, I've started a dispute process so fingers crossed that gets some attention as well.

Hopefully it is obvious, but just in case...

 

The dispute you have raised is for the original flights payment to Celebrity, not the $2,500 you had to pay for the tickets on the day..?

[buchhalm]

I find this quite extraordinary. 

The companies (any, not just Celebrity) can take your $ in an instant, but "have staffing problems " in case anything goes wrong.

What is also bad is that they advertise these flights as a convenient one-stop service. Great, if it works out. Not so great when it doesn't. Nobody seems to be responsible or interested.

The comments by some, 'don't bother on the weekend " is sad (for Celebrity).

They are an international business and should be contactable 24/7 . Customers live in different time zones (and Saturday/Sunday) isn't the weekend everywhere. 

[Mr. Click]

If you dispute the $2500 you paid at the airport to the airline the credit card company will not allow the dispute.  Your dispute is with what you paid to Celebrity for the airfare at the time of booking.  I would follow up with an email to the exec offices immediately to try and get it resolved with a full refund of what you are now out of pocket.  If that does not get a quick response then file with your credit card company but only for the amount you paid to Celebrity.  Filing a credit card dispute for the money  you paid at the airport is waste of time, both yours, the credit card company's and the airline's.

[wrk2cruise]

2 hours ago, buchhalm said:

The comments by some, 'don't bother on the weekend " is sad (for Celebrity).

 

I stand by the comment as my advise moving forward was to escalate to the executive levels.  While general customer service I expect 24x7 coverage the executive offices are a 9-5 Monday-Friday operation.  

[Fly and Sail]

Filing a dispute with the credit card for the initial transaction might not be very productive. I bet the price that the passengers had to pay on the day of departure is much higher than their initially agreed price with Flights by Celebrity.

 

Celebrity owed the passengers the money they paid to the airline in order to get to their cruise ship. OP says this was in May so the matter should have been long resolved. An email to the executive offices is definitely in order and in case they don't react I'd contact an attorney or file a small claims case.

[Jeremiah1212]

The CEO email address gets tossed around for routine custom service issues far too often, but in this case it is warranted. Flights by Celebrity is a disaster to deal with.

 

However - the credit card company isn't going to help you. The second $2500 was a legitimate purchase. To dispute a charge you have to file the dispute within 60 days of the transaction posting and you cannot have paid any portion of the amount in question. This would eliminate your initial cruise/flight purchase from even being considered. 

[hrhdhd]

8 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

However - the credit card company isn't going to help you. The second $2500 was a legitimate purchase. To dispute a charge you have to file the dispute within 60 days of the transaction posting and you cannot have paid any portion of the amount in question. This would eliminate your initial cruise/flight purchase from even being considered. 

I have filed disputes that don't meet those criteria (there also used to be something about the purchase being made within Z miles of one's mailing address, if memory serves). And I have been successful at getting my money back.

[Jeremiah1212]

1 minute ago, hrhdhd said:

I have filed disputes that don't meet those criteria (there also used to be something about the purchase being made within Z miles of one's mailing address, if memory serves). And I have been successful at getting my money back.

 

That's due to the bank contacting the creditor and getting them to correct the issue on their own. They have no obligation to do it. The Quality of Goods and Service clause is where the purchase has to be made in your home state or within 100 miles of your primary address but it just kicks back to whatever is allowable under state law. 

[wrk2cruise]

47 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

The CEO email address gets tossed around for routine custom service issues far too often, but in this case it is warranted.

 

I agree and rarely provide the information.  In this case they have certainly done due diligence and have escalated as far as possible to this point.

 

Over 20 years of sailing with Celebrity I've had to escalate to this level twice.  Neither case should have required attention at this level but they don't empower even the most upper levels of customer service or even resolutions department to do the right thing.

[hrhdhd]

51 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

 

That's due to the bank contacting the creditor and getting them to correct the issue on their own. They have no obligation to do it. The Quality of Goods and Service clause is where the purchase has to be made in your home state or within 100 miles of your primary address but it just kicks back to whatever is allowable under state law. 

Okay, so it's not that the OP is out of luck filing a dispute--it's worth a try if Celebrity doesn't do the right thing.

[bEwAbG]

Another problem with filing the dispute is that you now have two avenues in process with different parts of the company.  Escalate with the executive team first and if that doesn't resolve the problem, contact your credit card company.  Others are correct that disputing the later charge is just flat-out wrong (the wrong amount as well as the wrong tactic).  It was a direct purchase by the cardholder with the airline and would punish the airline for a refund owed by someone else entirely.  That is morally wrong in addition to opening a bigger can of worms of creating more work for everyone involved, including the OP, for absolutely no reason as it will be denied.  Some vendors will blacklist you if you do chargebacks that are not warranted. 

 

The credit card wants the customer to have worked with the vendor to resolve the issue before getting them involved.  In this case, the OP has done that and is already being promised a refund but needs someone to push it through on X's end, which will likely happen with contact with the executive team.

Edited July 17, 2022 by bEwAbG

[Baron Barracuda]

Assume OP didn't book through a TA.  If he/she had that would be the person spending hours on hold with X.