Effective Mar 2 2023: Changes to Non-Refundable Deposit Policy

[Ken the cruiser]

8 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

 

The deadline to select a cruise for the pick later option (aka open booking) has moved around a lot of late. During our recent Oct Constellation TA, I was surprised to see that the form listed it as 18 months. We ended up "purchasing" two while on board. 

So the OBC perk now stays attached for the Cruise Later certificate the entire 18-month period?

[wrk2cruise]

It's been moving around from sailing to sailing.  You will need to check when onboard.  I was on one sailing where it was 12 months another 18 and then most recently it was 6 months.

 

The flyer in my documents for my March 23 sailing says 90 days.

[mahdnc]

12 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

So the OBC perk now stays attached for the Cruise Later certificate the entire 18-month period?

 

Here are the forms so you can judge for yourself for what was distributed during our Constellation sailing.  I am not under the impression that these are the current terms, but I presume anyone on our cruise that booked under this would have the full 18 months.  I think we had one person on our roll call who purchased six of them.  Like I said, I purchased two.  I wish had bought three as we used both of them one month after we got off Constellation when the new season's sailings were released.

 

 

 

Edited March 6, 2023 by mahdnc

[Ken the cruiser]

4 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

Here are the forms so you can judge for yourself:

 

 

 

Thanks. I wonder if those that had purchased them earlier are grandfathered in with the new 18-month booking time frame? It would be nice if they were, but the fine print is too small to tell.

[mahdnc]

50 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks. I wonder if those that had purchased them earlier are grandfathered in with the new 18-month booking time frame? It would be nice if they were, but the fine print is too small to tell.

 

You should be able to tap or click on the embedded images and magnify it to read the fine print at the bottom. It'll be a bit blurry, but I believe it's readable. 

[Ken the cruiser]

6 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

You should be able to tap or click on the embedded images and magnify it to read the fine print at the bottom. It'll be a bit blurry, but I believe it's readable. 

There doesn't appear to be any reference to grandfathering. But I did notice all bets are off with regards to getting the Cruise Next OBC if you later decide to change a booking itinerary. 

[shellunderwater]

On 3/1/2023 at 11:23 AM, Dar & Bob said:

One more reason to give them a deposit on board with a reduced amount.  

Exactly.  We book on board, pay $200 deposit.  I can eat that if I really need to.  Especially on my RCL Sept 2024 Alaska trip (20 months from booking).  Paid $200 deposit, got $100 OBC for it.  Eliminates the need for worry about cancelling (in our opinion) until final payment.  I get it doesn't help much after final payment, but we buy our trip insurance before final payment so we pick up those cancellation benefits. 

Yes, I know there are risks with what we do.  We accept those. Insurance is about managing risks.  We are willing to take a risk for the $200.

In 14 cruises, closest we came to cancelling was a cruise after DW father passed.  But, that would have been covered under trip insurance we bought.

 

Your risk tolerance and/or experiences may vary, and I respect them.

[gerelmx]

On 3/4/2023 at 11:33 AM, luv4cruises said:

Time to look at Princess again!  All deposits are refundable. 

 

And the refund is made immediately

 

Edited March 6, 2023 by gerelmx

[mahdnc]

Here is a Celebrity flyer that compares the onboard booking options among other cruise lines: link. Most of it is reproduced in the screen shot below:

 

 

 

[intr3pid]

On 3/5/2023 at 12:55 PM, wrk2cruise said:

 

This is exactly my strategy as well other than I don't do open passages as I find them too restrictive.  In place I make a couple of dummy refundable deposit bookings for sailings as far out as possible that I don't intend to take.  I try to book an undesirable cabin so I'm not blocking a primo cabin someone else may want to book.   If the open passages didn't have time restrictions on selecting a sailing or lose the OBC I'd use them but given the restrictions I use the placeholder booking as it's more advantageous for me.  Then when I move the placeholder to the sailing I wish to take I generally make it NRD.

Totally fine way to do this if you and your SO are sailing.

 

I should note that open passages is less restrictive than an actual refundable booking.  Open passages gives you a year to select your sailing (or lose OBC) at the end of which you can still switch to a refundable "dummy" booking if you want.  So, it's at least as flexible as a refundable booking.

 

Where open passages shines is the ability to assign it to someone else - say, to your family members or friends.  It also allows you to carry it for a single $100 deposit - vs a 2x $100 deposit for an actual booking.  Sure, you could book an actual room for just one person, but that increases the risk of losing the OBC if that one person can't travel.

[intr3pid]

1 hour ago, mahdnc said:

Here is a Celebrity flyer that compares the onboard booking options among other cruise lines: link. Most of it is reproduced in the screen shot below:

 

 

 

It was 12 months on our holiday Eclipse sailing a couple of months ago.

[mahdnc]

6 hours ago, wrk2cruise said:

It's been moving around from sailing to sailing.  You will need to check when onboard.  I was on one sailing where it was 12 months another 18 and then most recently it was 6 months.

 

The flyer in my documents for my March 23 sailing says 90 days.

 

56 minutes ago, intr3pid said:

It was 12 months on our holiday Eclipse sailing a couple of months ago.

 

I wonder how well Celebrity will be tracking all these future cruise reservations with these varying deadlines. I would hate to have someone try to execute their future cruise option only to find out that Celebrity had cancelled it because they applied the wrong (shorter) deadline.  If it did occur, it should be easy to reverse (or re-apply) conceptually, but reality may be very different.

[Jeremiah1212]

54 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

 

I wonder how well Celebrity will be tracking all these future cruise reservations with these varying deadlines. I would hate to have someone try to execute their future cruise option only to find out that Celebrity had cancelled it because they applied the wrong (shorter) deadline.  If it did occur, it should be easy to reverse (or re-apply) conceptually, but reality may be very different.

 

Very easy. The terms are attached to the booking ID number. If there is any concern from a customer prospective you receive an email invoice as soon as they process your form and charge the deposit. That invoice/email has the full terms and conditions on page 2 where the allowable timeframe is outlined. 

 

 

Edited March 6, 2023 by Jeremiah1212

[tschwa2]

On 3/1/2023 at 1:49 PM, RichYak said:

In the past 6 months, I've cancelled flights on Delta, United, and American (last week). All gave me full credit with no penalty on non-refundable economy fares. I already used most of the American credit on a Jetblue booking.

I think this is because they are still in their covid error change policy.  I expect them to revert back to their $100-$150 penalty sometime in the next year.  

[HMR74]

On 3/1/2023 at 4:06 PM, jelayne said:

We normally book 18 + months out and have 7 booking between April 2023 - April 2024 and 5 of those were booked 2 years in advance.   We book with the non-refundable deposit and in 39 booking we have only cancelled once.  

 

Our most recent booking the refundable deposit was $2415 more than the non refundable rate. The prices were high before this change but this takes them beyond what I am willing to pay.  So going forward we will no longer book 2 years out, more like 2 months. 

I tried explaining your risk reward analysis with other cruiser ssince we only do a couple of cruises a year. eg, back before covid I had 2 14 dayers in Aqua with a 900 discount for taking the non refundable risk . Decent risk I though cause if we had to cancell it would be for some major issue. But if you ook 5 such cruises and save 4500 then if you cancell 1, no big deal.

 

NOTE: back when non refundable started it was a significant discount off cruise price. the 900 for 14 days in Aqua, now if its a popular cruise its "dynamic pricing" and can be a 2400 add on for the refundable.

 

I have to look but whats the suites 200%

 

I have also heard that if you book on board and have a lower deposit, now if you transfer it to a TA it switched to the higher deposit. Check it out for yourselves. I also was told that if you havebeen using the same TA for a while, X wil automatically tranfer th ebooking to that TA.

 

May not make a difference for us. We are flipping over to land based vacations  which we used to do before. Costs far less and more time in the cities, towns or in say Tuscany to really see things.

 

Well, except for a couple of Carribean cruises in January where the purpose is to go to warm weather.

 

 

Edited March 7, 2023 by HMR74

[natshala]

On 3/2/2023 at 11:48 AM, Jim_Iain said:

Ahh. .can see what your are saying.     So if you cancel 6 months out there is no cancellation fee but there is if cancelled between say 90 and 180 days.    Better than Ponant,

 

Silver Seas seems to be similar

 

 

I booked a Silversea cruise more than a year in advance. The deposit was on the order of $750. I needed to cancel a few weeks later only to find it was completely non refundable! I lost the entire deposit. Never again Silversea. Also, final payment date is 5 months in advance of sailing.

[intr3pid]

10 hours ago, HMR74 said:

I have also heard that if you book on board and have a lower deposit, now if you transfer it to a TA it switched to the higher deposit.

Not true.  No issues transferring an OBB to a TA within 30 days and keeping all the perks.

[terrydtx]

1 minute ago, intr3pid said:

Not true.  No issues transferring an OBB to a TA within 30 days and keeping all the perks.

I agree we have done these many times. No problems transferring to TA. In fact last time we did this our TA was notified of the purchase while we were still on the cruise

[HMR74]

18 minutes ago, intr3pid said:

Not true.  No issues transferring an OBB to a TA within 30 days and keeping all the perks.

my operative words were "I heard"  and "Now"

since this march 3 change has this issue changed.

It would ,mean of course you would need to stay with X for the booking and save them commission money-which makes sense given it needs to improve cash flow and shows less and less concern about its meat and potato cruisers.

 

I also noted on a cruise I booked 2 weeks ago, the non refundable deposit is up from 420 to 650,  and I wonder what that's going to mean for when we buy a group booking at a TA and have received refundable deposit as part of it.

 

My brother tried to book the same cruise we booked a week earlier and while the cabin went down by 100 PP the group price went up by 400. Somebody, the customer,  is subsidizing the refundable up charge and in addition OBC was no longer offerred by X.

 

But the 75% off and up to 1600 OBC sale is continuing to be offered, just the details change

Edited March 7, 2023 by HMR74

[HMR74]

I just looked at the cruise I mentioned above.

The price is up $400 including a 76 increase in the AI package  and a 200 increase in the refundable deposit cost , plus X no longer giving a $200 OBC. Many moving pieces. This will also affect the move up price.

This is for an inside cabin where with FCC it mentally works out to a free cruise.

[mahdnc]

This change (deposit automatically goes up if you transfer the booking to a TA) is not mentioned in the documentation currently posted on Celebrity's trade website:

 

https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Celebrity/General_Info/Flyers/FCV_FAQsv7.pdf

https://creative.rccl.com/Sales/Celebrity/General_Info/Flyers/2022_CruiseLater_TCCv2.pdf

 

However the 8th question in the FAQ flyer does outline a scenario where the deposit requirements are higher in certain situations where the booking is transferred to group space (see below):

 

 

Edited March 7, 2023 by mahdnc

[HMR74]

 

Thats the situation I was told about and its the deposit and perks in a group booking that really entice us.

There are certain TA's that just give out a refundable OBC or debit card equal to a % of gross cruise cost. Simple and clean but the group booking opens the door to bigger discounts and OBC.

 

Also makes me wonder if X andRoyal are about to cut back on TA compensation or group booking enticements and how much theTAs can work with.

Edited March 7, 2023 by HMR74

[Jeremiah1212]

27 minutes ago, HMR74 said:

 

Thats the situation I was told about and its the deposit and perks in a group booking that really entice us.

There are certain TA's that just give out a refundable OBC or debit card equal to a % of gross cruise cost. Simple and clean but the group booking opens the door to bigger discounts and OBC.

 

Also makes me wonder if X andRoyal are about to cut back on TA compensation or group booking enticements and how much theTAs can work with.

 

The requirement to pay the full deposit on some (most) group space is not new. I would say Celebrity is pushing group space now more than ever. The ability to keep the onboarding booking OBC varies by the group type. Celebrity's group program is one of the most valuable out there for agents and consumers -  along with generous TA commissions. Very generous on some specific sailings. 

[HMR74]

38 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

 

The requirement to pay the full deposit on some (most) group space is not new. I would say Celebrity is pushing group space now more than ever. The ability to keep the onboarding booking OBC varies by the group type. Celebrity's group program is one of the most valuable out there for agents and consumers -  along with generous TA commissions. Very generous on some specific sailings. 

I know how good commissions are because my TA by accident sent me their commish statement at the back end of the invoices and  contracts they sent--perhaps it was not so accidently as they passed thru 2/3 of what they got.

Edited March 7, 2023 by HMR74

[kirtihk]

On 3/1/2023 at 10:36 AM, NevadaCruiser2023 said:

I'm not sure what people really expected. Non-refundable sounds pretty self-explanatory to me. If you think you might cancel, pay a bit more for a refundable deposit.  The upfront cost may hurt a bit, but it'll definitely feel better if you had cancel due to say, declining health.  

It was $100 pp loss if cancelled NRD vs around guaranteed $400 pp more for 7-day refundable.  So, NRD was making sense.  But now, with the full deposit ($250 pp per 7-day) loss on NRD it's less attractive.