Japan 2024 canceled…

[mahdnc]

On 5/19/2023 at 10:02 AM, Arubamoose said:

 

I won't burn my pom-poms.  They did right by us again.

Did right by us when they got us home safely from South America when the world went to poop with COVID on March 15, 2020.

 

I agree.  Give me a "C"!  Give me an "E"!.......

[floridatravelersforlife]

Just to close the book on this topic, the Wall Street Journal has an article in today's edition that describes cruise industry problems. One was this topic.  An example of losses incurred by a canceled passenger, $6000 lost in airfare.  At least corporate has been embarrassed in the business arena and maybe more.  Touche!

[bEwAbG]

It's unfortunate that X is acting this way but this situation is like a commercial for cancel for any reason insurance.  If you don't take advantage of it, you're self-insuring losses like $6,000 in non-refundable airfare.  Particularly in this era where you're at risk of getting COVID and having to cancel at the last minute, you need extra protection (or be willing to eat the loss).

[anniegb]

I thought purchasing Air through Celebrity afforded the customer the opportunity to defer payment of air until FP and in the event of cancellation, there would be no liability on the part of the customer??

Edited May 25, 2023 by anniegb

[mahdnc]

3 minutes ago, anniegb said:

I thought purchasing Air through Celebrity afforded the customer the opportunity to defer payment of air until FP and in the event of cancellation, there would be no liability on the part of the customer??

 

Yes, this is one of the biggest advantages with booking through Flights By Celebrity.  I presume the person mentioned in the article, Diane Gainey, purchased their air fare through the airline or through some other means outside of Celebrity.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

3 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

Yes, this is one of the biggest advantages with booking through Flights By Celebrity.  I presume the person mentioned in the article, Diane Gainey, purchased their air fare through the airline or through some other means outside of Celebrity.

From the story 

She made those reservations separately from her cruise booking

[anniegb]

3 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

From the story 

She made those reservations separately from her cruise booking

Yes that was my understanding too.  JMO Celebrity have no liability.

 

Caveat Emptor.

[Belgian fry]

Thanks for the article @Mahdnc

 

As for the point that has been raised about booking through Celebrity: people outside of the US,UK and Australia and New Zealand are not eligible to book flights through Celebrity

 

I am very relieved that our booking still appears to be OK

[Host Anne]

Hi everyone ~ a reminder that you may not pull an article from another website and post the copy and photo here.  That is a copyright infringement and it's not permitted.

 

But I do want to comment about the airfare.  I'm not sure what airline was booked, but every airline I book with at least gives you a credit now if you have to cancel flights and change fees have been gone for sometime, too.  Maybe not all of them offer that but it's best to understand before booking.  In this instance, trip insurance definitely should have been purchased as it would have likely covered the cancellation since the cruise was cancelled.  Again, be sure to read insurance policies so there are no surprises.  But if the airline is giving you a credit for cancelled plane ticket, insurance won't cover that, either.  

[Host Jazzbeau]

I think the problem for the person quoted in the article is that they booked a long time ago and airfares have shot up.  So the airline credit doesn't buy you a new ticket.  I know that on each of our trips over the last year the airfare has been a new record high for us...

[jeno]

3 hours ago, Host Anne said:

Hi everyone ~ a reminder that you may not pull an article from another website and post the copy and photo here.  That is a copyright infringement and it's not permitted.

 

But I do want to comment about the airfare.  I'm not sure what airline was booked, but every airline I book with at least gives you a credit now if you have to cancel flights and change fees have been gone for sometime, too.  Maybe not all of them offer that but it's best to understand before booking.  In this instance, trip insurance definitely should have been purchased as it would have likely covered the cancellation since the cruise was cancelled.  Again, be sure to read insurance policies so there are no surprises.  But if the airline is giving you a credit for cancelled plane ticket, insurance won't cover that, either.  

I had something similar happen to me.  We got an airline credit that had to be used by a certain date. Once that date passed and we weren’t able to use the credit, we got a refund. Not perfect, but acceptable to us. And it’s possible we could have used the credit during that time, but we didn’t b

[neverlaysup]

5 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

I think the problem for the person quoted in the article is that they booked a long time ago and airfares have shot up.  So the airline credit doesn't buy you a new ticket.  I know that on each of our trips over the last year the airfare has been a new record high for us...

Another issue with airfare is that some people buy business class tickets with miles. I for one did this and we were lucky and didn't get cancelled off the cruise. Had we been booted off, I would have been scrambling to use miles on ANA that I transferred from AMEX. Pretty sure I can't transfer them back to AMEX so now I would be locked into using miles on an airline I normally would never fly. In order to get the best deal, I need to purchase that ticket about 11 months in advance. Fortunately, we were spared but I feel for the others.

[JaneStarr]

21 hours ago, jeno said:

I had something similar happen to me.  We got an airline credit that had to be used by a certain date. Once that date passed and we weren’t able to use the credit, we got a refund. Not perfect, but acceptable to us. And it’s possible we could have used the credit during that time, but we didn’t b

I also have relevant personal experience. We had to cancel a 2019 cruise due to medical reasons the month before the trip. Trip insurance policies vary in how they handle airfare that is credited rather than immediately refunded.

 

Our trip was insured through (Trip Insurance Store as agent) with CSA. We had insured all non-refundable costs immediately after final cruise payment. This allowed us coverage for pre-existing medical conditions. We had a great claims experience thanks to Steve Dasseos and his team.

We were made whole with no out-of-pocket trip costs, plus an additional Jet Blue travel bank credits!

 

The CSA Freestyle policy that we purchased DID refund all non-refundable airfare and cruise costs (which excludes taxes, fees & cruise-planner and any other items that get automatically refunded to you).

 

Our air was with JetBlue which automatically gave travel bank credits for the amount of the airfare — excluding Seat fees which are refunded.

 

CSA provided a full refund of the airfare portion of charge and let us keep the Jet Blue travel bank credits (because the credits didn’t count as a “refund” under the terms of our policy)!

This experience makes me contact Trip Insurance Store and speak to Steve or a member of his team every time we plan an expensive or international trip. I am so grateful for their wise advice. Steve participates and answers questions on the CruiseCritic Insurance Forum to help even non clients. He’s helped advise countless community members posting under @iamtrustworthy

[I’m not connected with Steve or his business, except as a very satisfied customer.]

 

Edited May 26, 2023 by JaneStarr
To fix typos

[Belgian fry]

In Europe, fares that are non/refundable (most of them) are just that. If you cancel, you get nothing, no credit, nada! Our economy class fares from Brussels to Tokyo were €1400 each, so it would have been expensive!!!

[MandL]

13 hours ago, Belgian fry said:

In Europe, fares that are non/refundable (most of them) are just that. If you cancel, you get nothing, no credit, nada! Our economy class fares from Brussels to Tokyo were €1400 each, so it would have been expensive!!!

 

Have you ever used a travel agent in the U.S.?  We had some friends from Belgium back in the day, who did all their bookings with a travel agent in the U.S.  I have to wonder if this was why.

[Belgian fry]

Judging from posts on the Celebrity Millennium FB group, there seem to have been more people being cancelled yesterday and today. Argh!

[micruiser2002]

10 minutes ago, Belgian fry said:

Judging from posts on the Celebrity Millennium FB group, there seem to have been more people being cancelled yesterday and today. Argh!

What sailing?  

[Belgian fry]

1 minute ago, micruiser2002 said:

What sailing?  

16 March and the one afterwards, I believe 

[pukekolive]

36 minutes ago, Belgian fry said:

16 March and the one afterwards, I believe 

I personally think it is just a couple of people catching up with the previous cull who misunderstood what their TA and Celebrity told them. Others who read what these people posted are on another X ship and the future cruise agent told them the cruises are still going ahead, not cancelled.

[Belgian fry]

11 hours ago, pukekolive said:

I personally think it is just a couple of people catching up with the previous cull who misunderstood what their TA and Celebrity told them. Others who read what these people posted are on another X ship and the future cruise agent told them the cruises are still going ahead, not cancelled.

more than a month later? Seems a bit odd to me.

I think it's more likely this is round 2

[anniegb]

Don's family vacations , a YT vlogger. has a very inaccurate account of one family's experience.  However more bad publicity for Celebrity.

Edited May 31, 2023 by anniegb

[kayakcove]

Just a note for those who lift and shifted to October 2025.  Just had generic email from Celebrity promoting Japan in 2024 and 2025 and looked at a couple of sailings in fall of 2025 with "Best of Japan" itinerary. One in late September has space in all cabin types, the one in early October shows it is sold out up to Aqua Class. 

They also had itinerary change.  4 sea days vs. 3.  Only two days in Kobe/Kyoto/Osaka area. Extra sea day is following stop in Shimizu.

[Pataroo]

I likely missed some things in this long thread as I did not read everything.  Something jumped out as I scanned: Tarwood3, who started this conversation, commented somewhere about the port schedule missing Millennium, so I looked.  As far as I can tell from online searching, Celebrity Millennium is not showing up on the port schedule in Tokyo or anyplace else on my Apr 9, 2024 cruise, while many other ships are clearly scheduled at Tokyo and other Japan ports. It is my understanding that port schedules are done years in advance, so it seems to me that Apr 9, 2024 will have to be fully cancelled since there is no place for the ship to dock, but I am no expert!  Did someone at Celebrity forget to schedule the ports for Millennium?  Is it still possible to add the ship this late?  Anyone know anything about these types of things that can share some thinking? I have asked multiple people at Celebrity who state that the sailing is going ahead as planned, but I am thinking they just don't really know and and that they sincerely believe what they are saying, even if it's not accurate.  

[jelayne]

The Millenium is Showing on the port schedule arriving in Yokohama on April 8, 2024.  Yokohama is the port Celebrity uses for Tokyo.

[Bruin Steve]

2 hours ago, Pataroo said:

I likely missed some things in this long thread as I did not read everything.  Something jumped out as I scanned: Tarwood3, who started this conversation, commented somewhere about the port schedule missing Millennium, so I looked.  As far as I can tell from online searching, Celebrity Millennium is not showing up on the port schedule in Tokyo or anyplace else on my Apr 9, 2024 cruise, while many other ships are clearly scheduled at Tokyo and other Japan ports. It is my understanding that port schedules are done years in advance, so it seems to me that Apr 9, 2024 will have to be fully cancelled since there is no place for the ship to dock, but I am no expert!  Did someone at Celebrity forget to schedule the ports for Millennium?  Is it still possible to add the ship this late?  Anyone know anything about these types of things that can share some thinking? I have asked multiple people at Celebrity who state that the sailing is going ahead as planned, but I am thinking they just don't really know and and that they sincerely believe what they are saying, even if it's not accurate.  

Most of those "port schedules" that people search on the intrernet are NOT official schedules of the ports.  They are privately operated websites which pick up the information by searching the cruise line websites.  Since Celebrity pulled some of these cruises off of their available lists for some time now, when those independent websites scanned the cruise line websites, these cruises were not posted--hence, they failed to pick them up.  The actual official port schedules for the Japanese ports have not been updated and posted for a long time.  Nothing shows up on the official sites.

 

The OFFICIAL site for the Port of Yokohama hasn't been updated with a ship arrival schedule since the 2021 schedule was posted.(prior to the pandemic).:

https://osanbashi.jp/en/outline/

 

There is nothing posted for 2024.  Other official sites are equally blank.

Edited June 9, 2023 by Bruin Steve