I'm not going to take it any more!

[FinelyCruising]

Wait...aren't we as cruisers responsible for the timing of our payment due dates so we stay out of penalty???

[scottsdale babe]

Based upon discussions with Customer Service there does not appear to be any set rule for this particular case.

 

As such it is purely discretionary of the customer service agent to apply the on board credit or not. If I were the OP I would simply ask to speak with a supervisor who is capable of making this change.

 

If the OP's records do indeed indicate 30+ cruises then I would not believe that they would refuse kick in the $200.00 credit. This is no different then if I pay my credit card late once out of the last 30 payments and then call them up requesting the late fees and interest be removed. I have not had a customer service agent refuse that ever.

 

I have no idea why so many of you are siding with the cruise line here. It is a simple matter as well as an unfortunate accident. It is not like they are trying to pull one over on anybody. They are still substituting one cruise for another + are out their cost of insurance. Who cares what the rules are - cut them a break since they are loyal customers.

[Xcruiser]

Based upon discussions with Customer Service there does not appear to be any set rule for this particular case.

 

As such it is purely discretionary of the customer service agent to apply the on board credit or not. If I were the OP I would simply ask to speak with a supervisor who is capable of making this change.

 

If the OP's records do indeed indicate 30+ cruises then I would not believe that they would refuse kick in the $200.00 credit. This is no different then if I pay my credit card late once out of the last 30 payments and then call them up requesting the late fees and interest be removed. I have not had a customer service agent refuse that ever.

 

I have no idea why so many of you are siding with the cruise line here. It is a simple matter as well as an unfortunate accident. It is not like they are trying to pull one over on anybody. They are still substituting one cruise for another + are out their cost of insurance. Who cares what the rules are - cut them a break since they are loyal customers.

 

I fully agree,

 

That is why I suggested OP contact the Captains Club in writing per the link on the site as that goes higher up.

 

Once they see it's coming from a 30+ sailing customer I would think they would extend a $ 200.00 OBC on next sailing.

[bubbie617]

Thanks everyone for your input about my situation.

 

First of all, I'm happy to tell you that my husband is doing a little better, although we still cannot take our Quest cruise. :(

 

I'd like to clear a few things up and answer a few questios that people have posed.

 

First of all, this problem in no way is the fault of my travel agent. He has gone way more than the extra mile to try to help me with this. I just decided to become pro-active rather than re-active and jumped into the fray with Celebrity myself. I would not expect the TA to give me the $200 from his own pocket. Believe me, he is giving me plenty and there's not much $$ in it for him to begin with. To give me $200 would probably put him into a deficit situation. Sure, he's getting lots of business from me, but no one should have to work for nothing. Charlie is always an advocate for his clients. I have no doubt in my mind about that.

 

#2. (to address the concerns that I'm dealing with two different cruise lines) Celebrity and Azamara are not two distinct cruise lines like Celebrity and Royal Caribbean are. You can't book an RCCL cruise on the Celebrity website, but you CAN book an Azamara cruise there. Evidently, they're not all that separate. I have the Celebrity credit card and there was no problem using points from that for another OBC on Quest. I made very sure before I redeemed the points that they could really be used on Azamara. Also, as I stated in my original post, I booked this cruise when the ship was called Celebrity Quest.

 

#3. Although we could not use the same booking number, we transferred the balance from our 50% penalty to the new booking. If they can transfer the $2000+ balance, then they have the discretion to include the OBC with that if they want to. Before actually cancelling, we picked out a new cruise to replace this one so they would have something to transfer our credit to.

 

#4. Celebrity/Azamara kept 50% of what I paid for the cruise. I have no problem with that. I knew I was in penalty and their regulations about cancellation penalties are clear. So they got in excess of $2000 from me and have already resold the cabin - at a much higher price that we paid. We originally booked this cruise when the itineraries first came out, and the prices now are much higher.

 

#5. A note to FinelyCruising. I have the feeling that we are both dealing with the same Charlie. We always buy cruises from him. If that's true, you know that he has done EVERYTHING humanly possible for us. Charlie is a gem. If he says he's going to call, he actually calls. If you call him and leave a message, he's really going to call back within a very short period of time. He's true to his word about checking for price reductions. He's happy to apply all the credits and discounts that I can find, even though it further reduces his commission.

 

The upshot of this situation is that I finally spoke to a reasonable person at Captain's Club today who said that even though they are not obligated to honor the credit, they will do so in a gesture of good will. I don't know if Carrie didn't have the authority to make that kind of decision, but if that was the case, I wish she would have told me to call during the day. I guess it's all's well that ends well.

 

This situation is a lesson to me to always HAVE TRAVEL INSURANCE. I've learned that it's not only going to protect me if I have to cancel a cruise, but if we're already on a ship and have to be airlifted somewhere because of illness, the costs can be astronomical. I will always get insurance and I hope I never have to use it again.

 

Thanks again for your support.

[Ma Bell]

I'm really glad to hear your husband is feeling better. Hopefully you'll have many more wonderful times together.

[Mr. Mudd]

Thanks everyone for your input about my situation.

 

First of all, I'm happy to tell you that my husband is doing a little better, although we still cannot take our Quest cruise. :(

 

I'd like to clear a few things up and answer a few questios that people have posed.

 

First of all, this problem in no way is the fault of my travel agent. He has gone way more than the extra mile to try to help me with this. I just decided to become pro-active rather than re-active and jumped into the fray with Celebrity myself. I would not expect the TA to give me the $200 from his own pocket. Believe me, he is giving me plenty and there's not much $$ in it for him to begin with. To give me $200 would probably put him into a deficit situation. Sure, he's getting lots of business from me, but no one should have to work for nothing. Charlie is always an advocate for his clients. I have no doubt in my mind about that.

 

#2. (to address the concerns that I'm dealing with two different cruise lines) Celebrity and Azamara are not two distinct cruise lines like Celebrity and Royal Caribbean are. You can't book an RCCL cruise on the Celebrity website, but you CAN book an Azamara cruise there. Evidently, they're not all that separate. I have the Celebrity credit card and there was no problem using points from that for another OBC on Quest. I made very sure before I redeemed the points that they could really be used on Azamara. Also, as I stated in my original post, I booked this cruise when the ship was called Celebrity Quest.

 

#3. Although we could not use the same booking number, we transferred the balance from our 50% penalty to the new booking. If they can transfer the $2000+ balance, then they have the discretion to include the OBC with that if they want to. Before actually cancelling, we picked out a new cruise to replace this one so they would have something to transfer our credit to.

 

#4. Celebrity/Azamara kept 50% of what I paid for the cruise. I have no problem with that. I knew I was in penalty and their regulations about cancellation penalties are clear. So they got in excess of $2000 from me and have already resold the cabin - at a much higher price that we paid. We originally booked this cruise when the itineraries first came out, and the prices now are much higher.

 

#5. A note to FinelyCruising. I have the feeling that we are both dealing with the same Charlie. We always buy cruises from him. If that's true, you know that he has done EVERYTHING humanly possible for us. Charlie is a gem. If he says he's going to call, he actually calls. If you call him and leave a message, he's really going to call back within a very short period of time. He's true to his word about checking for price reductions. He's happy to apply all the credits and discounts that I can find, even though it further reduces his commission.

 

The upshot of this situation is that I finally spoke to a reasonable person at Captain's Club today who said that even though they are not obligated to honor the credit, they will do so in a gesture of good will. I don't know if Carrie didn't have the authority to make that kind of decision, but if that was the case, I wish she would have told me to call during the day. I guess it's all's well that ends well.

 

This situation is a lesson to me to always HAVE TRAVEL INSURANCE. I've learned that it's not only going to protect me if I have to cancel a cruise, but if we're already on a ship and have to be airlifted somewhere because of illness, the costs can be astronomical. I will always get insurance and I hope I never have to use it again.

 

Thanks again for your support.

 

Hi Susan: Glad your husband is doing better. What you described is just unbelievable that any cruise line would handle this matter in that way. I am so glad that you finally got it resolved. Fighting the hard fight seems with Celebrity often seems to be the only way to go. It is a shame that it has to be that way but as you said all's well that ends well. You were of course absolutely right about this was certainly not your TA's fault and totally unfair to ask your TA to make up for what Celebrity should have done, just as common courtesy if nothing else.

 

One tip I can offer to all about travel insurance is that on my last Celebrity cruise I purchased my insurance with an outside vendor and not through Celebrity. It was cheaper and for only about $10 more they offered a "cancel for any reason" policy, which would allow you to cancel the day before the cruise if something was wrong with your ship or even if your gold fish looked pale with no penalty.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience.

[FinelyCruising]

Susan we are definately on the same page.;)

 

I am glad to hear two things:

 

1) DH is doing much better.

2 Celebrity finally got the transfer of the OBC right.

 

Good for you!

[dutchess43]

One tip I can offer to all about travel insurance is that on my last Celebrity cruise I purchased my insurance with an outside vendor and not through Celebrity. It was cheaper and for only about $10 more they offered a "cancel for any reason" policy, which would allow you to cancel the day before the cruise if something was wrong with your ship or even if your gold fish looked pale with no penalty.

 

Could you please tell me what travel insurance company you booked with? I nedd to take out insurance soon on a cruise I booked through X.

thanks

[rjg41]

Look the problem here was the "rules" and it is that they were in penalty. If it was simply the booking numbers you cancel the TA and rebook under other number BUT you can't because the cruise was canceled and Celebrity cannot reuse a canceled/sailed booking number. A "rule" for good reason. Obviously Carrie at Celebrity did not have the authority to break the rules on this one. As was done here, you simply and nicely keep trying to find the person who might have that authority.

 

Also, if you get into situations like this and all else fails, suggest to your agent they talk to their account rep. from the cruise line. The reps. know where many of the "buttons" are and can often be a big help in matters like this.

[gillianrose]

Why do people here expect Celebrity and Azamara to do it? They are two seperate cruise lines. Different accounting books and all that entails being separate companies. They just happen to be two companies operating under the umbrella of the master company of RCI

 

I was issued future cruise credits from Celebrity due to some problems we had on board the Infinity this summer, and I was assured by the person in Customer Service who offered the credits to me that I will be able to use them towards an Azamara cruise. I trust that will be so.

[hugsthecat]

I would suggest you send an email to the CEO ,Danial Hanrahan. I have done it in the past and he did reply.

 

Michael