Check your FCC

[81Zoomie]

Our travel agent moved to a new agency and we elected to follow with our booking.  “No changes to pricing or perks.”  When we received our new invoice it was over $600 more.  After pulling all the invoices, payments, and FCCs from this rollover on a canceled cruise the reason became apparent.  Celebrity reduced the amount of our FCCs by $324 per person.  No explanation.  I sent the documentation back to the TA. Response: Celebrity “audited your FCC”.  Additionally, Celebrity claims they sent us 2 separate $100 refunds in error, in May 2020.  One of the credit cards is a number that doesn’t belong to us.  At present, we are being told we now have to pay an extra $200 towards the final payment.  There was no explanation how the $648 over billing was reduced to $200.

 

Has Celebrity audited/reduced anyone else’s FCCs?  We know the TAs are hurting, which is why we followed the one who earned our original business.  Ordinarily I would lean on the in writing statement “no changes to billing amount or perks”, but I realize the TA is in a difficult spot too.  Does anyone have any suggestions?

Edited March 5, 2021 by 81Zoomie

[CynthiaP]

I just read a post on the Azamara board about someone's FCC having been "audited" and reduced by 30%. 

 

I had trouble with a refund from Azamara, and created a spreadsheet showing what we paid on what date, what we received in refunds on what date, and sent it to our TA. She talked to Azamara and pushed it up the food chain to someone higher up than the normal rep they talk with. It took almost a year to get the full refund.

 

Don't accept the TAs explanation without documentation from the TA or Celebrity. Ask the TA to get Celebrity to give you physical documentation of the credits/refunds they supposedly made. If the TA isn't giving you a satisfactory response, ask to speak with the TAs supervisor or the manager of the new agency.

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

My DW and I actually got $231 in new FCCs out of the blue this evening from a booking X cancelled last April after final payment which we subsequently got FCCs for about 3-4 months later. Thanks to this thread, we now think we know why. As others have suggested X seems to be doing an audit on all of their issued FCCs.

[TMaine]

Maybe this is the reason I received an unexpected credit on my credit card back in October.   I asked my TA about it and she had no idea but I don't think she dug very deep into it. 

[81Zoomie]

I wasn’t sure where the $100 credit card refund came from.  It was in May. 2020, early in the refund processing, and at the time we were being told that our refunds would be coming in varying amounts.  Tracking the refunds for taxes, FCCs, rollovers, and OBCs has become a bit of a tedious process.  Just not too excited with Celebrity telling us we now owe them more money. 

[ChucktownSteve]

We received two $333 FCCs last week for no reason.  After my TA did a deep dive into the fully paid L&S which transferred at a protected rate she was able to determine that the FCC was issued on that cruise but XX reduced our paid amount by $333pp.  So we now owe $666 (the sign of the devil) on the fully (sic) paid cruise.  Good thing we didn't spend it on another XX cruise since it was a phantom credit.  We told her to apply it back to whence it came.  Glad we didn't have to deal with this at final payment time thinking we were paid up.

 

Did XX lay off the smart employees?

[cachouonacruise]

Hi OP, thank-you for sharing your experience. So far, I have not had any issue with our FCC, but, we just cancelled a cruise in 2021 and rebooked another for 2022. So, I will be keeping a close tab on our FCCs. Tks again.

[81Zoomie]

16 hours ago, cachouonacruise said:

Hi OP, thank-you for sharing your experience. So far, I have not had any issue with our FCC, but, we just cancelled a cruise in 2021 and rebooked another for 2022. So, I will be keeping a close tab on our FCCs. Tks again.

I had another discussion with my TA when I realized one of the “credits” went to a card that doesn’t belong to me.  She told me that Celebrity and RCI are auditing FCCs and refunds and making changes to final payments based on their findings without notifying the affected passengers or TAs.  In our case, if we made final payment based on our original invoice, it would be $200 short of the new amount In Celebrity’s system.  We would then receive notice we have 24 hours to pay up or our cruise reservation would be canceled.  If you are using a FCC  from a canceled cruise and you have received a small credit card refund from Celebrity, track your  amount due, final payment, and paid in full status very carefully.  I hope the time is near when we actually get to sail on the cruise we paid for. 

[Kirsten T]

This thread makes me feel better. We just got a second credit posted to our card for an unknown reason (they already refunded taxes, port fees, pre-purchases etc. 2 months ago), and after applying our FCC and "booked onboard perks" to a new 2022 cruise, I simply cannot figure out how they arrived at a new balance due, and neither can our TA. She's about to call X for the 3rd time next week to continue sorting it out. (The main issue is our total FCC for DH and me was 5160 and only about 3 grand of it shows up on the statement.) At least we're not alone...

[SHIP TRAVELER]

Maybe a stupid question but how do you check to see what X is showing for your total FFC balance.  We have been keeping track but would like to check the FFC balance we have for multiple cruises just to make sure after reading this post.  We signed on to Celebrity and find redeemFFCs but do not find a place showing total FFCs availabe to us.

Thanks for helping.  Cancelled cruises were booked with multiple agents and with X so no one Ta can help us.

[Arizona Wildcat]

On 3/5/2021 at 3:50 PM, 81Zoomie said:

Our travel agent moved to a new agency and we elected to follow with our booking.  “No changes to pricing or perks.”  When we received our new invoice it was over $600 more.  After pulling all the invoices, payments, and FCCs from this rollover on a canceled cruise the reason became apparent.  Celebrity reduced the amount of our FCCs by $324 per person.  No explanation.  I sent the documentation back to the TA. Response: Celebrity “audited your FCC”.  Additionally, Celebrity claims they sent us 2 separate $100 refunds in error, in May 2020.  One of the credit cards is a number that doesn’t belong to us.  At present, we are being told we now have to pay an extra $200 towards the final payment.  There was no explanation how the $648 over billing was reduced to $200.

 

Has Celebrity audited/reduced anyone else’s FCCs?  We know the TAs are hurting, which is why we followed the one who earned our original business.  Ordinarily I would lean on the in writing statement “no changes to billing amount or perks”, but I realize the TA is in a difficult spot too.  Does anyone have any suggestions?

Remember FCCs do not include and taxes/fees/port charges or any extra on board or shore activities.  Those items are refunded separately.

On one of our cancelled cruises we got 4 separate refunds for each of my wife and self.  Then an FCC for the cruise fare.

On our rebooked cruise under L&S all the refunded taxes and port charges were refilled.

It was very confusing.

[Arizona Wildcat]

1 hour ago, SHIP TRAVELER said:

Maybe a stupid question but how do you check to see what X is showing for your total FFC balance.  We have been keeping track but would like to check the FFC balance we have for multiple cruises just to make sure after reading this post.  We signed on to Celebrity and find redeemFFCs but do not find a place showing total FFCs availabe to us.

Thanks for helping.  Cancelled cruises were booked with multiple agents and with X so no one Ta can help us.

The only fast way is to review each of your cruise confirmations.  The base fare would be your FCC at either 100 or 125%.  Otherwise you will need to call each cruise agency for the details.  A unique problem.

Celebrity might be able to assist IF you have all your booking numbers.

Good luck.

[wrk2cruise]

You should have received an email for each FCC issued.  Now if they are changing the value due to an audit in my opinion they are obligated to send you and updated FCC document.  If it had been applied to a cruise already at, least after final payment,in my opinion they should eat THEIR error.

 

I wonder if the OP verified the value of the FCC when it arrived matching it to the cruise fare paid for the suspended cruise?

 

 

 

[jelayne]

Fortunately we only have 3 FCCs and 2 were for refunds of NRDs so those should be ok.  The 3rd was a 100% refund of a fully paid cruise and the FCC matched our cruise fare exactly.   

[TMaine]

18 hours ago, SHIP TRAVELER said:

Maybe a stupid question but how do you check to see what X is showing for your total FFC balance.  We have been keeping track but would like to check the FFC balance we have for multiple cruises just to make sure after reading this post.  We signed on to Celebrity and find redeemFFCs but do not find a place showing total FFCs availabe to us.

Thanks for helping.  Cancelled cruises were booked with multiple agents and with X so no one Ta can help us.

Good question.  I have been trying to find that as well.  The Celebrity website is horrible.  We received an email from Celebrity indicating our FCC last summer but no updates if they had in fact refunded some of that credit.  I have asked our TA to look into it.  

[TMaine]

I am glad you brought this up.   My TA got back to me on what X has in their system for FCC and it is about $1,200 less than the certificate I got from them in an email.  The $202.60 mystery credit I received back in October also doesn't seem to add up...

[wrk2cruise]

Does the FCC you received in the email match the Cruise Fare (or 125%) of the suspended cruise?  If so then I think Celebrity owes you an explanation.  They should have a trail of where it was applied, or refunded.

 

I'm glad I avoided FCC as my one prior experience (before covid) showed their process was very error prone.

[ChucktownSteve]

40 minutes ago, wrk2cruise said:

Does the FCC you received in the email match the Cruise Fare (or 125%) of the suspended cruise?  If so then I think Celebrity owes you an explanation.  They should have a trail of where it was applied, or refunded.

 

I'm glad I avoided FCC as my one prior experience (before covid) showed their process was very error prone.

 

Do you suspect the errors are accidental or intentional?

[wrk2cruise]

Accidental due to poor process.  I'm just suggesting that people need to check the complete paper trail from the initial invoice, verify the initial FCC was correct, and track any use.  It can get complicated if you have multiple.

[TMaine]

3 hours ago, wrk2cruise said:

Does the FCC you received in the email match the Cruise Fare (or 125%) of the suspended cruise?  If so then I think Celebrity owes you an explanation.  They should have a trail of where it was applied, or refunded.

 

I'm glad I avoided FCC as my one prior experience (before covid) showed their process was very error prone.

The FCC in the certificate sent was 125% of the fare.  We received the taxes back right before the certificate was issued in May and then the mystery refund of $202 in October. 

[TMaine]

I just looked at the confirmation from the canceled cruise and the FCC certificates X sent in May is exactly 125% of the cruise fare before taxes or insurance or anything else.   

[wrk2cruise]

Then Celebrity has some explaining to do.

[81Zoomie]

According to TA, our FCCs went from $2199 pp to 1850 pp.  When I presented a screen shot of the Cruise with Confidence email and Certificate numbers and amounts, the conversation changed and the amounts were raised closer to the original amount.  That is when the conversation about erroneous credit card refunds started.  Now we are within $200.  I have yet to see a “new” invoice.  I have yet to see the supposed invoice for the credit card that does not belong to me.  I’m not certain what Celebrity is doing, but it is not transparent.  I don’t understand how they can adjust a Cruise with Confidence FCC downward.  And no, we did not get a 25% bonus.

 

We have another FCC we tried to apply to apply to a 2nd cruise.  When I tried to apply it I was told it had already been used.  Different TA who assures me that is now fixed.  We shall see.

 

 

[TMaine]

Does anyone happen to have the Captain's Club phone number handy?  I tried the email contact option without any response (not surprised).  Thank you! 

[ChucktownSteve]

7 minutes ago, TMaine said:

Does anyone happen to have the Captain's Club phone number handy?  I tried the email contact option without any response (not surprised).  Thank you! 

 

I have it as 316-554-5961

 

I found this on XXs web site. " call the Captain’s Club at 1-844-418-6824."

Edited March 10, 2021 by ChucktownSteve