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

[luv2cruisemore]

In March 2020, when our Sydney cruise was cancelled due to Covid and I couldn’t get any satisfaction with customer service, I sent a tweet to Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, the CEO. I got a call from her team within two hours. Of course, it took months to finally sort it out. I also contacted my credit card which actually made it more complicated. 

I think the OP should get the full $2500 from Celebrity (not the other airline) as that was the amount she had to pay more than she contracted with Celebrity flights.  In addition, I would also fight for a Future Cruise Credit for all the trouble and worry they went through due to X’s incompetence.

[Loracpin2]

On 7/16/2022 at 6:17 PM, Covepointcruiser said:

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?

You must be a real joy to be around with people who like 'Sarcasm"!!!

[Guest ldtr]

On 7/16/2022 at 12:31 PM, Jim_Iain said:

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. 

I disagree with filing a dispute until all other approaches fail.

 

There is a problem with the dispute issue.  What exactly are they disputing?  It is not the $2,500 for the money spent on the replacement tickets since that was money spent to the airline and the services rendered.  They cannot just apply the 2500 against the total original cruise cost, since the cruise was taken.  So all they could go for is the amount that was charged for the original flights that were not delivered.  

 

Then you run into the issue that with the original terms, depending upon where the mistake was made, it sounds like they may be getting a voucher for the value of those original flights, which may be considerably less than the original amount.

 

As such I would continue to try and work with Celebrity to try and get refunded for the $2500 out of pocket.  One quest that I did not see the OP answer was if they tried to contact the Celebrity emergency number for such issues or if they just went directly to purchasing replacement tickets.  I can see that if they did not try to contact Celebrity emergency line the cruise line might balk at refunding the new tickets and would consider their liability to be limited to the value of the original tickets.  If they did go through the emergency number and that person told them to buy replacement tickets then they would have a very strong case for reimbursement of the full out of pocket amount.

[Jonnoh]

Hi everyone, thank you so much for even spending a minute giving us your attention and helping us get some resolution.

 

It’s Sunday evening for us here and we’re drafting up our factual email to the leadership team so we can send tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed we get some traction and get this resolved sooner rather than later. 

 

I agree with everyone that it’s a weird, complicated (at least when you try to explain it to a bank), and in some ways unethical to be disputing the airline charge so it’s best that we sort this out it with Celebrity directly. While this may be the case, we did raise to the bank that this situation was happening so there was some sort of record of a duplicate payment for services rendered. It may be for nothing, but at a minimum; it’s another third party to have a record that this has happened. Worst case scenario, it may have to be handled through small claims court which I really hope we don’t need to go through.

 

Now to some of the questions:

- we booked through a travel agent but billed directly by celebrity. While I have done my best to offload the issue back on them to handle on our behalves, it’s not a productive path.. I had to make a trade off and at a minimum, I have access to voice recordings between celebrity and the travel agent about the issue and resolution.

 

- we didn’t call the emergency number from Celebrity. It wasn’t something I knew of as this was my first time booking a cruise package with Celebrity and I was trying to keep my entire party calm while making the most logical decision with the information I had in the airport at 4am. I’ll keep that in mind if I ever choose to cruise again after this one. I did the best I could…

 

- I stand corrected, my baby was not a newborn, but 6 months at the time going on her first vacation. In my mind, still a newborn (they grow up fast).

 

Thanks again for all your replies and will share an update whenever we hear back.

[Coarsegold_Mom]

24 minutes ago, Jonnoh said:

Hi everyone, thank you so much for even spending a minute giving us your attention and helping us get some resolution.

 

It’s Sunday evening for us here and we’re drafting up our factual email to the leadership team so we can send tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed we get some traction and get this resolved sooner rather than later. 

 

I agree with everyone that it’s a weird, complicated (at least when you try to explain it to a bank), and in some ways unethical to be disputing the airline charge so it’s best that we sort this out it with Celebrity directly. While this may be the case, we did raise to the bank that this situation was happening so there was some sort of record of a duplicate payment for services rendered. It may be for nothing, but at a minimum; it’s another third party to have a record that this has happened. Worst case scenario, it may have to be handled through small claims court which I really hope we don’t need to go through.

 

Now to some of the questions:

- we booked through a travel agent but billed directly by celebrity. While I have done my best to offload the issue back on them to handle on our behalves, it’s not a productive path.. I had to make a trade off and at a minimum, I have access to voice recordings between celebrity and the travel agent about the issue and resolution.

 

- we didn’t call the emergency number from Celebrity. It wasn’t something I knew of as this was my first time booking a cruise package with Celebrity and I was trying to keep my entire party calm while making the most logical decision with the information I had in the airport at 4am. I’ll keep that in mind if I ever choose to cruise again after this one. I did the best I could…

 

- I stand corrected, my baby was not a newborn, but 6 months at the time going on her first vacation. In my mind, still a newborn (they grow up fast).

 

Thanks again for all your replies and will share an update whenever we hear back.

I suggest you also sent a certified letter with a signature receipt to an executive and the support team you are dealing with. I have found these days that certified letters with signature seem to get more attention than emails. Also let the support team know you have cc’d the executive.

Edited July 18, 2022 by Coarsegold_Mom

[Guest ldtr]

1 hour ago, Jonnoh said:

Hi everyone, thank you so much for even spending a minute giving us your attention and helping us get some resolution.

 

It’s Sunday evening for us here and we’re drafting up our factual email to the leadership team so we can send tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed we get some traction and get this resolved sooner rather than later. 

 

I agree with everyone that it’s a weird, complicated (at least when you try to explain it to a bank), and in some ways unethical to be disputing the airline charge so it’s best that we sort this out it with Celebrity directly. While this may be the case, we did raise to the bank that this situation was happening so there was some sort of record of a duplicate payment for services rendered. It may be for nothing, but at a minimum; it’s another third party to have a record that this has happened. Worst case scenario, it may have to be handled through small claims court which I really hope we don’t need to go through.

 

Now to some of the questions:

- we booked through a travel agent but billed directly by celebrity. While I have done my best to offload the issue back on them to handle on our behalves, it’s not a productive path.. I had to make a trade off and at a minimum, I have access to voice recordings between celebrity and the travel agent about the issue and resolution.

 

- we didn’t call the emergency number from Celebrity. It wasn’t something I knew of as this was my first time booking a cruise package with Celebrity and I was trying to keep my entire party calm while making the most logical decision with the information I had in the airport at 4am. I’ll keep that in mind if I ever choose to cruise again after this one. I did the best I could…

 

- I stand corrected, my baby was not a newborn, but 6 months at the time going on her first vacation. In my mind, still a newborn (they grow up fast).

 

Thanks again for all your replies and will share an update whenever we hear back.

Unfortunately not calling the emergency number, did not give them a chance to rectify the problem and gives them an out so to speak.

 

I would document in detail the specifics of the event indicating what you had previously received from Celebrity indicating that the flight had been successfully booked.  I would then include when you arrived at the airport (time prior to flight departure)  and exactly what you were told when you went to check in. and the exact actions you took including the time remaining before flight departure.

 

I would check the information you were provided prior to the flight and see if it does include information of what to do if there is a problem with your flight.  If it does and you missed it, I would be honest and admit that you were not aware that there was a process and that due to the importance of making the cruise, you took what you though at the time was the only possible action which was to pay out of pocket for tickets.

 

I would point out that you did report it to customer service on the ship and what you were told by them.

 

I would also point out that while you may not have contacted the emergency number, you were placed in a very stressful, high pressure situation by the failure of Celebrity to properly book the flights.

 

As such you are requesting a refund of the out of pocket money paid for the new tickets.

 

If they are not willing to do that they should at a minimum refund the amount paid for the initial tickets, since those tickets were not booked as indicated.  That refund should either come from Celebrity or the Airline, since you were informed by the airline personnel that those tickets had not been booked so it is not a matter of you voluntarily not flying under the original ticket number.

 

 

One other question is when you booked the flights did you make new roundtrip tickets, or did you book one way and return home on the original Celebrity tickets?  Much cleaner if you purchased new round trip tickets and never used the Celebrity booked tickets at all.  Gets a bit messy if you used their tickets for the return and the new tickets for the flight to the ship.

 

 

Stick to the facts, be willing to say exactly what you did any why, be polite, and ask exactly what you would like to resolve the issue

 

Not sure what the difference was between the initial charges and the final payment, 

[LMaxwell]

You must have an invoice for paying Celebrity for the flights. Celebrity presumably booked then cancelled flights in your name without making appropriate backup arrangements.  

 

The fair resolution would be Celebrity to refund the amount you had paid them for flights, and if that is not sufficient to meet the $2500 the replacement flights cost, any additional cash monies to make you whole. 

 

Keep it short and simple; you are out to be made whole on the $2500 additional expense you incurred. 

[Baron Barracuda]

While Celebrity are the ones that messed up I believe you have a major gripe with your ta.  He/she was responsible for ensuring everything was booked properly and should have reviewed your final cruise documents prior to sending them to you.  Also, from my experience, whenever you book through a ta or transfer a direct booking to one all communication with the cruise line has to pass through them.   The cruise lines will not deal with you directly.  When you learned of your airline trouble your first phone call should have been to the ta and it was their job to resolve the issue with X.

[Arizona Wildcat]

Not calling the emergency number for Celebrity Air certainly complicates things.  Understand it was your first use of Celebrity Air, but that should have been your first action.  Understand your panic at boarding.  Good thoughts on getting resolution.  

[Jeremiah1212]

9 minutes ago, Baron Barracuda said:

While Celebrity are the ones that messed up I believe you have a major gripe with your ta.  He/she was responsible for ensuring everything was booked properly and should have reviewed your final cruise documents prior to sending them to you.  Also, from my experience, whenever you book through a ta or transfer a direct booking to one all communication with the cruise line has to pass through them.   The cruise lines will not deal with you directly.  When you learned of your airline trouble your first phone call should have been to the ta and it was their job to resolve the issue with X.

 

Ehh good luck with that approach. TA's don't service Flights by Celebrity issues. There are no 'final cruise documents' when it comes to airfare and nothing that would alert a TA that a FBC ticket is not ticketed. It can take months and months for ticketing to take place. That steps (paying for the ticket) falls squarely on FBC. Most people would have no idea that unless their status says ticketed/confirmed/etc that it means they truly don't have an actual ticket. 

 

It makes no difference who they called first. FBC messed up and needs to fix it. In my experience they would rather argue and place blame rather than accept responsibility or fix issues. That's why they need circumvented in this case. I don't know which Exec level FBC rolls up to, but whoever it is, really needs to get a grip on how atrocious their service is. 

[wrk2cruise]

8 minutes ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

Not calling the emergency number for Celebrity Air certainly complicates things.  Understand it was your first use of Celebrity Air, but that should have been your first action.  Understand your panic at boarding.  Good thoughts on getting resolution.  

 

I would agree that this would probably be an easy out for Celebrity IF they had ticketed the flights.   IF the flights had been ticketed the assumption is that FBC or the airline would have been notified with any issues regarding the flight and would have made alternate arrangements.   Since they didn't ticket the flights I put this squarely on FBC.

Edited July 18, 2022 by wrk2cruise

[jagoffee]

Good luck.  Did you fly on using the FBC ticket or the new ones that you purchased?

[Gatordad1967]

What did your TA say?

 

[sanger727]

I think you could successfully dispute the amount you paid to Celebrity for the initial tickets. That was a service charged that was never rendered. The question is how different is that than the $2,500 you ultimately paid? My guess is if you initiate a credit card dispute with Celebrity that would put a stop to any refund they may worked out with you. 

 

You definitely can't/shouldn't dispute the airline charges. That was a service paid and rendered. They owe you nothing back.

[Jonnoh]

Hey everyone! 

 

Firstly, I want to reiterate how blown away we are by the response and attention this community has shown to our situation. I want to go out and say while we appreciate all the responses, a special / huge shout out / thank you to wrk2cruise! 

 

We emailed the CEO and director of customer engagement (Jennifer is on mat leave btw) this morning and got a call back within 2 hours from a member from their ‘Engagement Center Senior Leadership.’

 

They were super helpful and finally started to be proactive about jumping in to help. It took about a day, but I’m pleased to share that Celebrity will be refunding us the entire amount that was owed for the flights we paid out of pocket. They’ve also been great about giving us updates throughout the day so I think we’re really glad to put this chapter behind us. Just need to see the amount credited back to our account.

 

In terms of extra compensation for the inconvenience, they provided me with $150 FCC which isn’t the greatest but not worth trying to push / prolong this any longer. We’re ready to put this behind us and honestly, i can’t understate this enough - it’s all thanks to this forum or else I would probably be still talking on the phone with Celebrity contact center.

 

In terms of the recent questions regarding my TA, I’ll be thinking twice on whether I will use them again. I certainly believe that they should have been the ones dealing with this on our behalves since they were the ones coordinating our travel and definitely shouldn’t be let off the hook. Also, since the airfare wasn’t paid for by Celebrity, we basically ‘paid’ for the entire reservation which included the return flight home.

 

In closing, just want to put out some Lessons Learned for those who may be experiencing similar issues like we have:

 

1. First point of contact in the event of travel emergency should be to contact the Celebrity emergency travel team

2. For those who want to be cautious, best to call the airline in the event you can’t check-in to make sure you have a valid airfare. This might buy you some time to make sure the celebrity emergency travel team can get you on your way

3. If you do encounter issues on your travel, make sure to raise with guest services when you get on ship. They might be able to help you out / get it resolved before you leave the boat. Also, ask for FCC if you believe it’s warranted. Their first offer is usually low, so I would recommend asking if that is their best offer. FYI - first offers were a specialty dining meal. Also, they are likely to give you FCC before getting high speed internet.

4. Try your best with dealing with the contact center, but if you aren’t making good headway; I would recommend emailing engagementcenterseniorleadership@celebrity.com. I believe they’ll make up for the shortcomings of the phone team.

 

Thanks again for everyone’s support and looks like this forum helped us put closure on this nightmare.

 

THANK YOU.