Group rate and cabin selection

[hevnsprncs]

Good Afternoon I'm booking a future cruise and my TA has said she has 5 cabins in a "group" but when I check X's website for that itinerary I'm not seeing cabins of that category showing available. I asked how that gets assigned or how do we know which cabin we'll be in and was told they don't know. Which seems strange to me, we've used this TA for years and never experienced this before, although I have to assume we've had group rate reservations before just in lower pricing than advertised by X. Has anyone had a similar experience that could say how it went? Is the reservation considered a guaranteed room in that category and it's assigned later or will it be immediately assigned out of the group? It seems unusual they are unable to see which cabins are assigned to the group and worry it may mean it's overbooked. Would appreciate any feedback.

[omeinv]

What happens is a TA gets those cabins to sell, so they won't show as available in the Celebrity website.  The Travel agent then sells the cabins at whatever price they desire; presumably lower than Celebrity's advertise rate, but more than what the TA paid.  Over the course of time, TAs often "give back" unsold rooms to Celebrity, so they can show back up in inventory. 

 

If a TA offers a certain price, that is lower than the advertised price, the only downside is you'd only be able to select a room that is in the block of rooms the TA has. 

 

What your TA is telling you almost sounds like they somehow have a "block" of GTY rooms.  I've never heard of this where they have them as GTY from Celebrity.  It's possible they will wait and sell all the rooms in their block, then assign their customers to particular rooms based on the TA's criteria (past customer, price paid, etc.).

 

Harris

Denver, CO

[Texed]

 I would be asking the TA those questions.  😊

[Ex-Airbalancer]

2 minutes ago, Texed said:

 I would be asking the TA those questions.  😊

But do that wouldn’t be any fun 😁

[hevnsprncs]

3 minutes ago, Texed said:

 I would be asking the TA those questions.  😊

Unfortunately I did ask the questions and was told "I have no clue." Which is even more unusual... It's a sunset veranda room on an E class ship, I have never seen a situation where those are sold in a "GTY" cabin, typically I've seen that in the IVs, Aquas, Concierge and Suite, but not typically the SV... 

[jelayne]

We have booked in group rates with TAs but always had a choice of any available cabin in that category.  It was explained to me that they had committed to a specific number of cabins in a particular category and could assign any that were available.

 

It sounds like possibly the TA has committed to a number of guarantee cabins so those won’t be assigned until later.

[omeinv]

30 minutes ago, hevnsprncs said:

Unfortunately I did ask the questions and was told "I have no clue." Which is even more unusual... It's a sunset veranda room on an E class ship, I have never seen a situation where those are sold in a "GTY" cabin, typically I've seen that in the IVs, Aquas, Concierge and Suite, but not typically the SV... 

Ah, That I have seen.  And there's a HUGE caveat. 

 

Celebrity does offer Sunset Veranda GTY rooms.  The issue I've seen here on Cruise Critic is that on paper, a Prime Infinite Veranda, as well as Concierge and Aqua Class are all considered to be categories that are "higher" than a Sunset Veranda.  Anytime you book a GTY room you're promised that category OR HIGHER.  So, you could easily book the Sunset Veranda GTY, and end up in an infinite veranda room, which is presumably not what you're wanting. 

 

Harris

Denver, CO

[hevnsprncs]

2 minutes ago, omeinv said:

Ah, That I have seen.  And there's a HUGE caveat. 

 

Celebrity does offer Sunset Veranda GTY rooms.  The issue I've seen here on Cruise Critic is that on paper, a Prime Infinite Veranda, as well as Concierge and Aqua Class are all considered to be categories that are "higher" than a Sunset Veranda.  Anytime you book a GTY room you're promised that category OR HIGHER.  So, you could easily book the Sunset Veranda GTY, and end up in an infinite veranda room, which is presumably not what you're wanting. 

 

Harris

Denver, CO

 

Correct, I definitely do not want to end up in one of the IVs

[omeinv]

@hevnsprncs In that case I would definitely NOT book an SV GTY.  I can't remember the thread, but I remember people on here on Cruise Critic that had the exact experience of being "upgraded" to a Prime Infinite Veranda.  They were not happy, but they got exactly what they were promised when they booked. 

 

It's an unusual case, as almost any other time everyone would agree that a higher category would be an upgrade (e.g. Inside to Ocean View, or Infinite Veranda to Concierge Infinite Veranda).   But I totally get that Sunset Verandas are distinct, and I wouldn't give up mine on upcoming cruises for Concierge or Aqua, let alone an Infinite Veranda; and I'm not even one who strongly dislikes the Infinite Verandas. 

 

Harris

Denver, CO

[Jeremiah1212]

It's not a GTY SV. There is a lot of misunderstanding about Celebrity groups. The TA also sounds confused. The TA can see which cabins are open. I'm not sure why they would have told you that. 

 

Example: If there are 20 SV cabins, 15 are sold to customers who sold through booked through Celebrity. If the TA held 5 SV cabins in a group, there would be no more available inventory. There are 5 cabins open but technically they are allocated since 15 customers booked and the TA is holding the other 5. You could choose any of the 5 that the TA holds. That's somewhat of an over-simplified explanation. For this type of group the TA is not holding specific cabin numbers. They are just holding a predetermined number of cabins within a category. 

Edited January 31, 2023 by Jeremiah1212

[hevnsprncs]

18 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

It's not a GTY SV. There is a lot of misunderstanding about Celebrity groups. The TA also sounds confused. The TA can see which cabins are open. I'm not sure why they would have told you that. 

 

Example: If there are 20 SV cabins, 15 are sold to customers who sold through booked through Celebrity. If the TA held 5 SV cabins in a group, there would be no more available inventory. There are 5 cabins open but technically they are allocated since 15 customers booked and the TA is holding the other 5. You could choose any of the 5 that the TA holds. That's somewhat of an over-simplified explanation. For this type of group the TA is not holding specific cabin numbers. They are just holding a predetermined number of cabins within a category. 

Thanks for the explanation... I don't know if she's confused or not, but says she can't see them just that it states there are 5 available and she can't tell which ones or which deck they would be on. 

[Jeremiah1212]

6 minutes ago, hevnsprncs said:

Thanks for the explanation... I don't know if she's confused or not, but says she can't see them just that it states there are 5 available and she can't tell which ones or which deck they would be on. 

 

She's confused. That's just not how it works. Press her on providing the specific numbers available and see if she can find out. Or she's extra confused and doesn't even have SV's in a group (which would be more likely). I don't know how she plans on making a reservation with no cabin selection. 

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

I just booked a cruise through a TA with a group.  He immediately advised me of my specific cabin.  I wouldn't want to book with a TA that can't do that.  I'm very fussy about cabin location.

 

[omeinv]

As everyone above said, I've not heard  of a TA with a group of cabins not being able to see the cabins in their group.  I would definitely say if they can't tell you a cabin number, and you want a Sunset veranda, don't book it. 

 

Harris

Denver, CO

[bikerunner]

I always try to find a group rate and always was able to choose my cabin with them.  Like many would not take a gty cabin because of this.  The Move Up is also pot luck on rooms.  I might try it on my Nov cruise since Im in a standard concierge on the Silhouette.  If price is right would take an Aqua

 

[hevnsprncs]

Thanks everyone for your posts. It is in fact a GTY SV, so I think it's the scenario where we'd end up in an open IV, whether that be prime, concierge or aqua, so for now my TA and I both agree I'm going to wait on booking and watch to see if a cabin we actually want to select becomes available. This is what I did for our recent Edge sailing in January and it worked out, if not we'll select a different ship and itinerary. Happy Cruising, all!!

[cle-guy]

19 hours ago, omeinv said:

What your TA is telling you almost sounds like they somehow have a "block" of GTY rooms.  I've never heard of this where they have them as GTY from Celebrity. 

Actually it's the most common practice.  TA's basically select an allowed number of cabins in categories (1a 1b etc, not generally "Veranda GTY" though at times, some agencies do get access to GTY's) and they hold them then assign an actual cabin number when they "berth" the staterooms.  There are a number of rules and requirements and algorithms as to the number of staterooms in any particular category an agent can hold.
 

So the agent would determine stateroom number for this client at time of berthing (not necessarily "booking") the client, which would be done according to the business rules of the particular agency.  Some berth immediately, others may wait until their group firms up to try and assign cabins together once all expected reservations are in hand.

Works like Airlines and seat assignments,  A seat map isn't an accurate indicator of availability any more than deck plans are.  In the above scenario even though the deckplans may show 40 open cabins, once they sell 30 of them the other 10 won't show as available anymore even thought stay don't yet have a name or reservation number assigned to them if a group has held space of 10 unberthed staterooms, until the group releases them.

TA's CAN elect to select specific cabins at the time they arrange a group, but they have to pay the deposits at (or very near) the time of selecting cabin numbers rather than wait on cabin assignments and deposits at actual time of berthing the staterooms.  This may be done for a corporate group that pays all the bills eat once or families that require sidebar side rooms or connectors as examples.  Often paying this top front leads to a better group fare than an undeposited group fare.

Close to sailing, unsold group cabins are released  most prior to final pay, but many hold right to sailing, depending not eh groups contract specifics.  Sometimes Celebrity Corporate may force the release of unsold group reserved staterooms sooner if they aren't meeting sales goals and the general sailing is filling up.

One thing to note, group fares aren't always cheaper than prevailing fares.  But they are at least a fixed fare, that doesn't move over time which can be useful.