Shareholder services transfered booking to travel agent

[AbbyCruiser45]

This happened to my mom today. Back in January 2023, my mom booked an Ascent sailing for October 2024 with Celebrity directly via phone. She received the cruise documents as normal, printed them off, and put them in a folder. A week later, she emailed Shareholder Services (shareholderbenefit@rccl.com) to apply for the on-board credit benefit. 

 

Fast forward to today, the final payment is going to be due while she on board this June so she wanted to go ahead and get it paid. So she called Blue Chip today for another reason and, while she was on the phone, asked if she could pay for the October 2024 sailing. The agent said that he could not do that because it was booked through a travel agent and she needed to contact her agent. She did not book through an agent, so the Blue Chip club employee looked into it, and he gave her a phone number that was linked to her booking. My mom called the number and it was Expedia Cruises. They were very confused and looked into it. It turns out that the same day my mom applied for the Shareholder benefit, someone (from Shareholder? Celebrity?) transferred the cruise to Expedia. They said they had heard of this happening once before, and the family ended up nearly losing the cruise because they almost missed the final payment. This is because that family (and also with my mom) Expedia did not have an email from whoever transferred it. 

 

So my question is, what do we do? Who do we contact? Expedia cannot transfer the cruise to anyone now and my mom doesn't have control of the payment. This seems highly sketchy. She is thinking of starting with calling Captain's Club to see who to talk to, but we're completely astounded at this. Thank you in advance! 

Edited May 3 by AbbyCruiser45

[kasowell2]

Just my opinion but firstly I would pay the cruise final payment before doing anything else. That way you won’t actually lose the cruise. I don’t know if it’s worth doing anything else other than in the future watch out. My evil side says someone got a kickback for “accidentally “ transferring it but that’s just me being suspicious 

[omeinv]

@AbbyCruiser45

 

While this is certainly a strange occurrence, the resolution would be to have the travel agency release the booking back to Celebrity.  Starting with Captain's Club would be as good a route as any, but you will need the Resolutions Department to correct this.  Normally releasing a booking back to the cruise line is because a customer has a specific complaint with how the agency is servicing the booking. In your case, it would be the agency was given the booking in error. 

 

While I would be curious as to what happened, questions along those lines will not help in resolving your issue, so I would focus only on getting the booking released from Expedia back to Celebrity.  This generally takes an agreement by the travel agency to release it, or a total lack of response from the agency.  In this case, presumably Expedia would have no issue in authorizing release, but of course there are two large corporations involved, so it may take a bit of time. 

 

The good news is you do have some time for this to get corrected prior to final payment date.  I would NOT make any payment to Expedia, since that would then make it seem you're working through them after all.

 

Harris

Denver, CO

 

 

Edited May 3 by omeinv

[AbbyCruiser45]

6 minutes ago, kasowell2 said:

My evil side says someone got a kickback for “accidentally “ transferring it but that’s just me being suspicious 

This was my first thought too. 

[AbbyCruiser45]

3 minutes ago, omeinv said:

@AbbyCruiser45

 

The good news is you do have some time for this to get corrected prior to final payment date.  I would NOT make any payment to Expedia, since that would then make it seem you're working through them after all.

 

Harris

Denver, CO

 

 

Thank you so much for your detailed response. I'll pass on that info to her. We did not realize there was an avenue to release the booking back to Celebrity. 

[Jeremiah1212]

I'm not up to speed on the casino aspect at all, but I would call Celebrity directly and see who (or if) they have an agency on record to verify the Blue Chip rep isn't wrong. It wouldn't be totally unheard of for Blue Chip to use Expedia to service casino bookings either.

[omeinv]

34 minutes ago, kasowell2 said:

My evil side says someone got a kickback for “accidentally “ transferring it but that’s just me being suspicious 

 

Hanlon's razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

 

It's most likely that in processing a stack of Shareholder Benefit requests someone put something from one reservation onto a second.  For there to be monetary gain, and thus the potential for a kickback, the customer would have to remain unaware, and keep the booking with the travel agency.  Not likely. 

 

Harris

Denver, CO

Edited May 3 by omeinv

[omeinv]

3 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

I'm not up to speed on the casino aspect at all, but I would call Celebrity directly and see who (or if) they have an agency on record to verify the Blue Chip rep isn't wrong. It wouldn't be totally unheard of for Blue Chip to use Expedia to service casino bookings either.

This thought occurred to me not because I've heard of Blue Chip using an outside travel agency, but because internally Blue Chip Club bookings are coded as if Blue Chip is a travel agency.  New agents sometimes don't recognize that Blue Chip bookings are actually "Celebrity" bookings, and will try to tell you to "go through your travel agent", when it's actually a Celebrity booking, albeit handled by a different department. 

 

However, in this case the fact they provided a number for Expedia, AND Expedia can actually see the booking, I strongly suspect it was a case of fat fingers when the booking was being accessed for service - most likely for the addition of the Shareholder Benefit. 

 

Harris

Denver, CO

[Arizona Wildcat]

24 minutes ago, AbbyCruiser45 said:

Thank you so much for your detailed response. I'll pass on that info to her. We did not realize there was an avenue to release the booking back to Celebrity. 

Couple things, Expedia would have no way of knowing about your mother's cruise.  Have heard of Blue Chip using group cabins that could account  for the transfer.

Is it possible that your mother accidentally booked using Expedia?

There is really no downside in Expedia having her booking compared to booking direct.

I suspect this thread will be deleted because of mentioning a TA.

[Arizona Wildcat]

9 minutes ago, omeinv said:

Hanlon's razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity ."

 

It's most likely that in processing a stack of Shareholder Benefit requests someone put somethign from one reservation onto a second.  For there to be monetary gain, and thus the potential for a kickback, the customer would have to remain unaware, and keep the booking with the travel agency.  Not likely. 

 

Harris

Denver, CO

Agree - An illegal kickback?  Why?  How?  Why would a large TA risk losing all Celebrity business for a few dollars they could receive on one mostly comped booking.  Makes no sense.

Celebrity likely made a mistake in coding.  Something that happens often.

[AbbyCruiser45]

7 minutes ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

Is it possible that your mother accidentally booked using Expedia?

Nope, not possible. She cruises all the time, so booking cruises is like a part-time job for her! She booked this over the phone with Celebrity.

[newcruzer2]

Interesting that she applied for shareholder benefit a week after booking, I always fret and mark my calendar for 3 weeks before the cruise.

I had no idea I could simply do it, and check it off my list so far in advance 

Thank you

[Hearthosesteeldrumsplayin]

16 minutes ago, newcruzer2 said:

Interesting that she applied for shareholder benefit a week after booking, I always fret and mark my calendar for 3 weeks before the cruise.

I had no idea I could simply do it, and check it off my list so far in advance 

Thank you

Like you, I was planning to apply my shareholder benefit early, but the website says 3 weeks prior.  Didn't know I could do it before then, or I would have!

[omeinv]

1 hour ago, Hearthosesteeldrumsplayin said:

Like you, I was planning to apply my shareholder benefit early, but the website says 3 weeks prior.  Didn't know I could do it before then, or I would have!

Yes, you can.  I do it as soon as I book a cruise, so often over a year in advance. 

 

Harris

Denver, CO

 

[wrk2cruise]

I think they request that you do it at least 3 weeks prior to the sailing.  I've done it well over a year in advance.

[miched]

I don’t know all of the facts but it appears as if it was a complimentary cruise thru the casino.  If that is the case I don’t think there is a benefit.   Read all of the questions in the  link I provided.
 

Also as others have posted apply for it 4 to 6 weeks before the cruise. Also in the link 
 

Here is the link for FAQ.  In one of the questions it has the link for the form to apply.   You don’t need to do it thru a TA.  You do it yourself 

 

https://www.rclinvestor.com/contact-us/faqs/shareholder-benefit/

 

Hope this helps.

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

[jelayne]

7 hours ago, Hearthosesteeldrumsplayin said:

Like you, I was planning to apply my shareholder benefit early, but the website says 3 weeks prior.  Didn't know I could do it before then, or I would have!

I sent one request for all our bookings for the year.  This year I sent it at the beginning of January for a late January cruise, an April B2B and an October B2B.  Three days later the OBC was applied to each booking, easy peasy.

Edited May 4 by jelayne
Typo

[Arzeena]

I would check her original and earlier invoices emailed by Celebrity (# 1,2, 3...) to see who is listed as her TA or if a TA is listed. And then try to go from there.

[cruisegirlppp]

On 5/3/2024 at 7:12 PM, omeinv said:

Yes, you can.  I do it as soon as I book a cruise, so often over a year in advance. 

 

This is very helpful- I have been also been waiting (unnecessarily as it turns out)! I learn so much from other cruisers on these boards.