upgrades after final payment

[camidr]

Hi all! The price for a promenade view interior room is now less than we paid for an interior room. I called to get an upgrade as I've always done with other cruise lines in the past. I was not looking to get a credit of course, just the better room. They say they will give me the better room but will take away my onboard credit booking incentives in the process. This has never been an issue before with other cruise lines. Is this an rccl policy to remove onboard credits when giving an upgrade or was I given incorrect information by the team member? We are already past the final payment date by the way. Thank you so much!

[Galveston Steve]

They may be looking at is as a "re-book", in which case you would receive the incentives being offered at the time of re-booking. If the on board credit is no longer being offered then you would lose it.

[camidr]

That's what I thought Steve, and told them I'm fine losing my incentives to get the better room if they give me the currently offered incentives in its place, but they said no. Their words were that losing my credit is my penalty for upgrading to a better room. So he said take my choice, better room or my onboard credit. :-(

[jticarruthers]

Seems odd but RCI is nothing but inconsistent when it comes to pretty much everything.

 

I would try calling back and speaking to a different rep you will almost certainly get a different answer.

 

I know they don't do OBC only upgrades if the price of the category above falls below your price paid and could see them saying you forfeit your perks since you are essentially rebooking but then in that case I would expect to get whatever the perk of today is added back on.

[monctonguy]

I would defn call back and speak to someone else. I have had to do that before to get a deal and it worked out in the end.....kinda disappointing that it comes down to that, but worth it if you get what you want in the end!!

[Matt]

I would defn call back and speak to someone else. I have had to do that before to get a deal and it worked out in the end.....kinda disappointing that it comes down to that, but worth it if you get what you want in the end!!

I was about to write this.  Call back until you get the answer you want  :P

[michelle]

yep call in and ask for a supervisor and tell them you would like to maintain your amenities and

get the upgrade - as a good will to you as a customer - they are not losing anything to do this

but gaining you as a future sailer that might rebook

 

but keep in mind going forward this

most likely is the policy with them and like others have said they can change them or rework

them anytime it seems without anyone getting a heads up

[WAAAYTOOO]

The experience that I have had is....if you rebook (which is essentially what you are doing) AFTER the drop dead final payment date, they will charge you a cancellation penalty equal to whatever it is....depends on how far past the final payment date it is....AND then they rebook you at whatever the current price is (in your case you say that the price for the promenade view is less than the old inside price) so if you are getting by without paying the penalty for basically cancelling your cruise (and rebooking) then I think you are probably lucky. I agree with the others though...you should be getting whatever current incentives they are offering on that booking. Perhaps they are saying that the tradeoff is that they are not charging you the penalty for cancellation after the final payment date. That's the only thing that makes sense.

 

Basically, when you reprice a cruise (whether it is the result of a price reduction or the result of an upgrade/change of cabin category), you are, for all practical purposes, rebooking the cruise in its entirety. Sometimes the loss of whatever incentives and/or price difference is not worth whatever perceived price reduction you might believe there to be. Trust me, the cruise lines do NOT like to give money back and they almost never do.

 

Good luck ! I hope you are able to get the upgraded cabin and any current incentives...which seems like the fair thing to me.

[camidr]

Thank you all! I will definitely approach it differently next cruise. As it was, by the time I called the next day the upgraded rooms were sold out, but I do appreciate your suggestions and am glad I was not alone in thinking their response a bit odd. Thank you!

[Paul G]

We recently booked a Celebrity Cruise for mid May.  There are substantial onboard credits and other promotions (drink package, gratuities, free internet).  I got an e-mail from our travel agent that Celebrity had a special upgrade offer.  I bid on a cabin upgrade at the Celebrity site, after reading the FAQ's.  One was "Does the upgrade include any additional promotions?"  The answer was "The upgrade does not include any additional promotions. However, you get to keep whichever promotions you already have."  That seemed pretty clear to me and I contacted Celebrity, whose rep verified that I keep the promotions.  This seems different from rebooking, but should I be worried if my bid is accepted?