With the reborn Crystal scheduled to launch its first sailing on the Crystal Serenity later this month, the luxury line has offered a longer olive branch to customers and travel advisors burned by the old Crystal.
Crystal in late June offered to honor customer deposits paid for any sailings of the now-defunct Crystal Cruises, including its expedition vessel and five river ships. The line said travel advisors would earn a full commission on those rebooked sailings, including on the credit applied to their client’s account.
The decision expands an earlier program limited to a smaller pool of guests and advisors financially affected when the original Crystal Cruises collapsed in early 2022. The initial version applied only if guests lost their deposits or agents lost commission on bookings for the Serenity and the Crystal Symphony, the lines’ two oceangoing ships that the new Crystal acquired in liquidation. Both programs stipulate that guests must book five cruises with the new Crystal to get the full credit.
Under the first version of the program, rolled out in March, Crystal accepted more than 2,100 claims by past guests, honoring their lost deposits, according to Cristina Levis, CEO of A&K Travel Group, who is leading day-to-day operations of the cruise line.
She said the line recognizes that many guests paid deposits to the old brand that were moved to various ships due to the pandemic. After expanding the credit program to apply to all previous Crystal Cruises ships, she said reactions have been “overwhelmingly positive.” Guests and agents, she said, “are understanding that we had no obligation to put forth this initiative and praised us for doing so.”
Newly eligible guests must apply directly with Crystal by Aug. 1 and make a booking by Oct. 1. Applications should be filed by the guest; those filed by travel advisors will require validation, resulting in a delay, the line said.
The program is limited to those who are still owed money by the collapsed cruise line and who have not otherwise been reimbursed. Eligible applicants must hold a verified claim in the Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors process in the Crystal Cruises LLC case filed in the circuit court of the 11th judicial district in Miami-Dade County with sums outstanding and owned, minus any funds returned by the legal assignee, credit card companies, insurance or other compensation.
For travel advisors to be eligible, the advisor must be named in the claim and registered with the new Crystal.
The guest’s deposit will be split evenly as a credit among five cruises and will be applied to the final payment. Should the credit exceed the final payment, excess funds will be applied to the deposit. Should the credit exceed the total charge, the difference will be forfeited and the invoice will be fully settled, the line said.
The Florida court has spent the past four months reviewing the court assignee’s requests to weed out claims from guests and other creditors who have been reimbursed since the cruise line went under. The proceedings are ongoing.
Commissions protected
Alex Sharpe, CEO of Signature Travel Network, said he likes how the program is set up for travel advisors because the credits are treated as a payment instead of a discount, keeping full commission intact. “We love that,” he said.
What he’s less enthusiastic about is that it will take guests and agents five cruises to fully redeem the credits Crystal is offering, but he noted the debt belongs to the old Crystal, not the new one.
Ruth Turpin, owner of Fort Worth, Texas-based Cruises Etc., was pleased with the extended program. Her agency is owed commissions, for which she has filed with the court.
“I think they’re trying to do everything possible to make people want to sail on the new Crystal,” she said.
Travel advisors “really made it very clear to the new administration that they had to do something to help people feel like the new Crystal really cared, and that was the genesis of this program,” she added.
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