Royal Caribbean, Celebrity & Azamara Eliminate Fuel Supplements

Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Azamara have announced the elimination of fuel supplements for bookings made on or after November 10, 2008 for sailings January 1, 2010 or beyond. This is the easy part, and doesn't take a Wall Street magnate to understand.

For those currently booked for 2009 or 2010, they have created a formula for whether or not you will receive an onboard credit for your fuel supplements. The good news is it's thankfully less convoluted than Carnival's formula, the bad news is it's still up to the markets to determine your refund.

So here's your reading comprehension test for the day. If you understand the following paragraph, you deserve a vacation... on Royal Caribbean, Celebrity or Azamara, of course.

If you're currently booked on a 2009 or 2010 sailing, they will evaluate and potentially adjust the fuel supplement quarterly, calculated based on the price per barrel of West Texas Crude (good for them for using a US supply), at closing on the New York Mercantile Exchange two weeks prior to the beginning of each quarter. If the price is $65 or less per barrel, then an onboard credit will be given to all applicable bookings the following quarter.

So, for example, if you are traveling in the first quarter of 2009, your "fuel price determination date" will be December 18, 2008. Second quarter 2009's "fuel price determination date" is March 18, 2009. And so on. And if the price on that date is $65 or less, all applicable bookings the following quarter will receive an onboard credit.

Of course, they do reserve the right to reinstate fuel supplements at a future date if market conditions warrant.

Next up, we'll see what formula NCL comes up with to remove or lessen their fuel supplements... I'm much more optimistic in seeing that than I am in the US airlines removing theirs...