UPDATE: Azamara Journey October 2018 sailings

OH NO!!! Once again the right & left hand are confused!! Please Azamara get it together! We are all trying to decide what to do...and to be frank MANY have decided already to book elsewhere! LuAnn

Bonnie must work fast!

I just heard from my TA. She got a call back from Azamara telling her that the deadline is in fact Sept. 8th.

Thank you Bonnie!

This is better than anything I received last year when our cruise was cut up into two new itineraries with higher prices. All we got was our money back with not one word from Azamara. This is at least a step in the right direction, although it could have gone further in mentioning rolling over early booking and other benefits to the new itineraries.

And its better than what we were offered when they changed our cruise from the Caribbean to Cuba in March 2018. No offer of any additional OBC if we switched to the replacement cruise, and if we booked an alternative cruise instead, we were offered 500$ OBC but at the same time we would lose our original early booking OBC.

It was not mentioned either that as Brits we would have to pay the 75$ visa for Cuba.

Had back to back cruises booked for October, 2018. Both reservations disappeared from My Azamara. I noted that on 8/7 and called both Azamara and my TA. TA had not received any notice of change from Azamara. LCV Rep said they were working on IT issues. Fast forward to today.....have been away and could not deal with this issue before. No contact from TA or Azamara. Both itineraries have changed. Both reservations are still gone from My Azamara. Have called and left message with TA to see if they received any notification from Azamara. Not happy. This situation is dreadful and Azamara is treating its loyal customers terribly!

We finally received our letter today. There is a sentence in ours that reads: Your client may select the new transatlantic voyage at the prorated rate.

Any idea what the prorated rate is? Price per night discount, 14 days vs 17 originally?

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That's exactly what pro rata means so prorated must mean the same, I think.

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Does anyone know if we keep the OBC etc that was included in the original booking if one accepts the new sail date

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Does anyone know if we keep the OBC etc that was included in the original booking if one accepts the new sail date

 

 

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We were only dealing with the changed Oct. 6 itinerary, but indeed we kept the OBC from the original booking.

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We were only dealing with the changed Oct. 6 itinerary, but indeed we kept the OBC from the original booking.

 

 

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Well I'll keep my fingers crossed. I am loosing patience though as 6 days have passed and I still don't have an answer regarding the B2B. Perhaps tomorrow.

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Well I'll keep my fingers crossed. I am loosing patience though as 6 days have passed and I still don't have an answer regarding the B2B. Perhaps tomorrow.

 

 

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I hope the resolution is imminent and as satisfactory to your concerns as the one we received.

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We just rebooked the cancelled 2018 TA with the 2019 one. Since the original booking, we are now entitled to a 7% LCV discount. The net fare is essentially the same, considering an extra 2% discount and a 16 day (2019) rather than 17 day TA.

While our $200 OBC for booking onboard carried over, they would not honour transferring the additional $300 OBC originally intended for their shore excursions. We did, however, obtain the current $300 OBC early booking credit. So it's a wash except for the fact that we will receive one day less for the same rate and our extra 2% of savings was absorbed by their rate increase. The $250 OBC for having had the 2018 TA cruise canceled results in $750 total OBC from Azamara for 2019 vs. the $500 OBC for the 2018 cruise.

As a side note, we are also booked on the 2017 Quest TA leaving Barcelona Nov 4th. Although the original Nov 7th cruise was canceled in January 2016 by Azamara, even though I had booked directly with Azamara, I was never informed by them of the cancellation. It was only in late July 2016 that I learned via Cruise Critic of the cancellation. When I contacted them, besides a perfunctory verbal apology, I was only given $200 extra OBC for their error when I rebooked the 3 day earlier cruise.

Well I'll keep my fingers crossed. I am loosing patience though as 6 days have passed and I still don't have an answer regarding the B2B. Perhaps tomorrow.

 

 

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I hope the resolution is imminent and as satisfactory to your concerns as the one we received.

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As a side note, we are also booked on the 2017 Quest TA leaving Barcelona Nov 4th. Although the original Nov 7th cruise was canceled in January 2016 by Azamara, even though I had booked directly with Azamara, I was never informed by them of the cancellation. It was only in late July 2016 that I learned via Cruise Critic of the cancellation. When I contacted them, besides a perfunctory verbal apology, I was only given $200 extra OBC for their error when I rebooked the 3 day earlier cruise.

Everybody please note that this lack of communication to customers and TA's is not a new thing to Azamara as the above shows they had the identical problem over a year and a half ago. Certainly hope Azamara gets their home office act together or they will lose more and more customers. Really a shame that this has continued and the only response is that they are reaching out again to all the TA's and customers. We have not been recontacted and of more concern are the reports that others have not been contacted, now a week after the initial letters were provided.

The above quote also proves that people could very well show up at the dock days after the ship sailed.. Also of concern is that Azamara is deviating from what we have seen in writing without notifying everyone affected that the options in the letter are not firm but, negotiable. Proves it pays to read CC but what about the other 90% or so of cruisers who have no idea of all these variances.

It's really a shame we have only had an apology for not providing a decision date and with all of the complaints and identified issues, appears Azamara is reacting to them on an individual basis leaving the majority of the people who are only aware of the letter's terms and those who still have not been contacted.

What a way to run a railroad or cruise line in this case.

Does anyone know if we keep the OBC etc that was included in the original booking if one accepts the new sail date

 

 

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Yes, at least that is what our travel agent told us, all original onboard credit would carry over to the October 23 sailing.

We just rebooked the cancelled 2018 TA with the 2019 one. Since the original booking, we are now entitled to a 7% LCV discount. The net fare is essentially the same, considering an extra 2% discount and a 16 day (2019) rather than 17 day TA.

 

While our $200 OBC for booking onboard carried over, they would not honour transferring the additional $300 OBC originally intended for their shore excursions. We did, however, obtain the current $300 OBC early booking credit. So it's a wash except for the fact that we will receive one day less for the same rate and our extra 2% of savings was absorbed by their rate increase. The $250 OBC for having had the 2018 TA cruise canceled results in $750 total OBC from Azamara for 2019 vs. the $500 OBC for the 2018 cruise.

Thanks for posting this. Having no desire to depart from Lisbon or visit Bermuda and Havana, I was all set to completely cancel once my TA returns next week. But the 2019 TA looks nice and I will request it as a substitution. However, also based on your info, I guess I know not to hold my breath that they don't mess around with the 2019 version come next summer. Seems to be a pattern.

Bonnie must work fast!

 

I just heard from my TA. She got a call back from Azamara telling her that the deadline is in fact Sept. 8th.

 

Thank you Bonnie!

You're wecome ;)

It's one thing to take advantage of a huge profit opportunity on a charter. It's another to screw your loyal customers and put them at a disadvantage. This is a colossal and arrogant blunder by this company. Take advantage of your opportunity, but make all others whom you do business with whole. Is that so freaking hard? The sad thing is that I don't even think it's intentional. It really seems as if this is something they just don't know how to do.

We took a cruise in 2014 on Azamara and loved it. We enjoyed the cruise line so much we booked on ship for the following year. Four weeks later I was reading CC and someone noted that there were quite a few cruises that disappeared from the Azamara website. Originally Azamara said it was a computer glitch. It turned out they chartered the ship. We had to repeatedly contact Azamara since they never contacted us or the TA's. At first they weren't even going to return the deposit if we didn't book another cruise with them. After that incident, we will not book a Azamara cruise that is too far out since they have a tendency to charter and cancel. It's too bad because enjoy the ships but we plan far in advance so we get good deals and choice of cabins on the other lines we travel (Viking anf Oceania).

I finally received the offer. If I understand this correctly the price per night in our case increases from 165 EUR to 200 EUR per person. The 500 USD credit for us both are not a real compensation. I do not really like the new route ... I think we will cancel

My TA has still not called me back with details from yesterday. I suspect that she has not been able to get any details yet from Azamara. We are loyal cruisers with Azamara, but the way this is being handled is so very poor. I can understand why people are looking at other cruiselines for rebooking. Azamara needs to understand that people can and will move on, especially when this is being handled so poorly. Really sad....

We cancelled the TA and now we were told it can take up to 6 weeks before they refund our payment, crazy!

Bob en Cor

We cancelled the TA and now we were told it can take up to 6 weeks before they refund our payment, crazy!

 

Bob en Cor

I have a feeling they are going to be paying out a lot of refunds!

We cancelled the TA and now we were told it can take up to 6 weeks before they refund our payment, crazy!

 

Bob en Cor

Hi, everyone. We have cancelled the Fall 2018 TA and booked with Oceania, as much because of the lack of consideration as that they replaced it with a much more prosaic offering and wouldn't apologize directly or through our travel agent. But I am writing to tell you that when I spoke to Azamara directly a few days ago, they told me the deadline was August 28th. For those for whom this matters, I just wanted to report what I was told.

fern

My TA and I just had a joint call with Azamara. I had used an Azamara Passage certificate for one of our B2B's. I wanted that returned to my account since we decided to cancel both cruises after the itineraries were changed so drastically and the other options offered were not satisfactory to us.

The Azamara Rep was trying to say they would "make a one time exception" for the Passage. certificate to go back to my account. Why would this be an exception? They changed the itinerary, not me. They gave the option to cancel. It is not my fault I I booked using a Passage certificate that I purchased to use on a future cruise. Has anyone else had this problem?

Of course they should return the Azamara Passage certificate back to me!

Bonnie, are you still monitoring this thread? Do you have an opinion on this?

Hi, everyone. We have cancelled the Fall 2018 TA and booked with Oceania, as much because of the lack of consideration as that they replaced it with a much more prosaic offering and wouldn't apologize directly or through our travel agent. But I am writing to tell you that when I spoke to Azamara directly a few days ago, they told me the deadline was August 28th. For those for whom this matters, I just wanted to report what I was told.

fern

The date has been extended to September 8th.

My TA and I just had a joint call with Azamara. I had used an Azamara Passage certificate for one of our B2B's. I wanted that returned to my account since we decided to cancel both cruises after the itineraries were changed so drastically and the other options offered were not satisfactory to us.

 

The Azamara Rep was trying to say they would "make a one time exception" for the Passage. certificate to go back to my account. Why would this be an exception? They changed the itinerary, not me. They gave the option to cancel. It is not my fault I I booked using a Passage certificate that I purchased to use on a future cruise. Has anyone else had this problem?

 

Of course they should return the Azamara Passage certificate back to me!

Bonnie, are you still monitoring this thread? Do you have an opinion on this?

I'm anxious to hear an answer on this as I'm in the "same boat"!! :confused: I still do not have an offer and I too applied a passage certificate to the T/A....and I'm not about to accept that I should just lose this discount!! LuAnn