Azamara Quest credit card currency conversion problem

When completing your online Xpress boarding pass on Azamara, Celebrity or Royal Caribbean you have the option to elect to have your credit card issuer do the currency conversion (USD to GBP in my case) for your on-board account payment rather than the cruise line. I always check the box for this option because my UK credit card company charge a much lower fee for currency conversion (currently 0.84%) compared with the cruise line (3%). On our recent cruise on Azamara Quest (6 - 16 Sept.) we discovered after our cruise that the cruise line had ignored our clear and specific instructions to have our credit card issuer do the currency conversion and had done the conversion themselves to our considerable disadvantage. This is now the 5th time this has happened with either Azamara, Celebrity or Royal Caribbean. What is the point in giving passengers this option if the cruise line then ignores the instruction? After 5 such experiences I am, sadly, coming to the conclusion that this is a deliberate ploy by the cruise line to make money out of their passengers. Has anyone else had a similar experience with the above cruise lines, and can anyone suggest how best to avoid the problem and to ensure that one's instructions to the cruise line regarding this, when completing the Xpress Boarding Pass online, are properly honoured?

Otherwise, this was a great cruise.

I usually highlight my instructions and keep a copy in case I need to dispute it later. However, on our Azamara cruise, I did not provide credit card info prior to or during the boarding process, and instead indicated that we would settle in cash. A few days into the cruise, I was asked to come to the guest relations desk to provide credit card info, but again I deferred giving them the CC info as we had an OBC and had not come close to using it up. Towards the end of the cruise I provided my CC info to them for the charges over and above our OBC, and asked for their assurance that my charges would be in U.S. $, and not converted to the currency of my CC. It worked.

Thank you Susan-M

Thank you for your helpful suggestions. In fact I did highlight my instructions for curency conversion on my Xpress Pass, but, on this occasion, it did not help, they were still ignored. I do have a copy of my Xpress Pass, and my instructions, which I have forwarded to the Cruis Line, but I do consider this is not something that I should have had to do. From what you say about your personal situation, especially regarding the onboard credit, obviously one does need to be wary of the potential problems that can occurr. On many occasions that I have been to Guest Relations on Celebrity and Azamara I have heard passengers voicing onboard credit problems.

I do hope you are taking this up with the UK office. Unfortunately this has happened several times to me before, though always on X, Azamara got it right both times. I know the amount is small but they need to keep on top of this. The way you can tell when you are on board if you have a problem is ask for an interim bill, if on the bottom of it it shows rates of exchange, they are planning to do the conversion, if it says something like we will claim $xxx from your credit card company you are ok.

You can then go and sort it out with Guest Relations whilst you are still on board

Hope you get it sorted out

A

I usually highlight my instructions and keep a copy in case I need to dispute it later. However, on our Azamara cruise, I did not provide credit card info prior to or during the boarding process, and instead indicated that we would settle in cash. A few days into the cruise, I was asked to come to the guest relations desk to provide credit card info, but again I deferred giving them the CC info as we had an OBC and had not come close to using it up. Towards the end of the cruise I provided my CC info to them for the charges over and above our OBC, and asked for their assurance that my charges would be in U.S. $, and not converted to the currency of my CC. It worked.

From Azamara,

As far as the issue below, the guest is correct, we do give the conversion option in the pre booking online check in. As I found out from Guest Port Services, and our Accounting team, it is up to the Pier Check in teams for all brands noted in the below posting, to check the online check in and verify conversion selected by the guest. Once the guest gets on board, the change cannot be made. Although this is constantly reinforced with the check in teams around the world, some slip through, which is unacceptable, but did happen in this case.

You may want to contact Customer Service and explain your problem, they may be able to help you..

Jancruz1

When completing your online Xpress boarding pass on Azamara, Celebrity or Royal Caribbean you have the option to elect to have your credit card issuer do the currency conversion (USD to GBP in my case) for your on-board account payment rather than the cruise line. I always check the box for this option because my UK credit card company charge a much lower fee for currency conversion (currently 0.84%) compared with the cruise line (3%). On our recent cruise on Azamara Quest (6 - 16 Sept.) we discovered after our cruise that the cruise line had ignored our clear and specific instructions to have our credit card issuer do the currency conversion and had done the conversion themselves to our considerable disadvantage. This is now the 5th time this has happened with either Azamara, Celebrity or Royal Caribbean. What is the point in giving passengers this option if the cruise line then ignores the instruction? After 5 such experiences I am, sadly, coming to the conclusion that this is a deliberate ploy by the cruise line to make money out of their passengers. Has anyone else had a similar experience with the above cruise lines, and can anyone suggest how best to avoid the problem and to ensure that one's instructions to the cruise line regarding this, when completing the Xpress Boarding Pass online, are properly honoured?

Otherwise, this was a great cruise.

Yikes! That's quite a bit of effort to make sure that Azamara charges you in USD without making their own currency conversion.

From Azamara,

 

As I found out from Guest Port Services, and our Accounting team, it is up to the Pier Check in teams for all brands noted in the below posting, to check the online check in and verify conversion selected by the guest. Once the guest gets on board, the change cannot be made...

Since it seems that Pier Check-in makes frequent mistakes with currency conversion requests, for those concerned about this issue, I think you are better off not to provide any CC info in advance (either on-line or at check in) and give your CC info directly to Guest Relations once on board, as I did.

From what you say about your personal situation, especially regarding the onboard credit, obviously one does need to be wary of the potential problems that can occurr.

Hi Harvie,

You're welcome.:)

Just to clarify ... I didn't have any problems with our OBC. It was as per the original booking; it's just that Guest Relations wanted to be sure to have some way of settling my account for expenses that would have been in excess of our OBC, hence their request fairly early in the cruise that I come and see them about this since they had no CC info on file for me.

Self dealing currency conversion shenanigans. It's the stuff of lawsuits.

On our recent cruise on Azamara Quest (6 - 16 Sept.) we discovered after our cruise that the cruise line had ignored our clear and specific instructions to have our credit card issuer do the currency conversion and had done the conversion themselves to our considerable disadvantage. This is now the 5th time this has happened with either Azamara, Celebrity or Royal Caribbean.

As I found out from Guest Port Services, and our Accounting team, it is up to the Pier Check in teams for all brands noted in the below posting, to check the online check in and verify conversion selected by the guest. Once the guest gets on board, the change cannot be made. Although this is constantly reinforced with the check in teams around the world, some slip through, which is unacceptable, but did happen in this case.

Since it seems that Pier Check-in makes frequent mistakes with currency conversion requests, for those concerned about this issue, I think you are better off not to provide any CC info in advance (either on-line or at check in) and give your CC info directly to Guest Relations once on board, as I did.

When on X last year, despite checking the box selecting exchange to be carried out by cc issuer, our instructions was ignored. As a previous poster mentions, if there is a note at the bottom of the statement of the exchange rate to be used, then in all probability the cruiseline intends to do the exchange at a very measly exchange rate. This is what happened to us. After our return, and having received cc statement, I contacted X to complain. They asked what the difference was and refunded that amount to us. I was amazed that they just paid up. They are obviously used to complaints of this nature. We are due to sail with Azamara for the first time in a few days and this time I will be ready. I have already highlighted our choice but I will reinforce it when we board and will request an interim account. I will pester the life out of them if they don't play ball. Don't let them get away with it.

When on X last year, despite checking the box selecting exchange to be carried out by cc issuer, our instructions was ignored. As a previous poster mentions, if there is a note at the bottom of the statement of the exchange rate to be used, then in all probability the cruiseline intends to do the exchange at a very measly exchange rate. This is what happened to us. After our return, and having received cc statement, I contacted X to complain. They asked what the difference was and refunded that amount to us. I was amazed that they just paid up. They are obviously used to complaints of this nature. We are due to sail with Azamara for the first time in a few days and this time I will be ready. I have already highlighted our choice but I will reinforce it when we board and will request an interim account. I will pester the life out of them if they don't play ball. Don't let them get away with it.

I dont think you should have that problem now that they are aware of this thread..if you have a problem while on board post and someone from A will probably pick it up..

Jancruz1

I dont think you should have that problem now that they are aware of this thread..if you have a problem while on board post and someone from A will probably pick it up..

Jancruz1

Hi Jan,

For years, this same complaint has been repeated in threads on the Celebrity board. It's hard to believe that Celebrity staff missed all those threads, but that Azamara staff is going to take note of this and be able to correct the problem...although it would be very nice if they could accomplish that.

Are the Pier Check in people independent contractors who work for all cruiselines, or does RCCL have their own staff doing this job?

THe people that work check ins are normally subcontractors, with lots fo differnt uniforms, thats in europe, :):):)(well in larger ports)

I've had this same problem with Celebrity and Royal Caribbean on many occasions. I have been told that it was an error caused by the Pier Check In Agent. In each case I was very specific with the credit card conversion at check in and each time they were ignored. This has been going on for years. I've only settled my account in cash on Azamara to avoid this problem. A solution to this problem is long overdue.

Hi Jan

Thank you for replying to my original post on this. I am interested to note that this problem appears to originate at Pier Check-in. In a subsequent note to this thread you say that as Azamara will now have read the posts in this thread the problem is unlikely to occur again. I think that is a rather optimistic assumption! From reading the other posts in the thread, and from my own several similar past experiences, it is apparent that Azamara, Celebrity & Royal Caribbean have been aware of this problem for several years but have taken no successful steps to rectify it. How is the problem likely to stop now unless there is some radical change in procedure? Why is it not possible to change the instruction for who does the currency conversion once one is on board the ship, surely this should be possible. It might also be sensible to make the default position that the cc issuer should always do the conversion instead of the cruise line. It is highly unlikely that any of the cc issuers would charge a higher fee than the cruise line. Whatever, it is definitely time to introduce procedures to prevent this annoying, long-standing, frequent problem from happening. It really is not sufficient just to give your world-wide check-in staff reminders to get it right.

As you suggested I have written to Azamara Customer Service to explain my recent problem on "Quest", as I have done on similar occasions in the past. Unfortunately this never seems to cure the root cause of the problem.

HarvieHavana

From Azamara,

 

As far as the issue below, the guest is correct, we do give the conversion option in the pre booking online check in. As I found out from Guest Port Services, and our Accounting team, it is up to the Pier Check in teams for all brands noted in the below posting, to check the online check in and verify conversion selected by the guest. Once the guest gets on board, the change cannot be made. Although this is constantly reinforced with the check in teams around the world, some slip through, which is unacceptable, but did happen in this case.

 

You may want to contact Customer Service and explain your problem, they may be able to help you..

Jancruz1

I do not know anything about RCCL and Celebrity and so do not speak to what they do about currency conversion..Having been on Azamara several times I brought your problem to their attention and posted what they told me..I do hope you get an answer to your email to customer service..

Jancruz1

We started using Capital One because the do charge a fee just the current exchange rate at the time of clearing. Small fees can add up when you charging on a cruise!