Did I miss a price increase?

[kiawahdon]

A couple of weeks ago I received the 2013 AZ Destination Guide. Yesterday I got curious and took a look at the on line booking engine and beamed up a couple of cruises I am interested in taking. I quickly noticed that the prices are about $400 higher on the booking engine than in the guide (both before taxes and fees). Checking other cruises, the same increases seem to be present. Bill, did I miss a price increase notice?

[WarmH2OSailing]

As I'm looking to book some cruises for Aug/Sep in 2013, I also used the Destination Guide as the first source. When I went to the booking sites, I found the same as you...the Destination Guide shows all cruises I looked at as $300-$500 less per cruise. Must have been some interesting conversations in Marketing over this approach.

 

WWS

[Andy]

As I'm looking to book some cruises for Aug/Sep in 2013, I also used the Destination Guide as the first source. When I went to the booking sites, I found the same as you...the Destination Guide shows all cruises I looked at as $300-$500 less per cruise. Must have been some interesting conversations in Marketing over this approach.

 

WWS

 

Hi WarmH2Osailing,

 

I'm not sure what you mean by the marketing approach comment. Cruise pricing for all lines can and do fluctuate. They can go down or up, based on Supply & Demand. Keep in mind that Azamara only carries about 690 Guests on their ships, making their ships easier to fill, than a mainstream line such as Carnival or Princess. My take is, with all the rave reviews of Azamara, certain sailings are clearly in demand.

 

IMO, any pricing you see in any Cruise lines marketing material, really means nothing, other than a starting point. I'd never count on any such pricing to be guaranteed.

 

I hope this helps !

[kiawahdon]

I have never seen pricing increase from the annual brochures of any line in over 20 years of cruising on 10 different lines.

[Phxazzcruisers]

I booked my Azamara cruises for next year as soon as the brochures came out and got those prices. I watch prices as I have also booked Celebrity Cruises for next year. I have notices that demand must be good because all of the prices have increased, some more than others. As rooms sell, te law of supply and demand sets in and prices will go up. It always works that way. Prices never remain the same as the brochure price published.

[Oceans&Rivers]

I have never seen pricing increase from the annual brochures of any line in over 20 years of cruising on 10 different lines.

 

We've been cruising over twenty years, too, and like you, have never seen pricing increase over the original brochure, either.

[WarmH2OSailing]

Andy,

 

I agree in principle with your premise, however, in checking 25 different bookings (on a third party site), I found one cruise with the same on-line price as in the Destination Guide. That appears to be beyond a few standard deviations supporting coincidence...and having such large increases in cruises over a year out is, in my experience, truly unusual. Some fluctuations are expected, but...!

 

Since I can't get any direct "booking" support from Azamara (I'm also following the thread regarding direct booking) perhaps my data is skewed. My concern, and I hope I'm wrong, is that the Destination Guide prices reflect what one can get when using the Azamara provided "cruise consultant"...in my case it was Avoya/American Express Customer Concierge, just to wed customers to this approach vice using the booking engine. If this supposition is true, it could represent Azamara cutting out TAs that are not American Express designates by offering the lower prices as found in the Destination Guide. This would involve a change in marketing strategy that I hinted at on my earlier post. I planned to book a B2B next year and take advantage of the $400 price reduction per cruise as identified in the Destination Guide. I will probably go ahead and use the Azamara offered "consultant" to check my theory and book my preferred cruise as this is still one of my preferred cruise lines.

 

I appreciate your comments.

 

Wayne

[takemewithyou]

Andy,

 

I agree in principle with your premise, however, in checking 25 different bookings (on a third party site), I found one cruise with the same on-line price as in the Destination Guide. That appears to be beyond a few standard deviations supporting coincidence...and having such large increases in cruises over a year out is, in my experience, truly unusual. Some fluctuations are expected, but...!

 

Since I can't get any direct "booking" support from Azamara (I'm also following the thread regarding direct booking) perhaps my data is skewed. My concern, and I hope I'm wrong, is that the Destination Guide prices reflect what one can get when using the Azamara provided "cruise consultant"...in my case it was Avoya/American Express Customer Concierge, just to wed customers to this approach vice using the booking engine. If this supposition is true, it could represent Azamara cutting out TAs that are not American Express designates by offering the lower prices as found in the Destination Guide. This would involve a change in marketing strategy that I hinted at on my earlier post. I planned to book a B2B next year and take advantage of the $400 price reduction per cruise as identified in the Destination Guide. I will probably go ahead and use the Azamara offered "consultant" to check my theory and book my preferred cruise as this is still one of my preferred cruise lines.

 

I appreciate your comments.

 

Wayne

 

I think that you are probably right. So why is Azamara pushing this certain agency so much?

Have they have entered in to some agreement with them - sort of seems like an exclusive agreement.....wonder what other travel agencies will have to say about this?

[WarmH2OSailing]

When I checked on the thread regarding the on-line booking change, there was a new post by Bill Lieber including the following statement: "Again, I assure you that the online booking process will be serviced by our internal reservations call center's cruise sales consultants and not by the third-party travel partner that operates our website's lead follow-up program."

 

So as a matter of semantics, the "agency/AX designate" I mentioned earlier must be one of the internal reservations call center cruise sales consultants...I guess I just don't understand the definitions.

 

In any case, it would appear that AZ is not limiting the preferred booking rate to the "consultants", as I found a good booking site using the same rates found on the "consultants" site but offering a much higher OBC that brings the price back to the level of the Destination Guide. Situation normal...do your research, make your decision and have a great cruise!

 

Wayne

[Reggiefan]

For a particular seven-night cruise in spring 2013, the Azamara website shows pricing for a veranda stateroom that is $400 more per person than the pricing five months ago.

 

As I previously noted, Azamara's pricing is now comparable to Oceania's. Limited supply with higher demand is the obvious explanation.