Really disappointed with Avalon right now

[Rebel54]

Wow...well, this will probably be my last river cruise with Avalon. Very disappointed. First they cancel my cruise to Myanmar and I lose my $2,000 discount. The Mekong Cruise is more expensive AND the discount is only $1000 for a couple. So to "compensate" me they promised my agent a $500.00 PP discount on air. I can FINALLY book my air through them and not only are they backing out of that, the price they are quoting for air is $2000 more than I will pay for the SAME flight if I book direct through JAL or Expedia....

 

What the HELL! Not only will I never cruise with them again, I will never recommend them to any of my friends, family or clients when I reopen my travel business next year. :mad:

[HokiePoq]

Wow...well, this will probably be my last river cruise with Avalon. Very disappointed. First they cancel my cruise to Myanmar and I lose my $2,000 discount. The Mekong Cruise is more expensive AND the discount is only $1000 for a couple. So to "compensate" me they promised my agent a $500.00 PP discount on air. I can FINALLY book my air through them and not only are they backing out of that, the price they are quoting for air is $2000 more than I will pay for the SAME flight if I book direct through JAL or Expedia....

 

What the HELL! Not only will I never cruise with them again, I will never recommend them to any of my friends, family or clients when I reopen my travel business next year. :mad:

 

 

Wow, they got you coming and going. I had a similar ( but not as direct) situation with an Asian cruise with Celebrity that was taken for a charter. In order to keep the land tour I'd booked to Siem Reap, I had to book a much more expensive cruise which was not on special like the one they took The so called replacement cruises were totally different itineraries. Cost us about 5K more as well as losing a one of a kind itinerary.

This would not leave me with a warm and fuzzy feeling about Avalon, either. Did you get a reason for the cancellation?

[Rebel54]

Wow, they got you coming and going. I had a similar ( but not as direct) situation with an Asian cruise with Celebrity that was taken for a charter. In order to keep the land tour I'd booked to Siem Reap, I had to book a much more expensive cruise which was not on special like the one they took The so called replacement cruises were totally different itineraries. Cost us about 5K more as well as losing a one of a kind itinerary.

This would not leave me with a warm and fuzzy feeling about Avalon, either. Did you get a reason for the cancellation?

 

We were originally doing Myanmar in 2019 and they cancelled all of them. So I either had to move up to 2018 or find a cruise elsewhere going at the same time frame.

 

If they hadn't promised the discount on my air, I would have cancelled totally and went with another cruise. Very sad that they don't seem to care about creating repeat customers...(this will be my second and had planned on a couple more).

[Got2Cruise]

Ask them for other suggestions for airfare. When the cruiselines contract for seats they don’t deal with all companies.

 

 

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[Rebel54]

Ask them for other suggestions for airfare. When the cruiselines contract for seats they don’t deal with all companies.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

I priced the JAL tickets on Avalon (doing the math for the difference between the fare with tickets and without) and on JAL's site so there's no reason that what Avalon is quoting is more. I'm more upset over the fact that they are going back on their promise to give me a discount to cover part of the cost as they promised. The higher cost of the SAME exact business class flight...is just insult to injury. AND to add to it, if you look closely at their flight options, they list the SAME set of flights twice, one with an even HIGHER price tag. I don't know what they are doing...but it really comes off as shady. When I price directly with JAL, there are only so many business class seats on these planes and the cheapest option allows me to chose my seats, priority boarding and all that. So why the additional cost for the same flight? You are supposed to be getting a price deal by "bundling" but yet that's not what I'm seeing. I can get myself to the country and the hotel and not spend what they want to charge me...I'm flabbergasted!

[Rebel54]

I am planning China, European Xmas markets and Egypt...not necessarily in that order. Now, I will look for another company that will take care of me and not break promises. I know cancellations happen but when you make a promise to compensate...you should annotate that in the traveler's record and stick to it.

[Ritabob]

Bummer.

Please keep us posted especially if they backpedal after your posting to CC.

RB

[HokiePoq]

I priced the JAL tickets on Avalon (doing the math for the difference between the fare with tickets and without) and on JAL's site so there's no reason that what Avalon is quoting is more. I'm more upset over the fact that they are going back on their promise to give me a discount to cover part of the cost as they promised. The higher cost of the SAME exact business class flight...is just insult to injury. AND to add to it, if you look closely at their flight options, they list the SAME set of flights twice, one with an even HIGHER price tag. I don't know what they are doing...but it really comes off as shady. When I price directly with JAL, there are only so many business class seats on these planes and the cheapest option allows me to chose my seats, priority boarding and all that. So why the additional cost for the same flight? You are supposed to be getting a price deal by "bundling" but yet that's not what I'm seeing. I can get myself to the country and the hotel and not spend what they want to charge me...I'm flabbergasted!

 

Can you do your own air on this? We had air to Singapore (on the cruise I mentioned earlier) and then a short flight to Siem Riep. Where does your cruise originate? A lot of flights go through Singapore. (In fact their airport is a sight to see in and of itself.) Glad you are getting to Siem Reap. We ended up with a positive feeling about our trip thanks to the Siem Reap extension organized by our online agency, no thanks to Celebrity who took the cheaper (and better) cruise away. I'm not saying I won't cruise with Celebrity again but I won't book them for Asia. I appreciate your posting as it's good to know where the cancellations are occurring and book elsewhere in certain markets.

[Rebel54]

Can you do your own air on this? We had air to Singapore (on the cruise I mentioned earlier) and then a short flight to Siem Riep. Where does your cruise originate? A lot of flights go through Singapore. (In fact their airport is a sight to see in and of itself.) Glad you are getting to Siem Reap. We ended up with a positive feeling about our trip thanks to the Siem Reap extension organized by our online agency, no thanks to Celebrity who took the cheaper (and better) cruise away. I'm not saying I won't cruise with Celebrity again but I won't book them for Asia. I appreciate your posting as it's good to know where the cancellations are occurring and book elsewhere in certain markets.

 

I can do my own air, the only reason I had planned on going through them was promise of the $1000.00 discount on the air. I booked our air on our last trip. Since I'm paying for business class the $1000 would have been nice. It is what it is. I'm just really disappointed in how they handled this. I had such a wonderful experience on the first cruise...I push Avalon with all my friends and family.....and in return for my business and referrals...I get this. This is a huge company and should be able to take care of a repeat customer. I'm not asking for the moon....just to be treated fairly.

[Rebel54]

Well.....so far they are falling flat. Very close to pulling the plug on this trip. Not very happy being treated this way.

[0 cont left]

Had a Mekong cruise with Scenic cancelled. Is there a problem in that part of the world I should know about?

[YoungDubFan]

My understanding is that Avalon cancelled all Myanmar cruises due to lack of interest. The 2018 sailings have not been full & 2019 bookings were even slower. Some have speculated that the political unrest & treatment of the Rohyinga (sp?) people have contributed to the lack of interest.

[Rebel54]

Had a Mekong cruise with Scenic cancelled. Is there a problem in that part of the world I should know about?

 

When was your cruise? I'm a bit worried about mine too because the bookings seem to be very low.

[Rebel54]

My understanding is that Avalon cancelled all Myanmar cruises due to lack of interest. The 2018 sailings have not been full & 2019 bookings were even slower. Some have speculated that the political unrest & treatment of the Rohyinga (sp?) people have contributed to the lack of interest.

 

My agent is telling me that yes, it is due to the current political situation.

[gnome12]

I am booked to go with Avalon to Myanmar November 2018. My travel agent checked with them (again) on Monday, and they are still assuring me that the trip will go. I am anxiously awaiting 90 days before the first trip that is scheduled to go (Sept 19 northbound) and see what happens with that (although it does have 11 cabins booked which is more than my sailing does) or even more so the Sept 29 southbound which only has 4 cabins booked. I don't know what I would replace a November vacation with if the trip doesn't go, but I am going to hang in there and be hopeful.

[0 cont left]

When was your cruise? I'm a bit worried about mine too because the bookings seem to be very low.

Nov.

[Rebel54]

Nov.

 

I'll be sad if they cancel this one on me too :(

[Daisi]

Rebel, we found when booking our cruise that the closer it got to booking our air, the better the deal with Avalon. When I first booked it, their prices were crazy, but about 3 months before our cruise (when I was going to book my own air), they beat both the online price & my TA's broker price. Could this be what is going on? We just mentioned when booking the cruise that we may be doing our air with them, just to leave the door open. If you have a bit of time to wait, keep an eye on your prices, and see if they go down.

[Got2Cruise]

I'll be sad if they cancel this one on me too :(

 

 

 

Don’t book your own air just in case.

 

 

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[Rebel54]

Don’t book your own air just in case.

 

 

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I did book but I have cancel for any reason insurance! :)

[Rebel54]

So, happy update. My agent was able to talk to management and we came to a satisfying resolution and I'm happy again. I wasn't asking for the world, just for them to keep their agreement. No discount on airfare but there was an additional discount on my cruise which essentially puts me back where I started. Booking my own air was cheaper (even with my extra insurance) and the discount helps drop what I owe on the cruise. I'm happy that they came around.

[Rebel54]

Rebel, we found when booking our cruise that the closer it got to booking our air, the better the deal with Avalon. When I first booked it, their prices were crazy, but about 3 months before our cruise (when I was going to book my own air), they beat both the online price & my TA's broker price. Could this be what is going on? We just mentioned when booking the cruise that we may be doing our air with them, just to leave the door open. If you have a bit of time to wait, keep an eye on your prices, and see if they go down.

 

The only reason I want to book my air now is that I want to go Business class so the seats are limited. I've been watching airfare this year for the same time and they have been consistent (JAL and Avalon). I am sure there will be a sale here and there but with my luck, I'll have little or no choice on business seats and the big guy doesn't handle coach well on long distance flights. For me it's worth it to pay a bit more to have him not in pain or mad because he was bumped by people and carts through an entire flight. He's 6'2 and a heavy weight body builder. His shoulders are alway wider than the seats...so he always wants the window. I like the window too so this time I was able to book window seats for us both on all but one leg in JAL Sky Suites so we will both get rest and get to stretch out and hopefully get rest before the fun begins.

[Daisi]

Glad things got resolved. One hint... if you happen to see a sale pop up, put some more $$ down on your cruise....your invoice will reflect the sale price.

 

Looking forward for your trip review, I still have to get ours up. Loved Avalon, and we are hoping to do a couple more in the future with them.

[aquidneck1]

Glad things got resolved. One hint... if you happen to see a sale pop up, put some more $$ down on your cruise....your invoice will reflect the sale price.

 

Looking forward for your trip review, I still have to get ours up. Loved Avalon, and we are hoping to do a couple more in the future with them.

 

Daisy, seriously? Any other hints re booking Avalon. I want to book a Mekong Cruise for 2020 and there is a sale price but I am not sure if it is a good one as I have not cruised with them before. So if it goes down, are you saying that I can take advantage of that by adding to the deposit. Thanks for that and any other tips.

[Rebel54]

Daisy, seriously? Any other hints re booking Avalon. I want to book a Mekong Cruise for 2020 and there is a sale price but I am not sure if it is a good one as I have not cruised with them before. So if it goes down, are you saying that I can take advantage of that by adding to the deposit. Thanks for that and any other tips.

 

So far the best "sale" I've seen is $2000 off for a couple. If you can get that, snag it with the $500.00 deposit. If a better one comes along, you can request it.