AZ Upgrade Program - NEW - effective 3/12/19!!

[uktog]

I can bid for an upcoming cruise if I wanted (I do not) but not for one in September which gives this message Sorry - looks like you're not eligible for an upgrade at this time.
"Please verify that you meet the eligibility requirements listed below and check again within 90 days of your departure."  

It is currently more than 90 days before I depart and final payments has not been made so I do not meet the eligibility.  

Thats why I was wondering if maygrovecruisers were checking too early (and I also wonder if there might be a difference between the pay I pay my agent and the day azamara receives payment)

[DebbieMacG]

Uktog yes my cruises is the end of May, you definitely need to be within the 90 days whether or not the email has been received.

 

WhitlocksEnd, that’s a really odd reply! 😳

[nanacruiser]

On the 13th of this month when this was announced we tried to bid and  were also told we were not eligible?

 

I sent an email to the link on the website page asking to clarify why we are not eligible and today the 18th we received a response "It appears that due to your “Opt” out selection on your LeClub Voyage membership, you will not receive any promotional emails or offers."

 

I am confused because we receive emails almost daily for AZ promotions from AZ including from LCV.

 

I responded to OPT in , we will see what happens.

Cheers

nana c

 

 

"

[kayakcove]

I suspect there was no magic switch for them to turn this option on for all pending cruises at once and they are going through each sailing day by day.  I have not gotten an email advising me of the upgrade option. I have a B2B set for mid-May and when signed into my account under the tab "BOOKED" at the top of the home page there was option for "Azamara Upgrade".  I was able to go in and at first did not get anything other than 'not eligible', but later on Friday afternoon, it allowed me to bid on the first half of the trip.  It still did not let me do anything with the second part of the trip. I sent an email, thinking it may be because it was B2B. No response on the email, but this afternoon, it did allow me to go into the second half for bidding. 

[Wickets]

We waited 5 days for answer on this to be told that we were not set up for email.  Just off 14 days on Journey where nothing was mention on this. We received 12 emails while on board, but not on mailing list.  

 

Still not heard about Azamazing Evening on France cruise that is less than month off.

[screen-gem]

I have not received any email advising me of the new upgrade program. I'm on the mailing list, and receive LCV Newsletters, etc. We sail on May 28 (less than 90 days), have paid in full, are not traveling on agent or interline fare, yet I get the "not eligible" error message.  Tells me to check again within 90 days of departure.  Perhaps their website measures time using nautical miles

[Grandma Cruising]

 I had to delete a post from a member which said that the response they got by email from Azamara told them that they were ineligible for an upgrade because their Travel Agent (US agent) did not want to participate in the Upgrade Program.

[uktog]

45 minutes ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

 I had to delete a post from a member which said that the response they got by email from Azamara told them that they were ineligible for an upgrade because their Travel Agent (US agent) did not want to participate in the Upgrade Program.

Couldn’t the post be edited to remove the agency name rather than deleting it ?  The poster was making a very important point.  They weren’t promoting the agency, they were quoting an Azamara response which is pretty pertinent at this stage on everyone’s learning curve re the new process.  

Just trying to be helpful for others that didn’t see your deletion but -

 

That response raised a new issue that people will be unaware of.  It seems if you book through a travel agency, the agent has to agree to be part of the new LCV upgrade scheme. People need to know that and be able to check the new position with their agent. (Alternatively of course the person in Azamara whowrote the email was talking rubbish and that needs addressing)

It was also significant because the guest actually hadn’t booked through The xxx agency so guests also need to know IF the agent wasn’t speaking rubbish, there’s still a risk your booking is wrong somewhere in the system and you need to follow that it.  

[Riocca]

2 hours ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

 I had to delete a post from a member which said that the response they got by email from Azamara told them that they were ineligible for an upgrade because their Travel Agent (US agent) did not want to participate in the Upgrade Program.

I agree with Ann the important point was that it was a U.K. customer being told that they were ineligible because a US travel agent was not participating in the scheme when they had actually booked with a U.K. travel agent.

[hants52]

On 3/14/2019 at 10:29 AM, hants52 said:

 

 

I have now received an email headed “ Booking Modification “ and informing me that due to a change in my reservation my offer has been cancelled. I have no idea what they are talking about as I have made no changes since making the booking.

 

The introduction of this scheme is a ridiculous shambles and not worth spending my time on it.

 

I did enquire why my bid had been cancelled, using the email address Bonnie kindly provided. The response I have just received from the Azamara Upgrade Team states they are “not sure” why I was sent a “cancellation email notification “ but they have double checked the system and my bid is still showing. No apology.

 

I appreciate that a well run business needs to maximise revenues and control costs and all things change over time. However, change needs to be transparent and well managed if the support of loyal customers is to be maintained. As I said previously, this is just a shambles.

 

It is fortunate that the possibility of an upgrade is not a consideration for me when making a booking, just a nice bonus if it comes along.

[Grandma Cruising]

14 hours ago, WhitlocksEnd said:

Six days after submission I have just received a response to my email.  Bewilderingly it says:

 

Unfortunately ******.did not want to participate in our Upgrade Program and this is the reason why you are getting the ineligible message on our website.  For more questions, please contact your travel Partner.

 

especially as I booked with a UK TA.

 

Rather confirms Bloodaxe’s post number 63!

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 hours ago, uktog said:

Couldn’t the post be edited to remove the agency name rather than deleting it.

We’re not allowed to edit a poster’s original post, however I have got round that by editing a quote of their post above.

[Dylandude]

The original post by  WhitlocksEnd was relevant, I did read it not long after it was posted when the TA was named.

I have been reasonably successful with upgrades over the past few years, however last year I uncovered a situation which highlighted a failing and why the named agent may not be participating.

We normally book using 1 of 3 TA’s, two are US based, the third US based but with offices overseas.

The cruise in question was last year, and one month prior to sailing there were plenty of unsold staterooms and I had not heard anything concerning the offer of an upgrade. My upgrade application had been logged at the time of booking one year earlier.

Two weeks prior to sailing I contacted Nicole at LVC and was told an offer of upgrade had been made to my TA two weeks earlier.

I immediately contacted my TA to query why they had not passed the upgrade on.

The TA now quite embarrassed at being caught out, did get me an upgrade and I didn’t question how.

What I did question was, (and it took a few phone calls to push for an answer) why was the upgrade offer not forwarded to the customer.

The answer was, at $398 for the upgrade the TA was getting no commission so they decided not to participate and make me the offer.

 

This therefore raises the question, at the new highly inflated upgrade prices do TA’s get commission? If they don’t then the situation we encountered last year will happen again.

[CA Oceanfront]

3 minutes ago, Dylandude said:

This therefore raises the question, at the new highly inflated upgrade prices do TA’s get commission? If they don’t then the situation we encountered last year will happen again.

Excerpted from flyer distributed to travel agents just prior to the general release:

 

Q. Are the Azamara UpgradeSMcharges commissionable?
A. Yes, based on the commission percent on the booking. At this time, the only exception is for bookings that reserve under a net price code which will not earn commission on the upcharge.

[Grandma Cruising]

27 minutes ago, CA Oceanfront said:

Excerpted from flyer distributed to travel agents just prior to the general release:

 

Q. Are the Azamara UpgradeSMcharges commissionable?
A. Yes, based on the commission percent on the booking. At this time, the only exception is for bookings that reserve under a net price code which will not earn commission on the upcharge.

So that sounds as if the large TAs that do deals with Azamara won’t get commission on upgrades - that may explain some not being interested in participating in the program.

[marinaro44]

35 minutes ago, Dylandude said:

What I did question was, (and it took a few phone calls to push for an answer) why was the upgrade offer not forwarded to the customer.

The answer was, at $398 for the upgrade the TA was getting no commission so they decided not to participate and make me the offer.

This TA needs a lesson on how to do business and treat clients.

[maygrovecruisers]

20 hours ago, uktog said:

I think you first need to receive an email inviting you to bid before you can start the process.  You have to have paid in full to start the process as well -  depends when your cruises are whether you have a glitch or not but I agree its not a process that loyal guests can feel engaged with.

Hi Ann, Our next 3 cruises are 27th April, 12th May & 25th May on Quest, all of which have been fully paid and are within the 90 days. They were booked onboard. We will contact our travel agent to see if there is a problem there. Sounds bizare that the Travel Agent is involved in a bidding process between the customer and Azamara directly.

Just checked the link again and still get the same "not eligible" message.

Jeanette

 

[Phxazzcruisers]

On 3/13/2019 at 10:45 AM, BBMacLaird said:

Hi Boco010,

I've just had it confirmed that all upgrades for voyages departing this month, March 2019, have already been finalized. Only guests sailing starting in April will need to resubmit their bids using the new system. I apologize for any confusion.

Our cruise is in April and we have not received the offer.  We are Discover Platinum.  Should we be getting an email or do we have to initiate something on our end?

 

[BBMacLaird]

Just to clarify re old upgrade requests....

A. All upgrades for March have been assigned. 

B. we will be protecting old upgrade requests for sailings departing April through June 30, 2019, meaning that we will give these priority once you rebid the minimum amount using the new system with a confirmed credit card. There is a deadline though so please resubmit bids by April 01. Thus please resubmit soon if you are sailing in April, May or June!

C. All others should bid or rebid when eligible, meaning after full payment.

 

Here is the webpage for our Azamara Upgrade. 

https://www.azamaraclubcruises.com/int/azamara-upgrade-program

 

 

[uktog]

Thank you Bonnie, that is the first time anyone has told  us to rebid the minimum amount.

Janette, hope you manage to be able to do that given that the system has other ideas

A

[grayjay]

@ Bonnie:

I might have missed your answer, but I still don't know if I will only be able to bid once I have paid in full, which in my country is ( by law) just 4 weeks before the cruise begins - two months later as others. Of course I could make full payments earlier but I would not be happy with that kind of "solution".

Secondly - this is new - will all travel agencies have to agree to transferring bids or can that still be done directly via "My account" on Azamara's website?

Thank you for your answer.

[BBMacLaird]

40 minutes ago, grayjay said:

@ Bonnie:

I might have missed your answer, but I still don't know if I will only be able to bid once I have paid in full, which in my country is ( by law) just 4 weeks before the cruise begins - two months later as others. Of course I could make full payments earlier but I would not be happy with that kind of "solution".

Secondly - this is new - will all travel agencies have to agree to transferring bids or can that still be done directly via "My account" on Azamara's website?

Thank you for your answer.

Hi grayjay, I’m working on getting an answer for you re the timing of intl final payments.

Im not clear on your second question. 

[BBMacLaird]

1 hour ago, uktog said:

Thank you Bonnie, that is the first time anyone has told  us to rebid the minimum amount.

Janette, hope you manage to be able to do that given that the system has other ideas

A

Hi Ann, bullet B of my post 243 is verbatim from our LCV Ambassador Patty 🙂

[grayjay]

4 minutes ago, BBMacLaird said:

Hi grayjay, I’m working on getting an answer for you re the timing of intl final payments.

Im not clear on your second question. 

Hi Bonnie - that was REALLY fast!! Even if I'm not sure if I will try to upgrade because I've already got a good location it will still be interesting to know!

Regarding my second question I meant that we usually book through a very competent British/German travel agency but I'm not sure if I would have to bid through that agency ( if they are willing to participate in the program) or if I could do that via the account I have on the Azamara website for my cruise.

I have now applied again for getting e-mails, both on the German and on the international website - so far I haven't received anything... Let's wait and see!

Thank you again!

[BBMacLaird]

Hi Grayjay, 

if you book through an agency that has *opted out* of our Upgrade program your booking would be ineligible so it would not even be possible for you to bypass the agency and bid online for an Upgrade through our website.

 

I hope you get our mailings!

 

[DebbieMacG]

2 hours ago, BBMacLaird said:

Just to clarify re old upgrade requests....

A. All upgrades for March have been assigned. 

B. we will be protecting old upgrade requests for sailings departing April through June 30, 2019, meaning that we will give these priority once you rebid the minimum amount using the new system with a confirmed credit card. There is a deadline though so please resubmit bids by April 01. Thus please resubmit soon if you are sailing in April, May or June!

C. All others should bid or rebid when eligible, meaning after full payment.

 

Here is the webpage for our Azamara Upgrade. 

https://www.azamaraclubcruises.com/int/azamara-upgrade-program

 

 

Bonnie did you get any answers about people who needed an accessible cabins or showers etc been able to still bid but having the “deal breaker”clause you mentioned?

 

many thanks