Azamara refund problems (merged)

[Foxie02]

1 minute ago, Penton said:

I was booked on the 26th April Azamara Journey cruise from Dubai to Athens and requested a full refund on 25th March when I received an email from Azamara advising that the sailing was cancelled. 
I am so pleased to report that today I have now received a full refund. It came in three payments, shore excursion, partial fees and taxes and then remaining balance, all the figures are correct.

I was just about to give up hope and it took three emails to UK Customer Services and a phone call last week. I just want to share this news for those of you who are still waiting,  there is light at the end of the tunnel!

🍾🍷 Congratulations! crack open a bottle!!

[uktog]

It is good that refunds are coming through and some future cruise certificates are also hitting peoples mail boxes.  There are some outstanding questions that have been raised on these boards which remind unanswered and  I think it would be helpful if the Azamara Team could respond to here so that understanding is shared.  It might help Azamara's cause and clear up misconceptions.

 

1.  Some people are getting refunds/certificates and others on the same cruises are hearing nothing.  Likewise cruisers from later sailings are getting their refunds/certificates and others on earlier cruises are still waiting.  What is the process for handling a particular cruise that you can share?  Is work handled sequentially, do refunds over future cruise credits get priority or do some agencies get priority?

 

2.  People are reporting receiving lots of different payments for a single booking.  Can you outline what types of refunds guests should receive and in what sequence?  Is it port taxes in one payment and the balance in the second or what?  Is it possible that Azamara has made payments but Travel agents have still not passed them on and how can the guest get to the root cause of any delays?

 

3.  If a guest opts for a future cruise credit do they also get the port taxes back separately and if so who sends it to them - Azamara or their travel agent?

 

4.  Are Future Cruise Certificates issued by Azamara to UK guests ABTA/ATOL protected?

 

5.  If a refund relates to a booking made on board, when rebooking using a Future credit not on board is the loyalty discount available or not?

 

I think these are the main outstanding questions in addition to the ones Bayanno asked.  Please recognise that our travel agents are not a source of advice for many of us at this stage and it is evident certainly in the UK that there is a lot of misinformation coming through those travel agents who are answering queries.

 

Thanks for your help

[manc]

We are in the UK. Our round Ireland trip due to start on 23 May was cancelled. Within days we received the deposit (£500) and 10 days ago the full outstanding amount. We use a TA and they handled everything  

A second cruise they did Lift and Shift 

For a thurs they saw a massive reduction in price since our booking and cancelled and rebooked savings us 1000s of pounds.  3 jobs executed perfectly for us in recent days. 

[royallondon]

That’s a timely result manc, but unfortunately not a typical timeline for settlements.

 

We had an April 26 sailing cancelled mid March and still await a refund of all monies.  This is a typical example of uktog’s first point raised above. 
 

Regards
 

[Foxie02]

8 hours ago, manc said:

We are in the UK. Our round Ireland trip due to start on 23 May was cancelled. Within days we received the deposit (£500) and 10 days ago the full outstanding amount. We use a TA and they handled everything  

A second cruise they did Lift and Shift 

For a thurs they saw a massive reduction in price since our booking and cancelled and rebooked savings us 1000s of pounds.  3 jobs executed perfectly for us in recent days. 

WOW!!  I want their name😊👍

[Baynanno1]

Good points @uktog hopefully there may be some answers forthcoming!

 

The cynic in me is not holding her breath, as my post on "A Message from Your Azamara Team was "liked" by the team, but no comment at all was made.

[kenasch2]

I'm still owed a final refund amount and I cannot get an answer when it will be paid. This was for the April 18th Pursuit cruise. I did receive several refunds in amounts that did not relate to anything. The final amount due is $1100. The lack of communication from Azamara is disappointing.

[benjoon]

 

I would like to ask a question about a FCC that I received for a cruise I ended up cancelling that I had book for my daughter. I booked it while on a LCV cruise in Alaska last year. The offer was half price deposits. We paid the deposit and was also told that if we wanted to cancel it would be a charge of $25. This offer was only during the LCV cruise. We booked on this basis as we were not sure if our daughter would be able to join us at that time. Now we have been sent a FCC for $100 stating the rest was cancellation fees. We paid $300 for her booking. This is not the offer we were given and would never have booked her a cabin if we were going to lose that much. Can someone please explain why this should happen. There is a rather long wait on the phone to try and get an answer. We would have also preferred a refund.

[uktog]

On 6/18/2020 at 11:28 AM, uktog said:

It is good that refunds are coming through and some future cruise certificates are also hitting peoples mail boxes.  There are some outstanding questions that have been raised on these boards which remind unanswered and  I think it would be helpful if the Azamara Team could respond to here so that understanding is shared.  It might help Azamara's cause and clear up misconceptions.

 

1.  Some people are getting refunds/certificates and others on the same cruises are hearing nothing.  Likewise cruisers from later sailings are getting their refunds/certificates and others on earlier cruises are still waiting.  What is the process for handling a particular cruise that you can share?  Is work handled sequentially, do refunds over future cruise credits get priority or do some agencies get priority?

 

2.  People are reporting receiving lots of different payments for a single booking.  Can you outline what types of refunds guests should receive and in what sequence?  Is it port taxes in one payment and the balance in the second or what?  Is it possible that Azamara has made payments but Travel agents have still not passed them on and how can the guest get to the root cause of any delays?

 

3.  If a guest opts for a future cruise credit do they also get the port taxes back separately and if so who sends it to them - Azamara or their travel agent?

 

4.  Are Future Cruise Certificates issued by Azamara to UK guests ABTA/ATOL protected?

 

5.  If a refund relates to a booking made on board, when rebooking using a Future credit not on board is the loyalty discount available or not?

 

I think these are the main outstanding questions in addition to the ones Bayanno asked.  Please recognise that our travel agents are not a source of advice for many of us at this stage and it is evident certainly in the UK that there is a lot of misinformation coming through those travel agents who are answering queries.

 

Thanks for your help

Any chance of a response to these regularly asked questions here?  Some the questions that were summarised here as the remained unanswered have been waiting over two months for responses. Thank you. 

PS They may or may not relate to bookings I have made but are here because these boards are where we can see validated information shared and avoid tying up our time and your time on telephones. 

[Mackdogmolly]

Thanks for continuing to nudge for answers, Uktog. My own experience has been confusing. I have received FCC for my cancelled 6/8 cruise, but continue to be slugging it out with ChoiceAir about my flight refunds. I finally got a random amount of refund that they couldn’t explain and couldn’t tell me when to expect the rest. I haven’t seen the refund for our port charges and fees. Emails to various addresses have gone unanswered.

Betsey

Edited June 27, 2020 by Mackdogmolly

[suzyluvs2cruise]

@Azamara Team  Hoping you can respond to uktog's questions in post 752 on this thread. 

[kenasch2]

I finally received the rest of my refund for my April 18th Pursuit Cruise. Only it was in two more amounts but the total of all the refunds equaled exactly what I paid. 

[Ithikan]

Called our TA yesterday to check on the missing refund, requested March 23.  She called AZ and was told that it had been "processed incorrectly," would now be passed along to the 'specialist team,' and thank you very much for contacting us.

So, another two to three months of waiting and then I expect everything will be fine...

[BerniceH]

We have received everything back from hotels and flights (less commission), but only a partial refund (5 weeks ago) from Azamara - still almost NZ$2,000 short.  Azamara needs to honour its responsibility to its cruising public.  More than 3 months to wait for a total refund is unacceptable!   I wonder if it will survive after all the negative press. 

[Smurfette2]

I took the route of disputing charges with my credit card.  This is proving to be a more involved process than I'd hoped.  Out of 5 charges in total, so far 2 appear to have been resolved, 1 has been partially paid, and 2 more are unpaid. I filled out some more paperwork yesterday to continue the process.  😑

[Grandma Cruising]

My TA has just contacted Azamara about the balance payment date for our 24 October cruise. It’s now been moved from 2 July to 19 August. She’s also confirmed with them that if we decide to cancel before then, the deposit we paid can be used as an FCC against our already booked November 2021 cruise, it definitely does not have to be against a new booking.

[royallondon]

Having had an April Pursuit cruise cancelled in March I thought it was time to become more proactive in seeking a refund.  So far, I’ve been relatively happy in accepting the difficulties this terrible virus has had on everyone and have respected emails from both Azamara and my TA to be patient as refunds may take up to 45 days, then 60 etc to be made.
Today however at 90+ days I thought I would ring Azamara in a suspicion that they may well have made payment to my TA.  My suspicion was correct.  Azamara made 2 payments to the TA on the 18 May and 1 June.  The lady at Azamara answered immediately and was polite, helpful and apologetic.  I’m hoping the experience I’m about to receive from my TA will be as equally good.

 

Regards
 

 

 

 

[uktog]

20 minutes ago, royallondon said:

Having had an April Pursuit cruise cancelled in March I thought it was time to become more proactive in seeking a refund.  So far, I’ve been relatively happy in accepting the difficulties this terrible virus has had on everyone and have respected emails from both Azamara and my TA to be patient as refunds may take up to 45 days, then 60 etc to be made.
Today however at 90+ days I thought I would ring Azamara in a suspicion that they may well have made payment to my TA.  My suspicion was correct.  Azamara made 2 payments to the TA on the 18 May and 1 June.  The lady at Azamara answered immediately and was polite, helpful and apologetic.  I’m hoping the experience I’m about to receive from my TA will be as equally good.

 

Regards
 

 

 

 

Thanks for the update.  

It is appalling that agents who are getting away with this.

When this is all over,  Azamara should set standards of expectations of agents and if they cannot meet them they should not do business with them.

My agent has told me in connection with my cruises that there are no port tax refunds due on two of my three cancelled cruises and £6 each on the third.  Would you believe them?

[Rabo]

14 minutes ago, uktog said:

It is appalling that agents who are getting away with this.

It appears that much (not all) of the negative comments over the past few months toward Azamara should have been directed at travel agents. I guess we were lucky. Our TA took care of everything efficiently, and facilitated our getting FCCs and refunds promptly.

It’s a shame that we cannot mention travel agents by name/company here. It would be a great place to share both good and bad experiences with our fellow travelers.

Edited June 30, 2020 by Rabo

[norn iron]

44 minutes ago, royallondon said:

Having had an April Pursuit cruise cancelled in March I thought it was time to become more proactive in seeking a refund.  So far, I’ve been relatively happy in accepting the difficulties this terrible virus has had on everyone and have respected emails from both Azamara and my TA to be patient as refunds may take up to 45 days, then 60 etc to be made.
Today however at 90+ days I thought I would ring Azamara in a suspicion that they may well have made payment to my TA.  My suspicion was correct.  Azamara made 2 payments to the TA on the 18 May and 1 June.  The lady at Azamara answered immediately and was polite, helpful and apologetic.  I’m hoping the experience I’m about to receive from my TA will be as equally good.

 

Regards
 

Please keep us updated with the response you get from your TA, and how long it takes to transfer the refund.

 

 

 

 

[uktog]

8 minutes ago, Rabo said:

It appears that much (not all) of the negative comments over the past few months toward Azamara should have been directed at travel agents. I guess we were lucky. Our TA took care of everything efficiently, and facilitated our getting FCCs and refunds promptly.

It’s a shame that we cannot mention travel agents by name/company here. It would be a great place to share both good and bad experiences with our fellow travelers.

I agree

But it would have helped if Azamara had explained the process clearly in answer to the question asked here, particularly in relation to the UK where the agency relationship is different from the USA in terms of who holds your money etc.  This has been asked for on numerous occasions and ignored every time

The question has been asked several times here but they duck coming back with the simple answers in relation to who refunds port charges, are they refunded in every situation eg where FCC are taken as well as when refunds are given and how can we get breakdowns on the refunds when numerous small amounts are paid.

I cannot understand given that Azamara had our email addresses (hence how we learned of the cancellations) they did not have a standard communication that each time they paid over to your TA they copied you in for information

 

Edited June 30, 2020 by uktog

[lenoirm]

25 minutes ago, uktog said:

 

I cannot understand given that Azamara had our email addresses (hence how we learned of the cancellations) they did not have a standard communication that each time they paid over to your TA they copied you in for information

It would also have helped if Azamara had send an email to confirm and explain partial reimbursements to their US customers and their TA

My excellent TA was never involved in the processus.

and was equally baffled by the delays and fractional payments .

I discovered the payments when checking my bank account and credit card statements

I am not complaining, I got my money back in the end but the processus was protracted and nebulous.

Let me add that Azamara may not be alone in this mess, I am waiting for Crystal to refund my money on a canceled Cruise in the fall and the minimum wait is 90 days with equally poor communication.

 

Oh the stories we will tell on our next cruises...

 

Wear your mask, wash your hands, stay healthy 

 

Micheline 

 

[manc]

We got our deposit paid on board in a few days and our TA paid the full amount we had paid to them within a month. There were no taxes or fees retained. We are in the UK. The TA is a franchise and admin phoned as soon as they received the refund and told me when it would hit my account. A fantastic service. So sad that all TAs don't operate so openly and to support the customer.

[anniesh]

We were due to be on the same cruise as  manc.

We also paid our deposit onboard and received this back from Azamara very promptly after cancellation.

The large UK TA  we used  have consistently insisted they are waiting for the refund from Azamara.

Yesterday I spoke to Azamara.

It transpires we will wait forever for Azamara to refund as they never received the final payment.

They have an agreement with the TA  whereby the payment is wired across 2 weeks before sailing.

As the cruise was cancelled before then,the TA has the money.

[uktog]

27 minutes ago, anniesh said:

We were due to be on the same cruise as  manc.

We also paid our deposit onboard and received this back from Azamara very promptly after cancellation.

The large UK TA  we used  have consistently insisted they are waiting for the refund from Azamara.

Yesterday I spoke to Azamara.

It transpires we will wait forever for Azamara to refund as they never received the final payment.

They have an agreement with the TA  whereby the payment is wired across 2 weeks before sailing.

As the cruise was cancelled before then,the TA has the money.

That is bad. I wonder how many others are caught that way. Can’t Azamara intervene in UK. They must know the agencies involved they should be putting the pressure on them and should be advising all the guests regardless of who they booked with who each element of their refund will be coming from. After all these agencies are damaging Azamara’s reputation even more. 
Such a shame we can’t name and shame. Just a question is this TA internet based only and do they sell only cruises? 

Edited July 1, 2020 by uktog