Booked Thursday, email with OBC offer arrives Friday!

[margbem]

We booked via a TA who we always use - very good but closed today so we can’t ask them this question until Monday so I thought I would ask here if anyone has been in this situation.

 

So we put our deposit down on a September cruise on Thursday. Yesterday I got an email from Azamara with an offer of $500 onboard credit and free wifi if we booked between yesterday and the 15th Feb.

 

Is it worth asking the question whether they would allow us these perks as we booked just the day before the offer began? Fingers crossed!

[uktog]

You are in the UK, so we have much stricter booking terms than the US. 
Certainly worth asking but do so in hope rather than expectation. Good luck! 

Edited February 6, 2021 by uktog

[margbem]

Just now, uktog said:

Certainly worth asking but do so in hope rather than expectation. Good luck! 

Thanks!

[excitedofharpenden]

Yes, definitely worth asking. I hope your ta can come through for you. Good luck!

 

Phil 

[royallondon]

How frustrating!  As uktog has said, if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

 

 

[Zwaantje]

What's about the best price guarantee in "cruise with confidence"? As far as I understand it should work.

 

[margbem]

3 hours ago, Zwaantje said:

What's about the best price guarantee in "cruise with confidence"? As far as I understand it should work.

 

Will try that, thanks!

[Travels with Lisa]

We have had the same experience in the past.  It should be easy enough to rebook with the new promotion.

 

[uktog]

55 minutes ago, Travels with Lisa said:

We have had the same experience in the past.  It should be easy enough to rebook with the new promotion.

 

Was this with a UK booking as they are tricky 

[upwarduk]

4 hours ago, Zwaantje said:

What's about the best price guarantee in "cruise with confidence"? As far as I understand it should work.

 

I have read in the past that Best Price guarantee only applies to US bookings. Not sure of the ‘cruise with confidence’ rules.

[combine]

@margbemThe Cruise with Confidence promotion is listed on the UK site. When you click on ‘view all voyages’ , 159 cruises are listed where this is available. Hope yours is one of  them! 
 

As with many promotions you may find that although there is a nice offer, the base price may have been increased and its actually not cost effective to swap to it, but fingers  crossed. 🤞

[margbem]

Thanks, everyone. Having looked at the Cruise with confidence details these suggest that Azamara will honour price drops but also promotions, so we hope that  we are covered under the promotions section. As we are UK based we cannot cancel and rebook without losing our deposit.

[Host Jazzbeau]

I was surprised the first time I learned that Azamara's marketing for US and UK are so different.  Now I am seeing a similar thing on the Celebrity forum about their Power Up points promotions – e.g. the recent Apex webinar was initially restricted to US customers [I assume they meant North American, but that's what Celebrity said!] only.  Is this just the Royal Caribbean Group, or do other cruise lines also have vastly different offers for UK vs US?

[uktog]

1 hour ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

I was surprised the first time I learned that Azamara's marketing for US and UK are so different.  Now I am seeing a similar thing on the Celebrity forum about their Power Up points promotions – e.g. the recent Apex webinar was initially restricted to US customers [I assume they meant North American, but that's what Celebrity said!] only.  Is this just the Royal Caribbean Group, or do other cruise lines also have vastly different offers for UK vs US?

From what I have seen many do.  Viking, Holland America and Seabourn are ones I have seen or experienced- same for river cruises.  

[Host Jazzbeau]

32 minutes ago, uktog said:

From what I have seen many do.  Viking, Holland America and Seabourn are ones I have seen or experienced- same for river cruises.  

Well I hope that some times the difference works in your favor!

[Cruise Wonderland]

10 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Is this just the Royal Caribbean Group, or do other cruise lines also have vastly different offers for UK vs US?

Norwegian Cruise Line does.

 

Bookings in North America and Asia always have refundable deposit. But bookings in Europe have non-refundable deposit, so it is more difficult for Europeans to cancel and rebook in order to get the newer offers.

[uktog]

8 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Well I hope that some times the difference works in your favor!

Very rarely- it used to be argued we paid a premium because we had better bankruptcy protection but now with payment by credit card everyone has that. 

The biggest bugbear is the freedom some guests have to cancel with a small penalty whereas we lose our deposits.    I can see no reason why the new Azamara couldn’t break rank from this industry practice and put us (and Australia) on the same footing as the US for deposits and final payment dates. 

[hamrag]

12 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

I was surprised the first time I learned that Azamara's marketing for US and UK are so different.  Now I am seeing a similar thing on the Celebrity forum about their Power Up points promotions – e.g. the recent Apex webinar was initially restricted to US customers [I assume they meant North American, but that's what Celebrity said!] only.  Is this just the Royal Caribbean Group, or do other cruise lines also have vastly different offers for UK vs US?

Both NCL and MSC pricing is different for US and UK, but it is not consistently one or other. Fortunately both lines allow UK residents to book with a USA agency, and we have done so a number of times. Probably in an equal number of cases the differential has been negligible or a better price in the UK.

 

But, for Azamara and all RCI lines, UK residents can book with USA agencies. We did so for both the cruises we had, and saved significant amounts on the UK rates....and also got a ridiculously high amount of OBC.

 

It's definitely worth comparing prices.

[margbem]

2 hours ago, hamrag said:

Both NCL and MSC pricing is different for US and UK, but it is not consistently one or other. Fortunately both lines allow UK residents to book with a USA agency, and we have done so a number of times. Probably in an equal number of cases the differential has been negligible or a better price in the UK.

 

But, for Azamara and all RCI lines, UK residents can book with USA agencies. We did so for both the cruises we had, and saved significant amounts on the UK rates....and also got a ridiculously high amount of OBC.

 

It's definitely worth comparing prices.

Is that even with the low value of the pound sterling?

[uktog]

6 minutes ago, margbem said:

Is that even with the low value of the pound sterling?

That is the huge risk you take. If you are booking something and sailing soon it is something you can manage better than a far out booking. We have done it once but the recent volatility of sterling my answer for now is not again 

[margbem]

4 minutes ago, uktog said:

That is the huge risk you take. If you are booking something and sailing soon it is something you can manage better than a far out booking. We have done it once but the recent volatility of sterling my answer for now is not again 

It would have to be a huge difference for us to risk it!

[upwarduk]

At one time you could only use a US TA, if you had a postal address in USA.

US passengers used to book multiple cruises and cancel some, when they had decided which cruise they wanted to take when it came to paying in full.

This practice has largely ceased with the introduction of NRD, due to numerous complaints from UK cruisers.

[hamrag]

9 hours ago, margbem said:

Is that even with the low value of the pound sterling?

Yes, in the case of our Azamara booking made September 2019 for November and December 2019 sailings the dollar pricing was incredibly low compared to the UK and we got large OBC which was not available with a UK booking!

 

We recently booked MSC Yacht Club for nov/dec 2021....yes, I know....and the UK pricing was waaaay better.

 

These contrasting decisions were not affected by the dollar rate, the difference was huge in both cases. It is clear that  most cruiselines have different pricing strategies on either side of the pond and, in  my experience, it is less likely for USA pricing to be more favourable than it was say 3+ years ago.

Edited February 7, 2021 by hamrag

[excitedofharpenden]

18 hours ago, upwarduk said:

At one time you could only use a US TA, if you had a postal address in USA.

US passengers used to book multiple cruises and cancel some, when they had decided which cruise they wanted to take when it came to paying in full.

This practice has largely ceased with the introduction of NRD, due to numerous complaints from UK cruisers.

I'm glad they cracked down on this because it was very annoying when it affected the inventory and what one could book. Not a level playing field for trying to secure a cabin. 

 

Phil 

[excitedofharpenden]

On 2/6/2021 at 9:21 PM, margbem said:

Thanks, everyone. Having looked at the Cruise with confidence details these suggest that Azamara will honour price drops but also promotions, so we hope that  we are covered under the promotions section. As we are UK based we cannot cancel and rebook without losing our deposit.

Please let us know how you get on for reference and good luck!

 

Phil