Azamara Circle and Celebrity Captains Club reciprocity and B2B questions

[clojacks]

My wife and I just booked our first Azamara cruise in the form of a Back2Back for next July and August. When I log in to my Azamara account, it shows the same number of points I have in my Captains Club account, which gives me Elite Level perks on Celebrity and shows me as Discovery level on Azamara. We have never sailed Azamara, but I was under the impression that the reciprocity agreement was gone? Is this reciprocity scheduled to disappear or are these perks going to carry with me because we booked while it was still in place on the Azamara website? On Celebrity, we were able to take advantage of a 1 cabin category upgrade, but I notice that that isn't printed on the Azamara Circle sheet of benefits.

 

Also, after we booked our B2B, I discovered that Azamara offers OBC as a perk for booking B2B's? Is this still in place and do I need to request it or is it automatically factored in?

[jelayne]

Here is a link to a thread that addresses the reciprocity with the sale of Azamara.  
 

 

We have sailed Azamara previously so we will retain our combined X and Azamara points.  What isn’t clear ( at least to me) was how will cruises booked before the sale be handled. 
 

There is no 1 category upgrade perk on Azamara.  I can’t help with your B2B OBC question.  There is OBC for booking onboard and a reduced deposit. 
The Azamara Circle perks are much different than the CaptIns Club perks.   We really miss the laundry perks from Celebrity.  We have a 17N combined land (5N) and cruise 12N .  We were told only the cruise part qualifies for the 1 bag of laundry per stateroom per 7 night voyage.  

[laurieb]

You'll need to request the B2B OBC:

https://www.azamara.com/plan/back-to-back-voyages

 

[TeaBag]

I applied and got it on both legs, but I never got new documents showing it on the second leg.  I am really very pleasantly surprised that it is $400/segment.  That is very generous.

 

I am in the same boat as you clojacks, I booked our first Azamara before the sale happened.  On my account page, my Celebrity tier points are still showing as well as Discovery Plus.

Edited April 12, 2021 by TeaBag

[jelayne]

Clojacks did you book before or after the sale closed on March 19th?  
 

We booked our cruise in December, 2020 before the sale was announced.  We are hoping that since when we booked we would have earned  points on our combined X & A accounts that we will get credit on both lines.  🤞

[clojacks]

1 hour ago, jelayne said:

Clojacks did you book before or after the sale closed on March 19th?  
 

We booked our cruise in December, 2020 before the sale was announced.  We are hoping that since when we booked we would have earned  points on our combined X & A accounts that we will get credit on both lines.  🤞

I actually just booked today, so after. But my points still show as if nothing has changed....

[Host Jazzbeau]

We know that the loyalty systems will split at some point, but we don't know when that point is.  Setting up a completely new IT system is very complicated, so Azamara may continue to use RCG's system for quite a while.  Whether they will try to separate the loyalty programs during that period is unknown [I think – I'm open to correction]

[Host Jazzbeau]

As of today, April 14, 2021, Celebrity's PowerUp points for March were added to both my Celebrity AND Azamara loyalty accounts.

[TeaBag]

Mine too.  Since I haven't sailed Azamara yet, I'm not sure if this will benefit me.  i did book before they were sold.

[BCHappyGal]

I too booked way before the sale and had counted on getting my Captain's Club Loyalty Poimts ... now I am in limbo not knowing!  We sail on Nov 30th (hopefully)

[clojacks]

3 minutes ago, BCHappyGal said:

I too booked way before the sale and had counted on getting my Captain's Club Loyalty Poimts ... now I am in limbo not knowing!  We sail on Nov 30th (hopefully)

What I was told by an Azamara representative a couple of days ago, was that we would NOT lose our status earned, whether through Azamara or Celebrity, once the split processes, but that we would just not gain reciprocity points beyond that. I hope she understood that all of my points were earned through Celebrity....I can't say with 100% certainty that it was discussed. The context of my call was that I wanted to book a couple of unlimited WIFI packages for our cruises next summer (2022) because the status that Azamara showed us at online, provided a 50% discount. She said I couldn't do that before boarding, but once we boarded, again, as I said, in summer 2022, we would STILL get our 50% discount earned on Celebrity.

 

I mentioned in another thread, that she also told me that even though Choice Air will "probably" disappear as a relationship, it will most likely be the last thing to separate and probably not until well later in the year.

[excitedofharpenden]

Has anyone emailed Azamara Circle -  loyalty@azamara.com?  I think for a definitive answer that is what I'd do. I know that Sandra, the Loyalty Ambassador is there.  The wording of the questions and answers I find a bit hard to understand. 

 

Phil 

Edited April 15, 2021 by excitedofharpenden

[Mackdogmolly]

22 hours ago, clojacks said:

Choice Air will "probably" disappear as a relationship, it will most likely be the last thing to separate and probably not until well later in the year.

Hmmm. I wonder what would happen if you booked flights with ChoiceAir for a cruise in November and then they severed the relationship in October?

[clojacks]

5 minutes ago, Mackdogmolly said:

Hmmm. I wonder what would happen if you booked flights with ChoiceAir for a cruise in November and then they severed the relationship in October?

She said any booked flights would be honored.

[marinaro44]

2 hours ago, clojacks said:

She said any booked flights would be honored.

Your booking code is with the airline.  ChoiceAir acts like an agent.

[luv2travel90266]

On 4/15/2021 at 7:52 AM, clojacks said:

What I was told by an Azamara representative a couple of days ago, was that we would NOT lose our status earned, whether through Azamara or Celebrity, once the split processes, but that we would just not gain reciprocity points beyond that. I hope she understood that all of my points were earned through Celebrity....I can't say with 100% certainty that it was discussed. The context of my call was that I wanted to book a couple of unlimited WIFI packages for our cruises next summer (2022) because the status that Azamara showed us at online, provided a 50% discount. She said I couldn't do that before boarding, but once we boarded, again, as I said, in summer 2022, we would STILL get our 50% discount earned on Celebrity.

 

I mentioned in another thread, that she also told me that even though Choice Air will "probably" disappear as a relationship, it will most likely be the last thing to separate and probably not until well later in the year.

I just checked the azamara website. My status carried over from Celebrity and I have yet to do my 1st azamara cruise 

[jelayne]

1 hour ago, luv2travel90266 said:

I just checked the azamara website. My status carried over from Celebrity and I have yet to do my 1st azamara cruise 

 Currently they are still operating on the Celebrity IT systems which always combined points and status.  At some point the points for future cruises on either line will not count toward the other line and the unanswered questions seems to be

1.  If you  have not sailed on Azamara  before and you sail after they spin off the  IT system will the past X points count?  so if you are Elite on X on your 1st A cruise  is after they set up their own system will you be be Discoverer or start from scratch? 
2. If you booked before the sale was announced will a future cruise on A earn points on X or reverse will a sailing on X add to your A points?

We have 40 nights booked on A for which we expected to get points on X also 

About 270 points.  

[uktog]

7 hours ago, jelayne said:

 Currently they are still operating on the Celebrity IT systems which always combined points and status.  At some point the points for future cruises on either line will not count toward the other line and the unanswered questions seems to be

1.  If you  have not sailed on Azamara  before and you sail after they spin off the  IT system will the past X points count?  so if you are Elite on X on your 1st A cruise  is after they set up their own system will you be be Discoverer or start from scratch? 
2. If you booked before the sale was announced will a future cruise on A earn points on X or reverse will a sailing on X add to your A points?

We have 40 nights booked on A for which we expected to get points on X also 

About 270 points.  

The only person who can give you a definitive answer on your situation is Azamara Circle representative Sandra - you should email her (loyalty@azamara.com)  Otherwise its all just guesswork.  And if they say they do not know then thats the transition we are in for now.  As in all demergers there are winners and losers.  I am sure like most new cos Azamara will want to avoid too many losers

[excitedofharpenden]

6 minutes ago, uktog said:

The only person who can give you a definitive answer on your situation is Azamara Circle representative Sandra - you should email her (loyalty@azamara.com)  Otherwise its all just guesswork.  And if they say they do not know then thats the transition we are in for now.  As in all demergers there are winners and losers.  I am sure like most new cos Azamara will want to avoid too many losers

As I suggested in post 12. 

 

Phil 

[jelayne]

3 hours ago, excitedofharpenden said:

As I suggested in post 12. 

 

Phil 

Which so far hasn’t been responded to except for the auto generated  Thanks for reaching out to Azamara email. 

[excitedofharpenden]

1 hour ago, jelayne said:

Which so far hasn’t been responded to except for the auto generated  Thanks for reaching out to Azamara email. 

Give it a little time and they should respond. If not send a chaser. This is where we miss Bonnie McLaird, the Chief Blogging Officer for Azamara who could pick these things up and run with them. 

 

Phil 

[crazyman3]

On 4/19/2021 at 5:07 PM, excitedofharpenden said:

Give it a little time and they should respond. If not send a chaser. This is where we miss Bonnie McLaird, the Chief Blogging Officer for Azamara who could pick these things up and run with them. 

 

Phil 

 

I contacted Az loyalty regarding this topic a week ago and have not even had my email acknowledged.

 

Where is Bonnie? What's happened to her?

[uktog]

7 minutes ago, crazyman3 said:

 

I contacted Az loyalty regarding this topic a week ago and have not even had my email acknowledged.

 

Where is Bonnie? What's happened to her?

Bonnie posted a year ago that her role wasn’t being kept on during the suspension of sailing. I expect in due course Azamara will evaluate whether they require a role like that which was part of the marketing function, a role like her predecessor Bill had which had a more direct route into customer service/CEO or no role at all. 
I hope they have a role but perhaps one totally service focused and with some clout and not a “post box role”

 

[excitedofharpenden]

14 minutes ago, crazyman3 said:

 

I contacted Az loyalty regarding this topic a week ago and have not even had my email acknowledged.

 

Where is Bonnie? What's happened to her?

Phil 

 

 

[GlobalMethod]

17 hours ago, crazyman3 said:

 

I contacted Az loyalty regarding this topic a week ago and have not even had my email acknowledged.

 

Where is Bonnie? What's happened to her?

I'm sure you saw the responses on Bonnie ... what an asset she was ... however, presently there isn't enough money coming in to any of the cruise companies to invest in customer service ... some are still struggling with refunds ... they all have a very 'skeleton' crew working, at best ... once we get through this coronavirus situation and travel is 'back to normal' we may see customer service back to normal ...