New website.

[john1970]

I don't expect Oceania to be perfect but am going with an open mind. I am sure Azamara could care less about my revenue but I want to see how the website/back office issues play out before I commit again. At least with Oceania I can log on and service my booking.

[blag]

6 hours ago, Heartfelttraveler said:

For our upcoming cruise in January, final payment is due this month. 

That seems very, very early! 

[Heartfelttraveler]

4 hours ago, blag said:

That seems very, very early! 

My mistake - actually end of next month - August.  120 days.

Edited July 8, 2023 by Heartfelttraveler

[Heartfelttraveler]

7 hours ago, john1970 said:

I don't expect Oceania to be perfect but am going with an open mind. I am sure Azamara could care less about my revenue but I want to see how the website/back office issues play out before I commit again. At least with Oceania I can log on and service my booking.

Have you been on the Oceania website.  They have a new marketing banner.  O'Life is going away and as of itineraries beginning October 1, 2023 they will be "Simply More."  We will no longer be able to book "Cruise Only."  It will be Simply More with or without airfare.

[kent4489]

7 hours ago, Riocca said:

I’m not talking about quality of data that can be addressed and on our accounts has been it’s missing data that is our problem. There’s no way Azamara can address missing data unless someone, in this case the customer, tells them it’s missing.

I’ve told them at least 5 times. Filled out the forms and listed all our past cruises. I was very detailed with sailing date, ship, destination and number of points. Every time, I get a canned reply saying my account is in order. Four months now and it isn’t even close…. But numbers have changed some… no rhyme nor reason to the numbers as they make no sense to our past cruises.

[kent4489]

7 hours ago, kent4489 said:

I thought there was possibly some improvement, but things have just taken a nosedive. Four months...this is ridiculous!

It just gets worse. On June 9th, an Azamara agent told me that I had $900. OBC on each leg (this is before the B2B OBC credit which should be $400. per leg). On June 10th, I called to reconfirm this and was given the same information. But, they could not send me verification at the time. So, I am thinking that is a total of $2,600. OBC for both cruises. Today, I was told that we have $1,000. TOTAL for both cruises and that the B2B OBC has been applied. That's a $1,600 loss on the 2 cruises. I am so tired of this nonsense and do not want to make final payment, but what choice do I have. My TA is not very helpful, but at the moment I'm kind of stuck with her... Never Again! So, I have a couple of days to cancel or pay up...either way, I am not happy. 

Ok, another update… I emailed with my TA. Yesterday, she was on the phone with Azamara for 2 hours. Said she had a very helpful agent. She said he told her that we have $1000. OBC on one cruise and $600. on another and she confirmed that our $400. per segment B2B OBC was not part of that. (Although she feels that Azamara combined our B2B into one booking to avoid giving us our B2B OBC.) So, she is thinking we should have $2400. if they do give us our B2B OBC. At this point, I’ll accept that because I’m sick and tired of dealing with at least 6 different answers about this. However, the AZ agent told her that they will not send her written confirmation and will have coupons for us when we board. So, I still have nothing to show when we are on board what our OBC should be. I have never received anything showing my OBC and it is a different amount every time I speak to someone. I’ll write this off as a bad experience and lesson learned but I will never ever book with Azamara again until this mess is sorted…..and I certainly didn’t think it would be such a disaster 4 months down the road. Personally, I would cancel right now but my husband wants to go and doesn’t get as bent out of shape as I do over this. Actually, right now, I’m pretty furious. I really tried to wait and see, but now that final payment is due I’m disgusted that I have no idea what to expect and apparently Azamara doesn’t care in the least what their customers are dealing with. How difficult would it be to send an email and confirm the OBC? That’s all I’m asking.

 

I’ve given up on them getting our points and status correct at this point. We booked Continent Club and those benefits cover most of our needs.

[terry&mike]

6 hours ago, kent4489 said:

Ok, another update… I emailed with my TA. Yesterday, she was on the phone with Azamara for 2 hours. Said she had a very helpful agent. She said he told her that we have $1000. OBC on one cruise and $600. on another and she confirmed that our $400. per segment B2B OBC was not part of that. (Although she feels that Azamara combined our B2B into one booking to avoid giving us our B2B OBC.) So, she is thinking we should have $2400. if they do give us our B2B OBC. At this point, I’ll accept that because I’m sick and tired of dealing with at least 6 different answers about this. However, the AZ agent told her that they will not send her written confirmation and will have coupons for us when we board. So, I still have nothing to show when we are on board what our OBC should be. I have never received anything showing my OBC and it is a different amount every time I speak to someone. I’ll write this off as a bad experience and lesson learned but I will never ever book with Azamara again until this mess is sorted…..and I certainly didn’t think it would be such a disaster 4 months down the road. Personally, I would cancel right now but my husband wants to go and doesn’t get as bent out of shape as I do over this. Actually, right now, I’m pretty furious. I really tried to wait and see, but now that final payment is due I’m disgusted that I have no idea what to expect and apparently Azamara doesn’t care in the least what their customers are dealing with. How difficult would it be to send an email and confirm the OBC? That’s all I’m asking.

 

I’ve given up on them getting our points and status correct at this point. We booked Continent Club and those benefits cover most of our needs.

I encourage you to not give up on this, and continue to try to get this in writing from Azamara. It may take a few calls to get connected to a rep who is willing to assist. I was able to get an email in regards to each of my bookings, for myself and for clients, that said this (booking number modified for privacy):

 

We understand that onboard credit (OBC) amounts on Azamara.com are incorrect or not visible for some of your reservations. We are working on fixing this. In the meantime, please know we have the original OBC amount in our system as reflected below.

 

280XXXX - USD$1000

[Riocca]

7 hours ago, kent4489 said:

Ok, another update… I emailed with my TA. Yesterday, she was on the phone with Azamara for 2 hours. Said she had a very helpful agent. She said he told her that we have $1000. OBC on one cruise and $600. on another and she confirmed that our $400. per segment B2B OBC was not part of that. (Although she feels that Azamara combined our B2B into one booking to avoid giving us our B2B OBC.) So, she is thinking we should have $2400. if they do give us our B2B OBC. At this point, I’ll accept that because I’m sick and tired of dealing with at least 6 different answers about this. However, the AZ agent told her that they will not send her written confirmation and will have coupons for us when we board. So, I still have nothing to show when we are on board what our OBC should be. I have never received anything showing my OBC and it is a different amount every time I speak to someone. I’ll write this off as a bad experience and lesson learned but I will never ever book with Azamara again until this mess is sorted…..and I certainly didn’t think it would be such a disaster 4 months down the road. Personally, I would cancel right now but my husband wants to go and doesn’t get as bent out of shape as I do over this. Actually, right now, I’m pretty furious. I really tried to wait and see, but now that final payment is due I’m disgusted that I have no idea what to expect and apparently Azamara doesn’t care in the least what their customers are dealing with. How difficult would it be to send an email and confirm the OBC? That’s all I’m asking.

 

I’ve given up on them getting our points and status correct at this point. We booked Continent Club and those benefits cover most of our needs.

I don’t understand the combining of two cruises into one booking I’ve never heard of Azamara doing this before and it’s certainly not our experience with our own October b2b bookings. In fact they’ve always been adamant that any b2b bookings are separate and OBC could not be carried over from one cruise to the next.

If your bookings were made on the old system Azamara will have issued booking confirmations showing the value of the OBC, unfortunately the new system just shows coupons with no value but Azamara’s agent will be able to see the value of the coupons. Either way your agent should have copies of the booking confirmations, we book direct but the confirmations are issued immediately the booking is made usually while I’m still on the phone so I can check the details.

 

[uktog]

43 minutes ago, Riocca said:

I don’t understand the combining of two cruises into one booking I’ve never heard of Azamara doing this before and it’s certainly not our experience with our own October b2b bookings. In fact they’ve always been adamant that any b2b bookings are separate and OBC could not be carried over from one cruise to the next.

If your bookings were made on the old system Azamara will have issued booking confirmations showing the value of the OBC, unfortunately the new system just shows coupons with no value but Azamara’s agent will be able to see the value of the coupons. Either way your agent should have copies of the booking confirmations, we book direct but the confirmations are issued immediately the booking is made usually while I’m still on the phone so I can check the details.

 

Seaware does offer the option to combine reservations and I know when talking with Ryzard last year, this was something they wanted to see happen onboard so guests could carry over their OBC and not have the issues some b2b guest have.  However I did not envisage you would lose out on OBC from how he spoke

[Riocca]

34 minutes ago, uktog said:

Seaware does offer the option to combine reservations and I know when talking with Ryzard last year, this was something they wanted to see happen onboard so guests could carry over their OBC and not have the issues some b2b guest have.  However I did not envisage you would lose out on OBC from how he spoke

Would it be only if you kept the same cabin? As I say we have a b2b in October but have to change cabins and there’s been no mention about this and I’ve spoken to a few agents recently regarding the bookings.

[uktog]

'i suspect the current agents do not understand the subtlety - you will find out at the ship.  Given that your "finance" is driven from your reservation number it is not stateroom driven.  You would have the same folio number each cruise going forward

[kent4489]

3 hours ago, Riocca said:

I don’t understand the combining of two cruises into one booking I’ve never heard of Azamara doing this before and it’s certainly not our experience with our own October b2b bookings. In fact they’ve always been adamant that any b2b bookings are separate and OBC could not be carried over from one cruise to the next.

If your bookings were made on the old system Azamara will have issued booking confirmations showing the value of the OBC, unfortunately the new system just shows coupons with no value but Azamara’s agent will be able to see the value of the coupons. Either way your agent should have copies of the booking confirmations, we book direct but the confirmations are issued immediately the booking is made usually while I’m still on the phone so I can check the details.

 

My bookings are a mess. I booked on board right when the beginning of the transition was occurring, one week apart. One was booked under RCCL and one booked under Azamara. At the time, they said they were unable to print confirmations but told me it should be sorted very soon. Everything was verbal. And it took 2 months to get confirmations. When I did, they do not show OBC and my TA also is not seeing OBC. Furthermore, every time I call, I’m told a different amount and so is my TA. I just find this ridiculous.

[The Salties]

Recently booked a B2B direct with Azamara at Hertfordshire and was only given 1 reference number. The agent assured me that the $600 OBC was for each cruise and the B2B was for each cruise. I have coupons shown on the booking but it is difficult to work out until they show the actual monetary amount.

Upon reading the above  I telephoned again to clarify and the agent assured me we would get the full amount  and that the work the IT department was doing would mean it would show the monetary amount by the end of this month. If this happens it would certainly make planning how to spend it much simpler. We live in hope they will eventually sort it out. He also said the points would be sorted out by the end of the month, which is not such a problem personally as it does not involve spending money until I book further cruises.

[JaneStarr]

48 minutes ago, kent4489 said:

My bookings are a mess. I booked on board right when the beginning of the transition was occurring, one week apart. One was booked under RCCL and one booked under Azamara. At the time, they said they were unable to print confirmations but told me it should be sorted very soon. Everything was verbal. And it took 2 months to get confirmations. When I did, they do not show OBC and my TA also is not seeing OBC. Furthermore, every time I call, I’m told a different amount and so is my TA. I just find this ridiculous.

It occurred to me that there is another possible downside to the customer of combining B2B into a single booking. Doesn’t that make final payment for the second segment due earlier than would otherwise be the case?

[blag]

48 minutes ago, kent4489 said:

My bookings are a mess. I booked on board right when the beginning of the transition was occurring, one week apart. One was booked under RCCL and one booked under Azamara. At the time, they said they were unable to print confirmations but told me it should be sorted very soon. Everything was verbal. And it took 2 months to get confirmations. When I did, they do not show OBC and my TA also is not seeing OBC. Furthermore, every time I call, I’m told a different amount and so is my TA. I just find this ridiculous.

With respect... it occurs to me that the old saying 'too many cooks spoil the broth' maybe true here. Whilst a multi-pronged approach might work in some situations, it doesn't seem to be effective in this case. There may be some merit in deciding that one party (you or your TA) deal with this so as to obtain a definitive, and hopefully, satisfactory. Furthermore, if this not urgent, perhaps it might minimise stress (for all parties) to wait and see? 

[kent4489]

6 minutes ago, JaneStarr said:

It occurred to me that there is another possible downside to the customer of combining B2B into a single booking. Doesn’t that make final payment for the second segment due earlier than would otherwise be the case?

Yes, this occurred to me as well. 

[kent4489]

1 minute ago, blag said:

With respect... it occurs to me that the old saying 'too many cooks spoil the broth' maybe true here. Whilst a multi-pronged approach might work in some situations, it doesn't seem to be effective in this case. There may be some merit in deciding that one party (you or your TA) deal with this so as to obtain a definitive, and hopefully, satisfactory. Furthermore, if this not urgent, perhaps it might minimise stress (for all parties) to wait and see? 

Our final payment is due next week and I prefer to know for certain where I stand before I make the payment. I've waited and waited, thinking it would be sorted out before now. Yes, you're right, it would probably be better for one person to collect information, but I feel my TA is not pro-active in this case. Furthermore, she was not on board when I booked so does not know what I was told. We'll get through this, but I learned that I will never use a TA again. I'm a better advocate for my bookings than a disinterested party.

[blag]

16 minutes ago, kent4489 said:

Our final payment is due next week and I prefer to know for certain where I stand before I make the payment. I've waited and waited, thinking it would be sorted out before now. Yes, you're right, it would probably be better for one person to collect information, but I feel my TA is not pro-active in this case. Furthermore, she was not on board when I booked so does not know what I was told. We'll get through this, but I learned that I will never use a TA again. I'm a better advocate for my bookings than a disinterested party.

Understood. Best of luck! 

[kent4489]

2 hours ago, kent4489 said:

Our final payment is due next week and I prefer to know for certain where I stand before I make the payment. I've waited and waited, thinking it would be sorted out before now. Yes, you're right, it would probably be better for one person to collect information, but I feel my TA is not pro-active in this case. Furthermore, she was not on board when I booked so does not know what I was told. We'll get through this, but I learned that I will never use a TA again. I'm a better advocate for my bookings than a disinterested party.

I want to apologize for that last bit.  I was not trashing TAs. I know there are some very good travel agents out there...and mine is good in her niche. Most of this situation is due to the Azamara disaster. I just feel stuck now that I can not handle my own booking. 

 

That being said, I used a TA back in 2010 (a dedicated cruise only agent) and she did not follow through in my interest. And made a mistake or two. Since then, I always handled my own travel but last year when I read on this board from many, urging others to use a travel agent, I thought I'd give it another go. I still do my own bookings and turn it over to her. But, now I'm back to not being able to deal with my own booking and I don't like it. So, I understand many people prefer to use a TA. This firmly shows that I am not one of those people. So let's all respect each other's preference of using a TA or not. 

[kent4489]

4 hours ago, JaneStarr said:

It occurred to me that there is another possible downside to the customer of combining B2B into a single booking. Doesn’t that make final payment for the second segment due earlier than would otherwise be the case?

Another follow-up.... I just looked at the NEW booking confirmation from my TA (the one where they have now combined our two B2B cruises into one booking). Yes, indeed, the final payment for BOTH segments is now due on Monday. Granted, I would have paid both at the same time, but this is just another irritation. 

At the top of the confirmation, it only lists the name and date of our first leg, (as an 11 night), but on the 2nd page under Booking itinerary, it shows our entire itinerary as if it is a 23 day cruise. No where does it show this is 2 cruise segments.

 

Also, under Booking Charges, it has all the cruise price lumped together. The bottom dollar is correct of what our 2 cruises should be, but still, irritating to have this look nothing like we booked in the beginning. We have an independent travel insurance policy and if we have a need to use it, I wonder if there will be a problem since this looks nothing like my original booking now? They have also changed our booking date and it is different than the date I gave for the insurance policy.

 

Under Add-Ons it shows 3 OBC coupons, but lists my name 4 times and my husbands 2 times. The first two show a delivery FROM date for our first segment departure date and the last coupon shows a delivery date of the departure date for our second leg. Also, shows a delivery TO and the first two coupons show that they need to be used by the end of the first segment. I don't mind that, but if they can put all this info in, then why the (#%!!) can't they list the amount? 

 

Bottom line, I'll pay on Monday, but it sure leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Thankful for the wonderful crew on board... I received birthday greetings yesterday from some of our Onward crew friends. They make the aggravation all worthwhile.

[JaneStarr]

1 hour ago, kent4489 said:

, I wonder if there will be a problem since this looks nothing like my original booking now? They have also changed our booking date and it is different than the date I gave for the insurance policy.

I suggest you try to check with your independent travel insurance agent to ask about this. I’d be particularly interested in any impact on the pre-existing condition waiver — if you purchased following the rules for obtaining that coverage (time purchased w/in buying/paying for policy & amount of coverage paid as the price of trip increased).

 

As long as you have records of when you first put down any kind of deposit on the cruise, I think you shouldn’t lose coverage. What I do is immediately insure my deposit and then add extra amounts to the insurance policy within the time limit stated in the particular policy. This to retain coverage for pre-existing medical conditions.

I do think filing a claim will involve extra paperwork explaining the confusing booking confirmations, but hopefully that wouldn’t be a deal-breaker.

I’m really not an expert at all on this but have learned a ton from my agent (Steve Dasseos of the Trip Insurance Store). I do have personal experience with having filed a very expensive trip claim that was paid promptly back in 2019.

 

Really sorry you are having all this added uncertainty and stress right at final payment!

 

Jane

 

PS We are cruising on Onward for the first time next month. I feel reassured by your experience with Onward’s  Crew being wonderful.

 

Edited July 8, 2023 by JaneStarr
Typos.

[kent4489]

14 minutes ago, JaneStarr said:

 

Jane

 

PS We are cruising on Onward for the first time next month. I feel reassured by your experience with Onward’s  Crew being wonderful.

 

Jane, thank you. I do hope the insurance won't be a problem...hopefully will not have any reason to use it! I will see what I can sort out. Just stinks that this all changed within a couple of days of final payment when there isn't much time to sort it out. On this latest combined confirmation, it shows my first deposit as June 15! I actually paid on March 15. And the price has gone lower than where I started out (those first quotes were only verbal as I was told they couldn't print out any confirmations at the time). I guess I should hurry and pay so they don't raise the price on me. 😉 

 

I hope you love the Onward. We spent 40 nights on her last year and these next 23 will be on Onward as well.

 

Sorry everyone that I've been ranting all day. 

[Host Jazzbeau]

Did you have to show your booking for the insurance?  Allianz only asks me the dates of travel and the total cost to be insured.  They don't ask what countries I'm going to visit, or how.

[JaneStarr]

1 minute ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Did you have to show your booking for the insurance?  Allianz only asks me the dates of travel and the total cost to be insured.  They don't ask what countries I'm going to visit, or how.

In my experience, I only needed to show the booking when filing my claim. I also needed to submit documentation of dates of payments on the cruise.

(That was for CSA and Travel Insured SE.) They both ask for travel dates and dates of initial trip payment,)

Jane

[kent4489]

2 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Did you have to show your booking for the insurance?  Allianz only asks me the dates of travel and the total cost to be insured.  They don't ask what countries I'm going to visit, or how.

No, I just gave them the initial payment date. The insurance I used had to be booked within 10 days of initial deposit to cover pre existing conditions. I suppose if the need arises, I can submit my credit card statement to show the date I made initial deposit. Still, I do not have exact paperwork to show that these cruises are what that charge is for. I have to admit, I was stupid for paying a deposit without any back up paper support. But, who knew this “migration” would turn into such a disaster. Our bad luck that we booked at the most terrible time. This is why I went off last week about every one saying, no problem, all is good when you get on board. All these people made final payment before this huge failure. And others coming up were maybe booked after the transition so didn’t have my issue of booking one cruise in RccL and one in Azamara and now it is a huge mess. I know, I’m bi!ching and moaning, but I trusted Azamara to have this sorted out before I had to make final payment. Because of our bad timing, I’m hugely critical of this failure on Azamara’s part. No matter what, this should have been in a better place by now. As I said before, if I could fight for myself in this matter, I would have been on the phone for 8 hours if I had to, getting some straight answers. I can’t expect a TA who has other clients to deal with this like I would have done on my own behalf. But, as Azamara let me know the other day, they can’t discuss financials with me, only the TA. 
Again, so sorry that I’m ranting, but I’m so angry at this point. Maybe I should have put my foot down early on, but when Azamara keeps saying every two weeks that everything is getting sorted, you kind of want to believe it. That and feeling like others here are being critical of you, makes you feel like you just need to wait and everything will work out like it did for them. Well, I’m at final payment and it hasn’t worked out for me!