Loyalty complimentary nights

[Werangels]

Hello all

 

Could you please help me to understand how this works.  We have 37 points earned in a balcony cabin previously and will have 104 in a continent suite later this year.  So, just short of moving tiers.  Do we have to complete a further cruise before we become entitled to the 2 free nights and other benefits at Explorer level?  
 

Thanks.

[beatnix]

Looks like because you have to reach 150 for the next level. 

[Grandma Cruising]

Yes, not eligible for the next level until you have the required points

[Werangels]

Thanks for clarifying both.  

[excitedofharpenden]

Just to manage your expectations the nights aren't free. You'd think you'd book a cruise and they would pro-rata it down by two nights, but in reality all the special offers are stripped out leaving a higher price.  Then the free nights are applied. No single supplement deals either. Just the normal 200% So in most cases unless you have a few free nights and are considering a cruise without offers attached it's cheaper to book without using the free nights. Have a read of the terms and conditions carefully. 

 

I had 10 free nights and I could make that work well. I've used 6 on a 7 day cruise and that was pretty good, but the taxes and port fees are still applied and I ended up paying near £1000 (I was able to stay in a CW suite though). I'm sitting with 3 at the moment and doubt I'll use them. The free nights are an over complicated Azamara Circle benefit in my opinion and are anything but free. 

 

Phil 

[uktog]

Very good point @excitedofharpenden  We have had the same issues with 3 nights. I know others will chime in that it’s worked for them but it’s a case of “all depends on the price of the cruise”. If your sole driver is booking to use the three free nights you probably will find a cruise where it makes a difference but your additional spend may be quite high. If you are booking for a particular itinerary you want you are much more likely to find the free nights have little or no value 
Theres also a problem that hopefully will be fixed by the time you come to use them - not even your travel agent can see the “value” of your free nights it’s not published they have to contact Azamara wait until someone does the calculation then come back to you. Two calculations on a cruise of the same length and same advertised ballpark price won’t necessarily give you the same “discount”. It’s all a bit hocus pocus. 
 

My own view dump the free nights and go for a flat % off advertised fare (say 25%, 50% 75%). Easier to understand 

Edited August 13, 2023 by uktog

[Werangels]

Thank you both.  I have assumed it works best on a short cruise ie 7 days if you were going to use them.  What happens if you b2b?

 

[uktog]

5 minutes ago, Werangels said:

Thank you both.  I have assumed it works best on a short cruise ie 7 days if you were going to use them.  What happens if you b2b?

 

If you mean pricing they price them separately and you choose the most advantageous one

[wjfan417]

It’s also best to book a cruise using free nights while on board, so you at least get the on board booking benefits.

[excitedofharpenden]

22 minutes ago, wjfan417 said:

It’s also best to book a cruise using free nights while on board, so you at least get the on board booking benefits.

That's right. They are the only booking benefits that can be applied. 
 

Phil 

[caymancouple]

How do you know if you have "free nights"?  I have 1226 points, 279 earned on Azamara the rest on Celebrity.  thanks 

[excitedofharpenden]

18 minutes ago, caymancouple said:

How do you know if you have "free nights"?  I have 1226 points, 279 earned on Azamara the rest on Celebrity.  thanks 

You won't get them as you need at least 50% of your sailings to have been on Azamara. 

 

Phil 

[Lazy Sailor]

It is a sad fact that the Azamara  Loyalty scheme systems are in total disarray and Complimentary nights are not being applied at the moment. We (and our very hard working TA) tried for SIX months to get the complimentary nights applied to a booking for November. Despite many many promises - it won't work. We have actually given up on that cruise but booked another for November, with some forlorn hopes that the complementary nights we are owed will be applied. However, nobody (us, TA and all the Azamara people involved) are very optimistic. It is almost unconscionable that Azamara promote the loyalty scheme in their adverts enticing new customers. But we are loyal customers, still loving Azamara, so still making bookings and just hoping!

[excitedofharpenden]

12 minutes ago, Lazy Sailor said:

It is a sad fact that the Azamara  Loyalty scheme systems are in total disarray and Complimentary nights are not being applied at the moment. We (and our very hard working TA) tried for SIX months to get the complimentary nights applied to a booking for November. Despite many many promises - it won't work. We have actually given up on that cruise but booked another for November, with some forlorn hopes that the complementary nights we are owed will be applied. However, nobody (us, TA and all the Azamara people involved) are very optimistic. It is almost unconscionable that Azamara promote the loyalty scheme in their adverts enticing new customers. But we are loyal customers, still loving Azamara, so still making bookings and just hoping!

It's really bad and extremely embarrassing for the Loyalty Managers on the ship who whilst knowing what level individual cruisers are, have no idea how many days they've accrued. This is how they assess the top cruiser who is asked to attend the PR event for Azamara Circle toward the end of the cruise. The Loyalty Managers should be getting involved in helping people with their "free" days on the ship and booking cruises for them in this regard, but can't.

 

I was prepared to cut Azamara some slack in sorting the IT issues out, but increasingly feel the delays are unacceptable and getting to be beyond a joke. 

 

Phil 

[Werangels]

7 hours ago, wjfan417 said:

It’s also best to book a cruise using free nights while on board, so you at least get the on board booking benefits.

By onboard booking benefits, do you mean OBC, etc or the 5% onboard saving please?

 

Thanks.

[Werangels]

9 hours ago, uktog said:

If you mean pricing they price them separately and you choose the most advantageous one

Do you also get B2B discount or is this not applied?  Or, actually, do they still do this?

 

Thanks uktog. 

[uktog]

Just now, Werangels said:

By onboard booking benefits, do you mean OBC, etc or the 5% onboard saving please?

 

Thanks.

Both you get $300 obc (or $200 if you book towards the end of your cruise) plus your loyalty discount 

[Werangels]

4 minutes ago, uktog said:

Both you get $300 obc (or $200 if you book towards the end of your cruise) plus your loyalty discount 

Thank you.

 

So, a B2B is potentially a good way to use them if there is an itinerary that suits and it equals a bigger discount than any offers at the time?  What do you think? 

[Scots Caz]

it might work if there are no good discounts. I never used my 2 or 4 free nights (better deals without and then they expired) used my 6 on a 7 nighter with my daughter with an onboard booking

[uktog]

14 minutes ago, Werangels said:

Thank you.

 

So, a B2B is potentially a good way to use them if there is an itinerary that suits and it equals a bigger discount than any offers at the time?  What do you think? 

Not sure I follow. Your free nights apply on one of the cruises, your discount would be applied to the balance and the full cost of the next cruise. 

[kent4489]

So, this is what happened for us. In March, we were on a B2B. After the first leg, we (should have) moved to Discover and been eligible for 4 free nights plus our 6% for booking on board (plus $300 OBC). So, on the 2nd leg, we booked a cruise (right when the ongoing migration began). The Loyalty person who booked, sent a message to Miami, had our 4 free nights applied, but wasn’t able to apply the Discoverer discount. She told us it would be corrected within 10 days…. That still hasn’t happened… we still show as Explorer. Somewhere along the way, the price changed a little, but it was because of some promotion applied sometime in May. Long story, after 5 months, our points and status are still incorrect, but someone at Azamara told me that our 4 free nights were not applied, nor do we show as having any since our points/status is still wrong. In the meantime, we had to make final payment although I don’t know how they arrived at the price (about what I was expecting, but OBC is still incorrect). It’s just been a total disaster as far as I’m concerned. On a positive note, if they EVER get this mess sorted, I guess we’ll have 4 nights, so maybe we’ll find a good way to use them. If not, oh well. As much as we enjoy our Azamara cruises (we have 23 nights coming up), I sure will not even think of booking anything until they get their act together.

[Werangels]

4 hours ago, kent4489 said:

So, this is what happened for us. In March, we were on a B2B. After the first leg, we (should have) moved to Discover and been eligible for 4 free nights plus our 6% for booking on board (plus $300 OBC). So, on the 2nd leg, we booked a cruise (right when the ongoing migration began). The Loyalty person who booked, sent a message to Miami, had our 4 free nights applied, but wasn’t able to apply the Discoverer discount. She told us it would be corrected within 10 days…. That still hasn’t happened… we still show as Explorer. Somewhere along the way, the price changed a little, but it was because of some promotion applied sometime in May. Long story, after 5 months, our points and status are still incorrect, but someone at Azamara told me that our 4 free nights were not applied, nor do we show as having any since our points/status is still wrong. In the meantime, we had to make final payment although I don’t know how they arrived at the price (about what I was expecting, but OBC is still incorrect). It’s just been a total disaster as far as I’m concerned. On a positive note, if they EVER get this mess sorted, I guess we’ll have 4 nights, so maybe we’ll find a good way to use them. If not, oh well. As much as we enjoy our Azamara cruises (we have 23 nights coming up), I sure will not even think of booking anything until they get their act together.

Oh crikey, how annoying,  

[norn iron]

19 hours ago, wjfan417 said:

It’s also best to book a cruise using free nights while on board, so you at least get the on board booking benefits.

We booked a Japanese intensive for 2021 whilst onboard Pursuit in 2019 and got a good deal in conjunction with 6 free nights.

Covid kicks in, the cruise was cancelled and we were not allowed to use lift and shift to the same cruise at a later date. So we ended up being stung with a poor deal in the Med last year using our 6 free nights.

[Riocca]

1 hour ago, norn iron said:

We booked a Japanese intensive for 2021 whilst onboard Pursuit in 2019 and got a good deal in conjunction with 6 free nights.

Covid kicks in, the cruise was cancelled and we were not allowed to use lift and shift to the same cruise at a later date. So we ended up being stung with a poor deal in the Med last year using our 6 free nights.

Maybe we’re just lucky, we booked onboard in 2019 for an October 2020 med cruise (3 ships meet) using 3 free nights it was a good deal and included the onboard booking perks. That was cancelled and our deposit was saved as FCC, after a few attempts to find a cruise that worked with free nights we were able to book the same cruise for October this year. The FCC was used as the deposit we got a good deal using the free nights and kept the onboard booking perks, we did only receive $200 OBC instead of the original $300 but I wasn’t worried as I was grateful to get what we did. However after a few problems with the booking recently with Azamara making a mess of converting a b2b booking into a single booking they realised it should have been $300 and added the OBC. 
 

Other than the previously mentioned issue the transition of our account has been fairly smooth so hopefully we are in the majority not the minority. The OBC issue is obviously a concern but hopefully that will be resolved soon, maybe the rules appertaining to the use of OBC will change and cause consternation but is not a concern for us.

 

As an aside with old system ships didn’t know the passenger manifest until they received it the week before a cruise. Recently I had a query relating to our October cruises that customer service couldn’t answer and suggested asking the ship, so we messaged the ship regarding the query not only could they see our booking and answer the query they also had details of our packages and OBC that’s got to be an improvement.

[uktog]

Ah @Riocca is the guest it worked for 😂.
 

To be honest I think being told to message the ship by the call centre is a really very bad thing.
People will start sharing the email address on websites, the ship will get swamped with communication and others will and the onboard service will grind to a slow. Riocca I know wouldn’t do that but others will start sending pillow requests and minibar requests when would it end. 
Whoever is doing that at the call centre or whatever procedure manual it sits in should stop/change it immediately 

Edited August 14, 2023 by uktog