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Our struggle with the online booking system


JimMaCruise
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We have experienced issues with the online booking system for two years now: we never get a callback and our reservation gets lost in the system!

 

We are wondering if anyone else has experienced this type of issue and lack of response from Azamara

 

The story of Azamara not wanting our money when booking online:

 

While the ship experiences have been great so far, the online bookings have been frustrating events.

 

We have so far tried to book online twice. Both were failures where Azamara (or Royal Caribbean as they actually handle the bookings) actually “lost” our booking and we had to invest a lot of time and exercise even more patience to finally be able to actually get a final booking (and pay). Resulting in a lot of unneeded frustration.

 

The story, part 1, Spring 2015:

 

 

  • We noticed an interesting itinerary on the Azamara website, a website that actually is well made and up to modern standards.
  • As we are Belgian citizens, we have no localised version of the website and use the “other countries”, no problem, more so because we get better prices than most european countries that have localised versions.
  • May 22nd 2015: we decide to book online, we are return customers with Le Club Voyage accounts which helps speed things up, except for the phone number field that won’t take + for country code, replacing + with 00 solves the issue quickly. We get a nice confirmation email stating:
    Subject: You're just one phone call away from an extraordinary journey!
    <…> We're delighted that you've chosen to sail with us for your 3 NIGHT CORSICA & CANNES VOYAGE, departing October 8, 2015. You won't find a more relaxing, carefree vacation… or a more exciting one filled with late-night and overnight stays for true Destination Immersion. To complete your booking, we'll call you within 24-48 hours to confirm voyage details and billing information. <...>
    No online payment option … While the website is very modern the back office tooling is not. But no problem, it’s a little more hassle and a tad less relaxing since we now have to wait on an action from their side to finalise things. We can manage that. But here is room for improvement.
  • So we wait, ..., and wait, 24h pass, still waiting, …, 48h pass, getting restless and starting to worry, but still waiting, it seems there was a US holiday in this period so maybe they mean 2 working days, we decide to wait a bit longer, ... , 4 days pass, still no word, no email nothing, now we are worried !!
  • On day 5, the 27th of May, we decide to reach out by email (no localised phone available and we don’t want to make an expensive international call) to AzamaraGuestRelations@AzamaraClubCruises.com, we get an automated reply that our email is received but asking some patience. Ok helpdesks can get busy.
  • Another 48h later, the 29th of May, one week after our initial booking: still silence. We decide to pull out the big guns, we noticed the Managing Director of Azamara Club Cruises UK is referenced on CruiseCritic as a person that can and will escalate. So we email him explaining our problem.
  • Minutes later we receive the first human reply in more than a week: the Managing Director is on annual leave but he still took the effort to forward it and assures us we will be contacted shortly.
  • And so it happens, 5 hours later we receive a call from the US. Not perfect since they could no longer find any registration and the cabins we wanted were already sold out. We had to go through the whole booking process again but we were able to book at the prices we initially saw since we had proof of this in the form of a screenshot.
    We asked what went wrong and if there was anything we could do to prevent it for a future booking, the answer was: “Any online registration that is not handled within 3 days is automatically cancelled. No sir, there is nothing you could have done different, something seems to have gone wrong on our side, we are sorry for the inconvenience”.

To conclude part 1: the itinerary turned out perfectly just as our previous sailings. Too bad the booking process had to be so frustrating. We concluded with the thought “things happen, next time better”.

 

The story, part 2, Summer 2016 “Deja vu”:

 

Fast forward to summer 2016, another interesting itinerary pops up

  • July 17th we book online, still no online payments and still the same confirmation email quoting “we'll call you within 24-48 hours
  • Starting a deja-vu but still hoping that last time was a one-off miss.
  • 48h later, the 19th: the deja-vu continues, so we start reaching out a lot faster and we send a follow-up to the international contact email reservationazamara@azamaraclubcruises.com
  • Another 48h later, the 21st: still no response. Big guns “UK Director” helped last time, let’s try it again. This time we get an out-of-office due to business trip with backup contacts; tried the backup; also an out of office.
  • We gave up in frustration and immediately resorted to the last option: an expensive international phone call. The call resulted in us booking the trip we were looking forward to, even though I initially had to vent my frustrations.
    Again we asked what/how and why but the call center person knew too little about the website to be able to identify an issue or advise us for future, he would pass it along.

We did receive a follow up email from the UK Rccl Guest Relations on the email to the UK Director, indicating some actions they have taken to bring our issue to the attention of the web team.

 

So far we never received any feedback on the emails to the international AzamaraGuestRelations@AzamaraClubCruises.com or reservationazamara@azamaraclubcruises.com email address.

 

Two weeks ago we sent an email to international reservations department (e-mailaddress was provided by the person who eventually booked our cruise) but no feedback from them either :-(

 

To be continued...

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Why not use a TA and let him/her do the struggling for you? Costs not one cent extra and can even give you benefits you won't get from booking online.

 

 

The point is that in these modern times of Internet and online booking tools, travel agents should be completely unnecessary and irrelevant, plus a nice cost saving for cruise lines, as has already proven to be true for airlines.

 

Anyway, to the opp, I share your pain. Azamara's non US websites are poor. I'm from The Netherlands but very lucky to also have a US address, so I use the US site. That one works totally fine for me, so no complaints.

 

Floris

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The point is that in these modern times of Internet and online booking tools, travel agents should be completely unnecessary and irrelevant, plus a nice cost saving for cruise lines, as has already proven to be true for airlines.

 

Anyway, to the opp, I share your pain. Azamara's non US websites are poor. I'm from The Netherlands but very lucky to also have a US address, so I use the US site. That one works totally fine for me, so no complaints.

 

Floris

The issue of course is that it's not great, but what to do? Being from the UK I can at least get proper pricing in local currency, but I gave up with there being a fix anytime soon with the website or call centre in Guatemala so I now have a travel agent recommended to me by friends who both gives me a kick back on the price and does the leg work administratively. You can fight it or you can get yourself a decent ta. All I can say personally is that I've not looked back and of course it's the same great experience when I board the ship. I will also add that the office in Miami and the UK have been great in a supporting role. You actually "speak" to someone who cares and it's been a huge help.

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I am associated with a travel agency and seldom encounter problems with using their online booking system, Espresso. When I have encountered problems I have always found an individual in the Miami HQ who was most responsive and professional in getting resolution. I also find that the call center personnel are much more expert and responsive over the last 6 months. I certainly recommend that you search out a travel agency that will meet your needs, and as Phil recommends, provide some added benefits such as on board credit.

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Did you see our thread below? We have been trying to book online for 4 days (the US site) without success. Will try one more time tomorrow & then move on to plan B.

 

I fully agree with your point of view that they should offer a working online experience as they claim to be Azamazing. The booking is just as much part of the journey as the on-ship experience. If they don't understand that, they are bleeding money.

 

PS: it seems you had contact with the office but did not book out of fear of loosing OBC: once we got a person on the phone we always got exactly what we were getting from the website incl OBC, we did have a screenshot to back the deals up. First time they even gave a higher grade cabin because the ones we had prices on were already gone. At least the callcenter ppl do what is in their power to make you happy.

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The point is that in these modern times of Internet and online booking tools, travel agents should be completely unnecessary and irrelevant, plus a nice cost saving for cruise lines, as has already proven to be true for airlines.

 

Anyway, to the opp, I share your pain. Azamara's non US websites are poor. I'm from The Netherlands but very lucky to also have a US address, so I use the US site. That one works totally fine for me, so no complaints.

 

Floris

 

You have obviously never used the services of a good professional TA who can provide things you can never get from booking on the internet. Not the least of which is someone to complain to instead of doing it here on CC where you will get absolutely no resolutions.

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The point is that in these modern times of Internet and online booking tools, travel agents should be completely unnecessary and irrelevant, plus a nice cost saving for cruise lines, as has already proven to be true for airlines.

 

Anyway, to the opp, I share your pain. Azamara's non US websites are poor. I'm from The Netherlands but very lucky to also have a US address, so I use the US site. That one works totally fine for me, so no complaints.

 

Floris

 

 

Would agree if the nice saving for the cruise line was passed on to the customer. In the UK travel agents enjoy a healthy commission from the cruise lines and it's quite easy to persuade them to share it with the you. However if you book directly with the cruise line what you see is what you pay, while the system remains as it is I will continue to book with a travel agent and make a substantial saving.

 

 

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Depends on your situation. We booked direct on our next two cruises because we have a load of BA Airmiles and wanted to use them to buy/ upgrade flights. When you book a package with a TA they are 'consolidated' flights & you can't then use AIrmiles to upgrade them. We ended up paying a lot less for the cruise & business class flights than we were quoted by a couple of TAs.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

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While I sympathize with your frustrations, I have to agree with one of the other posters. We use a local (brick and mortar, as they are referred to) Travel Agent. We have used the same person for 15+ years now and she is wonderful. She takes care of every detail. I just tell her about which cruises I am interested in and she takes it from there. If there are problems, she handles it. If we are on the cruise and a problem arises, she handles it. She will book the flights independently of the cruise, makes hotel reservations, arranges for all transfers. It is wonderful--all at no extra cost to us and no frustrations to deal with. :):):)

 

I hope your travels all work out. Enjoy....................;)

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Depends on your situation. We booked direct on our next two cruises because we have a load of BA Airmiles and wanted to use them to buy/ upgrade flights. When you book a package with a TA they are 'consolidated' flights & you can't then use AIrmiles to upgrade them. We ended up paying a lot less for the cruise & business class flights than we were quoted by a couple of TAs.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

 

 

Only rarely use TA's flights mainly book cruise only and do our own flights, hotels and transfers as it usually works better and works out cheaper.

TA's will try and persuade you to use their package as they make more money but we still get a healthy discount on cruise only fares.

 

 

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I love the DIY approach to many things in my life. And I love to explore the Internet on my own while planning a vacation. Reserving and paying for hotels, rental cars, flights, train rides, etc., I can do it myself, shop around, save some money, and have fun in the process. But for cruises, I have learned that the best buys in terms of price and amenity packages can be obtained only through a travel agent. And I save a lot of headaches by using a TA. I might still explore itineraries, deck plans, cruise line loyalty programs, etc. by looking at web sites. But in the end I book through a TA. This seems to be the last part of the travel industry that is facilitated by TAs, other than high-end personal land-based touring. Why fight it? Save time and money.

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TA works different in our country.

All prices should be transparant, hidden costs or hidden discounts are not allowed.

This makes it easy for us to check where we can book at the best price.

If it's a TA,we will book via them.

If the best price is from Azamara, we book with them.

When we receive an email stating that they will contact us to finalize booking and payment, we expect Azamara to deliver that service!

 

Too bad Bonnie hasn't picked up this thread yet...

and still no response on the emails we have sent to Azamara

 

I'm still hopeful to get a response before our cruise next week, so we don't have to discuss this onboard with sales and LCV representative..

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Let's see... my options are 1) Use a TA and pay a small percentage that compensates the TA for their time an expertise. Turn any problems over to the TA to resolve; or 2) Try to book it myself and allow the cruise line to keep the money that would have gone to the TA since my price is the same either way. Retain the ability to be frustrated as I try to resolve any problems by myself.

 

Gosh, I'm struggling with which one to choose.

 

 

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We have used a travel agent (local brick and mortar) for 15+ years and have never had to pay them one cent except for booking our flights, and that is nominal. I do not understand why you would have to pay a percentage.:confused:

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You don't pay them directly, but travel agents are compensated for their work. It is paid for out of a percentage of your fare in the same way that fuel for the ship is paid for out of a percentage of your fare. You have never had to pay one cent for that either... except as part of your overall fare.

 

 

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This has nothing to do with my post anymore..

The point is that we booked with Azamara - which was cheaper than via TA (this is only the case for some itineraries based an special promotions) - and that Azamara does not provide the service that we expect from them!

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Let's see... my options are 1) Use a TA and pay a small percentage that compensates the TA for their time an expertise. Turn any problems over to the TA to resolve..

 

I've never paid a cent to my TA for a cruise, and with my current one, I get a rebate on the price, in cash. And sometimes get OBCs as well.

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Sorry JimMa for getting off topic for you.............hope your travels are great.

 

Jim in OR...........I still beg to differ with you.......I have booked a cruise before, at a very good rate, thru the ship itself and then when I get home have turned it over to our TA...........the price remains the same (and on occasion is cheaper). How am I paying any extra to have the TA handle it?

 

 

Anyway.........keep on traveling. :);):)

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Jim in OR...........I still beg to differ with you.......I have booked a cruise before, at a very good rate, thru the ship itself and then when I get home have turned it over to our TA...........the price remains the same (and on occasion is cheaper). How am I paying any extra to have the TA handle it?

 

 

You're not paying extra to have the TA handle it. That was my original point which I obviously did a very poor job of conveying.

 

I'll try one more time, and this truly will be my last comment on the subject. I'll try a different angle this time.

 

For every $100 you spend on a fare, a certain percentage goes to paying crew member and administrative salaries, a certain percentage goes to paying for the food that is consumed, a certain percentage goes to capital maintenance, a certain percentage to cruise line profit, etc. If you used a travel agent, the cruise line pays a commission to the agent so in that regard, a certain percentage of your cruise fare also pays for the travel agent. If you don't use an agent, the cruise line saves that expense and keeps the dollars that would have gone to an agent. In either case, your fare is the same. (For this hypothetical, let's set aside the fact that you may be able to even reduce your fare or increase your OBC or other bennies by going through an agent)

 

No one typically pays extra for the agent in the same way that no one pays extra for crew member and administrative salaries. It's all embedded in the cost of the cruise. You pay for the salaries and the travel agent commission in the fare that you pay the cruise line.

 

My original point was, if your fare is essentially the same whether you use a travel agent or not, why not use a travel agent and allow them to take care of any problems you may encounter?

 

Happy travels to all! I'll shut up now.

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TA works different in our country.

All prices should be transparant, hidden costs or hidden discounts are not allowed.

This makes it easy for us to check where we can book at the best price.

If it's a TA,we will book via them.

If the best price is from Azamara, we book with them.

When we receive an email stating that they will contact us to finalize booking and payment, we expect Azamara to deliver that service!

 

Too bad Bonnie hasn't picked up this thread yet...

and still no response on the emails we have sent to Azamara

 

I'm still hopeful to get a response before our cruise next week, so we don't have to discuss this onboard with sales and LCV representative..

 

Hi JimMaCruise, sorry I've been AWOL for a few days. A distant relative passed away on Tuesday and we've had a houseful of out-of-town guests..but I'm back online again!

Let me forward your thread to various coworkers. I've not had a complaint from your country yet so I have to see who can help you quickest.

Don't give up or go elsewhere! Can you wait until Monday for a response?

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