Confused about Avalon's Discount

[cole]

First of all, let me say we have sailed with Avalon once and loved it and have recently booked our second cruise with them. They advertise that their past passengers (Journey's Club) will receive 5% discounts on future cruises after the first. When we booked, we learned that what they should have said was "you will receive 5% discount based on the lowest priced category no matter what category you book." For some reason that doesn't seem quite fair. It means that a person who books the least expensive cabin receives the same discount as a person who might book a Royal Suite. Does that seem fair? What do you think? :confused:

Cole

[Got2Cruise]

Hmmm. Did you receive this information directly from Avalon or a third party travel agent? This doesn't seem right. The 5 percent is off of any Globus tour. We received the "advertised special" for our sailing, then the 5% Globus and then additionally the travel agent saved us an additional 5% on top. We do travel aquarium class which is the lowest so maybe the Globus discount is actually for the lowest

 

Avalon allows you to book yourself so I would attempt to book without going to last step credit card and then compare with a large discount agency usually internet based who give cash discounts incentives.

[cole]

Hmmm. Did you receive this information directly from Avalon or a third party travel agent? This doesn't seem right. The 5 percent is off of any Globus tour. We received the "advertised special" for our sailing, then the 5% Globus and then additionally the travel agent saved us an additional 5% on top. We do travel aquarium class which is the lowest so maybe the Globus discount is actually for the lowest

 

Avalon allows you to book yourself so I would attempt to book without going to last step credit card and then compare with a large discount agency usually internet based who give cash discounts incentives.

 

It was a TA, but I am going to call the Journey line tomorrow and ask them directly. Even if it is just for the base price, I am going to "suggest" to them that they revisit their policy. Thanks for your suggestion though. I tried it and it comes out the same. It doesn't give you a breakdown, just the total invoice price, but I assume it prices out the same as the TA's invoice.

Cole

[stretchcruz]

It is off of the Cat E price. You have to pay the upcharge for the balcony cabins. I was confused the first time as well. It does help that my TA discounts so highly, plus we bought a FCC so we got that off as well. Plus there was a past passenger promo for free gratuities and we could combine that as well. I do agree that they should advertise it differently.

[Got2Cruise]

It was a TA, but I am going to call the Journey line tomorrow and ask them directly. Even if it is just for the base price, I am going to "suggest" to them that they revisit their policy. Thanks for your suggestion though. I tried it and it comes out the same. It doesn't give you a breakdown, just the total invoice price, but I assume it prices out the same as the TA's invoice.

 

Cole

 

 

Ok now try to find a TA that gives cash incentives, or prepays gratuities or gives on board credit. They're out there. I wish we were allowed to give suggestions but I'd get banned from CC.

[stretchcruz]

Mine does plus guarantees the lowest price on any cruise. Sure has saved me a lot over the years!!!

[cole]

Ok now try to find a TA that gives cash incentives, or prepays gratuities or gives on board credit. They're out there. I wish we were allowed to give suggestions but I'd get banned from CC.

 

I wish we had known that before we booked with our current TA. It was like pulling teeth to get the discounts that we were due. We had used her before and never had that problem, but you can be sure that we won't use her again. I never worked so hard in my life to get every penny we were due and we definitely didn't receive anything on top of what Avalon offered. :( Lesson learned.

Cole