booking conditions in Germany - another question for Bonnie

[bluewave200]

Hello to everyone who loves cruises as we do. We would like to share our booking experience with azamara in Germany. We have been long time cruisers, we were on AIDA, TUI Cruises, RCL, Celebrity, HAL aand Cunard and this year we decided to try azamara and found a nice route in the mediterran sea starting July 27 in Barcelona. 

We booked thru a german internet TA and chose an inside guarantee which then was combined with an obc of $ 500 for the cabin ($ 250 per Person). We booked this inside guarantee on Feb 25 for a price of ~ € 1.428 pP, thus € 2.853 for the cabin including $ 500 obc.

We were very surprised when we immediately got a confirmation from the TA which already included the assignment of a cabin although guarantee - as far as we know - likely is to be assigned later and sometimes even just days before boarding. We found out that we were assigned an accessible cabin 4035, which we weren't happy with. It's not the cabin itself, but we felt and feel uncomfortable taking a special cabin reserved for fellow passengers with disabilities without needing it. It felt like taking something that's not supposed to be ours. Ironically TA sent us another mail and told us we had chosen an accessible cabin (which we didn't, it was assigned by azamara) and we would have to fill out a form declaring that we actually needed this type of cabin. TA also wrote that in case we booked such a cabin with special equipment (again: we were assigned!) though we don't need it, we could get in trouble because azamara could sent us to another cabin. We were very annoyed because all of that is nothing we wever wanted, it was not in our hands. So we told TA the facts and they said we shouldn't bother, everything would come out well. Ok then.

Some time later we found out azamara had changed prices. Now we could get an outside cabin for some 2.534. We understood that we could lose the obc if we changed the booking but ok: Conditions said a change of booking would cost only €60 (till 90 days to departure) and it sounded like a deal to us. But no way: a) we could not change the booking they said, we could only cancel it, which meant 15% deposit is lost. or b) further more: as the price - so said the TA - was only valid for new customers we would have to pay about € 3.534  (that was the price at the time of our initial booking) for the outside cabin. TA said, this is azamaras terms and conditions (we couldn't find something there that explained their practice).

Today we discovered the price of outside cabin went down to just € 2.002. We are so disappointed. We paid a far too high price for a cabin we didn't want. Ok we booked guarantee, but didn't expect to get an accessible cabin. We know some people will say, you were happy with the price at the time you booked it. Yes, that's true. But some years ago when there was a real best price guarantee from all major lines, customer care and satisfaction was much better and the would at least try to make something possible to keep the customer. Our experience now is: wait, wait, wait till you book.

 

@ Bonnie: Could you please figure out if there are any ways left to get us somewhat happier again? Thanks for caring. Our booking number is 9997557 Pursuit July 27

 

Manfred

[grayjay]

Hi and welcome to CruiseCritic! You'll find so much help on this board - when we started cruising only 10 years ago we were able to discuss so many topics, find help and meet new cruise friends through the roll call! Now I'm afraid cruising has become an addiction - Azamara, Celebrity and Holland America being our favourite lines because of the international crowd you will meet.

I can understand your frustration about the price drops. It has happened to all of us , I think. that we were caught like that - having booked a guarantee and neither were we upgraded nor did we get the cabin assignment we had hoped for. Sometimes it is possible to change, sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and enjoy the cruise. Quite often the price drops significantly, especially after final payment, sometimes a cruise sells out quickly or the prices rise sky-high. Sometimes and especially if you you have a good travel agent, you might get an upgrade or at least an upsell for small money, Holland America quite often gives you a small amount of OBC or offers a paid upsell at a reduced price. If the price of a new cabin category is at least 1 $ or €uro higher you can change at Celebrity, for example, if you are outside the final payment window.

Talk to your travel agency again - if they are good, they might be able to help you, especially as in Germany final payment is only 4 weeks before the cruise and the current promotion (OBC + free internet) is still valid for that cruise you mentioned. Ask nicely and explain that it is your first cruise on Azamara and you would love to be a happy customer... I have seen that there are still a lot of cat. 5 oceanviews left on deck 4 being sold at ridiculous prices ( lovely cabins as well!), and if they agree to the upgrade, well done. It might even be possible to cancel, lose the deposit and still get an oceanview including the same OBC for a lesser price. I think you chose the 7-day itinerary on Pursuit? The thing I really don't understand is the argumentation by your travel agency: either it is possible to change the booking or upgrade for free or little money, the latter one something we were able to do both with Celebrity and RCCL, or cancel and re-book, you should then be seen as a new customer with a new invoice, new booking number and new cabin.

One more thing. Why not have an accessible cabin? If I booked a guarantee ( I tend not to do that any more...) I'd be happy to have more space.

The only thing you can be sure about is to have a fantastic cruise on Azamara - we were always happy, had great service and food and met lots of wonderful people to chat with. And that is the most important thing of all.

I do understand your concern and frustration but still try to look at the bright side of life...

 

[florisdekort]

Apologies if this isn’t helpful, but you have a really bad travel agent.  Your problems have nothing to do with Germany (I’m in The Netherlands).  Your agent simply isn’t doing its job.  They should have gone to bat for you and gotten you moved into a regular inside cabin.  And as long as it is before final payment, they also should have been able to get you upgraded to an ocean view cabin, as you say possibly at the ‘cost’ of losing your perks/OBC.  Your post really reads as if your TA isn’t doing anything...

 

Floris 

[BBMacLaird]

Hi bluewave200, welcome! Thank you for booking Azamara Club Cruises!

I’ve asked our team to look into your booking for you. Give me a day or two to see what they find out. 

[bluewave200]

Thank you everyone for your support and understanding. Especially thanks to you, Bonnie, as you spend so many time to held so many people with their little and big problems. We are very grateful you take care even if the resukt might be the same. What bothers us is that on the one hand azamara advertises and says they want to provide a brilliant experience, sending emails every other day in preparation of our departure, but they act differently (at least as far as we experienced). From my point of view, a deal must be good for both parties. So every side gives a little and no one loses. That's my experience from days gone with the cruise lines i mentioned above. They always at least "tried". That's what you are doing now for us. Thank you so much for your empathy.

 

@ grayjay: Sorry, I didn't explain it well: we asked to change the booking to an outside cabin (at that time cheaper than the inside we already booked). TA said, yes we could change the booking, but then would have to pay the outside cabin price which was valid at the date of our initial booking. That price was much higher and thus "no deal" to us. We told him, we should be able to change, as the terms and conditions of azamara figured out (at least we read it that way), we only had to pay 60 Euro for handling by azamara which would have been ok to us, even if we had lost obc. That is the point when TA said, azamara wouldn't change bookings to lower prices but only if you pay up. Of yourse we could cancel - lose obc and 15% deposit - and book new - as you said - with new cabin, new booking number and so on, but again: that would have been no deal after summing everything up. By now prices dropped further and I could do the maths again, but unfortunately we are less than 90 days before departure, thus cancelling and booking new would be very expensive now, because we would have to pay 50% for nothing and book a new cabin.

 

@florisdekort: Yes, you are right. We have the same impression. TA was good when he started, he took care and provided really excellent service. Obviously he grew too fast and can't keep his standards from the the time he started.  Next time we'll try anolther TA or book directly with the cruise line.

[BBMacLaird]

Hi Bluewave200,

Please be patient, I expect you’ll hear news soon.

Our Manager of the Eurozone is personally looking into your situation and presently discussing it with your TA.

Your market, Germany (and all the Eurozone) is a very important market for Azamara...so the silver lining (in my mind, as a bystander) is that this is a learning opportunity for your Travel Professional and a training opportunity for us. So don’t necessarily give up on your TA for future bookings. S/he will be better prepared the next time you’re ready to book Azamara!

All this aside, as I first said, I expect you’ll have a resolution very soon.

And finally I thank you for reaching out to us. It IS our goal to provide brilliant experience...in this case we were entirely unaware there was a problem. Now we are striving to make you happy. 

[excitedofharpenden]

This rolling back of the prices so they are equivalent to the time of your original booking and for "new bookings only" rings very familiar with me. Not only Azamara, but Celebrity too and I've run up against this before.  It's very annoying. Added to that your cabin assignment and I can understand your frustration. I will be interested to know what answer you get. I have not been able to obtain a satisfactory result in these circumstances. 

 

It's interesting you have been assigned an accessible cabin without requiring one.   Fully two months before sailing. I've always been told and from quite high up the line that accessible cabins cannot be released to those not requiring them until 30 days prior to the cruise. 

 

Anyway, I hope you get some resolution. The price drops seen on what seems like an increasing number of Azamara cruises would appear to make this more and more common.  And we aren't talking a couple of hundred euros here and there. 

 

Phil 

[bluewave200]

Thank you Bonnie for your time and thank you Phil for your comment. It already feels good not running against walls but see people taking care and practicing excellent service. Bonnie, you are the one who did not talk to me about "terms and conditions" and told me what azamara would not do but asked "how can I help you". This is so much more customer oriented and I'm already so much more content just by knowing being taken seriously. So thanks again to you and all our fellow cruisers on the seven seas.

[bluewave200]

Hello Bonnie,

please apologize for bothering you again, but I didn't hear anything more about my topic. Is it still "in progress"?

Thanks again

Manfred

[BBMacLaird]

No bother at all, bluewave200!

My understanding is that your booking was removed from Accessible Cabin and put back in GTY status many days ago.

Your TA needs to communicate with you. Per rules of your country, we (the cruise line) are not to interfere. 

[bluewave200]

Hello Bonnie,

I'm afraid in the end just and exactly nothing has changed in our case, I refer to your answer in this topic from May 8th which I appreciated very much. Our TA didn't talk to us, but apparently reads this forum too. All we got from TA was an email on May 17th which obviously referred to my writing in this board, and second mail on May 22nd that we were put back on guarantee.

Not ONE word about booking conditions, changing our booking to current conditions or anything about the issues I made up in this topic.

Tonigh I took a look into our booking and saw we have been assigned a cabin. It is 4035 - just the cabin we had before. By now the ship is sold out and all chances are gone getting another cabin. I'm still happy with you trying to take care of passenger issues and I understand my TA is important for Azamara as he is one of the biggest in Germany and has been bought from an even more important British TA, so one single customer might not be too important (which all in all I understand). But: When you wrote " I expect you’ll have a resolution very soon. " and " It IS our goal to provide brilliant experience...in this case we were entirely unaware there was a problem. Now we are striving to make you happy. " I expected a little bit more: getting the chance to change the booking to the current price (what was refused allthouth the terms are not clear about that point). Now is "game over" no cabins left. So much ado about nothing. I know it's not up to you and I'm thankful for your trying anyways.

[bluewave200]

Hello Bonnie, will I get a response or a reaction to my last post?

Regards

Manfred

[BBMacLaird]

I didn’t realize you were expecting a response from me. 

Not sure what to say. You bought a GTY rate.

[bluewave200]

Ok, Bonnie, it sounds you were put on mute mode. When I look at your post from May 8th and your short note right now I can‘t put both of them together. Yes i booked guarantee, but i talked about an accessible cabin we didn‘t want, I talked about changing my booking from inside to outside when the prices went down and azamara and/or TA would not let me, although terms and conditions are not clear about that, and I talked about paying much too high price regarding later price drops and not one try from azamara and/or TA to make a single move.

It was you who implicated a solution and wrote „

## All this aside, as I first said, I expect you’ll have a resolution very soon.

And finally I thank you for reaching out to us. It IS our goal to provide brilliant experience...in this case we were entirely unaware there was a problem. Now we are striving to make you happy.  ##

That‘s why I‘m a little bit surprised about your answer and the bias in commenting we booked GTY. 

[grayjay]

2 hours ago, bluewave200 said:

Ok, Bonnie, it sounds you were put on mute mode. When I look at your post from May 8th and your short note right now I can‘t put both of them together. Yes i booked guarantee, but i talked about an accessible cabin we didn‘t want, I talked about changing my booking from inside to outside when the prices went down and azamara and/or TA would not let me, although terms and conditions are not clear about that, and I talked about paying much too high price regarding later price drops and not one try from azamara and/or TA to make a single move.

It was you who implicated a solution and wrote „

## All this aside, as I first said, I expect you’ll have a resolution very soon.

And finally I thank you for reaching out to us. It IS our goal to provide brilliant experience...in this case we were entirely unaware there was a problem. Now we are striving to make you happy.  ##

That‘s why I‘m a little bit surprised about your answer and the bias in commenting we booked GTY. 

But that really is the risk of booking a GTY cabin! I was lured to booking a Gty approximately 3 times , perhaps because so many on CC wrote wonderful upgrade stories. And prices were good, too. I admit we avoid doing so, now, because we ALWAYS got one of the worst cabins on the ship: once, on Queen Elizabeth, we paid for the highest balcony cabin category to be assigned the one with the smallest balcony and the least view in the area I specifically didn't want. Once, on Prinsendam, we got the smallest and least attractive " hole" in the bow and could only evade that destiny by being able to pay for an upsell to a balcony after final payment. And once, on Azamara Journey, I paid quite a lot for an OV guarantee and was assigned an OV cat. 8 with a perfect view of orange all around. But here, I was lucky - we were upgraded on board with one of the regular OV cabins - the only one available because of a last-minute cancellation. My,  were we happy customers on that day!! And, I have to admit, we enjoyed all three cruises I mentioned very much! But we also weren't able to be assigned a better cabin despite complaining!

But we have learned our lesson: we still can't and won't pay the highest premium prices, but if there is a promo or pricing we want to accept, we book the cabin we want in the category we want or can afford.

Perhaps you can upgrade for a small fee on board if not - the accessible cabin really will be ok and ENJOY the Azamara experience!

[BBMacLaird]

4 hours ago, bluewave200 said:

Ok, Bonnie, it sounds you were put on mute mode. When I look at your post from May 8th and your short note right now I can‘t put both of them together. Yes i booked guarantee, but i talked about an accessible cabin we didn‘t want, I talked about changing my booking from inside to outside when the prices went down and azamara and/or TA would not let me, although terms and conditions are not clear about that, and I talked about paying much too high price regarding later price drops and not one try from azamara and/or TA to make a single move.

It was you who implicated a solution and wrote „

## All this aside, as I first said, I expect you’ll have a resolution very soon.

And finally I thank you for reaching out to us. It IS our goal to provide brilliant experience...in this case we were entirely unaware there was a problem. Now we are striving to make you happy.  ##

That‘s why I‘m a little bit surprised about your answer and the bias in commenting we booked GTY. 

I don’t feel I’m being biased, only honest.

Our Customer Service was in touch with your agent, as was the manager of our European office. That is likely how your agent came to read this thread and that is how you were moved out of an accessible cabin weeks ago. 

As for changing to a different fare/category, that would fall to your agent to go to bat for you...not something you can expect me to do. I am solely a messenger; a conduit here on CC.

[grayjay]

6 hours ago, BBMacLaird said:

I don’t feel I’m being biased, only honest.

Our Customer Service was in touch with your agent, as was the manager of our European office. That is likely how your agent came to read this thread and that is how you were moved out of an accessible cabin weeks ago. 

As for changing to a different fare/category, that would fall to your agent to go to bat for you...not something you can expect me to do. I am solely a messenger; a conduit here on CC.

And - honestly - you are doing a great job!

And - as we regularly book with that agency . they DO fight for you, but not always successfully. Azamara is not the one to make it easy for customers, as is Celebrity. Holland America is much easier in regard to customers requests and problems and one of the reasons we cruise with them often.