Azamara Onward, The Good and The Bad

[blag]

4 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

It was an email that I received [direct from Azamara, even though I booked through a TA] on April 26 – containing a formal letter on letterhead with the offer.  This was before final payment, so they had an incentive to keep us from taking the other option (full refund to original form of payment plus up to $500 in non-refundable costs).

 

The option to stay on also included refund of "up to $500 per person for non-refundable Airfare/Hotel/Private Tour changes for Domestic travel in Europe and $1,000 per person for non-refundable Airfare/Hotel/Private Tour changes for international travel to Europe."

 

Seeing this makes me quite cross.

When Azamara dramatically, significantly, horribly changed the itinerary for the expensive Black Sea cruise to a far, far inferior one, no offers of any form of compensation were made. In fact, some cruisers were charged to transfer the booking to an alternative cruise*. Admittedly, no change of embarkation or debarkation ports were involved. But, for some, the impact was significant.

 

*see the current thread on significant changes of itinierary

[Twiga]

Thank you, Jazzbeau, for the additional information. I have asked my TA to follow up on this as we also have an October cruise.

[Host Jazzbeau]

9 hours ago, combine said:

Hi Jazzbeau

 

Was this obc offered because this was the cruise that was extended earlier this year by a day and it was a sweetener  to keep you booked because of the hassle?  
 

Possibly a separate issue from the fcc being offered due to change of port?
Did you also receive notification of the fcc offered for that ?

 

 

That's correct – but since our cruise was lengthened without further cost, they really didn't need to sweeten that factor!  I assumed the offer was because of the change in embarkation from Venice to Ravenna, and the need for many people to change their return flight because of the extra day.  [The people on the following cruise, which lost a day, are the ones who needed a sweetener!]

[combine]

Thanks Jazzbeau for clarification that the obc offer was just particular to Journey 6-18 October . Yes indeed you are correct the following cruisers needed the sweetener!! 
 

 We have already experienced the disembarkation change to Ravenna on Quest in April and  we’ll be doing it again on Quest in October. It was a decent complimentary transfer,  very direct route and no real problems for us, except we all arrived very early for our flights. They’ll be old hands at it by October,  so may tweak it a little?   

No one appears to have received information re the fcc yet and how we will be notified.

Thanks  again.

[Grandma Cruising]

9 hours ago, blag said:

Seeing this makes me quite cross.

When Azamara dramatically, significantly, horribly changed the itinerary for the expensive Black Sea cruise to a far, far inferior one, no offers of any form of compensation were made. In fact, some cruisers were charged to transfer the booking to an alternative cruise*. Admittedly, no change of embarkation or debarkation ports were involved. But, for some, the impact was significant.

 

*see the current thread on significant changes of itinierary

If you’re talking about me, my Black Sea cruise was May 2023, so the itinerary hasn’t yet changed. I jumped before changes were made and published because it was obvious it would change. In these circumstances I expected to pay a transfer fee as per Azamara’s booking conditions.

[blag]

3 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

If you’re talking about me, my Black Sea cruise was May 2023, so the itinerary hasn’t yet changed. I jumped before changes were made and published because it was obvious it would change. In these circumstances I expected to pay a transfer fee as per Azamara’s booking conditions.

I am not cross with you!

I am cross with Azamara for not making any offer of compensation. If I have offended you, I apologise unreservedly. 

We were booked for one of the 2022 Black Sea cruises which were hacked such that they bore only a notional similarity to the original.

The uninsured loss to us was £1800 for non-refundable flights. There are many side issues (whether it was prudent to purchase non-refundable flights, or to book the cruise in the first place, and Azamara had really no choice in the matter etc.), but the fact remains: Azamara cost me a considerable sum of money, and not for the first time.

They volunteered nothing.

[Grandma Cruising]

48 minutes ago, blag said:

I am not cross with you!

I am cross with Azamara for not making any offer of compensation. If I have offended you, I apologise unreservedly. 

We were booked for one of the 2022 Black Sea cruises which were hacked such that they bore only a notional similarity to the original.

The uninsured loss to us was £1800 for non-refundable flights. There are many side issues (whether it was prudent to purchase non-refundable flights, or to book the cruise in the first place, and Azamara had really no choice in the matter etc.), but the fact remains: Azamara cost me a considerable sum of money, and not for the first time.

They volunteered nothing.

Sorry, blag, didn’t mean to sound cross or offended - I wasn’t. Just stating that my position was somewhat different from yours.  I cancelled early so that I wouldn’t get into the position you found yourselves in - I cancelled well before the need to book flights, hotels etc. I agree that Azamara should have offered some sort of compensation. The new itineraries were very different and didn’t compare with the original. Like you, we were not interested in a Greece & Turkey cruise.

[Host Jazzbeau]

I agree that it is reasonable to expect Azamara at a minimum to revalue the Black Sea cruises to their worth as Greek Island cruises.  And they probably should also have offered free cancellation.  The change on my cruise was minimal compared to yours.

 

OTOH I have a Baltic cruise in August (on Noble Caledonia) that was booked with 3 overnights in St. Petersburg and now of course has none of that. They have recently put all remaining cabins on sale at a terrific discount—but didn’t offer me any rebate.  Still, I want this small cruise line to stay afloat so I’m not complaining. In fact I took advantage of the newly available cabins to upgrade (at full fare). 

[excitedofharpenden]

23 hours ago, blag said:

Seeing this makes me quite cross.

When Azamara dramatically, significantly, horribly changed the itinerary for the expensive Black Sea cruise to a far, far inferior one, no offers of any form of compensation were made. In fact, some cruisers were charged to transfer the booking to an alternative cruise*. Admittedly, no change of embarkation or debarkation ports were involved. But, for some, the impact was significant.

 

*see the current thread on significant changes of itinierary

This was one thing that stood out to me when they changed the Black Sea itinerary. Well not so much changed, but cancelled it. I totally understand their reason for doing this, but having looked at doing a Black Sea itinerary before and seeing the premium in price one pays for it they certainly didn't make it right for those booked.

 

On the whole I would say Azamara doing a pretty good job if there are changes, sometimes verging on the generous, but not in this case. 

 

Phil 

[blag]

1 minute ago, excitedofharpenden said:

This was one thing that stood out to me when they changed the Black Sea itinerary. Well not so much changed, but cancelled it. I totally understand their reason for doing this, but having looked at doing a Black Sea itinerary before and seeing the premium in price one pays for it they certainly didn't make it right for those booked.

 

On the whole I would say Azamara doing a pretty good job if there are changes, sometimes verging on the generous, but not in this case. 

 

Phil 

I get what you are saying: in effect they cancelled the cruise. But... they did not cancel it.

If they had cancelled it, insurance would have covered non-refundable flights etc.

 

In the past, when itineraries changed very significantly Azamara offered something. For example: when Cuba initially became available to Azamara.

This time zilch.

[Medeba]

14 hours ago, combine said:

Thanks Jazzbeau for clarification that the obc offer was just particular to Journey 6-18 October . Yes indeed you are correct the following cruisers needed the sweetener!! 

The following cruise out of Athens was also offered the sweetener but there was no reduction in the price of the cruise for one less day (I tried!).  I'm not too bothered as we benefited from the extra day for no more cost on the previous cruise (including the additional OBC) and we didn't have to make any changes to our other arrangements.  I was also impressed that Azamara is offering a complimentary transfer from Venice to Ravenna either from the airport or the city (Tronchetto).

[Pizzasteve]

On 5/16/2022 at 12:09 PM, lisiamc said:

To put my money where my mouth is, we have today booked Onward’s last European cruise (Civitavecchia to Lisbon), and the following Transatlantic (Lisbon to Miami). We really had a good time, and we are looking forward to the next time!

We look forward to meeting you on the Lisbon Transatlantic.  We will be on that sailing too.