Bonkers Azamara marketing emails

[upplepop]

I received an email offer of a 5% discount off my fare (not just OBC) if I paid my remaining balance in full. However, when I called to redeem the offer, they only applied a discount of around 2.5-3.0% of my full fare. I emailed customer support, didn't get a response in time, and ended up redeeming the offer anyway just before the promotion window expired. Not a very pleasant experience.

 

In hindsight, I really regret taking advantage of this discount. I could've put the dollar equivalent of my remaining balance in a savings account and received much more in interest than I saved on the fare.

[tgg]

14 minutes ago, upplepop said:

I received an email offer of a 5% discount off my fare (not just OBC) if I paid my remaining balance in full. However, when I called to redeem the offer, they only applied a discount of around 2.5-3.0% of my full fare. I emailed customer support, didn't get a response in time, and ended up redeeming the offer anyway just before the promotion window expired. Not a very pleasant experience.

 

In hindsight, I really regret taking advantage of this discount. I could've put the dollar equivalent of my remaining balance in a savings account and received much more in interest than I saved on the fare.

If the amount of the discount was not what you expected, why didn't you question it when you called?  

[Laganlady02]

4 hours ago, NicNata said:

 

 

I read it as Future Cruise Credit i.e. you won't get it on your August 24 cruise. I goes back to my original point that the email is confusing and requires mental gymnastics which is not good marketing practice. It reads "Guests who accept this offer and pay their sailing in full will receive 5% Onboard Credit to be used in future sailing".

Can this get anymore confusing? 

You have now turned On-board Credit into Future Cruise Credit.

[upplepop]

7 minutes ago, tgg said:

If the amount of the discount was not what you expected, why didn't you question it when you called?  

I did question it. The operator couldn’t explain how the discount was calculated & told me to send an email to support.

[Grandma Cruising]

6 minutes ago, upplepop said:

I did question it. The operator couldn’t explain how the discount was calculated & told me to send an email to support.

Was it because it didn’t cover port fees, so 5% of the price without the port fees

[tgg]

11 minutes ago, upplepop said:

I did question it. The operator couldn’t explain how the discount was calculated & told me to send an email to support.

Just two suggestions: 

1. Use a travel agent whose job it is to take care of things like this.

 

2. Hang up and call back and speak to someone else. Let them tell you how the calculation was done. You should be sure to subtract the taxes/port charges/fees because this kind of offer is on the net price.

 

You should not have to "support" your understanding of an offer.

[Peter Lanky]

Had the discount not applied to certain elements of the fare, then these should have been listed in the small print of the promotion, otherwise Azamara would be guilty of false advertising.

 

Knowing how poor the Administration of Azamara is, the person calculating the discount most likely made an error. They did this to me when pre booking excursions on my previous cruise to be taken on my next cruise. You need to keep persisting that Azamara has made an error and should rectify it.

 

The problem I have encountered is trying to explain this to somebody whose first language is not English. This will be my approach when I take my next cruise. I will find the most senior crew member whose first language is English and as them to take the problem forward.

 

I wish you luck, but you must persist.

[NicNata]

27 minutes ago, Laganlady02 said:

Can this get anymore confusing? 

You have now turned On-board Credit into Future Cruise Credit.

Its not me who said this. Its in the fine print as I quoted. So it is OBC but to be used on a future sailing not on the sailing it was earned on. At least that is how I read it. Again it is exactly my point. Azamara is bombarding us with confusing emails that we have to to work out what they mean. A marketing offer should be crystal clear and offer a benefit everyone understand immediately.

[So Cal John]

6 hours ago, NicNata said:

 

 

I read it as Future Cruise Credit i.e. you won't get it on your August 24 cruise. I goes back to my original point that the email is confusing and requires mental gymnastics which is not good marketing practice. It reads "Guests who accept this offer and pay their sailing in full will receive 5% Onboard Credit to be used in future sailing".

Yes, I concur with your comments about the poorly worded communication. I’m going to call them again to see if I get the same answer as before. 

[eladi]

On 1/19/2024 at 4:37 AM, G2G said:

I totally agree. I checked out a solo fare and it worked out around 125%. I don’t understand whether solos pay 100% more ie 2 fares or one fare. I can’t be bothered to ask my agent to check it out. 🤦‍♀️

 

Did not know about the 5% off email, but I did both see and check this "100% solo supplement" offer out.  It does mean 0% extra solo supplements (solo pays same price as double occupancy), but it comes with "caveats."

 

After having a long discussion with a travel agent, this is what I found:

Cruises that qualify for these discount are listed as having a 100% supplement (so this is one where the price is JUST 100% of price (no extra supplement beyond that for having only one person).  Other discounted cruises are listed as 125%, 150%, 175%, etc)

However this does NOT include other fees.  The problem is, these "other fees" may or may not be adequately described in your bill.

 

One of these "other fees" is called NCF (Non Commissionable Fare, I think).  I've heard of these fees for years,  This is the part of the cruise price on which your travel agent does NOT get commission.  It is a variable dollar (or applicable currency) amount the cruise lines almost always add to the price of your ticket over which neither you or the agent have control (except by picking a different cruise).

 

Without this particular fee, that 0% supplement for a single fare is easy to see.  However, when you pay the final price, all of a sudden, the numbers look higher that you've calculated they should be, even after subtracting taxes, extras, etc. That is, at least in part,  the work of that NCF.  This will almost always be the case whether or not you use a travel agent.

[NicNata]

9 hours ago, eladi said:

 

Did not know about the 5% off email, but I did both see and check this "100% solo supplement" offer out.  It does mean 0% extra solo supplements (solo pays same price as double occupancy), but it comes with "caveats."

 

After having a long discussion with a travel agent, this is what I found:

Cruises that qualify for these discount are listed as having a 100% supplement (so this is one where the price is JUST 100% of price (no extra supplement beyond that for having only one person).  Other discounted cruises are listed as 125%, 150%, 175%, etc)

However this does NOT include other fees.  The problem is, these "other fees" may or may not be adequately described in your bill.

 

One of these "other fees" is called NCF (Non Commissionable Fare, I think).  I've heard of these fees for years,  This is the part of the cruise price on which your travel agent does NOT get commission.  It is a variable dollar (or applicable currency) amount the cruise lines almost always add to the price of your ticket over which neither you or the agent have control (except by picking a different cruise).

 

Without this particular fee, that 0% supplement for a single fare is easy to see.  However, when you pay the final price, all of a sudden, the numbers look higher that you've calculated they should be, even after subtracting taxes, extras, etc. That is, at least in part,  the work of that NCF.  This will almost always be the case whether or not you use a travel agent.

Wow the mental gymnastics needed for this one are insane. In addition, if you actually check the list of supposedly solo cruise rates in the email they sent, at least the ones I checked, all of them are twice the price when you change 2 people to 1 person in the booking i.e. by this logic it is 200% and so no saving at all for solo travellers. The marketing team needs to regroup and think again before sending at more of these so called "offers"

[uktog]

Really frustrates me the number of emails. I’m now getting ahead of my Cruise next month and how inappropriate some of them are.  For example, the latest one relates to Internet packages, but the pricing would only apply to someone who has not cruised with Azamara before and will not recognise the level of free minutes for anyone who has Loyalty. Previous one offered a speciality dining package but we are booked in a suite. 
 

Some segmentation would not go amiss!

[Mackdogmolly]

13 minutes ago, uktog said:

Really frustrates me the number of emails. I’m now getting ahead of my Cruise next month and how inappropriate some of them are.  For example, the latest one relates to Internet packages, but the pricing would only apply to someone who has not cruised with Azamara before and will not recognise the level of free minutes for anyone who has Loyalty. Previous one offered a speciality dining package but we are booked in a suite. 
 

Some segmentation would not go amiss!

Yes, I’m getting them too, but just ignore. On the other hand, I did get our boarding passes!

[uktog]

31 minutes ago, Mackdogmolly said:

Yes, I’m getting them too, but just ignore. On the other hand, I did get our boarding passes!

Not got that yet! 

[Mackdogmolly]

27 minutes ago, uktog said:

Not got that yet! 

It came from my TA a couple of days ago!

[Grandma Cruising]

1 hour ago, Mackdogmolly said:

Yes, I’m getting them too, but just ignore. On the other hand, I did get our boarding passes!

Got ours via our TA for our 20 February cruise on Pursuit

[G2G]

21 hours ago, eladi said:

 

Did not know about the 5% off email, but I did both see and check this "100% solo supplement" offer out.  It does mean 0% extra solo supplements (solo pays same price as double occupancy), but it comes with "caveats."

 

After having a long discussion with a travel agent, this is what I found:

Cruises that qualify for these discount are listed as having a 100% supplement (so this is one where the price is JUST 100% of price (no extra supplement beyond that for having only one person).  Other discounted cruises are listed as 125%, 150%, 175%, etc)

However this does NOT include other fees.  The problem is, these "other fees" may or may not be adequately described in your bill.

 

One of these "other fees" is called NCF (Non Commissionable Fare, I think).  I've heard of these fees for years,  This is the part of the cruise price on which your travel agent does NOT get commission.  It is a variable dollar (or applicable currency) amount the cruise lines almost always add to the price of your ticket over which neither you or the agent have control (except by picking a different cruise).

 

Without this particular fee, that 0% supplement for a single fare is easy to see.  However, when you pay the final price, all of a sudden, the numbers look higher that you've calculated they should be, even after subtracting taxes, extras, etc. That is, at least in part,  the work of that NCF.  This will almost always be the case whether or not you use a travel agent.

As I previously stated, the 2 cruises I checked out were not 100% fare, they were approximately 125% & that was before taxes etc were added. It matters not, I didn’t continue either booking. 

[terry&mike]

In most offers, the percent promo will say "of the Cruise Fare", such as "5% of the Cruise Fare" in On Board Credit for paying in advance. If you look at your Azamara invoice, the first line of billing will be for Cruise Fare, the next line states Tax, the next line states Cruise Total (and so on). The dollar amount Azamara is working from is calculated from a percentage of the top line, "Cruise Fare". 

[Symmes99]

I am hesitant to take advantage of the 5% offer. Is Azamara’s having cash flow problems? Is my full payment needed to fund current operations? Do I want to be on a list of creditors if Azamara ceases operations before my cruise? I’ve asked my TA to check industry buzz. 

[upplepop]

1 hour ago, Symmes99 said:

I am hesitant to take advantage of the 5% offer. Is Azamara’s having cash flow problems? Is my full payment needed to fund current operations? Do I want to be on a list of creditors if Azamara ceases operations before my cruise? I’ve asked my TA to check industry buzz. 

Interest rates are relatively high right now, so being able to lock in your fare plus earning interest is a no-brainer for them.

 

This is the reason I regret taking advantage of the 5% offer. I could've been earning almost 5% of my remaining fare per month had I just stuck it in a high-yield savings account.

[tgg]

6 minutes ago, upplepop said:

Interest rates are relatively high right now, so being able to lock in your fare plus earning interest is a no-brainer for them.

 

This is the reason I regret taking advantage of the 5% offer. I could've been earning almost 5% of my remaining fare per month had I just stuck it in a high-yield savings account.

 

Earnings from a savings account are taxable. 

[juliacb]

Is the OBC refundable?

[Mackdogmolly]

7 minutes ago, juliacb said:

Is the OBC refundable?

Generally, OBC from the cruise line is not refundable.

[uktog]

3 hours ago, tgg said:

 

Earnings from a savings account are taxable. 

Not always (I am talking about UK accounts)

[tgg]

16 minutes ago, uktog said:

Not always (I am talking about UK accounts)

I responded to a poster who lives in the US.