Using on board excursion credit

[manc]

please can someone by kind enough to remind me how to use OBC to book excursions before we sail.

 

Thank you 

[Whitby100]

I just did this 20 minutes ago.   I called AZ (1 855 292 6272 - North America resident) and was on hold 2 minutes.  They asked for AZ reservation number. I directed them to use my OBC for the 2 excursions I wanted.  They quoted a price in CA dollars which will be adjusted to US $ which all OBC is in.  Easy.

[Grandma Cruising]

This is what Azamara say about doing it online

Using Onboard Credit to Book Shore Excursions

To use your onboard credit (OBC) to book shore excursions, after logging into your account: Scroll down to Shore Excursions and select “Book” on the $0 Onboard Credit item to authorize use of your onboard credit Book your desired Shore Excursions Once your Shore Excursions are booked, navigate to the payment screen and click “Cancel" Your selected shore excursions are now booked, and onboard credit will be applied

[fruitmachine]

7 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

This is what Azamara say about doing it online

Using Onboard Credit to Book Shore Excursions

To use your onboard credit (OBC) to book shore excursions, after logging into your account: Scroll down to Shore Excursions and select “Book” on the $0 Onboard Credit item to authorize use of your onboard credit Book your desired Shore Excursions Once your Shore Excursions are booked, navigate to the payment screen and click “Cancel" Your selected shore excursions are now booked, and onboard credit will be applied

To add to this note - I did exactly as described, but had worked out that I would have a small additional balance to pay.

 

As nothing had changed after 36 hours and keen to get everything all-square (they had previously lost all the OBC on the booking) I called Azamara.  They easily applied all the OBC, but asked me to call back to pay the balance the following day.  

 

Unfortunately, that went wrong as well, but now everything looks OK and the excursions are showing as booked and paid.

[little britain]

21 hours ago, Grandma Cruising said:

This is what Azamara say about doing it online

Using Onboard Credit to Book Shore Excursions

To use your onboard credit (OBC) to book shore excursions, after logging into your account: Scroll down to Shore Excursions and select “Book” on the $0 Onboard Credit item to authorize use of your onboard credit Book your desired Shore Excursions Once your Shore Excursions are booked, navigate to the payment screen and click “Cancel" Your selected shore excursions are now booked, and onboard credit will be applied

I am not seeing any $0 OBC item… where is this please? Can you kindly do a screen grab ? 
 

I’m logged in, I can see we have $150pp OBC…but when I select a $99pp excursion it wants me to pay 💰! 
I also assume we will have to book this excursion separately as the $150 is loaded pp? 
thanks 

Edited August 16 by little britain

[Grandma Cruising]

1 hour ago, little britain said:

I am not seeing any $0 OBC item… where is this please? Can you kindly do a screen grab ? 
 

I’m logged in, I can see we have $150pp OBC…but when I select a $99pp excursion it wants me to pay 💰! 
I also assume we will have to book this excursion separately as the $150 is loaded pp? 
thanks 

The $0 credit item is the Amazing evening (or Destination Event). I haven't used this method, as I ring up - I find it easier. Maybe someone who has used it can advise you.

[manc]

I phoned Azamara UK and except for Azamara evening was hold the only way to book using OBC was by phone. Took less than 5 minutes and great assistance offered. 

[sczcardfan]

On 8/15/2024 at 10:01 AM, Grandma Cruising said:

This is what Azamara say about doing it online

Using Onboard Credit to Book Shore Excursions

To use your onboard credit (OBC) to book shore excursions, after logging into your account: Scroll down to Shore Excursions and select “Book” on the $0 Onboard Credit item to authorize use of your onboard credit Book your desired Shore Excursions Once your Shore Excursions are booked, navigate to the payment screen and click “Cancel" Your selected shore excursions are now booked, and onboard credit will be applied

As far as I can tell (and I could obviously be missing something), for US cruisers there is no longer a payment screen to navigate to, so this does not work.

However, as others mentioned, selecting shore excursions online and then calling, it only took me a few minutes to have all the excursions charged to OBC, and the charge was properly reflected in my available OBC showing in their online system by the next day (could have been showing immediately, but I did not check until the next day, so I cannot say).

[manc]

In  the UK I booked using OBC and a few days later received an email for the small amount outstanding. When I phoned to pay was told £1800 to pay. We depart soon and paid final invoice long ago. Was eventually able to sort it but office still not great. Hoping ship will be usual high standard. 

[fruitmachine]

17 minutes ago, manc said:

In  the UK I booked using OBC and a few days later received an email for the small amount outstanding. When I phoned to pay was told £1800 to pay. We depart soon and paid final invoice long ago. Was eventually able to sort it but office still not great. Hoping ship will be usual high standard. 

Did you use a large UK travel agent that advertises that it puts your money in a "trust" account?

I did, and when I look at the (hidden) invoice page online, I can see that there is still an amount outstanding.  I paid the TA in full when I booked, so I assume that the agreement the TA has with Azamara has staged payments, possibly including some that may not happen until after you return home.

[uktog]

1 hour ago, manc said:

In  the UK I booked using OBC and a few days later received an email for the small amount outstanding. When I phoned to pay was told £1800 to pay. We depart soon and paid final invoice long ago. Was eventually able to sort it but office still not great. Hoping ship will be usual high standard. 

At least you managed to pay - its a problem linked to Seaware.  Explora Journeys also has this issue but unfortunately they cannot take any payments, you have to contact your travel agent and pay them so they can pay Explora.  Also Explora you cannot even search for excursions against your booking as it says you have an outstanding balance and you have to pay that before you can do anything.  Travel agents can send you a PDF .....  

Seaware has a lot to answer for, at least Azamara has put in place some work arounds 

[Grandma Cruising]

Some TAs have agreements with cruise lines that they don’t pay until the passenger is onboard.

[uktog]

6 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

Some TAs have agreements with cruise lines that they don’t pay until the passenger is onboard.

And therein lies the problem with Seaware

[riandei]

We have booked the EXMO package with a generous ship credit.

 

if I book shore excursions now, will they be charged to the $300 ship credit thats given with EXMO or do I need to do something to make that happen?

 

thank you

[Grandma Cruising]

1 hour ago, riandei said:

We have booked the EXMO package with a generous ship credit.

 

if I book shore excursions now, will they be charged to the $300 ship credit thats given with EXMO or do I need to do something to make that happen?

 

thank you

They will, but it’s best to ring up to book the excursions to make sure.

[little britain]

1 hour ago, riandei said:

We have booked the EXMO package with a generous ship credit.

 

if I book shore excursions now, will they be charged to the $300 ship credit thats given with EXMO or do I need to do something to make that happen?

 

thank you

You have to call. The UK office dealt with this promptly today.  We should still have some OBC remaining but this isn’t showing yet.

I had sent a message via Twitter last week asking how to book as their FAQ instructions ( posted ^^ earlier) don’t work and what to do, but am still waiting for acknowledgment of message and a response 🤷‍♀️

Edited August 21 by little britain

[Rosroz]

Slightly different question here , my husband and I have $300 excursion credit for our upcoming 8 Sept Croatian cruise and we are not excursion people , any suggestions what I do with it , I asked my TA if we use it for something else but the answer from Azamara was no , I was hoping that there are some officers on board that we know from previous sailings and seeing if they could do something for us, give it to the Crew welfare fund maybe , thanks 

[fruitmachine]

51 minutes ago, Rosroz said:

Slightly different question here , my husband and I have $300 excursion credit for our upcoming 8 Sept Croatian cruise and we are not excursion people , any suggestions what I do with it , I asked my TA if we use it for something else but the answer from Azamara was no , I was hoping that there are some officers on board that we know from previous sailings and seeing if they could do something for us, give it to the Crew welfare fund maybe , thanks 

Crew Welfare fund s not an option, and I think this OBC can only be used on excursions. 

 

But a word of encouragement on those; we went on Azamara's Croatia Intensive cruise - our first ever cruise - last March and picked a walking-only excursion in each port.  With the exception of Opatia (where they had nothing to work with!) we were particularly impressed with the quality of the guides, the quite small groups, and the very reasonable pricing (though I think that may have significantly increased since then).

[john1970]

Can you use the OBC to book a transfer back to the airport? Is that considered a tour? I booked my tour direct. I also got the confirmation from my TA. I do have some credit left but will take my chance when we board and see what is left.

[fruitmachine]

41 minutes ago, john1970 said:

Can you use the OBC to book a transfer back to the airport? Is that considered a tour? I booked my tour direct. I also got the confirmation from my TA. I do have some credit left but will take my chance when we board and see what is left.

You can only use "normal" OBC for transfers by waiting to book onboard, so you can ask the question at Guest Services. Here's hoping!