DON"T Purchase a Future Cruise Aboard Azamara

We recommend that you don't get hoodwinked into placing a Deposit towards a Future Cruise with Azamara. We were on the Journey in Mar 2012 and did put money down and two weeks ago we attempted to book a Cruise using this deposit. What we found was that Azamara stated that they could find nothing that showed we had a Deposit in the system. They suggested we track down the credit card info that showed the purchase from 2 1/2 Years ago and low and behold we found the Credit Card Charge Info. We called Azamara back even with the Charging Information they said sorry they still see nothing that says we have a deposit waiting to be used. At this time I contacted the Travel Agent we had used to book the Mar 2012 and the Agency said they had the number but questioned our Loyalty given we wanted to look at price and possibly book with another Agency. We started our search with this Agency for this trip and found that they were higher.

Azamara tells us that the Policy isthat ONLY the Agent can release you to make an actual booking for a Cruise. Keep in mind we ARE NOT BOOKED but have a deposit waiting to be used on our next booking. That is provided we book with the Agency controlling the deposit or providing they are willing to release it. I asked basic questions like who paid the Deposit (me or Agency), what if the Agency says no, etc? No good answers. My eyes were OPENED when I went to a tread on Cruise Critic that had the Agreement and it is ALL slanted to assist the Agency and talks nothing about the customers (who paid the money) and purchased the Deposit. It talks about the system that gives the Travel Agency assistance with contact to customers who are committed to a trip with money down but says little about the customer. We travel a number of other Cruise Lines and have purchased dozens of Cruise Certificates and never once saw ourselves shut out of the control of booking a cruise with whomever we wanted based on PRICE. I have asked the Agency to send a letter to Azamara releasing me so I can shop for the best deal. I expect that this Agency will do the right thing and release the booking but the business relationship is now damaged.

I spoke with Azamara Corporate Relations and the Loyalty Folks and got no place. Any other suggestions to resolve other than keeping my money in my pocket until we ready to book and thus keep control of our own future costs?

Do you have a receipt from the Future Cruise Desk.

No, what I have is my Credit card info that shows the purchase. Good news is that I now have the Booking Number which Azamara NOW admits is in the system and qualifies for $550 toward the next trip I book as the Deposit. So I will be available to use this $550 Deposit on the following conditions:

IF I book with the first Agency

or if this first Agency is willing to release it.

Request a charge back from your credit card company; problem solved!

Floris

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

I just received a call from a Azamara Supervisor who says she can help resolve this. This lady was pleasant and understood that the money used and the money that will be paid belonged to my wife and I and that ultimately the decision of how much or little we spend still belongs to us the customer. She said that IF I will send her a letter asking to assign the control of booking to myself that she will see that it happens. I have contacted the Agency one last time to ask that they take the action to assign it back to me so we will see. I am going to prepare a letter.

This all makes sense and while I still disagree with how slanted towards the Agency(s) this process is I am hopeful that we can resolve this in the coming days. Should be simple now that I am talking with someone who can impact the problem as I just want to have some control of my own booking of a cruise.

Thanks for the suggestion on challenging the charge as my wife and I have discussed that and decided for now not to try that. We suspect that the Credit Card Company will likely say that this purchase is from 2 1/2 Years ago and that we can get the product if we will just pay the price asked. Hopefully this latest offer to resolve will fix the problem otherwise we will indeed make an attempt to challenge the charge.

This is standard procedure on Celebrity as well. If you make an on board booking it is automatically assigned to the TA who booked the cruise you are currently on. I am happy with my TA but if I wanted to change I would ensure that Azamara kept the booking to allow me to transfer to the TA of my choice. With Celebrity I have 60 days to make that decision.

interesting and helpful! With some lines like NCL it simply isn't assigned so that when you're ready to book you find an Agency you wish to book with, make a decision, and tell them you have a Future Cruise Certificate, and "boom" your done. Obviously, in these examples since your actually booked on a Cruise you clearly have already agreed or accepted a price, the room, and any perks so now if you want to change agency's you should and better have a valid reason. Thanks again for the feedback.

You are proceeding correctly. You cannot challenge a charge for 2 1/2 years ago. You would not win that battle. Unfortunately, as stated above, unless you change TA's within 60 days of booking or buying the advance sailing certificate, it stays with your original TA. Not very customer friendly, but policy.....

This is standard procedure on Celebrity as well. If you make an on board booking it is automatically assigned to the TA who booked the cruise you are currently on. I am happy with my TA but if I wanted to change I would ensure that Azamara kept the booking to allow me to transfer to the TA of my choice. With Celebrity I have 60 days to make that decision.

IOn general A is the same. once iforgot and it went ot my TA .the end result was cruises fro 2016 were release and i had to hae her book them. .thank God my cabin was still thee. yes, I have my favorite cabin or area on the ship.

i tihnk the trick is to make sure you do not give it to an agent when. on ship. then when you book the cruise you can give it to the agent or not

Now you know why it's better to keep control of your bookings and forget the TA. It would have to be a really really really big perk from a TA to get me to yield control. It should have been explained to you if you used a future cruise consultant on board and didn't just drop off the fcc box.

Now you know why it's better to keep control of your bookings and forget the TA. It would have to be a really really really big perk from a TA to get me to yield control. It should have been explained to you if you used a future cruise consultant on board and didn't just drop off the fcc box.

Perks from TA's are big enough with the correct one to make booking with them worhwhile. We get a minimum of 10% of the commisionable amount back from our TA.

Plus the TA is there to support us if necessary. After all, if you book direct any issues and you are dealing with people who work for the cruise line and have the cruise lines interest at heart and not yours.

Booking direct gives you less control than booking thru a great TA who rebates significant amounts of money and provides additional perks. Just have to stay on top of those future certificates and move them to your chosen TA within the 60 days or better yet, see no reason why you couldn't specify who the certificate should go to while buying the certificate.

In any case good luck,

If you know to ask, you can buy the certificate without a link to any TA. Then you can use those certificates any way you like. We find the best way is to book direct with the cruise line (since they're available 24/7), and then transfer the booking to our TA (to get the extra perks and to have an advocate if things go bad). The Future Cruise Consultants don't jump in to tell you this, because it would seem to be undercutting all TAs -- but if you ask, they know how to do it.

We always request that the future cruise deposit stays with Azamara (or Celebrity), not the outside agent. They should ask though.

Who knows if the original agency will be in business some years later, or if you will like their pricing.

If you buy a FFC, you cannot get a refund. If you book a cruise, you can get acrefund if you cancel the booking. Azamara does keep a small amount. Unless you know what cruise you want to take, do not book on the cruise.