Breaking news! Use your OBC to pre-book shorex!

Bonnie

 

We cancelled our shore excursions and rebooked them against our OBC on the 21st when the new system became available and received emails confirming the changes. To date the refund credits have not appeared on our Amex account. In the past when we have cancelled shore excursions the credit has normally appeared in 5 days, I am concerned that the new system may not be ‘sending the right messages’ for the refunds. Has anyone else experienced this delay? We use a BA Amex card.

 

Thanks

 

Steve

We got our refund in 2 days. Visa, not AMEX, though.

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Bonnie

 

We cancelled our shore excursions and rebooked them against our OBC on the 21st when the new system became available and received emails confirming the changes. To date the refund credits have not appeared on our Amex account. In the past when we have cancelled shore excursions the credit has normally appeared in 5 days, I am concerned that the new system may not be ‘sending the right messages’ for the refunds. Has anyone else experienced this delay? We use a BA Amex card.

Thanks

Steve

I’m sorry about that. Have you written or called our Customer Service with your particulars?

I’m sorry about that. Have you written or called our Customer Service with your particulars?

Thanks Bonnie. Email sent today, currently joining a cruise from Athens so it’s a bit hit & miss with internet from now on to monitor our account.

Thanks Bonnie. Email sent today, currently joining a cruise from Athens so it’s a bit hit & miss with internet from now on to monitor our account.

Ignore previous message, at last the refund has appeared on my Amex account, clearly Amex takes longer than Visa!

Q

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Ignore previous message, at last the refund has appeared on my Amex account, clearly Amex takes longer than Visa!

I’m glad you’ve received your refund.

Enjoy your holiday!

I'm afraid not cruisevirginia. When using the new automated pre-booking system, the tour bookings will be made at the current price. Our system isn't programmed to recognize what the tour price was at some earlier date. It will use the current price.

If the price differential is more than you want to pay, you can keep the tour booking(s) you locked in using your credit card, and use the OBC 'work-around' once you board. Our onboard tour desk personnel will be able to cancel and rebook your tours at the original price because they are doing this manually.

Hi Bonnie,

We have just returned from 22 days on the Journey, during which the announcement was made.

Unfortunately Shorex personnel on board were less than helpful.

I have read all the posts to date on the subject and note that an excursion already booked may be exchanged by phone retaining the already paid price . . . however . . . my experience of cancelling and re-booking on board is that the new price prevails and given my recent experience (no assistance at all regarding pre-booking) I would suggest that the change might be better made before boarding.

Can you tell me why, when OBC is in $US and purchases on board using OBC are charged in $US . . . why when using (or trying to use) Voyage Planner, there is any need to make a currency conversion?????

Surely the charge should be exactly the same as it is when making the purchase on board!

I was looking forward to the introduction of the use of OBC to pre-book at last without any loss of value due to exchange rates, but it seems that is not to be . . . . disappointed also at the massive price increases some excursions have undergone . . . in one case more than doubling from $US85 to $US199.

Rant over . . . thanks for all you do and all the help you have provided on this thread and others.

Hi Bonnie,

We have just returned from 22 days on the Journey, during which the announcement was made.

Unfortunately Shorex personnel on board were less than helpful.

I have read all the posts to date on the subject and note that an excursion already booked may be exchanged by phone retaining the already paid price . . . however . . . my experience of cancelling and re-booking on board is that the new price prevails and given my recent experience (no assistance at all regarding pre-booking) I would suggest that the change might be better made before boarding.

Don't understand this. We canceled and re-booked multiple excursions on each of three Quest cruises two months ago and all were re-booked at the price paid when we booked on-line.

Don't understand this. We canceled and re-booked multiple excursions on each of three Quest cruises two months ago and all were re-booked at the price paid when we booked on-line.

"my experience of cancelling and re-booking on board is that the new price prevails"

this was last year, cancelling and re-booking using the work around.

"my recent experience (no assistance at all regarding pre-booking)"

this was last month, attempting to pre-book (after the announcement was made we could pre-book actually using OBC) for future cruises later this year.

hope this clarifies my previous post

Don't understand this. We canceled and re-booked multiple excursions on each of three Quest cruises two months ago and all were re-booked at the price paid when we booked on-line.

My experience with Az CS today.

Called to cancel and re-book a couple of excursions using OBC. Was told emphatically that, if they did this, they would have to re-book at the current (much higher) price. Took a bit of effort to get the CS rep to ref to their supervisor. After 20 mins or so (with no further discussion), they came back and said "all done" - they have arranged refund and re-booked using OBC at the original price. Great ....

... until I asked what OBC they used - the flexible OBC or the Shorex OBC we bought 6 days ago through the Essentials package ??

They didn't realise we had Shorex OBC so had just used the flex OBC. Apparently, I should have told them up front that we had both types of credit !!! Was then advised that they could not pre-book excursions with Shorex credit anyway, as this could only be used onboard.

So, to avoid being left with redundant Shorex credit, we've cancelled our Essentials Package. Would it have been possible to swap Shorex OBC for Flex OBC onboard ?? Who knows.

Must say, the whole process seems a bit convoluted, especially for us cruise newbies. And Azamara CS didn't exactly help.

I booked a shorex to Cassis on our Quest cruise two weeks ago. I pre paid on my credit card about five weeks prior to boarding and once onboard I went to the Shorex desk and rebooked it. The original amount was credited to my credit card within three days and my OBC (non refundable) was used to rebook. The price for me did not rise.

However my friends had to pay significantly more than me as the onboard price had risen. As to the quality of the actual shorex tour....well the least said about that the better!

Hello Bonnie,

Repeat of part of post #82 :

"Can you tell me why, when OBC is in $US . . . and purchases on board using OBC are charged in $US . . .

Why when using (or trying to use) Voyage Planner to pre-book using OBC, there is any need to make a currency conversion?????

Surely the charge should be exactly the same as it is when making the purchase on board!"

Hoping there may be some answer from those who make the rules and set up the website.

Trish

I wanted to share a brief update on using your onboard credit (OBC) pre-cruise and some of the items we’re working through with this new functionality.

 

Last week, guests booked on six specific 2018 sailings experienced technical issues when logging into Voyage Planner. This has since been resolved, allowing guests on sailings starting September 2018 to login and use their OBC pre-cruise (when applicable) to reserve Azamara Shore Excursions.

 

Guests who have already purchased their tours using a credit card may cancel and re-book using their OBC. We’re happy to share that we’ve also found a solution regarding pricing and will now be able to honor price changes for guests with existing bookings who want to apply their OBC towards their pre-purchased tours before getting onboard. Please contact our team at 1-855-AZAMARA and they will manually cancel and rebook your tours, while honoring the original price paid, using your OBC.

 

Lastly, we’ve confirmed that shore excursion OBCs earned from Experience More packages are not currently available for use pre-cruise at this time. We’re diligently working on a solution and should have this limitation resolved soon.

 

Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to welcoming you onboard soon.

Hi Bonnie,

I wanted to let you know that as of today the OBC from the Experience More package is now available for use pre-cruise on my shore excursion page. I cancelled my previously purchased excursions and rebooked using the OBC. Thank you and your team for making this possible.

Thanks Dan for confirming this! I just learned that the functionality had been fixed so that the Experience More OBC could be used pre-cruise, and was about to post as such.

I appreciate everyone who called our attention to this omission when we rolled out the new "pre-booking with OBC".

For anyone who wishes to purchase a Experience More Package in advance, you can do so by calling the call center. The Experience More packages are found here…

https://www.azamaraclubcruises.com/booked-guests/onboard-packages/experience-more-packages

Bonnie,

Can we now use OBC to purchase an Experience More Package? When I called several weeks ago, I was told this was not possible.

Our Experience More OBC does not show on our sailing (Pursuit, 28 October 2018). This is one of the ones that was having problems before so maybe the same issue?

Bonnie,

 

Can we now use OBC to purchase an Experience More Package? When I called several weeks ago, I was told this was not possible.

Hi cruisevirginia,

No you cannot use OBC to pre-purchase an Experience More package. But yes, once aboard the ship you will be able to use your OBC to purchase an Experience More package. (See Post #59 above when almost the same question was asked.)

The reason behind not being able to use OBC to pre-purchase an Experience More package is that OBC can only be used prior to boarding towards our shorex tours. No other services in the Experience More packages, e.g. spa, beverage packages, etc., are available for pre-booking with OBC. But once onboard you'll be fine.

Our Experience More OBC does not show on our sailing (Pursuit, 28 October 2018). This is one of the ones that was having problems before so maybe the same issue?

You should call or write to our Customer Service to ask them to look into this particular problem for you.

You should call or write to our Customer Service to ask them to look into this particular problem for you.

Thanks, Bonnie. Just emailed them.

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I just want to say THANK YOU Azamara. I just logged in to purchase my shorex with my OBC for Sept Cruise and it worked brilliantly. I know we waited a long time for this, but it seems to be a good thing (at least that is my current experience). So Thanks!

Hi Hub, yes you can use your OBC once onboard to purchase our Experience More packages.

I have an $800 OBC which I have been using online in advance to secure my favourite shore excursions. However, once onboard, I want to buy an experience more package... If the package then gives me $700 shorex credit, can I then switch my existing excursions from my original $800 OBC to the Eperience More Package shorex OBC, thus freeing up most of the original $800 OBC to part fund the package cost?

Hope all that makes sense!

I have an $800 OBC which I have been using online in advance to secure my favourite shore excursions. However, once onboard, I want to buy an experience more package... If the package then gives me $700 shorex credit, can I then switch my existing excursions from my original $800 OBC to the Eperience More Package shorex OBC, thus freeing up most of the original $800 OBC to part fund the package cost?

 

Hope all that makes sense!

Hmmm, sounds tricky. You’d have to CX your shorex, then buy your Experience More with the OBC that has been put back in your account. Then repurchase your tours with the EM OBC. It may depend if there’s a waitlist on the tours. Talk to the Tour Desk personnel when you board.

Hmmm, sounds tricky. You’d have to CX your shorex, then buy your Experience More with the OBC that has been put back in your account. Then repurchase your tours with the EM OBC. It may depend if there’s a waitlist on the tours. Talk to the Tour Desk personnel when you board.

Thanks Bonnie,

If only I could just phone Azamara now and buy the EM package using my allocated OBC, paying the difference, then the EM Shorex credit would appear on my Voyage planner now to allow me to book my shorex online without any need to cancel and rebook on board...:confused:

I do know that the Azamara website is constantly being improved...:)

Thanks Bonnie,

If only I could just phone Azamara now and buy the EM package using my allocated OBC, paying the difference, then the EM Shorex credit would appear on my Voyage planner now to allow me to book my shorex online without any need to cancel and rebook on board...:confused:

I do know that the Azamara website is constantly being improved...:)

I hear you. But currently the only onboard product/service available to prebook using your OBC are our tours.