Do you have trouble when flying out from U.K. airports

[Mrs Miggins]

Bill,

We fly to Rome on 24th Sept to join Quest on 25th. Booked via a travel agent as I could see prices and cabin allocations online.

After reading this thread and others I telephoned Azamara today to ask about plane seat reservations. After going through the press number 3 etc etc I then waited 14 minutes to be answered "Royal Caribbean" I asked if he was part of the Azamara team and was told "sort of".

After giving my Azamara Reference Number I was told that as this was a Block Booking with BA I could not do any seat reservations myself.

I was told that the only way to ensure I sat next to my husband on the flight was to phone Group Allocation Seating exactly four days before the flight - not before and not after as the 'window for seat allocations' is only open for one day.

The young man was perfectly pleasant. However sadly he had never heard of Bill Leiber and had no idea who I was talking about.

 

I am really looking forward to my cruise - but this level of customer response before our cruise is poor.

[Bill Leiber]

Bill,

We fly to Rome on 24th Sept to join Quest on 25th. Booked via a travel agent as I could see prices and cabin allocations online.

After reading this thread and others I telephoned Azamara today to ask about plane seat reservations. After going through the press number 3 etc etc I then waited 14 minutes to be answered "Royal Caribbean" I asked if he was part of the Azamara team and was told "sort of".

After giving my Azamara Reference Number I was told that as this was a Block Booking with BA I could not do any seat reservations myself.

I was told that the only way to ensure I sat next to my husband on the flight was to phone Group Allocation Seating exactly four days before the flight - not before and not after as the 'window for seat allocations' is only open for one day.

The young man was perfectly pleasant. However sadly he had never heard of Bill Leiber and had no idea who I was talking about.

 

I am really looking forward to my cruise - but this level of customer response before our cruise is poor.

 

Hello Mrs. Miggins -

 

I'm sorry that your experience in dealing with Azamara through the UK reservations fell short of your expectations, especially after reading the success that Joecors reported.

 

With respect to the BA blocked air inventory, I'm waiting for feedback from the UK Azamara air team about the feasibility of creating an internal system that would enable us to maintain the inventory allocation while offering guests the ability to pre-book seats and check in online. Hopefully, I'll have that decision sometime soon, in advance of your September 24th BA flight to Rome.

 

I'm sorry for the long wait-time you experienced to finally connect to a reservations agent, albeit one from Royal Caribbean. The Royal Caribbean corporation believes in having the three brands "share" the corporate services, i.e., reservations, air operations, land programs, etc. The challenge in the UK for Azamara was to create a "virtual" dedicated team of well-trained Azamara first-responders "carved-out" from the existing UK reservation agents to become the first point of contact to service guests and travel agents for the Azamara booking process. The intent of the Azamara Ambassadors Programme was to avoid the need to add more staff by using the existing resources. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this iniative is still a work-in-progress.

 

Sometimes when incoming Azamara call volume is at its peak, the unanswered calls may roll-over to the reservations unit for one of our sister-brands. Although that agent has access to Azamara's inventory system, they are not trained to the same level as those who serve on the Azamara Ambassadors Programme team.

 

Please stand-by for a status update on whether a solution has been found to provide you and our guests with the ability to select your seats if your flights from LHR are from our BA inventory allotment.

 

Thank you for your patience.

 

Best regards,

 

Bill Leiber

_____________________

Chief Blogging Officer*

Azamara Club Cruises

(*CBO is an authorized and compensated representative of ACC)

 

[Mrs Miggins]

Thanks Bill,

After 11 previous cruises 4 of which were with Royal Caribbean we are really looking forward to this our first Azamara cruise. We are a party of 7 with four cabins booked. The others are not regular cruisers but raved about their first Azamara cruise last year and my husband and I are delighted to be joining them.

Only problem is they keep asking me, as the supposedly experienced one, what is going on. Sadly I am not in any position to advise them. I have not told the others about this,"you must phone exactly four days before flying" instruction as I have no wish to worry them.

Hopefully we should have an answer before then.

And Bill, do introduce yourself to the UK team. You have been so helpful - it would be great if the UK team were aware of your assistance.

[Bill Leiber]

Hello Joecors and other UK readers -

 

Thanks in no small part to your persistence and determination along with other loyal UK guests, your request to improve the air booking process has taken a giant leap forward.

 

The UK's Air Planning group succeeded in their attempt to add flexibility for guests booked on "blocked British Airways flight allocations" from Heathrow and now it's possible to pre-book your seats 30 days prior to departure as well as to check-in online.

 

I posted a new thread - BREAKING NEWS! UK GUESTS GAIN FLEXIBILITY TO BOOK SEATS and CHECK-IN ONLINE with BA FLIGHT ALLOCATIONS - with all the details.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1701719

 

Thanks to you, along with all others, for your loyalty to Azamara and your patience while the UK team reformulated their process based on your feedback!

 

Enjoy your forthcoming Azamara vacation!

 

Best regards,

 

Bill Leiber

_____________________

Chief Blogging Officer*

Azamara Club Cruises

(*CBO is an authorized and compensated representative of ACC)

[piscean]

Many thanks Bill that will make us passengers flying from Heathrow very happy.

Carol

[Mrs Miggins]

Bill, great to hear this. I spoke with azamarA on Wednesday about this and other issues. Very helpful guy called Ian. However again he said he was not an azamarA specialist. Have not yet managed to speak with anyone on the specialist team.

This is certainly breaking news as Ian reiterated previous info that the only way would be to phone four days before departure.

We are on Quest Sept 25 so will be covered by new procedure but I am not clear whether we phone AzamarA now or will they contact us ?

[Bill Leiber]

Bill, great to hear this. I spoke with azamarA on Wednesday about this and other issues. Very helpful guy called Ian. However again he said he was not an azamarA specialist. Have not yet managed to speak with anyone on the specialist team.

This is certainly breaking news as Ian reiterated previous info that the only way would be to phone four days before departure.

We are on Quest Sept 25 so will be covered by new procedure but I am not clear whether we phone AzamarA now or will they contact us ?

 

Hello Mrs. Miggens -

 

Since time is of the essence, I suggest you or your travel agent contact the UK office to obtain your specific flight reference code which is required to pre-book your seats and then check-in online.

 

According to their information, the process is underway of splitting your airline reservations from the blocked allocation for the Quest's September 25 voyage and then updating your booking with the new flight reference which will in turn print out on your documents. In the meantime, I'll be checking with the Air Planning group to determine how they will communicate when this process has been completed and then post that information on this thread and the new one I started yesterday.

 

My best wishes for an Azamazing exceptional vacation experience when you board the Azamara Quest on September 25th and that your

 

Best regards,

 

Bill Leiber

_____________________

Chief Blogging Officer*

Azamara Club Cruises

(*CBO is an authorized and compensated representative of ACC)

[Mrs Miggins]

Hi Bill,

As you suggested I phoned the Royal Caribbean flight team. The lady I spoke to initially new nothing about this and told me nothing has changed. I read out part of your message and she then checked with her supervisor. When she came back she said that this new system will be rolled out to the staff on Monday but she was able to give me an individual locator.

We are travelling with five other friends and I asked what the situation would be for them - would Azamara be contacting them ? She said that she didnt know at this time what would happen.

I trust that our friends and all other passengers from the UK on the four sailings you list will indeed be contacted with this new information.

 

I do appreciate your help and we are really looking forward to our first Azamara cruise.

Pam

[Mrs Miggins]

Hi Bill,

 

Well sadly on phoning BA with the "individual" locator number given to me by the flight group I was told this was the group number. BA say that they are unable to do anything with this number - i.e. I cannot 'manage by booking' until I am given more information.

I will now wait until Monday and try Azamara again as at the moment the system obviously does not work.

 

Pam

[Bill Leiber]

Hi Bill,

 

Well sadly on phoning BA with the "individual" locator number given to me by the flight group I was told this was the group number. BA say that they are unable to do anything with this number - i.e. I cannot 'manage by booking' until I am given more information.

I will now wait until Monday and try Azamara again as at the moment the system obviously does not work.

 

Pam

 

Hello Pam -

 

What disappointing information that you were given the incorrect record locator number. I'm sorry for the unexpected delay but it seems like a training issue for the staff, especially important when rolling out a new procedure. I'll be sending an alert to the UK air group manager about the situation.

 

With respect to your other friends traveling with you, I learned that your friends should call, rather than wait for notification due to the limited capacity of the staff to call out due to the workload of adjusting the flight records of guests on the "interim" voyages. Alternatively, if your friends haven't yet received their documents, the updated references are now in everybody's booking so they will be able to get the information from there once they receive them. I suggest that you have them make the call.

 

Thank you for your patience as this process gets it "legs" and for your help in providing feedback about your experience in this "trial."

 

Sincerely,

 

Bill Leiber

_____________________

Chief Blogging Officer*

Azamara Club Cruises

(*CBO is an authorized and compensated representative of ACC)

[Bill Leiber]

Hello Pam -

 

What disappointing information that you were given the incorrect record locator number. I'm sorry for the unexpected delay but it seems like a training issue for the staff, especially important when rolling out a new procedure. I'll be sending an alert to the UK air group manager about the situation.

 

With respect to your other friends traveling with you, I learned that your friends should call, rather than wait for notification due to the limited capacity of the staff to call out due to the workload of adjusting the flight records of guests on the "interim" voyages. Alternatively, if your friends haven't yet received their documents, the updated references are now in everybody's booking so they will be able to get the information from there once they receive them. I suggest that you have them make the call.

 

Thank you for your patience as this process gets it "legs" and for your help in providing feedback about your experience in this "trial."

 

Sincerely,

 

Bill Leiber

_____________________

Chief Blogging Officer*

Azamara Club Cruises

(*CBO is an authorized and compensated representative of ACC)

 

Hello Pam -

 

I hope that you were able to select you BA seats today. I did hear back from our Air Planning manager who reviewed the locator numbers in the guest bookings and determined that they are indeed the new individual locators.

 

Interestingly, the air manager was able to access the seat selection function on the BA website and suggested that guests pre-book their seats directly on the website. Further she commented that perhaps the BA call centre still see the booking as part of a group (which technically it is even though the guests are now on individual locators) and are not aware of the addition of the individual passenger code. It appears there will be a learning curve with respect to these two different code numbers at the BA call centre.

 

Again, enjoy a wonderful vacation experience when you board the Azamara Quest on September 25th!

 

Best regards,

 

Bill Leiber

_____________________

Chief Blogging Officer*

Azamara Club Cruises

(*CBO is an authorized and compensated representative of ACC)

[uktog]

Hello Pam -

 

I hope that you were able to select you BA seats today. I did hear back from our Air Planning manager who reviewed the locator numbers in the guest bookings and determined that they are indeed the new individual locators.

 

Interestingly, the air manager was able to access the seat selection function on the BA website and suggested that guests pre-book their seats directly on the website. Further she commented that perhaps the BA call centre still see the booking as part of a group (which technically it is even though the guests are now on individual locators) and are not aware of the addition of the individual passenger code. It appears there will be a learning curve with respect to these two different code numbers at the BA call centre.

 

Again, enjoy a wonderful vacation experience when you board the Azamara Quest on September 25th!

 

Best regards,

 

Bill Leiber

_____________________

Chief Blogging Officer*

Azamara Club Cruises

(*CBO is an authorized and compensated representative of ACC)

 

It is excellent advice always manage your BA booking online, more and more any activities carried out through their call centre incur an additional charge

[Mrs Miggins]

Phoned Royal Caribbean flight dept again today. Lady said that the number I was given was an individual locator and indeed she could see us on the BA website. I thought at last that's great. However BA website would allow me to go into the booking to input passport numbers but would not allow me to prebook seats

- not sure if it's a BA website fault but have basically I have now lost the will to live. I think we will just turn up at Heathrow and hope for the best.

 

By the way I concur with poster on separate thread today regarding the rather brusque way my queries were dealt with with the exception of Ian.

 

Perhaps the AzamarA special team is great but I have never been able to talk with one of them.

[uktog]

The BA site seems to be operating OK today so not sure of the issue - if you are looking to book your seats and you are not a BA Gold or Silver card holder you cannot do this until 24 hours before your flight, if you are BA gold you cannot do this until 7 days before your flight unless you pay the seat booking fees which can be quite substantial.

Even at T-24hrs you can generally find a good % of seats together are still available as the only ones that go are the premium seats up front.

 

This free seat selection only in the last 24 hours rule is a BA thing, nothing Azamara can do to overcome that one. Some lines do not allow anything free ahead of getting to the airport and most of those who do not charge are looking to introduce charges as they are quite a lucartive was of generating revenue

[Mrs Miggins]

Hi,

The BA website does offer seat selection at £10 each and others on cruise critic have been able to use this facility. The screen did appear but would not allow me to go further. In fact I am happy that I now apparently have the ability to check in on line 24 hours before flight.

This might just save a little time.

Thanks

[Bill Leiber]

Hi,

The BA website does offer seat selection at £10 each and others on cruise critic have been able to use this facility. The screen did appear but would not allow me to go further. In fact I am happy that I now apparently have the ability to check in on line 24 hours before flight.

This might just save a little time.

Thanks

 

Hello Pam -

 

I'm sorry for the level of frustration that you've reached in your effort to pre-book your seats on the BA website along with your disappointment that the UK staff did not meet your expectations when seeking their assistance. I will inform the UK management team about your ongoing problems with this new procedure along with your comments about the service staff that you've encountered.

 

I'm stymied why you're unable to book your seats on the website and hope to encourage you to make another attempt to do so either by calling BA again for advice prior to going to the website or calling the UK office to seek their assistance since they can pre-book your seats 4 days or less prior to departure at no additional cost. (The original process that is currently in place.)

 

Once this hurdle has been crossed, there will be a wonderful vacation experience ahead when you board the Azamara Quest on September 25th!

 

Sincerely,

 

Bill Leiber

_____________________

Chief Blogging Officer*

Azamara Club Cruises

(*CBO is an authorized and compensated representative of ACC)

[Mrs Miggins]

Thanks Bill,

I am not going to let this small irritation upset me. I am sure all will be forgotten once our fantastic cruise starts - can't wait.

Thanks again for your interest and interventions.

Pam