AZ Upgrade Program - NEW - effective 3/12/19!!

[BBMacLaird]

9 hours ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

 

I emailed LCV about the fact that the page didn’t seem to be working properly and also to ask if my 1 July cruise was eligible. I got a very quick answer from Amy C in the Upgrade Team. Here is what she says 

“We are currently having some technical difficulties with our new Azamara Upgrade page. This should be the reason why it is not recognizing your details and are not seeing anything being triggered when you hit submit.  Please bear with us as we are working through these system glitches.  The issues should be resolved within the next couple of days.

In regard to your specific voyage, bids will only be able to be submitted within 80 days of sailing.  Bids could be confirmed anytime between 60 days and 72 hours prior to sailing.”

 

I’ve emailed back to say this is confusing as the webpage, including the FAQs and terms and conditions (and Bonnie) all say “after full payment” - which is 90 days. I’ll come back here to tell you what reply I get.

 

Hello HGC et.al.,

Sorry for the delay. I'm on Pacific Time and only now, post-breakfast, have fortified myself to tackle Upgrade questions  

 

Regarding the various days in advance, here are the specifics:

At 90-days prior to sailing eligible bookings, which are paid-in-full, can submit a bid for an Upgrade.

At 85-80 days prior to sailing an email will be sent to eligible guests notifying them / reminding them to bid for an Upgrade.

Anywhere between 60-days prior to sailing up until 72 hours (3-days) prior to sailing successful bids will be awarded.

At 72-hours prior to sailing, we will send out a Denied email, notifying guests of unsuccessful bids. 

[Ithikan]

This is ridiculous.  I cannot even get an email from Azamara. 

I have 2 upcoming cruises - one departing June 19 - both are paid in full.  Per the online link I am ineligible to upgrade.  These cruises were booked onboard in 2018, is that the reason I am not invited to bid??

And, to Miami:  when you get a chance in between bouts of laughter as you plug bids into your spanking-new algorithm, please load in the shore excursions for Corfu.  You removed Igoumenitsa ("poor port rankings!") and promised the substituted port excursions by last week.

Thank you.

[BBMacLaird]

14 hours ago, BBMacLaird said:

For guests sailing after June 30, 2019 we will give LCV members priority using multipliers based on loyalty tier. Being an Azamara loyalty member carries more weight; thus the “highest bid” isn’t the only factor in the algorithm for upgrades.  

 

Hi Phil/ExcitedofHarpenden,

I apologize for not responding specifically to you last night. I had posted the above in my reply to Turangi! (Post #46) and had erroneously thought it would answer various people/various questions that had been posed.

The multiplier increases as the tier level of loyalty increases.

Honestly our goal is to still reward LCV members for loyalty. This may read as 'spin' but I don't mean it as such. 

 

[BuddyR]

Almost a year later and after multiple attempts, I still do not receive emails from Azamara!  How, then, would I be notified?

[BBMacLaird]

5 hours ago, nordski said:

I do hope that management takes into account the responses here. 

 

 

I can assure all that Management is aware of the feedback on this forum, and will soon be reviewing the issues as a group.

[marinaro44]

24 minutes ago, BBMacLaird said:

 

Hello HGC et.al.,

Sorry for the delay. I'm on Pacific Time and only now, post-breakfast, have fortified myself to tackle Upgrade questions  

 

Regarding the various days in advance, here are the specifics:

At 90-days prior to sailing eligible bookings, which are paid-in-full, can submit a bid for an Upgrade.

At 85-80 days prior to sailing an email will be sent to eligible guests notifying them / reminding them to bid for an Upgrade.

Anywhere between 60-days prior to sailing up until 72 hours (3-days) prior to sailing successful bids will be awarded.

At 72-hours prior to sailing, we will send out a Denied email, notifying guests of unsuccessful bids. 

No reason to email me.  I've already "bid" $330,000 over the years on Azamara cruises. (And I'm sure others here have "bid" more.)  I don't see a reason now to have to play a mass-market-cruiseline-like "bidding" game in order to get an upgrade.

[uktog]

2 minutes ago, marinaro44 said:

No reason to email me.  I've already "bid" $330,000 over the years on Azamara cruises. (And I'm sure others here have "bid" more.)  I don't see a reason now to have to play a mass-market-cruiseline-like "bidding" game in order to get an upgrade.

OMG we have just done some maths here too......

 

[marinaro44]

5 minutes ago, uktog said:

OMG we have just done some maths here too......

 

Eye-opening, eh!

[BBMacLaird]

4 hours ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

On the one hand we are told that loyalty still counts and that bids from LCV. Members will have a multiplier applied, on the other hand the terms of the upgrade say that 

 

• “Booking must be made under full fare or general marketplace promotions only.”

To me that seems to exclude any booking where an LCV discount has been applied and/ or where LCV free nights have been included. If that’s the case, and I’m not misreading the situation, I think this is a huge down-grading of loyalty benefits. I wonder what percentage of LCV members book onboard to get the LCV discount - quite a high percentage I would guess, especially those in higher LCV levels. 

 

Guests using our LCV discounts, e.g. quarterly savings, onboard savings, earned complimentary nights, etc., can most certainly participate in the new Azamara Upgrade program! There is no penalty towards our loyalty members. As I believe I've mentioned, we will continue to recognize and reward our LCV members.

The only bookings that are excluded from participating in the Azamara Upgrade Program are non-full-fare guests...which include Travel Agent and Interline rates, and also Last Minute Voyages rates, which are offered selectively and most will remember this replaced our Guarantee fares, which by definition are assigned space only after everyone else, including after Upgrades have been assigned.

[DebbieMacG]

Oh! Nice timing, I’ve just had an email from Oceania cruises inviting me to afternoon tea at a 5 star hotel in Glasgow to show me what they have to offer and special offers are available.

 

Ive never booked with them but did look at their website last week.

 

Nice touch! I didn’t enter my address so the system has picked up I’m in Scotland (four hours away but still!)

Edited March 13, 2019 by DebbieMacG

[Grandma Cruising]

Just now, BBMacLaird said:

 

Guests using our LCV discounts, e.g. quarterly savings, onboard savings, earned complimentary nights, etc., can most certainly participate in the new Azamara Upgrade program! There is no penalty towards our loyalty members. As I believe I've mentioned, we will continue to recognize and reward our LCV members.

The only bookings that are excluded from participating in the Azamara Upgrade Program are non-full-fare guests...which include Travel Agent and Interline rates, and also Last Minute Voyages rates, which are offered selectively and most will remember this replaced our Guarantee fares, which by definition are assigned space only after everyone else, including after Upgrades have been assigned.

Thanks for that information Bonnie. Good to have it confirmed that LCV discounts and free nights don’t affect eligibility.

[marinaro44]

15 minutes ago, BBMacLaird said:

 

I can assure all that Management is aware of the feedback on this forum, and will soon be reviewing the issues as a group.

Horse is out of the barn, unlike the aborted Asian restaurant on the Sunset Veranda.

[BBMacLaird]

1 hour ago, nordski said:

 

I wonder if this is her “choice” or a constraint of her position as CBO.

Yes, it was my conscious choice to go to bed for the night to read my juicy novel, sleep 7 hours, bathe, enjoy breakfast.

Back at it at 9am (Pacific Daylight Savings Time.) I am now trying to answer questions...up to page 4 now.

[excitedofharpenden]

43 minutes ago, BBMacLaird said:

Hi Phil/ExcitedofHarpenden,

I apologize for not responding specifically to you last night. I had posted the above in my reply to Turangi! (Post #46) and had erroneously thought it would answer various people/various questions that had been posed.

The multiplier increases as the tier level of loyalty increases.

Honestly our goal is to still reward LCV members for loyalty. This may read as 'spin' but I don't mean it as such. 

 

Bonnie, I’ll be honest.  I really don’t know what you mean.  Are you saying that if I apply for an upgrade on the slider thingy and there are categories available it will give me a fair or strong chance at a lower price than others on a lower tier?  And honour where possible that lower price?  And as a higher tier give me a cabin in a more favourable location (which is totally impossible for Azamara to successfully choose for me).  I have to say, I’m really confused.

 

Phil

[gymfreak]

16 minutes ago, excitedofharpenden said:

Bonnie, I’ll be honest.  I really don’t know what you mean.  Are you saying that if I apply for an upgrade on the slider thingy and there are categories available it will give me a fair or strong chance at a lower price than others on a lower tier?  And honour where possible that lower price?  And as a higher tier give me a cabin in a more favourable location (which is totally impossible for Azamara to successfully choose for me).  I have to say, I’m really confused.

 

Phil

Bonnie

i agree with Phil in that I am still confused 

The way I read it is that anyone on ANY tier who bids higher than me will be higher up in the process to get an upgrade. Right or wrong?

[Bobal]

57 minutes ago, BBMacLaird said:

 

I can assure all that Management is aware of the feedback on this forum, and will soon be reviewing the issues as a group.

 

They may be aware of the feedback and may well be reviewing the issues but let's be honest this scheme is here to stay. It's already been introduced on the other two brands in the RCCL family. This is not like the Asian restaurant issue. 

 

And, like you Phil, I was flummoxed by the answer to your question.  'The multiplier increases as the tier level of loyalty increases' sounds like jargon designed to avert giving specifics

 

Edited March 13, 2019 by Bobal

[CA Oceanfront]

I, too, am still baffled about the specifics surrounding the loyalty multiplier. Is it based solely on loyalty tier, or on total LCV accumulated points? Is based on tier, then one who is a newly-minted Discoverer Plus would have the same multiplier as one who is knocking on the door to Discoverer Platinum, which would strike me as unfair to the latter individual. There’s a BIG difference between 750 points and 3,000.

[sovilav01]

For myself, I find this much more and more complicated. I prefer to check sales as BoGoHo or double upgrade, I pay and that’s it that’s all! Marketing department is really doing too much.

[BBMacLaird]

47 minutes ago, Bobal said:

They may be aware of the feedback and may well be reviewing the issues but let's be honest this scheme is here to stay. It's already been introduced on the other two brands in the RCCL family.

 

I agree, the program is here to stay. Given the increase of product (voyages) with the Pursuit, using the technology available to us through the parent company is a much better fix than having employee(s) reviewing every voyage's upgrade requests and selecting who wins the lottery. Then there's the time required with offering it to the Travel Agent, waiting for a response, and sometimes having to search for another cabin. If that fails, the employee moves on to guest B and starts over with the offer. All very manual. As one poster pointed out earlier, that was not an exact science nor transparent method. 

I for one think this is a more egalitarian approach...select the stateroom or suite you're happy with, and if interested in taking a chance for a higher category, make a bid in the price range you're comfortable with paying.

 

But that said, we are actively looking at how to fix some of the issues brought up on this forum, so I thank you for all the feedback. For example I've had a conversation this morning with a manager re. what if an upgrade bidder will only accept a tub, a shower, or requires an Accessible Stateroom? Can there be a field that builds in a specific request, aka a deal-breaker request, into the existing system? These are the types of issues that will be covered. 

[hiccups]

My assumption is the algorithm does something like taking the bid price and multiplying it by the loyalty level multiplier.  Very basic example, perhaps a new cruiser is assigned a multiplier of 1, LCV Adventurer level is assigned 1.25, LCV Explorer level assigned 1.5.  Let's also say there is one bidder at each level, bidding on the same room.  New cruiser bids $500, Adventurer bids $450 and Explorer bids $400.

Let's say the bid is multiplied by the loyalty level multiplier.  So, the new cruiser's bid would remain at $500, but the Adventurer's bid would be $450 x 1.25 = $562.50, and the Explorer's would be $400 x 1.5 = $600.  Based on a simple theory like this, those with loyalty would have a bid that "counts" more than the first-time cruiser.  Now, I'm sure there's more to it, but this is how I read Bonnie's information.

But as someone mentioned, this version doesn't differentiate between the 300 and 749 point Discoverer, for example, so I would think Azamara might use a more sophisticated loyalty multiplier.  Which for me, if it takes points into account, stinks, because we are Explorer due to our C&A status, so our points are low.

Edited March 13, 2019 by hiccups

[DebbieMacG]

7 minutes ago, BBMacLaird said:

 

I agree, the program is here to stay. Given the increase of product (voyages) with the Pursuit, using the technology available to us through the parent company is a much better fix than having employee(s) reviewing every voyage's upgrade requests and selecting who wins the lottery. Then there's the time required with offering it to the Travel Agent, waiting for a response, and sometimes having to search for another cabin. If that fails, the employee moves on to guest B and starts over with the offer. All very manual. As one poster pointed out earlier, that was not an exact science nor transparent method. 

I for one think this is a more egalitarian approach...select the stateroom or suite you're happy with, and if interested in taking a chance for a higher category, make a bid in the price range you're comfortable with paying.

 

But that said, we are actively looking at how to fix some of the issues brought up on this forum, so I thank you for all the feedback. For example I've had a conversation this morning with a manager re. what if an upgrade bidder will only accept a tub, a shower, or requires an Accessible Stateroom? Can there be a field that builds in a specific request, aka a deal-breaker request, into the existing system? These are the types of issues that will be covered. 

Thank you Bonnie, if someone could take a look at the shower/accessibility requirement that would be helpful as it would be a shame if people can’t take up this upgrade scheme because of disability.

[uktog]

11 minutes ago, BBMacLaird said:

 

I agree, the program is here to stay. Given the increase of product (voyages) with the Pursuit, using the technology available to us through the parent company is a much better fix than having employee(s) reviewing every voyage's upgrade requests and selecting who wins the lottery. Then there's the time required with offering it to the Travel Agent, waiting for a response, and sometimes having to search for another cabin. If that fails, the employee moves on to guest B and starts over with the offer. All very manual. As one poster pointed out earlier, that was not an exact science nor transparent method. 

I for one think this is a more egalitarian approach...select the stateroom or suite you're happy with, and if interested in taking a chance for a higher category, make a bid in the price range you're comfortable with paying.

 

But that said, we are actively looking at how to fix some of the issues brought up on this forum, so I thank you for all the feedback. For example I've had a conversation this morning with a manager re. what if an upgrade bidder will only accept a tub, a shower, or requires an Accessible Stateroom? Can there be a field that builds in a specific request, aka a deal-breaker request, into the existing system? These are the types of issues that will be covered. 

Thanks 

Disappointed issues like that hadn't been thought about before launch - kind of smacks of big corporate brother who did not understand azamara ships and their peculiarities.

I am still uncomfortable about this blind bidding and need to understand a little more about this multiplier.

 

[combine]

Your last post Bonnie, highlights the fact that we would be bidding on an unkown product and I think many of us have a problem with this. I have had two guarantee bookings and have been fully aware that at the discounted price I could receive one of the undesirable cabins ( a chance  that I was prepared to take ).

 

I have had one upgrade offer in 9 cruises, which after considering the options available  I was happy to take. I would baulk at moving from a cabin that I had specifically chosen to one  that may be less desirable, without having the chance to consider it. On this forum we are very aware that some cabins are less desirable than others and for various reasons some guests would/could not accept the upgrade.

 

It is obvious that no one in Miami considered these variables before pushing out this promotion.

 

 

 

[hiccups]

3 minutes ago, uktog said:

Thanks 

Disappointed issues like that hadn't been thought about before launch - kind of smacks of big corporate brother who did not understand azamara ships and their peculiarities.

I am still uncomfortable about this blind bidding and need to understand a little more about this multiplier.

 

I would be very surprised if they release any information on the algorithm/multiplier.  That would just open up another can of worms.

[hiccups]

The other unknown is something I mentioned earlier, which is when the upgrades are awarded, and whether the earlier bids get priority.  Will the bids just "pile up" and all be considered on the same day?  Perhaps bid date is also assigned a multiplier.

The old system might have been labor intensive, but was easier for me to understand.  Fill out your upgrade form as soon as you book, and hope your date of application, coupled with your LCV status, will get you the offer of an upgrade.

Edited March 13, 2019 by hiccups