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Grandma Cruising
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Wanted to close the loop on my experience with the upgrade system.  

 

I called Azamara again to ask about when I would see an upgrade email and this time they told me that my agent had opted out of the upgrade process.  Suggested I call them to discuss.  I did and was told that  Azamara insists on a 24 hour response regarding these upgrades and my agent’s organization cannot commit to time limit.  

 

Disappointing all around.

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10 minutes ago, Cabana Girl said:

Wanted to close the loop on my experience with the upgrade system.  

 

I called Azamara again to ask about when I would see an upgrade email and this time they told me that my agent had opted out of the upgrade process.  Suggested I call them to discuss.  I did and was told that  Azamara insists on a 24 hour response regarding these upgrades and my agent’s organization cannot commit to time limit.  

 

Disappointing all around.

 

That response time may no longer be valid under the new system since, as I understand it, we no longer accept/refuse the new stateroom.

 

I agree that in the past the TA had to play a role and sometimes there were complications.

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The agents response sounds like rubbish as there is no need now for any response to the new system. That made sense under the old system where you had an offer and could accept or reject. Sounds like your agents organisation needs to look at the new system & think again.

Edited by Host Grandma Cruising
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I am unsure what is meant by a 24 hour response - did they explain what that means?  The process is automated as I understood, maybe I have misunderstood

It must be so frustrating for you

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Very confusing and complicated by the run around over the last week and Azamara web issues.  

 

Why would the agents need need to be involved at all?   To issue new final docs?   It is a very large firm, don’t know if it is OK to post their name(?).  

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9 hours ago, Cabana Girl said:

Very confusing and complicated by the run around over the last week and Azamara web issues.  

 

Why would the agents need need to be involved at all?   To issue new final docs?   It is a very large firm, don’t know if it is OK to post their name(?).  

No sorry, you can’t post their name here. Just a suggestion - do they have a Facebook or twitter page? If so, post something on them saying how upset you are and warning others about their attitude to upgrade bidding systems. That may get you a response!

You could also try to find out the name & email address of their MD/CEO & email them - that’s worked for me in the past.

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1 hour ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

No sorry, you can’t post their name here. Just a suggestion - do they have a Facebook or twitter page? If so, post something on them saying how upset you are and warning others about their attitude to upgrade bidding systems. That may get you a response!

You could also try to find out the name & email address of their MD/CEO & email them - that’s worked for me in the past.

I do not think that is a good idea at all.  Bad advice, sorry!

You only have the say so of agents at both Azamara and the agency - it may not actually be the corporate  perspective but bad communication somewhere in the loop - so posting on a public forum criticising attitudes is certainly not the way to go. Yes post, but use the post to ask for clarification of the agencies corporate position and their reasons why

Obviously if the agency corporate response is that they’ve opted out, a further post can be made to advise future bookings. Any agency can make corporate decisions for a range of reasons, attitude is rarely one. 

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4 hours ago, uktog said:

I do not think that is a good idea at all.  Bad advice, sorry!

You only have the say so of agents at both Azamara and the agency - it may not actually be the corporate  perspective but bad communication somewhere in the loop - so posting on a public forum criticising attitudes is certainly not the way to go. Yes post, but use the post to ask for clarification of the agencies corporate position and their reasons why

Obviously if the agency corporate response is that they’ve opted out, a further post can be made to advise future bookings. Any agency can make corporate decisions for a range of reasons, attitude is rarely one. 

Sorry, I disagree. In cases where you can’t get a reasonable response any other way, using social media works. My daughter had an issue with a replacement chair for one that came damaged. Ringing customer services repeatedly got her nowhere at all, but a comment on Twitter got her a phone call from someone senior in the company and her chair by the next day.

I didn’t suggest a rant, Phil, but a comment that wonders why they have this policy, especially now there is no requirement for the travel agent to contact the client to get a ‘yes’ or ‘no answer, and saying about how disappointed they are about this could work wonders.

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1 hour ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

Sorry, I disagree. In cases where you can’t get a reasonable response any other way, using social media works.

Yes, customer service at places like banks, credit card companies, et al seem to have a primary objective of protecting decision-makers from any contact with customers and their issues.  There are times when you have to be creative in getting your message through to those who can effect change.

Edited by marinaro44
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I think having worked in Head Office environments we have to agree to differ on this. Emotional tweets such as calling out bad attitudes before you’ve done all your research and exhausted escalation routes are poor practice. They can also lead to reactions where persons who make innocent mistakes in interpreting policies get serious reactions even dismissed as a consequence. 

Bottom line in the scenario here yes go on social media and seek clarification of the policy- Marinaro is right attention is paid to social media and executives may well welcome the opportunity to state the reasoning for their policies whatever they are but giving advice to call out bad attitudes before you’ve exhausted your research is totally unprofessional and not what anyone should advocate. 

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17 minutes ago, uktog said:

I think having worked in Head Office environments we have to agree to differ on this. Emotional tweets such as calling out bad attitudes before you’ve done all your research and exhausted escalation routes are poor practice. They can also lead to reactions where persons who make innocent mistakes in interpreting policies get serious reactions even dismissed as a consequence. 

Bottom line in the scenario here yes go on social media and seek clarification of the policy- Marinaro is right attention is paid to social media and executives may well welcome the opportunity to state the reasoning for their policies whatever they are but giving advice to call out bad attitudes before you’ve exhausted your research is totally unprofessional and not what anyone should advocate. 

 

Ahhhh ... the sweet sound of reasonable discourse.

 

Thank you.

 

NRayH

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We bid in mid March the same day we received the offer for our April 20 sailing.  Bid $500 per cabin for Explorer and Discoverer (two separate rooms) from verandah to CC and received the decline today.  Was considered weak, but at the time there were 10 available staterooms to upgrade to. 

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5 hours ago, uktog said:

I think having worked in Head Office environments we have to agree to differ on this. Emotional tweets such as calling out bad attitudes before you’ve done all your research and exhausted escalation routes are poor practice. They can also lead to reactions where persons who make innocent mistakes in interpreting policies get serious reactions even dismissed as a consequence. 

Bottom line in the scenario here yes go on social media and seek clarification of the policy- Marinaro is right attention is paid to social media and executives may well welcome the opportunity to state the reasoning for their policies whatever they are but giving advice to call out bad attitudes before you’ve exhausted your research is totally unprofessional and not what anyone should advocate. 

I agree we will have to agree to disagree. Obviously our experience is different. I worked as a Senior Director in a people facing organisation. We welcomed any feedback. Positive feedback is great, but so is negative feedback, however it arrives.  We treated it as an opportunity to help us to determine what training and information our staff needed. 

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30 minutes ago, cruisin' friends said:

We bid in mid March the same day we received the offer for our April 20 sailing.  Bid $500 per cabin for Explorer and Discoverer (two separate rooms) from verandah to CC and received the decline today.  Was considered weak, but at the time there were 10 available staterooms to upgrade to. 

Thanks for the information. Can I just ask a couple of questions  - how long is your cruise and can you remember what the minimum bid allowed was per cabin? Thanks

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12 minutes ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

Thanks for the information. Can I just ask a couple of questions  - how long is your cruise and can you remember what the minimum bid allowed was per cabin? Thanks

The cruise is 12 nights for a transatlantic.  The minimum bid was $200 pp and the maximum was $500 pp.

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On 4/17/2019 at 7:00 AM, Cabana Girl said:

Thank you for your response, very helpful to figure out this process.  

 

I did receive an email from Azamara last night, but it was a confirmation that we booked this cruise.  We booked this months ago (?).  Time to call again.

I received one of those emails as well, and I had booked the cruise almost two years earlier. It was a bit of a jolt, lol.

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On Journey , at least until Sunday, $198 per person upgrades deoendentvon le club voyage membership.level are available! This was on the LCV info on the in stateroom TV. 

People with lower membership than us said they had been upgraded on 25 March sailing but on April 10 no one mentioned being upgraded with new system. 

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We just received confirmation of our upgrade request today.   We are 32 days out and the upgrade request was for Veranda to Club Continent Suite.   I think min bid was $400 up to a max of $1,500.   I should have written that down but didn't and I'm really guessing on the max.   We bid $1,000 and it is a 10 day cruise.  To us $100 per day to upgrade to a suite was worth it, especially compared to the actual cost of the suite if it was directly booked that way.

 

Related to an earlier conversation about Travel Agent involvement, even though we use a TA to book our cruises, I registered for the upgrade on my own and received the confirmation directly to me.  The TA was not involved at all.

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7 hours ago, NewPennCruiser said:

We just received confirmation of our upgrade request today.   We are 32 days out and the upgrade request was for Veranda to Club Continent Suite.   I think min bid was $400 up to a max of $1,500.   I should have written that down but didn't and I'm really guessing on the max.   We bid $1,000 and it is a 10 day cruise.  To us $100 per day to upgrade to a suite was worth it, especially compared to the actual cost of the suite if it was directly booked that way.

 

Related to an earlier conversation about Travel Agent involvement, even though we use a TA to book our cruises, I registered for the upgrade on my own and received the confirmation directly to me.  The TA was not involved at all.

Thanks for the information, NewPennCruiser. Can I ask a couple of questions about your upgrade please, so I can add the information to the spreadsheet.

Can you please tell me date of your cruise, when you made your bid, was the bid classified as weak/strong etc and your LCV level. Thanks

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Cruise Date: 25 May 2019

Date Bid made: Late April

Length of cruise: 10 days

LCV level: first ever on Azamara

Cabin Type Booked: Club Verandah

Cabin Type Bid for: Continental Suite

Minimum bid allowed (per cabin): 800

Amount bid (per stateroom):920

Bid strength (weak/strong etc): weak

Outcome. Successful

 

Made same bid on 12 May Cruise and still pending

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55 minutes ago, ausi ski bum said:

Cruise Date: 25 May 2019

Date Bid made: Late April

Length of cruise: 10 days

LCV level: first ever on Azamara

Cabin Type Booked: Club Verandah

Cabin Type Bid for: Continental Suite

Minimum bid allowed (per cabin): 800

Amount bid (per stateroom):920

Bid strength (weak/strong etc): weak

Outcome. Successful

 

Made same bid on 12 May Cruise and still pending

Thanks, I’ve added both bids to the spreadsheet - come back & let us know if the bid for 12 May cruise was successful.

 

Interesting that at least three people have been notified that their bids were successful more than 30 days before the cruise. My impression about the old system was that upgrade notifications were usually at around 2 weeks before the cruise date.   That was certainly our experience.

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10 hours ago, Host Grandma Cruising said:

Thanks for the information, NewPennCruiser. Can I ask a couple of questions about your upgrade please, so I can add the information to the spreadsheet.

Can you please tell me date of your cruise, when you made your bid, was the bid classified as weak/strong etc and your LCV level. Thanks

We are on the May 25th Quest itinerary in Alaska.  Bid was made on March 13th and it was classified as weak.  (Would love to know how they determine that unless they all say that trying to get us to bid more) and we are Explorer tier in LCV.

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