Discrepancy in offer

[cinnamon]

At long last, we awoke to an overnight email telling us that the Quest Dubai to Athens sailing on 28th was cancelled. However, unlike the sailing on 17th or the Celebrity Constellation very similar cruise on 1st April, all we have been offered is 125% FCC  or 100% refund and ‘up to’ $500 pp for air change costs we can prove. Why not the 25% FCC in addition to the refund as everyone else has received in compensation for all the stress and worry this very late cancellation has caused?

 

Once again, Azamara is treating its regular customers badly. Without the extra FCC why would we bother booking again. We are unable to take the 125% FCC now as we cannot book for next year because we are both awaiting eye surgery and cannot plan ahead. 

[Riocca]

I noticed that in another email regarding a Journey cruise, compared to other cruise lines Azamara are not covering themselves in glory. As we were one of the ones cancelled from the 17th March sailing suppose we must consider ourselves luck to get the 25% in addition to the refund, although we have lost a lot of money cancelling flights etc. 
No idea when we will see the refund I have a feeling it may be many weeks away, we have sent our air cancellation invoice to Azamara to see if we can get the air change compensation but not confident. As regards the 25% FCC not even sure that it will be worth anything as there are probably going so many conditions attached.

We have just a b2b on Pursuit booked now with Azamara and despite loving the onboard experience we no longer have any faith in Azamara or the RC group, so like so many others will be looking elsewhere. These situations always have casualties and I fear that this time it may well be Azamara.

[manc]

One of my concerns is the value of FCC as currencies are falling in value. We paid in sterling. What will the exchange rate be on any date in the future when FCC is processed?

[uktog]

10 minutes ago, manc said:

One of my concerns is the value of FCC as currencies are falling in value. We paid in sterling. What will the exchange rate be on any date in the future when FCC is processed?

My experience the FCC was priced in the currency I paid the cruise (that was in 2014 though). So you have a partial protection however the price of your new cruise is at current conversions rates so we found we could only buy 10 nights instead of the previous 14. 

[excitedofharpenden]

If it were me I'd forget all about an FCC, if anyone had done better than me with it, take the money and run.

 

Phil 

[uktog]

2 minutes ago, excitedofharpenden said:

If it were me I'd forget all about an FCC, if anyone had done better than me with it, take the money and run.

 

Phil 

Me too, bird in the hand and all that.....

[Lindy028]

12 minutes ago, uktog said:

Me too, bird in the hand and all that.....

Exactly how we feel.

[cinnamon]

I’m just going to forget about not getting FCC. Thankfully we booked with an agent a U.K. style ‘package holiday’ to include cruise, flights, hotel and transfers. I managed to speak to them just now and we will receive the full amount paid back on to our credit cards in 2-4 weeks. This is longer than their normal refund time because of the sheer volume of work they’re doing. 

 

We’re very grateful we’ll come out of this not being out of pocket. 

Whether we’ll ever cruise with Azamara again remains to be seen. I hope so. 

Meantime, we’re hunkering down and social distancing ourselves. 

 

[hrhdhd]

Just yesterday the complaint was that only FCC was being offered to those who canceled. Now Azamara has canceled and is offering cash refunds. Take the money. 🙄

[john1970]

Shouldn't they be offering a full cash refund and also the equivalent again in FCC. I know the situation is not their fault but look after people in a crisis like this and they will be very loyal.

[uktog]

Just now, john1970 said:

Shouldn't they be offering a full cash refund and also the equivalent again in FCC. I know the situation is not their fault but look after people in a crisis like this and they will be very loyal.

I doubt their pockets are that deep now. 

[Cortesefam]

In these completely unprecedented circumstances, and with the negative impact mass cancellation of cruises with have on all their global team members, Azamara and all the cruise lines have done the best the could, and made decisions as events unfolded.  We’ve only taken one Azamara cruise previously, and were very excited to for the 17 and 9 day b2b.  While frustrated that our vacation is lost, they are making us whole on the cost of the cruise, and we are safe and healthy.

We will not hesitate to sail with Azamara in the future, and look forward to booking another cruise with them.  Keeping everyone safe and healthy is the most important thing now.

[laurieb]

Yes!  AJCM and Cortesfam perfectly said!!

[babyboomerxxx]

8 hours ago, Cortesefam said:

In these completely unprecedented circumstances, and with the negative impact mass cancellation of cruises with have on all their global team members, Azamara and all the cruise lines have done the best the could, and made decisions as events unfolded.  We’ve only taken one Azamara cruise previously, and were very excited to for the 17 and 9 day b2b.  While frustrated that our vacation is lost, they are making us whole on the cost of the cruise, and we are safe and healthy.

We will not hesitate to sail with Azamara in the future, and look forward to booking another cruise with them.  Keeping everyone safe and healthy is the most important thing now.

Can I ask Cortesfam whether you have been able to get a refund on the Israel cruise  (which hasn't yet been cancelled) as you have booked b2b.  We are in the same position.  Thanks

[sunlover33]

20 hours ago, Cortesefam said:

In these completely unprecedented circumstances, and with the negative impact mass cancellation of cruises with have on all their global team members, Azamara and all the cruise lines have done the best the could, and made decisions as events unfolded.  We’ve only taken one Azamara cruise previously, and were very excited to for the 17 and 9 day b2b.  While frustrated that our vacation is lost, they are making us whole on the cost of the cruise, and we are safe and healthy.

We will not hesitate to sail with Azamara in the future, and look forward to booking another cruise with them.  Keeping everyone safe and healthy is the most important thing now.

The situation with Azamara and RCCl was appalling, leaving people not knowing what was happening to their cruise when all ports were shut so impossible to cruise,  and still selling said cruise bordered on the criminal. Offering FCC and not a refund until forced to do so until the last minute! This is no way to treat guests. Yes the situation was unprecedented but we were able to compare how other cruise lines treated their guests and Azamara came up very short. Communication was non existent,  customers will remember and vote with their feet. I think the people who still support them after this debacle will have the ships to themselves. Keeping safe and healthy is paramount, but excusing such poor service, I don’t feel  able to do that. 

[Covepointcruiser]

All cruises for the next 30 days (as of yesterday 3/13) are canceled.   It is not confusing.   After 30 days or just before we will get an update.   I feel very sorry for the crew.   It will be an unfortunate change in our plans but how will they support their families?   Sounds like we will also need  to provide a “fit to travel” certificate signed by our doctor if you are 70:and over.   CLIA has made that recommendation and Celebrity has sent out a copy of the letter.

[nigelc]

5 hours ago, sunlover33 said:

The situation with Azamara and RCCl was appalling, leaving people not knowing what was happening to their cruise when all ports were shut so impossible to cruise,  and still selling said cruise bordered on the criminal. Offering FCC and not a refund until forced to do so until the last minute! This is no way to treat guests. Yes the situation was unprecedented but we were able to compare how other cruise lines treated their guests and Azamara came up very short. Communication was non existent,  customers will remember and vote with their feet. I think the people who still support them after this debacle will have the ships to themselves. Keeping safe and healthy is paramount, but excusing such poor service, I don’t feel  able to do that. 

I was booked on the 17th March cruise out of Dubai and the 25% FCC is no where near enough to cover the stress that Azamara put me and other customers through; they have no customer service or management skills and do not appear to care that their customers have booked travel arrangements that means leaving home well before the actual cruise date and therefore they need to know what they are doing asap. The fact that ports where closed, did not stop Azamara from telling customers a couple of days before they cancelled the cruise that there were no changes to the itinerary - everything was as promised. Indeed, while my cruise maybe cancelled as per the e-mail they sent out, my account is telling me that I sail in two days - interesting. 

[Brisbanelionsfan]

7 hours ago, sunlover33 said:

The situation with Azamara and RCCl was appalling, leaving people not knowing what was happening to their cruise when all ports were shut so impossible to cruise,  and still selling said cruise bordered on the criminal. Offering FCC and not a refund until forced to do so until the last minute! This is no way to treat guests. Yes the situation was unprecedented but we were able to compare how other cruise lines treated their guests and Azamara came up very short. Communication was non existent,  customers will remember and vote with their feet. I think the people who still support them after this debacle will have the ships to themselves. Keeping safe and healthy is paramount, but excusing such poor service, I don’t feel  able to do that. 

I agree completely sunlover33, leaving everyone hanging until the last minute was not only very stressful but very bad customer service.

Viking Ocean here we come!

[Epicureangirl]

On 3/15/2020 at 1:38 PM, nigelc said:

I was booked on the 17th March cruise out of Dubai and the 25% FCC is no where near enough to cover the stress that Azamara put me and other customers through; they have no customer service or management skills and do not appear to care that their customers have booked travel arrangements that means leaving home well before the actual cruise date and therefore they need to know what they are doing asap. The fact that ports where closed, did not stop Azamara from telling customers a couple of days before they cancelled the cruise that there were no changes to the itinerary - everything was as promised.

 

Hi Nigel, I would have been on the same sailing as you and agree 100%. They were still selling that cruise up until the last minute and telling me NO changes to the itinerary, even when I heard that some ports were closing to ships. When they cancelled on us there were no travel restrictions or pandemic announced, though there was complete chaos for the sailing preceding ours.  The only ones who may have been taken care of properly IMO, were those who also booked their air and pre/post bookings directly through Azamara.  As for the rest of us ... all I heard was crickets.