Experiences when trying to use loyalty points / complimentary nights

[Mackdogmolly]

7 minutes ago, excitedofharpenden said:

Betsey, you'll just have to see. I struggled with 4. Saved a little,but it wasn't free. 

 

I've always found booking them is easier done on the ship as a future booking, but you can book it at home too by speaking to Azamara. 

 

Phil 

Thanks, Phil, that’s exactly what I planned to do, figuring that at least I could get some OBC for booking onboard (assuming I can make something work)! I have another cruise in October, so I’ll try it then 🤞

[roberts2005]

3 minutes ago, excitedofharpenden said:

Yes you are. That's why it's good to get it all sorted out on the ship if you are able to. 

 

Phil 

Just off the Pursuit.  The person in charge of booking is new.  He completed the bookings, but said it was up to loyalty to do the final calculation

[excitedofharpenden]

14 minutes ago, roberts2005 said:

Just off the Pursuit.  The person in charge of booking is new.  He completed the bookings, but said it was up to loyalty to do the final calculation

This is a bit of an issue with me at present. There are too many new faces who lack the experience. Or I'm not confident with the person who's on the desk. Get someone like João who I think is currently on Quest and you are much better informed. He knows his stuff. 

 

Phil 

[nordski]

4 hours ago, laurieb said:

We normally book CC’s, but have had some V1 balconies, an ocean view, and club ocean in the past.  We were told we could book any type of cabin that we wanted.

That was our experience.

 

It seemed to be a change from the original policy.

[Scots Caz]

1 minute ago, nordski said:

That was our experience.

 

It seemed to be a change from the original policy.

mine was an onboard booking in December. past bookings 90% V1/V2 and 10% CC....balconies all full and was told I could only category down to outside and not up to CC 😞

[nordski]

5 minutes ago, Scots Caz said:

mine was an onboard booking in December. past bookings 90% V1/V2 and 10% CC....balconies all full and was told I could only category down to outside and not up to CC 😞

My booking, for 6 free nights, was about a year ago. I was surprised and perhaps they were just being flexible because of the Covid situation.

 

Thanks for posting. No doubt your experience reflects their most current and thus relevant policy. Actually it is the policy we expected to be applied back then.

[uktog]

Ok seems even more reasons for a transparent published policy! 

[Vivasea]

20 hours ago, roberts2005 said:

Just off the Pursuit.  The person in charge of booking is new.  He completed the bookings, but said it was up to loyalty to do the final calculation

I have just added 6 free nights to my booking.  This was direct with Azamara.  I was told to contact Loyalty at Azamara .  It took 3 weeks for new Invoice showing price reduction.  I am very happy about offer given.

[roberts2005]

4 hours ago, Vivasea said:

I have just added 6 free nights to my booking.  This was direct with Azamara.  I was told to contact Loyalty at Azamara .  It took 3 weeks for new Invoice showing price reduction.  I am very happy about offer given.

Thank you for posting. Did anyone contact you before  you received that final invoice.  It has been more than a week since I sent my email.  I would just like some confirmation that it was received.  

[Vivasea]

18 hours ago, roberts2005 said:

Thank you for posting. Did anyone contact you before  you received that final invoice.  It has been more than a week since I sent my email.  I would just like some confirmation that it was received.  

No after 2 weeks I sent another 2 EMails one to Guest Relations and another to Loyalty.  Maybe I was impatient but Invoice came with apology one week later.

[scotsahoy]

Reading the trail of comments on securing benefits earned under the Loyalty Benefits by Tier programme tells me much work is required to bring clarity and price transparency.  Recently we had to wrestle with both our UK TA and Azamara to use our four free nights. Email exchanges and phone calls gave us conflicting answers, confusion of terms, ( no clarification of what “ brochure” or “ standard” price meant / where we could see these prices other than web site) , different benefit calculations and for a couple of weeks no clear mechanism to gain benefit - despite having two future cruise  bookings in the qualifying period.

We got there eventually- with apologies all round getting a price reduction of c£2k from the Loyalty programme.  But surely for something we have “earned” - getting the benefit must be easier to utilise. 
We love Azamara and have many happy memories and friendships. A brand like Azamara, trading on quality, needs price integrity and transparency - especially for its loyal customers.

[roberts2005]

Now approaching two weeks from when I sent an email to loyalty to apply my 6 free nights to a booking done on board.  Still no response.  I have forwarded the original email several times.

 

 

[Baynanno1]

On 2/12/2023 at 4:21 AM, excitedofharpenden said:

This is a bit of an issue with me at present. There are too many new faces who lack the experience. Or I'm not confident with the person who's on the desk. Get someone like João who I think is currently on Quest and you are much better informed. He knows his stuff. 

 

Phil 

 

Matthew is on Quest currently.

 

Some years back we were able to use four "free" nights on a ridiculously expensive three night cruise stuck between two nine nighters we wanted to do. We lost the fourth "free" night, but it was worth it to have the middle cruise paid for.

Our six "free" nights ended up costing - we used them on a Norway cruise because "Norway cruises are never discounted" - well that one did get quite heavily discounted so we ended up paying more by  using the "free" nights.

[roberts2005]

An update on my experience.

 

Loyalty never responded to any of my emails.

 

Finally, after transferring the booking to my travel agent, my TA was able to get 6 nights applied to my 7 night booking.

 

‘’By doing it as a b2b and booking on board I was also able to get a total of $1,000.00 OBC for the booking.